China said Monday it was ready to work with France’s new president
China said Monday it was ready to work with France after the election of Socialist Francois Hollande as president, amid concerns his victory could derail Paris s deficit-cutting plan.
“China is ready to work together with the French side… To deal with bilateral relations from a strategic and long term perspective,” said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei.
A Japanese power firm on Saturday began switching off the country’s last working reactor, a spokesman said, leaving it withoutnuclear power just over a year after the world’s worst atomic accident in a quarter of a century.
As technicians took the initial step to close down the No. 3 unit at Tomari in Hokkaido, the debate over whether Japan needs nuclear power has been reignited, amid increasingly shrill warnings of summer power blackouts.
Hokkaido Electric Power, which runs the plant, said they started inserting control rods at 5:00 pm (0800 GMT) that would halt the chain reaction and bring the reactor to “cold shutdown” some time on Monday.
“Power output started declining at the No. 3 unit,” said Tomohiko Shibuya, a Hokkaido Electric Power spokesman. “We have not heard of any trouble so far. Power generation there is scheduled to stop completely in about six hours.”
The shuttering will mark the first time since the 1970s that resource-poor and energy-hungry Japan has been without nuclear power, a technology that had provided a third of its electricity until meltdowns at Fukushima.
The tsunami-sparked disaster forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in an area around the plant — some of whom may never be allowed to return.
It did not directly claim any lives, but has devastated the local economy, leaving swathes of land unfarmable as radiation spewed from the ruins.
With the four reactors at Fukushima crippled by the natural disaster public suspicion of nuclear power grew, so much so that no reactor shut for routine safety checks has since been allowed to restart.
On World Press Freedom Day, Reporters without Borders damned the “astonishing pace” at which journalists are being assaulted and killed — 67 killed in 2011 and 22 more deaths since the beginning of the year.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attacks “outrageous” and advised all countries to avert and prosecute violence against the media and act to ensure the safety of journalists and freedom of the press.
At yesterday’s UN commemoration of Press Freedom Day, Ban asked the assembled diplomats, members of the media and civil society council to observe a minute of silence “in honour of the journalists who were killed in the line of duty last year.”
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 179 journalists were detained in 2011, a 20 per cent increase over 2010 and the highest level since 1990, Ban said.
“Countless others face intimidation, harassment and censorship at the hands of governments, corporations and powerful individuals seeking to preserve their power or hide wrongdoings and misdeeds,” the secretary-general said.
Ireland’s President Michael Higgins, a former broadcaster, told the commemoration the deaths display the risks that journalists and media workers face and “their vulnerability to intimidation, violence and persecution.”
“Many were victims of targeted killings, while the circumstances of other killings may never be fully explained,” he said.
Reporters without Borders updated its list of “predators of the freedom to inform” to 41 individuals and group. It said the first quarter of 2012 clearly showed that the world’s predators led by Syria’s President Bashar Assad and Somalia’s Islamist militias “are capable of behaving like outrageous butchers”.
The media advocacy organization, based in France, decried the increase in attacks and killings of news providers — up from 57 murders in 2010 to 67 in 2011, and 22 so far this year including five journalists killings in Somalia, four in Syria, and two each in Bangladesh, Brazil and India.
In Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, dozens of Somali journalists met yesterday in solemn silence to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, a meeting that took place only hours after the killing of the fifth Somali journalist this year. Two armed men shadowed Somali radio journalist Farhan Abdulle after he left his station late Wednesday, then shot him dead.
The killings also continued in Mexico, which has become one of the world’s most unsafe places for journalists in the midst of a raging drug war. The bodies of two news photographers were found dismembered in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz yesterday, less than a week after the killing in the state of a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine. The Reporters without Borders predators list was updated this week to include Vasif Talibov, leader of the Nakhchivan region in Azerbaijan, in addition to the country’s president, Ilham Aliev.
Azerbaijan’s UN Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, the current Security Council president, denied any repression of the media, telling a news conference Thursday that “we have a free press. … We don’t have any people imprisoned because of their professional activities or political views.”
In Tunisia’s capital, hundreds of journalists from around the world gathered for special World Press Freedom Day events held in a country where reporters long faced repression before protesters brought down the country’s dictator last year and sparked uprisings across the Arab world.
UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova, and Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki, a former human rights activist, were among those taking part in events that included a conference on improving security for journalists and improving access to information.
“The days of control of the media are over,” said Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.
