News Headlines - 10 January 2014

▽Shinzo Abe risks ties with China in tribute to war criminals - The Washington Post

By Cui Tiankai, Published: January 10
Cui Tiankai is China’s ambassador to the United States. He was China’s ambassador to Japan from 2007 to 2009.

▽BBC News - Japan and China criticise each other's Africa policies

China and Japan are criticising each other's policies in Africa as each country pledges more money for the continent. Japan has suggested China is buying off African leaders with lavish gifts.
Meanwhile China accuses Japan of courting African support for a place on the United National Security Council.

▽BBC News - New titleholder? China says it is world's largest trader

China's latest trade figures show it is "very likely" to have overtaken the US as the world's largest trader. It would topple the position that the US has held for much of the last century and cross another milestone in rivalling the biggest economy in the world.

▽François Hollande's Affair: Scandal Reveals a Changing France | TIME.com

Technically, though, French law was on his side. Legal restrictions on snooping in France are some of the harshest in the world, imposing major fines and even a possible jail term on newspaper editors who expose the private lives of citizens. As the scandal spread, Hollande invoked those laws on Friday by threatening to sue the French magazine Closer for invading his privacy. “A terrible mistake,” says Yair Cohen, a lawyer whose London-based firm, Cohen Davis Solicitors, specializes in stopping the viral spread of defamatory information.

▽Lions Approach Extinction in West Africa

Lions may soon disappear entirely from West Africa unless conservation efforts improve, a new study predicts.
The study, published January 8 in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE, presents "sobering results" of a survey that took six years and covered 11 countries.