JAPAN
Tokyo slams China drilling
The government has protested to China for allowing a gas drilling vessel to operate in disputed waters in the East China Sea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference yesterday. The two nations agreed to jointly develop gas fields in the area in 2008, but talks have since stopped. “It is extremely regrettable that China continues its unilateral development in the sea area in a situation where the maritime boundary between Japan and China has not been fixed in the East China Sea,” Suga said, adding that Japan would continue to urge China to return to talks. Bilateral relations have improved in recent years after deteriorating sharply in 2012, when Japan nationalized a cluster of East China Sea islets that China also claims.
CAMBODIA
Five charged with trafficking
Five people arrested last week for allegedly providing commercial surrogacy services were on Thursday also charged with human trafficking, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ly Sophana said. Four Cambodian women and a Chinese man were formally charged with two counts of “The Act of Selling, Buying or Exchanging a Person for Cross-border Transfer,” which is punishable by seven to 15 years in prison, he said. The five had earlier been charged with providing surrogacy services, which were outlawed in 2016 as the nation was becoming a popular destination for would-be foreign parents seeking women to give birth to their children. That offense in punishable by one to six months in prison. Phnom Penh anti-trafficking police chief Keo Thea last week said that police who raided the surrogacy business rescued 33 pregnant surrogates who were allegedly hired by the Chinese man. The women are now under the care of the social welfare ministry.
RUSSIA
Oleg Navalny freed
The brother of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was jailed for three-and-a-half years in a fraud case that supporters say was politically motivated, was freed yesterday after serving his sentence. About 50 supporters and journalists had gathered outside the prison for the release. Oleg and Alexei were convicted in a 2014 fraud trial related to their work for French cosmetics company Yves Rocher. The opposition politician received a suspended sentence, while his brother was jailed for the same amount of time in a move activists compared to hostage-taking. The European Court of Human Rights ruled the convictions were “arbitrary and unreasonable,” and ordered Russia to pay the pair 83,000 euros (US$96,766) in damages. The older Navalny brother has served repeated short jail sentences in connection to his political activities. He most recently served a 30-day sentence for organizing a protest against President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration and was freed the day the World Cup started.
SOUTH KOREA
US forces open new HQ
US forces yesterday opened their new headquarters on what they called Washington’s biggest overseas base just weeks after US President Donald Trump said he wanted to bring the troops home. For decades, US Forces Korea have been headquartered in Yongsan in the center of Seoul. The two allies agreed as long ago as 1990 to relocate the headquarters to Camp Humphreys, about 60km south of the capital, but the project was delayed for years by resident protests, financial issues and extensive construction work. It was not until 2013 that the first unit transferred to the camp. The headquarters moved yesterday along with the US-led UN Command, with more units to follow suit later. US forces Commander Vincent Brooks told the opening ceremony that Seoul had contributed more than 90 percent of the US$10.8 billion cost of Camp Humphreys, “which we believe to be the largest overseas US base in the world.”
CUBA
Twenty-sixth diplomat ill
The US Department of State on Thursday confirmed that another diplomat has been affected by mysterious health incidents, bringing the total of Americans suffering from such ailments to 26. The diplomat was “medically confirmed” to have experienced health effects similar to those reported by other members of the US Havana diplomatic community, spokeswoman Health Nauert said. This and another case confirmed last week resulted from a single occurrence late last month in a diplomatic residence in which both officers were present, Nauert said. They were the first confirmed cases in Havana since August last year. Cuba has assured the US that it would continue its investigation, she added.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
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