South Korea on Saturday confirmed nine more cases of the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but said it did not represent a spread of the outbreak as the infected were already in quarantine. The additional cases brought the total number of people infected with the virus to 50.
The outbreak first reported on May 20 has claimed four lives and stirred public fear as the government was blamed for an ineffective initial response that allowed one man who had returned from Saudi Arabia to infect more than half the rest.
All nine new cases were traced to the initial patient, the health ministry said, calling them health care associated infections. But the ministry said tests showed no sign of mutation in the virus that has affected the South Korean patients, with its genetic traits "almost identical" to the one that was found in the Middle East outbreak.
There has been no sustained human-to-human transmission, but the worst case scenario is the virus changes and spreads rapidly, as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) did in 2002-2003 killing about 800 people around the world.
MERS was first identified in humans in 2012 and is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered SARS. But MERS has a much higher death rate at 38 percent, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures.
South Korea's new cases bring the total number globally to about 1,194, based on WHO data, with at least 443 related deaths.
Meanwhile, Kwon Joon-wook, a senior official of the ministry, told journalists Saturday the 68-year-old man who was the first case, and his wife who contracted the virus from him, have both been cured and were released from hospital Friday. Two others were also waiting to be released, he said.
Consequently, more than 1,660 people who may have been exposed to the virus have been placed under varying levels of quarantine. The outbreak has forced hundreds of schools to shut their gates, thousands of people to cancel travel plans and dealt a blow to many businesses as people were told to avoid large crowds.
White South Korea is far from being in a state of panic, the number of face masks sold in pharmacies is said to have dramatically increased over the past week.
"This weekend will be critical. The incubation period for primary and secondary patients ends this weekend. If there is no further infection, then we can say we have stemmed the main tide," said Choi Jae-wook, an official at the Korean Medical Association. "But if there are more cases, we will have to prepare for tertiary and fourth generation infections — and the spread into the local community."
The WHO said Friday it would send a team of experts to South Korea for a joint mission with the government in collecting information of the outbreak. The team is expected to arrive here as early as next week, the ministry said. The WHO has said it expects more infections in South Korea, while stressing there was currently "no evidence of sustained transmission in the community."
Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co., was sentenced to seven years in prison for Sewol ferry disaster
October 29, 20152:05AM ET
South Korea's highest court on Thursday sentenced the head of a ferry operator to seven years in prison over a ship sinking last year that killed more than 300 people.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co., to seven years in prison on charges including manslaughter. The court found Kim responsible for failing to prevent theoverloading of cargo and improper storage on the ship that judges said contributed to the sinking.
Four other Chonghaejin officials were sentenced to two-and-a-half to four years in prison on similar charges, the court said in a statement.
A total of 304 people died when the ferry Sewol sank off South Korea's southwest coast in April 2014 in one of the country's deadliest maritime disaster in decades. Most of the victims were teenagers from a single high school.
Divers recovered 295 bodies from the wreckage before the government stopped underwater searches last year. Nine victims remain missing.
The Supreme Court couldn't confirm when it will be able to make a verdict on Sewol captain Lee Joon-seok, who appealed after a regional high court convicted him of homicide and sentenced him to life in prison in April.
The government plans to step up its efforts to select the final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power generation, after having failed to find any willing host community for more than a decade. But the long-stalled process will have little prospect of moving forward unless doubts and questions surrounding nuclear power — including those highlighted by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster — are answered.
In 2000, the government decided that high-level radioactive waste, produced after spent fuel from nuclear power plants is reprocessed, should be vitrified and buried deeper than 300 meters underground. Two years later, it started soliciting municipalities around the country that would volunteer to host a disposal site, offering hefty subsidies in exchange for preliminary research. One town in Kochi Prefecture came forward in 2007, only to withdraw the offer after its mayor resigned in the face of local opposition.
In December, the Abe administration decided that the government, rather than waiting for offers from municipalities, will identify scientifically suitable areas where stored high-level radioactive wastes are deemed safe from the effects of seismic and volcanic activities or underground water, and then approach municipalities in the areas for research as possible candidates for storage sites.
Japan’s nuclear power generation has often been likened to a “condominium without a toilet” due to the lack of a final disposal site for radioactive waste that piles up as more fuel is used for power generation at nuclear plants.
The issue is cited by many as one reason for opposing nuclear power. The Abe administration, in its bid to maintain nuclear energy as the nation’s key source of energy, apparently hopes to accelerate the process to choosing a disposal location.
But the government’s push for expediting the process bypasses all the concerns raised over radioactive waste disposal, including a report by the Science Council of Japan in 2012 that called for a thorough review of the disposal method itself.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told the Diet that technology for safely burying nuclear waste deep underground has been established, but doubts have been raised as to whether the technology is viable in quake-prone Japan.
The head of the Science Council’s expert panel said it is difficult to predict what changes would occur in the structures of ground layers at a disposal site in the next 100,000 years — the estimated time needed for the radiation emitted by the high-level waste to reach safe levels. It is therefore impossible, he said, to convince people of the safety of the disposal method.
The council observed that disposal site selection was going nowhere because the government pushed ahead with the process without a public consensus on the nation’s nuclear energy policy, including the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste. It urged the government to fundamentally review the disposal method and set a direction of nuclear energy policy that can win broad public support and then specify what amount of radioactive waste needs to ultimately be disposed.
No such discussions seem to have since taken place within the government. Rather, the Abe administration appears bent on seeking a return to the pre-Fukushima disaster nuclear power policy without any public discussions, even though much of the mess from the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns remains unresolved and people continue to harbor fears over the safety of nuclear power, as indicated by media opinion polls.
Japan does need a permanent disposal site for its nuclear waste given that there already exist piles of spent fuel from past nuclear power generation, which will further increase if idled reactors are restarted. We urge the Abe administration to first consider ways to reduce the production of radioactive waste — by decreasing the nation’s reliance on nuclear power as the prime minister has repeatedly pledged — and then review the entire disposal scheme and seek to build a public consensus on the issue.
Manila insists UN Convention on the Law of the Sea should be used to resolve the dispute
October 29, 20151:24PM ETUpdated 10:33PM ET
China’s claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea were dealt a blow Thursday after an international tribunal ruled that it had the power to hear a case brought by the Philippines over disputed islands.
But China has refused to participate in the proceedings, arguing the tribunal — based in The Hague and known as the Permanent Court of Arbitration — had no jurisdiction over the case.
“Reviewing the claims submitted by the Philippines, the tribunal has rejected the argument” by China that the “dispute is actually about sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and therefore beyond the tribunal's jurisdiction,” the court said in a statement.
Instead, the court ruled the case reflects “disputes between the two states concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention” — something that falls within its remit.
China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which about a third of all the world's traded oil passes.
The disputed waters — claimed in part by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and others — have also become the stage for a struggle for regional dominance between Beijing and Washington, the world's two largest economic and military powers.
A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed close to China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said its warships tracked and warned the American vessel.
One U.S. defense official said the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. A second defense official said the mission, which lasted a few hours, included Mischief Reef and would be the first in a series of freedom-of-navigation exercises aimed at testing China’s territorial claims.
A Chinese guided-missile destroyer and a naval patrol ship shadowed and gave warnings to the U.S. warship “according to law”, China’s Defense Ministry said in statements on its website, adding that the military would take all necessary steps to protect the country’s security.
The U.S. patrol was a “coercive action that seeks to militarize the South China Sea region” and an “abuse” of freedom of navigation under international law, it added.
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus over the incident, calling the U.S. patrol “extremely irresponsible,” the Foreign Ministry said on its website. The ministry earlier said the USS Lassen “illegally” entered waters near islands and reefs in the Spratlys without the Chinese government’s permission.
“China will resolutely respond to any country’s deliberate provocations,” the ministry said in a statement that gave no details on precisely where the U.S. ship sailed.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang later told a daily briefing that if the United States continued to “create tensions in the region,” China might conclude it had to “increase and strengthen the building up of our relevant abilities”.
China announced the end of its hugely controversial one-child policy on Thursday, with the official Xinhua news agency saying that all couples would be allowed two children.
