Japan, South Korea Agree to ‘Comfort Women’ Settlement

Japan, South Korea Agree to ‘Comfort Women’ Settlement Japan, South Korea Agree to ‘Comfort Women’ Settlement Japan and South Korea have reached a landmark agreement that both countries’ foreign ministers say resolves the longstanding dispute over Tokyo’s responsibility to “comfort women” who were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels in World War […]

Japan, South Korea Agree to ‘Comfort Women’ Settlement

Japan, South Korea Agree to ‘Comfort Women’ Settlement

Japan and South Korea have reached a landmark agreement that both countries’ foreign ministers say resolves the longstanding dispute over Tokyo’s responsibility to “comfort women” who were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels in World War II.

In Seoul Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se announced they reached a settlement that includes both financial restitution and an official apology from Japan.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has repeatedly called on Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make a “sincere apology” and offer reparations to the 46 remaining Korean “comfort women,” who are now in their 80s and 90s.

It is estimated that 200,000 women throughout the Pacific region were forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during Japan’s colonization of Asia and in World War II.

The Japanese foreign minister also confirmed that Tokyo agreed to pay 1 billion yen (over $8 million) to support the comfort women. The money will go into a South Korean fund similar to a 1997-2007 Japanese initiative called the Asian Women’s Fund, set up in to offer assistance to “comfort women.” Kishida said the funding was not compensation but rather a donation.

In exchange, Seoul agrees to consider the issue permanently settled, both legally and politically. Both countries are expected to sign a formal agreement that relieves Japan of any further responsibility and liability for all past wartime grievances.

S/Sudan rebels urge president to rescind New States Decree

An official with South Sudan’s rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar said South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s decree creating 28 new states violates the spirit of the August peace accord.

In his Christmas Eve decree, Kiir also appointed 28 new governors, all of them loyal to him.

The president’s announcement came as rebel advance teams are in Juba to work with their government counterparts on modalities for the joint implementation of the August peace agreement.

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth is the secretary for foreign affairs of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition. He said the rebels are urging President Kiir to rescind his Christmas Eve decree.

“Our position has been very clear. We have an agreement signed on the 17th and 26th of August 2015, and the agreement clearly states that there will be only 10 states in South Sudan for the next three years. So creating 28 states is basically not in line with the agreement that we have signed. So we are basically stating clearly that President Salva should stick to the implementation of the agreement which says 10 states for the next three years,” he said.

Burundi peace talks start amid divisions, protests

Burundi’s government and opposition kicked off peace talks on Monday, though one senior member of the state delegation almost immediately threatened to pull out if he saw participants in a failed coup on the other side of the table.

Regional powers called both sides to Uganda for discussions to end months of fighting, which began in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza’s plan to seek a third term triggered street protests and, a month later, an attempted putsch.

There has also been no sign of a rapprochement between the government and opposition groups who say Nkurunziza’s re-election bid broke constitutional term limits and a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war in 2005.

The ruling CNDD-FDD party “can’t be part of the talks if those who took part of the failed coup are involved,” Victor Burikukiye, a member of the ruling party delegation, said as the talks opened. It was not immediately clear who would participate from the opposition.

The African Union said this month it was ready to send 5,000 peacekeepers to protect civilians in Burundi, something the government has rejected as a violation of its sovereignty.

More than a hundred Nkurunziza supporters gathered at the Rwandan, Belgian and European Union embassies in the Burundian capital Bujumbura to protest against the plan.

Monday’s talks in Uganda drew Burundian government and opposition delegations, representatives from the African Union and the United Nations, and Western diplomats. The next phase of the talks will be held at the headquarters of the East African Community bloc in Arusha, Tanzania.

Murder Conviction in Thailand Prompts Protests, Tension With Myanmar

Thailand is calling on officials in neighboring Myanmar to contain protests against a Thai court’s controversial death sentence verdict for two migrant workers from Myanmar last week.

Thai Foreign minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters on Monday that authorities have been in touch with their counterparts as the protests continued to spread beyond the capital.

“We cannot accept that these Myanmar boys were given death sentences although they didn’t commit the murder,” said student Khine Wai Linn on Sunday in front of the Thai embassy in Yangon. “This is totally unfair Thai treatment of migrants from Myanmar.”

Last Thursday a Thai court convicted two Myanmar migrant workers for the murders of a young British couple on a resort island. The case had been criticized by outside legal and rights groups amid widespread allegations that the evidence used to link the two suspects to the killings was insufficient or tainted.

“We cannot accept that these Myanmar boys were given death sentences although they didn’t commit the murder,” said student Khine Wai Linn on Sunday in front of the Thai embassy in Yangon. “This is totally unfair Thai treatment of migrants from Myanmar.”

The protests have clearly upset the boss of Thailand’s junta, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who said the verdict needs to be respected.

China passes controversial anti-terrorism laws

China has passed controversial new anti-terrorism laws, saying they are needed to combat growing threats.

The new laws, passed by China’s legislature, create a new anti-terror agency and security forces with significant powers.

Under the new law, China will have a single counter-terrorism body which the country’s public security ministry says “will be in charge of identifying terrorist activities and personnel, and coordinate nationwide anti-terrorist work”.

The Chinese government is keen that the undoubtedly tough measures it takes there are viewed as “counter-terrorism” (similar to measures taken by Western countries) rather than as the oppression of an ethnic minority.

The law will also give the authorities greater rights to monitor private communications. Just like in other countries, the government says this will not infringe liberty.

Human rights groups say the laws are too broad and sweeping, and could be used to crackdown on dissidents as well as religious minorities.

Dozens dead in US Christmas storms

At least 43 people have been killed over the past five days by severe storms across southern and western parts of the United States.

Flash floods, tornadoes and now snow have destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and snarled transport links.

The National Weather Service has issued tornado warnings for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

The governors of Missouri, Oklahoma, and New Mexico have declared states of emergency.

In Illinois, three adults and two children were swept away in their car by the flood waters. In Texas, at least 11 people were killed by powerful tornadoes with winds of up to 200 miles an hour (300kph).

Hundreds of homes in Texas were reduced to rubble and cars were blown off the road. Five people died in their cars on a highway passing the city of Garland. Pedro Barineau of the local police said they had no chance.

Two female suicide bombers blow themselves up in Cameroon

Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Monday in the Far North region of Cameroon while trying to carry out attacks for Islamist militant group Boko Haram, local officials said, but there were no other deaths.

“The suicide bombing took place at the entrance of Bodo. Two women bombers wanted to get to the market place but they were stopped by vigilantes,” said Abgassi Adoum, mayor of Makary district of which Bodo is a part. He said one member of the watch committee was lightly wounded.

Another bomber died and two people were wounded in a separate incident on Saturday in Tolkomari village in the Kolofata neighborhood, a local official said.

Bombs in Syria’s Homs kill 32, wound 90

At least 32 people were killed and 90 wounded in two bomb explosions in the Syrian city of Homs on Monday, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The blasts, one from a car bomb and another from a suicide attack, struck the Zahra district in the middle of the city, said the Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the conflict through a network of contacts on the ground.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported two car bomb blasts, but gave a lower initial toll of six dead and 37 wounded.

It was the second major attack in the city since a ceasefire deal took effect earlier this month, paving the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of Homs.

Twin blasts on Dec. 12, also in Zahra, killed at least 16 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it had detonated a suicide car bomb.