News Headlines - 10 April 2021
▽Japan's Digital Reform Bills Clear Lower House - JIJI PRESS
The House of Representatives passed on Tuesday a set of Japanese government bills regarding digital reform, a key policy priority for the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The five bills, including one to establish a new government agency in charge of accelerating digitalization of administrative procedures, were approved at a plenary meeting of the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, by a majority vote, with the support mainly from the ruling bloc and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party).
▽Iran releases South Korean tanker seized in January
Iran on Friday released a South Korean-flagged tanker it seized amid a dispute over billions in frozen oil funds, and the vessel’s captain, the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the Hankuk Chemi and its multinational crew of 20 sailors in January, but South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that its detention had been lifted and “the ship departed safely today”.
Ship-tracking websites showed the 147-metre-long (482-foot) vessel under way at 9 knots and heading for the Strait of Hormuz.
▽China Fines Alibaba Record $2.8 Billion After Monopoly Probe - Bloomberg
China slapped a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. after an anti-monopoly probe found it abused its market dominance, as Beijing clamps down on its internet giants.
The 18.2 billion yuan penalty is triple the previous high of almost $1 billion that U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. had to pay in 2015, and was based on 4% of Alibaba’s 2019 domestic revenue, according to China’s antitrust watchdog.
▽Japan set to release Fukushima plant water into sea
The Japanese government is poised to release treated radioactive water accumulated at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea despite opposition from fishermen, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
It will hold a meeting of related ministers as early as Tuesday to formally decide on the plan, a major development following over seven years of discussions on how to discharge the water used to cool down melted fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
A large pharaonic city, built more than 3,400 years ago during the opulent reign of Amenhotep III, has been uncovered in Egypt.
Experts have described the site as "ancient Egypt's Pompeii" due to how well it has been preserved - despite lying unseen for centuries.
Archaeologists began searching for a mortuary temple near Luxor in September, but then found mud brick formations in every direction... They unearthed the city which still had almost complete walls and rooms filled with tools, jewellery, scarabs, coloured pottery and bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep's cartouche.
It has been described as the "lost golden city of Luxor".
