News Headlines - 19 March 2019

▽Olympics: Japan chief Takeda to quit as corruption probe continues | Reuters

Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) chief Tsunekazu Takeda, who is under investigation for suspected corruption, said on Tuesday he will step down when his term ends in June and resign from the International Olympic Committee.

▽Concern raised over SKorean treatment of Bloomberg reporter

International journalists’ organizations are criticizing the status of press freedom in South Korea after the country’s ruling party singled out a Bloomberg reporter with South Korean nationality over what it claimed was a “borderline traitorous” article insulting President Moon Jae-in, resulting in threats to the reporter’s safety.
The Democratic Party initially said Tuesday that it had no immediate plans to withdraw a March 13 statement by spokesman Lee Hae-sik, who attacked the reporter by name over a September article whose headline described the liberal Moon as acting as the “top spokesman” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the U.N. General Assembly.

▽Former sumo wrestler Baruto becomes lawmaker in Estonia - The Japan News

Former sumo wrestler Kaido Hoovelson from Estonia, who went by his ring name Baruto in Japan, has become a lawmaker in his home country.
Hoovelson, 34, said on Twitter on Sunday that he was elected to Estonia’s parliament, although he initially lost in the March 3 poll as a runner-up. According to the Estonian public broadcaster, a victorious candidate who belongs to the same party as Hoovelson declined to take up the parliamentary seat in order to stay on as a town mayor. The former sumo wrestler was given the seat as a result.

▽More than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique storm | AFP.com

More than a thousand people are feared to have died in a cyclone that smashed into Mozambique last week, while scores were killed and more than 200 are missing in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
The city of Beira in central Mozambique bore Cyclone Idai's full wrath on Thursday before the storm barrelled on to neighbouring Zimbabwe, unleashing fierce winds and flash floods and washing away roads and houses.

▽May seeking Brexit delay to June 30 with option of 2-year extension -BBC | Reuters

British Prime Minister Theresa May will write to the European Union on Tuesday to ask for a Brexit extension until the end of June and with a possible two-year delay, the BBC’s political editor said... the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg said on Twitter after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting: “Cabinet sources say PM is writing letter to EU today asking for extension - frustration that she is going to ask for end date of June 30th, with proviso of delay of up to 2 years.”