The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Argentines take to streets to protest government policies
- China surveillance ships enter Japan waters
- U.N. chief appeals for calm as "hateful" film sparks violent protests
| Argentines take to streets to protest government policies Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:05 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Argentines rallied in the streets of the country's biggest cities on Thursday to protest President Cristina Fernandez's policies, including a virtual ban on foreign currency purchases. The rallies were organized through social media and not by any one political party. Demonstrators' mainly criticized the currency controls, crime rates and a potential bid by Fernandez to reform the constitution so she can run for a third term. "There's inflation, crime and an abuse of power. It's time Cristina listened to us," said Roberto Madrid, an office worker who joined the protests in Buenos Aires. Local television showed rallies in other cities, including Rosario, Cordoba and Bariloche. Similar protests were held in June, but they were not as widespread. Thousands of people gathered in the Plaza de Mayo square, outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires. Some of them banged on pots and pans, stirring memories of the street demonstrations staged by angry savers, housewives and students during a devastating economic and political crisis in 2001-2002. "No to the constitutional reform" and "Yes to freedom" were some of the slogans seen on signs that protesters carried through the streets. Protester Mario Blanco complained about the increasingly onerous currency controls. "This is a violation of private property," he said. "I can do what I want with my money." Fernandez's policies have effectively spawned multiple exchange rates, which threaten to depress investment in Latin America's No. 3 economy and exacerbate inflation that is already estimated at about 25 percent a year. The Peronist president's bastion of support lies in the working-class outskirts of Buenos Aires. She won a landslide re-election in October, but her approval ratings have since fallen due to an economic slowdown and mounting capital and trade controls. Under the constitution, Fernandez cannot run for a third consecutive term in 2015. But local media report her allies in Congress may try to reform the country's charter to change this. The government has not confirmed any such plan. Fernandez has dismissed anger over the restrictions on dollar purchases, saying only a few Argentines are affected and urging them to save in the local peso currency instead. (Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Additional reporting by Jorge Otaola and Walter Bianchi; Editing by Stacey Joyce; Writing by Hilary Burke) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| China surveillance ships enter Japan waters Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:03 PM PDT TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Six Chinese surveillance ships entered waters near disputed islands claimed by Tokyo and Beijing on Friday, raising the stakes in a long-running territorial row between Asia's two biggest economies.
China's foreign ministry said that the ships entered the disputed waters to carry out maritime surveillance and that for the first time China was carrying out a mission of "law enforcement over its maritime rights". "It reflects our government's jurisdiction over the Diaoyu islands," it said in a statement. The ministry has used similar language in the past. The islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, are near potentially huge maritime gas and oil fields. The uninhabited islets were at the centre of a chill in 2010 after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain whose boat collided with Japanese Coast Guard vessels near the area. The Japanese coast guard said it ordered the ships to leave Japan's territorial waters, but only two complied, leaving four Chinese vessels still in the disputed area. No force had been used to remove the Chinese ships, a coast guard official said. "We'll do our utmost in vigilance and surveillance," said Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda when asked about Japan's responses. TRADE AT RISK China warned Japan on Thursday that trade could be hurt by the flare-up in tension. China, the world's second-largest economy is Japan's biggest trading partner with mutual trade in 2011 growing 14.3 percent in value to a record $345 billion. A Nissan Motor Co Ltd executive has said the tensions were already affecting business with China. Tensions flared last month when Japan detained a group of Chinese activists who had landed on the islands and Japanese nationalists landed on the islands. Anti-Japanese protests rocked several Chinese cities. Bilateral relations were frayed further on Tuesday when Japan, which controls the islands, said it had bought them from a private owner, ignoring warnings from China. China said this was a breach of its sovereignty. China's official Xinhua news agency on Thursday said a senior Chinese military official had urged the army to be "prepared for any possible military combat", though the report made no mention of the territorial dispute with Japan. "Efforts should be made to ensure that the military is capable of resolutely performing its duty to safeguard the country's national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity whenever it is needed by the Party and the people," Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's powerful Central Military Commission, was cited as telling soldiers. The tensions with Japan come while China's ruling Communist Party is preoccupied with a forthcoming once-in-a-decade leadership change, as well as slowing economic growth. Japan's ruling Democrats also face an election, probably late this year, which opinion polls suggest they will lose and the government is under fire for its handling of territorial rows with China, and with South Korea over another island chain. The United States this week urged both sides to tone down increasingly impassioned exchanges over the longstanding row. The last time Chinese government-affiliated ships entered Japanese territorial waters near the disputed islands was in mid-July, the coast guard said. That incident ended peacefully and without any significant diplomatic fallout. The Japanese coast guard described those vessels as fishery patrol ships. The latest ships are civilian government vessels maintained by the State Oceanic Administration to patrol waters claimed by China. (Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Michael Perry) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| U.N. chief appeals for calm as "hateful" film sparks violent protests Posted: 13 Sep 2012 06:51 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appealed for calm in North Africa and the Middle East after a film deemed insulting to Islam sparked riots across the Arab world and an attack that killed the U.S. envoy to Libya. In a statement issued by the U.N. press office ahead of Friday prayers and further planned demonstrations in some Muslim nations, Ban reiterated his condemnation of the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americas in Benghazi on Tuesday. "The Secretary-General is deeply disturbed by the recent violence in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East," Ban's press office said. "Nothing justifies such killings and attacks. He condemns the hateful film that appears to have been deliberately designed to sow bigotry and bloodshed." "At this time of rising tensions, the Secretary-General calls for calm and restraint, and stresses the need for dialogue, mutual respect and understanding," it added. The film, "Innocence of Muslims," that has outraged Muslims around the world is an amateurish production. It portrays the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Stacey Joyce) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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