By Susana Vera and Ceyda Caglayan

ANTAKYA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Mehmet Alkan, a shoe-sole manufacturer in Turkey’s earthquake-hit south, doesn’t know what will become of his company after some of his 220 employees died and half fled, reflecting the difficult transformation ahead for industry in the region.

Forty of his workers and some families sheltered for a while in the undamaged Alkan Taban factory in Antakya after the massive quakes on Feb. 6.

“We only have 110 workers after some died and others left the city, so production capacity dropped,” said Alkan, the manager.

Turkey’s deadliest disaster in modern history struck a region rich in textile production and agriculture that accounts for 16% of total employment and around 11% of industrial production, a report by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry showed.

It forced millions to leave 11 southeastern provinces that were home to some 14 million people. Some say they may not return despite Ankara’s plan to swiftly rebuild hundreds of thousands of damaged or collapsed buildings.

Hundreds of businesses that re-started operations a month after the quake face shortages of staff who moved to nearby villages, relatives in other cities or to government-sponsored accommodation of tents and container homes, interviews show.

“We turned our showroom into a dormitory” for employees, Alkan said. “Most of their families left the city or moved to safer village areas. They are afraid. We are waiting for others to come back.”

He said the company’s shuttle used to drive up to 50 km (30 miles) to collect workers from their homes, but it now drives double that distance to reach the villages.

The disaster, which killed more than 52,000 people in Turkey and Syria, is a challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to transform Turkey into a competitive manufacturing power. Business groups and economists estimate quake fallout costing some $100 billion and shaving one to two percentage points off the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Some funding meant to boost production, employment and exports under Erdogan’s economic plan will be directed towards aid and rebuilding efforts in the area, they say.

RESHUFFLING

To ease the fallout, the government has rolled out short-work allowances for workers and easier access to loans for affected companies.

In Antakya, the hardest-hit city where dozens of blocks were flattened, only around a third of production capacity is being used a month after the earthquake, sector officials and experts say. It could take years to return to normal, bringing about a shift in demography in the area.

“We need urgent government support to start reverse migration for businesses. We are losing qualified workforce. A safe environment with facilities like schools and social spaces needs to be set up,” said Hikmet Cincin, the head of Antakya’s Chamber of Trade and Industry.

More than 600,000 homes collapsed or were severely damaged across the region, official data shows, while the government promised to build at least 250,000 units of accommodation within one year.

“It is very difficult to predict when housing and businesses will return to normal in the region. Permanent accommodations and reopened schools will be crucial,” said Serdar Sayan, director of the centre for social policy research (SPM) at Ankara-based TOBB University.

The region could also see industries reshuffled as construction sector workers arrive, Sayan said.

“People who started new, permanent lives in other cities are mainly from the middle- and upper-income classes,” while those who stayed tend to earn lower incomes and need state aid, Sayan said.

Seher Icici, who handled logistics and accounting at a textile machinery company in Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the earthquake, moved some 250 km to the west with her two small children, to the city of Mersin.

“We are staying temporarily since we do not have a home to return to now. We had to leave the city as we could not find temporary accommodation,” Icici said.

Families she knew had already left the area and enrolled their children in schools elsewhere, she said, and most won’t return at least until the end of the academic year.

“I cannot work right now but I am lucky as my boss paid my salary and some support money,” Icici said. “We are getting by with it for now.”

(Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Daren Butler and Nick Macfie)

By Eloisa Lopez

ABOARD PHILIPPINES COAST GUARD PLANE, South China Sea (Reuters) – As a Philippine coast guard aircraft flew over the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, a message came in over the radio telling it to immediately leave “Chinese territory”.

Such warnings, from a Chinese coast guard ship, have become an almost daily ritual around one of the world’s most contested archipelagos, where China is one of five countries claiming the strategic islands – or at least some of them – as their own.

“Calling China coast guard vessel. You are transiting inside Philippine territorial sea,” the Philippine pilot radios back.

“Request identify yourself and state your intention to prevent misunderstanding,” he said.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and has for years permanently deployed hundreds of coast guard and fishing vessels in disputed areas like the Spratlys, where it has dredged sand to build islands on reefs, and equipped them with missiles and runways.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims in the Spratlys. The Philippines occupies nine features there, and has accused China of aggression and “swarming” by fishing vessels that it says are militia, including near the tiny Thitu island occupied by Manila since the 1970s.

A Reuters journalist joined the Philippine flight on Thursday and observed some of those Chinese boats dotted in the waters around Thitu, an island of 400 people. The Philippines last week accused the vessels, including a navy ship, of “slowly loitering”.

China said on Friday it has sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, known in China as the Nansha Islands, and its adjacent waters.

“Therefore, it is reasonable and legal for Chinese ships to carry out normal activities in waters under China’s jurisdiction,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing.

