Japan Eases North Korea Sanctions as Pyongyang Promises New Probe into Abductions

Japan eases North Korea sanctions as Pyongyang promises new probe into abductionsReuters

Japan said on Thursday it would ease sanctions imposed on North Korea after the reclusive state agreed to set up a team to investigate the abduction of Japanese nationals decades ago.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo was responding positively after Pyongyang agreed to set up an "unprecedented framework" to lead the new investigation into the abductions, a highly emotional issue in Japan.

"Based on the principle of reciprocity, Japan will lift some of the measures we have been taking ... But this is just a start. I am determined to do all I can to reach a complete resolution," Abe said after a cabinet meeting.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo has not received any list of abductees, Bloomberg reported. Suga also reiterated Abe was not planning to visit North Korea.

However, the Nikkei reported that at least 10 survivors are still in North Korea, according to a list Pyongyang authorities handed over to their Japanese counterparts at a Beijing meeting.

The details of the move have not been disclosed. Japan has imposed its own set of sanctions on the isolated country, apart from the curbs imposed by the UN and the United States.

Japanese sanctions include travel bans and the denial of entry for North Korean ships in Japanese ports.

According to the Nikkei, Tokyo could ease travel bans and some restrictions in remittances, and allow North Korean ships to dock at Japanese ports for humanitarian reasons.

However, Japan will continue to ban charter flights from North Korea and trade materials related to nuclear and missile technology, the paper reported.

Kidnapped for training spies

North Korea had earlier admitted that it kidnapped Japanese nationals during the 1970s and 1980s to help train its spies in language and local culture.

Pyongyang has said it abducted 13 Japanese nationals, of whom five were returned in 2002. It has maintained that the others have died. However, Japan believes more of its citizens were abducted by the secretive communist state and wants more investigations.

According to Kyodo news agency, Pyongyang will re-examine the abduction cases and constitute an investigation team comprising a member of its high-profile National Defence Commission.

Abe said Japan's gesture followed assurances from Pyongyang that "bodies capable of taking national decisions" will lead the new investigation.

"In accordance with the principle of action to action, we will lift part of the measures taken by Japan."

Tensions Between Israel and Gaza Rise After Funeral of Kidnapped Teens

Tensions have mounted between Israel and the Palestine after the funeral of the three Israeli teens who were found dead in the West Bank more than two weeks after they went missing. Hundreds of Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli police, who responded with tear gas, in clashes that erupted following reports that an Arab teen was kidnapped in retaliation and that a body had been found in a Jerusalem forest.

A Palestinian hurls a stone towards Israeli police during clashes in Shuafat, an Arab suburb of Jerusalem, on July 2, 2014Reuters

Israel's prime minister has threatened to take even tougher action against Hamas following an intense wave of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, as the country buried three Israeli teens it says were kidnapped and killed by the Islamic militant group.

Benjamin Netanyahu said his first goal is to find the killers of the three teens. "We will not rest until we reach the last of them," he said.

The three kidnapped Israeli teenagers (L-R): Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Schaer and Eyal YifrachReuters

The three teenagers — Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — disappeared on the night of 12 June as they were hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries they attended in the West Bank.

The abductions sparked Israel's broadest ground operation in the West Bank in nearly a decade, with the military deploying thousands of troops in a frantic search for the youths. Accusing Hamas of being behind the abductions, it also launched a massive crackdown against the group's West Bank infrastructure.

30 June: Israeli army and police stand guard near Halhoul, north of Hebron, where the bodies of three Israeli teenagers were foundGetty

The manhunt came to a grim end on Monday when searchers discovered the teens' bodies under a pile of rocks in a field near the city of Hebron, a few miles from where they disappeared.

The plight of the teens captured the nation's attention, and the discovery of their bodies prompted an outpouring of grief. An estimated 50,000 mourners attended Tuesday's funeral in the central Israeli city of Modiin, arriving in hundreds of buses organised for the occasion.

"This day has spontaneously turned into a national day of mourning," Netanyahu said in his eulogy as the three bodies, wrapped in blue-and-white Israeli flags and laid out on stretchers were laid to rest side-by-side.

