Senkaku Islands: Japan Sends Jets in China Row

Japan has scrambled fighter jets to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards islands that are the source of tension between the two countries.

The Chinese Y-12 propeller plane went into Japan's air defence identification zone around 99 miles away from airspace surrounding the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which Japan controls but Beijing claims as its own and calls the Diaoyu Islands.

A Japanese defence ministry official said the aircraft headed back towards China without entering the contested airspace after the jets became airborne.

The incident in the East China Sea is the first since China created its air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in November, a move which further strained relations.

Chinese government ships and planes have been spotted off the islands numerous times since Japan nationalised them in 2012.

Earlier this week, a Chinese chef crash-landed into the sea while trying to fly a hot-air balloon to the disputed islands.

There are fears an escalation in the row could have far-reaching repercussions, drawing in Japan's ally, the United States.

The islands are strategically important because they are close to international shipping lanes, offer abundant opportunities for fishing and could potentially lie close to rich oil and gas reserves.

Japan and China have also recently been involved in a diplomatic war of words, with ambassadors from both comparing the other country to Lord Voldermort, the Harry Potter villain.

In a Daily Telegraph article last week, the Chinese ambassador to the UK criticised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to a controversial shrine seen as the repository of around 2.5 million souls of the country's war dead.

This includes several high-level officials who were executed for war crimes after the Second World War, which saw Japan invade China.

Liu Xiaoming wrote: "If militarism is like the haunting Voldermort of Japan, the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."

In the same newspaper his Japanese counterpart Keiichi Hayashi said that China risked becoming the "Lord Voldermort of East Asia".

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Spain: King Juan Carlos' Daughter In Court

The youngest daughter of Spain's King Juan Carlos has been ordered to appear in court for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged tax fraud and money laundering.

Palma de Mallorca court judge Jose Castro ordered 48-year-old Infanta Cristina to appear for questioning about her links to the business affairs of her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, the Duke of Palma.

The former Olympic handball player is under investigation for alleged embezzlement of public funds.

A court on the island of Majorca is looking into claims Mr Urdangarin and his former business partner, Diego Torres, embezzled six million euros (£5m) in public funds via the Noos Institute, a charitable foundation he created to organise sports events.

The princess was a member of the board of the foundation and jointly owned another company called Aizoon with her husband, which investigators suspect served as a front for laundering the money.

The three deny wrongdoing.

In a written ruling, the judge said he had decided to hear Cristina's testimony on March 8. Formal charges could follow. 

It is the first time a direct relative of the monarch has been ordered to appear in court accused of wrongdoing. 

The reputation of King Juan Carlos has been damaged by the affair

In November, a luxury villa and other properties belonging to Urdangarin were seized to cover the 6m euro bond for his liability in the case.

The investigations have damaged the reputation of 76-year-old Juan Carlos, who has been on the throne for almost 40 years and helped in the country's transition to democracy after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

A recent poll published in the daily newspaper El Mundo found that more than half of Spaniards wanted him to abdicate and let his son Prince Felipe take the throne.

Speaking at the weekend, the head of the royal household, Rafael Spottorno, said the investigation had become a "martyrdom" for the royal family and urged the judge to wrap up the investigation quickly.

He told public television channel TVE: "We have to trust in the justice system. We have always respected the judge's duties. But the only thing we ask is that he finish it soon."

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Iraq Gets US Military Boost Amid Rising Unrest

Iraq Violence Was 'Waiting Powder Keg'

Updated: 1:10pm UK, Monday 06 January 2014

By Tim Marshall, Diplomatic Editor

The fighting in the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi threatens to hasten the disintegration of a country in chaos.

The upsurge of violence has simply highlighted a pattern of sectarian strife which emerged in early 2013 and shows no signs of ending.

Unlike during the violence of 2006/07, the Americans are no longer around to stand between the sectarian factions.

Fallujah and Ramadi are in Anbar province in the west of Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and is the stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). 

Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunnis dominated the country but that came to an end after the US led invasion of 2003.

The regional, ethnic, and sectarian tensions in Iraq were always present since its inception as a state in 1920, but the lid was taken off this simmering pot by the American invasion.

The subsequent botched attempts at nation building widened the sectarian divide.

The Americans fought the Shia and Sunni militia, the Sunni and Shia fought one another, and the Kurds in the north warned everyone to keep their distance.

The US forces struggled and only achieved a degree of relative stability during the 'Sunni Awakening'.

The Sunni tribes, realising they were losing control of Anbar province to al Qaeda, allied with the Americans. 

Al Qaeda may have been Sunni, but they were mostly foreign fighters and they had designs on the territory of Anbar. The temporary alliance worked and the violence receded.

