S. Korean ferry firm head sentenced over sinking

Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co., was sentenced to seven years in prison for Sewol ferry disaster

October 29, 2015 2:05AM 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.

Court agrees to take up Philippines challenge to Beijing's maritime claims

Manila insists UN Convention on the Law of the Sea should be used to resolve the dispute

October 29, 2015 1:24PM ET Updated 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.

Manila has insisted the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the Philippines and China have both ratified, should be used to resolve the dispute, which has triggered growing international concern.

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.

US Navy destroyer patrols near disputed islands in South China Sea

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.

The patrol by the USS Lassen was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China asserts around the islands in the Spratly archipelago and could ratchet up tension in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

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 abandons one-child policy

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.

Japan passes bill easing limits of pacifist constitution

Japan’s parliament voted into law on Saturday a defence policy shift that could let troops fight overseas for the first time since 1945, amid Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to loosen the limits of the pacifist constitution on the military.

Abe says the shift, the biggest change in Japan’s defence policy since the creation of its post-war military in 1954, is vital to meet new challenges such as from a rising China.

But the legislation has triggered massive protests from ordinary citizens and others who say it violates the pacifist constitution and could ensnare Japan in U.S.-led conflicts after 70 years of post-war peace. Abe’s ratings have also taken a hit.

The legislation “is necessary to protect the people’s lives and peaceful way of living and is for the purpose of preventing wars,” Abe told reporters after the bills were approved by the upper house. “I want to keep explaining the laws tenaciously and courteously.”

Japan’s ally the United States has welcomed the changes but China, where bitter memories of Japan’s wartime aggression run deep, has repeatedly expressed concern about the legislation.

“Recently we have noticed that voices in Japan opposing the bill have become louder by the day,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing on Friday.

“We demand that Japan earnestly listen to these just voices domestically and internationally, learn the lessons of history, uphold the path of peaceful development, speak and act cautiously in security and military matters and take actual steps to maintain regional peace and stability,” Hong added.

The bills, already approved by parliament’s lower house, were voted into law by the upper chamber in the early hours of Saturday despite opposition parties’ efforts to block a vote by submitting censure motions and a no-confidence motion against Abe’s cabinet in the lower house. All were defeated.

A key feature of the laws is an end to a long-standing ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or defending the United States or another friendly country that comes under attack, in cases where Japan faces a “threat to its survival”.

Thousands of demonstrators have rallied near parliament every day this week, chanting “Scrap the war bills” and “Abe resign”. Large crowds were still protesting into the early hours of Saturday.

The protests have called to mind those that forced Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, to resign 55 years ago after forcing a U.S.-Japan security treaty through parliament.
The revisions also expand the scope for logistics support for the militaries of the United States and other countries, and for participation in peace keeping.

The changes still leave Japan constrained in overseas military operations by legal limits and a deeply rooted public anti-war mindset.

Malaysia's opposition forms new alliance

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Malaysian opposition parties have formed a new alliance after an earlier union collapsed over policy disputes.

The new Alliance of Hope no longer includes an Islamist party that advocates harsh Islamic punishments.

It will be led by the wife of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, jailed in February on sodomy charges that he said were politically motivated.

It comes amid a political scandal that has seen mass protests demanding that Prime Minister Najib Razak step down.

The Alliance of Hope replaces the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance, a three-party coalition formed in 2008 that was the most successful opposition movement in Malaysia's history.

The PR alliance fell apart in June over the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party's (PAS) attempt to enforce a form of Islamic law called hudud in a state it governs.

This time, Mr Anwar's People's Justice Party and the largely ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) have joined with the newly-formed Parti Amanah Negara, made up of defectors from the PAS.

The Alliance of Hope said Mr Anwar would be its choice of leader if it won power, but it is unclear whether he will be free then.

The next elections are due by early 2018.

China's President Xi Jinping begins US state visit in Seattle

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Seattle at the start of his first state visit to the US.

Mr Xi will spend three days meeting business and technology leaders in Seattle, before heading to Washington for talks with President Barack Obama.

Cyber security is expected to feature prominently in their discussions, after the US said Chinese spying was putting a strain on bilateral relations.

On Monday Mr Xi denied there was any state-backed hacking of US companies.

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In an article in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Mr Xi said hacking and cyber espionage were illegal, and that the Chinese government did not engage in the theft of commercial secrets or encourage companies to do so.

But he said Beijing - which has previously complained it is a victim of hacking - was "ready to strengthen co-operation with the US side on this issue".

US national security adviser Susan Rice had on Monday said Chinese-backed hacking was undermining long-term economic co-operation between the US and China "and it needs to stop".

S. Korean attacker of US ambassador jailed

A South Korean man who slashed the face of the U.S. ambassador with a fruit knife was jailed for 12 years on Friday after being found guilty of attempted murder.

Kim Ki-jong, 55, who attacked Ambassador Mark Lippert in March at a forum discussing Korean reunification, was also found guilty of assault of a foreign envoy. He was acquitted of a third charge of violating the National Security Act.

Lippert suffered a deep gash to his face that required 80 stitches and injuries to his wrist, putting him in hospital for five days.

Kim has said the attack was a protest against joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean troops.

Prosecutors last week sought a 15-year prison term for Kim, whose seven trips to North Korea had raised questions about a possible Pyongyang connection.

Kim has denied any connections to the North. The North's official media said the attack was "deserved punishment" for Lippert but denied any role in it.