Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe answers questions during a budget committee session of the upper house in Tokyo last week. KAZUHIRO NOGI / AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE Abe hits back as support dives TOKYO - Japan's embattled prime minister hit back on Monday at critics over a favoritism and cover-up scandal that has seen his popularity plunge and loosened his iron grip on power. In a hotly awaited statement in parliament, Shinzo Abe stressed he had not ordered bureaucrats to alter documents relating to a controversial land sale as he comes under mounting pressure over the scandal. I did not direct that the documents be altered, he said. In fact, I didn't even know that they existed at all, so how could I have done that? The scandal surrounds the 2016 sale of state-owned land to a nationalist operator of schools who claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie. The sale was clinched at a price well below market value amid allegations that the high-level connections helped grease the deal. Versions of the original and doctored documents made public by opposition lawmakers appeared to show passing references to Abe were scrubbed, along with several references to his wife Akie and Finance Minister Taro Aso. Aso has blamed the alterations on some staff members at the ministry. But Jiro Yamaguchi, a politics professor at Hosei University in Tokyo, said the public was not at all convinced by this explanation. Why was the land sold at a discount price? Without any political pressure, this could never happen, and voters are angry about it, said Yamaguchi. The prime minister repeated an apology, saying he keenly felt his responsibility over the scandal that has shaken people's confidence in government administration. The affair is hitting Abe's ratings hard, with a new poll in the Asahi Shimbun showing public support nose-diving by 13 percentage points from the previous month to 31 percent. The figure is the lowest approval rating for Abe in the poll since his return to power at the end of 2012. AFP - Reuters order rubber bracelets cheaprubber bracelets cheappink breast cancer silicone wristbandssilicone wristbands onlinecheap silicone bracelets canada
South Korean ousted leader Park Geun-hye arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, Aug 25, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] SEOUL - The corruption verdict and sentencing of South Korea's ousted ex-president Park Geun-hye will be televised live, a Seoul court said on Tuesday, in a case that could see her jailed for up to 30 years. The 66-year-old daughter of a former leader was impeached and arrested in March 2017 over a wide-ranging corruption scandal that exposed shady links between big business and politics and prompted massive street protests. The Seoul Central District Court said it would allow the verdict and sentencing of Park, set for Friday afternoon, to be broadcast live in light of high public interest - the first time a trial has been televised live in South Korea. Park has been boycotting her trial hearings since the court extended her detention last October, accusing the institution of being biased against her. Even though she is widely expected not to attend Friday's verdict and sentencing, she has asked the court not to allow live TV coverage of the hearing. Prosecutors have demanded a 30-year-jail sentence and a 118.5 billion won ($110 million) fine for Park, saying she must take responsibility for the scandal as the former president. Park is accused of colluding with her secret confidante and longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been convicted, for taking tens of millions of dollars from conglomerates in return for policy favors. Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison, five years less than prosecutors had demanded. Park's downfall gave the left-leaning Democratic Party the upper hand in the presidential election last May, which was easily won by Moon Jae-in. Park has been in custody for almost a year at a detention center near Seoul, where she has refused to see any visitors, including her brother and sister, except for her two lawyers. Aside from the 30 to 60 minutes in which she is allowed to take her daily outdoor walk, she confines herself to her 10-square meter solitary cell, spending most of the day reading novels and cartoons and writing what might be a memoir, according to local news reports. She eats every meal but usually leaves half of the portion, the reports said, adding that she has recently purchased two books on stretching as she is reportedly suffering from arthritis on her knees and back pain. Agence France - Presse
