Tradisional Sabah Borneo

BANGKOK (AP) — Japanese Emperor Akihito paid his respects to the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Sunday, arriving in Bangkok following a weeklong trip to Vietnam aimed at winning support against Chinese expansionism.

The monarchies — two of a handful remaining in Asia — have maintained close ties. Bhumibol first visited Japan in 1963, touching off a decades-long friendship with numerous visits back and forth, most recently a visit by Akihito to Thailand in 2006.

Akihito, accompanied by his wife, Empress Michiko, laid wreathes and signed a condolence book at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. He later met with King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, who ascended the throne after the death of his widely revered father in October.

The emperor's two-day visit to Bangkok comes as Thailand tilts closer to China, Japan's main rival in East Asia.

Thailand and Japan have traditionally enjoyed close relations, unburdened by the legacy of World War II that has complicated Japan's relations with other Asian countries. After a brief struggle, Thailand formally became Japan's ally through much of the war, suffering little of the destruction wrought on others like China, Myanmar and the Philippines.But following a 2014 coup, Thailand's Western allies cut back on assistance, pushing the country's ruling military junta closer to Beijing.

"The visit is symbolic of Japan's interest in boosting Japanese-Thai relations at a time when China seems to enjoy favor in Bangkok," said Paul Chambers, research director at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs.

China frightens many in Southeast Asia with expansionist policies in the South China Sea. But China's claims do not clash with Thai territorial waters, paving the way for friendly relations.

The 83-year-old emperor is Japan's constitutional head of state, a role symbolic rather than political. However, his trips often serve to bolster relations with nations friendly to Tokyo.

The emperor's itinerary has been packed with visits across Southeast Asia, a move aimed at shoring up a regional bulwark against China. Vietnam, which has sparred with China over territorial waters, rolled out the red carpet for Akihito's visit last week. In January 2016, the Japanese imperial family visited the Philippines, which also has disputes with China, paying its respects at a World War II memorial.   AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At a circular booth in the middle of the Trump International Hotel's balcony restaurant, President Donald Trump dined on his steak — well-done, with ketchup — while chatting up British Brexit politician Nigel Farage.

A few days later, major Republican donors Doug Deason and Doug Manchester, in town for the president's address to Congress, sipped coffee at the hotel with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

After Trump's speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned to his Washington residence — the hotel — and strode past the gigantic American flag in the soaring lobby. With his tiny terrier tucked under an arm, Mnuchin stepped into an elevator with reality TV star and hotel guest Dog the Bounty Hunter, who particularly enjoyed the Trump-stamped chocolates in his room.

It's just another week at the new political capital of the nation's capital.

The $200 million hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building has become the place to see, be seen, drink, network — even live — for the still-emerging Trump set. It's a rich environment for lobbyists and anyone hoping to rub elbows with Trump-related politicos — despite a veil of ethics questions that hangs overhead."I've never come through this lobby and not seen someone I know," says Deason, a Dallas-based fundraiser for Trump's election campaign.

For Republican Party players, it's the only place to stay.

"I can tell you this hotel will be the most successful hotel in Washington, D.C.," says Manchester, adding that he would know because he has developed the second-largest Marriott and second-largest Hyatt in the world. Manchester says Trump's hotel will attract people based on its location near the White House and Congress, the quality renovation and the management team.

Then there's also the access.

Although Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses, he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential chit.

That's what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as previous presidents have done.

"President Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

She said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking. Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."

The White House strongly disputes there's any ethical danger in Trump's business arrangements.

Trump can see his hotel from the White House. When a Fox News interviewer mentioned that to him recently, Trump responded, "Isn't that beautiful?" But while the interviewer pointed out that he can see the property from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I'm so focused on what I'm doing here that I don't even think about it."

Still, Trump couldn't resist the short trip over there for dinner on his only weekend night out in Washington since becoming president.

A reporter for the website Independent Journal Review was tipped off about Trump's dining plans and sat at a table near him. He noted the president's dinner fare and companions, who also included daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner.On other nights, the posh hotel is the kind of place where on a mid-February evening, you could bump into Trump television personality Katrina Pierson having cocktails with Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive who's now working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trump campaign and inauguration hands Tom Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks.

Rooms start at above $500 most nights, according to the hotel's website and a receptionist. That's up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened, not long before Election Day. Patricia Tang, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, declined to answer questions about how business is going.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out Sunday at Germany for blocking several rallies there ahead of an April vote in Turkey on boosting his powers as head of state, likening it to Nazi practices.

"Your practices are not different from the Nazi practices of the past," Erdogan told a women's rally in Istanbul, ahead of an April 16 referendum on whether to approve changes to the constitution.

"I thought it's been a long time since Germany left (Nazi practices). We are mistaken," he said.

Several German towns prevented appearances by Erdogan's ministers last week, citing security and safety concerns.

The cancellations have infuriated the Turkish government, which accused Berlin of working against the "Yes" campaign in the referendum and summoned the German ambassador to the foreign ministry in protest.

"You will lecture us about democracy and then you will not let this country's ministers speak there," said an angry Erdogan, adding that Germany was not "respecting opinion and thought".Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday called Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to try to defuse the row, and the two countries' foreign ministers are set to meet later this week.   AFP

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has shown a willingness to limit the participation of environmental groups in lawsuits involving public lands, writing in one case that allowing conservationists to intervene could complicate and slow down the judicial process, according to an Associated Press review of his rulings as a federal appeals court judge.

