Tradisional Sabah Borneo

Many people his age would be happy to slip on a cardigan and put their feet up, but not Teruo Sugiura.

The 86-year-old makes his way to a seniors' work centre in Tokyo several days a week where he repairs traditional Japanese sliding doors.

It doesn't pay much, but that hasn't stopped Sugiura from turning up for the last 20 years -- one of millions of elderly Japanese still collecting wages into retirement age.

"I'm working to keep my body in good shape," said Sugiura, a former sweets salesman at a high-end department store.

"I think it's wrong not to be doing anything. There's no point staying at home twiddling my thumbs."

Japan's silver-haired workforce is everywhere these days -- from wrinkled men waving glow sticks at construction sites to checkout counter clerks or caregivers for the very old.

And this geriatric working class shows no sign of shrinking -- more than 20 percent of Japanese older than 65 still work.

That is the highest proportion among developed economies and a figure likely to soar as the pool of younger workers falls and the fast-ageing population squeezes a strained social welfare system.

People over 65 are expected to account for nearly 40 percent of the greying population by 2060 as Japan wrestles with a low birth rate.

Meanwhile, the country's labour force -- the number of employed and unemployed people aged 15 to 64 -- is at risk of losing more than 27 million workers in the same time frame, a drop of about 42 percent from current levels, according to a government advisory panel.

Demand for workers is high and Japan's unemployment rate for January, published on Tuesday, was an enviable 3.2 percent, a two-decade low and well below the United States or many European nations.

- Market pressure -

In response to demographic shifts, the government is gradually raising the official retirement age and starting ages for state pension payments to 65. The official retirement age will be raised in steps from 61 to 65 by 2025. It will be raised to 62 next month.

"This is enough incentive for (seniors) to push back their retirement and keep working," investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a recent report on Japan's labour market.

And Tokyo is putting the pressure on firms to keep workers on longer, or by hiring older employees.

Some firms have responded, including automaker Honda which has said it would raise its working age by five years to 65 starting in April, a move that could affect tens of thousands of workers.Meanwhile, in northern Japan, nationwide convenience store chain Circle K Sunkus has trained a handful of elderly people in a nod to the ageing labour pool.

Electronics giant Ricoh has called on retired technicians to get its computers ready to be installed at companies, schools and government departments.

"There is very strong market pressure for employers to keep older people," Atsushi Seike, a professor of labour economics and president of Tokyo's Keio University, told AFP.

"The drastic decline of the workforce will have a significant impact on the behaviour of employers.

"Many are willing to boost the number of older workers, even at major companies, and I think this trend will continue -- or even accelerate -- in the future."

More than half a million older Japanese find work through the government-subsidised National Silver Human Resources Center Association, including door repairman Sugiura and 63-year-old Junko Kondo.

Kondo's government pension isn't enough to let her do everything she wants.

"I'm saving the money I make here," Kondo says, as she assembles packages for wrapping up high-quality salt sold at luxury stores.

"I'll use it to buy presents for my grandchildren, or a sweater, or maybe just lunch for myself."

The reasons for Japan's elderly staying in the workforce vary, but keeping mentally and physically fit is key for many people.

It also puts some extra money in seniors' pockets, although the wages paid by the Silver Centres are low -- they pay an average of 37,000 yen ($330) a month.Some seniors only get paid per task they complete while others volunteer their time without getting paid.

But for people like Taeko Mishima, the extra money could be a lifesaver.

The 74-year-old worries she and her husband's pensions are not enough to cover the cost of nursing homes with medical care, which could add up to as much 300,000 yen a month, said Mishima, who formerly worked at a travel agency.

"My pension isn't high enough to pay for that."  AFP

BAGHDAD (AP) — Backed by paramilitary forces and aerial support, Iraqi troops on Tuesday launched a new push to retake a key area north of the capital, Baghdad, and dislodge Islamic State militants from there, officials said.

