Peruvian presidential candidates Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala have cast one another as bad for the country with a week to go to the second round vote.

In a televised debate, Ms Fujimori accused her rival of creating uncertainty by considering changes to the constitution and trade deals.

Mr Humala recalled the corruption and human rights abuses of the government of her father, Alberto Fujimori.

Opinion polls give Ms Fujimori a slight lead ahead of the 5 June election.

No candidate gained the 50% needed to secure victory outright in the first round in April, pitting the two front-runners, Ms Fujimori and Mr Humala, against one another.

Sunday's debate, their first and only, saw the two going on the attack.

Ms Fujimori, 36, said Mr Humala, a former army colonel, had repeatedly changed his plans for government.

"Why change the constitution? Why revise the free trade accords? Which of his campaign plans will Commander Humala use? This back and forth is generating a lot of instability," she said.

For his part, Mr Humala, 48, reminded voters of the track record of President Fujimori's government.

"When Fujimori left office in 2000, when the congresswoman was first lady, he left the economy in recession… he left 54% of Peruvians in poverty, he caused the bankruptcy of 23,000 businesses and the ruin of a million farmers. This is the government that Ms Fujimori defends with pride," he said.

During his time in power from 1990 to 2000, Alberto Fujimori tackled the Shining Path guerrillas and ended hyper-inflation.

But human rights abuses committed by his administration landed him with a 25-year prison sentence.

Ms Fujimori, who became first lady after her parents separated, has defended her father's record, saying that he laid the basis for Peru's current economic boom.

But on Sunday, she emphasised her own independence.

"I'm the candidate, not Alberto Fujimori. If you want to debate with me, challenge my ideas; if you want to debate with Alberto Fujimori, you can go if you want to Diroes (prison) where he is being held," Ms Fujimori said.

Mr Humala first came to prominence in 2000 when he led a short-lived military rebellion against President Fujimori.

He came second to current President Alan Garcia in the 2006 election.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

A Somali pirate has been jailed for life by a South Korean court, after being convicted of the attempted murder of the captain of a hijacked ship.

Mahomed Araye was one of several Somalis seized in January when South Korean special forces stormed a cargo ship hijacked in the Arabian Sea.

Another man was sentenced to 15 years; two others received 13-year terms.

The trial marks the first attempt by South Korea – a major seafaring nation – to punish foreign pirates.

The court in the port city of Busan ruled that only Araye had been involved in the shooting of Capt Seok Hae-Kyun, who is still recovering in hospital.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Araye, and life imprisonment for his accomplices, saying the pirates had used the captive crew as human shields during the raid by South Korean forces.

Eight pirates were killed and five were arrested during the mission to recapture the South Korean-owned Samho Jewelry on 15 January, six days after it was seized.

Defence lawyers argued the ballistic evidence linking Araye to the shooting of the captain was thin, and that no one saw him fire.

In the course of the trial, prosecutors also said that a British man working in the insurance industry contacted the Samho shipping company shortly after the kidnapping, allegedly to broker a possible deal with the hijackers.

A fifth suspect is being tried separately, and will be sentenced next week.

The Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, is one of the world's busiest shipping routes and has become a hotspot for pirate attacks.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

Nasa has confirmed that the vehicle it will use to send astronauts to places like asteroids will be based on its Orion capsule concept.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

Japan office equipment maker Ricoh has said it plans to cut its global workforce by about 10,000 people, in order to reduce costs.

The company currently has about 110,000 employees around the world.

Shares in Ricoh surged more than 7% on the news.

The company, which makes copiers and cameras, was hit by the global financial crisis and is struggling to recover.

"We have become a big company and need to re-engineer our corporate structure throughout to become more muscular," said Shiro Kondo, president and chief executive.

"We have done very little pruning of unprofitable businesses, and we need to pull out of some."

Ricoh, which is based in Tokyo, expects the job cuts will cost around 60bn yen ($733m; £449m) over two years.

But the measures are eventually expected to boost operating profit by 140bn yen in three years.

The company has been hurt by a stronger yen.

The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11 March damaged some of Ricoh's facilities.

Japanese companies are finding it hard to compete against lower-priced rivals from South Korea and China.

In April, Panasonic, Japan's top consumer electronics maker, announced 17,000 jobs around the world, also in an effort to reduce costs.

Panasonic expects to have a workforce of 350,000 people after wide-ranging reforms ending in March 2013.

It said operations at factories hit by the recent Japanese earthquake were recovering steadily, but disruptions in its supply chain were still affecting output.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here