SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2014 INTERNATIONAL

Thai flight forced to return by unruly Chinese passengers

BANGKOK: A low-cost flight carrying pas- attacked a steward. “During the flight a by side but the pair started to argue with Chinese passengers, adding that they left behavior of some Chinese tourists overseas sengers from Thailand to China was forced Chinese female passenger was not satis- each other before the attack took place. the country on Friday. has caused embarrassment at home. In to return to Bangkok after a Chinese pas- fied with the service and when the cabin The captain of the flight, which was still in The cabin attendant received first aid on May 2013 a Chinese tourist was tracked senger threw hot water at a cabin atten- attendant came she threw hot water at the Thai airspace at the time, decided to return board from colleagues and was now fine, down by furious netizens after it emerged dant, the airline said Saturday. Thai AirAsia cabin attendant,” the airline said in state- to Don Mueang where four Chinese pas- the official added. China has seen rapid he had defaced an ancient Egyptian monu- Flight FD9101 departed Bangkok’s north- ment. sengers were ejected and detained at a growth in outbound trips in recent years, ment. ern airport Don Mueang for Nanjing at An official said the woman and her trav- police station. The flight departed Don and Chinese travelers are now the biggest The same month a top Chinese official 5:55 pm on Thursday with 174 passengers elling companion were initially angered at Mueang again at 10:45 pm on the same source of international tourism cash in the said the dire manners and “uncivilized and six crew on board but was forced to not being seated together. Other passen- day and arrived in Nanjing Friday morning. world, according to a the behavior” of some Chinese tourists overseas turn back after one of the passengers gers moved seats allowing them to sit side The airline official said police fined the World Tourism Organization. But the were harming the country’s image. —AFP Heavy snow feared to cast chill over ’s election

TOKYO: Heavy snow hit large swathes of an unprepared and underwhelming opposi- Japan yesterday, the eve of a general elec- tion, political pundits have said. A recent sur- tion, fuelling speculation the ruling coalition vey has found just two-thirds of voters is on course to an easy victory on low voter expressed any interest in the vote, down from turnout. It was already snowing heavily in 80 percent ahead of the December 2012 elec- large areas of the country along the coast of tion when Abe rose to power. “Abe’s expected the Sea of Japan (East Sea) yesterday, victory is the result of the self-destruction of though Tokyo remained clear and sunny. the opposition,” Shinichi Nishikawa, professor The weather agency warned of snowfall of of politics at Meiji University in Tokyo, told as much as 80 centimeters in central and AFP earlier this week. “For many voters, there northern regions by the today morning, is no alternative but the LDP,” Nishikawa said. when polls open. The poor conditions could Abe has billed Sunday’s election as a referen- put off already unenthusiastic voters and dum on his pro-spending growth policy. push turnout to a record low for the elec- His two years in power have been charac- tions, which were called two years ahead of terised by his bid to reinvigorate Japan’s schedule. sagging economy with what he has called Early opinion polls have shown Prime the “three arrows” of Abenomics monetary Minister Shinzo Abe’s coalition is likely to easing, fiscal stimulus and structural secure more than 300 of the 475 contested changes. The first two arrows have largely seats, giving them the super-majority they hit their target-the once-painfully high yen BERLIN: Believers pray during the Friday prayer at a mosque of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam in need in the powerful lower house to force has plunged, sending stocks higher. But the Berlin. Members of a new group in Germany, calling itself the ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident’, or through legislation. The ruling coalition is reform arrow remains in the quiver; critics PEGIDA, protest against “criminal asylum seekers” and the “Islamisation” of their home country. —AFP made of Abe’s conservative Liberal say Abe has not been bold enough to take Democratic Party (LDP), supported by busi- on the vested interests that are the real key nesses and a network of campaign groups to reversing nearly two decades of econom- nationwide, as well as its junior partner ic underperformance. A new mandate from faces tall order to Komeito which is backed by a big lay the electorate would give Abe a straight four Buddhist group. years’ run at some of the more difficult prevent early elections Their predicted victory is largely thanks to reforms. —AFP Juncker warns against ‘extreme forces’ ATHENS: Greece’s embattled govern- left Democratic Left and the creditors over its latest budget and fiscal went a step further by denouncing ment will be hard-pushed to forestall Independent Greeks, a nationalist party. reforms for the coming year. bribery allegedly used in ruling party cir- early elections-and a blow to fiscal The prospect of early elections strikes cles to sway a number of his deputies. In reforms-by steering a snap presidential fear into the markets and Greece’s EU- Failure to inspire an interview with the state parliament ballot through parliament next week, IMF creditors as radical leftist party But his candidate Dimas, known as a channel, former prime minister Costas analysts say. A successor to 85-year-old Syriza, which opposes the country’s longtime insider of the conservative Simitis lamented the culture of conflict President must be bailout agreement, has a steady lead in party, has so far failed in Greek politics. However, a preliminary found or under the constitution, parlia- opinion polls. to inspire, analysts note. “The candida- judicial