World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[joshuatree]

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Macau’s Judiciary Police (PJ) cracked the biggest cocaine smuggling case that has been reported in the territory Saturday. Four Filipino suspects were apprehended with over fifty kilograms of high-purity cocaine with a street price that may reach MOP200 million, as reported by the China News Service and TDM.

Yesterday, PJ released information that four arrested Filipino suspects (two men and two women) had entered Macau, mainland China and some Southeast Asian countries a number of times allegedly in an attempt to test the various ports’ drug enforcement capabilities and plan their drug shipment.

 

[ABC78]

Philippine midterm vote ends with violence.

Violence and malfunctioning ballot counting machines during vote reported with initial results expected Tuesday.

Voting closes in Philippine mid-term polls

Filipinos have voted to choose thousands of local leaders and national legislators in what was seen as a referendum on the presidency of reformist Benigno Aquino.

More than 52 million people were eligible to vote in Monday's elections. Results are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.Police and military were on heightened alert for poll-related violence that has claimed dozens of lives since campaigning began in February.

More than 18,000 positions were at stake, ranging from town and city mayors to provincial governors and members of the legislature in an exercise traditionally dominated by political dynasties .

Aquino won the presidency by a landslide in 2010 on a promise to crush corruption which he blames for widespread poverty in the nation of 100 million.

He consistently scored high popularity ratings for nursing the Philippines back to fiscal health and prosecuting erring officials, including predecessor Gloria Arroyo, now in detention while being tried for alleged massive corruption.

Aquino is also close to signing a final peace deal with the main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), potentially ending a rebellion in the south that has killed more than 150,000 since the 1970s.

The aim is to get both houses of parliament - the Senate and the House of Representatives - to pass a law creating a new autonomous region to be governed by the MILF in the south.

All the seats in the lower house and half in the Senate are being contested in Monday's elections.

Violence

Reports said one army member was killed on Monday and one injured in the island of Negros following an encounter between the military and communist rebels, according to military spokesman Franciso Patrimonio.

Two more people were reported dead and seven injured in an ambush in Sulu Province in Southern Philippines, according to a local TV station ABS-CBN.

An improvised explosive device was found in the district of Sharif Aguak, in the province of Maguindanao, where a campaign-related massacre took place in 2009 and 34 journalists died.

Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said that more than 30 people have been reported killed in the run-up to the elections.

“But security forces are pointing out that this is a much smaller number than they have seen in previous elections,” she said.

“In fact, the reported incidents of violence in the run-up to these particular elections compared to the previous ones have been a sign, some say, that the reforms Aquino has been instituting during his three years in power are so far working.”

In 2009, 58 people, including 32 journalists, were massacred in the country's worst political violence that was blamed on rivalry between two powerful clans in southern Maguindanao province.

Voting concerns

Sixto Brillantes, head of the Philippines' election agency, reported that at least 200 polling stations reported malfunctioning ballot counting machines.

He also said that voting was cancelled in one precinct in the northern Philippine city of Baguio, and one in Compostela Valley in southern Philippines, after election workers failed to deliver the ballots.

He said that special voting, at a later date, would only be ordered if "it will adversely affect the final result".

An election watchdog also reported power outages in some areas.

Other problems, including politicians who jostle for power by bribing, intimidating or launching attacks against opponents, are expected to have marred the vote.

Ana Maria Tabunda from the independent pollster Pulse Asia said such dynasties restrict democracy, but added that past surveys by her organisation had shown that most Filipinos were less concerned about the issue than with the benefits and patronage they could receive from particular candidates.

Voters often pick candidates with the most familiar surnames instead of those with the best records, she said.

"It's name recall, like a brand. They go by that," she said.

Vote-buying has also been a problem.

The Commission on Elections ordered a ban on bank withdrawals of more than 100,000 pesos ($2,440) and the transportation of more than 500,000 pesos ($12,200) from Wednesday through to Monday to curb vote-buying, but the Supreme Court stopped the move.

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[AssassinsMace]

I wonder what Hillary Clinton thinks of this when she peddles her propaganda about how suppression of women in cultures like India and China hinders economic development. Ironic how Japan dares to hide behind human rights in criticism of China when this statement shows a basic disregard for individual human rights. They say the Chinese are sheep? If there's an intellectual opposition to such nationalistic tradition in Japan, they don't seem to have a voice.

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Japanese mayor: Wartime sex slaves were necessary
Associated PressBy MALCOLM FOSTER | Associated Press – 2 hrs 21 mins ago..


TOKYO (AP) — An outspoken nationalist mayor said the Japanese military's forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to "maintain discipline" in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle.

The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan's wartime aggression and that have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities.

Toru Hashimoto, the young, brash mayor of Osaka who is also co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also told reporters that there wasn't clear evidence that the Japanese military coerced women to become what are euphemistically called "comfort women."

"To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time," said Hashimoto. "For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That's clear to anyone."

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

An unidentified South Korean government official told Yonhap news agency it was disappointing that a senior Japanese official "made comments supportive of crimes against humanity and revealed a serious lack of a historical understanding and respect for women's rights."

Hashimoto's comments come amid mounting criticism at the prospect of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative government revising Japan's past apologies for wartime atrocities. Before he took office in December, Abe had advocated revising a 1993 statement by then-Prime Minister Yohei Kono acknowledging and expressing remorse for the suffering caused to the sexual slaves of Japanese troops.

Abe has acknowledged "comfort women" existed but has denied they were coerced into prostitution, citing a lack of official evidence.

Recently, top officials in Abe's government have appeared to backpedal on suggestions the government might revise past apologies, apparently to calm tensions with South Korea and China and address U.S. concerns about Abe's nationalist agenda.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga repeated the previous government position and said that those women went through unbearable pain.

"The stance of the Japanese government on the comfort women issue is well known. They have suffered unspeakably painful experiences. The Abe Cabinet has the same sentiments as past Cabinets."

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said Hashimoto's remark doesn't help as Japan has faced criticism from its neighboring countries and the U.S. over its interpretation of history.

"A series of remarks related to our interpretation of (wartime) history have been already misunderstood. In that sense, Mr. Hashimoto's remark came at a bad time," Shimomura told reporters. "I wonder if there is any positive meaning to intentionally make such remarks at this particular moment."

Hashimoto, 43, is co-head of the newly formed Japan Restoration Party with former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who is a strident nationalist.

Sakihito Ozawa, the party's parliamentary affairs chairman, said he believed Hashimoto's remarks reflected his personal view but expressed concerns about repercussions.

"We should ask his real intentions and stop this at some point," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach, Miki Toda and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Sam Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

 

[solarz]

I wonder what Hillary Clinton thinks of this when she peddles her propaganda about how suppression of women in cultures like India and China hinders economic development. Ironic how Japan dares to hide behind human rights in criticism of China when this statement shows a basic disregard for individual human rights. They say the Chinese are sheep? If there's an intellectual opposition to such nationalistic tradition in Japan, they don't seem to have a voice.

The more the Japanese let these kinds of politicians spout their hatred, the less credibility they have on the international stage.

There are plenty of bigoted American politicians as well. The reason we don't hear racist rants on a regular basis from the US is because US voters would never let those politicians get away with it.

Therefore, the fact that Japanese politicians *can* get away with these kinds of rants shows either an apathy or a complicity among the Japanese voters.

Either way, they will end up reaping what they sow.

 

[no_name]

One wonders if they'd have the guts to make the same remark if it was western women they enslaved during WWII.

And this guy is a total idiot.

 

[bd popeye]

While I find the Japanese atrocities in WWI reprehensible..lets move on and drop the Japan bashing. Shall we? Thank you.