The fly-by came amid repeated complaints by the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr against China’s actions, including its use of a laser that Manila said temporarily blinded crew members of a coast guard vessel last month.

The Philippines under Marcos has stepped up its rhetoric to challenge China and is seeking closer ties with former colonial power and defence ally the United States, including plans to hold joint sea patrols.

The plane flew over another hot spot for China-Philippines tensions – the Second Thomas Shoal – where the military grade laser was last month used to target a coast guard crew supporting a military resupply mission.

The Philippines has long maintained a small contingent of military aboard a rusty former U.S. navy ship that it ran aground on a reef there to preserve Manila’s territorial claim.

China’s coast guard challenged the plane again as it flew over the shoal, located inside the Philippines 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

“This is the Philippine Coast Guard,” the pilot responded.

“We are conducting a routine maritime patrol within our national airspace, and monitoring the safety of our fishermen,” it said.

(Writing by Karen Lema; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in BEIJING; Editing by Martin Petty, Ed Davies)

By Elaine Lies

SHINCHIMACHI, Japan (Reuters) – A chilly dawn paints the sky magenta and purple as Japanese fisherman Haruo Ono unloads his catch of flounder, crab and sea bass from his boat at the small port of Shinchimachi.

A third-generation fisherman, Ono, 71, has been putting to sea for half a century from Shinchimachi, 55 km (34 miles) north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the scene in 2011 of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

On March 11 that year, a 9 magnitude earthquake struck offshore sending tsunami waves smashing into Japan’s east coast. Ono rode out the waves at sea on his boat but on land, the waves devastated Shinchimachi and obliterated Ono’s home.

The tsunami also crashed into the nuclear plant just down the coast, setting off explosions and meltdowns that released radiation over a wide swathe and shut down fishing for more than a year due to worries about radiation.

More than a decade later, Shinchimachi is still recovering as is its fishing industry but a new threat spawned by the disaster could wipe out the progress made.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which runs the crippled nuclear power station, plans to soon start releasing more than a million tons of radioactive water from the plant into the sea.

“It’s been 12 years and fish prices are rising, we’re finally hoping to really get down to business,” Ono said.

“Now they’re talking about releasing the water and we’re going to have to go back to square one again. It’s unbearable.”

The water was mainly used to cool reactors in the aftermath of the disaster. It is enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools and is being stored in huge tanks at the plant.

Officials say the tanks have to be removed for reconstruction.

The water is treated, filtered and diluted and Tepco and the government say it is safe. But it does contains traces of tritium.

Even though the radioactive isotope is considered relatively harmless, the region’s fishermen, like its farmers, have been struggling for years to restore the reputation of their produce and now fear the dumped water will kill their business.

“We here in Fukushima have done absolutely nothing wrong, why do they have to mess up our ocean?” Ono said. “The ocean doesn’t belong to only us humans – and it isn’t a garbage can.”

Countries in the region have also been worried about the release though some concerns have been easing.

‘WHY NOT TOKYO’

Fukushima has a long, proud fishing tradition. The area used to send its flounder in tribute to feudal lords.

But the waves nearly ended all that.

Ono was left with virtually nothing. Though his immediate family survived, a brother was killed in the roiling sea.

Ono’s new home stands high inland, surrounded by other new houses on straight roads laid out after the disaster.

His bright main room contains pots of pink geraniums and a photograph of Ono taking part in the 2021 Olympic torch relay.

The area where he used to live has been turned into a park.

“In the tsunami I lost my house, I lost all my possessions, I lost my younger brother. Then we had the nuclear accident,” Ono said.

“Our pain has been two or three times higher than anybody else’s. Why are they still giving us a hard time? Why release water into the Fukushima ocean, why not Tokyo or Osaka?”

Experts like Toshihiro Wada, an associate professor in environment and radiation studies at Fukushima University, said the timing of the release of the water, and the alarmist talk it will bring, was unfortunate.

“Given how carefully fishing has been expanded, and that it’s just approaching past levels, it’s only natural this timing is a problem for fishermen who fear the impact of rumours,” he said.

Tepco and the government cite radiation testing standards they say are stricter than those of other countries that also release treated water. The release has also been approved by international atomic regulator the IAEA.

“What we say to the fishermen is that we have equipment to treat the water safely,” Tomohiko Mayuzumi, a Tepco spokesperson, told Reuters at the plant.

To prove how harmless it is, Tepco has been raising flounder in tanks at the plant. A live feed of the flat fish is broadcast on Tepco’s YouTube channel.

Outside, work is underway to extend a pipe into the ocean to release the water from rows of stacked metal tanks.

Ono is gloomy about prospects for the next generation of fishing folk.

“It’s OK for me. I’m 71, I’ll keep on working at sea until I die,” he said. “But what about the kids in primary and junior school? It’s way too unstable for them to make a living from this.”

