Friday, September 4, 2015

Random Japan

Kyoto has had enough of rude tourists, created an infographic to show how to visit politely

With thousands of temples, beautiful gardens, geisha and maiko (geisha-in-training), and more history than you can shake an encyclopedia at, Kyoto is the place to be when visiting Japan. So with so many tourists from around the world crowding into the city, a few are bound to step out of line.

Thankfully TripAdvisor Japan created a handy infographic showing how to politely visit Kyoto. Kyotoites are understandably protective of their city and its cultural and historical treasures, and some will not hesitate to correct you if you’re doing something rude or wrong. So to be sure that everyone is on the same page, here are a few simple rules to keep in mind when you visit this wonderful city.

A lot of the rules are simply covering the basics, such as no smoking outside designated areas, not bringing your own food or drink into a restaurant, and not taking photos too close to the train tracks.

STATS

35: Remains of Japanese and Soviet soldiers found this summer on Shumshu Island in the Kuril chain, scene of one of the final battles of World War II
$560 million: Price paid by Kirin Holdings for a 55-percent stake in Myanmar’s largest brewing company
24,567: People taken to hospitals with heatstroke in July, a record for the month

NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES

Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori admitted that the cost of hosting the Games could rise to more than ¥2 trillion.
A Cabinet Office survey found that 22.7 percent of Japanese people say they’re interested in volunteering during the Olympics.
For the first time ever, shinkansen fans were invited to watch the elusive “Doctor Yellow” bullet train—used for rail-line maintenance and operating according to no announced timetable—as it underwent a tune-up in Shizuoka.
Sentence of the Week: “A former refrigerator engineer here in the capital of Uzbekistan runs a museum at his own expense that focuses on the experiences of Japanese detainees who were brought to the country by Soviet troops after World War II.” (via Jiji)

Who Has The Best Crappers In Japan?
They Do

Japanese Change Refugee Rules
Next Year 12 People Will Be Given Refugee Status Up From 11

Man Arrested For Throwing Rather Than Talking Sh*t And Shoplifting
A Real Double Whammy

Local logo contest organizers wary in wake of Olympics symbol scandal

KYODO

The recent plagiarism allegations surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo have put local governments on alert as they screen a huge number of logo candidates amid an increasing number of design competitions.

The case of the logo designer, Kenjiro Sano, around which allegations of plagiarism are circulating, showed that today’s technology allowed Internet users to digitally scrutinize designs.

But the controversy has also left organizers of similar contests puzzled over how to avoid copyright infringement scandals.

Torture in Tunisia

We investigate allegations that despite its new democratic institutions, police torture continues in Tunisia.

It has been four years now since a popular uprising in Tunisia ousted former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. It was hoped then that the Jasmine revolution - and the democratic governments to which it gave birth - would usher in a new era; that consensus politics and the rule of law would be reflected in the actions of those supposed to protect society from criminality, wherever it lies.

State repression, so much a feature of the old regime, was meant to be at an end; police brutality, torture and the abuse of human rights were to be consigned to history.

But this, it seems, may have been wishful thinking. As this People & Power investigation has found, while police brutality is no longer officially sanctioned by the state, it continues unabated nonetheless. Many of those responsible for enforcing the rule of law in Tunisia are themselves still breaking it, time after time.

Late Night Music From Japan: Candlebox - You; Far Behind;

Six In The Morning Friday September 4

Migrant crisis: Hungary train stand-off enters second day

A tense stand-off between police and migrants on a train in Hungary is continuing into a second day.

On Thursday, police let the migrants board the train in Budapest but then tried to force them off at a refugee camp to the west of the capital.

Hungarian MPs face a key vote later on whether to tighten border controls as migrants try to pass through to their preferred destination, Germany.

Three other European meetings on Friday will discuss the migrant crisis.

Members of the European Commission are also flying to the Greek island of Kos to examine the difficulties caused by the large numbers of refugees and migrants landing there.

Opinion: African migrants - payback time?

Just as Europeans migrated overseas in the past, so are Africans now migrating to Europe. In this guest commentary, the head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa Carlos Lopes draws parallels between the two episodes.