An Israeli flag flies over crowds attending the joint funeral of three Israeli teens, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19Reuters

Bat-Galim Shaer (R, front) and Iris Yifrach (2nd R, front), comfort each other during the joint funeral of their sons in the Israeli city of Modi'in on 1 JulyReuters

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands next to fathers Avi Fraenkel and Ofir Shaer at the funeral of their murdered sonsReuters

Vast crowds gathered in Modi'in to join the outpouring of public grief during the funeralGetty

Earlier, hundreds of people had headed to the teens' hometowns for separate memorial services.

"Rest in peace my child," said Fraenkel's mother, Rachelle, who became a well-known figure during the ordeal as she sought to draw attention to the teens' plight. "We will learn to sing without you. We will always hear your voice inside of us."

Israelis gather outside the house of Eyal Yifrach, one the three kidnapped teenagers, on 30 June, after Israel confirmed that their bodies had been found in a field near HalhulAFP

Orthodox Jews talk as they gather outside the house of Eyal YifrachAFP

Israel has identified two Hamas operatives as the chief suspects in the kidnappings. But it has offered little public evidence against the men, who remain on the loose. It also is unclear whether the suspects acted alone or at the instruction of Hamas leaders. Hamas has praised the kidnappings, but not said whether it ordered the mission.

Hamas has long encouraged its members to kidnap Israelis, believing hostages could be used to win the release of thousands of Palestinian militants held in Israeli prisons. Israeli security officials are not sure whether the kidnappers set out to kill the teens, or did so in a bout of panic after one of them called police.

1 July: Flames are seen after a blast on the top floor of the family home of one of the alleged abductors in the West Bank City of Hebron. Neighbours said both houses were emptyReuters

1 July: Palestinians inspect the blown-up house of Amer Abu Eisheh, one of two Palestinians suspected in the killing of the Israeli teensAFP

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian militant Osama al-Hosomi during his funeral in the northern Gaza Strip on 27 June. An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinian militants and critically wounded a third. A source identified the men as belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees, a network of militant groups that has fired rockets into southern IsraelReuters

A Palestinian boy looks at the body of a Hamas gunman at a hospital morgue in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 29 JuneReuters

The crackdown in the West Bank has been accompanied by a spike in violence in Gaza. Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Hamas targets in response to repeated rocket fire.

Palestinian militants have fired more rockets into Israel. The barrage, which caused no injuries, raised the likelihood of new Israeli reprisals.

Israeli firefighters extinguish a burning factory hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on 28 June at an industrial zone in the southern city of SderotAFP

30 June: Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon answers journalists' questions as he visits a factory in Sderot that was damaged by a rocket fired from GazaAFP

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Shale-Rich Texas Set to Overtake Opec Major Iraq in Oil Production

An oil and gas processing plant fed by local shale wells is pictured along a highway outside Carrizo Springs, TexasReuters

Texas is set to overtake Opec favourite Iraq in terms of oil output, thanks to shale boom happening in the US state.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report that oil production in Texas topped three million barrels per day in April for the first time since the late 1970s. The total US production for April was 8.4 million barrels per day.

Iraq's oil output in April was 3.2 million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg estimates. Its oil production declined to 2.9 million barrels per day in June, primarily due to the insurgent violence.

The US state is expected to overtake Iraq, as its production has continued to rise every month since 2011.

Texas oil productionEIA

Texas is the largest oil producing state in the US, accounting for 36% of the nation's oil production. The state more than doubled its oil production in last three years, according to EIA.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has been changing the world energy map. The US has been the first country to take advantage of the technology and start commercial production of shale gas and oil.

As a result, its production skyrocketed, and it currently accounts for more than 10% of total world production. The country is expected to become the world's largest oil producer by 2015, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia, according to EIA projections.

It is expected to be net exporter of oil by 2020, as domestic supply outpaces demand.

"Gains in Texas crude oil production come primarily from counties that contain unconventional tight oil and shale reservoirs in the Eagle Ford Shale in the Western Gulf Basin, where drilling has increasingly targeted oil-rich areas, and multiple reservoirs within the Permian Basin in West Texas that have seen a significant increase in horizontal, oil-directed drilling," the EIA said in a statement.

Britain Calls on European Nations to 'Pull Their Weight' in Syria Aid

A Syrian refugee boy plays around with a soccer ball before iftar, the breaking of fast meal, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan(Reuters)

British lawmakers have called on their European counterparts to boost funding for humanitarian programmes for victims of Syria's war.

