Asia

9 bodies, 2 severed heads, found in Tokyo flat: reports

TOKYO, Japan (Agence France Presse) — Japanese police have found nine bodies, including two with their heads severed and dumped in a cool box, in a flat in the Tokyo suburbs, media reported on Tuesday. Police confirmed to AFP they had arrested 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, who lives in the apartment in Zama, south of Tokyo. According to public broadcaster NHK, Shiraishi told police: “I killed them and did some work on the bodies in order […]

Chinese universities start ‘Xi Thought’ institutes

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Xi Jinping Thought will now be taught, researched and promoted in universities across China, ensuring that the leader’s eponymous philosophy is implanted into students’ hearts and minds. At least twenty  universities have established research institutes for Xi’s ideology, which was enshrined in the Communist Party’s constitution during its 19th national congress this month. The distinction places Xi on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. It means that his dogma — “Xi […]

NATO chief calls N. Korea ‘global threat’ during Japan visit

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called North Korea a “global threat” Monday and said he backed tighter sanctions against it during a visit to Japan, which has been targeted by Pyongyang’s provocations. Stoltenberg is in Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials including defence minister Itsunori Onodera later in the day. “We are as concerned as you are about the provocative, reckless behavior from North Korea,” he said […]

N. Korea’s Kim tours cosmetics plant with wife, sister

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un took his stylish wife and powerful sister to a make-up plant for a “field guidance trip” amid the country’s nuclear standoff with the US. During a visit to the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory in the capital, Kim hailed its “world-level” products that realized “the dream of the women who want to be more beautiful,” the official KCNA news agency reported. Kim was accompanied by Kim Yo-Jong, […]

N. Korea nuclear weapon use would meet ‘massive military response’: Mattis

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned Saturday that North Korea would face a “massive military response” if Pyongyang ever used its nuclear weapons. “Make no mistake — any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated,” he said at a press conference on his trip to Seoul. “Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response, effective and overwhelming.” […]

Typhoon Saola brings heavy rain in southern Japan

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Typhoon Saola barreled towards Japan’s southernmost Okinawa island chain on Saturday bringing heavy rain as authorities issued a warning for strong winds and landslides. The storm came less than a week after Typhoon Lan left five dead, one missing and scores injured. Saola was moving 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest of Okinawa’s capital Naha at 11 am (0200 GMT), packing gusts of up to 162 kilometres per hour, Japan’s weather agency […]

World’s first large cargo drone makes maiden flight in China

SHAANXI, China (CCTV) — The world’s first unmanned large transport drone made its maiden flight on Thursday in northwest China’s Xi’an City, capital of Shaanxi Province. The delivery drone of AT200, developed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions, made two circles in the sky and flew for 26 minutes in its due course. About 12 meters both in length and width, it has a maximum carrying capacity of 1.5 tonnes and flying height […]

Indonesia fireworks factory blaze kills 46, injures dozens

by Dessy Sagita Agence France Presse TANGERANG, Indonesia (AFP) — At least 46 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a blaze that tore through a fireworks factory outside Jakarta, police said Thursday, triggering explosions and sending plumes of black smoke into the air. Many of the charred corpses of victims were found clustered at the back of the factory in an industrial complex in Tangerang, police said, indicating there may have been […]

Mattis says US goal is ‘not war’ over N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Washington’s goal “is not war” as it seeks to ease high military tension with Pyongyang, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday, standing at the heavily-fortified border between the two Koreas. Tension has flared on the Korean peninsula as US President Donald Trump and the North’s ruler Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults that sparked global alarm. But Mattis, who visited the tense Demilitarized Zone […]

North Korean leader sends congratulations to China’s Xi after congress

PYONGYANG, North Korea (Reuters) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a rare congratulatory message to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of China’s Communist Party Congress, wishing him “great success” as head of the nation, the North’s state-run television KRT reported on Thursday (October 26). The friendly gesture by the North Korean leader, who seldom issues personal messages, comes as China is being urged by the international community to do more to […]

US adds sanctions on North Korea for rights abuses

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States layered a new round of sanctions on North Korea Thursday, blacklisting individuals and organizations involved in security and forced labor policies for “ongoing and serious human rights abuses.” Amid the ongoing standoff over Pyongyang’s threatening nuclear posture towards Japan and the United States, the US Treasury sought to boost pressure by placing the financial restrictions on seven senior officials and three state units. The move came as […]

Syrian forces responsible for sarin attack: UN panel

by Carole Landry Agence France Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were responsible for a deadly sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun that killed scores of people, a UN investigative panel said Thursday. The joint UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) panel said in a much-awaited report that most of the evidence collected supported the “prevailing scenario” that the “sarin was delivered via […]