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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2018)
ASIA / PACIFIC February 5, 2018 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3 Japan public TV sends mistaken North Korean missile alert By Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press OKYO — Japan’s public broadcaster mistakenly sent an alert warning citizens of a North Korean missile launch and urging them to seek immediate shelter, then minutes later corrected it, days after a similar error in Hawai‘i. NHK television issued the message on its internet and mobile news sites as well as on Twitter, saying North Korea appeared to have fired a missile at Japan. It said the government was telling people to evacuate and take shelter. “North Korea appears to have fired a missile,” NHK said, adding that a government warning had been issued. “The government: Seek shelter inside buildings and basements.” The false alarm came days after Hawai‘i’s Emergency Management Agency sent a mistaken warning of a North Korean missile attack to mobile phones across the state, triggering panic. NHK said the mistake was the result of an error by a staff member who was operating the alert system for online news, but did not elaborate. NHK deleted the tweet and text warning after several minutes, issued a correction, and apologized several times on air and on other formats. “The flash was a mistake,” NHK said. “We are very sorry.” Tension has grown in Japan over North Korean missile tests as they have flown closer to Japanese coasts. NHK and other Japanese media generally alert each missile test, and the government has issued emergency notices when the T GENDER GAP. A woman participates in a rally against female feticide in New Delhi, India, in this December 10, 2006 file photo. The birth of a son is often a cause for celebration and family pride, while the birth of a daughter can be a time of embarrassment and even mourning as parents look toward the immense debts they’ll need to take on to pay for marriage dowries. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File) 63 million women, girls missing due to India’s preference for boys have poorer nutrition, and get less medical attention. Many women — including educated, wealthy women — say they face intense pressure, most often from mothers-in-law, to have sons. By analyzing birth rates and the gender of last-born children, the report also estimated that more than 21 million Indian girls are not wanted by their families. “The challenge of gender is long- standing, probably going back millennia,” wrote the report’s author, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, noting that India must “confront the societal preference for boys.” The report also noted that increasing wealth does not mean an end to male preferences among families, with some comparatively wealthy areas, including New Delhi, faring worse over the years. Many of the best scores for women’s development, the report noted, were in India’s northeast — “a model for the rest of the country” — a cluster of states that hang off the country’s edge where most people are ethnically closer to China and Myanmar, and where some people don’t even see themselves as Indian. NEW DELHI (AP) — A deeply felt preference for boys has left more than 63 million women statistically “missing” across India, and more than 21 million girls unwanted by their families, govern- ment officials say. The skewed ratio of men to women is largely the result of sex-selective abor- tions and better nutrition and medical care for boys, according to the government’s annual economic survey, which was released in January. In addition, the survey found that “families where a son is born are more likely to stop having children than families where a girl is born.” Statistics indicate that India has 63 million fewer women than it should have, scientists say, a “missing” population explained by sex-selective abortions and a range of other issues. The birth of a son is often a cause for celebration and family pride, while the birth of a daughter can be a time of embarrassment and even mourning as parents look toward the immense debts they’ll need to take on to pay for marriage dowries. Studies have long shown that Indian girls are less educated than boys, 1 2 3 4 6 7 5 5 1 3 8 6 7 1 1 5 9 7 Difficulty HARD 2 5 4 6 2 8 9 level: Hard 4 #12674 # 30 Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1 through 9 appear one time each in every row, col- umn, and 3x3 box. Solution to last issue’s puzzle Puzzle #12368 (Medium) All solutions available at <www.sudoku.com>. 1 6 3 5 7 2 8 4 9 4 8 2 1 6 9 3 5 7 7 5 9 8 3 4 2 1 6 9 3 5 6 8 1 4 7 2 2 1 6 3 4 7 5 9 8 8 4 7 9 2 5 1 6 3 3 2 1 7 5 6 9 8 4 5 7 4 2 9 8 6 3 1 6 9 8 4 1 3 7 2 5 ALARMING ALERT. A smartphone shows the NHK television news website saying “North Korea ap- pears to have fired a missile” and “The government: Seek shelter inside buildings and basements” (second from top) in Tokyo. Japan’s public broadcaster mis- takenly sent an alert warning citizens of a North Korean missile launch and urging them to seek immediate shelter, then minutes later, corrected it, top, days after a similar error in Hawai‘i. The top message reads: “The flash of North Korea’s missile launch was a mistake.” (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) missiles flew over Japan. Japan is also stepping up its missile intercepting capabilities and conducting missile drills across the country in which residents, including schoolchildren and elderly people, rush to community centers, cover their heads, and duck down to the floor. Unlike the mistaken Hawai‘i warning, the NHK alert did not contain the statement, “This is not a drill.” NHK was able to correct its error in a few minutes, far faster than the nearly 40 minutes that lapsed before the Hawai‘i alert was withdrawn. The Hawai‘i agency has now changed its protocols to require that two people send an alert and made it easier to cancel a false alarm. Indian Muslim cleric says women watching soccer un-Islamic LUCKNOW, India (AP) — A senior cleric at an influential Islamic seminary in northern India has issued a religious decree saying that Muslim women should not watch men playing soccer. Mufti Athar Kasmi said that watching men “playing with bare knees” violated the tenets of Islam. Kasmi is cleric at Darul Uloom, Asia’s largest Sunni Muslim semi- nary in the northern town of Deoband. Kasmi’s decree comes even as the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed women to watch matches in soccer stadiums in January. The Islamic seminary’s rigid interpreta- tion of Islam is the ideological foundation for many hardline religious groups includ- ing the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The majority of Indian Muslims are Sunni but the country’s secular constitution ensures that decrees such as Kasmi’s have no legal force.