The operation came as a group of suicide bombers targeted a military headquarters in western Iraq, killing eight officers on Tuesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

According to a statement by the Joint Operations Command, the "new offensive" began at dawn in a swath agricultural area northwest of the city of Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, with the aim to cut IS supply lines and to tighten the grip around the IS-held northern city of Mosul.

The command says paramilitary forces, mostly Shiite militias, and the Iraqi air force were backing the push on the area, called Jazerat SamarraThe statement did not say if the U.S.-led international coalition was involved in the operation.

Controlling the Jazerat Samarra area will not only restrict the IS militants' movements between the three provinces in the region, but willalso be essential for future operations to retake parts of Anbar province and Mosul, said Sabah al-Numan, the spokesman of the counter-terrorism forces.

Al-Numan told The Associated Press that two vehicles loaded with militants were bombed on Tuesday, and that the security forces managed to hit a would-be suicide car bomber before he reached his target.

The offensive comes on the heels of two massive bombings in as many days by the Islamic State group in the area — in the town of Muqdadiyah and in Baghdad — that killed at least 110 people.

Shiite lawmaker and spokesman for the paramilitary forces, Ahmed al-Asadi, said the offensive "is in retaliation for the blood of our martyrs and to annihilate the terrorist gangs that have wreaked havoc."

Meanwhile, four suicide bombers disguised in army uniform struck at dawn at the military headquarters in the city of Haditha, 240 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad, killing eight troops, including a local army commander, councilman Khalid Salman told the AP.

One of the bombers first attacked the gate of the building, then the others blew up themselves up when people gathered at the scene to help the victims. Salman said eight soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

Also Tuesday, separate attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 13 people and wounded 31 others, police and health officials said.

In one attack, militants broke into the house of a solider in the town of Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, killing his wife and two children, aged seven and five years old, a police officer said. The solider was critically wounded, he added.

In the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad, a bomb struck a Shiite militia patrol, killing two and wounding four, the same police officer said. And eight civilians were killed and 26 others wounded in separate bombs attacks against commercial areas in Baghdad on Tuesday, the police said.

Medical officials confirmed causality fingers. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

IS still controls much of northern and western Iraq, but has been driven back in recent months in some areas, such as the cities of Ramadi and Tikrit. The government last month declared the western city of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, "fully liberated" after it had been captured by IS last year.Iraqi ground offensives — despite heavy backing from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes — have been slow in scoring key victories against the Islamic State. A campaign to retake Mosul, the main city held by Islamic State in Iraq, has long been believed to be imminent but has not taken off the ground yet.AP

CHICAGO (AP) — He was a candidate few thought stood a chance. Best known as a television showman, he seemed more interested in self-promotion than winning public office. But soon he was dominating media coverage and debate stages, each pungent remark only endearing him more to a disenchanted public.

Then Jesse "The Body" Ventura became governor of Minnesota.

Well before Donald Trump shook up the race for the Republican presidential nomination, there was Ventura, the former professional wrestler, radio talk show host and suburban mayor who — in his own election-night words — "shocked the world" with his improbable 1998 victory.

As Trump looks to expand his delegate lead in Super Tuesday contests and further show that he's for real, the similarities between his campaign and Ventura's continue to grow. The billionaire businessman enters the biggest day of the race so far with several wins under his belt and exuding confidence about his chances in the contests across the Deep South. His top rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, are struggling to contain him.

"Jesse's success is the perfect case history to show this can happen," said Bill Hillsman, a Minneapolis ad man and close Ventura adviser who came up with several memorable campaign ads, including one that depicted Ventura as an action figure who tells special interests: "I don't want your stupid money."

"Donald Trump's campaign is just Jesse's campaign writ very large, with more money and some hugely advantageous communications tools" such as social media and online organizing, Hillsman said.

