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ISTANBUL – Dr. Mehdi Davut smiles as he describes his planned return to his homeland Syria for the first time in eight years to see how his aid association can help in Aleppo, a major city seized by rebels last week. “The liberation of Aleppo brought us such joy because Aleppo was a source of pain,” he said in Istanbul, where some half a million Syrians live. Syrian rebels captured Aleppo from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, bringing hopes of return among hundreds of thousands exiled from the city, which has been under Assad’s control since 2016. On Thursday, rebels also captured the city of Hama. Source link

London – There are few accolades missing from Beatles songwriter Paul McCartney’s stellar career, and now he is to be recognized with a collection of £5 ($6.35, ¥956) coins, the U.K.’s Royal Mint said Friday. The 82-year-old composer of timeless hits such as “Yesterday,” “Let it Be” and “Hey Jude” helped design the coin, and said being the star of the collection was “a huge honor.” “It’s not anything I would have ever expected to happen when I was a kid,” he added. The coin’s design features the psychedelic “magic piano” featured in the 1967 “Magical Mystery Tour” film, music notes chosen by McCartney, a bass guitar and the logo of his post-Beatles band Wings. “Our coins recognize the greatest icons and events in British history, so it’s fitting that Paul McCartney’s remarkable music career is now celebrated on an official U.K. coin,” said Rebecca Morgan, director of commemorative coin at the Royal Mint. “What makes this coin extra special is that Paul has been involved throughout the design process … and we hope fans will enjoy the layered references to songs, instruments and bands,” she added. McCartney has sold more than 100 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide and has just begun the European leg of his “Got Back” tour. The coins can be bought on the Royal Mint’s website, with prices starting from £15.50 (¥2,964). The Royal Mint will also next year auction a gold coin that weighs 5 kilograms, took over 250 hours to make and is signed by McCartney. The £5-coin is issued as a souvenir for special occasions. They are not in ordinary circulation. Source link

SYDNEY – One in five priority counter-terrorism cases investigated by Australia involved youth, the country’s spy chief said on Friday, as the “Five Eyes” intelligence partners warned about the radicalization of young “digital natives.” Mental health, education and social services needed to intervene in many cases before the behavior of minors became a police issue, said a research paper by the Five Eyes, which also include the U.S., Canada, Britain and New Zealand. “Around 20% of ASIO’s priority counter-terrorism cases involve young people. In every one of the terrorist attacks, disruptions and suspected terrorist incidents in Australia this year, the alleged perpetrator was a young person,” Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said in a statement. Source link

The household spending fell at a slower pace than forecast in October, but while the broader consumption trends remained soft the Bank of Japan is still expected to raise rates again to normalize monetary conditions after a decade of easy policy. Some analysts say a recovery in wages would eventually spur consumers to loosen their purse strings and encourage the BOJ to keep pushing borrowing costs higher. “Even in this situation, the BOJ is saying that consumption is firm,” said Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Source link

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he was appointing former PayPal Chief Operating Officer David Sacks as his “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,” another step towards overhauling U.S. policy. “He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.,” Trump said in a post on his social-media site Truth Social, without saying whether “czar” was an official title. The crypto czar and other officials in Trump’s incoming administration such as the chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are expected to reshape U.S. policy on digital currency along with a newly created crypto advisory council. Source link

When a 50-year-old man in Oita died after the car he was driving was hit by another vehicle that was driven at 194 kilometers per hour on a street with a 60 kph speed limit, his bereaved family was certain that the suspect would be charged with dangerous driving. To their surprise, prosecutors indicted the young driver of the other vehicle on a more lenient charge of negligent driving resulting in death, which carries up to seven years in prison. It prompted the family to gather 28,000 signatures to petition for the 19-year-old driver to be tried for fatal dangerous driving, which is punishable with up to 20 years in prison. The teenager had wanted to see how fast the car he was driving could go. Source link

The health ministry revealed Thursday its final draft for overhauling its organ transplant system, which would enable patients to register with multiple hospitals for such surgeries. The policy, set to be implemented by the end of the fiscal year, aims to address situations in which high-priority patients miss out on transplants due to logistical issues, such as staffing shortages or the unavailability of operating rooms at designated hospitals. Currently, patients seeking transplants must register with a single hospital on the Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT). If a hospital declines an organ due to such logistical or other issues, it is instead offered to a patient at another facility. Allowing multiple registrations is expected to increase the likelihood for high-priority patients to receive transplants. To aid patients in the selection of hospitals, JOT will also publish data on waiting lists and the number of transplants performed at each facility. The reform proposal, approved by an expert panel, also includes creating regional entities to share JOT’s responsibilities for organ allocation. These organizations will handle discussions with families of potential brain-dead donors about organ donation and consent processes, while JOT will focus on selecting transplant recipients. The ministry plans to gather public feedback on the proposal and revise its guidelines under the Organ Transplant Law accordingly. Translated by The Japan Times Source link

Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed concern about political upheaval in South Korea undermining progress in bilateral relations. “Political stability in South Korea is crucial for advancing Japan-South Korea relations,” Kishida said in an interview on Thursday after a stunning move by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to impose and later revoke martial law. Kishida, who left office in September, formed a warm relationship with Yoon over frequent meetings, sometimes in casual settings over drinks. Ties between the nations became as close as they have been in recent decades, leading to a range of cooperation, including the creation of a system to directly share real-time information about North Korean missile launches. Source link

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Tokyo intends to pick up trade talks with President-elect Donald Trump with an understanding that the elimination of tariffs on cars and auto parts will be on the agenda. The understanding was made five years ago during Trump’s first term, according to Iwaya, as the two nations struck a trade deal that gave U.S. farmers greater access to the Japanese market while Tokyo was able to dodge extra tariffs on its auto exports to the United States. “In the annex of the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement, the U.S. side has included automobiles and automobile parts in the list of items for which further negotiations on tariff elimination will be held,” Iwaya said in parliament on Friday. “Negotiations will be held on the assumption that tariffs will be eliminated.” Source link

The long-held precept that a weak yen is a good thing for Japanese stocks may finally be put to rest, as the breakdown in their correlation accelerates amid divergence in global monetary policy. Since its big summer crash, the Topix has been stuck in a narrow trading band even as the yen has swung between a 14-month high of ¥139.58 per dollar in mid-September and a mid-November low of ¥156.75, which was not far from its 38-year trough in July. The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months, with the coefficient of determination — a measure of linkage between two separate data — between the two assets at almost zero. That’s far below the 0.50 mark that is often considered indicating some kind of relationship. Source link