Tag: InternationalNews

The United States and Japan agreed on Thursday to modernize their defense alliance for the first time in 16 years to address growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, global terrorism, cyber intrusions and other 21st century threats.

The move to modernize the U.S.-Japanese defense alliance follows President Barack Obama’s decision to strategically rebalance U.S. forces to the Asia-Pacific region following a dozen years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Washington’s desire for Japan to take a greater role in its defense dovetails with the rise of nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has taken a more assertive approach toward such security issues as a territorial dispute with China and the threat from nearby North Korea.

“Our goal is a more balanced and effective alliance,” U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a news conference after the first “2+2” meeting to be held in Tokyo.

He was joined by Secretary of State John Kerry, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.

The two countries pledged in a 10-page statement to rewrite their guidelines for security cooperation, begin rotational deployments of U.S. Global Hawk reconnaissance drones to Japan and work to address challenges in cyberspace.

The ministers agreed to locate a new X-band U.S. missile-defense radar system at Kyogamisaki air base in Kyoto prefecture in western Japan and formalized a decision to relocate 5,000 U.S. Marines from Japan’s southernmost island of Okinawa to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs have become an increasing threat for U.S. allies in the region. Pyongyang conducted a successful ballistic missile launch in December and a third nuclear test this year, but experts say it will probably need more tests before it can develop a nuclear missile.

The pariah state has also threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.

The decision to bolster anti-missile radar coverage in Japan and move Marines to Guam had been announced earlier, but the joint statement fixed the location of the new missile tracking system for the first time and specified Japan’s share of the cost of the move to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Tokyo agreed to contribute up to $3.1 billion to help move the Marines to Guam from Okinawa, where their presence has often been a source of friction with the local government and population. The move is expected to cost some $8.6 billion.

U.S. Defense and State Department officials say the location of the new anti-missile radar, which is expected to be installed with a year or so, will help improve tracking coverage of rockets launched toward both Japan and the United States.

The U.S.-Japanese agreement also calls for additional efforts to realign U.S. forces in Japan and hand back land to local communities to ensure the political sustainability of the U.S. defense presence in the country.

The ministers also agreed to rewrite the guidelines for U.S.-Japanese Defense Cooperation for the first time since 1997.

reuters

{{The French distributor of the film “Diana” has removed a poster advertising the film from the site where Diana, Princess of Wales died in 1997.}}

The promotional poster for the film was originally placed at Place de l’Alma (near the entrance to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel) and sparked consternation in the British press.

Diana, Princess of Wales, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver were killed after their car smashed into a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel while being pursued by photographers, on August 31, 1997.

The poster was mere metres away from the landmark gold-leafed Flame of Liberty (pictured, above), which has become an unofficial memorial to the late princess.

‘Shameless’

Several British newspapers rounded on the French promoters of the movie for placing the poster so close to the site. The tabloid newspaper the Daily Star described the placement of the poster as “Di-abolical” and “heartless”. The Daily Mail quoted a friend of the princess, Rosa Monckton, blasting the move as ‘shameless and despicable’.

Faced with the mounting scandal, Paris’s city hall said that the posters were put up around the French capital without malice, while outdoor advertising company JC Decaux said that the poster’s controversial location was merely a “coincidence.”

“We asked for the removal of this poster after controversy in the British media,” a source at Le Pacte said, adding that the poster was only one of about 1,000 put up in Paris to promote the film.

It’s the latest blow for the team behind the film “Diana,” which was panned by critics when it premiered in London last month. The film purports to tell the story of Diana’s romance with UK-based Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.

wirestory

{{Internet companies in New Delhi have found a new niche market in selling Facebook likes. In an undercover investigation, FRANCE 24 journalists have found that these “click-farms” offer over 150,000 likes in two or three months for a fixed price.}}

A basic package of 2,500 likes costs around 60 euros, generated by teams of low-paid workers armed with multiple fake Facebook profiles.

In India, this social media scam is a growing trend. While FRANCE 24’s journalists created a simple fake Facebook page promoting French cheese in order to approach the click-farms, the companies are also used by politicians.

Earlier this year, Rajasthan state’s chief minister was severely criticized for buying 60,000 ‘fake’ likes from Turkey.

Such scandals have hurt the credibility of online likes, even as their number globally has grown to over 4 billion a day.

wirestory

{{Bosnian leaders moved to clear the main obstacle to their country applying to join the European Union on Tuesday by agreeing to end a constitutional ban on minorities running for high office.}}

Bosnia trails its fellow former Yugoslav republics in the quest to become a member of the bloc, for years the main driver of reform and stability in the Balkans by offering the hope of prosperity, investment and freedom of movement.

Its application has been blocked by its failure to change the constitution in line with a 2009 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that parts discriminated against groups like Roma and Jews.

Seven leaders from Bosnia’s main parties met officials in Brussels on Tuesday and agreed on “the necessity to implement the judgment urgently by providing every BiH (Bosnia-Herzegovina) citizen with the right to stand for election to the … Presidency and House of Peoples”.

Their joint statement did not go into further detail on how or when the changes would be made. The leaders promised to work out details of the agreement before resuming talks in Brussels on October 10.

EU enlargement chief Stefan Fuele said he hoped the agreement would make it possible for the European Commission to issue a positive annual report on October 16 on Bosnia’s progress towards meeting EU standards on democracy and human rights.

He hoped the report would “open the way for a credible application of Bosnia-Herzegovina to become a member of the European Union”.

wirestory

{{Three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft Corp are lobbying the board to press for Bill Gates to step down as chairman of the software company he co-founded 38 years ago, according to people familiar with matter.}}

While Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been under pressure for years to improve the company’s performance and share price, this appears to be the first time that major shareholders are taking aim at Gates, who remains one of the most respected and influential figures in technology.

A representative for Microsoft declined to comment on Tuesday.

There is no indication that Microsoft’s board would heed the wishes of the three investors, who collectively hold more than 5 percent of the company’s stock, according to the sources. They requested the identity of the investors be kept anonymous because the discussions were private.

Gates owns about 4.5 percent of the $277 billion company and is its largest individual shareholder.

The three investors are concerned that Gates’ role as chairman effectively blocks the adoption of new strategies and would limit the power of a new chief executive to make substantial changes. In particular, they point to Gates’ role on the special committee searching for Ballmer’s successor.

They are also worried that Gates – who spends most of his time on his philanthropic foundation – wields power out of proportion to his declining shareholding.

Gates, who owned 49 percent of Microsoft before it went public in 1986, sells about 80 million Microsoft shares a year under a pre-set plan, which if continued would leave him with no financial stake in the company by 2018.

He lowered his profile at Microsoft after he handed the CEO role to Ballmer in 2000, giving up his day-to-day work there in 2008 to focus on the $38 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In August, Ballmer said he would retire within 12 months, amid pressure from activist fund manager ValueAct Capital Management.

Microsoft is now looking for a new CEO, though its board has said Ballmer’s strategy will go forward. He has focused on making devices, such as the Surface tablet and Xbox gaming console, and turning key software into services provided over the Internet. Some investors say that a new chief should not be bound by that strategy.

News that some investors were pushing for Gates’ ouster as chairman provoked mixed reactions from other shareholders.

“This is long overdue,” said Todd Lowenstein, a portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management, which owns Microsoft shares. “Replacing the old guard with some fresh eyes can provide the oxygen needed to properly evaluate their corporate strategy.”

Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, suggested now was not the time for Microsoft to ditch Gates, and that he could even play a larger role.

“I’ve thought that the company has been missing a technology visionary,” she said. “Bill (Gates) would fit the bill.”

Microsoft is still one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, making a net profit of $22 billion last fiscal year. But its core Windows computing operating system, and to a lesser extent the Office software suite, are under pressure from the decline in personal computers as smartphones and tablets grow more popular.

Shares of Microsoft have been essentially static for a decade, and the company has lost ground to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the move toward mobile computing.

One of the sources said Gates was one of the technology industry’s greatest pioneers, but the investors felt he was more effective as chief executive than as chairman.

wirestory

Officers with France’s DCRI domestic intelligence agency on Tuesday arrested a Paris woman suspected of links to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

A source close to the investigation said the woman was arrested around 6:30 am (0430 GMT) at her apartment in the working-class Belleville district of Paris.