investigation into the issue ment will have to be dissolved by ture of Stavros Dimas has failed to create found insufficient proof to probe further. February-right in the middle of crucial ‘Extreme forces’ a dynamic,” said analyst George Sefertzis. Greek politics is marked by “failure to talks between Greece and its EU-IMF President Political scientist Thanassis agree, exaggeration and a hunt for ene- creditors. The prospect of early elec- Jean-Claude Juncker warned on Diamantopoulos added that Dimas, 73, mies. There can be no progress like this,” tions has alarmed financial markets and Thursday that “extreme forces” could was “an emblematic figure of the old, Simitis said. caused Greek stocks to slide dramatical- take power in the crisis-hit country. “I discredited political class.” However, As the political uncertainty deep- ly for three days, although they showed think the Greeks ... know very well what independent MPs in particular faced a ened, Greek 10-year bonds spiked this signs of steadying on Friday. a wrong election result would mean for stark choice should they fail to back week and the Athens stock exchange The government will need 200 MPs in Greece and the euro-zone,” Juncker said Dimas, he added. “Most of them have lit- lost around 20 percent in three days. the first two votes to elect its candidate, on Austrian TV. “There is a chance that tle chance of re-election in a general Samaras has warned that early general former EU Environment Commissioner the helm of the country could be taken vote,” Diamantopoulos said. Among the elections could bring “turmoil.” “Markets TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Stavros Dimas, or 180 MPs in the third by extreme forces,” he said. Greece’s 24 independent deputies, some of in Greece and abroad ... are afraid that if leader Shinzo Abe (center) and party members gesture during election cam- and final vote. But it only has 155 MPs in presidential vote was supposed to be whom were originally elected with the a president is not elected and the coun- the 300-seat chamber. “We do not have held in February, but the government conservative and socialist parties in the try is led to early elections, there will be paigning in Tokyo yesterday. —AFP the number required,” deputy develop- suddenly decided to bring forward the ruling coalition, a few have declared in general turmoil,” the PM warned his ment minister Gerassimos Giakoumatos first ballot to December 17. The remain- favor of averting early elections. deputies. Syriza leader , a admitted this week. ing two rounds will be held on But Democratic Left, which has 10 40-year-old former Communist, has France, US uneasy bedfellows Prime Minister December 23 and 29. Samaras said the deputies, and the Independent Greeks, pledged to raise wages and pensions, hopes to find the remaining 25 deputies decision was made to remove political with 12, have officially announced they halt privatizations and re-negotiate as they seek Iran nuclear deal from among independent MPs and the uncertainty as Greece is currently locked will oppose Dimas. The leader of Greece’s bailout agreement with the EU- deputies of two smaller parties-centre- in negotiations with its international Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, IMF creditors. —AFP WASHINGTON: Publicly, they are the sake of an agreement,” a European diplo- best of friends working to seal a historic mat said.”We should not rush for a deal. It deal to stop Iran’s march to a nuclear would be a mistake from the six (powers) bomb. But behind closed doors, diplo- to rush. The pressure is on Iran.” During Women: the invisible mats from France and the the most recent failed round of talks, barely hide their frustration. For years, French Ambassador to the US Gerard France has been viewed as the toughest Araud tweeted that it was “a good poker member of the group of powers known game in Vienna. But, as usual, if you have issue in Japan election as the P5+1, after feeling burned in previ- the higher hand and keep your nerves, ous pacts under which Tehran covertly you will win.” “As the French have amply continued to advance its atomic ambi- demonstrated, Europe does not want a TOKYO: When voters go to the polls today to elect you not able to have a baby?” erupted in the chamber service. “Abe’s government is trying to use women tions. The P5+1 - Britain, China, France, deal at any cost,” wrote Riccardo Alcaro, Japan’s powerful lower house of parliament, only one out as Ayaka Shiomura spoke. One LDP man apologized in either as some sort of icing on a cake or as a tool to get Russia, the United States and Germany an expert with the Brookings Institution of every six candidates will be a woman. That is despite public, but others who took part were never identified. the economy going,” said Mizuho Nakayama, 44. For go back to the negotiating table next think tank. the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly Economists have been saying for years that Japan fellow mother Yuko Takato, 38, there needs to be some week in Geneva having failed to meet a “But of all the parties involved, the proclaimed his desire for Japan to be a country where needs to make better use of its well-educated but wholesale reforms of Japan’s male-dominated working November 24 deadline for a deal. Europeans are probably the most deter- women “shine”, where they would hold a third of all top underemployed women, and could go a long way to environment. They have set a new target date of mined to settle the Iranian nuclear issue. jobs by 2020, and despite the fact that almost as many plugging its labor gap if more of them worked. While “It remains difficult for women to climb the career June 30 to reach a pact that would end Indeed, they conceive their role in the women as men will be voting. “I don’t see it being dis- women are well represented in badly-paid, part-time ladder and have children when companies have no 12 years of protracted negotiations with negotiations as preventing the worst