Nearly 3,000 dead pigs found in Shanghai river

Shanghai authorities have appealed for calm after China’s latest environmental and health scandal flowed into the city in the form of a putrid tide of rotting pigs.

More than 2,800 decomposing pigs have reportedly been pulled from the upper reaches of Shanghai’s Huangpu river – a source of drinking water for some of the mega-city’s 23 million inhabitants.

How so many pigs got there and why they died remains a mystery, although local media reports have suggested the animals may have been dumped in the river by an unscrupulous farmer from the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.

On Monday, authorities announced they had detected traces of porcine circovirus, a disease that affects pigs but which is not believed to infect humans, in the river.

China appeals for calm over North Korea threats

China today called for "calm and restraint" from all sides to diffuse the tension on the Korean peninsula.

The current situation on the Korean peninsula is "highly complex and sensitive" and China "expresses concern", said a Foreign ministry spokesman.

Meanwhile, the state media trilled its support for Beijing's decision to vote for UN sanctions against North Korea and called for them to be tightly enforced.

"We believe the resolution is a balanced one," said the Foreign ministry spokesman. "China is objective and fair on this matter and has played a constructive role throughout the discussion at the Security Council."

China cracks down on rebel village of Shangpu

Chinese security forces cut off power and phones, fired tear gas and stun grenades, and beat protestors in a southern village to try to end an 18-day rebellion.

Dozens of villagers in Shangpu were hospitalised and six people were arrested, according to witnesses.

"They came at about midnight, or maybe half an hour later. They cut off the power first," said one villager involved in the fracas.

"Around 60 people were injured, mostly older people. Some of them had broken bones, one had a stun grenade explode in his face and may need to go to the provincial hospital," he added.

China 'must stop unprecedented wave of cyber attacks', says Obama administration

China's government must take action to stop the "unprecedented" wave of Chinese cyber-attacks against the US, President Barack Obama's most senior security aide said on Monday.

Tom Donilon, Mr Obama's national security adviser, used a speech on US relations with Asia to mount the White House's most aggressive response so far to a series of military-style hacks of US corporations.

Describing the problem as "a key point of concern and discussion" at "all levels of our governments", Mr Donilon said: "Beijing should take serious steps to investigate and put a stop to these activities."

North Korea launches missile: source

SEOUL, March 15 (Yonhap) — North Korea fired off short-range missiles into the East Sea on Friday amid heightened tension following its February nuclear test, a military source in Seoul said.

"A North Korean military unit on drill test-fired two shots of short-range missiles, presumed to be KN-02 missiles, into the East Sea" the source said.

The source did not say the exact time of the launching.

"The launch was seen as testing its capability for short-range missiles. It seemed to be conducted on a military-unit level, not at a national level."

North Korea is ratcheting up war rhetoric almost daily in response to the U.N. Security Council's adoption of new sanctions for the country's Feb. 12 nuke test.

N Korea blames US for cyber attack

North Korea has blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber attacks that temporarily shut down websites at a time of heightened tensions over the North's nuclear programme.

Experts believe it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested more likely culprits: hackers in China.

Internet access in Pyongyang was intermittent on Wednesday and yesterday and Loxley Pacific Co, the broadband internet provider for North Korea, said it was investigating an online attack that took down Pyongyang servers. A spokesman for the Bangkok-based company said today that it was not clear where the attack originated.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency blamed the shutdown on the US and South Korea, accusing the allies of expanding an aggressive stance against Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and persistent virus attacks".

Japan parliament approves BOJ leaders; focus now on policy

Abe won power in December promising to end two decades of economic stagnation with reforms, big government spending and aggressive monetary easing. He handpicked Kuroda, 68, a vocal advocate of greater BOJ stimulus, as the bank's new chief.

The parliament's opposition-dominated upper house also approved government nominees Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso as Kuroda's deputies, a day after the trio sailed through a vote in the lower house where Abe's ruling party has majority.
Kuroda was approved in the upper house with 186 in favour and 34 against, and Iwata won approval with 124 in favour and 96 against. Nakaso received 199 ayes and 22 no votes.
"We want the BOJ to press ahead with policy steps to achieve its 2 percent inflation target as early as possible," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters, adding the government would work closely with the central bank.

Japan seeks to join U.S.-led Pacific trade talks, reform hopes rise

The decision to join talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) launches the "third arrow" in Abe's policy triad following the fiscal pump priming and hyper-easy monetary measures he has pushed since returning to office in December after his Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) big election win.

 

"Emerging countries in Asia are shifting to an open economy one after another. If Japan alone remains an inward-looking economy, there would be no chance for growth," Abe told a news conference.

"This is our last chance. If we miss this opportunity, Japan will be left behind."

The government estimates that joining the TPP will boost Japan's gross domestic product by 3.2 trillion yen ($33.3 billion), or 0.66 percentage points, offsetting the negative impact on agriculture by boosting exports in other sectors and domestic private consumption.
"Abenomics" has been playing to rave reviews in the Tokyo stock market and with voters, around 70 percent of whom support the prime minister.
Business executives and economists say the real test, though, will be whether Abe buckles down to more controversial reforms such as deregulation, which can hurt vested interests.
"TPP could be a trigger for Japan to implement deregulation in various sectors by using external pressure," said Hideo Kumamo, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
"It is being seen as a way to stimulate the economy by making the nation more competitive."
The United States and 10 other countries are pushing for a deal by the end of the year and possibly as soon as an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Bali in October.

North Korea May Have Finally Gone Too Far

It seems North Korea has finally gone too far -- even for China, its patron state and only true friend. For the first time, Chinese leaders seem to be taking modest steps intended to punish their southern neighbor for threatening to conduct a third nuclear-weapons test.

After a year in office, North Korea's chubby, naif supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has remade himself into a belligerent bully, openly threatening South Korea -- and the United States.

My question is: With what?

North Korea has already conducted two nuclear tests -- both of them duds, nuclear experts have been saying. Now that it's threatening a third one, South Korean government officials say the preparations are advancing rapidly. In fact, a few days ago, Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported that the North Korean military has spread a tarp over the opening to the underground testing site, to keep spying satellites from peering inside.

North Korea Criticizes South Korea's First Female President

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye speaks to the nation at the presidential Blue House in Seoul. (REUTERS)

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's first public, senior-level mention of South Korea's first female president ended up being a sexist crack. The body that controls North Korea's military complained Wednesday about the "venomous swish" of her skirt.

But despite that swipe, and a continuing torrent of rhetoric from Pyongyang threatening nuclear war and other mayhem, President Park Geun-hye is sticking by her campaign vow to reach out to North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, and to send the country much-needed humanitarian aid.

Public frustration with the last five years of North-South relations, which saw North Korean nuclear tests, long-range rocket launches and attacks that left dozens of South Koreans dead, is a big part of the reason Park is trying to build trust with Pyongyang, even as she and South Korea's military promise to respond forcefully to any possible attack from the North.