In 2011 Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government refused to allow the Americans even 'basing rights' for a skeleton force and so the US military pulled out completely.

There was now no one left to stand between the factions, or broker deals, if they began to fight again.

The Shia are the majority among the Arabs in Iraq, and under Maliki they have taken control of the main levers of power in the country; the military, the judiciary, the interior ministry, and the cabinet.

Sunnis felt increasingly disenfranchised and the victims of repression.

A year ago they began demonstrations in Ramadi and Fallujah calling for the freeing of tens of thousands of prisoners held without charge by Maliki's forces. The protests spread to other Sunni areas in the country. 

The Prime Minister said the demonstrations and protests camps were a front for al Qaeda and secessionists and ordered the security forces to break them up. Hundreds of people were killed in the ensuing violence and a campaign of terrorism across the country killed thousands.

Subsequent attempts at compromise were undermined by hardliners on both sides in parliament.

Anbar province was a powder keg waiting to explode.

Late last month, Maliki ordered a military raid on an ISIS camp in western Anbar, the arrest of a senior Sunni politician in Ramadi, and the clearing of a protest camp.

The backlash came almost immediately. The Sunni tribes rose up and quickly reformed their militias. They took on the government forces pushing them out of Ramadi and Fallujah.

Some, fearing that Al Qaeda would take revenge for the 'awakening', also targeted ISIS fighters.

Now the Iraqi army is poised on the outskirts of the two cities waiting to take them back. 

As the Americans found, the fighting will be hard, with no guarantee of success. The longer it goes on, the greater the chance that it will spread and the more it will undermine the national elections set for April 30.

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'Boss-Napping': Two Managers Held By Staff

Workers at a Goodyear tyre plant in France have resorted to 'boss-napping' and taken captive two bosses inside a factory the company wants to close.

The seizure of the senior managers at the site in Amiens, which the firm has been trying to sell or shutdown for five years, sees a revival of the once-common hostage-taking tactic.

Regarded as more theatre than actual threat, it aims to put pressure on management.

Sylvain Niel, a labour lawyer who has worked on similar issues, said the tactic had largely faded away because any agreements reached under duress were later voided by the courts.

He described it as an act of despair by workers "without room to manoeuvre".

Workers at the site are pressing for better redundancy payouts.

Mickael Wamen, the union president, told French television: "Clearly it was no longer possible to keep fighting for our jobs, so we decided to change tactics and fight for the largest compensation possible."

In exchange for freeing the managers, they are demanding an €80,000 (£66,500) severance package plus €2,500 (£2,000) for each year worked.

Both the Goodyear plant's director and human resources chief were kept captive in the factory overnight.

The plant has a particularly contentious past, and has seen violent protests against the closure, including the burning of tyres and firing of paintballs at police.

Those being held are Bernard Glesser, the director of human resources, and the head of production Michel Dheilly.

Mr Glesser told journalists: "We've been stuck in this room for three or four hours, and it's out of the question that I respond to questions under pressure."

He provoked anger when he said while he did not fear for his safety, the situation was "completely disagreeable" and he was being insulted and humiliated.

"You haven't been humiliating us for seven years?" one worker shouted.

Evelyne Becker, a union representative, said the two were prevented from leaving after a stormy meeting with staff.

Goodyear confirmed the two managers were being held against their will.

In a statement, Goodyear said: "This kind of initiative, always to be condemned, is especially inopportune and counterproductive at a time when we should concentrate on the future of employees affected by the restructuring, after several years looking for a solution."

The factory and its nearly 1,200 workers has become symbolic of France's labour issues.

Workers have seized on Goodyear's profitability in their fight against the factory closure, but the company says profit margins have been slipping for years and the business in Europe is not sustainable.

The union said in a statement: "We just want to continue to work and not swell the ranks of the unemployed and marginalised, and if for that we have to resort to extreme methods, we won't hesitate to do that."

In the wake of the global financial crisis back in 2009, a number of large companies in France were hit by 'boss-nappings' including 3M, Sony, Caterpillar and a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary.

The incidents, which usually last from a few hours to a couple of days, are punishable under French law by five years in prison and a €75,000 (£62,000) fine - as long as the boss goes free in under a week, but generally workers are not prosecuted.

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Polar Vortex: 187 Million Hit By Big Freeze

More than half the US population is under a wind chill warning as a blast of freezing Arctic air sweeps south and east across the country, bringing the coldest temperatures for decades.

The whirlpool of dense air known as the "polar vortex" has caused a number of deaths, closed schools and businesses, cancelled thousands of flights and left highly-populated cities facing colder temperatures than Siberia.

