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Japan minister launches counterattack after Ghosn blasts justice system

TOKYO — Japan's justice minister launched a rare and forceful public takedown of auto executive-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn after he blasted the country's legal system as allowing him "zero chance" of a fair trial as he sought to justify his escape to Beirut. After his dramatic flight to Lebanon last month, Ghosn spoke in public for the first time on Wednesday, saying he had been treated "brutally" by Tokyo prosecutors. He said they questioned him for up to eight hours a day without a lawyer present and tried to extract a confession out of him. In an effort to undo Ghosn's attempt to sway public opinion in his favor, Justice Minister Masako Mori followed shortly with a statement, translated into English and French, and held a news conference after midnight and again around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning to defend Japan's justice system. "I decided to do this because defendant Ghosn was looking to justify his unlawful exit from Japan by propagating a false recognition of our justice system," she said at the second news conference. "I felt that we needed to respond immediately to broadcast a correct understanding to people around the world." Ghosn, the former chief of Nissan and Renault, fled Japan last month as he was awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust, and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. Mori said Ghosn's escape from his trial in itself "could constitute a crime" that would not be tolerated in any country. "My impression in listening to him was that there were few statements that were backed by any real evidence," she said. "If he wants to prove his innocence, he should face fair trial proceedings here," she added, stressing that the allegations against him concerned financial crimes in Japan. "That would be the mark of a first-class businessperson and good citizen." Mori blasted Ghosn for violating his bail by fleeing the country "without showing a passport and breaking international rules that everyone in the world follows." "It was a breach of faith that can't be explained to our children," she said. The spotlight on Japan's justice system comes as Mori is set to host in April the United Nations' Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, held once every five years.

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse with Lambo Doors

Front-wheel-drive sporty cars with wild body kits and eye-searing graphics became increasingly popular in North America during the 1990s, but it took the enormous mainstream success of the first Fast and Furious movie in 2001 to place bewinged sport compacts with giant tailpipes in every town from Nome to Naples. No doubt due to the narrative-enhancing role of the cop-purchased 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse and its Robo Car Aero Armor body kit in The Fast and the Furious, the second-generation Eclipse (and its Eagle twin, the Talon) built by Diamond Star Motors in Illinois became the car to have by the middle 2000s… and the only way to improve on a full complement of flares, scoops, and wings was the conversion of the doors to use scissors-style aka Lambo hinge mechanisms. You'd think a car so equipped would be sufficiently desirable to stay on the happy side of the boneyard fence (Those are the doors of a billionaire, after all. -Ed), but such was not the case with this '98 in the Denver area. As we all know, there's no point in going to the expense and trouble of installing Lambo doors in your Eclipse if you haven't got a wing big enough to keep a Mitsubishi F-2 fighter plane aloft. Check! I find these graphics a bit too subdued, but then I'd have chosen a Mitsubishi Debonair AMG for customization in the first place. The body kit looks plenty mean, but hard times appear to have befallen this car quite a few years back. A bit over 150,000 miles show on the odometer, which is non-shabby for a DSM product. The engine is the Chrysler-sourced 2.0 DOHC unit originally designed for use in the Neon, rated at 140 horsepower. A 210-horse turbocharged Mitsubishi 2.0 could be had in the 1998 Eclipse/Talon, but the real gone cats added 14,000 horsepower worth of NOSSS. Someone loved this car enough to put plenty of sweat and dollars into it, and I felt saddened to see it come to such a fate. If it had had an automatic transmission, at least I could have consoled myself that it was built entirely for show. Nope, five-speed manual. The aftermarket wheels look rough, but they may have been sold anyway. This car has been crushed by now, but perhaps the Lambo door hardware got sliced out before then. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. So fast, it destroys wholesome farmhouses. The final model year for this generation of Eclipse was 1999.

Autoblog Podcast #357

Episode #357 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth and Jeff Ross are joined by Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse.com. Topics include the SEMA Show, the Cadillac CTS being named the Motor Trend Car of the Year, Mitsubishi's near-term plans and the 2015 Subaru WRX. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. You can follow along after the jump with our Q&A. Thanks for listening!
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