JAPAN
Death penalty defended
Minister of Justice Hideki Makihara said abolishing the death penalty would be “inappropriate,” despite the recent acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row prisoner. The policy — always carried out by hanging — “would be inappropriate to abolish,” as “heinous crimes continue to occur,” Makihara told reporters on Wednesday after being nominated by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba the previous day. He pledged to be “cautious and extremely sincere” when making the decision to sentence someone to death, Nippon Television reported.
SINGAPORE
Ex-minister sentenced
Former minister of transportation S. Iswaran was yesterday sentenced to 12 months in prison for obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts. Iswaran was charged this year with 35 counts mostly related to graft. His sentence was more severe than the six-to-seven months requested by the prosecution, which High Court Justice Vincent Hoong said would have been “manifestly inadequate” given the impact of the case on public trust. “Trust and confidence in public institutions are the bedrock of effective governance, which can all too easily be undermined by the appearance that an individual public servant has fallen below the standards of integrity and accountability,” Hoong said as he delivered the sentence.
UNITED KINGDOM
Johnson interview canceled
The BBC canceled an interview with former prime minister Boris Johnson after Laura Kuenssberg, one of its presenters, sent him the notes prepared for her questions. Kuenssberg, the host of the BBC’s Sunday morning news program, said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team” and this meant the interview had to be canceled. “It’s very frustrating, and there’s no point pretending it’s anything other than embarrassing and disappointing, as there are plenty of important questions to be asked, but red faces aside, honesty is the best policy,” Kuenssberg wrote on X.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Deportation plans unveiled
The government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to start expelling 10,000 undocumented Haitians a week as part of a crackdown on migration from its neighbor. “This operation aims to reduce the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities,” presidential spokesman Homero Figueroa said, adding the expulsions would start “immediately” and be done “according to strict protocols that ensure respect for human rights.”
MEXICO
Migrants killed in shooting
Six international migrants are dead after soldiers opened fire on a truck carrying a group near the border with Guatemala, the Department of Defense said on Wednesday. The soldiers claimed they heard shots as the trucks and two other vehicles approached their position late on Tuesday in Chiapas state, near the town of Huixtla, the department said in a statement. Two soldiers opened fire on the truck, which was carrying migrants from Egypt, Nepal, Cuba, India, Pakistan and at least one other country, it said. Soldiers then approached the truck and found four of the migrants dead and 12 wounded, it said, adding that two of the wounded later died of their injuries. The department did not say whether the migrants died as a result of army fire, or whether any weapons were found in the truck.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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