cussed at all as a focus of the election,” said Kaori Sasaki, work, a mere 1.2 percent of executives at 3,600 listed systems to help, and there is no real support from the the Islamic republic. But despite public instincts of the Americans and the president and CEO of consulting firm ewoman. assertions of unity among the global Iranians from spoiling the process.” This Abe called the election last month, just halfway powers, Western diplomats confirm there time on his way to Vienna, Kerry took through a four-year term, labeling the vote a referendum is a diplomatic fencing match behind the care to fully brief Fabius first in Paris, on “Abenomics”-his signature blend of monetary easing, scenes between Paris and Washington. amid concern the French diplomat might fiscal largesse and promised structural reforms. While One of France’s main concerns is the resort to more public grandstanding that there is now plenty of easy money floating around and incomplete Arak heavy water reactor, could scupper the delicate negotiations. the stimulus taps are wide open, the work of reform- which when it eventually comes online Indeed, in Geneva in 2013, the global including making it easier for women to combine a could be used to make plutonium for an powers left empty-handed after Fabius’s career and a family-has barely begun. The last two years have been big on prime ministerial rhetoric about get- atomic bomb. intervention, only reaching an interim ting rid of the glass ceiling, including the goal of getting Paris is said to have pushed for strin- deal two weeks later. women into 30 percent of senior positions by the time of gent inspections of Iran’s nuclear energy the Tokyo Olympics, but short on results, said Sasaki. program, and a broad dismantling of Grumbling “He may no longer be prime minister in 2020, which facilities and centrifuges. Amid great The former French ambassador to makes it a bit unclear if he is seriously committed to uncertainty over whether a deal is possi- Iran, Francois Nicoullaud said that “fun- achieving that target,” she said. In the current 480 seat ble despite hours and hours of tense damentally Fabius was not wrong to say lower house of parliament, just 39 seats-eight percent- negotiations, this distrust between the a year ago that it was not a done deal.” are held by women. That places Japan 129th out of 189 two transatlantic allies could prove the “But Kerry didn’t want to see such a scan- countries in a ranking compiled by the Inter- weakest link in the P5+1 bloc. Privately, dal happen again and took care to make Parliamentary Union, a Geneva-based organization of American officials say there has been sure he kept everyone in the loop. “I don’t parliaments. By comparison, 45 percent of Swedish law- concern in Washington over the French think France is in a position to block” a makers are women, 23 percent in Britain and 20 percent position of publicly playing hardball, but deal,” he said, adding: “the French are not in Saudi Arabia. And the gender balance in the Japanese then not backing up their words in the making any effort. They are just follow- parliament isn’t about to get a great deal better. Abe’s rul- negotiations. In November 2013, ing, grumbling.” US expert Kelsey ing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is fielding women in angered by US Secretary of State John Davenport, from the Arms Control less than 12 percent of the seats they are fighting. Overall, Kerry’s sudden appearance at the talks in Association, agreed. 198 of the 1191 - 16.6 percent-of the candidates in this Geneva, French Foreign Minister Laurent “There are minor differences between election are women, and none of the main parties is led Fabius showed up, talking tough against the US and France on substantive ele- by one. TOKYO: Miki Seta (center), a member of the ‘Ikereru Joshikai’ (The Angry Girls Group) gives a flyer of an opposition candidate to a female voter for today general election the proposed contours of a deal and ments. Both sides have admitted that,” in Tokyo. —AFP seemingly threw a wrench in the works. she said. “What is critical is that France Endemic and the United States share the same This, say critics, feeds into an atmosphere in the ‘Robust’ deal goals about what a good agreement governing classes where sexism is endemic. Just last companies are female. country,” she said. But for ewoman’s Sasaki, having a As for the French, they are concerned must accomplish.” Any deal “must block week, Finance Minister Taro Aso was forced into an In speech after speech, Abe has urged the country prime minister who will even talk about it is a good that the Obama administration, under Iran’s uranium and plutonium pathways apology after saying “people who don’t give birth” are to open up to “womenomics”, encouraging some of start. “Members of the LDP are primarily very conser- at the root of Japan’s ageing society. That came after an Japan’s biggest firms-including Toyota, Panasonic and vative” and reflect Japan’s traditionally paternalistic fire for its disjointed foreign policy, badly to the bomb and put in place stringent episode earlier this year that grabbed attention around All Nippon Airways-to announce targets for boosting values, she said. “I don’t want to discourage Abe by needs a success and despite its asser- monitoring and verification to ensure the world when a young Tokyo assemblywoman was the number of female executives. For political lobbying criticizing the whole campaign. It is epoch-making tions to the contrary wants an Iran deal that there are no covert activities and any heckled during a debate on helping the city’s mothers. group Ikareru Joshikai (“The Angry Girls Group”) the that the prime minister keeps speaking out for this at almost any price. “We want a robust deviation from an agreement is immedi- Shouts of “Why don’t you get married?” and “Are prime minister’s talk of womenomics is patronizing lip cause.” —AFP agreement, not an agreement for the ately detected,” added Davenport. —AFP