Latest News Clips 2016.07.18

                   Bengo’s Latest News Clips             2016.07.18

1.      Scores Reported Dead in Nice, France, as Truck Plows Into Bastille Day Crowd

The New York Times   JULY 14, 2016

Truck Plows into Crowd in Nice, Killing Dozens

A truck drove into a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, sending hundreds running for safety.

 

PARIS — A Bastille Day fireworks celebration was shattered by death and mayhem on Thursday night in the southern French city of Nice when a large truck barreled for more than a mile through an enormous crowd of spectators, crushing and maiming dozens in what France’s president called a terrorist assault. It came eight months after the Paris attacks that traumatized the nation and all of Europe.

Officials and witnesses in Nice said at least 84 people, including children, were killed by the driver of the rampaging truck, who mowed them down on the sidewalk. He was shot to death by the police as officers scrambled to respond on what is France’s most important annual holiday.

Graphic television and video images showed the truck accelerating and tearing through the crowd, dozens of victims sprawled in its path, and the bullet-riddled windshield of the vehicle. Municipal officials and police officers described the truck as full of weapons and grenades.

“The horror, the horror has, once again, hit France,” President François Hollande said in a nationally televised address early Friday. He said the “terrorist character” of the assault was undeniable, and he described the use of a large truck to deliberately kill people as “a monstrosity.”

“France has been struck on the day of her national holiday,” he said. “Human rights are denied by fanatics, and France is clearly their target.”

Mr. Hollande, who only hours earlier had proclaimed the impending end of a state of national emergency on July 26, said that the measure would be extended by three months and that additional soldiers would be deployed for security.

French officials quickly concluded that terrorism was the likely motive, as the scope of the slaughter grew clear. The use of a large commercial truck as the principal weapon of death raised new questions about how to prevent such attacks.

The officials warned residents to stay indoors and canceled all further scheduled festivities in Nice, a seaside city of 340,000, including a five-day jazz festival and a concert on Friday night by Rihanna.

“There are numerous victims,” said Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, on BFM Television. “It’s a tragic, exceptional situation.”

Witnesses described scenes of pandemonium, with conflicting accounts on social media, including a false report of hostage-taking in Nice.

“We were enjoying the celebrations when we suddenly saw people running everywhere and tables being pushed down by the movement of panic,” said Daphne Burandé, 15, who was at a bar near the beach to watch the fireworks.

“No one explained to us what was happening, and I heard some gunshots not very far away,” she said. “I waited at the bar for more information because I thought it was a false alert. But then, people were still running.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the identity of the driver was not immediately clear, but the Nice Matin newspaper reported early Friday that he was a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin.

2.      Japan could change pacifist constitution after Shinzo Abe victory

Prime minister wins upper house elections, giving his coalition enough seats to push ahead with controversial changes

The Guardian    11 July 2016

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for a debate on rewriting the country’s pacifist constitution after his Liberal Democratic party [LDP] and its allies secured a supermajority in upper house elections on Sunday.

The LDP, its junior coalition partner Kōmeitō, and several like-minded smaller parties and independent MPs now control two-thirds of the 242 seats in the upper house. The ruling coalition already has a similar majority in the more powerful lower house.

Conservative MPs have enough seats to push ahead with constitutional changes, including scrapping the war-renouncing article 9 – a prospect that has caused alarm in China and among many Japanese who value their country’s postwar pacifism. Any amendments passed in parliament would then require approval by a simple majority in a nationwide referendum.

Abe had studiously ignored the constitution issue during the upper house campaign, insisting that the election was an opportunity to reaffirm public support for his troubled economic policy, as he sought to capitalise on the lack of a credible alternative offered by the opposition.

The LDP won 56 of the 121 seats – half the upper house total – being contested, while Kōmeitō secured 14 seats. Abe had set a goal of winning a combined 61 seats.

But speaking soon after his landslide victory, Abe said his party had always been committed torewriting the postwar constitution. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted him as saying that he hoped deliberations by expert panels and a deeper public debate would lead to a consensus on which parts of the constitution needed changing.

The most controversial move would be a revision of article 9 to allow Japan’s self-defence forces to act more like a conventional army. The clause forbids Japan from using force to settle international disputes and restricts its land, air and naval forces to a strictly defensive role.

Rewriting the constitution, imposed by the US occupation authorities after the second world war, has been the ideological driving force behind Abe and other conservatives who believe it unfairly restricts Japan’s ability to respond to new threats such as international terrorism, an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.

However, Abe risks losing the political capital he has built over the past three and a half years if he is seen to be neglecting the economy in favour of constitutional reform.

“The key question will be whether he can carry out structural reforms,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities. “If Abe fails to do so, despite the political freedom he has gained, that will be negative for foreign investors’ appetite for Japanese stocks.”

Xinhua, China’s official news agency, described Sunday’s election result as a threat to regional stability, as it had given MPs who support constitutional reform an unprecedented advantage.

“With Japan’s pacifist constitution at serious stake and Abe’s power expanding, it is alarming both for Japan’s Asian neighbours, as well as for Japan itself, as Japan’s militarisation will serve to benefit neither side,” Xinhua said in a commentary.

Some analysts played down the prospects for change, noting that the loose collection of pro-reform parties and independents had yet to reach a consensus on which parts of the constitution should be altered.

“It’s the first time to have two-thirds in both houses of parliament, but you can’t find any issue on which the two-thirds can agree,” said Gerry Curtis, professor emeritus at Columbia University.

But Curtis added: “With these numbers … he [Abe] is going to want to see what he can achieve. That means less attention to the economy and a lot of spinning over the constitution.”

3.      New dawn for Philippine-China relations?

The Al Jazeera   July 05, 2016

When it comes to China, what matters is development and bilateral diplomacy rather than confrontation and deterrence.

Filipino President-elect Rodrigo Duterte (right) talking to Chinese envoy Zhang Jianhua during a meeting in Davao City, southern Philippines on June 2 [EPA]

"I will ask the [Philippine] Navy to bring me to the nearest point in South China Sea that is tolerable to them and I will ride a jet ski‎. I will carry a flag, and when I reach Spratlys, I will erect the Filipino flag," declared Davao City mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, during the Philippine presidential campaign.

Not short of machismo, he even dared China, which is locked in territorial disputes with the Philippines, to a boxing match or a gun duel (Suntukan o barilan).

The tough-talking provincial mayor, who has leapt from one controversy to the other, was just proclaimed as the Philippines' 16th president.

Though only gaining the plurality of votes, the newly-elected Filipino president has been behaving like a modern king (Caudillo), giving long-winded and largely incoherent speeches, hosting spontaneous press conferences at midnight, brazenly issuing threats to critics, including the media, and swiftly consolidating support in the Philippine legislature, where he enjoys a "super-majority" support.

His penchant for provocative statements - and reputation for off-the-cuff bravado - has raised concerns that he will be a diplomatic disaster for the Philippines.

Often compared to the United States Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, many have come to question Duterte's competence to act as a steady commander-in-chief capable of handling delicate foreign relations, especially with great powers such as China and the US.

A more careful examination of Duterte's background, speeches and his key advisers, however, reveals a more pragmatic and astute leader who is intent on repairing frayed ties with China and decreasing the Philippines' excessive dependence on the US.

Shifting sands

Over the past few years, the Philippines has emerged as one of the most strident critics of Chinese assertiveness in adjacent waters.

After three decades of relatively stable bilateral relations, President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines made the unprecedented decision to take China to international court over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Unlike the outgoing administration, Duterte has openly called for direct talks with Chinese leadership and joint development agreements in the South China Sea.

In addition, the Aquino administration stepped up bilateral security cooperation with traditional allies, such as the US, as well as Asia-Pacific powers, such as Japan and Australia.

Under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, the Philippines granted the US military extended access to its bases in order to deter further Chinese adventurism in Manila-claimed waters.

The Philippines also struck key defence pacts, such as the Status of Forces Agreementwith Australia, paving the way for regular bilateral military exercises, and a defence equipment transfer agreement with Japan, paving the way for Tokyo to export advanced weaponry to its Southeast Asian ally.

To be fair, all these (defensive) measures were adopted in response to China's de factooccupation of the Scarborough Shoal in 2012. The contested land feature falls well within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, but lies 900km away from China's nearest shoreline.

Rising tensions in the South China Sea led to a virtual collapse in bilateral communication channels as well as a dramatic decrease in Chinese investments in the Philippines.

Today, the Philippines and China have among the most toxic bilateral relationships in Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hasn't held a single formal summit with his Filipino counterpart, who, in turn, has often adopted pugnacious rhetoric and demurred from deeper economic ties with China.

Calibrated unpredictability

In contrast, Duterte, who is a self-proclaimed "socialist" - with long-established ties with Filipino communists - has adopted a more conciliatory language towards China.

One of the most consistent themes in his speeches is the necessity to find a common understanding in the South China Sea.

For the newly-elected president, when it comes to China, what matters is development and bilateral diplomacy rather than confrontation and deterrence.

In one of his speeches, he went so far as satiating that if China will "build [the Philippines] a train around Mindanao, build [the Philippines] a train from Manila to Bicol ... build [the Philippines] a train [going to] Batangas, for the six years that I'll be president, I'll shut up [on the sovereignty disputes]."