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China jails journalist accused of leaking state secrets for 7 years

By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced a journalist accused of leaking an internal Communist Party document to a foreign website to seven years in prison, her lawyer said on Friday, a ruling that reflects the sensitivity surrounding the party's inner workings. Gao Yu, 71, who was tried behind closed doors in Beijing last November, was convicted on a charge of providing state secrets to foreign contacts, her lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said. The United States called on China to release Gao at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva last month. Gao was detained on accusations she had leaked a party document, which warned senior members against "seven mistaken ideologies", including the "universal values" of human rights, according to Gao's other lawyer, Shang Baojun.

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US govt sued over sea turtles snared in shrimp nets

Tens of thousands of endangered sea turtles die every year in the United States when they are inadvertently snared in shrimp nets, an environmental group alleged in a lawsuit filed against the government. The Southeast shrimp trawl industry, the largest in the United States, kills some 53,000 of the turtles each year in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, the advocacy group Oceana said. "If people knew that their order of shrimp cocktail came with a side of government-authorized sea turtle they would be horrified," said Oceana assistant general counsel Eric Bilsky. "Studies have shown TEDs are 97 percent effective at preventing sea turtle deaths when used correctly, yet the Fisheries Service is not enforcing their use, or even requiring TEDs in all vessels that can use them," Bilsky added.

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Indonesian Islamic parties seek ban on alcohol consumption

By Eveline Danubrata and Michael Taylor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Two Islamic parties have proposed legislation to ban all consumption of alcoholic drinks and hand jail terms of up to two years to offenders in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population. "This is not a religious or ideological issue," Abdul Hakim of the Prosperous Justice Party told Reuters. "This is purely for the protection of the children of the nation." The bill aims to ban the sale, production, distribution and consumption of beverages with an alcohol content exceeding one percent, including local brews such as rice wine popular in many parts of the sprawling archipelago. To become law it would have to be signed by President Joko Widodo, who has adopted a hard line against drug offenders since taking office last October.

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Following Clinton, Rubio dives into US presidential race

Calling for new American leadership that is not "stuck in the 20th century," Republican Senator Marco Rubio officially launched his presidential bid Monday, a day after top Democrat Hillary Clinton announced her campaign. Rubio, a 43-year-old Florida lawmaker and son of immigrants from Cuba who often casts his personal arc as the embodiment of the American Dream, presented the 2016 presidential election as "a generational choice about what kind of country we will be." The remark, in a hometown speech at Miami's Freedom Tower that once processed Cuban immigrants into the United States, was a clear jab at his older rivals, notably Clinton, 67, and his fellow Republican and former mentor Jeb Bush, 62.

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Republicans launch opening salvos against Hillary Clinton

Many Republicans, including two presidential candidates, other possible contenders and party activists, quickly mounted a full-force campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday, with some starting the fight before her official announcement that she was running for president. The nominating conventions for both parties are more than a year away, and the November 2016 election is 19 months in the future, but Clinton has long been considered her party's front-runner and Republicans have been revving up to oppose her run. On Sunday afternoon, a photo of the former secretary of state topped the home page of GOP.com, the website for the Republican National Committee, adorned with a stop sign reading "Stop Hillary." Republican shots came throughout the day in messages to supporters, statements, interviews and tweets that attacked Clinton's entire career, including her time as first lady when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, occupied the Oval Office.

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A year after ferry disaster, safety concerns persist in S. Korea

By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - Nearly a year after her 16-year-old daughter was among 304 people killed when an overloaded ferry capsized, Park Eun-mi says not much has changed when it comes to safety in South Korea. "Even after what we've been through, I wonder why society doesn't change, and how people so quickly forget," said Park, surrounded in her apartment by photographs of her daughter, who is among nine victims of the ferry disaster whose body has yet to be recovered. Public safety was mostly an afterthought in South Korea's decades of rampant economic growth, defined by an attitude of "pali, pali," or "hurry, hurry." The Sewol ferry disaster on April 16 last year led to much soul-searching - the majority of the victims were, like Park's daughter, teenagers on a school outing. The total number of ship accidents in South Korea, for example, rose in 2014 as did the incidence of fires and the number of people killed in them.

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Seven injured in explosion on Thai tourist island

The explosion occurred on Friday night in the basement car park of Central Festival mall on Samui island as late-night shoppers were still inside the building. The bomb squad will investigate this morning," said colonel Apichart Boonsriroj, police commander of Surat Thani province on the mainland. "Six Thais and a 12-year-old girl were treated for minor injuries," said Poonsak Sophonsasmorong of the island's disaster prevention office. The explosion, which damaged several nearby cars, sparked local media speculation that it may have been a car bomb linked to a festering insurgency in Thailand's southernmost provinces, some 400 kilometres ( 250 miles) further south.

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Mediator named as French public radio strike enters fourth week

The French government said it had appointed a mediator to ease bitter relations between management and unions at Radio France, as the longest strike in the public broadcaster's history entered its fourth week. Dominique-Jean Chertier was to meet union leaders on Friday morning after his appointment by France's culture minister, charged with bringing the conflict to a quick resolution and coaxing the two sides back to the negotiating table. "The first, immediate (task) must be to bring this conflict to an end as swiftly as possible, bringing the airwaves back to normal, and a return to regular negotiating conditions," said minister Fleur Pellerin when announcing Chertier's appointment. Beyond the strike, the mediator will also facilitate discussions between cost-cutting chief executive Mathieu Gallet and employee representatives on Gallet's longer-term plan for the group, which includes plans for 300 voluntary redundancies -- a non-starter from the unions' perspective.

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Japan Emperor mourns Japanese, U.S. war dead on Pacific isle

By Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two this year, offered flowers and prayers on Thursday at a memorial to those who died in a fierce fighting on the Pacific isle of Peleliu. About 10,000 Japanese defenders, fighting in the name of Akihito's father, Emperor Hirohito, died in a two-month battle in 1944 on Palau's tiny Peleliu island along with about 1,600 American troops. Unaware Japan had surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, 34 Japanese soldiers hid in the jungle until April 1947. With the blue ocean sparkling in the background, Akihito, wearing an open-necked white shirt, and Michiko, clad in an ivory suit with a grey lapel, bowed deeply before laying bouquets of white chrysanthemums at a memorial erected by Japan's government to those who died in the region in the war.

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CIA chief says criticism of Iran deal 'disingenuous'

CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" while expressing surprise at Tehran's concessions. In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work that had once seemed impossible to secure. "I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a (nuclear) program," Brennan told an audience at Harvard University. The outline deal announced last week would see the United States and the European Union lift all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran in exchange for a 98-percent cut in Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium for 15 years.

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China urges creation of conditions to resume Korea nuclear talks

All parties involved in talks about North Korea's nuclear programme need to meet each other half way and address each other's concerns to create conditions to resume negotiations, China's foreign minister said. Last month, South Korea's representative to the talks said China and Russia, as well as the United States, Japan, and South Korea, have reached "a certain degree of consensus," on how to restart the process. Interviewed by a Russian television station, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said all sides had a joint responsibility to resolve the problem appropriately to ensure regional peace and stability. "The nuclear issue has been around for a long time and is intricate and complicated," Wang said, according to a transcript released by the Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday.

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Nigeria's neighbours hope for a fresh start with Buhari

By Madjiasra Nako MALAM FATORI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Surveying the charred ruins of the northern Nigerian town of Malam Fatori, which Chadian troops and his own soldiers from Niger liberated from Boko Haram last week, Colonel Toumba Mohamed paused to reflect on Nigeria's landmark election. As the two nations' forces poured into the border town on Tuesday, driving out the Islamist fighters, Nigeria's election commission was announcing the victory of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari. "We hope that finally the armies of Chad and Niger will be able to fight Boko Haram side by side with the Nigerian army," said Toumba, who expects to see changes when Buhari, a former general and Muslim from the north, is sworn in.

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Typhoon Maysak downgraded as it hits Philippines

Typhoon Maysak was downgraded to a tropical depression and made landfall in the Philippines Sunday, forecasters said, easing fears after thousands of residents were evacuated from remote coastal communities to avoid potentially dangerous storm surge. Maysak, which began as a Super Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean, reached the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon with winds of 55 kilometres (34 miles) an hour, chief state weather forecaster Esperanza Cayanan said. "As of now, most of our fears have melted away," she told a news conference shortly after the depression reached Dinapigue, a remote town on Luzon around 8:00 am (0000 GMT). The government had evacuated more than 25,000 people from coastal villages in Dinapigue, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Manila, and nearby areas as a precaution against potential tsunami-like waves called storm surges.

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Japan carmaker Suzuki to build second plant in Myanmar: media

Japanese automaker Suzuki plans to invest tens of millions of dollars to build a second plant in Myanmar, seeking to make quick inroads in the country's growing market, a report said Saturday. The small-car maker has already secured a roughly 20-hectare (50-acre) plot at the Thilawa special economic zone southeast of Yangon for the new plant, the Nikkei business daily said. Suzuki is expected to invest several billion yen and hire about 300 staffers, aiming to increase Suzuki's output in Myanmar by more than five times, it said. At the new plant, Suzuki plans to produce some 10,000 cars a year, including the Ertiga, a seven-seat compact, by assembling imported parts.

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US man rescued after 66 days missing at sea: coast guard

A US man missing at sea for more than two months was celebrating a miraculous rescue on Thursday after being picked up by a passing ship and airlifted to dry land, the US Coast Guard said. Louis Jordan, 37, who was reported missing on January 29, told family members he had survived by catching fish with his hands and drinking rain water, according to the Coast Guard. A US Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted him to safety back to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, a statement said. Frank Jordan, the sailor's father, told CNN he did not know what had caused his son's boat to break down.

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Japan's mobile app Line reviving IPO plans

Line, the popular messaging app launched in the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami, is set for an initial public offering as early as this year, a report said Thursday, after shelving plans for a listing in 2014. Line applied in mid-2014 for a share sale in Japan, and said it was eyeing a US listing as well. The company, which claims more than 400 million registered members in Japan and other parts of Asia, lets users make free calls, send instant messages and post photos or short videos. Best known for letting users send each other cute cartoon "stickers", Line is hugely popular in Japan, particularly among teenagers.

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Buhari in historic Nigeria election win

Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday became Nigeria's president elect after defeating Goodluck Jonathan in the first democratic change of power ever in Africa's most populous nation. Thousands spilled onto the streets of the north's biggest city, Kano, in celebration, shouting his campaign slogan "Sai Buhari" ("Only Buhari") as he took an unassailable lead with one state to declare. The Independent National Electoral Commission said Buhari won 15,424,921 votes or 53.95 percent of the 28,587,564 total valid votes cast. His nearest rival, Jonathan, won 12,853,162 (44.96 percent.) INEC chairman Attahiru Jega said: "Muhammadu Buhari, of the APC, having satisfied the requirement for the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected." - Gripping contest - The election was hit by glitches to new voter technology and claims of irregularities, having been played out against a backdrop of fears of deadly Boko Haram violence and poll-related clashes.

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