(Additional reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Robert Birsel)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events of the life and ministry of Pope Francis, who marks the 10th anniversary of his election as pontiff on March 13.

1936

Dec. 17 – Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the son of Italian immigrants.

1969

Dec. 13 – Ordained a priest.

1973

July 31 – Becomes head of the Jesuits in Argentina.

1992

May 20 – Appointed Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires.

1998

Feb. 28 – Appointed Archbishop, Primate of Argentina. He becomes famous for commuting to work on public transport, not living in the archbishop’s palace and cooking his own meals.

2001

Feb. 21 – Appointed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II.

2005

April 19 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected pope after four ballots, takes the name Benedict. Subsequent leaks show that Bergoglio came second in all the secret ballots.

2013

March 13 – Bergoglio is elected pope after the shock resignation of Pope Benedict. He takes the name Francesco (Francis) and is the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.

July 8 – Makes first pastoral trip outside Rome, visiting the Italian island of Lampedusa and condemns the “globalisation of indifference” to the plight of migrants.

July 29 – During his first news conference onboard the papal plane, Francis says: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” — seen as the most conciliatory attitude to LGBT people by a pontiff.

Nov. 26 – Calls for a deep renewal of the Church in a major document (apostolic exhortation) setting out his papacy.

2014

Feb. 24 – Creates a new body within the Vatican to coordinate economic and administrative affairs.

May 24-26 – Visits the Holy Land. He becomes the first pontiff to lay a wreath at the tomb of the founder of modern Zionism. He also prays in front of the Israeli security wall that is despised by Palestinians.

2015

June 18 – Releases first papal document dedicated to the environment, the encyclical “Laudato Si”, urging world leaders to hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.

2016

April 8 – In a document on family life, Francis urges priests to be more accepting of divorced or remarried Catholics and to welcome single parents and LGBT people. But he rejects the notion of same-sex marriage.

June 26 – Says Christians owe apologies to LGBT community and others who have been offended or exploited by the church.

Nov. 2 – Tells reporters the Catholic ban on female priests is forever.

2017

Jan. 2 – Pope Francis says in a letter bishops must show zero tolerance to clergy who sexually abuse children. He begs forgiveness for “a sin that shames us”.

June 28 – Cardinal George Pell, appointed Vatican economy minister by Francis, is charged with multiple historical sex crimes in his native Australia. He is initially convicted in Dec. 2018, but then found not guilty in April 2020 on appeal.

July 1 – In major shake-up, Francis replaces Catholicism’s top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff’s vision of a more inclusive Church.

2018

Jan. 30 – Just days after defending a Chilean bishop accused of sex crimes against minors, the pope sends top sexual abuse expert to Chile to investigate. In April, Francis says he made “grave mistakes” in handling the Chile crisis, asks forgiveness.

May 18 – In unprecedented move, all Chile’s bishops offer to resign after attending crisis meeting with Pope Francis. In coming months he accepts many of the resignations.

July 28 – Accepts resignation of U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In Feb. 2019, Francis expels him from the priesthood after the Church finds him guilty of sexually abusing minors — the first time a cardinal has been defrocked for sexual abuse.

Aug. 25-26 – Visits Ireland, says Church failure to adequately address “repugnant” clerical child abuse crimes in Ireland is a source of shame for Catholics. He begs forgiveness.

Aug. 26 – A former top Vatican official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, accuses the pope of knowing for years of sex abuse allegations against Cardinal McCarrick; says Francis should resign. Months later, the Vatican accuses Vigano of calumny.

Sept. 22 – The Vatican signs a landmark agreement giving it a long-desired say in the appointment of bishops in China. Critics label the deal a sellout to the Communist government.

2019

Feb. 21 – Pope opens an unprecedented four-day meeting with Catholic leaders from around the world on child sex abuse. Calls for “concrete and efficient measures” to tackle the abuse.

April 19 – Meets South Sudan’s previously warring leaders and kisses their feet. Urges them to not return to a civil war.

May 24 – Appoints women to a key Vatican department for the first time. In January 2020, he appoints the first woman to hold a high-ranking post in the Secretariat of State. In August 2020 he appoints six women to Vatican finance council. In November2021 he names a woman to the number 2 position in the governorship of the Vatican City. In March 2022, he introduces a reform saying Catholic women could in future take charge of most departments.

June 2 – During a visit to Romania, the pope asks forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people.

2020

Feb. 12 – In an apparent victory for conservative clergy, the pope dismisses a proposal to allow some married men to be ordained in remote areas of the Amazon.

March 7 – The pope cancels all regular public appearances because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Planned trips are also cancelled. On March 27, he holds a solitary prayer service in the vast, empty St. Peter’s Square.