It cited a communiqué issued by the ruling Communist Party after a four-day meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the world's second largest economy over the next five years.
China is "abandoning its decades-long one-child policy", Xinhua reported.
The policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China's economic boom.
But after years of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement by a dedicated government commission, China's population -- the world's largest -- is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.
The concerns led to limited reforms in 2013, including allowing a second child for some couples in urban areas, but relatively few have taken up the opportunity.
The Communist leadership met in Beijing to discuss ways to put the country's stuttering economy back on a smooth growth path as it struggles with structural inefficiencies and social policies left over from an era before it embraced market reforms.
FRANCE 24'S TRACY CHANG REPORTS ON CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY FROM BEIJING
Known as the fifth plenum, the conclave discussed the next Five-Year Plan for China -- the 13th since the People's Republic was founded in 1949.
Over four days of meetings the 205 members of the Central Committee, plus around 170 alternates, examined the specifics of the plan, which was largely worked out through a process of national consultations before the leaders even set foot in the capital.
The country's rubber-stamp legislature will officially approve the resulting document next year.
The world's most populous country has enjoyed a decades-long boom since the ruling party embraced market economics and opened up to the rest of the world from the late 1970s.
The process has transformed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and propelled the country to global prominence.
But growth has been slowing for several years, and analysts say the party needs to embrace further liberalisation to avoid falling into the stagnation of the "middle income trap", when developing countries fail to fulfil their full potential.
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's vast jade industry is being used as a slush fund by a network of military elites, drug lords and crony companies who illegally exploit the valuable resource for tens of billions of dollars a year, according to a report released on Friday by Global Witness.
Burma signs ceasefire deal with eight rebel factions
Myanmar's government and eight smaller ethnic rebel armies signed a ceasefire agreement to end more than six decades of fighting, but other more powerful groups refused to come on board, signaling that peace will remain elusive.
Thousands flee as deadly Typhoon Koppu hits northern Philippines
Powerful Typhoon Koppu wrecked houses, tore down trees and unleashed landslides and floods, killing at least 16 people and forcing thousands to flee as it pummeled the northern Philippines on Sunday, officials said.
Officials fear the death toll may rise after Typhoon Koppu tore through the main island of Luzon leaving several remote towns and villages isolated due to flash floods and toppled trees and boulders blocking roads. Power was down in many areas.
A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed close to China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said its warships tracked and warned the American vessel.
One U.S. defense official said the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. A second defense official said the mission, which lasted a few hours, included Mischief Reef and would be the first in a series of freedom-of-navigation exercises aimed at testing China’s territorial claims.
A Chinese guided-missile destroyer and a naval patrol ship shadowed and gave warnings to the U.S. warship “according to law”, China’s Defense Ministry said in statements on its website, adding that the military would take all necessary steps to protect the country’s security.
The U.S. patrol was a “coercive action that seeks to militarize the South China Sea region” and an “abuse” of freedom of navigation under international law, it added.
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus over the incident, calling the U.S. patrol “extremely irresponsible,” the Foreign Ministry said on its website. The ministry earlier said the USS Lassen “illegally” entered waters near islands and reefs in the Spratlys without the Chinese government’s permission.
“China will resolutely respond to any country’s deliberate provocations,” the ministry said in a statement that gave no details on precisely where the U.S. ship sailed.
solated North Korea marked the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party on Saturday with a massive military parade overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, who said his country was ready to fight any war waged by the United States.
Thousands of troops stood at attention under a blue autumn sky in Pyongyang’s main Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and the founder of the nation, as Kim, appearing relaxed and confident, made his speech, leaning heavily on the lectern.
The young leader was accompanied by senior Chinese Communist Party official Liu Yunshan, with whom he was seen speaking throughout the event and occasionally shared laughs, and flanked by senior North Korean party and military officials.
“The party’s revolutionary armament means we are ready to fight any kind of war waged by the U.S. imperialists,” Kim said in a speech strikingly more forceful than previous public comments, praising the feats of past leaders and the ruling party.
He made no direct mention of the country’s nuclear programme, likely a conciliatory diplomatic gesture towards China, which hosted the now-defunct “six-party talks”, also involving the United States, on giving economic incentives to Pyongyang in return for scrapping its atomic ambitions.
On Wednesday, a high-level U.S. military official said Washington believed North Korea had the capability to launch a nuclear weapon against the U.S. mainland and stood ready to defend against any such attacks.
Kim’s speech was followed by troops marching in formation, first by a corps of soldiers dressed in the style of the revolutionary force that fought Japan during World War Two, and then a procession of military might rolling past the square.
China has cautiously welcomed a free trade deal struck between 12 Pacific Rim countries, the biggest in decades.
The US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) cuts trade tariffs and sets common standards in member countries including Japan and the US.
China said it was "open to any mechanism" that follows World Trade Organization rules.
But it did not indicate it would join the TPP, which still needs to be ratified by lawmakers in each country.
China, which was not part of the negotiations, has announced its own rival trade agreement.
Image copyrightAssociated PressImage captionJapanese PM Shinzo Abe welcomed the pact but said it would contribute to regional stability if China joined
The TPP, which covers about 40% of the world economy, was struck on Monday after five days of talks in Atlanta in the US.
Those talks were the culmination of five years of negotiations between member countries led by the US. The deal is seen by some as a counter balance to China's growing economic influence in the Asia Pacific region.
'Regional stability'
China's Ministry of Commerce called the TPP "one of the key free trade agreements for the Asia-Pacific region", according to a statement on Xinhua state news agency website.
"China hopes the TPP pact and other free trade arrangements in the region can boost each other and contribute to the Asia-Pacific's trade, investment and economic growth," it said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday the deal signified a "new Asia-Pacific century", but added that it would have strategic meaning if China joined in the future.
"It would contribute largely to our nation's security and Asia-Pacific regional stability," he said.
Media captionWhich countries are in the TPP and what does it mean?
How did it start? With a trade agreement signed 10 years ago between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.
How big is it? Pretty big. The 12 countries have a population of about 800 million and are responsible for 40% of world trade.
North Korea's nuclear programme remains a source of deep concern for the international community. The BBC looks at North Korea's nuclear ambitions and multinational efforts to curtail them despite three nuclear tests.
Has North Korea got the bomb?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionPyongyang used a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into space in 2012
Technically yes, but not yet the means to deliver it via a missile.
In 2006, 2009 and again in 2013, North Korea announced that it had conducted successful nuclear tests - they all came after the North was sanctioned by the UN for launching rockets.
Analysts believe the first two tests used plutonium as the fissile material. The North is believed to possess enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least six bombs. Whether it used plutonium or uranium for the 2013 test is unclear.
What do we know about the North's nuclear programme?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionNorth Korea carried a nuclear test in 2009, which resulted in seismic waves shown here in Seoul
The Yongbyon site is thought to be its main nuclear facility. The North has pledged several times to halt operations there and even destroyed the cooling tower in 2008 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.
But in March 2013, after a war of words with the US and with new UN sanctions over the North's third nuclear test, it vowed to restart all facilities at Yongbyon.
However, the US never believed Pyongyang was fully disclosing all of its nuclear facilities - a suspicion bolstered when North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon (purportedly for electricity generation) to US scientist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.
Mr Hecker's 2010 visit and subsequent report remains the most recent and reliable account of the complex.
In April 2015 a US think tank said satellite pictures taken in early 2015 suggested the reactor at Yongbyon may have been restarted.
Then in September, state media announced that "normal operation" had started at the production plant.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionThe US and North Korea aimed at restarting denuclearisation talks before Kim Jong-il, right, died
Both the US and South Korea have also said that they believed the North had additional sites linked to a uranium-enrichment programme.
A test based on a uranium device would spell new dangers for monitoring and proliferation because weapons-grade plutonium enrichment happens in large facilities that are easier to spot.
Uranium enrichment uses many, possibly small, centrifuges that can be hidden away. While North Korea has depleted its stocks of "reactor-grade" plutonium needed to make the weapons-grade variety, the country has plentiful reserves of uranium ore.