Around 187 million people could eventually feel the effects of the freezing temperatures - and Americans have been warned their skin could freeze within minutes if they go outside.

The US East Coast is preparing for the cold front moving in from the Midwest on Tuesday and areas as far south as Brownsville, Texas and central Florida are facing record low temperatures.

Temperatures were 11 to 22C (20 to 40F) below average in parts of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska and broke records in Chicago, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

A satellite image shows the polar vortex sweeping across the US. Pic: Nasa

The US saw colder temperatures than Almaty, Kazakhstan, where it was -22C (8F), Mongolia at -23C (-8F) and Irkutsk, in Siberia, at -33C (-27F).

The National Weather Service has issued life-threatening wind chill warnings for temperatures as low as -51C (-60F) in western and central Dakota and officials in Indiana - hit by high winds and more than a foot (30cm) of snow - urged residents to stay indoors.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard asked schools and businesses to stay closed for another day and said: "The cold is the real killer here.

A tractor is used to clear snow from Woodward Avenue in central Detroit

"You could be dead in 10 minutes without the proper clothes."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency, announcing that parts of the New York State Thruway in Western New York would be closed due to extreme winter weather conditions.

The weather has caused chaos for US business and industry, threatening to disrupt oil drilling and fracking and hit livestock and grain shipments across the farm belt, even in the Deep South.

Some 4,392 flights were cancelled and 3,577 delayed on Monday, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks airline activity.

Many airlines could not allow their ground crews to remain outdoors for more than 15 minutes at a time.

Birds gather on the partially frozen River Charles in Boston

There were hundreds of cancellations by airlines including United, Southwest and American at airports across the Midwest and Northeast as supplies of fuel and de-icer froze.

The weather has been blamed for a number of deaths across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

They included a 48-year-old Chicago man who had a heart attack while shovelling snow on Sunday and an elderly woman who was found outside her Indianapolis home early Monday.

Some states are beginning to turn their focus to recovery, with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Indiana Governor Mike Pence issuing disaster declarations, paving the way to request federal aid.

There were, however, some signs of things returning to normal in the affected areas.

A commuter wraps up warm in Chicago

JetBlue Airways, which stopped all scheduled flights to and from New York and Boston on Monday, plans to resume some flights on Tuesday morning.

Southwest Airlines operations in Chicago resumed on Monday night, even if it was, as a spokesman for the Texas-based airline called it, "a trickle".

The Minnesota Zoo announced it would reopen to the public on Tuesday and state lawmakers in Indiana plan to open their 2014 legislative session after a day's postponement.

Warmer temperatures - at least near or above freezing - are in store for the Midwest later in the week.

Indianapolis should reach -3C (27F) on Wednesday, and other parts of the central US could climb above freezing later in the week.

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Turkey Sacks 350 Police Amid Corruption Probe

Turkey has dismissed 350 police officers in the latest twist to a corruption scandal that has hit key allies to Prime Minister Recep Tayipp Erdogan.

The officers, all from Turkey's capital Ankara, found themselves without a job or moved to other posts on Tuesday following an overnight government decree, local media reported.

The heads of the financial crimes, anti-smuggling, cyber crime and organised crime units were all hit by the order, published at midnight local time.

At least 560 officers have now been sacked in the capital alone in recent weeks. Istanbul's police chief has also been removed, prompting critics to accuse the government of protecting its allies from a high-level probe. 

Mr Erdogan's government has been deeply shaken by the investigation, which has so far resulted in dozens of arrests including the sons of three government ministers and the head of Turkey's state-run Halkbank.

The suspects stand accused of various offences such as accepting bribes and carrying out illicit money transfers.

It has been suggested the probe could reach as far as the prime minister himself, following allegations his son Bilal leaked information to the media.

Mr Erdogan has indirectly accused powerful exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the investigation in a bid to undermine the government. 

Supporters of Mr Gulen, who is based in the United States, occupy key positions in Turkey's government, police force and judiciary. Mr Erdogan has previously alluded to the cleric's considerable influence, saying he is battling a "state within a state."

Mr Gulen has denied any links to the corruption inquiry.

The scandal has hit Mr Erdogan ahead of key local elections in March and a presidential poll in August.

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Merkel Sings On Crutches After Ski Accident

Angela Merkel's recent skiing accident where she cracked her pelvis did not stop her attending a reception for carol singers.

The German leader pictured with young carol singers

The German chancellor was pictured on crutches as she sang with children at her government headquarters in Berlin, despite having to cancel talks with European leaders.

Her doctors' orders were to "lie down" and the 59-year-old politician is having to cut back on work for the next three weeks, said her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Mrs Merkel, who is often called the world's most powerful woman, was injured in a fall while cross-country skiing at "low speeds".