She was arrested as part of a preliminary investigation into a conspiracy to commit “terrorist acts”, the source said, without providing further details.

Based in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is considered one the deadliest franchises of the international militant network.

france24

An MP for Bangladesh’s main opposition party has been sentenced to death by a war crimes court for charges including murder and genocide during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, the first member of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) to be tried by the court, was found guilty of nine out of 23 charges.

The BNP has consistently argued that the trial is politically motivated.

Previous verdicts against Islamist leaders have been followed by protests.

The war crimes tribunal was set up by the Awami League-led government in 2010 and opposition parties have accused it of pursuing a political vendetta against its opponents.

Human rights groups have also said the tribunal falls short of international standards.

wirestory

{{Illegal drugs are now cheaper and purer globally than at any time over the last 20 years, a report has warned.}}

The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy said its report suggested the war on drugs had failed.

The report, published in the British Medical Journal Open, looked at data from seven international government-funded drug surveillance systems.

Its researchers said it was time to consider drug use a public health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.

The seven drug surveillance systems the study looked at had at least 10 years of information on the price and purity of cannabis, cocaine and opiates, including heroin.

The report said street prices of drugs had fallen in real terms between 1990 and 2010, while their purity and potency had increased.

In Europe, for example, the average price of opiates and cocaine, adjusted for inflation and purity, decreased by 74% and 51% respectively between 1990 and 2010, the Vancouver-based centre said.

The report also found there had been a substantial increase in most parts of the world in the amount of cocaine, heroin and cannabis seized by law enforcement agencies since 1990.

Most national drug control strategies have focused on law enforcement to curb supply despite calls to explore other approaches, such as decriminalisation and strict legal regulation, it said.

It concluded: “These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing.”

Co-author Dr Evan Wood, scientific chairman of the centre, said: “We should look to implement policies that place community health and safety at the forefront of our efforts, and consider drug use a public health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.

“With the recognition that efforts to reduce drug supply are unlikely to be successful, there is a clear need to scale up addiction treatment and other strategies that can effectively reduce drug-related harm.”

The study comes two days after a senior UK police officer said class A drugs should be decriminalised.

agencies

{{Silvio Berlusconi on Monday faced dissent within his People of Freedom Party, complicating his plans to bring down Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s coalition government.}}

But even if Letta survives a confidence vote on Wednesday the prospects for stability and reform in Italy look more fragile than ever as he will face a larger and stronger opposition backed by Berlusconi’s media empire.

Letta’s hopes of survival appear to rest on some 20 senators from Berlusconi’s party, who are unhappy with his shock decision on Saturday to withdraw his ministers from Letta’s government.

Italian shares and bonds recovered some of their losses on financial markets after a party source told Reuters the group of PDL moderates may be ready to back the government and break away from the PDL if Berlusconi does not soften his stance.

However, whether the dissidents are actually prepared to back Letta remains to be seen. They did not speak out at a PDL meeting on Monday where Berlusconi called for unity, repeated that the party must push for early elections and did not open any internal debate, according to lawmakers present.

“I asked for a debate and some explanation and I was told politely that it would wait for another occasion,” PDL moderate lawmaker Fabrizio Cicchitto, one of the first to express any opposition to Berlusconi, told reporters after the meeting.

In the past those on the center-right who have dared to stand up to Berlusconi have been quickly dispatched to the political wilderness, but the media tycoon’s legal problems have opened the possibility of a break-up of the party that has dominated Italian politics for the last 20 years.

Berlusconi’s decision to order the five ministers to resign has plunged Italy into political chaos and left the euro zone’s third-largest economy without a fully operational government, prompting warnings that its sovereign debt rating is at risk.

Letta, who has a commanding lower house majority, needs to secure a majority in the Senate – where the PDL is currently the second-largest party – in order to continue in government.

As the political maneuvering in Rome gathered pace, Italy came under heavy international pressure, with ratings agency Fitch warning that the crisis could trigger a cut in its BBB+ rating if it slowed efforts to rein in the budget deficit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Letta to say she hoped Italy could restore political stability and continue with reforms as euro zone leaders feared the turmoil could unleash broader market upheaval.

{wirestory}