World

Wednesday’s earthquake off Fukushima Prefecture has dealt a blow to tourism businesses in northeastern Japan, where hopes had been running high ahead of the coronavirus pre-emergency measures ending. The earthquake reached upper 6, the second-highest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, in some parts of the Tohoku region. Many buildings in the region have been damaged. Among those hit by the quake are the Saryo Soen ryokan inn in the Akiu hot spring resort in Sendai. “We were almost fully booked for this three-day weekend” through Monday, said Saryo Soen manager Toyoko Kaneko. The quake caused the inn to temporarily close as it broke water pipes, flooding parts of the inn’s facilities. Saryo Soen plans to reopen on March 28, but Kaneko is uneasy. “We were warned that an aft...

Are Ukrainians who flee their war-torn country refugees or evacuees? Many governments, media outlets and organizations across the globe describe Ukrainians escaping Russia’s invasion as refugees, but the Japanese government is using the term “hinanmin,” which more closely translates to “people who have been evacuated.” That’s because, from the government’s perspective, Ukrainians don’t fit the definition outlined in the Refugee Convention. Tokyo grants refugee status to those who meet each of the criteria of the treaty, which describes refugees as people who are: Unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Outside the ...

POTSDAM, Germany: Tesla received a conditional go-ahead for its German gigafactory near Berlin on Friday (Mar 3), the state of Brandenburg said, ending months of delay for the 5 billion euro (US$5.5 billion) landmark plant. The gigafactory, which is key to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's ambitions to vanquish European market leader Volkswagen, was initially supposed to open last summer. Germany's largest automaker has the upper hand in Europe, with a 25per cent share of electric vehicle (EV) sales to Tesla's 13per cent. Brandenburg state premier Dietmar Woidke told a news briefing that the development marked "a big step into the future", adding that the Tesla plant would be a major industrial and technological driver for Germany and the region. Around 2,600 of the plant's expected 12,000 workers...

Working style reform has become an urgent challenge for the Japanese government, with fewer young people wishing to become fast-track career bureaucrats. The number of applicants for national civil service examinations held in spring and autumn, which offer a route to so-called elite jobs, totaled 17,411 in fiscal 2021 — the lowest figure since fiscal 2012, when the current recruitment format began. The figure represents a plunge of about 60% from the peak level seen in fiscal 1996. University students are increasingly shunning careers as bureaucrats, which are known to involve tough working environments and include long overtime hours. When the National Personnel Authority (NPA) asked bureaucrats hired in April 2021 about how to attract competent workers to the civil service, 80% sugge...

KUALA LUMPUR : Tight edible oil stockpiles and blocked shipments from the Black Sea area are expected to keep prices near record highs for the coming months, but sticker shock is expected to curb global consumption in the latter half of 2022, industry analysts said. Malaysian palm oil futures raced to an all-time high of 7,268 ringgit ($1,736.26) per tonne on Wednesday, while soybean oil jumped to its highest in 14 years. Palm oil has soared more than 50per cent this year and soybean oil has climbed almost 40per cent. A potent mix of dry weather in key soybean supplier South America, labour shortages in the world's second biggest palm oil producer Malaysia, and Russia's invasion of top sunflower oil exporter Ukraine have combined to slash edible oil supplies worldwide. The price surge ...

Romance scams have surged during the pandemic, cheating online daters out of millions of dollars in the quest for love. In 2021, consumers lost a record $547 million to romance scams, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission. That represents an 80% increase compared to 2020 and brought the median personal loss to $2,400. "The data doesn't tell us exactly why it's happening, but I think it's reasonable to assume that the pandemic may have helped to fuel the continued growth by attracting more people to online dating apps and social media where they've ending up being connected with these scammers," said Emma Fletcher, a senior data research at the FTC. Since 2017, people have reported $1.3 billion in losses — more than any other kind of fraud that the FTC tracks. Fletcher sa...

MUMBAI : India will back young players to fill the "big shoes" of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in their batting order, the team's new captain Rohit Sharma said on Thursday ahead of the opening test against Sri Lanka in Mohali. For the first time in over a decade India will be without their experienced batting duo, who played 177 tests between them and were dropped after their 2-1 defeat in their last series in South Africa for lack of consistency. Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will be in contention to fill those batting slots in the two-test series against Sri Lanka starting in Mohali, where Rohit will begin his reign as India's new test captain. "Those guys are big shoes to fill in. It's never easy for the guys who will come in," Rohit told reporters on a video c...

At the same time, it needs Western support to contend with Xi Jinping's increasingly assertive China: Beijing is extending its reach into the Indian Ocean, and the two countries had a deadly border clash in 2020. Together with the US, Japan and Australia, India is also a member of the "Quad Alliance" that is seen as a bulwark against China. Its decision to abstain at the Friday Security Council vote left it alongside only Beijing and the United Arab Emirates, while Russia vetoed the resolution. "There are not many choices that India has," said Nandan Unnikrishnan of the Observer Research Foundation. It "has as much investment in a relationship with Russia as it has in maintaining a relationship with the United States," he told AFP. "India's challenges in the maritime is where it needs...

BENGALURU : Oil prices settled about 2per cent lower on Thursday after a volatile session, a day after its biggest daily dive in two years, as Russia pledged to fulfil contractual obligations and some traders said supply disruption concerns were overdone. Since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, oil markets have been the most volatile in two years. On Wednesday, global benchmark Brent crude posted its biggest daily decline since April, 2020. Two days earlier, it hit a 14-year high at over $139 a barrel. Brent futures fell $1.81, or 1.6per cent, to settle at $109.33 a barrel after gaining as much as 6.5per cent earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.68, or 2.5per cent, to settle at $106.02 a barrel, giving up over 5.7per cent of intraday gains. The ma...

SINGAPORE: It is “technically viable” for Singapore’s power sector to achieve net-zero emissions and aspirations to do so by 2050 are "realistic", an expert committee tasked to examine the future of the country’s energy system said in a report released on Tuesday (Mar 22). To achieve that, “transformational changes” will have to be made to the entire energy value chain – from supply and demand to the development of the country’s power grid. For example, Singapore must diversify its energy supply by having more electricity imports and using low-carbon hydrogen for power generation, as part of nine recommended strategies laid out in the 56-page report. However, the committee noted that the process of reaching net zero will be challenging given the uncertainty of technology and geo-economi...