Do not respond to or quote this post.

bd popeye super moderator

 

[bd popeye]

I just deleted about 5 post. No bashing but it will lead to it.

Last word.. move on to a different subject.

bd popeye super moderator

 

[bd popeye]

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Admitting Islamic extremists now control some of his nation's villages and towns, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion.

President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking live on state radio and television networks, also warned that any building suspected to house Islamic extremists would be taken over in what he described as the "war" now facing Africa's most populous nation. However, it's unclear what the emergency powers will do to halt the violence, as a similar past effort failed to stop the bloodshed.

"It would appear that there is a systematic effort by insurgents and terrorists to destabilize the Nigerian state and test our collective resolve," Jonathan said.

Jonathan said the order will be in force in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. He said the states would receive more troops, though he will not remove state politicians from their posts. Under Nigerian law, the president has the power to remove politicians from their posts and install a caretaker government in emergency circumstances.

The president's speech offered the starkest vision of the ongoing violence, often downplayed by security forces and government officials due to political considerations. Jonathan described the attacks as a "rebellion," at one point describing how fighters had destroyed government buildings and "had taken women and children as hostages."

"Already, some northern parts of Borno state have been taken over by groups whose allegiance are to different flags than Nigeria's," Jonathan said.

The president later added: "These actions amount to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten (its) territorial integrity. As a responsible government, we will not tolerate this."

Since 2010, more than 1,600 people have been killed in attacks by Islamic insurgents, according to an Associated Press count. Recently, Nigeria's military has said Islamic fighters now use anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks to fight the nation's soldiers, likely outgunning the country's already overstretched security forces.

Meanwhile, violence pitting different ethnic groups against each other continues, with clashes that kill dozens at a time. In addition, dozens of police officers and agents of the country's domestic spy agency were recently slaughtered by a militia.

One of the main Islamic extremist groups fighting Nigeria's weak central government is Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north.

The group has said it wants its imprisoned members freed and strict Islamic law adopted across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. It has produced several splinter groups, and analysts say its members have contact with two other al-Qaida-linked groups in Africa.

The Islamic insurgency in Nigeria grew out of a 2009 riot led by Boko Haram members in Maiduguri that ended in a military and police crackdown that killed some 700 people.

The group's leader died in police custody, in an apparent killing. From 2010 on, Islamic extremists have engaged in hit-and-run shootings and suicide bombings. Recently, however, they've begun to use military-grade weapons, some of which they apparently seized from Nigerian military stockpiles.

It remains unclear how much effect Jonathan's announcement will have. In late December 2011, Jonathan declared a similar state of emergency over parts of four states, including Borno and Yobe. The extremist attacks continued despite that.

Nigeria's military and police also have been repeatedly accused by human rights activists and others of torturing and summarily killing suspects, as well as burning down civilian homes and killing civilians in retaliation for militant attacks.

The latest incident, in a fishing village in Borno state along the shores of Lake Chad, saw at least 187 people killed and there are allegations that soldiers are responsible. While the military has denied repeatedly that it attacks and kills civilians, the country's armed forces have a history of committing such assaults.

Separately on Tuesday, an official in the central Nigerian state of Kaduna said gunmen armed with assault rifles and suspected to be Hausa-Fulani cattle herders killed 11 people in a village there. And in Benue state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed on Hausa-Fulani cattle herders there killed at least 12 people.

___

 

[ABC78]

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Filipino voters should be blamed for the Philippines’ problems

I don’t think there is a point in holding elections in the Philippines. It’s so expensive and the whole process just disrupts normal activities and keeps Filipinos from moving forward. What is the point in going through something that won’t even change or improve how things are being run in the country anyway?

Before every election, the candidates use literally the same song and dance routine to entertain the voters. After the election is over, the candidates go back to doing everything they can to protect their family’s interests and virtually nothing that could benefit the rest of the population. It’s just ridiculous.

