A group of US diplomats visited a Tokyo hospital on Friday to be briefed on the progress of an alleged US army deserter accused by Washington of defecting to Stalinist North Korea in the 1960s.
It was the first visit by US officials to the Tokyo Women's University Hospital since Charles Robert Jenkins, 64, was admitted immediately after arriving in Japan, where he hopes to settle, on July 18.
The US delegation, including a military doctor, was briefed by Japanese doctors about Jenkins' state of health but none of the officials met him, Hiroshi Touma, director of the hospital, told a news conference.
Jenkins faces court martial by the US military for desertion to North Korea following his disappearance on South Korea's border with the North in 1965, but Japan is unwilling to see him handed over to US authorities.
Although Japan and the US have an extradition treaty, Washington has offered to delay a request for his handover while he is being treated.
After talking to Jenkins, Tokyo has concluded that a plea bargain is the best way to resolve his alleged desertion, Kyodo news quoted Japanese government sources as saying on Friday. It did not offer any details of the possible plea agreement.
The hospital, which assigned a 15-member medical team to Jenkins, did not specify his ailments during talks with the US officials, said Atsushi Nagai, vice-director of the hospital, who is in charge of the medical team.
He said that Jenkins was recovering but needed to undergo more thorough medical tests next week.
"Overall he is recovering ... Based on the results of our initial screening tests, I can say that his health condition is not so bad," Nagai said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS