JAPAN
Abe to skip Beijing parade
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not attend a military parade in China next week to commemorate the end of World War II, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters yesterday. Suga said the decision was made after considering Abe’s parliamentary activities and political schedule. However, he added Abe told parliament recently that he hoped the theme of China’s commemorative event “would not be anti-Japanese.”
JAPAN
Abe criticizes visit
Abe yesterday criticized his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, for a weekend visit to the disputed Kuril island chain. The visit “conflicts with Japan’s position and hurts the feelings of the Japanese people. It is extremely regrettable,” Abe told a parliamentary panel when asked about the trip. Medvedev on Saturday visited Iturup, one of four Kuril islands controlled by Russia.
JAPAN
Two fires near Tokyo
An explosion yesterday rocked a warehouse at the US Army’s Sagami General Depot in Sagamihara, about 40km from Tokyo, while a blaze broke out at a steel plant near Haneda International Airport. No injuries were reported from either fire. Dramatic video footage showed large sparks shooting out like fireworks from the fire on the depot’s roof. Local and US base firefighters delayed battling the fire while the contents of the building were assessed and the fire died out on its own about six hours after it started, shortly before 1am. US forces said the building held canisters of compressed gases such as nitrogen and oxygen. The Kawasaki city fire department said the blaze at the plant, owned by a unit of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, may have been caused by workers who were using gas burners to dismantle the site. The fire was put out shortly after 1:30pm.
PAKISTAN
Kidnapped Chinese freed
A Chinese tourist who was kidnapped by the Taliban more than a year ago has been freed, Minister of the Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Sunday. The man was abducted in May last near the western city of Dera Ismail Khan while on a cycling trip. Khan gave few details about the tourist’s recovery other than saying it was the result of an intelligence operation and the culmination of more than a year of effort by the government.
BURUNDI
Amnesty reports on torture
Security forces used iron bars and acid to force confessions and crush opposition during President Pierre Nkurunziza’s successful bid for a third term in office, Amnesty International said yesterday. Testimonies recorded by Amnesty in the report accuse both the police and National Intelligence Service (SNR) of carrying out “torture and other ill-treatment” since April against people suspected of participating in protests against Nkurunziza’s controversial re-election bid. Police beat people with electric cables and batons, while the SNR used iron bars, as well as “forcing detainees’ heads under dirty water,” said the report read, titled Just tell me what to confess to.
EGYPT
Bus bombing kills two
A bomb yesterday struck a bus carrying policemen, killing two and wounding 24, officials said. The attack occurred in the Nile Delta province of Baheira, 260km north of Cairo, while the policemen were travelling to work in a civilian bus.
GUATEMALA
President not resigning
President Otto Perez said on Sunday that he would not resign and rejected allegations that he was one of the ringleaders of a corruption scandal shaking the country. Prosecutors and officials from a UN investigative commission said on Friday they had uncovered extensive evidence implicating Perez and ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti in a massive, highly organized scheme to reduce importers’ customs duties in exchange for bribes. With two weeks to go to general elections, Perez made a statement to the nation in which he pledged to abide by legal processes, but said he would not quit.
MEXICO
Kidnap victims rescued
Officials say federal police have arrested a cell of the Gulf Cartel in the border state of Tamaulipas and freed 11 kidnap victims showing signs of severe malnutrition and torture. A statement from Tamaulipas security officials says the victims were kidnapped while traveling on roads in the state that borders Texas and the Gulf state of Veracruz, and were being held for ransom. Ten people were detained, including the cell leader. Police also found human remains in a septic tank of the house where victims were held in Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz, near the Tamaulipas border.
UNITED STATES
Crowds wish Carter well
Larger-than-usual crowds of well-wishers meant former president Jimmy Carter had to teach an extra Bible class at his rural Georgia church and a local schoolhouse on Sunday, after he announced on Thursday cancer had spread to his brain. Carter, 90, a lifelong Baptist and church deacon, has taught Sunday school for decades, and the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, is used to a throng. The church’s Web site asks people to line up before 9am and attend an orientation before the 10am class. Carter taught a second Bible class to another crowd at a local school before returning to the church sanctuary to pose for photos with people for more than a half an hour. The first person lined up at midnight and some followers drove hours to attend, local television reported.
UNITED STATES
Two held on gun charges
Two Iowa men suspected of making violent social media threats to people attending the Pokemon World Championships in Boston have been arrested on gun charges. Boston police said on Sunday that convention security reported the threats on Thursday and the suspects were stopped as they were about to enter the event hours later. They said a search of their car on Friday found a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15 rifle, several hundred rounds of ammunition and a hunting knife. Police said 18-year-old Kevin Norton, of Ames, and 27-year-old James Stumbo, of Boone, were being arraigned on firearms charges yesterday.
SPAIN
Woman forced to fly plane
A woman was seriously injured on Sunday in an ultralight aircraft crash after she was forced to fly the plane — despite having no flight experience — when the pilot lost consciousness, officials said. The woman suffered burns and multiple contusions, while the pilot died, though it was unclear if that happened before or after the plane crashed near Seville Airport, an emergency services spokesman said. “The woman kept flying, she did not how to fly, so they guided her from the control tower to see if she could control the plane until landing it at the airport,” he added.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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