Chinese tourist behavior in spotlight again after arrests

via globaltimes.cn - Two Chinese tourists were arrested and fined in Berlin for making Nazi salutes outside the German parliament on Saturday, triggering heated discussions on Chinese social media about Chinese tourists' behavior.

The two tourists, aged 36 and 49, could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to three years, BBC News reported, citing a Berlin police officer, adding that the pair have each been released on €500 ($600) bail.

The incident has triggered heated discussions on Chinese social media, with most netizens accusing some Chinese tourists of having bad manners in foreign countries.

A Chinese tourist surnamed Yu who has visited Berlin told the Global Times that the incident reflects the lack of respect some Chinese have for other countries' history and culture.

Meanwhile, some Weibo users said that one should study a country's taboos he or she plans to visit to avoid offending other cultures.

"The two men may think that their behavior is a joke. However, it has generated a negative impression," Zhang Shengjun, an international politics professor at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"People tend to look at all things from an entertainment perspective, which makes most citizens lose respect for history and culture. The government should create rules and laws to regulate Chinese tourists' behavior not only in the country but also overseas," Zhang said.

The pair took cell phone photos of each other making the Nazi salute outside the Reichstag, which were seen by police officers assigned to guard the numerous historic sites in the area, the BBC News reported.

Germany has strict laws on hate speech and symbols linked to Hitler and the Nazis. The same charges are most commonly used to prosecute members of the far right, according to the BBC report.

Around 1.4 million Chinese tourists visited Germany in 2015, news site cnr.cn reported. Tourist organizations said they expect 2.2 million Chinese to visit Germany in 2020, the New York Times reported on Sunday. (ontinueReading

On 72nd A-bomb anniversary, Hiroshima highlights Japan’s refusal to join U.N. nuke ban

via japantimes.co.jp HIROSHIMA – Hiroshima on Sunday marked the 72nd anniversary of its atomic bombing by the U.S., with Mayor Kazumi Matsui using the annual memorial ceremony to call on the central government to help make a treaty banning nuclear weapons a reality.

This year’s ceremony at Peace Memorial Park near ground zero follows the adoption by 122 U.N. members last month of the world’s first treaty to comprehensively ban nuclear weapons.

The treaty’s preamble uses the term hibakusha in mentioning “the unacceptable suffering” experienced by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings, which had killed an estimated 214,000 people by the end of 1945.

But Japan — together with the world’s nuclear weapon states and other countries under the U.S. nuclear umbrella — refused to participate in the U.N. treaty.

In the city’s annual Peace Declaration, Matsui stopped short of demanding that Japan join the treaty, but urged the government to “manifest the pacifism in our Constitution by doing everything in its power to bridge the gap between the nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states, thereby facilitating the ratification.”

He said the countries that adopted the treaty “demonstrated their unequivocal determination to achieve abolition,” and that now is the time for all governments to “strive to advance further toward a nuclear weapon-free world.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe avoided any mention of the U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty in his speech at the ceremony.

“For us to truly realize a ‘world without nuclear weapons,’ the participation of both nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states is necessary,” he said.

Later in the day, after meeting with representatives of seven local hibakusha groups who protested Japan’s refusal to participate in the U.N. treaty, Abe defended the decision to stay out, saying “a realistic approach” is needed to reach the goal of having a world without nuclear weapons.

“We think (the treaty) must not result in the distance between the nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states being further widened and the realization of a world without nuclear weapons getting further away,” Abe said at a news conference.

“By firmly maintaining our three non-nuclear principles and continuing to appeal to both sides, Japan is determined to lead the international community,” Abe said in his speech, referring to the government’s policy of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory.

At the news conference, however, Abe said he did not see any need to turn the three-point policy into law.

About 50,000 people came to the park for the ceremony, at which 80 nations plus the European Union were represented.

Nuclear states Britain, France, the United States and Russia sent representatives, as did India, Israel and Pakistan, which are also known to possess atomic weapons.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for all states to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons “in their own ways,” in a message read on his behalf by Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs.

“Hiroshima’s message of peace and the heroic efforts of hibakushas have reminded the world of the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. … The United Nations stands with you in our shared pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons,” the message said.

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., when the atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” exploded about 600 meters above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, leaving an estimated 140,000 people dead by the end of the year.

A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9 and Japan surrendered six days later, bringing an end to World War II.

Matsui demanded in his speech that the government give more compassionate assistance to elder hibakusha, as well as to “the many others also suffering mentally and physically from the effects of radiation.”

City officials said “the many others” reference includes people affected by the March 2011 triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

This year’s anniversary is the first to follow the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose predecessor, Barack Obama, last year became the first sitting U.S. leader to visit Hiroshima. Trump had suggested before his election that Japan and South Korea should acquire nuclear weapons in the future, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson refused to rule this out in a U.S. interview in March.
(ontinueReading

PM Benjamin Netanyahu suspected of bribery, fraud, Israeli police say

cbsnews.com - JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of crimes involving fraud, breach of trust and bribes in two corruption cases, Israeli police revealed Thursday.

Police have been questioning Netanyahu for months over the cases but have released few details. A gag order was released Thursday night on reporting the details of talks that are underway to enlist a state witness.

The document says the cases involving Netanyahu deal with "a suspicion of committing crimes of bribery, fraud and breach of trust."

On Friday, police said Netanyahu's former chief of staff and onetime close confidant agreed to testify against him.

The police said in a statement that Ari Harow will serve six months of community service and pay a fine of 700,000 Shekels (about $193,000) for his involvement in a separate corruption case, apparently a lighter-than-expected sentence in exchange for his testimony.

Netanyahu's office has repeatedly denied wrongdoing over the investigations, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media opposed to his hard-line political views.

A statement from his office Thursday night said, "We completely reject the unfounded claims against the prime minister." It said the allegations are part of a campaign to "replace the government" and "there will be nothing, because there was nothing."

In a video posted to Facebook Friday, he refered to the news as "the inevitable scandal of the week," according to the Reuters news agency.

"I would like to tell you, citizens of Israel, that I do not heed background noises," he said. "I continue to work for you."

One investigation, dubbed "File 1000," reportedly concerns claims that Netanyahu improperly accepted lavish gifts from wealthy supporters, including Australian billionaire James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

The second investigation, "File 2000," reportedly concerns Netanyahu's alleged attempts to strike a deal with publisher Arnon Mozes of the Yediot Ahronot newspaper group to promote legislation to weaken Yediot's main competitor in exchange for more favorable coverage of him by Yediot.

The U.S.-born Harow has been under investigation for the past two years for fraud and other crimes regarding the sale of his consulting company while working as chief of staff, according to media reports.

Police reportedly have a copy of a recording made by Harow of a 2014 conversation between Netanyahu and the publisher.

After eight years in office, in addition to an earlier term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has garnered an image as a cigar-puffing, cognac-drinking socialite who is as comfortable rubbing shoulders with international celebrities as he is making deals in parliament. His wife, Sara, has been accused of abusive behavior toward staff.

Scandals have long dogged the couple over their lavish tastes and opponents have portrayed both as being out of touch with the struggles of average Israelis. (ontinueReading

Further Reading - Israel's Netanyahu not forced to resign if indicted on corruption charges: minister

Boycotting Israel for political purposes is unfair and creates a double standard 

*Posted links are not direct/political endorsements. 

Inside researchers’ amazing — and terrifying — gene editing discovery

news.com.au - WELCOME to the brave new world of gene editing.

An international team of scientists in the United States have safely repaired a gene mutation that causes a heritable heart defect in human embryos — sparking debate about the new frontier of genetic engineering.

The first-of-its-kind research, which was spearheaded by the Oregon Health and Science University and published last week in the journal Nature, could one day help families affected by inherited diseases.

“I, for one, believe, and this paper supports, the view that ultimately, gene editing of human embryos can be made safe. Then the question truly becomes: If we can do it, should we do it?” said Dr. George Daley, the dean of Harvard Medical School.

One major fear is that this kind human embryo modification could give rise to “designer babies,” allowing parents to pay for desirable traits they want in their kids. “I think gene editing can be used to help people who are sick,” Marcy Darnovsky, director of the Center for Genetics and Society said.

“But the idea of using it on the front end to engineer a future generation — we need to draw a bright line there.”

She insisted that current embryo-screening technology, done routinely at in-vitro fertilisation clinics across America, already helps parents avoid passing on genetic diseases to their kids.

“If you’re worried about passing on some inherited disease, you can already do that without mucking around with your child’s genes,” she said.

David King, of the Human Genetics Alert, a UK-based organisation, said governments need to “wake up and pass an immediate global ban on creating cloned or GM [genetically modified] babies before it is too late.”

“If irresponsible scientists are not stopped, the world may soon be presented with a fait accompli of the first GM baby,” he said.

But Shoukhrat Mitalipov, an embryologist at OHSU who led the gene-editing experiment, said the research was about “correcting” genes that cause diseases, not altering them.

“Really, we didn’t edit anything. Neither did we modify anything,” Mitalipov said. “Our program is toward correcting mutant genes.”

The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9 — which acts like a pair of “molecular scissors” — to target a mutation that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens the heart and has led to the sudden deaths of many apparently healthy young athletes.

They then injected sperm from a donor with the heart disease, which affects 1 in 500 people worldwide, into eggs from 12 healthy patients, along with the genetic scissors to snip out the mutated gene. Scientists were surprised to discover the embryos then repaired themselves, taking a healthy copy of the gene from the egg as its cells began to multiply.

“The embryos are really looking for the blueprint,” Mitalipov said. “We’re finding embryos will repair themselves if you have another healthy copy.”

All told, the experiment was successful in 42 of the 58 embryos used, about 72 per cent of the time.

Mitalipov now hopes the strategy could one day be used to prevent a slew of heritable diseases caused by gene mutations, which include Huntington’s disease and cystic fibrosis. (ontinueReading

Vaccines for everybody: Mosquito season is spreading Zika & West Nile Across the U.S.

Newsweek.com - When U.S. temperatures rise in the summertime, most states anticipate growth in the mosquito population, and a corresponding increase in transmission of blood-borne viruses that can cause serious illnesses.

The biggest threats are Zika and West Nile viruses. Once confined to remote tropical locales, these viruses now crop up in seasonably warm and damp regions of North America, carried by two species of mosquito: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.

In June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that populations of both these mosquito species have significantly increased in the southern parts of the U.S. Reporting on findings from a study in the Journal of Medical Entomology, the agency said the number of A. aegypti has increased by 21 percent, and the population ofA. albopictus increased by 10 percent. Together, these two mosquito species have reached a cumulative new 165 counties within the past year.

The emerging threat of mosquito-borne diseases in the U.S. has led researchers and private companies to find novel ways to shrink the population of these “little ninjas,” as some specialists call them. On July 14, a startup known as Verily, owned by Google, began releasing a million specially engineered male mosquitoes in Fresno, California. These lab-bred bugs are carrying a bacteria that stops successful mating. If the approach works, the mosquito populations could die out. Only female mosquitoes bite, which means these engineered bugs aren’t capable of spreading the virus to more people. (ontinueReading

OOPS: Norway "Anti-immigrant" group mocked after mistaking empty bus seats for women in burqas

sfgate.com - A Norwegian anti-immigrant Facebook group is the laughingstock of the internet after some members of the group thought a photo of an empty bus showed six women in burqas.

Fedrelandet viktigst, or "Fatherland first" in Norwegian, is a private group with over 13,000 members. The group was thrown into turmoil when a user posted an image of a bus allegedly packed with burqa-wearing women.

"What do people think about this?" the image was captioned.

"It looks really scary, should be banned," one user commented. "You can never know who is under there. Could be terrorists with weapons."Seems unlikely, considering we do know what was "under there": An empty bus seat.

The optical illusion-turned-xenophobia-test went viral when Facebook user Sindre Beyer posted screenshots from the group on his public page. The post has nearly 2,000 shares and plenty of comments making fun of Fedrelandet viktigst.