Gorsuch has spent a decade on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears disputes about public lands ranging from energy companies' drilling rights to the use of off-road vehicles in national forests across six Western states.

With public lands cases and other contentions issues, Gorsuch applied a uniform set of legal principles, said Donald Kochan, associate dean and professor at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law.

"I think that his record, although the number of cases is quite limited, shows that at times it has led to decisions that one might consider environmentally favorable, and about an equal number of times it has led to decisions some might think are environmentally unfavorable," Kochan said. "For those who think that he will lean toward one outcome or another, I think they'll be surprised on how the more neutral application of his philosophy will often lead to confounding results."In public lands cases in which he sought to limit environmental groups' participation, Gorsuch at times has favored the position of federal agencies. But his record on such cases is relatively limited considering that the territory the appeals court covers contains vast swaths of national forests and parks.

Denise Grab, a lawyer with New York University Law School's Institute for Policy Integrity, said Gorsuch has a "mixed bag" of rulings related to public lands and the environment, yet seems "unusually eager to throw roadblocks in the way of public interest groups who want their day in court."

In 2013, Gorsuch parted from the two-judge majority on a panel that said environmental groups should have the chance to participate in a particular suit. The New Mexico Off-Highway Vehicle Alliance had challenged a plan that reduced the number of roads and trails available to off-road vehicles in Santa Fe National Forest.

His colleagues on the appeals court said the groups should be allowed to join the case because "there is no guarantee that the Forest Service will make all of the environmental groups' arguments in litigation."Gorsuch disagreed, saying there was only one issue to consider and no conflict between the groups and government over how to approach it.

"An intervenor becomes a full-fledged party, able to conduct discovery, file motions, and add new issues and complexity and delay to the litigation," Gorsuch wrote.

Grab called that "very unusual," and noted that neither party in the suit had objected to the environmental groups intervening.

"An environmental group is not the government. It has different goals," Grab said. "In most cases, intervention is allowed."

Gorsuch doesn't always take the road less traveled, and often sides with other members of the 10th Circuit.

When an outdoor group sued the U.S. Forest Service over a temporary order that allowed motorcycles to ride on certain trails inside western Colorado's San Juan National Forest, Gorsuch wrote a unanimous opinion in May 2015 for the three-judge panel dismissing the case on procedural grounds.

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers could not establish their ability to bring the case because if the order they challenged as being too lenient was struck down, the agency would revert to an earlier, even less-strict version of the trail plan, so the organization's conservation goal would not be advanced, Gorsuch wrote.

"A further victory for Backcountry in this case promises only more, not fewer, vehicles on forest trails and the group hasn't offered a timely argument how that turn of events might help its members," he wrote.

Gorsuch has been sympathetic to outdoor enthusiasts, even when ruling against them, and has shown his Colorado roots in his writings.

"Everyone enjoys a trip to the mountains in the summertime. One popular spot is Mount Evans — a fourteen thousand foot peak just a short drive from Denver and with a paved road that goes right to the summit," he wrote in a 2011 case.n that case, Gorsuch was on a panel that found that the Forest Service could legally charge fees to visit the summit because it provided amenities such as a nature center, which thousands of visitors use annually. Those who sued had challenged the fee policy, saying it overstepped the Forest Service's statutory authority to charge visitors.

Writing for the panel, Gorsuch said the fees were permissible, but he left open the possibility that the fees could be challenged, just not the way the plaintiffs sought to.

"In rejecting the plaintiffs' facial challenge we hardly mean to suggest that the Service's policy can't be attacked at all. It might well be susceptible to a winning challenge as applied to certain particular visitors, perhaps even the plaintiffs themselves. But that's a path the plaintiffs haven't asked us to explore and so one we leave for another day," Gorsuch wrote.

In 2011, Gorsuch showed his distaste for drawn-out litigation when he sided with a majority of other judges who found The Wilderness Society lacked standing in a suit related to off-road vehicles on federal land, including in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Officials in Kane County, Utah, had asserted rights on roads crossing   AP

"On the one hand we are opening ourselves up to the future. On the other hand, we understand the dangers and will try to balance the two," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.

According to the new policy, which must still be ratified by parliament, people caught smoking marijuana would be fined rather than arrested and prosecuted. Criminal procedures would be launched only against those caught repeatedly with the drug.

Selling and growing marijuana would remain criminal offences in Israel.

"Israel cannot shut its eyes to the changes being made across the world in respect to marijuana consumption and its effects," Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in a statement.

In the United States, 28 states have legalized marijuana for medical use and since 2012, several have also approved marijuana for recreational use.

Shaked said Israeli authorities would now put their focus on education about the possible harmful effects of drug use.Marijuana use is fairly common in Israel. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has said that almost nine percent of Israelis use cannabis, though some Israeli experts believe the numbers are higher.

Israeli police figures showed only 188 people were arrested in 2015 for recreational use of marijuana, a 56 percent drop since 2010, and many of those apprehended in that time were never charged.

About 25,000 people have a licence to use the drug for medicinal purposes in Israel, one of the world leaders in medical marijuana research.

In February, a government committee gave an initial nod for the export of medical cannabis, though final legislative measures will likely take months.  REUTERS