If the Filipino voters are going to choose and elect their public servants from candidates who come from the same families who have been ruling the country for decades, then these families ought to just take turns in having a go at those lucrative positions in government; something like a contractual term will do. That’ll save us from bearing with all the empty slogans, campaign jingles, and adolescent mudslinging in the months leading to Election Day.

It’s getting harder and harder to feel sorry for Filipinos nowadays. They keep blaming others for their miseries when the fact is they are the ones who vote for the same people who cause much of their miseries. One can be forgiven for saying that Filipino voters are simply stupid, arrogant and just a bunch of losers.

At the moment, there are 178 dynasties ruling 73 of the 80 provinces in the Philippines. Now, that’s a lot. Who voted for these people? The answer: the same people who continue to complain about their wretched lives. Even a convicted plunderer can run again and again for public office. As long as he is popular, he and the rest of his family’s chances of winning are strong. It’s so pathetic.

Every three years the voters have an opportunity to vote for someone new and yet they still choose to vote for the same bozos. If Filipinos are tired of the same families who are running the country, why can’t they demand the end of the ruling of the dynasties? It should be easy enough to do if the clamor to end it is loud enough. The clamor for better candidates should culminate on Election Day, when voters choose someone who doesn’t belong to a ruling elite and someone who holds a true vision for the country.

Some Filipinos think that blaming the candidates is the way to go. Yes, majority of the candidates are taking advantage of the voter’s ignorance. These candidates deserve the scrutiny and some of the valid criticism. However, let us not ignore the fact that the voters are responsible for choosing the candidates.

Take a candidate like Nancy Binay. She is using her father’s popularity to win the election. Some of her critics are actually too harsh on her when they should be directing their anger at the voters. Nancy Binay or Bam Aquino would not even think twice about running if they knew they didn’t have a chance to win – if they knew the voters use their heads. But they know that having a popular family name is enough for them to win. What Nancy or Bam are doing may be unethical or wrong but they are comforted by the fact that it was the people who want them to win.

According to Bobby Tuazon who is the director for policy studies at the Centre for People Empowerment in Governance, the country’s political landscape is “getting worse”. Here’s what he had to say about the mid-term elections:

Tuazon projected that when all votes are counted, 21 of the 24 Senate seats will fall under the control of political families. That includes former President Joseph Estrada’s two sons from different mothers. In the House of Representatives, about 80 percent of the 229 seats will also be dominated by dynasties.

“The government will remain under the control of the traditional political parties,” he said.

“These are the same elites who control the economic resources of the country,” Tuazon said. What is even more alarming for him is that clans are no longer content in fielding two or three family members each election cycle.

In the province of Maguindanao, where 34 journalists covering a campaign were killed in 2009, about 80 members of the Ampatuan family, which has been implicated in the massacre, are running for office.

I can’t help but think that Tuazon is letting the Filipino voters off the hook with regard to the worsening state of Philippine politics. It’s as if the Filipino people are not free to choose. Filipinos are free to vote for the right candidate but they choose the wrong ones most of the time. President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino is proof of this. I mean, why would the voters in Maguidananao still want to put any of the Ampatuan family in power after senior members of the clan allegedly massacred 52 innocent people? It’s so inconceivable.

Shaming the members of political dynasties does not even work. They have become dense and do not seem to have any shred of decency left. Since that is the case, shaming the voters could work instead in changing the political landscape in the Philippines. If the voters still prefer giving up their right to have a decent life, then members of the dynasties should just take turns ruling them, indeed. At the end of the day, Filipino voters should be blamed for how the public servants they voted for run the country.

 

[ABC78]

I wonder what Hillary Clinton thinks of this when she peddles her propaganda about how suppression of women in cultures like India and China hinders economic development. Ironic how Japan dares to hide behind human rights in criticism of China when this statement shows a basic disregard for individual human rights. They say the Chinese are sheep? If there's an intellectual opposition to such nationalistic tradition in Japan, they don't seem to have a voice.

The more the Japanese let these kinds of politicians spout their hatred, the less credibility they have on the international stage.

There are plenty of bigoted American politicians as well. The reason we don't hear racist rants on a regular basis from the US is because US voters would never let those politicians get away with it.

Therefore, the fact that Japanese politicians *can* get away with these kinds of rants shows either an apathy or a complicity among the Japanese voters.

Either way, they will end up reaping what they sow.

Obviously this politician and many like him in Japan that have little sympathy for rape victims. Plus Hillary Clinton is supposed to be a big proponent of women's issues. Where's her outrage now.

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Little sympathy for rape victims in Japan

(Reuters) - A man molests a young woman sitting next to him on a Japanese train, drags her to a restroom and rapes her while she sobs. Some 40 fellow passengers fail to intervene.

The case, which came to light with the suspect's arrest last month, shocked the public and prompted soul-searching in the media, which said passengers may have told themselves it was a lovers' fight but should have helped the woman.

Activists and lawyers say sentiment towards rape victims remains chilly in a society where many feel the woman may have led the man on, that she is lying or that she could have fought back.

Campaigns by women's groups and legal changes have helped make it easier for rape victims in Japan to speak up and take legal action against perpetrators, but many still stay silent out of shame and fear of criticism.

"There is still widespread belief in 'rape myths'," said Masayo Niwa, an official at the Centre for Education and Support for Women, Japan, referring to the perception, contrary to law, that only assaults by strangers can be defined as "rape".

"Victims don't report cases because they think society can't be trusted to believe them," she said.

Some victims' support groups estimate that rape cases in Japan amounted to more than 10 times the National Police Agency's official figure of 1,948 last year.

Sex crimes against bar hostesses or other women working in entertainment districts are treated especially lightly, and are seldom reported to support groups, activists say.

Japanese property developer Joji Obara was sentenced to life in prison last month for serial rape of eight women and for drugging, raping and killing Australian bar hostess Carita Ridgway. But he was cleared of killing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman in a case that attracted international media attention.

"They did not take me and my boyfriend seriously," Samantha Termini, Ridgway's older sister and herself a former bar hostess, told a news conference of her initial efforts to get police to investigate Carita's death.

SERIOUS CRIME

Some lawyers say prison sentences and compensation fail to adequately reflect victims' sufferings -- a sign that rape continues to be viewed lightly in Japan's male-dominated society.

Japan's top government spokesman in 2003 was quoted as telling reporters in an off-the-record briefing that some women were asking to be raped by dressing provocatively -- a remark that outraged many but failed to dent his political clout.

A legal revision in 2005 raised prison sentences for rape to a minimum three years and a maximum 20 years, but critics argue that the punishment is still too light considering the minimum sentence for robbery is five years.

In civil court cases, victims usually receive 20-30 million yen ($166,000-$250,000) in compensation.

"Compensation should be more, considering that rape is a crime that is as serious as attempted murder," said lawyer Hitoshi Yamada, a former head of the Tokyo Bar Association's committee on victim support.

Trials are often frustrating, Yamada added, with cases usually lacking hard evidence and courts having little understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition which afflicts many victims.

Still, the system is slowly starting to change and more women are taking rape cases to court and reporting domestic violence.

Legislation since 2004 allows women to seek restraining orders against husbands who are not only physically abusive, but who inflict sexual abuse, including forced sex.

In court cases for rape, women can now be accompanied by a counselor and victims of sexual assault or rape can also testify from outside the courtroom through a video link.

In 2000, Japan also scrapped a rule that had prevented victims of sex crimes from launching a criminal case if six months had lapsed since identifying the suspect -- a limit victims' groups had fought for years to change.

"It's become easier for victims to speak out," said Yukiko Tsunosa, a lawyer who handles rape cases, although she added that there was still a long way to go. "Victims are now better protected when they take their case to criminal court."