The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Japan nationalists near disputed isles, MPs visit shrine
- Suspect charged in hospital with Boston Marathon bombing
- Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-supported" passenger train plot
| Japan nationalists near disputed isles, MPs visit shrine Posted: 22 Apr 2013 07:27 PM PDT EAST CHINA SEA (Reuters) - Japanese nationalists sailed a flotilla of boats on Tuesday in waters near islands at the centre of a row between China and Japan, putting further strain on Tokyo's tense ties with Beijing as a group of more than 160 Japanese lawmakers visited a shrine seen by critics a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
Last year members of the same right-wing group landed on one of the disputed islets and triggered anti-Japanese protests in China, where lingering bitterness over Japan's wartime aggression has been rekindled in recent days. China blasted Tokyo for a lack of contrition over its past on Monday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and two other ministers visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours 14 leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal along with Japan's war dead. South Korea's foreign minister cancelled a trip to Japan. Homage paid by leading Japanese politicians at the Tokyo shrine typically angers Japan's neighbours, who contend that it glorifies wartime atrocities. "It is natural for lawmakers to worship at a shrine for people who died for the nation and every nation does this," Hidehisa Otsuji, a ruling Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) lawmaker who chairs the parliamentary group behind the visit, told a news conference. "I don't understand why we get a backlash." A group of 169 lawmakers visited Yasukuni for its spring festival, more than double the usual number in recent years. Aso also shrugged off the rebuke. "I first visited Yasukuni on April 28, 1953 and often went there ever since," Aso, who doubles as finance minister, told reporters. "I go there two or three times every year and it's not something that should be taken up now. There's a reaction from overseas? But that's their reaction and I don't think it will much affect Japan's diplomatic relations with other countries." A group led by LDP Vice President Masahiko Komura has cancelled a trip to China planned for early May, but said the move was not related to the Yasukuni visits. Abe who has enjoyed sky-high popularity ratings of more than 70 percent since he took office in December and launched his "Abenomics" plan to boost growth and beat deflation with hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and structural reform. The prime minister, who has said he regretted not visiting Yasukuni during his 2006-2007 term in office, has been walking a fine line between talking tough in the territorial row over the chain of rocky islets and leaving the door open for dialogue with Beijing. Voters want Abe to put priority on fixing the economy rather than other issues close to Abe's heart, such as revising Japan's pacifist constitution, an opinion poll showed this week. CAT-AND-MOUSE Japanese and Chinese patrol ships have been playing a cat-and-mouse game near the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands, where China is seeking to assert its claim to sovereignty by sending ships into the disputed waters. The flotilla of 10 boats carrying about 80 activists from the nationalist Ganbare Nippon ("Stand Firm, Japan") group sailed into waters around the islets early on Tuesday but then began to withdraw from the area on the orders of Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships, because Chinese government surveillance ships were nearby. The Coast Guard, which had 13 ships shadowing the flotilla, said eight Chinese patrol ships had entered what Tokyo considers its territorial waters near the uninhabited isles, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. "The intrusion into territorial waters is extremely regrettable. In any case, the Senkaku islands are Japan's own territory without a doubt," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. "Japan strictly protests through diplomatic channels and demands they leave our waters swiftly." Ganbare Nippon had said the purpose of their trip was to survey fishing grounds. Last August, about 10 activists from the group landed on one of the islets. "This is all about asserting our ownership of the islands, going there to conduct a fishing survey to prove that Japanese fishermen can indeed make a living there," said group leader Satoru Mizushima. Tit-for-tat landings by Chinese and Japanese nationalists last summer preceded a sharp flare-up in the dispute when Japan nationalised the islands in September, drawing angry rhetoric from Beijing and anti-Japanese demonstrations across China. "If you encounter problems from Chinese vessels, please run away," Mizushima, a right-wing filmmaker, told activists at a briefing before the flotilla departed from Ishigaki, a Japanese island west of Okinawa, on Monday. "Don't let them come on board, but try to avoid fighting or shouting insults. We want to show everyone that we are polite and upstanding Japanese citizens." Japanese ships are allowed to sail to waters around the islets, but the Japanese government generally prohibits landing. The waters around the islets are rich fishing grounds and also have potentially huge oil and gas reserves. The territorial dispute has escalated in recent months to the point where China and Japan have scrambled fighter jets while patrol ships shadow each other, raising fears that an unintended collision could lead to a broader clash. Ganbare Nippon is not officially affiliated with any political party, but its members have organised rallies to support Abe, who swept to power last December promising economic revival and a more assertive stance towards Japan's neighbours. (Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski and Linda Sieg; Editing by Alex Richardson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Suspect charged in hospital with Boston Marathon bombing Posted: 22 Apr 2013 06:38 PM PDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors formally charged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with the bombings at the Boston Marathon in a hearing held on Monday in his hospital room, accusing him of crimes that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen can be seen in video taken by security cameras placing a backpack near the finish line of the world-renowned race last Monday, the criminal complaint said, alleging he acted in concert with his older brother, who was killed during a shootout with police early Friday. The brothers carried two backpacks containing pressure cooker bombs that ripped through the crowd near the finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 200, the complaint said. Ten people lost limbs from the bombs packed with nails and ball bearings. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators in his hospital room that he and his brother acted alone, without any help, according to reports by CNN and the New York Times. He said his older brother was the driving force behind the bombings, CNN reported. The Times said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev admitted to investigators to being involved in planting the bombs. These reports could not be independently confirmed. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured late Friday after a massive manhunt. He was hospitalized with what the criminal complaint said were gunshot wounds to his head, neck, legs and hand. The charges came one week after the bombings, as Boston slowly returned to normal, but a fresh security scare arose as Canadian police said they had thwarted an "al Qaeda-supported" plot to derail a passenger train. U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, although Canadian police said only that the plot involved a train route in the Toronto area. Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Each count carries the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted. More charges are likely, legal experts said. The 10-page complaint drew from video and still images captured by security cameras, the media and the public at the race before and after the bombing. It did not mention a motive, leaving that as one of the mysteries of the investigation. According to a transcript of the bedside legal proceeding, the teenager, mostly unable to speak due to his injuries, nodded when questioned by federal Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler, who asked him if he could answer questions and could follow what was happening. The judge also read him his constitutional rights. Asked by the magistrate if he could afford a lawyer, Tsarnaev said "No." Three public defenders, appointed by the court, were in the room. They did not respond to requests seeking comment afterward. 'I DID THAT' A sworn FBI statement in support of the criminal complaint revealed the recollection of a man whose car was allegedly hijacked by the brothers while they tried to escape on Thursday night. "Did you hear about the Boston explosion?" one of the brothers is said to have told the carjack victim. "I did that." On Monday, Boston-area hospitals were still treating at least 48 people, with at least two listed in critical condition. The complaint said that 30 seconds before the first explosion, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev started fidgeting with his cellphone. After the blast, virtually everyone around him turned toward the blast "in apparent bewilderment and alarm," while he appeared calm, it said. He then left his backpack on the ground and walked away, the complaint said. About 10 seconds later the second explosion ripped through the crowd. At 2:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) on Monday, the city paused to mark the moment a week earlier when the bombs exploded. A funeral was held for Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager who was killed in the bombings, as was a memorial service for another victim, Chinese graduate student Lingzi Lu, 23. An 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard, was also killed. Police on Monday searched a parking area in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where an owner of an auto service business across the street said the Tsarnaevs' father used to work on cars. Officials did not say what police were looking for. Near the site of the bombings, Kevin Brown, a 59-year-old carpenter minding one of the many makeshift memorials to the victims, said he hoped Tsarnaev would be convicted and face the death penalty. "His bomb was the second one which killed that little boy," he said. "He doesn't deserve to live." Tsarnaev's capture capped a tense 26 hours after the FBI released the first pictures of the two bombing suspects, still unidentified, on Thursday. Five hours after their faces appeared on TV screens and websites around the world, the brothers shot and killed a university policeman, carjacked a Mercedes and sought to evade police by hurling bombs during a shootout in a Boston suburb, police said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was shot in an exchange of gunfire with police and run over by his younger brother, police said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev later abandoned the car and fled on foot, evading police for nearly 20 more hours until he was found hiding and bleeding in a boat. 'TRAGIC WEEK' "Although our investigation is ongoing, today's charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston, and for our country," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. In choosing the civilian justice system, U.S. authorities opted against treating Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, as an enemy combatant. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a legal U.S. resident, visited relatives in the volatile region of Chechnya for two days during his six-month trip out of the United States last year, his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and aunt, Patimat Suleimanova, told Reuters in Dagestan on Monday. U.S. authorities were investigating whether he became radicalized and if he was involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamist extremists there. That trip, combined with Russian interest in Tamerlan Tsarnaev communicated to U.S. authorities and an FBI interview of him in 2011, have raised questions whether danger signals were missed. U.S. lawmakers planned to question senior security officials this week about whether the FBI mishandled information on the elder brother, who was flagged by Russia as a possible Islamist radical. The Tsarnaev brothers emigrated to the United States a decade ago from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in Russia's Caucasus. Their parents, who moved back to southern Russia some time ago, have said their sons were framed. The elder brother twice disrupted sermons to challenge views expressed by preachers leading services at a Cambridge mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston said on Monday. But neither brother "expressed any hint of violent sentiments or behaviour," the group said in a statement. "If they had, the FBI would have immediately been called." Neither was a member or regular attendee of the Cambridge mosque, it said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was married, and a crowd of reporters and photographers gathered on Monday outside the home of his wife in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Several family members came and went without making any comment. (Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in Makhachkala and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Tim McLaughlin, Scott Malone and Samuel P. Jacobs in Boston; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Frances Kerry and Eric Beech)
Funerals begin for victims of Boston marathon bombing Immigration bill debate sidetracked following Boston bombings Timeline - Lives of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 2006-2013 Factbox - Charges filed against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-supported" passenger train plot Posted: 22 Apr 2013 06:30 PM PDT TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al Qaeda elements in Iran.
"Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters. The RCMP said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in connection with the plot, which authorities said was not linked to last week's Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three and injured more than 200 people last week. Neither is a Canadian citizen, and police did not reveal their nationalities. Two sources following the investigation said one of the two was Tunisian. Canada's spy agency has long expressed concern about the possibility that disgruntled and radicalized Canadians could attack targets at home and abroad. Police gave little detail about the alleged plotters, but said a tip from the Muslim community had helped their year-long investigation. Esseghaier has been a doctoral student at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique near Montreal since 2010 and was about midway through his degree, the school said. "He is doing a PhD in the field of energy and materials sciences," Julie Martineau, the school's director of communications, told Reuters. A bail hearing for the two will take place in Toronto on Tuesday morning. Malizia said there was no indication that the planned attacks, which police described as the first known al Qaeda- backed plot on Canadian soil, were state-sponsored. U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley into New York wine country and enters Canada near Niagara Falls. Canadian police said only that the plot involved a VIA train route in the Toronto area. VIA is Canada's equivalent of Amtrak and operates passenger rail services on track owned primarily by Canadian National Railway Co. New York Police chief spokesman Paul Browne told Reuters that the NYPD and Commissioner Ray Kelly had been kept informed of the investigation from "early on." JOINT OPERATIONS Malizia said the RCMP believed the two had the capacity and intent to carry out the attack, but there was no imminent threat to the public, passengers, or infrastructure. The plot is one of a handful of terrorism-related investigations involving Canadians or Canadian residents. Police said earlier this year that Canadians took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January, while Canadian and Somalia authorities are investigating whether a former University of Toronto student participated in a bomb attack on Mogadishu last week. And in 2006, police arrested and charged nearly 20 Toronto-area men accused of planning to plant bombs at various Canadian targets. Eleven were eventually convicted. "Today's arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters in Ottawa. "Canada will not tolerate terrorist activity and we will not be used as a safe haven for terrorists or those who support terrorist activities." AL QAEDA IN IRAN The Canadian authorities linked the two to al Qaeda factions in Iran, to the surprise of some security experts. "The individuals were receiving support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran," Malizia said. Iran did host some senior al Qaeda figures under a form of house arrest in the years following the September 11 attacks, but there has been little to no evidence to date of joint attempts to execute violence against the West. However, a U.S. government source said Iran is home to a little-known network of alleged al Qaeda fixers and "facilitators" based in the Iranian city of Zahedan, very close to Iran's borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The source said the operatives serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for al Qaeda operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving through the area. They do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which has a generally hostile attitude towards Sunni al Qaeda militants, and which periodically launches crackdowns on the al Qaeda elements, though at other times appears to turn a blind eye to them. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Louise Egan in Ottawa; writing by Cameron French; editing by Janet Guttsman, Mary Milliken, Eric Walsh and Christopher Wilson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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