Japan’s foreign minister yesterday expressed regret to the Chinese ambassador over Beijing’s plans to execute three more convicted Japanese drug smugglers, an official said.
The executions would follow the scheduled hanging of Mitsunobu Akano, 65, on Monday in Beijing’s first use of the death penalty against a Japanese national since the two countries normalized ties in 1972.
Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada called in Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua (程永華) over the news and “there was an expression of regret” during the talks, said a foreign ministry official who declined to be named.
ARREST
Akano was arrested in September 2006 at an airport in the northeastern city of Dalian, reportedly attempting to smuggle 2.5kg of narcotics out of China, state media said.
He was sentenced to death in June 2008. Akano appealed but the sentence was upheld last year, the China Daily said.
The other three convicts are Teruo Takeda, 67, of Nagoya City, Hironori Ukai, 48, from Gifu Prefecture, and Katsuo Mori, 67, of Fukushima Prefecture, all of whom were sentenced to death in 2007, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
HOMICIDE
Japan itself employs the death penalty, usually in cases involving multiple homicides.
Rights group Amnesty International has called on Beijing to state publicly how many people it puts to death each year.
More people are executed in China than in the rest of the world put together, Amnesty said on Tuesday in an annual report on the use of the death penalty worldwide.
Briton Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three convicted of drugs smuggling, was executed by China last December. Supporters said he was mentally ill and London repeatedly urged Beijing to grant clemency.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS