News Headlines - 10 September 2020
▽Yukio Edano elected chief of new CDP, Japan’s top opposition party | The Japan Times
Yukio Edano was on Thursday elected the inaugural president of Japan’s largest opposition party, the newly expanded Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, amid talk among some ruling party members of a possible snap general election, perhaps as early as next month.
Edano, 56, received 107 of the votes cast by the 149 Diet members who comprise the new party. Challenger Kenta Izumi, 46, who had been the policy chief of the Democratic Party for the People, garnered 42 votes.
There had also been a debate over whether to keep the CDP name for the new party, as Edano wanted, or call it the Democratic Party of Japan, as many members from the Democratic Party for the People preferred. In the end, 94 of the 149 lawmakers voted to continue to be called the CDP.
▽18 million yen stolen via NTT Docomo's e-money service
About 18 million yen ($170,000) has been stolen from bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo Inc.'s e-money service since August, an executive of Japan's biggest mobile carrier said Thursday, prompting police to begin an investigation into a suspected scam.
As of Thursday, 66 cases of unauthorized withdrawals from accounts at 11 banks connected to the e-money service had been confirmed, according to NTT Docomo.
Tensions along the disputed India-China border seem to be getting worse, three months after their deadliest confrontation in decades.
The Asian giants accused each other this week of sending soldiers into the other's territory and fired warning shots for the first time in 45 years, raising the specter of full-scale military conflict.
Their foreign ministers are expected to discuss the simmering dispute in Moscow on Thursday on the sidelines of a regional security and economic meeting.
▽South African economy contracts 51% q/q in Q2 | Reuters
South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 51.0% quarter on quarter in the second quarter of 2020, the fourth contraction in a row, data from the statistics agency showed on Tuesday.
GDP shrank 17.1% year on year in the three months to the end of June, reflecting the impact of the country’s tough lockdown to contain the coronavirus.
▽Terminally ill Frenchman Alain Cocq abandons starvation plan - The Straits Times
A Frenchman stricken by a terminal illness on Wednesday (Sept 9) said he had decided to eat again, despite earlier vowing to starve himself to death in a closely watched right-to-die case... He had planned to stream his death on Facebook but the tech giant said at the weekend it would block it.
Cocq said he had been fed with his permission and could go home in the next 10 days, which would allow enough time to recover and a have a medical team installed at home.
