Category: Foreign

The Japanese Ministry of Justice said three prisoners were executed on death row on Tuesday which is the first execution in Japan since December 2019.

The execution was first execution under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration.

The three were identified as Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who killed seven of his relatives in Hyogo Prefecture in 2004, Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted of killing two employees at two separate pachinko parlours in Gunma Prefecture in 2003.

Fujishiro was sentenced to death by the Kobe District Court in western Japan in May 2009, and the decision was finalised in June 2015 after an appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.

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The Saitama District Court near Tokyo sentenced Takanezawa and Onogawa, who also robbed one of the victims and stole money from one of the pachinko parlours to death.

The death penalty on Takanezawa was finalised in July 2005 after he withdrew his appeal, while Onogawa’s sentence was finalised in June 2009 at the Supreme Court.

Following the executions, the number of inmates sitting on death row in Japan stands at 107.

After the executions, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters it is “not appropriate to abolish (the country’s death penalty system) considering the current situation in which heinous crimes continue to occur.”

“Many Japanese think the death penalty is unavoidable in the case of extremely malicious crimes,’’ Seiji said.

(Xinhua/NAN)

Gan Rongkun, a former senior official of central China’s Henan Province, has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) said on Tuesday.

Gan had been a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Henan Provincial Committee and secretary of the political and legal affairs commission of the provincial Party committee, the SPP statement said.

The National Supervisory Commission (NSC) has completed the investigation into his case and handed it over to prosecuting agencies, the statement said.

READ ALSO: Over 40 arrested in NW China for suspected money laundering

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the NSC announced in June that Gan was under investigation.

He was later expelled from the party and dismissed from office for multiple violations.

(Xinhua/NAN)

REBELLIOUS Tigrayan forces fighting the central government are withdrawing from neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia, a spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces said yesterday, a step towards a possible ceasefire after 13 months of a brutal war.

“We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace,” wrote Debretsion Gebremichael, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party controlling most of the northern region of Tigray.

His letter to the United Nations called for a no-fly zone for hostile aircraft over Tigray, imposing arms embargos on Ethiopia and its ally Eritrea, and a UN mechanism to verify that external armed forces had withdrawn from Tigray.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The war in Africa’s second-most populous nation has destabilised an already fragile region, sending 60,000 refugees into Sudan, pulling Ethiopian soldiers away from war-ravaged Somalia, and sucking in the army from the neighbouring nation of Eritrea.

Thousands of civilians have been killed, around 400,000 are facing famine in Tigray, and 9.4 million people need food aid across northern Ethiopia as a result of the conflict.

Debretsion said he hoped the Tigrayan withdrawal, from the regions of Afar and Amhara, would force the international community to ensure that food aid could enter Tigray.

The United Nations has previously accused the government of operating a de facto blockade – a charge the government has denied.

“We hope that by (us) withdrawing, the international community will do something about the situation in Tigray as they can no longer use as an excuse that our forces are invading Amhara and Afar,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters.

Other proposals in the letter include the release of political prisoners – thousands of Tigrayans have been detained by the government – and the use of international investigators to pursue those responsible for war crimes.

Last week the United Nations agreed to set up an independent investigation into rights abuses in Ethiopia – a move strongly opposed by the Ethiopian government.

International mediators including the African Union and United States have repeatedly tried to negotiate a ceasefire between the two sides to allow aid to enter Tigray but both sides refused until certain conditions were met.

The conflict erupted last year between the federal government and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.

In June, the military withdrew from Tigray after reports of mass killings of civilians, gang rapes and blocking of aid supplies.

The government has said it has prosecuted individual soldiers although it has provided no details.

In July, Tigrayan forces invaded Afar and Amhara.

The Ethiopian military launched an offensive at the end of November that pushed the Tigrayan forces back hundreds of kilometres.

MALAYSIAN news agency Bernama reported yesterday that 10 people went missing and more than 41,000 others evacuated after several zones in eight states of Malaysia were inundated by unusually disruptive seasonal flooding.

The country was affected by severe floods on Friday as torrential rains hit the nation at the beginning of a stormy monsoon season.

According to Bernama, 10 people, including a six-year-old child, are missing, feared swept away by water in the state of Pahang.

In the city of Shah Alam, the centre of Selangor, the state most affected by the floods, the body of a drowned man was found on Sunday night after the level of flooding receded.

Three more bodies of possible flood victims have been found in the suburbs of Shah Alam, the circumstances of their deaths are being investigated by the local authorities, the agency reported.

The total number of evacuated people in partially submerged provinces and Malaysian capital Kuala-Lumpur has exceeded 41,000.

All evacuees have been accommodated in temporary shelters, mainly tents set up on the basis of relief centers for displaced people.

On Friday Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced a package of relief measures and humanitarian assistance to be provided to those affected by floods, including basic necessities and financial support.

THE death toll following the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year has risen to a total of 375.

About 52 other people are still missing and several central towns and provinces grappling with downed communications and power outages with people pleading for food and water.

At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 121 miles per hour and gusts of up to 168 mph before it blew out Friday into the South China Sea.

The toll was expected to increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications and power outages although massive clean-up and repair efforts were underway.

Many died due to falling trees and collapsing walls, flash flood and landslides. A 57-year-old man was found dead hanging from a tree branch and a woman was blown away by the wind and died in Negros Occidental province, police said.

Governor Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, among the southeastern provinces first hit by the typhoon, said Rai’s ferocity on her island province of more than 130,000 was worse than that of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful and deadliest typhoons on record and which devastated the central Philippines in November 2013, but did not inflict any casualties in Dinagat.

“If it was like being in a washing machine before, this time there was like a huge monster that smashed itself everywhere, grabbed anything like trees and tin roofs and then hurled them everywhere,” Bag-ao said.

“The wind was swirling north to south to east and west repeatedly for six hours. Some tin roof sheets were blown away then were tossed back.”

No fewer than 14 villagers died and more than 100 others were injured by flying tin roofs, debris and glass shards and were treated in makeshift surgery rooms in damaged hospitals in Dinagat, Bag-ao said.

Many more would have died if thousands of residents had not been evacuated from high-risk villages.

Like several other typhoon-hit provinces, Dinagat remained without electricity and communications and many residents in the province, where the roofs of most houses and buildings were ripped off, needed construction materials, food and water.

Bag-ao and other provincial officials travelled to nearby regions that had cellphone signals to seek aid and coordinate recovery efforts with the national government.

More than 700,000 people were lashed by the typhoon in central island provinces, including more than 400,000 who had to be moved to emergency shelters.

Thousands of residents were rescued from flooded villages, including in Loboc town in hard-hit Bohol province, where residents were trapped on roofs and trees to escape from rising floodwaters.

Coast guard ships ferried 29 American, British, Canadian, Swiss, Russian, Chinese and other tourists who were stranded on Siargao Island, a popular surfing destination that was devastated by the typhoon, officials said.

Emergency crews were scrambling to restore electricity in 227 cities and towns, officials said.

CATHOLIC Church Head Pope Francis has appointed a Nigerian priest, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, as the new Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Office and specialised institutions in Geneva.

Archbishop Nwachukwu was also appointed Permanent Observer to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Representative of the Holy See to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The 61-year-old Nwachukwu replaces Bishop Ivan Jurkovic, previously appointed nuncio in Canada.

A statement from the Office of the Secretariat of the Episcopal Conference of the Antilles said: “The Holy Father has appointed Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, titular of Acquaviva and until now, apostolic nuncio in Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Jamaica, Grenada, the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname, and apostolic delegate in the Antilles; and Holy See Plenipotentiary Representative at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations and Specialised Institutions in Geneva and at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Holy See Representative at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

“He sincerely appreciates your support during his mission in this region and requests that you accompany him with your prayers and friendship as he prepares to assume the new responsibilities.”