There are differences, of course, particularly on social issues. Trump has proposed expanding the border wall to keep out immigrants from Mexico and has rejected gay marriage. Ventura has supported open borders and said during a 1998 debate that government shouldn't be involved in who may marry.Ventura also was a Reform Party candidate who blasted Republicans and Democrats as "rival gangs," while Trump is seeking the GOP nomination.

But voters see Trump as sufficiently untethered from the party. Both Trump and Ventura are brash and loose with words, much in contrast to the more scripted traditional candidates.

That was enough to draw Darren Anderson to the polls in 1998, when at age 25 he was one of many first-time voters who helped Ventura win. Anderson, now 43, recalls watching a debate between "Jesse," Democrat Skip Humphrey and Republican Norm Coleman. Ventura was the only one who "called a spade a spade."

"He wasn't your standard politician and he wasn't blowing smoke."

That's also why the teacher from New Ulm, Minnesota, is now leaning toward Trump in Minnesota's vote Tuesday. While in the back of his mind he worries a Trump presidency could "go really wrong," he says the GOPfront runner "is saying things the country wants to hear."

Both Ventura and Trump drew some of their strongest support from blue collar voters who dislike the political establishment.

But Ventura's typical voter was younger, largely male and "for the most part regarded the election as a giant kegger," said St. Cloud State University political science professor Stephen Frank, who co-wrote a book on Ventura's election.

Ventura appealed to them as much for his personality as for his promises to cut taxes amid a budget surplus. Coleman, a former St. Paul mayor, and Humphrey, the son of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, focused on each other during debates, ignoring Ventura.

Ventura told The Associated Press Monday he sees echoes of his campaign in Trump's. But he's split between supporting Trump or Sen. Bernie Sanders, who's vying for the Democratic nomination. He's also considering his own bid as a third-party Libertarian candidate.Dane Smith, who spent 30 years as a reporter in St. Paul and Minneapolis and covered Ventura, recalls a "Trump-like" feeling in the governor's race when polls showed Ventura running surprisingly strong.

"You were saying to yourself 'Holy cow. This guy isn't going to collapse,' " Smith said.

Even Ventura needed some convincing on election night. After the first TV station called the race saying he'd won, the governor-elect told his team he wanted to wait for more results before making his victory speech. AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are eyeing an opportunity to pull away from their rivals on Super Tuesday, a delegate-rich dash across the country that could accelerate their march toward the general election.

Voters from Vermont to Colorado, Alaska to American Samoa and a host of states in between were heading to polling places and caucus sites on the busiest day of the 2016 primaries.

The contests come at a turbulent moment for Republicans as they grapple with the prospect of Trump becoming the party's nominee. Rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are engaged in a frantic effort to stop the billionaire — with Rubio in particular lobbing surprisingly personal attacks — but it was unclear whether they'd made their move too late.

Trump said his support crossed party lines and has even brought Democrats into the GOP.We're getting people into the party that they've never had before," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday. "I can tell you the one person Hillary Clinton doesn't want to run against is me."

Like Trump, Clinton has won three of the four early voting contests, including a thrashing of rival Bernie Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday. Her victory there was due to overwhelming support from black voters, putting her in position for a strong showing in several Southern states with large African-American electorates that vote Tuesday.

Clinton has increasingly turned her attention to Trump in recent days, casting herself as a civil alternative to the insults and bullying that have consumed the Republican race.

"What we can't let happen is the scapegoating, the flaming, the finger pointing that is going on the Republican side," she told voters gathered in Springfield, Massachusetts. "It really undermines our fabric as a nation. So, I want to do everything I can in this campaign to set us on a different course."

Sanders, who has energized young voters with his call for a political revolution, was seeking to stay close to Clinton in the South and pick up victories in states including Minnesota and his home state of Vermont. But Sanders faces tough questions about whether he can rally minorities that are core Democratic voters.

After he voted Tuesday in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders told reporters that if voter turnout is high "we are going to do well. If not, we're probably going to be struggling."

Democrats will vote in 11 states and American Samoa on Tuesday, with 865 delegates up for grabs. Republicans will vote in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.

