However, the Pew survey finds that Duterte and his policies are widely popular at home despite concerns expressed by some governments, in particular the US, over Duterte's clashes with drug cartels and alleged human rights violations

It highlighted "more tangible" and "acute" challenges and destabilizing factorsThe legislation provides greater flexibility, responsiveness, and interoperability for training, exercises, and planning on a broader spectrum of security issues by easing restrictions on Japanese Self-Defense Force operations, including the ability to exercise collective self-defense

This will empower Japan to be an active player at the region and global stagesThe white paper, the first after Japan's security legislation went into effect in March, played up the so-called "gray zone" situations, or neither pure peacetime nor contingencies over territory, sovereignty and economic interestsIn its 2016 defense white paper, Japan interferes in the South China SeaThe white paper served as an implementation scheme for the controversial security bills that enable Japan's Self-Defense Forces to play a more comprehensive global military role and allow implementation of the new US and Japan alliance guidelinesIt made irresponsible accusations against China, claiming that China continues to act in an "assertive" manner, including attempts at changing the status quo by coercion

cn]On August 2, Japanese government approved this year's version of defense white paper, which described the security environment surrounding the country "increasingly severe"China's "dangerous acts" in the South China Sea and East China Sea could cause unintended consequencesDuring the 35-day training course, they learned from Li Mingxu, the fifth generation successor of the Jinzhou Lion Dance, a provincial intangible cultural heritage that has been passed from generation to generation for more than a century

Ten students from Nigeria and Zambia learned how to perform Chinese lion dance at the Jinpu New Area in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning provinceWhat has it to do with dissolving the lower house now?" said Seiji Maehara, leader of the largest opposition Democratic PartyTOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at a press conference on Monday that he will dissolve the House of Representatives when it convenes Thursday to pave way for a general election next monthThe prime minister cited the need to seek a fresh mandate to overcome "a national crisis" caused by "the biggest challenge facing Japan, which is the population aging and low birthrate," as well as security challenges

Abe has been under fire for his connection with nationalist private school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which purchased a piece of state-owned land in Osaka for only a fraction of the market priceHe said that he would seek mandate from the people for shifting the usage of part of the revenue generated by a consumption tax hike that has been delayed until 2019 from paying debt to welfare policies

He added that the reason Abe cited for dissolving the lower house is not convincing, and that the prime minister is just trying to avoid further grilling on favoritism scandalsHe also said that he would seek public support for a tougher stance over the Korea Peninsula issueHe has also been accused of using his influence to make the government choose Kake Educational Institution, run by a close friend of Abe's, to open a new department in a government- designated special economic zoneAbe's decision to call for a snap election, however, has drawn staunch criticism from opposition parties, which argued that there is no reason to dissolve the lower house of parliament before its current term expires in December 2018

The college, with a transitional campus at Hainan University, will relocate to its permanent campus, which is under construction in Mission Hill in Haikou"Even the teaching building of HAITC is the same as in Arizona State University in order to enhance students sense of belonging," he saidAbout one-third of the college's teachers are from Arizona State University and one-third from global recruitment, with others from Hainan University, according to WangLi Jianbao, president of Hainan University，said that HAITC is the first domestic Sino-foreign cooperative tourist institution formally approved by the Ministry of Education in May 2017

"Through this partnership, we leverage our two institutions' expertise, resources and passion for community development and public service," Jonathan GS Koppell, dean of ASU College of Public Service and Community Solutions, saidHAITC is an international and innovative joint college established by Hainan University and American top-ranking public research institution, Arizona State University, the first of its kind in China

A total of 268 students majoring in hotel management, human geography and urban/rural planning and administrative management attended the opening ceremonyHainan University and Arizona State University Joint International Tourism College, which is affiliated with Hainan University, opened its first-ever session in Haikou, capital of China's southern Hainan province, on Monday

The college is aiming to cultivate management personnel with a global vision and international competitiveness of tourism"This new college is an incredibly exciting and innovative initiative," Koppell said when addressing the opening ceremony on MondayThe students also will have access to the quality teaching, research resources and electronic library resources with ASU, she addedThat means that the students can enjoy American top university teaching resources without going abroad, said Wang Lin, head of the new collegeWith the professional courses taught in English, students will get double degrees, one from Hainan University and another from Arizona State University, if they successfully graduate from the collegeTuition is about 60,000 yuan for each semester, which is much less than that in ASU's US headquarters, while excellent students have the same access to various scholarships

4 magnitude earthquake recorded on Saturday near the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's most recent nuclear test site was "natural"The test prompted global condemnation, leading the United Nations Security Council to unanimously adopt new sanctions that include restricting the DPRK's oil shipments

The report said the analysis of seismic waves and the lack of sound waves clearly showed the quake was not caused by an artificial explosion, citing an unnamed weather agency official from the ROKThe center previously issued a notice saying it suspected another test because the epicenter was located on the surface

4 magnitude quake would be much smaller than the quakes caused by previous DPRK nuclear tests, the report saidAfter the incident, the center quickly organized seismological bureaus and geological institutions to evaluate the situation, it said

Seismologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California Santa Cruz also published a joint report on Saturday that said tests had shown the quake "clearly falls in the natural phenomena category" and was similar to the last natural earthquake in the region, which was recorded in December 20043 magnitude quake, while the strongest, this month, resulted in a 6"The incident was not a nuclear explosion, but had the characteristics of a natural quake," the China Earthquake Networks Center said late Saturday in a statement released online"What the concerned parties should do now is to strictly and comprehensively implement UN Security Council resolutions and make positive efforts to resolve the issue through dialogue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a news briefing on Friday

The official Korean Central News Agency claimed it was a hydrogen bombDPRK conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date on Sept 3

Saturday's earthquake is likely to be a "delayed collapse earthquake", the joint report said, without elaborating on the cause of the quakeThe earthquake took place around 4:30 pm near the area of Kilju in the northeastern DPRK, just around 6 kilometers from the Punggye-ri facility where the country held its latest test

The Republic of Korea's weather agency also assessed the quake as natural, The Associated Press reported on SundayKim was the first among the surviving "comfort women", a euphemism for the hundreds of thousands of girls and women in 13 Asia-Pacific countries or regions who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army from 1930 to 1954, to go public in front of television cameras about her story in August 1991

"Julie Tang and Lillian Sing, both judges of the Superior Court of San Francisco County who retired two years ago and co-chair the CWJC, vowed to erect more memorials around the United StatesHowever, those who deny history in Japan denigrate them as "paid prostitutes" or "willing volunteersShe had spoken before in front of local and national legislative bodies as well as national and international human rights committees, and to reporters, about presumably the largest-scale crime specifically targeting women in human historyThe memorial is a gift from the "Comfort Women" Justice Coalition, or CWJC, a local grassroots advocacy group consisting of more than 30 multi-ethnic community organizations

"It is my soul, it is your soul, and it should be the soul of everybody," she saidIt was not the first time for Lee, aged 89, to make such a statement

It was not the first time for Lee, now an activist, to travel around the world to tell people what it means for her to seek justice, especially for those who did not survive to hear a formal apology from the Japanese governmentMary Square in San Francisco, the United States, on Sept 22, 2017

The face of the sculpture depicted Kim Haksoon, a Korean woman forcefully taken at the age of 17 by Japanese soldiers and confined to a "comfort station"Historians believe that as many as 200,000 women, mostly from the Korean Peninsula as well as from China and Southeast Asian nations, were forced into sex enslavement for Japanese soldiers during the devastating war