Sept. 24 – The pope fires Italian Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu from powerful Vatican post after accusing him of embezzlement and nepotism. Becciu denies wrongdoing. He is indicted for alleged financial crimes in July 2021.

Nov. 5 – Shakes up running of Vatican funds after London property scandal.

Dec. 31 – Suffering a flare-up of a sciatica condition that causes pain in his right leg, the pope misses New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day services — the first time health problems caused him to skip major religious events.

2021

Jan. 11 – Pope Francis, in another step towards greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, changes Church law, saying they can serve as readers at liturgies, altar servers and distributors of communion.

Jan. 21 – A Vatican court convicts Angelo Caloia, a former head of the Vatican bank, on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, making him the highest ranking Vatican official to be convicted of a financial crime.

March 5 – Resuming trips after the COVID crisis, Francis makes first visit by pontiff to Iraq.

July 4 – Has surgery to remove part of his colon, spends 11 days in hospital to recuperate.

July 16 – In blow to conservatives, Francis overturns the decisions of his two predecessors and re-imposes restrictions on the old-style Latin Mass preferred by traditionalist Catholics.

Oct. 29 – U.S. President Joe Biden says after meeting the pope that the pontiff had told him he was a “good Catholic” who can receive communion, widening gulf with conservative prelates.

2022

Feb. 25 – Departing from protocol, the pope visits the Russian embassy to the Vatican to relay personally his concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the following weeks and months he repeatedly calls for an end to the war and grows increasingly critical of Moscow for launching the invasion.

July 24 – Starts six-day visit to Canada where he repeatedly asks forgiveness for sexual abuse at schools for indigenous children run by Catholic orders.

Dec. 31 – Pope Benedict dies in the Vatican monastery where he had lived since his resignation in 2013.

2023

Jan. 11 – The conservative Cardinal Pell dies in Rome. It is later revealed that he had penned an anonymous 2021 memo condemning Francis’s papacy as a “catastrophe”.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Philip Pullella and Frances Kerry)

By Greg Torode and Jessie Pang

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s top Catholic cleric, Bishop Stephen Chow, will visit Beijing in April, the first such visit in nearly 30 years.

Chow’s five-day trip, to start on April 17, follows an invitation last year by the Bishop of Beijing, Joseph Li Shan, the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese said in a statement on Thursday.

It cited Chow saying the visit “underscores the mission of the Diocese of Hong Kong to be a bridge….and promote exchanges and interactions between the two sides”.

A Diocese spokesperson on Friday confirmed to Reuters that it will be the first time since 1994 – when Hong Kong was still a British colony – that a Hong Kong bishop has officially visited Beijing.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that China was not aware of Chow’s upcoming visit.

Hong Kong has for decades been a strong Catholic beachhead on the edge of a mainland China under officially atheist Communist Party rule, and is seen by some Catholics as a source of friction in a habitually tense Sino-Vatican relationship.

Vatican officials say Hong Kong is not part of a secret but provisional 2018 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing over the appointment of bishops.

That accord was a bid to ease a longstanding divide across mainland China between an underground flock loyal to the pope and a state-backed official church. For the first time since the 1950s, both sides recognised the pope as supreme leader of the Catholic Church.

Some local priests and missionaries, however, fear that Beijing has been trying to tighten its control over Hong Kong Catholics, in part because of the deal, extended in October for a further two years.

Pope Francis named Chow as bishop of Hong Kong in May, 2021 — a long-delayed appointment amid growing Western concern over human rights and freedoms in the city.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, one of Chow’s predecessors and a prominent critic of the Sino-Vatican deal, was found guilty in November for failing to register a now-disbanded fund for democracy protesters. He was fined HK$4,000 ($512).

(Reporting by Greg Torode and Jessie Pang, Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Kim Coghill)

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s election commission on Friday launched an appeal against a controversial court ruling that ordered it to delay the 2024 presidential and general polls, officials said.

The commission will argue against a court decision that has reignited debate over extending President Joko Widodo’s time in office, which is limited to two five-year terms by the constitution and should end next year.

Senior politicians, activists and legal experts have warned delaying the 2024 election could threaten nearly 25 years of democratic reforms brought in after decades of authoritarian rule.

National Election Commissioner August Melasz said the agency known as the KPU had submitted its appeal, which will be heard and ruled on by the Jakarta High Court. He did not elaborate on the commission’s arguments.

The KPU has previously said it will forge ahead with preparations for presidential and general elections in the world’s third-largest democracy.

President Joko Widodo, who has said he is against extending his term, said this week he supports the election commission’s appeal.

Legal experts have said the lower court overstepped its jurisdiction in ruling on a complaint by an obscure party about election procedures, saying it is the jurisdiction of Indonesia’s supervisory body (Bawaslu) and administrative courts.

(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)