Since the beginning of this year a relentless flow of images from the Italian island of Lampedusa, the city of Calais where the Eurotunnel starts, Bodrum in Turkey, the eastern islands of Greece, or the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco, are invading television screens and media outlets. They portray massive-scale attempts by desperate souls trying to reach European countries. The EU commissioner in charge of migration declared this month this is the worst migrant crisis since World War II. Is it?

Maybe for Western Europe it is perceived as such, but it is not. Understanding why is important, because more is coming.

Forget warlords – meet Afghanistan's 'Art Lords'

Omaid Sharifi

They’re all over Kabul – big concrete blast walls, meant to protect government buildings and other important sites from exploding bombs. Lately, some of them have been adorned with giant, watchful eyes and the inscription: “We’re watching you.”

The images are the work of three friends who call themselves the 'Art Lords' and with the help of passersby, they have painted dozens of murals on blast walls across the Afghan capital.

When you hear about Afghanistan, you hear so much about warlords. So we thought, we’ll be the positive lords!

Our government, international organisations, and all of Afghanistan’s powerful people have made themselves safe inside these blast walls. Ordinary citizens, meanwhile, walk around the streets and see these ugly walls everywhere, walls that don’t protect them. For us, Kabul looks like a prison. So we decided we could at least put some colours on these walls, and at the same time, try to get some messages across.

No more shotgun weddings: Jordan cracks down

Celebratory gunshots have long been a familiar sound at Jordanian weddings. But the death of a young boy last month has turned public opinion against the tradition.

By Taylor Luck, Correspondent

AMMAN, JORDAN — The familiar cracking of gunshots echoes though the lively summer nights here in Jordan’s capital.

But rather than a sign of crime or war, the sound of gunfire has long been a staple at celebrations across the country. It’s a sign of someone’s wedding, graduation, or even promotion. But under new regulations that aim to stamp out the practice, Jordanian grooms now face jail time for the decades-old tradition.

Public opinion turned against the practice in mid-August, when a shooting accident in the northern city of Irbid left a young boy dead. In a video that went viral on YouTube, a man is seen at a wedding reloading and firing his handgun. He attempts to reload the gun a second time, with the barrel aimed downwards towards the crowd. A bullet suddenly discharges and a six-year-old boy standing nearby crumples to the ground.

New North Korea: Short skirts and synthesizers?

By Kyung Lah, CNN

Updated 0124 GMT (0824 HKT) September 4, 2015

The young women step across the stage, wielding their violins like weapons, their gem-laden high heels reflecting the overhead stage lights against the black stage. The 20-something-year-old songstresses bear all the markings of your average pop music girl band, down to their fitted outfits and perfectly coiffed tresses.

But their lyrics reveal how the band, Moranbong, is not any bubble gum music group.

"How can he be so kind," the ladies sweetly croon about their repressive dictator, Kim Jong Un. "His smile is so warm and sweet. I have no choice but to be taken by him and his warm heart."

DRC's 'Terminator' tells ICC he protected civilians

Militia leader Bosco Ntaganda, accused of war crimes, tells court he was a professional soldier trying to restore peace.

04 Sep 2015 06:24 GMT

A rebel leader known as "The Terminator" has told judges trying him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague that he was a professional soldier who never attacked civilians and tried to restore peace during a brutal conflict in eastern Congo.

"I have never attacked civilians," Bosco Ntaganda said on Thursday, the second day of his trial on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"I have always protected them," he added during a nine-minute speech to the court. "I have been described as The Terminator, as an infamous killer, but that is not me."

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Who are Japan's Yakuza? In 60 seconds

Japan's Yakuza crime syndicates have been a thorn in the side of Japanese authorities for years.

But what role do they play in the country? And how big a presence are they?

The Japanese police force is bracing itself for an onslaught of violence following the break-up of one of the country’s most infamous gangs.

The Yamaguchi-gumi, which previously had over 23,000 members and 72 affiliated gangs, confirmed in a meeting that five of its subsidiaries had been expelled from the group, while eight more had been suspended, according to the Telegraph.

The 13 subsidiaries were exiled from the main group after voicing concern over gang-boss Shinobu Tsukasa’s management, when he failed to focus the organisation's operations on the more lucrative Tokyo market.