North Korea's nuclear programme remains a source of deep concern for the international community. The BBC looks at North Korea's nuclear ambitions and multinational efforts to curtail them despite three nuclear tests.
Has North Korea got the bomb?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionPyongyang used a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into space in 2012
Technically yes, but not yet the means to deliver it via a missile.
In 2006, 2009 and again in 2013, North Korea announced that it had conducted successful nuclear tests - they all came after the North was sanctioned by the UN for launching rockets.
Analysts believe the first two tests used plutonium as the fissile material. The North is believed to possess enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least six bombs. Whether it used plutonium or uranium for the 2013 test is unclear.
What do we know about the North's nuclear programme?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionNorth Korea carried a nuclear test in 2009, which resulted in seismic waves shown here in Seoul
The Yongbyon site is thought to be its main nuclear facility. The North has pledged several times to halt operations there and even destroyed the cooling tower in 2008 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.
But in March 2013, after a war of words with the US and with new UN sanctions over the North's third nuclear test, it vowed to restart all facilities at Yongbyon.
However, the US never believed Pyongyang was fully disclosing all of its nuclear facilities - a suspicion bolstered when North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon (purportedly for electricity generation) to US scientist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.
Mr Hecker's 2010 visit and subsequent report remains the most recent and reliable account of the complex.
In April 2015 a US think tank said satellite pictures taken in early 2015 suggested the reactor at Yongbyon may have been restarted.
Then in September, state media announced that "normal operation" had started at the production plant.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionThe US and North Korea aimed at restarting denuclearisation talks before Kim Jong-il, right, died
Both the US and South Korea have also said that they believed the North had additional sites linked to a uranium-enrichment programme.
A test based on a uranium device would spell new dangers for monitoring and proliferation because weapons-grade plutonium enrichment happens in large facilities that are easier to spot.
Uranium enrichment uses many, possibly small, centrifuges that can be hidden away. While North Korea has depleted its stocks of "reactor-grade" plutonium needed to make the weapons-grade variety, the country has plentiful reserves of uranium ore. North Korea's nuclear programme remains a source of deep concern for the international community. The BBC looks at North Korea's nuclear ambitions and multinational efforts to curtail them despite three nuclear tests.
Has North Korea got the bomb?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionPyongyang used a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into space in 2012
Technically yes, but not yet the means to deliver it via a missile.
In 2006, 2009 and again in 2013, North Korea announced that it had conducted successful nuclear tests - they all came after the North was sanctioned by the UN for launching rockets.
Analysts believe the first two tests used plutonium as the fissile material. The North is believed to possess enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least six bombs. Whether it used plutonium or uranium for the 2013 test is unclear.
What do we know about the North's nuclear programme?
Image copyrightAFPImage captionNorth Korea carried a nuclear test in 2009, which resulted in seismic waves shown here in Seoul
The Yongbyon site is thought to be its main nuclear facility. The North has pledged several times to halt operations there and even destroyed the cooling tower in 2008 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.
But in March 2013, after a war of words with the US and with new UN sanctions over the North's third nuclear test, it vowed to restart all facilities at Yongbyon.
However, the US never believed Pyongyang was fully disclosing all of its nuclear facilities - a suspicion bolstered when North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon (purportedly for electricity generation) to US scientist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.
Mr Hecker's 2010 visit and subsequent report remains the most recent and reliable account of the complex.
In April 2015 a US think tank said satellite pictures taken in early 2015 suggested the reactor at Yongbyon may have been restarted.
Then in September, state media announced that "normal operation" had started at the production plant.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionThe US and North Korea aimed at restarting denuclearisation talks before Kim Jong-il, right, died
Both the US and South Korea have also said that they believed the North had additional sites linked to a uranium-enrichment programme.
A test based on a uranium device would spell new dangers for monitoring and proliferation because weapons-grade plutonium enrichment happens in large facilities that are easier to spot.
Uranium enrichment uses many, possibly small, centrifuges that can be hidden away. While North Korea has depleted its stocks of "reactor-grade" plutonium needed to make the weapons-grade variety, the country has plentiful reserves of uranium ore.
