N.Korean jet bomber in Japan

TOKYO: A former North Korean spy responsible for the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air jetliner flew to Japan Tuesday to meet the families of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents.

Kim Hyon Hui, who arrived on a government-chartered flight from South Korea, where she lives, will meet relatives of Megumi Yokota and Yaeko Taguchi, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting government sources.

Kim, 48, arrived in Haneda airport around 4:00 am (1900 GMT) on a small plane, television footage showed.

Around an hour later, Kim emerged from the plane and was quickly ushered to a vehicle while guards covered her with large umbrellas.

She was then driven to the mountain resort of Karuizawa in central Nagano prefecture and was taken to a summerhouse owned by former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, TV news footage showed.

Kim”s itinerary and activities in Japan have been kept secret due to security concerns, but she is expected to meet the families of Japanese kidnapping victims.

Gaza aid ship sets sail from Greece

ATHENS: A Gaza aid ship has left Greece for Egypt under Israeli pressure, but Libyan organisers say it intends to defy the Jewish state”s blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

The ship”s agent and the Greek foreign ministry said the vessel chartered to a charity headed by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi departed on Saturday for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.

“All the ship”s documents are in order, they indicate as its destination the Egyptian port of El-Arish,” said Petros Arvanitis, the agent of the cargo ship Amalthea.

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said his office had “received assurances from the Libyan ambassador that the boat would head for El-Arish”.

But the Gaddafi Foundation that organised the shipment said later the ship”s destination is Gaza.

“The ship is heading toward Gaza as planned,” Youssef Sawan, the charity”s executive director, told media by telephone from Tripoli.

“This is a purely humane mission, it is neither provocative nor hostile,” he added.

Earlier, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker also told media that the ship”s crew – six Libyans, a Moroccan, a Nigerian and an Algerian – intended to head to Gaza in a bid to defy the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian enclave.

“The ship is heading into Gaza as originally planned,” said Ahmed Tibi, who is in contact with the charity headed by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader and widely seen as heir apparent.

Finance chief Kan to become Japan prime minister

TOKYO: Japan’s ruling party picked grass-roots populist Naoto Kan as its new chief Friday, paving his way to replace political blueblood Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister while the party struggles to reclaim public support ahead of July elections.

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Finance chief Kan to become Japan prime minister

Japan PM, cabinet resign

TOKYO: Japan”s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama formally resigned along with his cabinet Friday, two days after declaring he would step down, ahead of a vote for his successor as party chief and premier.

Finance Minister Naoto Kan, a deputy premier, was seen as the front runner to take over as prime minister of the world”s second-largest economy, despite a late challenge for the post.

If Friday”s leadership vote follows expectations, Kan will take over from Hatoyama, who resigned Wednesday in the wake of a funding scandal and a damaging dispute over a US air base. Kan hopes to succeed Hatoyama as president of the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and then, after a parliamentary vote, as prime minister.

Socialists quit Japan coalition over US base row

TOKYO: Japan’s small socialist party on Sunday walked out of the ruling coalition in a row over a US military base in Okinawa, heaping pressure on embattled Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ahead of July elections.

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Socialists quit Japan coalition over US base row

California wildfire may burn 1000 acres

LOS ANGELES: A wildfire has burned 800 acres in southern California and fire officials say it”s coming close to homes.

Firefighters said the wildfire is half contained and that evacuations had been ordered.

Authorities say the fire could burn 1,000 acres before firefighters could get it under control.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for parts of southern California for today, which means strong winds and low humidity could create dangerous fire situations.

Clinton warns North Korea, lauds Japan alliance

TOKYO: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “strongly condemned” North Korea”s sinking of a South Korean naval ship during a brief visit to Tokyo, where U.S. and Japanese officials sought to paper over a military base dispute.

South Korea accused the North on Thursday of torpedoing one of its warships, heightening tension in the economically powerful region and testing the international position of China, Pyongyang”s only major backer. Seoul said after a rare emergency security meeting earlier in the day that it would respond prudently to the sinking of its
ship, but Pyongyang warned the peninsula was being driven to war.

“I think it is important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences. We cannot allow this attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community,” Clinton said. “So we will determine our best options and send a clear, unmistakable message to North Korea regarding the international community”s and most particularly, its neighbours” concerns about its behaviour.”

A feud over the U.S. Marines” Futenma airbase on Japan”s Okinawa island has distracted the allies as they try to cope with an unpredictable North Korea and a rising China. Japanese voter perception that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mishandled the issue is eroding support before a midyear election his party needs to win to avoid policy paralysis.

But Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada stressed that the 50-year-old alliance was solid and more important than ever, and Okada said the U.S. troop presence in Japan was vital. “I want to explain frankly to the Japanese people that the presence of U.S. troops in Japan is indispensable to Japan”s security and to the peace and stability of the region in the current security environment,” he told a joint news conference
after his meeting with Clinton.

Thousands rally against US base in Japan

TOKYO: Thousands of people rallied in southwestern Japan on Saturday to protest against a government plan to move part of an unpopular US airbase to Kagoshima prefecture.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has faced heavy criticism since he backtracked Tuesday on an election pledge made last year to move the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma entirely off the larger island of Okinawa in the far south.

Instead, the centre-left leader conceded that most of the American base operations will have to be moved within Okinawa, as originally agreed by previous conservative governments in Washington and Tokyo in 2006.

As part of his effort to “ease the burden” on Okinawa, Hatoyama is still considering moving 1,000 Marines and their aircraft from Futenma to Tokunoshima, a remote island in Kagoshima prefecture.

Japan PM abandons plan to move US base off Okinawa

TOKYO: Japan”s embattled premier Tuesday abandoned a plan to move an unpopular US airbase entirely off Okinawa island, backtracking on a key election pledge after months of dithering that angered Washington.

“I really feel sorry as I visit here today that I must ask for the Okinawan people”s understanding that part of the base operations would have to stay” on Okinawa, Yukio Hatoyama told reporters after meeting the local governor.

The row, which has centred on the planned relocation of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, has cost the centre-left leader much domestic support and badly strained ties with Japan”s key defence ally the United States.

okinawa

Tens of thousands of people have attended a rally in Japan’s southern island of Okinawa demanding that a US military base be moved off the island.
Under a 2006 agreement with the US, the US Marines’ Futenma base was to be moved from the centre to the coast.
But demonstrators want Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stick to an election pledge to remove it completely.
The row over the base has undermined relations between his centre-left Government and the US.
The BBC’s Roland Buerk in Tokyo says Mr Hatoyama staked his job on resolving the issue by the end of May.
He is now under pressure because of his apparent dithering over the base, our correspondent adds.
His handling of the issue could be critical ahead of upper house polls in July.
Japanese have long been resentful of the massive US base on the island, which is home to most of the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.

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