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.

INTERNATIONAL

JIM WATSON / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

US, 11 Pacific Rim nations reach agreement on landmark trade pact

Controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership would cover some 40 percent of the world economy

October 5, 2015 8:41AM ET

Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping — and to many the most controversial — trade liberalization pact in a generation, in a move that will cut trade barriers and set common standards across the bloc, but potentially at a cost to consumers and employees, say public health advocates, environmentalists and labor groups.

INTERNATIONAL

NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

To be or not to be: The great firewall of Thailand

As one nation hatches a government plan to control the Internet, advocacy groups in Bangkok voice opposition

October 7, 2015 5:00AM ET

by Adam Ramsey

BANGKOK, Thailand — Tucked away in a coffee shop near Central Bangkok, Phannee Naksuk rushed behind her counter, sprinkling cinnamon on the foam of an iced latte that was beginning to wilt. All around, her dozen customers were stuck on smartphones or laptops, their faces illuminated in faint blue light inside the shady shop.

North Korea says it has restarted nuclear bomb fuel plant

Text WIRES

North Korea confirmed Tuesday that the nuclear reactor seen as the country's main source of weapons-grade plutonium had resumed normal operations.

In an interview with the North's official KCNA news agency, the institutes's director said all facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex – including a five-megawatt reactor – had "started normal operations".

North Korea mothballed the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after its last nuclear test in 2013.

Since then, satellite imagery analysis has suggested the partial and intermittent restart of the reactor which, when fully operational, is capable of producing around six kilos (13 pounds) of plutonium a year – enough for one nuclear bomb, experts say.

The AEI director, who was not named, said scientists and technicians had been "steadily improving" both the quality and quantity of the North's nuclear deterrent and issued a by-now standard warning to the United States.

"If the US and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy ... (North Korea) is fully ready to cope with them with nuclear weapons any time," he said.

The warning followed strong hints from Pyongyang that it is considering a satellite rocket launch to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party on October 10.

The North insists its rocket launches are intended to put peaceful satellites into orbit, while the United States and its allies see them as disguised ballistic missile tests.

(AFP)

Thai police say detained man is indeed Bangkok bomber

Thai police said on Saturday a man they are holding in custody is the bomber behind a deadly attack in Bangkok last month, the latest twist in an investigation marred by contradictory statements.

Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said a man arrested with bomb materials on Aug. 29, who has been referred to both as Bilal Mohammed and Adem Karadag, the name on a Turkish passport he holds, was responsible for the bombing.

The blast killed 20 people including 14 foreigners, making it the deadliest such incident in Thai history.

"From evidence police showed him, he accepted the crime," Prawut told reporters.

A military court on Friday issued arrest warrants for 17 people over a range of charges in connection to the bombing, including Bilal Mohammed and others carrying Thai, Chinese, Turkish and Pakistani passports. Prawut said the authenticity of the passports has yet to be confirmed, however.

China vows billions in aid and debt forgiveness

China's president has pledged billions in aid and said Beijing will forgive debts due this year in an effort to help the world's poorest nations.

President Xi Jinping made the pledge at a global summit on Saturday with the non-binding goals to be set over the next 15 years.

Xi and others spoke as the U.N. gathering began to shift focus from development to the high-powered General Assembly meeting that begins Monday with speeches by Xi, President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the first morning alone.

Obama and Putin will meet Monday. The prospects for any meeting between Obama and Rouhani, even a handshake, remained unclear.

Rouhani arrived Saturday and immediately was encouraged by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to have Iran step up to help achieve political settlements to the grinding conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where Iran has influence. The Islamic republic is a top ally of the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and supports Shiite Houthi rebels who have held parts of Yemen for months.

Iran's president said in his address that the recent deal with world powers on its nuclear program "has created suitable conditions for regional and international cooperation," including on protecting the environment.

As world leaders met quietly behind the scenes, others lined up to express support for the new development push that aimed to eliminate both poverty and hunger over the next 15 years. They replace a soon-to-expire set of development goals whose limited success was largely due to China's surge out of poverty over the past decade and a half.

China's president vowed to help other countries make the same transformation. Xi said China will commit an initial $2 billion to establish an assistance fund to meet the post-2015 goals in areas such as education, health care and economic development. He said China would seek to increase the fund to $12 billion by 2030.

And Xi said China would write off intergovernmental interest-free loans owed to China by the least-developed, small island nations and most heavily debt-burdened countries due this year.

He said China "will continue to increase investment in the least developed countries," and support global institutions, including the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that is due to launch by the end of the year and is seen as a Chinese alternative to the more Western-oriented financial institutions of the World Bank.

Ban made a major pitch to the private sector Saturday for its help in financing the development goals. "In a sense, September 26th is even more important than September 25th," he told dozens of global business leaders from companies including Google, Unilever, Siemens and Sinopec. "Today, we begin the hard work of turning plans into reality."

As world leaders made promises about the future, a key Jordanian leader said they needed to pay attention to the refugee crisis now spiraling out of control in the Mideast.

Jordan Minister Imad Najib Fakhoury made an impassioned plea at the U.N. summit for the world's countries to take in more Syrian refugees to help his country which has been overwhelmed by those fleeing the conflict there.

In his address, Fakhoury said Jordan's efforts are akin to the United States having to absorb 64 million more people, or the European Union 100 million, or Japan 25 million, or China 280 million.

Indigenous Filipinos accuse paramilitary group of murdering activists

Several thousand indigenous Filipinos are living in evacuation centres in the country’s south, after fleeing their villages following the killing of three of their leaders. They say these men were murdered by a paramilitary group working with the country’s military to grab their ancestral lands for mining. 

The killings took place on September 1 in Lianga, in the southern island of Mindanao, which has been wracked by a Muslim separatist conflict for the past four decades.