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Kyodo Top12 News (13:00)(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ---------- N. Korea sets deadline for EU to respond about U.N. resolution NEW YORK - North Korea on Thursday said the European Union has until Friday to respond to its call for dialogue about a draft U.N. resolution crafted by the EU and Japan that denounces Pyongyang's human rights record, threatening to suspend consultations. One of North Korea's sticking points in the resolution is a paragraph about "crimes against humanity" committed in the country in line with "policies established at the highest level of the State for decades," according to Marzuki Darusman, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea. While the draft document does not name North Korean officials, Pyongyang may be concerned that calls could grow for supreme leader Kim Jong Un to be held accountable. ---------- Obama urges Thein Sein to ensure nationwide cease-fire in Myanmar WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Myanmar President Thein Sein to step up efforts for a nationwide cease-fire with ethnic minority rebels, the White House said Thursday. Obama told Thein Sein that "every effort should be made" to attain a cease-fire in a telephone conversation ahead of Obama's visit to Myanmar next month, according to the White House. Obama will attend the East Asia Summit and a summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations planned for November in Naypyitaw. Obama also called on Thein Sein to improve the humanitarian situation in Rakhine State in the Buddhist-dominated country, where sectarian conflicts have taken place between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhists. ---------- N. Korea says probing Japanese abductees individually TOKYO - North Korea has told Japan it is conducting a new round of investigations into individual cases of Japanese nationals it abducted decades ago, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday. North Korea told a delegation of Japanese government officials during talks earlier this week in Pyongyang that it is "reinvestigating related sites such as the site of a guesthouse where the (abduction) victims stayed, in parallel with work to find new physical evidence and witnesses," the top government spokesman said at a news conference a day after the mission returned from a four-day trip to North Korea aimed at scrutinizing its probe into the abductees. ---------- No prospect for Pacific free trade pact agreement at APEC WASHINGTON - U.S. trade chief Michael Froman said Thursday there is no prospect of clinching an agreement on a contentious Pacific free trade initiative at the upcoming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. "We do not expect to have a final agreement on TPP at APEC" in Beijing, Froman told an event in Washington, referring to negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal involving the United States and 11 other countries. He said the Nov. 10-11 APEC summit will be a good opportunity for the leaders of the TPP negotiating countries to "have conversations with each other about the TPP, about whatever outstanding issues are left and to give more political impetus to getting it done." ---------- Japan likely to craft extra budget aimed at boosting sluggish economy TOKYO - In a bid to prevent Japan's already sluggish economy deteriorating further, the central government will draw up an extra budget for the current fiscal year, sources close to the matter said Friday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is likely to use the additional budget to implement a range of stimulus measures, with the economy having stalled in the wake of the 3-percentage-point consumption tax hike to 8 percent from April 1, the sources said. If Abe decides to proceed with the additional tax hike to 10 percent in October 2015 as scheduled, his government will include measures to bolster domestic demand in an initial budget for the next fiscal year that will start April 2015, they added. ---------- Ex-Obuchi aide says funds discrepancies "clerical errors" TOKYO - A former aide to recently resigned industry minister Yuko Obuchi told prosecutors discrepancies in political funds reports linked to the one-time rising star in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet were caused by "clerical errors," sources with knowledge of the matter said Friday. Kenichiro Orita, who claims to have prepared some of the funds reports in question, told prosecutors in voluntary questioning the suspect bookkeeping "was not done on purpose," the sources said. The former secretary's home was raided by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigative arm Thursday. The prosecutors also searched the office of Obuchi's support group on Thursday, prompting lawmakers in her Liberal Democratic Party, as well as the opposition, to call for her resignation from the House of Representatives. ---------- TEPCO removes part of reactor building cover at Fukushima plant TOKYO - The operator of the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Friday tentatively removed part of the cover shrouding the No.1 reactor building installed in the wake of the 2011 disaster to keep radioactive materials from dispersing. Dismantling the cover is a first step toward removing spent fuel rods stored in a cooling pool sitting above the reactor, which suffered a meltdown in the disaster, and eventually extracting the melted fuel, Tokyo Electric Power Co said. On Friday morning, plant workers removed a huge panel using a crane to see whether antidispersal agents, inserted last week to prevent radioactive dust from being scattered, are taking effect. No changes in radiation levels have been observed around the plant so far, the company said. ---------- Japan Sept. job availability worsens for 1st time in 3 years TOKYO - Japan's job availability worsened in September for the first time in three years and four months, signaling that companies are reluctant to hire more workers following April's consumption tax hike. The ratio of employment offers to seekers fell to 1.09 from 1.10 in August, which means 109 positions were available for every 100 job seekers, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The unemployment rate stood at 3.6 percent, up from 3.5 percent in the previous month with the job market for women weakening, data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed. In September, the jobless rate for women rose 0.2 percentage point to 3.4 percent, while that for men fell 0.1 point to 3.7 percent. ---------- SoftBank looks to Mexican carrier America Movil NEW YORK - Japan's SoftBank Corp. is eyeing wireless assets put up for sale by America Movil, a major Mexican carrier, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Japanese telecommunications company recently assigned Chief Executive Marcelo Claure of Sprint Corp., a U.S. carrier it bought last year, to gather information on the Mexican firm's assets, the report said. America Movil is reportedly selling its assets to avoid new regulations by trimming its share of the mobile market from an overwhelming 70 percent. The assets on sale could be worth $15 billion and AT&T Inc., a major U.S. carrier, has also shown interest in them, the report said. ---------- Giant Japan pension fund GPIF to buy more stocks, foreign bonds TOKYO - Japan's giant public pension fund plans to increase the proportion of domestic stocks and foreign bonds in its investment portfolio to 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively, while slashing its holdings of debt issued at home to 35 percent, sources close to the matter said Friday. Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki is likely to announce the change in the portfolio of the Government Pension Investment Fund once he approves it, possibly later in the day. The move is apparently aimed at boosting financial markets, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government having set rising share prices as one of its goals along with a weaker yen that it hopes will improve the profitability of Japan's export-oriented companies. ---------- Tokyo stocks advance, dollar trades in lower 109 yen range TOKYO - Tokyo stocks shot up Friday morning, supported by overnight gains on Wall Street and a news report that Japan's giant public pension fund will shortly announce its new investment allocation target. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 263.06 points, or 1.68 percent, from Thursday to 15,921.26. At 1 p.m., the Nikkei index was up 236.37 points, or 1.51 percent, at 15,894.57. The broader Topix index was up 19.05 points, or 1.49 percent, at 1,297.95. On the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 109 yen range. At 1 p.m., the dollar fetched 109.38-40 yen compared with 109.17-27 yen in New York late Thursday afternoon. The euro was quoted at 137.86-87 yen against 137.68-78 yen in New York. ---------- Weather forecast for key cities in Japan TOKYO - Weather forecast for Saturday: Tokyo=cloudy, then occasionally rain; Osaka=cloudy, occasionally rain; Nagoya=cloudy, occasionally rain; Sapporo=cloudy, then occasionally rain; Sendai=cloudy, occasionally rain; Niigata=cloudy; Hiroshima=cloudy, occasionally rain; Takamatsu=cloudy, occasionally rain: Fukuoka=rain, then cloudy; Naha=cloudy, occasionally fair. (c) 2014 Kyodo News |