On Thursday, a Tunisian court convicted the head of a private TV station for disrupting public order and violating moral values by airing an animated film that some religious leaders say insults Islam.
The court in Tunis ordered Nabil Karoui to pay a 2,400-dinar (US$1,575) fine because his station, Nessma TV, aired the animated film Persepolis in October.
Ban told the UN commemoration that the world has seen over the past year and a half across the Middle East and North Africa “the central role played by social media, mobile telephones and satellite television in generating an extraordinary ripple effect: from a vegetable seller’s simple cry for human dignity, to the fall of autocratic regimes.”
“As the use of those tools expands, the world is likely to see more historic changes — and other applications that can advance human well-being,” he said.
Ireland’s Higgins emphasized that billions of people are still unable to access the Internet and while the “digital divide” has shrunk somewhat due to the increase of mobile phones, greater efforts are required to ensure that the poor, elderly, disabled and those living in rural areas become connected and don’t become victims of greater inequality.
An American F-15E fighter jet crashed in the Middle East on Thursday.
According to US Air Force, one of its F-15E fighter jets has crashed on a routine training mission in the Middle East. Both crew members ejected safely.
The Air Force says the crash happened late Thursday morning in southwest Asia, a broad term that includes the Persian Gulf region.
It says rescuers made their way to the scene of the crash, and the cause of the accident is being investigated.
Air Force officials could not immediately be reached for further comment.
HYDERABAD: The World Press Freedom Day is a day designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of expression of the press.
It observance aimed to evaluate press freedom around the world, defend the media from attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in exercise of their professional duties.
Talking here the working journalists of electronic and print media in Hyderabad said that honesty, dependence and objectivity should be hallmarks of all media organisations.
They said that in practical life, they observed that very few journalists are neutral and emphasised that the quality and strong media is highly necessary in these days.
They also emphasised the need of effective observations with study, consulting with subject experts and use of internet for writing good articles. They said that brevity, truth and simple language are basic requisites of making a good article.
Journalists further said that people wanted to share information and these passions have resulted in the growth of media.
They said that print and electronic media hold sway over the entire globe and have become effective machines of education or mis-education of the society.
They said that mass media is the most effective source of informal education and the media has such a strong hold on the society.
They said that now it is for the policy makers and social leaders to make proper use of mass media so that the society could be effectively motivated to develop itself.
They said the media plays an important role in the society which also brought many changes in the world. They said that the knowledge of communication is very necessary for development and the Pakistani media holds a significant power.
Her visit comes at a highly sensitive time for US-China relations.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for talks with Chinese leaders that risk being overshadowed by the case of an activist said to be under US protection.
Her visit comes at a highly sensitive time for US-China relations, with the US embassy in Beijing said to be protecting the blind rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng, who fled house arrest last week.
Clinton has repeatedly criticised China s treatment of Chen, who escaped from his heavily guarded home on April 22 with the help of supporters and subsequently recorded a video alleging abuses against him and his family.
Chen, a 40-year-old self-taught lawyer, has said his house arrest was punishment for defiantly continuing to speak out about official abuses, and that he and his family had suffered beatings and other brutal treatment.
US officials have kept an unusually solid wall of secrecy over his case in an indication of the sensitivity of the issue. Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had long planned to go to Beijing for the annual two-day meeting between the world s two largest economies. Before the Chen case, Washington had hoped to showcase small signs of progress in relations with China at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which takes place Thursday and Friday.
Largely in response to inflationary pressure, China has let its yuan appreciate. Currency levels have been a long source of friction, with US lawmakers charging that Beijing keeps the value of the yuan artificially low to flood the world with cheap exports.
On other sore points, China has in recent weeks reduced imports of oil from Iran, spoken out — albeit cautiously — against a rocket launch by North Korea and supported a peace plan for Syria after joining Russia in vetoing two UN resolutions.
Four people were killed and more than 20 wounded when a bomb attached to a motorbike went off near a crowd of protesters in southern Nepal on Monday, police said.
The group of 150 demonstrators had been staging a sit-in when the bike exploded in the religious hub of Janakpur, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Indian border, said local police chief Basanta RajGautam.
“One of the protesters died on the spot while three died on their way to hospital. We have referred around seven seriously injured victims for treatment to Kathmandu,” he told AFP.
“Over 20 people who sustained minor injures from the blast are being treated at various hospitals in the district.”
Nepal has enjoyed an uneasy calm since rebel Maoists waged a 10-year war against the government until a peace accord was signed in 2006.
