Japan’s local media, Japan Times and international media, Washington Post, Telegraph and ofcourse even we also (lol) are  excited about a report from Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research saying that, in a survey of Japanese people aged 18 to 34, around 42 percent of the men and 44.2 percent of the women admitted they were virgins. Oh! Oh!!

That’s beyond the fact that 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship. And, it’s up from 2010 when only 36.2 percent of men and 38.7 percent of women said they had never had sex.

This survey has been done every five years since 1987. At the time, the subjects who said that they
had no partner stood at 48.6 percent and 39.5 percent for men and women respectively.

Despite all this, nearly 90 percent of the respondents said they want to get married “sometime in the future.”

“They want to tie the knot eventually. But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality,” said Futoshi Ishii, head of the NIPSSR’s population dynamics research department.

“That’s why people marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation’s low birthrate.”

This is the awkward moment the ruler of Dubai walks into civil service offices for an unannounced spot check – and finds nobody doing any work. 

Sheik Mohammed visited several government departments on Sunday morning – a normal working day in United Arab Emirates – and found several unoccupied desks that should have been populated by senior officers.

Video taken by Khalifa Saeed and tweeted by the government’s media office show the Sheik walking alone through a luxurious corner office with only a portrait of himself on the wall for company. 

Youtube/khaleejtimes

With no one to talk to, he nonchalantly picks up a book and begins flicking through it.

The message said: “Mohammed Bin Rashid on a field inspection tour in Dubai this morning.”

As a result of the surprise inspection, nine high-powered officials have been ordered to retire by the strict leader.

They include Abdul Qader Al Jasmi, director of legal affairs, deputy director general Eisa Al Maidoor and Mohammad Abdul Karim Julfar, assistant Director General for corporate support.

The Sheik began his visit at 7.30am, something he is known to do from time to time – making the employees’ tardiness all the more damning.

Youtube/khaleejtimes

According to Gulf News, the Sheik thanked the new retirees for their efforts, and that the decision “reflects Shaikh Mohammad’s keenness to allow a new generation of young leaders to shoulder the responsibility of development in the next period”.

But Mona Al Merri, director-general of Dubai media office, told Bloomberg:“He certainly wanted to send a message.

“Timeliness starts at the top and we won’t go after employees when their bosses aren’t there.’’

Read on : Mirror

Eight Turkish police officers were killed and 45 more people injured on Friday when a car bomb blamed on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants exploded outside a police building in the southeast of the country.

The bomb attack caused immense damage to the headquarters of the special anti-riot police force in Cizre, with television pictures showing a thick plume of black smoke heading into the sky.

Eight police officers were killed and 45 more people wounded, two of them seriously, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, quoting the local governorate.

Television quoted the health ministry as saying 12 ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.

Early pictures showed that the police building had been completely gutted by the power of the blast, reduced to a shell surrounded by a pile of rubble.

Adjacent buildings sustained severe damage and some were still on fire, television pictures showed.

Anadolu said the bomb had gone off 50 metres (yards) away from the building at a control post. It said the blast had been carried out by the PKK.

Security forces closed the main road to Cizre from the provincial capital of Sirnak to the north after the attack, Anadolu added.

– Syria operation –

The Turkish security forces have been hit by near daily attacks by the PKK since a two-and-a-half year ceasefire collapsed in 2015, leaving hundreds of police officers and soldiers dead.

The PKK has kept up its assaults in the last weeks after the unsuccessful July 15 coup by rogue elements in the military aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The latest attack comes two days after Turkish forces launched an unprecedented offensive in neighbouring Syria which the authorities say is aimed both at jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militia.

Turkey on Thursday shelled the Kurdish militia fighters in Syria, saying they were failing to observe a deal with the US to stop advancing in jihadist-held territory.

Ankara sees the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia as terror groups bent on carving out an autonomous region in Syria and acting as the Syrian branch of the PKK.

The government has vowed to press on with the campaign to eradicate the PKK from eastern Turkey after a purge in the army for those responsible for carrying out the coup.

The military has repeatedly over the last year ordered military operations and curfews in southeastern urban centres, including Cizre which has long been seen as having large PKK support.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984 with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

It is proscribed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.