China calls on Taiwan's people to promote 'peaceful reunification' - CNA

TAIPEI: The head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office on Tuesday (Jan 2) called on Taiwan's people to promote the process of "peaceful reunification", saying it was the common desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Song Tao's message, which comes less than two weeks before Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan 13, follows President Xi Jinping's remarks in his New Year Eve's address that China's "reunification" with Taiwan was inevitable.

"The motherland will eventually be reunified, and it will inevitably be reunified," Song said in his New Year's message on his office's website.

This is the common desire and common mission of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Song added.

Taiwan's people should "promote cross-strait relations to return to the right track of peaceful development, and promote the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland", he said.

Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims. Both the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, say only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

China has offered Taiwan a "one country, two systems" model of autonomy, but no mainstream Taiwanese party supports that idea.

Song reiterated China's support for "one country, two systems" and opposition to Taiwan's formal independence or "interference by external forces".

His message made no mention of the election, which the Taiwan Affairs Office has cast as a choice between war and peace.

China has continued military pressure around the island, ended some tariff cuts for Taiwan and threatened further economic measures as the vote has neared.

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2024-01-02 04:00:16Z
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Lee Jae-myung: From factory worker to South Korean presidential contender - CNA

SEOUL: A rarity among politicians in status-obsessed South Korea, former child factory worker Lee Jae-myung rose to become a presidential contender, telling voters his working-class roots equipped him to fight inequality.

Lee, who was under treatment in Seoul after being stabbed in the neck on Tuesday (Jan 2), lost the tightest presidential election in South Korean history to Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022. The motive behind the attack was unknown.

Leading the country's main opposition party, Lee has since been a staunch critic of President Yoon, and is widely expected to run for the top office again in 2027.

"I had to work in a factory because I couldn't pay for school," he told AFP before the 2022 election.

"My parents were cleaners. I escaped poverty, but many around me are still stuck ... I want to change the system."

Lee's political rise coincided with growing worries about inequality, sky-high housing prices and youth unemployment.

His time in elected office has been marked by policies including cash handouts to young adults, free school uniforms and free maternity care.

He has previously vowed to expand his universal basic income scheme nationwide as president.

While his supporters say these policies are rooted in Lee's own experience and empathy for the less fortunate, his opponents accuse him of being a populist who will pile on debt to pay for these schemes.

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2024-01-02 09:07:00Z
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At least six dead after huge earthquake rocks Japan on New Year's Day - CNA

TOKYO: A powerful earthquake that hit central Japan on New Year's Day killed at least six people, as police and local authorities early on Tuesday (Jan 2) reported bodies being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck in the middle of the afternoon on Monday, destroying buildings, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and prompting residents in some coastal areas to flee to higher ground.

It also triggered waves about 1m high along Japan's long western seaboard as well as in neighbouring South Korea.

Army personnel were dispatched to help with rescue operations, while one local airport was shut down after the quake tore open cracks in the runway.

The extent of the damage as well as the toll remained unclear a day after the disaster, with major roads to the worst-affected areas badly damaged, hindering rescue efforts.

Public broadcaster NHK reported doctors were unable to reach the hospital in the hard-hit town of Suzu. It said the hospital was relying on a backup generator because of a power outage.

Six people are confirmed to have died so far, the national police agency said.

NHK reported three people died after being trapped under collapsed buildings while one man was killed by a stone lantern.

More than 90 tremors have been detected since the quake first hit the remote Noto peninsula on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency has warned more strong shocks could hit in the coming days.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters late on Monday search and rescue teams were struggling to reach the worst affected areas due to badly damaged and blocked roads.

Many rail services and flights into the affected areas have also been suspended.

In Toyama city, around 100km from the worst-hit area, some shelves in convenience stores were empty as the disaster disrupted the delivery of goods across the region.

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2024-01-01 22:41:00Z
CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9qYXBhbi1lYXJ0aHF1YWtlLWlzaGlrYXdhLW5ldy15ZWFycy1kYXktdHN1bmFtaS1kZWFkLTQwMjAxMTbSAQA

Israel signals tactics shift, troops pull back as US carrier heads home - CNA

JERUSALEM/CAIRO/GAZA:  Israel pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts on Monday (Jan 1), residents said, as it announced plans to shift tactics and cut back on troop numbers, but fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.

Israel says the war in Gaza, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, killing thousands and plunging its 2.3 million people into a humanitarian disaster, has many months to go.

But it also signalled a new phase in its offensive, with an official saying on Monday the military would draw down forces inside Gaza this month and shift to a months-long phase of more localised "mopping up" operations.

A US official said the decision appeared to indicate the start of a shift to lower-intensity operations in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

The hints at a lowered tempo in Gaza came as the US Navy announced that the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier was returning to its home port in Virginia after being deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean following the outbreak of hostilities.

The Israeli official said the troop reduction would allow some reservists to return to civilian life, shoring up Israel's war-battered economy, and freeing up units in case of a wider conflict in the north with Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Artillery fire between Hezbollah and Israel has rattled the border since the start of the Gaza conflict, with Israel's military saying it carried out an air strike on Monday.

Residents and security sources said Israeli raids targeted houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border, killing three people. They identified them as rescuers, but Lebanon's Hezbollah movement later said on its Telegram account on Monday that the three were fighters with the movement.

The Israeli official said the situation on the Lebanese border "will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment".

Any new escalation carries risks for a wider regional war. Tehran-backed fighters in Yemen have attacked Red Sea shipping, drawing a US military response, and an Iranian warship has sailed into the waterway, Iranian media reported on Monday.

The Gaza war was triggered by a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli towns on Oct 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Palestinian health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say Israel's offensive there has killed more than 21,978 people.

