Yeonmi tells her story of life in North Korea and eventual escape, and calls for action against such human rights violators.
Trump plans to host China’s Xi in April at Florida resort: report
Japan times
Trump plans to host China’s Xi in April at Florida resort: report
Reuters, Mar 13, 2017
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a two-day summit next month at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, U.S. online media outlet Axios reported Monday, citing officials familiar with the plans.
The two-day meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 6-7, the U.S. media outlet reported.
Reuters has not verified the Axios story and does not vouch for its accuracy. Representatives of the White House and for Xi could not be immediately reached for comment.
The planned summit would follow a string of other recent U.S-China meetings and conversations seeking to reaffirm ties following months of strong rhetoric from Trump.
Last month, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi visited Washington to discuss the two countries’ economic ties and security interests. Tiếp tục đọc “Trump plans to host China’s Xi in April at Florida resort: report”
US deploys attack drones to South Korea amid tension with North
- Posted 13 Mar 2017 17:25
The Wider Image: Learning English in Korea’s Freedom Village
SEOUL: The United States has started to deploy attack drones to South Korea, a U.S. military spokesman said on Monday, days after it began to deploy an advanced anti-missile system to counter “continued provocative actions” by isolated North Korea.
The drones, Gray Eagle Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) coming to South Korea are part of a broader plan to deploy a company of the attack drones with every division in the U.S. Army, the spokesman said. Tiếp tục đọc “US deploys attack drones to South Korea amid tension with North”
Duterte to China: Benham Rise sea territory ‘is ours’
Rodrigo Duterte orders military to assert ownership of Benham Rise area to Beijing – but in a nice way.
President Rodrigo Duterte says instructed the military to assert Philippine ownership of a large ocean region off the country’s northeastern coast where China’s survey ships were spotted last year.
However, Duterte said on Monday he ordered the military to claim the Benham Rise area in a friendly way, repeating his country has no option but to be diplomatic because it “cannot match the might of China”. Tiếp tục đọc “Duterte to China: Benham Rise sea territory ‘is ours’”
Japan plans to send largest warship to South China Sea: Sources
- Posted 13 Mar 2017 19:51
- Updated 13 Mar 2017 20:15
FILE PHOTO: Japan Maritime Self Defense Force’s helicopter carrier Izumo is seen at JMSDF Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan, December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
TOKYO: Japan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two.
China claims almost all the disputed waters and its growing military presence has fuelled concern in Japan and the West, with the United States holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation. Tiếp tục đọc “Japan plans to send largest warship to South China Sea: Sources”
Marine Corps to Protect China’s Growing Interest in Asia-Pacific Region
Sputnik © AFP 2017/ STR
China plans to increase the number of its Marine Corps units from 20,000 to 100,000 in order to protect its vital marine communications and growing interests abroad, according to Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post citing military sources and experts.
© REUTERS/ U.S. Navy/Handout
The publication refers to the Chinese logistics base in Djibouti and port of Gwadar in the southwest of Pakistan. The areas of protection of interests also include the Korean Peninsula, the East China and South China Sea, and land and sea territories along the Silk Road, including Afghanistan.The newspaper further noted that the Chinese marine contingent has been nearly doubled to the existing 20,000 by transferring two regular army brigades to their squad. Tiếp tục đọc “Marine Corps to Protect China’s Growing Interest in Asia-Pacific Region”
White House Seeks to Cut Billions in Funding for United Nations
State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources.
The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign assistance programs, including the U.N., in next year’s budget. The United States spends about $10 billion a year on the United Nations. Tiếp tục đọc “White House Seeks to Cut Billions in Funding for United Nations”
Giải tỏa các công trình tôn giáo lâu đời là không thỏa đáng
NĐT – 01/03/2017 – 13:34 PM
LTS. Nhà thờ Thủ Thiêm, Hội dòng Mến Thánh giá Thủ Thiêm là những công trình tôn giáo hình thành trên vùng đất Thủ Thiêm (nay thuộc địa bàn quận 2) từ giữa thế kỷ XIX. Qua hàng trăm năm hình thành và phát triển, hai công trình tôn giáo này đang đứng trước nguy cơ phải nhường chỗ cho khu đô thị mới Thủ Thiêm.
Tiếp tục đọc “Giải tỏa các công trình tôn giáo lâu đời là không thỏa đáng”
Sản xuất lúa và biến đổi khí hậu…
Thanh Thanh Thứ Tư, 14/11/2012, 11:18 (GMT+7)
(TBKTSG Online) – Cuốn sách “Sản xuất lúa và tác động của biến đổi khí hậu ở đồng bằng sông Cửu Long” do PGS. TS. Nguyễn Ngọc Đệ – TS. Lê Anh Tuấn – hai nhà khoa học chuyên ngành nông nghiệp và thủy học môi trường hiện đang công tác tại trường Đại học Cần Thơ hợp tác biên soạn, do Saigon Times Books phối hợp với NXB Tổng hợp TPHCM xuất bản, với sự tài trợ của Tổng công ty Phân bón và hóa chất dầu khí – CTCP. Tiếp tục đọc “Sản xuất lúa và biến đổi khí hậu…”
Cận cảnh đập thủy điện Xayaburi từ Lào
NĐT – 03/03/2017 – 10:59 AM
Chúng tôi đã có điều kiện tham quan đập thủy điện Xayaburi. Buổi tham quan dựa trên lời của Chính phủ Lào tại “Diễn đàn khu vực các bên liên quan về Nghiên cứu hội đồng và đập thủy điện Pak Beng”, vào cuối tháng 2 tại Luang Pra Bang. Người Đô Thị ghi nhận những hình ảnh về con đập mà cho đến nay vẫn còn gây nhiều tranh cãi trong cộng đồng các nước khu vực lẫn quốc tế.
