News Headlines - 09 April 2019

▽Japan's air force loses contact with F-35 stealth fighter - Reuters

Japan’s military said on Tuesday it lost contact with one of its Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters over the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan.
Japan’s first squadron of F-35s has just become operational at the Misawa air base and the government plans to buy 87 of the stealth fighters to modernize its air defenses as China’s military power grows.

▽In video, ousted Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn claims he's a victim of 'conspiracy' | The Japan Times

In a highly anticipated video released Tuesday, Carlos Ghosn characterizes his ousting from the automaker he led for 20 years as “a conspiracy” by “selfish” Nissan executives afraid to forge ahead in its alliance with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Renault SA... According to Junichiro Hironaka, one of his lawyers, Ghosn originally named individuals as masterminds of the conspiracy, but the defense team redacted those names at their discretion after getting consent from Ghosn. The video was aired to journalists a day after Nissan formally expelled Ghosn, who faces charges of financial misconduct and breach of trust, from its board at an extraordinary shareholders meeting.

▽Japan to have new banknotes in 2024, one featuring Hokusai's 'Great Wave'

Japanese banknotes will be redesigned for the first time in two decades in 2024 with one of them featuring possibly the country's most iconic art piece in the world -- ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," the government said Tuesday.
The famous woodblock print from the "Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji" series by Hokusai (1760-1849) that depicts a large frothy wave with Japan's highest peak in the background will be printed on the reverse side of the 1,000 yen bill, Finance Minister Taro Aso said in a news conference.
In the first design overhaul since 2004, Japan will also introduce new 10,000 yen and 5,000 yen bills with cutting-edge anti-counterfeiting protections.

▽Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders found guilty in 2014 protests - Nikkei Asian Review

Nine leaders of Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy Occupy Central movement were found guilty on Tuesday for their involvement in the protests that paralyzed the financial hub for 79 days.
The defendants, aged 24 to 75, on Tuesday called on people in Hong Kong to continue the fight for democracy, as hundreds of supporters chanted slogans outside a district court in West Kowloon where the verdict was delivered.
The verdict was the latest in a series of jail sentences against high-profile protesters in the former British colony amid growing international criticism of the erosion of the city's freedoms and autonomy as Beijing tightens its grip. The sentences will be handed down on a later date.

▽Oregon woman lived 99 years with organs on the wrong side of her body

A 99-year-old Oregon woman may have died not knowing that many of her organs were not where they should've been.
Rose Marie Bentley is thought to be the oldest person with a rare condition called situs inversus with levocardia, meaning that her heart was in the right place, but her liver and other abdominal organs grew on the left side of her body - the opposite of typical human anatomy.