At present the gang operates predominantly in western Japan.

Tsukasa, aged 73, became leader of the Yamaguchi-gami 10 years ago.

Six In The Morning Thursday September 3

Family of Syrian boy washed up on beach were trying to reach Canada

Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehan, died in desperate attempt to flee to relatives

Jessica Elgot

The family of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey were making a final, desperate attempt to flee to relatives in Canada even though their asylum application had been rejected, according to reports.

Syria was already at war when Aylan Kurdi was born. He died with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan. Their father, Abdullah, survived.

Speaking to Canadian press on Wednesday night, the family said Abdullah had phoned them to tell them his wife and sons were dead, and he now only wanted to return to their Kurdish home town of Kobani to bury his family. The town wasbombarded during heavy fighting this year between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters.

ROBERT FISK
Thursday 3 September 2015

Isis profits from destruction of antiquities by selling relics to dealers – and then blowing up the buildings they come from to conceal the evidence of looting

A Lebanese-French archaeologist tells Robert Fisk about her unique answer to a unique crime

“Antiquities from Palmyra are already on sale in London,” the Lebanese-French archaeologist Ms Farchakh says. “There are Syrian and Iraqi objects taken by Isis that are already in Europe. They are no longer still in Turkey where they first went – they left Turkey long ago. This destruction hides the income of Daesh [Isis] and it is selling these things before it is destroying the temples that housed them.

“It has something priceless to sell and then afterwards it destroys the site and the destruction is meant to hide the level of theft. It destroys the evidence. So no one knows what was taken beforehand – nor what was destroyed.”

Two Vice News reporters released in southeast Turkey

Latest update : 2015-09-03

Two Vice News journalists arrested in southeast Turkey this week on charges of having links to a terrorist organisation have been released, their lawyer and a Turkish government source told Reuters on Thursday.

A Turkish court freed the two British journalists but ruled to keep their fixer, an Iraqi national, in custody pending investigation after assessing an appeal request from the trio’s lawyers.

The arrest of the journalists on Monday sparked uproar from rights groups and raised concerns about Ankara’s record on press freedoms at a time when Turkey is taking on a bigger role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria and cracking down on Kurdish militants at home.

The three were detained last Friday in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir while filming clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants.

New York Times attacks Prime Minister Tony Abbott over 'stop the boats' policy

September 3, 2015 - 9:09PM

Nicole Hasham

Environment and immigration correspondent

The New York Times has launched a blistering attack on the Abbott government's asylum seeker policies, suggesting they are "unconscionable" and urging European nations struggling with a tide of migrants not to follow suit.

The media outlet singled out Prime Minister Tony Abbott in an editorial on Thursday that indicates Australia's reputation is suffering in the eyes of some international observers under the government's hardline efforts to "stop the boats".

It described Mr Abbott's policies as "inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country's tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war".

Guatemala leader resigns after warrant for his arrest

The decision comes after President Otto Perez was stripped of his immunity due to corruption charges.

03 Sep 2015 11:53 GMT

Guatemalan President Otto Perez has resigned, his spokesman said after Congress stripped the leader of immunity over corruption allegations and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The embattled conservative leader, in power since 2012, took Thursday's decision to step down to confront "individually the proceedings against him," his spokesman Jorge Ortega said, days before a national election.

Perez faces prosecution for allegedly masterminding a huge fraud scheme and on Tuesday he was stripped of his immunity due to organised corruption charges against him.

Middle East wars deprive 13m children of education - UN

3 September 2015
From the sectionMiddle East

The UN has said that conflicts in the Middle East are depriving more than 13 million children of an education.

The UN children's fund, Unicef, says in a new report that the hopes of a generation across the Middle East and North Africa are being shattered.

It says that in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, almost 9,000 schools are not able to be used for education.

Unicef also documented scores of attacks on schools and teachers across the region.

Peter Salama, regional director for Unicef in the Middle East and North Africa, said: "The destructive impact of conflict is being felt by children right across the region.

"It's not just the physical damage being done to schools, but the despair felt by a generation of schoolchildren who see their hopes and futures shattered."

Ignoring Asia