Cà phê Việt Nam: Đã đến lúc phải chuyển từ Lượng sang Chất
Sau hơn một thế kỷ hình thành và phát triển, cà phê Việt Nam đã vững vàng đứng ở vị trí thứ hai thế giới về sản xuất, và xuất khẩu cà phê nhân. Tuy nhiên để đem lại lợi nhuận cao hơn cho người trồng, nâng kim ngạch xuất khẩu cà phê từ hơn 3 tỉ USD/năm hiện nay lên gấp đôi trong thời gian tới, toàn ngành cà phê có rất nhiều việc cần làm để thúc đẩy các giá trị gia tăng.
Tiếp tục đọc “Cà phê Việt Nam: Đã đến lúc phải chuyển từ Lượng sang Chất”
Vietnam’s ticking time-bomb of elderly poverty
More are working into old age to survive, in the world’s most rapidly aging country. Will solutions be too little, too late for Vietnam’s growing ranks of elderly poor? Part 1 of a regional series on elderly poverty explores the issues.
- Posted 12 Mar 2017 14:25
- Updated 12 Mar 2017 16:13
82-year-old Tran Thi Huong does what she must to survive, like walk the city streets to sell lottery tickets.
HO CHI MINH CITY: Having slogged in the tiny, dimly lit kitchen since 4am, the Chau sisters are finally done mixing, kneading, steaming and cooking, some seven hours later.
But, with the sun approaching its noon peak, their day is barely halfway through. Now comes the even more arduous task: Hawking their snacks – a menu of red bean soup, mung bean dumplings, banana cake and an iced peanut drink – in the blazing heat.
Despite her slight hunch, 70-year-old Madam Chau Chung Muoi moves just as nimbly as her younger sister Dao Muoi who is 61, and she propels the heavy-laden pushcart with surprising speed down the busy streets. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam’s ticking time-bomb of elderly poverty”
ASIA’S FUTURE CITIES: Can Manila avoid climate catastrophe as it teeters on the brink?
- Posted 12 Mar 2017 09:36
- Updated 12 Mar 2017 09:40
The Artex community in Malobon has been inundated for more than a decade. (Photo: Jack Board)
MANILA: When Typhoon Nesat hit Metro Manila in 2011, it was one of the most destructive typhoons the city had ever confronted.
Maricris Ramos was 23 at the time and recalls the pure fear that struck her community in Navotas, an exposed district facing Manila Bay.
“First, the waves became big, alarmingly big. They crashed into our house, destroying it. Our house used to stand there,” she said, pointing to a spot closer to the current shorefront.
Tengson’s waterfront houses were struck hard by Typhoon Nesat in 2011.
Her family’s home – and the thousands of others in Tengson – are now further elevated above the water level and are sheltered by a dike system, which is designed to prevent flooding during powerful storm surges, as happened in 2011.
Tengson feels precarious. The houses, mostly made from flimsy metal, are stacked like Lego bricks. The passages between them are narrow and dank and plastic waste engulfs areas where adults work and children play.
Buôn Ma Thuột lộng lẫy sắc màu văn hóa đại ngàn
Tròn 42 năm sau giải phóng, Buôn Ma Thuột vui tươi, tưng bừng với lễ hội đường phố náo nhiệt chưa từng có. Công chúng được thưởng thức sắc màu văn hóa không chỉ của 47 dân tộc anh em chung sống trên địa bàn tỉnh Đắk Lắk, hàng chục dân tộc khác trên khắp khu vực Tây Nguyên và vùng lân cận, mà còn có cả hương sắc mới lạ của những đoàn nghệ thuật đến từ nhiều quốc gia.
Tiếp tục đọc “Buôn Ma Thuột lộng lẫy sắc màu văn hóa đại ngàn”
Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts
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I forwarded this first to a delegation of Veterans For Peace who are now touring Viet Nam for 17 days, and I am accompanying them. They have seen some of the terrible legacies of the war in Viet Nam — consequences very similar to what neighboring Laos and Cambodia have experienced. So this article has special resonance for them.
It is also a reminder of the hard bargain the U.S. insisted upon during negotiations with Viet Nam which led to normalization of diplomatic relations in 1995. The current government of Viet Nam was required to repay an old debt of the Saigon regime which collapsed in 1975, loans which had been provided during the war totaling some $145 million US dollars. The Vietnamese eventually agreed, and repaid the first installments totaling about $15 million before then-Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John McCain intervened (and rightly so, in the opinion of many veterans) with congressional action which converted that debt to an “education” fund to provide study opportunities for Vietnamese students in the U.S. and American students in Viet Nam. That was better than an outright repayment, of course — particularly when U.S. humanitarian assistance at that time was less than $4 million a year, for efforts related to UXO cleanup and disability programs that might bring some relief to families facing the awful consequences of Agent Orange.
Sometimes simple fairness and justice, common decency, and morality must take precedence over the U.S. government’s bookkeeping requirements. (It might occur to some of us that the U.S. Ambassador in Cambodia should be reminded of that.)
CS
MARCH 11 201
Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts
Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tonnes of explosives on Cambodia’s countryside Washington wants the country to repay a $US500 million ($662 million) war debt.
The demand has prompted expressions of indignation and outrage from Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
Over 200 nights in 1973 alone, 257,456 tons of explosives fell in secret carpet-bombing sweeps – half as many as were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.
The pilots flew at such great heights they were incapable of discriminating between a Cambodian village and their targets, North Vietnamese supply lines – nicknamed the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.” Tiếp tục đọc “Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts”