"This is the best thing I've seen from blind racists since The Chappelle Show," one person commented.

"I think I passed the test because the first thing I saw was a group of Darth Vaders," wrote another.

According to the Washington Post, journalist Johan Slattavik posted the original photo as a "little practical joke" to see how riled up the group would get.

"I ended up having a good laugh," Slattavik told WorldViews.

Fedrelandet viktigst members called his photo "frightening" and "tragic," which is also how their negative reaction to burqa-clad women on public transit was described by detractors.

"People see what they want to see and what they want to see are dangerous Muslims," Norwegian Centre Against Racism head Rune Berglund Steen told The Local, an English-language Norwegian news site. "In a way, it's an interesting test of how quickly people can find confirmations of their own delusions." (ontinueReading
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Related: Idiot Islamophobes Mistake Empty Bus Seats For Burqa-Wearing Women

‘Competitive Victimhood’ Among Racial Minorities Backfires, Study Finds

Multiculturalism: A Failed Concept

Xi Jinping Says China’s Sleek, Modern Military Will Never Allow Threats to Its Sovereignty

Time - Speaking in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese President Xi Jinping called upon "capable, brave and virtuous" soldiers "with soul" to lead the modernization of the nation’s armed forces, while warning that China “will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time.”

It was Xi’s latest move to assert his authority ahead of the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress in the fall, a crucial five-yearly meeting when key leadership positions are chosen. It also marks what should be the mid-point of Xi’s ten-year leadership term, which has been characterized by an ideological tightening and a crackdown on free speech.

Xi's 50-minute address on Tuesday included several calls for the 2 million-strong armed forces to rally around the Party. “Our army will remain the army of the party and the people,” Xi said. “The army should increase its political awareness … and carry forwards and implement the Party’s absolute leadership."

Xi was once again dressed in his familiar immaculate white shirt and red tie, dispensing with the military fatigues he’d donned at the weekend for a military parade at PLA’s Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia. More than 12,000 service personnel from across the army, air force, navy, police and strategic support troops marched below clear blue skies, as tanks and missile launchers rumbled by. Fighter jets roared and dozens of commandos leapt out of whirring helicopters.

It was China’s largest parade since the 70th anniversary of the culmination of World War II in September 2015. Then, Xi announced a reduction of 300,000 troops and other high-level organizational changes aimed at transforming the PLA into a modern, sleek fighting force, with significant implications for global security. More than 100 high-ranking military officers have been punished for various offenses including corruption since Xi took office in 2012. Seven PLA regional commands have been consolidated into five “theaters” and its schools cut from 74 to 43.

China’s military is modernizing rapidly as the Asian superpower attempts to sure up its global leadership position and project greater power beyond its borders. The PLA was formed in 1927 in response to anti-communist purges launched by China’s then-ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalists. Following the Allied victory in World War II, the PLA successfully defeated the Nationalists and forced their retreat across the Taiwan Strait. Since this time the PLA has had a reputation as a bloated, unsophisticated and poorly trained fighting force — though that is now changing.

“The force is modernizing very rapidly, probably more rapidly than most Westerners grasp,” says Lyle Goldstein, associate professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. “Across the board it’s hard to find any weaknesses.”

New missiles were on display in Inner Mongolia, including the road-mobile DF-31AG, a new variant of its DF-31A intercontinental ballistic missile, as well as the the DF-16G and DF-26. The HQ-22 surface-to-air missile (SAM), the HQ-9 SAM, and the YJ-12A anti-ship missiles were also eagerly examined by cooing weapons experts. New generation aircraft on display included the Shenyang J-16 strike fighter and Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter. In April, China launched its first aircraft carrier and has long been reclaiming and militarizing islands in the South China Sea.

“In the long term, they have a vision for what kind of order they would like to see in Asia, and that’s clearly one where China has regional military dominance,” says Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Washington DC’s Hudson Institute. “Anything west of Hawaii they would like to have conventional superiority over any potential adversary.” (ontinueReading