Japan's Abe backs Putin with visit, in contrast to China, Korea ties

Japan 's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe headed to Russia on Friday in a show of support for President Vladimir Putin at the Sochi Olympics, just hours after headlining a rally demanding that Moscow return islands seized from Japan . Abe's trip to attend the Games and hold his fifth summit with Putin since taking office 13 months ago, despite the seven-decade territorial dispute, stands in marked contrast to Japan 's sharply deteriorating ties with China and South Korea, involving spats over tiny uninhabited islands. For Putin, the appearance of G7 leader Abe at Friday's opening ceremony provides a high-profile seal of approval. The Russian leader faces global criticism over the country's human rights record and a recent law against gay "propaganda," which opponents say curtails the rights of homosexuals. U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German President Joachim Gauck are not attending the Games. The U.S. delegation includes three openly gay representatives. Russia's domestic policies have not provoked controversy in Japan , but the territorial dispute forms the backdrop to Abe's trip. He left after addressing an annual "Northern Territories Day" gathering, meant to pressure Russia to return the islands, which Russia says comprise the southern end of its Kurile chain. "While developing Japan -Russia ties as a whole, we have to finally solve the biggest so-far unresolved issue, that is the Northern Territories issue, and to sign the peace treaty with Russia," said Abe addressing the gathering in Tokyo. "This is why I will engage in tenacious negotiations with Russia," Abe added, speaking from a stage with the slogan "Return the Four Northern Islands" and the Japan ese flag at his back. Also attending were ministers, lawmakers and representatives of political parties, as well as former island residents. One woman who used to live on the islands broke down in tears as she recounted how she had been made to leave. Moscow took the islands east of Hokkaido days before Japan surrendered in World War Two, forcing 17,000 Japan ese to leave. The often acrimonious dispute has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty. Abe and Putin - said to be on a first-name basis - have not let the dispute block progress in diplomacy centering on natural gas and other resources. By contrast, the leaders of China and Korea have rebuffed Abe's repeated calls to meet. Besides the isle spats, Abe angered Beijing and Seoul with a December pilgrimage to a shrine they see as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism. Russia, too, criticized the shrine visit, but did not let it derail ties with Japan . Abe's Sochi trip is "a manifestation that country-to-country relations are moving in a good direction," said former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, who has longstanding ties with Russia and has done much of the legwork for Abe's bilateral diplomacy. Mori told reporters the two sides are trying to arrange for Putin to visit Japan in the autumn. Abe has made ties with Russia a priority, starting with a first-in-a-decade Moscow summit. Talks are to continue this year, although neither side expects a swift end to the dispute. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed the opening of the talks in Moscow last month but stressed that recognition of the outcome of the war would be vital. Moscow wants to bolster its position in East Asia as it warily watches the growth of China's influence in the region. "Putin, for his part, just like Obama, is shifting towards East Asia," said Nobuo Shimotomai, professor at Hosei University in Tokyo. "He aims to do that by playing Russia's soft-power trump card, that is by selling energy to the region's countries," he said. A dramatic transformation is underway in Russia's energy sector, with oil flows being redirected to Asia via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. Russia plans to at least double oil and gas flows to Asia over the next 20 years, as it pivots away from export routes to Europe. That spells opportunity for Japan , which has been forced to import huge volumes of fossil fuel to replace its entire nuclear power industry, shut down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima plant. Japan now consumes a third of global liquefied natural gas shipments, a key reason for its record 18 months of trade deficits.

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In 6 yrs, narcotic users grow twofold

The number of drug users has doubled in the past six years with more than two-thirds of users below the age of 30, a government report said. The Current Hard Drug Users in Nepal - 2012 survey, conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, has shown there were 91,534 narcotic drug users in 2012, of which 70,390 were between the ages of 20-24. “More than three-quarters (81.2 percent) of drug users have experienced drugs before they reach 20 years,” the report states. Drug use has almost doubled since 2006, with a total of 45,225 new drug users added to the 2006 total of 46,309. The report said the number of drug users, excluding those using marijuana and alcohol, has increased by 98 percent with an annual growth rate of 11.36 percent. “By recognising the alarming growth rate of drug users, the government has formed a taskforce headed by the under secretary of the home ministry to prepare a national policy on narcotic drugs,” said Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, Chief Narcotic Drug Control Officer at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Narcotic Drug s (Control) Act, 2033 (1976), which mandates punishments of 15 years to life imprisonment and fines of up to Rs 2.5 million for individuals found involved in narcotic drugs has failed to deter drug abusers and dealers in the country. “The most worrying finding of the report is the involvement of college students. The majority of them have been found to be addicted to drugs,” he told the Post. According to Dhakal, the open border and urbanisation are major factors behind the rise in drug abuse. “We have developed a strategy to intervene in narcotic activities at three levels: reduction of demand and harm and control of supply,” he said. The intervention, however, has done little to curb drug abuse in the country. The rehabilitation of drug abusers has failed to deliver results, while the state mechanism has been inefficient in tracking down drug traders and taking action against them. The survey also notes there has been a shift in the types and mode of drug intake in the last few decades. “Beside marijuana and bhang, people started taking opiates and chemical drugs like heroin, nitrazepam, buprenorphine,” the report reads. The report also says the mode of drug administration has changed from smoking or ingesting to injecting, which has become one of the major causes of HIV infection in Nepal. Interestingly, the majority of drug users (40.1pc) reported that the government should provide employment opportunities for drug users according to the survey. Similarly, some 30.1 percent reported that free treatment facilities should be created, while some asked that society adopt a positive attitude towards them. Of 18 districts, including 26 municipalities surveyed, the highest number of drug users was found in the Kathmandu valley with a figure of 36,998 drug users, followed by Sunsari with 7,407. Other districts with high number of drug users include Kaski, 6917, Morang 6415, Jhapa 6008; Rupandehi 5997; Chitwan 4515 ,Banke 4050, and Parsa 2130.

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