She will continue to preside over cabinet and government meetings.

But she cancelled a visit to Warsaw, Poland, scheduled for Wednesday and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel called off his trip to Berlin on Thursday.

Mr Seibert said the chancellor suffered what she first thought was just a bruise to her left rear pelvic area.

The accident happened last month during her annual ski trip to Switzerland's Engadin Valley, which includes well-known ski resorts such as St Moritz.

But doctors later decided it was a "incomplete" bone fracture that will require her to rest for three weeks, her spokesman added.

It comes as fellow German Michael Schumacher remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital after a ski accident in France over a week ago.

The ex-Formula One world champion was travelling off-piste when he fell and hit his head on a rock, leaving him fighting for his life.

He has been in a medically induced coma at Grenoble University.

Experts say cross-country skiing is much less dangerous than downhill.

Cross-country trails are mostly flat and the sport is more about endurance than speed.

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China Lifts Ban On Video Games Consoles

China has lifted its 14-year ban on selling video games consoles, potentially opening up the market to the likes of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

In 2000, the country stopped consoles being sold, claiming they could be harmful to young people.

But now China's State Council has said "foreign-invested enterprises" can make the machines at factories in Shanghai's free trade zone and sell them subject to inspection by a government cultural department.

PC games currently dominate the $14bn (£8.5m) Chinese video games market, with free browser-based and mobile games also popular.

However, pricing could be a problem should manufacturers such as Sony and Microsoft decide to enter the market.

Many gamers in the country earn the equivalent of less than £100 per week, while the PS4 sells for £350 in the UK, and the Xbox One £429.

Console makers have reacted cautiously to the lifting of the ban and it seems unlikely that a full on assault on the Chinese market will happen any time soon.

Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said "there are many things we have to look into and so we can't say anything concrete".

Satoshi Nakajima, from Sony Computer Entertainment, said: "We do recognise that China is a promising market, and we will continue to study the possibility."

The lifting of the ban is also said to only be "temporary" but officials have yet to clarify the statement.

Ironically, big-name consoles have been made in China for many years for export, with some machines inevitably finding their way on to the local black market.

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Ralph Lauren's Niece Charged Over 'Air Rage'

Ralph Lauren's niece has appeared in court charged with being drunk and abusive on a plane.

Jennifer Lauren is accused of breaching the peace on board a transatlantic flight which had to be diverted to Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland on Monday afternoon.

The New York-based jewellery designer cried before the hearing at Killaloe District Court, which is in fact the downstairs function room of a pub as there is no dedicated courtroom in the local area.

Ms Lauren, 41, was arrested as she got off the plane and was held in custody overnight.

The hearing took place in the function room below a pub

Policewoman Yvette Walsh told the court that when she was being detained at the airport she told officers: "Can you say that in English please?"

Officers said Ms Lauren was charged with being intoxicated to such an extent that she was in danger of harming herself or other people on board the aircraft.

She was accused of engaging in behaviour likely to cause serious offence or annoyance to any person on board, after being asked by a crew member to stop.

Lauren also faced a count of breaching the peace by engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

Ms Lauren has been released on bail

Judge Patrick Durcan heard Ms Lauren was ready to enter pleas but said they would be dealt with at a second hearing at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

More than 200 passengers and crew were on board the flight from Barcelona to New York when the alleged air rage incident took place.

The US national was granted bail on condition she stays at a hotel in Shannon town with her travelling companions and pays £2,075 of her own money to the court.

The judge has asked for an assessment on how much the disruption has cost the airline, airport and passengers.

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Syria: Chemical Weapons Shipment Leaves Port

The first shipment of chemical weapons has been removed from Syria under a deal to rid the country of its chemical arsenal.

The UN mission overseeing the disarmament has confirmed that a Danish vessel is en route to international waters carrying the material.

"A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today," the UN said in a statement.

"This movement initiates the process of transfer of chemical materials from the Syrian Arab Republic to locations outside its territory for destruction."

Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from China, Denmark, Norway and Russia.

The operation to remove Syria's chemical arsenal had been scheduled to take place prior to December 31.

The removal was delayed by the country's worsening civil war, and by poor weather and logistical problems.

A UN Security Council-backed deal arranged by the US and Russia aims to eliminate all of Syria's chemical arms by the middle of this year.

Under the plan, the chemicals will be taken from Latakia to a port in Italy where they will be transferred to a US Navy vessel fitted with equipment to destroy them at sea.

The deal was brokered to head off US military strikes against President Bashar al Assad's regime after hundreds of people were killed last August in a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus.

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