The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- New Japan PM Noda faces party feud, split parliament
- Relative of Obama arrested in Massachusetts
- FACTBOX - 5.1 mln customers without power on Monday after Irene
| New Japan PM Noda faces party feud, split parliament Posted: 29 Aug 2011 09:01 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda is to be voted in on Tuesday as the country's sixth prime minister in five years amid doubts he can unite his fractious ruling party while tackling myriad economic ills and a nuclear crisis.
Noda, a 54-year-old fiscal hawk who wants to curb Japan's huge public debt, was elected head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in a bruising run-off. He had come in second among five candidates in an inconclusive initial round. The challenges he faces are legion: coping with a strong yen that threatens to undermine exports, forging a new energy policy while ending a crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, rebuilding Japan's tsunami-devastated northeast and finding funds to pay for that and bulging social security costs in the ageing society. Noda repeated his call for "prudent fiscal management" on Tuesday at a final news conference as finance minister, but he acknowledged that the economy faced downside risks. "I am aware of the problems of the strong yen and deflation. But at the same time, we need to maintain fiscal discipline," Noda said. He also said he wanted to consult opposition parties, who control parliament's upper house and can block bills, on a bill to double the 5 percent sales tax by mid-decade as well as on funding for reconstruction. Graphic on Reuters PM survey: http://link.reuters.com/cyg33s Graphic on Japan recent PM's: http://link.reuters.com/cer43s In an apparent nod to Ozawa backers who want the party to stick to campaign promises to put more cash in consumers' hands, Noda added: "Our (party) motto is people's lives come first. Also I emphasised support for the middle class. "We need not to lose sight (of these principles)." NOT POPULAR OR POWERFUL No Japanese premier has lasted much longer than a year since 2006, when the charismatic Junichiro Koizumi ended a rare five-year term. Noda was not the most popular of the candidates with the public nor did he have the strongest support base inside the party, which remains divided by personal feuds and policy disputes two years after sweeping to power with promises to change how Japan is governed. But critics of party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, whose backing put trade minister Banri Kaieda in first place after the initial party vote, rallied around Noda to vault him to victory. Some optimists say the low-key Noda may be the best bet for Japan now given all the hurdles to governing. "In Japanese tradition, the less lustrous politicians have tended to be more effective," said Andrew Horvat, director of the Stanford Japan Center in Kyoto. Many pundits, however, are already predicting that Noda may well end up the latest of Japan's revolving door leaders. "The difficult structural problems remain -- a divided party, hostile opposition parties that deprive the government of a majority in the upper house and mountains of difficult and divisive problems facing the country," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "These present a very high hurdle for anyone who wants to stay in office. Noda is rather more likeable and less tainted than Kaieda... but how long he will last, I don't know." Noda's immediate task on Tuesday was to select lawmakers to fill the DPJ's top executive posts, including the key position of secretary-general, the party's second-in-command. The appointments will signal how conciliatory he means to be to Ozawa backers, many of whom object to tax hikes for fear of putting off voters. Whether Noda can unify the fractious party "ultimately depends on how conciliatory he can get in terms of appointments, but if he goes too far, that will antagonise the public," Nakano said. "That is extremely delicate." (Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Neil Fullick) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| Relative of Obama arrested in Massachusetts Posted: 29 Aug 2011 06:27 PM PDT BOSTON (Reuters) - A relative of President Barack Obama was arrested last week outside Boston on charges of drunk driving, an official said on Monday. Onyango Obama, 67, of Framingham, Massachusetts, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, failure to yield at an intersection and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, said Cara O'Brien, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney's office. Onyango Obama is a half-brother of President Obama's Kenyan father, an administration official confirmed. Onyango Obama pleaded not guilty on Thursday in Framingham District Court and was released on personal recognizance, O'Brien said, but he was being held on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. He hired Ohio immigration attorney Margaret Wong, said Wong spokesman Mike Rogers. Rogers said Onyango Obama was released from a Massachusetts jail on Monday and was being supervised at an undisclosed location until reporting back to immigration officials on Tuesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington had no immediate comment on the report. Wong is the same lawyer used by Onyango Obama's younger sister, Zeituni Onyango, who was granted asylum last year by a Boston judge, putting the Kenyan woman on the path to U.S. citizenship. (Reporting by Lauren Keiper; additional reporting by JoAnne Allen in Washington; editing by Jerry Norton and Mohammad Zargham) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| FACTBOX - 5.1 mln customers without power on Monday after Irene Posted: 29 Aug 2011 05:56 PM PDT REUTERS - More than 5.1 million homes and businesses along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard were still without power Monday evening after passage of Tropical Storm Irene. That was down from 5.5 million earlier Monday, but utilities said it could take days to restore electricity in accessible areas and weeks in hardest-hit regions.
The U.S. Department of Energy reported that 5.12 million customers were without power as of 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), with the most outages in New York state, where 888,637 customers - down from 939,000 Monday morning - were affected. An earlier DOE report on Sunday had identified 5.95 million customers without power. Monday afternoon's figure implies at least 800,000 customers had power restored since then. Reports from utility firms and tallied by Reuters identified at least 3 million users without power at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), but that estimate doesn't take into account all utilities. Monday's DOE figures break out power cuts by state. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Virginia -- where the outages were greatest in number -- all had more than 600,000 users affected. In Rhode Island, where the biggest percentage of users was affected, about two-thirds of the customers had no power, or more than 280,000, the DOE said. Utilities brought service to some customers on Monday, but said the work would take days in many areas. Utilities spent the first hours after Irene assessing overall system damage and deciding where to send crews to restore service. Crews were already busy in storm-damaged areas on Monday. In some hard-hit areas, however, the fixes could take weeks. RESTORATION SCHEDULES Consolidated Edison said around 121,000 customers in New York City and nearby Westchester County were without power on Monday afternoon, down from around 188,000 on Sunday. The utility had plans to restore service to all customers by late Thursday. Jersey Central Power and Light, which serves central and northern New Jersey, said 350,000 customers were still without power, down from a peak of 670,000 on Sunday. Most will be back by the weekend, and all by early next week, the company said "There are still areas we can't get to because of flooding and debris," said Jersey Central spokesman Ron Morano, who estimated that restoring service would take several days. In Pennsylvania, utilities estimated 90 percent of customers would be restored by the end of the day Wednesday. In D.C. and Maryland, Pepco said it expected to restore all customers by Thursday evening. DelMarVa Power expected to have customers restored by noon Thursday. Baltimore Gas & Electric foresaw all customers restored by Saturday. In Virginia and North Carolina, Dominion estimated at least 90 percent of affected customers would have power restored by end of day Friday. The following table lists reports from utility companies tallied by Reuters. (Reporting by Joshua Schneyer, Selam Gebrekidan, Eileen O'Grady, Bernie Woodall, David Sheppard, Jeanine Prezioso, Anna Driver, Bruce Nichols; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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