五角大楼推迟停用老式集束炸弹计划
美国五角大楼无限期推迟停用一种集束炸弹的计划。这种炸弹曾造成平民伤亡。
五角大楼原来计划2019年停止使用老式的集束炸弹，用一种新型炸弹取代。
美国国防部星期四的一个通知说，军方始终未能生产出未爆率低于1%的集束炸弹。
集束炸弹在空中爆炸，在大片打击地带散落成小弹体。
人权团体说，很多集束炸弹中的小弹体落地后没有爆炸，结果儿童看到后以为是玩具，或者农民在农田里看到，把它们捡起来后发生爆炸。
2010年的一项国际条约将集束炸弹列为非法武器，但是美国不是签字国。美国认为，在战争中遇到集结的敌方军队时，需要使用集束炸弹进行合法的攻击。
人权观察谴责美国五角大楼的决定。
Pentagon Delays Plans to Stop Using Older Cluster Bombs
The Pentagon is indefinitely postponing plans to stop using a certain type of cluster bomb -- a battlefield weapon that has killed or seriously wounded civilians.
The Pentagon planned to stop using the older style bombs in 2019 and replace them with a so-called safer version.
A Defense Department memo said Thursday the military has been unable to produce cluster bombs with a failure rate of 1 percent or less.
Cluster bombs explode in midair and scatter smaller bombs across a wide target area.
Human rights groups say many of these bomblets fail to explode until a child finds one and mistakes it for a toy or a farmer picks one up in his field.
A 2010 treaty outlaws the use of cluster bombs, but the U.S. is not a signatory. It calls the bombs a legitimate weapon needed for such wartime tactics as attacking enemy troop formations.
Human Rights Watch condemned the Pentagon's decision.
日本明仁天皇2019年退位
日本政府星期五宣布，天皇明仁将于2019年4月30号退位。
天皇的长子德仁皇太子将继位。
日本宫内厅星期五就天皇明仁的退位时间做出了决定。
明仁天皇去年说，他年事已高，身体欠佳，难以履行天皇的职责。他2016年在一次罕见的全国实况转播讲话中说：”考虑到我的健康情况每况愈下，我担心我可能很难向以前我所做的那样全面完成国家象征所要求的职责。”
明仁天皇近年来做过心脏手术，患过支气管炎，还接受过前列腺癌的治疗。
日本今年年初通过法律，允许天皇退位，但是具体退位时间要由安倍首相领导的宫内厅决定。明仁天皇将是日本200年以来第一个在世时退位的天皇。
Japan's Emperor Akihito to Abdicate in 2019
Japanese Emperor Akihito will step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne on April 30, 2019, the government announced Friday.
He will be succeeded by his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito.
The Imperial House Council made the decision Friday about the date of the abdication.
Last year, the emperor said he was becoming too old and frail to carry out his duties.
"When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being, as I have done until now," Akihito said in 2016 in a rare televised address to the nation.
In recent years, the emperor has had heart surgery, bronchitis and has been treated for prostate cancer.
Legislation was passed earlier this year allowing for the emperor's abdication, but the timing of the move was left to the Imperial House Council, chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Akihito will be the first emperor to abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne in 200 years.