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2024-01-01 19:55:00Z
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Israel to pull some troops from Gaza as war enters new phase - The Straits Times

JERUSALEM - Israeli tanks pulled out of some Gaza City districts on Jan 1 while remaining in others, residents said. The move came ahead of a planned troop reduction in the war.

However, fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.

The Israeli move to withdraw some forces from Gaza is aimed at shifting to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official said. The country is partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war looks set to last well into 2024, the official added.

The war will continue in the Palestinian enclave until the armed group is toppled, the official said, adding that some of the five brigades withdrawn will prepare for a possible flare-up of a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Gaza offensive was launched after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7. Since then, Israeli officials have said they planned to wage it in three main stages.

The first was intense shelling to clear access routes for ground forces and encourage civilians to evacuate. The second was the invasion that began on Oct 27.

With tanks and troops having now overrun much of the Gaza Strip, largely asserting control despite Palestinian gunmen continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers, the military is moving to the third stage of the war, said the official, who could not be identified by name given the sensitivity of the issue.

“This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia,” the official told Reuters, referring to a Gaza district ravaged by fighting.

In addition to some 1,200 people killed on Oct 7, Hamas took around 240 hostages.

The armed group is still holding 129 of them in Gaza, after releasing about 100 people in November. They were freed during a week-long truce in exchange for dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Israel is determined to recover the remaining hostages. Truce efforts mediated by Qatar and Egypt have raised the prospect of some of them being freed.

The shift appeared to correspond to pressure from Israel’s top ally, the United States, to review tactics and do more to protect non-combatants.

Fighting continues

Residents of Sheikh Radwan district in Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave that Israel’s offensive focused on first, said tanks had withdrawn after what they described as the most intense 10 days of warfare since the conflict began.

“The tanks were very near. We could see them outside the houses. We couldn’t get out to fill water,” said Mr Nasser, a father of seven living in Sheikh Radwan, who did not give his family name for fear of Israeli reprisals.

Tanks also pulled out of Gaza City’s al-Mina district and parts of Tel al-Hawa district, while retaining some positions in the suburb controlling the enclave’s main coastal road, residents said.

However, tanks remained in other parts of northern Gaza and health officials said some people trying to return to their homes in a southern district of Gaza City had been killed by Israeli fire on Dec 31.

Fighting in central parts of the enclave continued unabated on Jan 1, residents there said, with tanks pushing into al-Bureij and air strikes targeting al-Nuseirat, al-Maghazi and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Hamas showed its continued ability to target Israel after more than 12 weeks of the war, launching a barrage of rocket fire at Tel Aviv on Jan 1.

Bolstering economy

Israel initially drafted 300,000 reservists for the war – an estimated 10 per cent to 15 per cent of its workforce – for what looks set to be its longest-ever war.

Government sources have said between 200,000 and 250,000 were still serving and absent from jobs or studies.

The official said two of the brigades being withdrawn were made up of reservists, and described the move as designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”.

Local media have reported that several military divisions were deployed throughout Gaza.

The official said some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

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2024-01-01 09:43:47Z
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Earthquake slams Japan, residents flee some coastal areas - CNA

NUCLEAR PLANTS

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no irregularities have been confirmed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui Prefecture.

Hokuriku's Shika plant in Ishikawa, the closest nuclear power station to the quake’s epicentre, had already halted its two reactors before the quake for regular inspections and saw no impact from the quake, the agency said.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and devastated towns and nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima.

Another quake, known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake, hit western Japan in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people, mainly in the city of Kobe.

Monday's quake struck during the Jan 1 public holiday when millions of Japanese traditionally visit temples to mark the new year.

In Kanazawa, a popular tourist destination in Ishikawa, images showed the remnants of a collapsed torii gate strewn at the entrance of a shrine as anxious worshippers looked on.

Kanazawa resident Ayako Daikai said she had evacuated to a nearby elementary school with her husband and two children soon after the earthquake hit. Classrooms, stairwells, hallways and the gymnasium were all packed with evacuees, she said.

"I also experienced the Great Hanshin Earthquake, so I thought it would be safest to evacuate," she told Reuters when contacted by telephone.

"We haven't decided when to return home yet."

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2024-01-01 07:41:00Z
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Revellers in Taiwan hurt after alleged knife sighting sparks panic during New Year's Eve party - The Straits Times

Several people were injured at a New Year’s Eve countdown party in a southern Taiwan city after a brief hysteria sparked by an alleged sighting of a man holding a knife during the event.

According to United Daily News (UDN), the gathering was located outside Kaohsiung’s Dream Mall on Dec 31, where partygoers were waiting to ring in the New Year together.

The organiser estimated that more than 340,000 attended the countdown.

The scene turned chaotic at 9pm as rumours about a man in his 20s pulling out a fruit knife after an argument with another man spread among the audience during the performance of local rock band Elephant Gym.

The lead singer, KT Chang, was addressing the audience when she suddenly uttered “someone has a knife” before hurrying off the stage with her band members, leaving their instruments behind.

In a video posted by China Times, many can be seen running in all directions while one of the hosts, Hao Zi, tries to control the crowd by asking them to not panic or push others.

“We have a lot of people at the scene right now. Everyone, please be careful,” he added.

Describing the panic, one partygoer said that everyone started pushing and screaming, and that many people fell down, UDN reported.

“There were at least dozens of people in front of me. Everyone fell into a pile,” said the partygoer.

Kaohsiung city government Information Bureau director-general Hsiang Pin-ho said a small group of people who were stepped on during the incident and some others who felt anxiety about the situation were taken to a nearby medical station. 

Many people had their arms and legs bruised, while a young girl was so frightened that she began crying out loud, UDN reported.

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2024-01-01 06:33:00Z
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