Warning that the UK's contribution to international aid programmes was not sustainable at current levels, members of parliament urged France, Spain and Italy to increase their donations.

The trio of European nations had "manifestly failed to pull their weight," the House of Commons International Development Committee said in a new report.

"The UK should do everything in its power to encourage other countries to increase their contributions," it said.

Britain has committed a total of £600m ($1bn, €753m) in humanitarian aid, the second largest commitment to the international relief effort behind the United States. Yet the humanitarian programmes organised by the United Nations remain underfunded.

As the conflict rages through a fourth year with little sign of a resolution in sight, the size of the humanitarian catastrophe expands daily. Almost 3 million Syrians have registered as refugees with the United Nations, while 6.5 million Syrians have been displaced within the country itself.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its biggest ever appeal for funding this year, calling for more than $4bn from the international community in 2014. That appeal remains a quarter funded, leaving aid agencies struggling to cope with the ever-growing crisis.

The British lawmakers urged for more of British aid money to be spent on education, providing for two shifts of school classes in Syria's neighbours Jordan and Lebanon.

At least half a million Syrian children in neighbouring countries are not attending school, while 2.5 million within Syria are missing out on education. This increases the likelihood of a lost generation that could prove disastrous for the future of Syria and the region, the committee warned.

The committee also called for aid assistance to be diverted away from refugee camps to urban centres, where the vast majority of refugees reside.

A Department for International Development spokesman welcomed the report, telling the Press Association that the UK has led from the front on the Syria relief effort.

"Britain's leadership has leveraged multi-million pound commitments from others, but International Development Secretary Justine Greening has been clear that all countries must make good on their promises. We will continue to push the international community to live up to its responsibilities," he said, as quoted by the Press Association.

The Syrian opposition leadership met with representatives from the Syrian government for peace talks in February 2014 although they broke up with the two sides failing to reach an agreement or schedule further talks.

Hot Shots Photos of the Day: Messi Hair Day, Bear in a Jar, Monty Python

Master barber Rob Ferrel cuts the likeness of Lionel Messi on the head of customer Vincent Hernandez at his barbershop in San Antonio, Texas, ahead of the World Cup match between Argentina and SwitzerlandReuters

A bear cub that failed to heed the lessons of Winnie the Pooh and got a cookie jar stuck on its head is recovering after being rescued from 40 feet (12 metres) up in a tree by New Jersey state environmental workersReuters

Lego mini figures protest against Shell in front of a model of the Houses of Parliament at Legoland Windsor. The mini protest was staged to draw attention to Shell's Arctic oil exploration and productionJiri Rezac

Lego mini figures protest against Shell in Legoland, calling for Shell to stop drilling for oil in the ArcticVicki Couchman

Hindu priests sit in cauldrons of water and perform a special prayer for rain, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. India's monsoon rainfall was 43 percent below average in June, the weather office said, the weakest first month of the season in five yearsReuters

Michael Palin and Eric Idle perform on the opening night of "Monty Python Live (Mostly)" at the O2 Arena in LondonGetty

Ukip leader Nigel Farage and an other member of his group turn their backs as the European anthem is played during the inaugural session at the European Parliament in StrasbourgReuters

A fan dressed as Captain America (back) looks dejected at the end of extra time of the 2014 World Cup round of 16 game between US and Belgium at the Fonte Nova arena in SalvadorReuters

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku celebrates with Kevin De Bruyne after scoring a goal during extra time in the 2014 World Cup round of 16 game against the US at the Fonte Nova arena in SalvadorReuters

The statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is lit up in Canada's official colours, red and white, for Canada DayReuters

Nick Kyrgios of Australia reacts during his men's singles tennis victory over Rafael Nadal of Spain at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The 19-year-old wild-card entry, ranked 144 in the world, beat the world number one to advance to the quarterfinalsReuters

Rafael Nadal of Spain attends a news conference after being defeated by Nick Kyrgios of Australia in their men's singles tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis ChampionshipsReuters

Former first lady Imelda Marcos kisses the glass coffin containing her embalmed husband, president Ferdinand Marcos, who died in 1989, during her 85th birthday celebration in Batac, Ilocos Norte province, in northern Philippines JReuters

Bat-Galim Shaer (R) and Iris Yifrah (C), mothers of two of the three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the occupied West Bank, mourn during the joint funeral of their sons in the Israeli city of Modi'inReuters

