The last batch of Japanese troops to pull out from Iraq arrived in Kuwait on Monday and will be leaving that country within a week, said Fukushiro Nukaga, Japan's State Minister for Defense.
But some 210 Japanese airmen who transport non-military material into Iraq from airbases in Kuwait will remain "indefinitely" in the Gulf state, Nukaga told a press conference.
"Today, the last batch of ground Self-Defense Forces arrived in Kuwait. They will undergo certain procedures and medical checkup for one week and then will go back home," the minister said.
The group, consisting of 220 personnel, was a part of the several hundred Japanese ground troops on a humanitarian and reconstruction mission in Iraq's southern Muthanna Province.
During their mission in Iraq, the Japanese troops suffered no casualties and did not fire their weapons. The mission relied on British and Australian troops for protection, as Japanese troops are barred from using force.
Nukaga said the Japanese forces "successfully" completed their humanitarian mission in Iraq, which included rebuilding many schools, over 100km of roads and installing water purification machines.
"Providing humanitarian aid and reconstruction was the main aim of the Japanese forces, while preserving security was a secondary goal," Nukaga said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ordered the 600 Japanese troops to leave Iraq after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that his government would assume responsibility for security in the province.
Koizumi went ahead with the Iraq deployment despite domestic opposition in a country that has been firmly pacifist for more than six decades.
Nukaga said Japanese airmen will remain in Kuwait "to support multinational forces in improving the living conditions of Iraqis."
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
RSS