Archbishop Nwachukwu has previously been assigned as Apostolic Nuncio to Saint Lucia, Grenada, and the Bahamas on February 27 2018; and Apostolic Nuncio to Suriname on March 9, 2018; and Apostolic Nuncio to Belize on September 8, 2018.

Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Monday said the Israeli government had approved the ban of all non-essential travel to 10 countries including the United States to prevent the spread of the Omicron coronavirus strain.

The countries include Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

“The cabinet ministers have now approved (in a telephone vote) the expansion of the list of red countries, in accordance with the recommendation of the Health Ministry State Classification Committee, pursuant to a discussion that was held yesterday at the Cabinet meeting,” the Office said.

READ ALSO:COVID-19: Travel bans don’t save lives

The red list’s expansion has to be approved by the parliament’s legal committee. If approved, it will take effect on Wednesday.

After the Omicron variant was detected in late November, Israel banned travel from 50 African countries as well as Denmark and the United Kingdom.

On Wednesday, the red list was expanded to include Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli borders are to remain closed to foreigners until Dec. 29.

(Sputnik/NAN)

THE European Union (EU) has imposed sanctions on the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organisation accused of committing human rights abuses in the Central African Republic and elsewhere.

The bloc said that it would no longer train CAR government soldiers because of their links to Wagner.

In Africa, its fighters are also involved in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique and look likely to play a role in Mali.

The mercenaries are there to support President Faustin-Archange Touadéra in the fight against rebels, who still control many parts of the country despite recent government advances.

The country has been embroiled in civil unrest since President François Bozizé was overthrown in 2013. Touadéra, in power since a 2016 election, had struggled to defeat rebel forces despite the presence of French troops and a UN force.

The CAR government believes the Russian mercenaries have had more success.

Wagner is believed to have started working in the CAR in 2017, after the UN Security Council approved a Russian training mission there and lifted the arms embargo imposed in 2013.

In October 2017, President Touadéra travelled to Russia to sign a number of security agreements with the Russian government.

These included a request for military support, in exchange for access to the CAR’s significant deposits of diamonds, gold and uranium.

The UN had only agreed to the deployment of 175 Russian trainers for the local military.

Despite official Russian denials there are accusations, including from the EU, that there are links between Wagner and the Kremlin.

Analysts said these ties enabled armed Wagner operatives to start working in the CAR after the deal with Russia was signed.

Since then, the group’s presence in the mineral-rich country has mushroomed.

The Russian government said it has sent unarmed military instructors to CAR, and that no more than 550 of them have been in the country at any one time.

UN experts, however, believe there could be more than 2,000 instructors deployed by Russia to the CAR, including recruits from Syria and Libya, where Wagner has been active.

This is of particular concern to the UN and France who have both accused the group of inflaming the conflict by carrying out human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings of suspected rebels.

Wagner operatives, as well as government forces, have been accused of raping and robbing unarmed civilians in the country’s rural areas, the UN and French said.

In a report in August about human rights abuses in the CAR, the UN documented more than 500 incidents in the year from July 2020. Among those were extrajudicial killings, torture and sexual violence.

In October, a panel of UN experts said those arrested by the Russian instructors and the national army often had no access to justice. They said that victims were reluctant to lodge official complaints, meaning that impunity for the abuses continued.

Earlier in that month, CAR Justice Minister Arnaud Abazene acknowledged for the first time that some abuses had been carried out by “Russian instructors”.

While he said most of the incidents were carried out by the rebels, it was the first time that the government had recognised abuses carried out by their own troops or their allies.

Abazene also said the Russian instructors had been repatriated to be tried in their home country.

EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali told the BBC that Brussels was increasingly alarmed by the activities of the Wagner Group. The UN has also accused Wagner of carrying out war crimes in Libya.

A BBC investigation revealed Wagner operatives had killed civilians and prisoners in Libya, and planted unmarked explosives.

“Their legal status is vague, as are their modus operandi, objectives and targets,” Massrali said.

“It is clearly very difficult to prevent and ensure accountability for potential violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the context of such ambiguity.”

 

 

 

 

ISLAMIC countries pledged yesterday to set up a humanitarian trust fund for Afghanistan.

But, as millions face hunger and a harsh winter setting in, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan warned of chaos if the worsening emergency was not urgently addressed.

The crisis is causing mounting alarm but the international response has been muted, given Western reluctance to help the Taliban government, which seized power in August.

“Unless action is taken immediately, Afghanistan is heading for chaos,” Khan told a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad.

The trust fund, announced by Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, will be set up under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank.

Allowing Afghanistan access to reserves frozen outside the country would be key to preventing economic collapse, participants in the meeting, which included representatives from the United Nations, United States, European Union and Japan, said in a statement.

But, it was unclear how much the fund would contain and the meeting did not provide official recognition to the Taliban government.

Acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the government had restored peace and security and done much to address demands for more inclusiveness with respect for human rights, including the rights of women.

“All must acknowledge that political isolation of Afghanistan is not beneficial for anyone. Therefore, it is imperative that all support the prevailing stability and back it both politically and economically,” he said.

Taliban officials have previously asked for help to rebuild Afghanistan’s shattered economy and feed more than 20 million people threatened with hunger.

Some countries and aid organisations have begun delivering aid, but a near-collapse of the country’s banking system has complicated their work.

Qureshi said unlocking financial and banking channels was essential “because the economy can’t function and people can’t be helped without a banking system.”

The scale of the challenge has been underlined by crowds gathering outside the newly reopened passport office in Kabul, where hundreds have been lining up for passports that would enable them to leave the country.

 

THE Embassy of Nigeria in Lome, Togo, has registered its displeasure with the host country over the maltreatment of some Nigerians in transit from the United States, aboard Ethiopian Airlines through the Togolese capital to Nigeria.

The Nigerians were seen in a video being maltreated at the Gnassingbe Eyadema International Airport, Lome on Saturday.

The Nation learnt yesterday that the embassy has made it known to the host authorities that the manhandling of Nigerian travellers was totally unacceptable and not in accordance with international best practices.

However, in a statement yesterday, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Togo Debo Adesina stated that through concerted efforts by the mission in its engagement with relevant Togolese officials, the matter is being addressed.

When the incident occurred, the ambassador and his officials were at the airport on Saturday and took up the matter until it was resolved and all the passengers were successfully evacuated on two flights.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Esther Sunsuwa also confirmed to The Nation that the matter was resolved Saturday night and the passengers were conveyed to Nigeria same night.

Adesina said the embassy would continue to work towards preventing a recurrence of such treatment of Nigerians.

It was learnt that both the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Geofrey Onyeama and Adesina immediately moved in on Saturday after getting wind of the incident where some of the Nigerian passengers were shown being assaulted by airport security operatives.

It was gathered that the Nigerian passengers aboard the Ethiopian Airline from New York got to Lome only to be informed that their connecting flight to Nigeria through ASky Airline was full.

This infuriated the Nigerian passengers, leading to a protest within the airport and for which some of the Nigerians were shackled and manhandled.

In the viral video, some people were seen with their hands tied to their backs while uniformed men believed to be Togolese airport security men were seen assaulting a lady who was on the floor.

A man could be heard screaming “This is bad, this is bad.”

It was gathered that Adesina, who was said to have briefed the minister, personally went to the airport on hearing the news of the development.

It was learnt that he, alongside the boss of the country’s civil aviation company, one Colonel Dokisime Gnama Latta, worked out an arrangement for two flights to evacuate the passengers Saturday night.

ASky Airline, which is said to be a strategic partner of the Ethiopian Airline, has been facing challenges in the last three weeks due to traffic volume

It was learnt that the same airline had almost aborted a trip by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, last week, when he was on his way to Kenya from The Gambia where he went for election monitoring.