Trump was seeking to sweep the South, which would be a massive blow for Cruz. The Texas senator, a favorite of the region's social conservatives and evangelical Christians, expected the South to be his firewall, but now is simply hoping to emerge with a victory in his home state.

Rubio's goal on Super Tuesday is even more modest. He's seeking to stay competitive in the delegate count and hopes to pull off a win in his home state of Florida on March 15.

The Florida senator has cast himself as Republicans' best chance to win in a general election and has received a flood of endorsements from GOP officials after other more mainstream candidates dropped out. But he's failed to win a state so far, raising questions about his strategy for topping Trump.

Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Now party leaders are divided between those who pledge to fall in line behind Trump if he wins their party's nomination and others who insist they can never back him.An Associated Press survey of GOP senators and governors across the country showed just under half of respondents would not commit to backing Trump if he's the nominee. Their reluctance foreshadowed a potentially extraordinary split in the party this fall.

"If he becomes the nominee the Democrats are going to savage him, no question about it," GOP Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said. His Republican colleague from Arizona, Jeff Flake, said he was "still holding out hope" that he wouldn't have to make the choice about supporting Trump.

The worries among Republicans appeared to grow after Trump briefly refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during a television interview. Trump said he had not understood the interviewer who first raised the question about Duke, and he did later repudiate him.AP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Tuesday for the closure of Syria's border with Turkey to cut off outside supplies to "terrorists", including through humanitarian convoys.

"Of course, neither in ceasefire agreements, nor in the process of political settlement is there a place for terrorists and extremists," Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"A very special task is to cut the terrorists' supply from the outside. For this purpose it is important to close the Syrian-Turkish border, since across this border those gangs receive arms, including with humanitarian convoys," Lavrov said, according to an official transcript in English of his remarks.

He insisted that a "landslide defeat of (the Islamic State group)... al-Nusra and those of their kind is a necessary precondition for securing the rights of long-suffering peoples of Syria" and the rest of the region.His comments came after aid workers on Monday made the first delivery of desperately needed assistance since the start of Syria's fragile ceasefire four days ago.

Moscow and Washington drafted the UN-backed cessation of hostilities deal, and the two countries are co-chairing an international task force evaluating how the ceasefire is holding.

At an earlier meeting in Geneva, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thanked Lavrov for "his significant role in achieving recent progress on Syria," a UN statement said.

"They agreed on the importance of urgently moving forward simultaneously on implementing the cessation of hostilities agreement, providing vital humanitarian assistance to civilians, and returning to political negotiations," the statement further said.

The deal does not apply to the vast swathes of territory held by the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.It is hoped that the flow of much-needed assistance could create a more favourable backdrop for peace talks that collapsed in acrimony in early February.

UN envoy Steffan de Mistura aims to relaunch negotiations on March 7 if the ceasefire lasts and more aid is delivered.AFP

The agency called for better planning and accommodation for at least 24,000 stuck in Greece, including 8,500 at Idomeni where hundreds of migrants stormed the border on Monday and Macedonian police fired teargas to disperse them.

"Europe is on the cusp of a largely self-induced humanitarian crisis", the UN refugee agency's spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing.

"The crowded conditions are leading to shortages of food, shelter, water and sanitation. As we all saw yesterday, tensions have been building, fuelling violence and playing into the hands of people smugglers," he said.Migrants have become stranded in Greece country after Austria and countries along the Balkans migration route imposed restrictions on their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross.

The UNHCR also urged all EU member states to reinforce their capacity to register and process asylum seekers through their national procedures as well as through the European relocation scheme.

"Greece cannot manage this situation alone," Edwards said.

Despite commitments to relocate 66,400 refugees from Greece, states have so far only pledged 1,539 spaces and only 325 people actually have been relocated, he added.

Some 131,724 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in January and February, more than in the first half of 2015, it said. A further 410 have died at sea.  REUTERS