BEIJING - The first crude oil from Myanmar has reached China via the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced on Friday. The oil reached Ruili, a city of Yunnan Province bordering Myanmar, at 4 pm, according to the CNPC. It will continue to flow through the pipe at a speed of about 50 kilometers per day for 650 km before reaching the city of Anning where the CNPC's Yunnan petrochemical branch is located. The branch has a designed processing capacity of 13 million tons per year. The 1,420-km long cross-border pipeline is a part of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project. The project, which comprises a crude oil pipeline and a gas pipeline, is a state-operated collaboration between China, Myanmar and international commercial partners. festival wristbandsprinted braceletscool wristbandsrubber wristbandscustom printed wristbandscustom livestrong braceletsdebossed wristband
Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attend the annual spring garden party at the Akasaka Palace imperial garden in Tokyo, Japan April 20, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] TOKYO - The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday approved a bill to allow Emperor Akihito to abdicate the Chrysanthemum throne and hand his duties over to Crown Prince Naruhito. Akihito's abdication would mark the first time a Japanese emperor has abdicated the throne in around 200 years. In terms of timing for Emperor Akihito's abdication, the government has been considering December 2018, as the possible timing for the move, as this is when the emperor will turn 85 years old. The nation's era name (gengo), informed sources said, which lasts for as long as the emperor is on the throne, will possibly change at the beginning of 2019. The abdication bill was written with just the current emperor in mind, as the government does not want to set a precedent for future emperors abdicating. The bill will be submitted to the Diet later on Friday, with the government expecting it to come into effect by the end of the current Diet session in mid-June. Last August, Emperor Akihito made a rare public televised address during which he suggested he wanted to step down because his advancing age and weakening health were making it difficult for him to carry out his official duties to the best of his ability.