The country’s parliament is nearing a deadline to write a peacetime constitution which will divide the the country into federal provinces, and the protesters had been pressing their demands with a city-wide strike.
“There were around 150 persons sitting in the protest… when the bomb went off. We have increased security in the area but no one has taken responsibility for the incident,” Gautam said.
“The strike was called by the Mithila State Struggle Committee for three hours today and their cadres had blocked road transportation to pressure for a separate Mithila province in the constitution.”
Uma Shankar Singh, a sub-inspector of police, said the bomb had been fitted on the tail box of the motorcycle. No one has been arrested in connection with the attack.
Bomb attacks have been relatively rare since the end of the insurgency, although a powerful blast in Kathmandu in February killed three people and wounded seven in the first such incident in the capital for three years.
An organisation calling itself the United Ethnic Liberation Front (UELF) claimed responsibility, although their motives were unclear.
China “formally protested after a request for international mediation submitted by the Philippine.
China said Sunday it had rejected a proposal by the Philippines for international mediation to resolve their maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
China “formally protested after a request for international mediation submitted by the Philippines over the sovereignty of the Scarborough Shoal,” said a statement published on the foreign affairs ministry s website. The head of the department of boundary and ocean affairs Deng Zhonghua informed the Philippine embassy in China of the formal protest on Saturday, the ministry said.
Deng said that given the “Scarborough Shoal is an integrative part of Chinese territory”, the submission “contravenes the fundamental principles of international relations, and also inflicts serious damage on the current international order.”
“China demands that the Philippines respects the sovereignty of Chinese territory and does nothing more to aggravate or complicate the situation further,” the statement said. China claims all of the South China Sea as part of its territory, even waters close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Scarborough Shoal is only about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the Philippines main island of Luzon, while the nearest Chinese landmass is Hainan province 1,200 kilometres to the northwest, according to naval maps.
The latest tensions began when Chinese maritime vessels blocked the Philippine navy from arresting the crews of eight fishing vessels which had entered the area. Both sides accused each other of violating maritime laws, and on Saturday the Philippines alleged that a Chinese vessel veered dangerously close to its vessels in the area.
Amid the stalemate, the Philippines said it would seek more military assistance from its ally, the United States, to help it build a “credible defence posture” in securing its sovereignty.
China had earlier warned the Philippines against “internationalising” the issue, and its state media had quoted defence and military officials as saying they were prepared to fight for their territory.
Visit of US Secretary of State focuses over bilateral relations with the Asian nations.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to China, Bangladesh and India early next month over bilateral relations with these Asian nations, the State Department said on Thursday.
While in Beijing on May 3-4, the top US envoy and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will join their Chinese co-chairs, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councillor Dai Bingguo, for the fourth round of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S& ED).
The S&ED was created in 2009 to help both nations manage their bilateral relations and promote communication.
“As with earlier S&EDs, this year’s event will be a ‘whole of government’ dialogue that brings together cabinet members and agency heads, as well as other officials and experts, from agencies across both of our governments,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
In addition, Clinton will co-chair with Chinese State Councillor Liu Yandong the third U.S.-China High-Level Consultation on People- to-People Exchange (CPE), an event to be held in parallel with the S&ED.
“The CPE aims to enhance and strengthen ties between the citizens of the United States and China in the areas of culture, education, sports, science and technology, and women’s issues,” Nuland said.
During her stay in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, the secretary will meet with senior government officials and civil society representatives to review “robust” bilateral cooperation across a range of political, economic and security matters, the spokeswoman said.
In Calcutta, capital of India’s West Bengal state, Clinton looks forward to meeting state officials and civil society organization representatives.
While in India’s capital of New Delhi, she will discuss with Indian government officials about the upcoming US-India Strategic Dialogue to be held in Washington on June 13, Nuland said.
Jordan premier steps down in sudden move likely linked to drive for political reforms.
Jordan s Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh submitted his resignation on Thursday to King Abdullah II, barely six months after he formed a government to bring in much-needed reforms, a senior official said.
“His Majesty, the king, accepted Khasawneh s resignation Thursday morning,” he told AFP without elaborating.
Khasawneh, 62, an International Court of Justice judge, formed his cabinet in October and won a comfortable vote of confidence for his government from parliament in December after pledging to push ahead with reforms.
Jordanians have been demonstrating since January last year, demanding sweeping political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption.