Young adults gathered in Japan to celebrate reaching 20, the age at which they can drink alcohol, smoke and get married without parental approval, although many events were cancelled due to coronavirus fears
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North Korea set for collision course with US as Kim Jong-un solidifies one-man rule
Analysis: Congress gathering ends with Kim taking symbolic post of general secretary and a warning the US needs a fresh strategy
A rare meeting of North Korea’s ruling party has ended with a symbolically important new title for the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, speculation about the future of his influential sister, and a shot across the bow of the incoming US president.
Less than two weeks before Joe Biden’s inauguration, much of what Kim told the first congress of the ruling Workers’ party for five years had a familiar ring to it.
Continue reading...Hong Kong arrests: Carrie Lam accuses west of hypocrisy, citing US Capitol riot
City’s leader accuses foreign critics of double standards when they condemn rioters in the US but support pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s leader has defended the unprecedented mass arrest of opposition figures last week, and accused western powers of hypocrisy for condemning the siege on the US Capitol after supporting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
At a weekly press briefing in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Carrie Lam was asked about the coordinated police raids last Wednesday, when 55 opposition figures were arrested on suspicion of breaching the national security law by holding unofficial primaries ahead of the since-postponed Hong Kong election. The raids were the latest use of the national security law against the pro-democracy movement.
Continue reading...How I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs
After 10 years living in France, I returned to China to sign some papers and I was locked up. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed
The man on the phone said he worked for the oil company, “In accounting, actually”. His voice was unfamiliar to me. At first, I couldn’t make sense of what he was calling about. It was November 2016, and I had been on unpaid leave from the company since I left China and moved to France 10 years earlier. There was static on the line; I had a hard time hearing him.
“You must come back to Karamay to sign documents concerning your forthcoming retirement, Madame Haitiwaji,” he said. Karamay was the city in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang where I’d worked for the oil company for more than 20 years.
Continue reading...WHO’s Covid mission to Wuhan: ‘It’s not about finding China guilty’
Scientists express caution about what they may find and the political sensitivity around investigation
When the scientists on the World Health Organization’s mission to research the origins of Covid-19 touch down in China as expected on Thursday at the beginning of their investigation they are clear what they will – and what they will not – be doing.
They intend to visit Wuhan, the site of the first major outbreak of Covid-19, and talk to Chinese scientists who have been studying the same issue. They will want to see if there are unexamined samples from unexplained respiratory illnesses, and they will want to examine ways in which the virus might have jumped the species barrier to humans.
Continue reading...Indonesia plane crash relative: ‘I said I would pray for her’
As divers search for black boxes in Java Sea, families recall last-minute messages
Rafik Yusuf Alaydrus’s wife, Panca Widia Nursanti, messaged him on WhatsApp as she sat on board the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 flight. The weather in Jakarta was bad, she said. It was raining heavily and the flight, bound for Pontianak on Borneo island, had been delayed for an hour by the poor conditions.
As she waited for takeoff on Saturday, Panca told him she had a bad feeling, and asked him to pray for her. “I tried to calm her down, saying that I would pray for her, and asked her to pray during flight. Inshallah she would be safe,” he said.
Continue reading...Divers search for black boxes in debris of Sriwijaya Air flight 182 – video
Footage released by the Indonesian Navy showed divers searching for the black boxes of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182 among suspected debris from the downed flight.
Authorities pinpointed the area where the black boxes may be located after they lifted chunks of the Boeing 737-500 fuselage off the sea bed. Rescuers have also found human body parts and personal effects.
Continue reading...New Zealand’s ‘public secret’: house prices won’t come down until we really want them to | Iain White
Many of us express concern about the country’s soaring house prices - but we also vote for policies that let them stay that way
It was the anthropologist Michael Taussig who coined the term “public secret” – a collective social understanding, a truth generally accepted but not articulated.
Public secrets, he argued, can be important to the functioning of institutions and societies: they allow the existence of seemingly contradictory positions, help maintain current power relations, and assist in reconciling the inevitable tensions of policy or complexities of politics.
Continue reading...‘Don’t look dishevelled’: anger over Seoul city’s advice to pregnant women
Government guidelines give tips on how to avoid putting on weight and how to prepare food for men who are ‘unaccustomed to cooking’
The Seoul city government has sparked anger for offering advice to pregnant women that includes ensuring their husbands have clean clothes and enough to eat while they are in hospital giving birth.
The guidelines, posted on a government-run website, included tips for expectant South Korean mothers at different stages of their pregnancy.
Continue reading...Indonesia plane crash: divers to retrieve black boxes from Sriwijaya Air flight 182
Authorities located data recorders on Sunday from jet that crashed off Jakarta carrying 62 people
Indonesian divers will try to retrieve the data recorders of a Sriwijaya Air jet on Monday after it plunged into the sea two days ago with 62 people on board minutes after take off from Jakarta’s main airport.
Flight SJ182 was headed to Pontianak on Borneo island, about 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta, on Saturday before it disappeared from radar screens four minutes after take-off and crashed into the Java sea.
Continue reading...Indonesia plane crash: authorities locate black boxes among wreckage
Sriwijaya Air flight carrying 62 people crashed after taking off from Jakarta on Saturday
Indonesian authorities have located the black boxes of the Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the sea soon after taking off from the capital Jakarta, as human body parts and suspected pieces of the plane were retrieved.
The Boeing 737-500 with 62 passengers and crew was heading to Pontianak in West Kalimantan on Saturday when it disappeared from radar screens four minutes after takeoff.
Continue reading...Hong Kong security law being used to ‘eliminate dissent’ say US, UK, Australia and Canada
Joint statement by four foreign ministers expresses ‘serious concern’ about national security law which saw dozens of activists arrested last week
The foreign ministers of Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada have issued a joint statement expressing “serious concern” about the arrest of 55 democracy activists and supporters in Hong Kong last week.
The arrests were by far the largest such action taken under a national security law (NSL) that China imposed on the semi-autonomous territory a little more than six months ago.
Continue reading...Twitter removes China US embassy post saying Uighur women no longer ‘baby-making machines’
Post claimed women in Xinjiang had been ‘emancipated’ as a result of China’s claimed efforts to eradicate extremism
Twitter has removed a post by China’s US embassy claiming that Uighur women have been “emancipated” from extremism and were no longer “baby-making machines”. The post linked to an article denying allegations of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang.
Twitter said the post had “violated the Twitter rules” but did not provide further details.
Continue reading...Kim Jong-un calls US ‘biggest enemy’ and says nuclear submarine plans ‘complete’
North Korea should ‘further advance nuclear technology’ and develop more flexible attack capability, leader tells party congress
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called the United States his nuclear-armed nation’s “biggest enemy” and revealed that plans for a nuclear-powered submarine are complete, state media said.
Kim’s declaration on Saturday also included a call to develop smaller, more adapatable nyuclear warheads, comes less than two weeks before the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president, and after a tumultuous relationship between Kim and the outgoing Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Why the delay? The nations waiting to see how Covid vaccinations unfold
Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan are among those that won’t start vaccinating for months, in part to see how other populations react to the jab
They are the nations that have been held up as shining examples of coronavirus management. In Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan, daily Covid infections are in the single digits and outbreaks are quickly suppressed.
But there is one area where these nations lag well behind the pack in vaccination. Countries with some of the most enviable healthcare systems in the world – including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea – will not begin to inoculate until the end of February or later.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police release all but three of those held in crackdown
No one has yet been charged as some pro-democracy figures say they were arrested for political reasons
Hong Kong authorities have released all but three people arrested in Wednesday’s unprecedented roundup of opposition figures.
Amid heated debate about the legal premise of the accusations against the group, police are yet to lay any charges.
Continue reading...Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead
IOC’s Dick Pound voices concern after host city declared state of emergency due to third wave of coronavirus
Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, has said he “can’t be certain” that the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead this summer, as a coronavirus state of emergency was declared in the host city.
Asked about the prospects that the Games will open on 23 July, the Canadian told the BBC: “I can’t be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus.”
Continue reading...Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery
Japan denounces ruling as ‘unacceptable’ as row over sexual enslavement of women in the second world war enters new chapter
Japan has denounced as “utterly unacceptable” a South Korean court ruling ordering it to pay damages to women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the second world war.
The Seoul central district court on Friday said Japan was liable to compensate 12 women who were forced to work as so-called “comfort women”, in a ruling that is expected to inflict further damage on the countries’ already fraught ties.
Continue reading...The baby-selling scheme: poor pregnant Marshall Islands women lured to the US
Dozens of women from the Pacific island victims of brazen trafficking ring that operated for years
Rolson Price still scans Facebook for her picture. He’s seen her occasionally, at the periphery of someone else’s photo, instantly recognisable.
But he’s never met her, and concedes he never will.
Continue reading...Japan’s PM declares state of emergency in Tokyo amid Covid crisis
Record number of coronavirus cases reported sparking fears hospitals will be overwhelmed
Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has declared a state of emergency in the greater Tokyo area after a record number of coronavirus cases were reported in the capital and across the country.
Suga had come under pressure from his own health experts to take action, as the country battles a third wave of infections far more serious than those seen earlier in the pandemic.
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