Relatives and neighbours stand in the ruins of the home of Amer Abu-Aisheh, one of the main suspects in the kidnapping and murder of of three Israeli teenagersGetty

Policemen and firefighters search in the wreckage of a cargo plane ferrying khat to Somalia which crashed at a commercial building in a Nairobi suburb shortly after takeoffReuters

Oil Price Steady Amid Iraq Fears and Reports Libyan Terminals to Reopen

A member of the Kurdish security forces takes up position with his weapon while guarding an oil refinery, on the outskirts of Mosul(Reuters)

The price of Brent crude futures held above $112 a barrel on Wednesday amid concerns over an escalation in the Iraq crisis restricting global oil supplies.

Fighting in the OPEC producer has pushed up oil prices across the globe. Although exports from Iraq have not been restricted as a result of the disorder, fears over the government's ability to quell the violence have kept benchmark Brent above $112 a barrel.

The price for future deliveries of Brent swung between $112.41 and $112.08 on Tuesday morning, settling at $112.30 at 0622 GMT.

Prices were helped downwards by reports that Libyan rebels are set to reopen terminals at Ras Lanuf and Es Sider. The major oil export hubs have been blockaded by rebel groups seeking greater autonomy from central government for the east of the country.

If a deal is reached, Libya's ailing oil industry would receive a major boost as its export capacity would expand by 500,000 barrels a day.

Previous reports that the export terminals were set to reopen have not come to fruition.

Meanwhile, concerns over a lack of spare capacity in global oil production have helped push prices upwards.

"Saudi Arabia is the only one that has significant spare capacity. So it is a real worry if there is any serious disruption in exports," a trader with a north Asian trading house told Reuters.

Unused global spare oil production capacity could struggle to make up for a big outage, making it more likely governments would tap strategic reserves if violence in Iraq were to affect oil production and exports.

Yemeni Tribes Clash Over Oil Territory Leaving 15 Dead

Tribal fighters stand near a road linking the Yemeni capital Sanaa with the oil-producing province of Marib in June 2012(Reuters)

Fifteen people have been killed during clashes between two Yemeni tribes over a piece of land thought to be rich in oil, according to Agence France Presse.

Citing tribal sources, the agency reported that several more people were left injured as a result of firefights between Belhareth tribesmen and members of the Al-Butahif tribe.

Six members of the Al-Butahif were killed, while nine Belhareth tribesmen were killed in the clashes.

The two tribes are in dispute over the rights to a desert area that stretches between respective tribal provinces which is believed to contain oil.

The Al-Butahif tribe hails from the eastern province of Marib, while the Belhareth come from the adjacent Shabwa province.

The two tribes first clashed over the disputed land last year, as fighting continued sporadically for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Shabwa and Marib provinces are rich in oil and gas reserves and have been the scene of attacks by tribesmen over recent months.

The tribal country is awash with firearms and there are thought to be an average of three weapons per person throughout Yemen.

Israel Teenagers Murder: Palestinian Youth Slaughtered in Suspected Revenge Attack

An Israeli police officer gestures in the Jerusalem Forest where a body was foundReuters

A Palestinian youth has been found murdered in a forest in east Jerusalem in what is suspected to be a revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers.

Local reports citing eyewitnesses said a teenager was seen being forced into a vehicle near the east Jerusalem neighboured of Beit Hanima.

Israeli police are investigating a possible connection between the reported kidnapping and the finding of the body of the teenager.

"Police discovered a body in the Jerusalem forest and were looking to see if there was a connection between the missing youth and the body that was found," Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, according to Reuters.

Local reports suggested the recovered body bears signs of torture.

Dozens of Arabs who gathered near the forest soon after the news about the Palestinian's death spread confronted the security forces, leading to scuffles.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Bakrat condemned the "grave and barbaric act," saying: "This is not our way of doing things and I trust the security forces to bring the guilty to trial. I call on everyone to act with restraint, to put all kinds of violence beyond the pale and to take action to calm the spirits."

The incident took place a day after the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, who were abducted on 12 June, were found buried in West Bank.

Security personnel are searching for the suspects and roadblocks have been set up in the area, even as Palestinian news outlets said the teenager was kidnapped and killed by Israeli Jews.