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US govt sued over sea turtles snared in shrimp nets

Tens of thousands of endangered sea turtles die every year in the United States when they are inadvertently snared in shrimp nets, an environmental group alleged in a lawsuit filed against the government. The Southeast shrimp trawl industry, the largest in the United States, kills some 53,000 of the turtles each year in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, the advocacy group Oceana said. "If people knew that their order of shrimp cocktail came with a side of government-authorized sea turtle they would be horrified," said Oceana assistant general counsel Eric Bilsky. "Studies have shown TEDs are 97 percent effective at preventing sea turtle deaths when used correctly, yet the Fisheries Service is not enforcing their use, or even requiring TEDs in all vessels that can use them," Bilsky added.

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Indonesian Islamic parties seek ban on alcohol consumption

By Eveline Danubrata and Michael Taylor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Two Islamic parties have proposed legislation to ban all consumption of alcoholic drinks and hand jail terms of up to two years to offenders in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population. "This is not a religious or ideological issue," Abdul Hakim of the Prosperous Justice Party told Reuters. "This is purely for the protection of the children of the nation." The bill aims to ban the sale, production, distribution and consumption of beverages with an alcohol content exceeding one percent, including local brews such as rice wine popular in many parts of the sprawling archipelago. To become law it would have to be signed by President Joko Widodo, who has adopted a hard line against drug offenders since taking office last October.

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China to strengthen surveillance, security in anti-terror push

China will establish a national population database linked to ID information and credit records, state media reported late on Monday, as part of a larger push to beef up surveillance and security in response to violent unrest. China has already taken a series of measures to prevent attacks by extremists, including plans for an anti-terrorism law that would give the government broader surveillance powers and offering to pay for tips about violent plots. The latest steps also include assigning more security forces to public transport, including buses, trains and subways, as well as to schools, financial institutions and hospitals, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement issued by the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council, China's cabinet. In addition, China will require identification when registering at hotels, for trade of second-hand goods, for motor refitting and for "recreation services", Xinhua said, without specifying the type of recreation.

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Republicans launch opening salvos against Hillary Clinton

Many Republicans, including two presidential candidates, other possible contenders and party activists, quickly mounted a full-force campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday, with some starting the fight before her official announcement that she was running for president. The nominating conventions for both parties are more than a year away, and the November 2016 election is 19 months in the future, but Clinton has long been considered her party's front-runner and Republicans have been revving up to oppose her run. On Sunday afternoon, a photo of the former secretary of state topped the home page of GOP.com, the website for the Republican National Committee, adorned with a stop sign reading "Stop Hillary." Republican shots came throughout the day in messages to supporters, statements, interviews and tweets that attacked Clinton's entire career, including her time as first lady when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, occupied the Oval Office.

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A year after ferry disaster, safety concerns persist in S. Korea

By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - Nearly a year after her 16-year-old daughter was among 304 people killed when an overloaded ferry capsized, Park Eun-mi says not much has changed when it comes to safety in South Korea. "Even after what we've been through, I wonder why society doesn't change, and how people so quickly forget," said Park, surrounded in her apartment by photographs of her daughter, who is among nine victims of the ferry disaster whose body has yet to be recovered. Public safety was mostly an afterthought in South Korea's decades of rampant economic growth, defined by an attitude of "pali, pali," or "hurry, hurry." The Sewol ferry disaster on April 16 last year led to much soul-searching - the majority of the victims were, like Park's daughter, teenagers on a school outing. The total number of ship accidents in South Korea, for example, rose in 2014 as did the incidence of fires and the number of people killed in them.

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Seven injured in explosion on Thai tourist island

The explosion occurred on Friday night in the basement car park of Central Festival mall on Samui island as late-night shoppers were still inside the building. The bomb squad will investigate this morning," said colonel Apichart Boonsriroj, police commander of Surat Thani province on the mainland. "Six Thais and a 12-year-old girl were treated for minor injuries," said Poonsak Sophonsasmorong of the island's disaster prevention office. The explosion, which damaged several nearby cars, sparked local media speculation that it may have been a car bomb linked to a festering insurgency in Thailand's southernmost provinces, some 400 kilometres ( 250 miles) further south.

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Samsung banks on new smartphone roll-out

Samsung rolled out its new smartphone in South Korea and 20 other countries on Friday in a bid to restore its role as market leader. The Galaxy S6 and its curved-edge variant, the Galaxy S6 Edge, went on sale in South Korea, home of the electronic giant, as well as Europe, the United States and markets in the Asia-Pacific such as Australia, Singapore and India. Samsung, labouring under the burden of successive quarters of plunging profits and booming sales of arch-rival Apple's iPhone 6, is hoping that new phone will reverse the company's fortunes. First unveiled in March, the two new phones have received rave reviews and fuelled Samsung's hopes of a market comeback after the Galaxy S5 failed to make a significant impact.

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Japan Emperor mourns Japanese, U.S. war dead on Pacific isle

By Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two this year, offered flowers and prayers on Thursday at a memorial to those who died in a fierce fighting on the Pacific isle of Peleliu. About 10,000 Japanese defenders, fighting in the name of Akihito's father, Emperor Hirohito, died in a two-month battle in 1944 on Palau's tiny Peleliu island along with about 1,600 American troops. Unaware Japan had surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, 34 Japanese soldiers hid in the jungle until April 1947. With the blue ocean sparkling in the background, Akihito, wearing an open-necked white shirt, and Michiko, clad in an ivory suit with a grey lapel, bowed deeply before laying bouquets of white chrysanthemums at a memorial erected by Japan's government to those who died in the region in the war.

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Red Cross says situation 'catastrophic' in Yemen's Aden

The Red Cross warned of a "catastrophic" situation in Yemen's main southern city Aden, as forces loyal to the president battled Iran-backed Shiite rebels in the streets. The Huthi rebels and their allies made a new push on a port in the central Mualla district of the city, but were forced back by militia supporting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, witnesses said. Naval forces of the Saudi-led coalition, which has carried out nearly two weeks of air strikes in support of Hadi, shelled rebel positions across the city, the witnesses said, though the coalition denied launching a naval combat operation. International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Marie Claire Feghali said the humanitarian situation across Yemen was "very difficult... (with) naval, air and ground routes cut off." The situation in Aden was "catastrophic to say the least".

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Radiation from Fukushima disaster newly detected off Canada's coast

By Courtney Sherwood PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - Radiation from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has for the first time been detected along a North American shoreline, though at levels too low to pose a significant threat to human or marine life, scientists said on Monday. Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were detected in samples collected on Feb. 19 off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in Canada's British Columbia, said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Ken Buesseler. For example, swimming in the Vancouver Island water every day for a year would provide a dose of radiation less than a thousand times smaller than a single dental X-ray, Woods Hole said. In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima nuclear plant, 130 miles (209 km) northeast of Tokyo, sparking triple nuclear meltdowns, forcing more than 160,000 residents to flee from nearby towns, and contaminating water, food and air.

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