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,
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Difficulty
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# 30
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
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Solution to
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Puzzle #12368 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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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.