Asia
Japan's ruling party loses 1 of 2 by-elections in blow to PM Kishida
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost one of two House of Councillors by-elections held Sunday, dealing a blow to the party and its leader Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with just a week until the general election.
The defeat in Shizuoka Prefecture was a red flag for Kishida, who took office less than a month ago promising to take stronger COVID-19 countermeasures and implement a "new capitalism" that puts the country on a growth track while redistributing wealth to the middle class.
Shinnosuke Yamazaki, a 40-year-old independent backed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and another opposition party, won a close race against Yohei Wakabayashi, 49, of the LDP. The other race in the conservative stronghold of Yamaguchi Prefecture was won by the LDP's Tsuneo Kitamura, 66.
The by-elections for vacant seats in the upper chamber of parliament were the first national contests since Kishida replaced his unpopular predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, and closely watched as a bellwether for next Sunday's general election.
Media polls suggest the LDP and its coalition partner, Komeito, will retain their majority in the 465-member House of Representatives, the more powerful lower chamber.
US urges NKorea to stop missile tests and return to talks
A senior U.S. diplomat on Sunday urged North Korea to end a recent series of missile tests and resume negotiations, days after the North performed its first underwater-launched ballistic missile launch in two years.
Sung Kim, the top U.S. official on North Korea affairs, spoke after meeting with South Korean officials to discuss North Korea’s recent streak of missile tests that came amid a long-running stalemate in nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
Read:North Korea fires ballistic missile into sea in latest test
“We call on the DPRK to cease these provocations and other destabilizing activities, and instead, engage in dialogue,” Kim told reporters, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“We remain ready to meet with the DPRK without preconditions and we have made clear that the United States harbors no hostile intent towards the DPRK,” he said.
Last Tuesday, North Korea fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine in its fifth round of weapons tests in recent weeks. South Korean officials said the submarine-fired missile appears to be in an early stage of development.
Still, that marked the North’s first underwater-launched test since October in 2019 and the most high-profile one since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Read: North Korea's Kim seeks better ties with South, but slams US
Missiles fired from submarines are harder to detect in advance and would provide North Korea with a secondary, retaliatory attack capability.
The launch violates multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions imposed on the North and “poses a threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international community," Kim said.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it’s ready to meet North Korea “anywhere and at any time” without preconditions. But North Korea says a return to talks is conditional on the U.S. dropping what it calls a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, an apparent reference to U.S.-led sanctions and regular military drills between Washington and Seoul.
Over 180 people killed after heavy rains in Nepal and India
Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rains have killed at least 99 people in Nepal since Monday, officials said.
In neighboring India, heavy downpours this week have also wreaked havoc, killing at least 88 people, while flooding roads, destroying bridges and causing landslides that washed away several homes.
Police in Nepal said rescuers were looking for at least 40 people who have been reported as missing, sparking fears that the death toll could rise.
Also read: Death toll passes 150 in Nepal and India floods
A majority of the deaths occurred in the country’s eastern and western regions, which saw heavy rains this week, said police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar.
“The search and rescue team have been relocating people to safer locations and taking the injured to the hospitals,” he said.
At least 35 injured in the rains have been rescued and are in the hospital.
“Crops and homes have been wiped out, which is a severe blow to families already grappling with the devastating fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Azmat Ulla of the International Federation of Red Crescent Societies in Nepal. Red Cross teams are aiding evacuation efforts in both countries.
“The people of Nepal and India are sandwiched between the pandemic and worsening climate disasters, heavily impacting millions of lives and livelihoods,” he added.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited the flood-affected areas in the western region and directed authorities to focus on the speedy rescue, relief and rehabilitation of those vulnerable.
Also read: Death toll in India landslides rises to 46
Authorities are still trying to ascertain the number of displaced households and the full extent of damages caused by the disasters.
Forecasters in Nepal are anticipating moderate rainfall later on Thursday but expect the weather to improve by the end of the week.
India has seen worrisome rains across several regions this week. Flooding and landslides caused by downpours over the week have killed at least 46 people in the northern state of Uttarakhand and 42 people in the southern state of Kerala, which is on alert for more rains in the coming days.
Landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan north. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.
In February, flash floods killed nearly 200 people and washed away houses in Uttarakhand. In 2013, thousands of people were killed in floods there.
Foxconn aims to build EV factories in Europe and India by 2024
Foxconn will build electric vehicle factories in Europe, India and either North or South America by 2024, as the key iPhone assembler looks to rapidly expand its presence in the booming EV industry, the company chairman said.
The Taiwanese tech titan and world's largest contract electronics manufacturer has made EVs a key part of its growth strategy, reflecting a maturing smartphone market, reports Nikkei Asia.
Read: Nine countries to follow additional measures as India revises COVID-19 guidelines for international travellers
"Regional manufacturing will be a key to developing our EV business globally," Foxconn Chairman Young Liu told reporters on the sideline of an industry event in Taipei on Wednesday. "We will share details of a European facility, followed by India and then the South American market."
Liu said all plans will involve partnering with local governments or government-recommended enterprises. "In Europe, through collaboration, we will work indirectly with German automakers."
A new American plant, he added, would serve the South American market though it could end up being located in Mexico, which has become an important hub for automotive supply chains and a key manufacturing base for Foxconn.
Foxconn has already made overseas forays into EVs. It recently acquired a manufacturing plant from Lordstown Motors in the U.S. state of Ohio, which the company will use to produce full-size electric pickup trucks for the American market from April 2022. Foxconn is also building a production facility in Thailand with state-backed oil and gas company PTT to serve Southeast Asia. In China, the company is collaborating with Zhejiang Geely Holding.
Liu said Foxconn can offer open software solutions and chassis designs for carmakers, which they can customize for their target markets.
"In the past, any company set to make a brand-new car will need an investment of at least 10 billion New Taiwan dollars ($359 million), but Foxconn's service could help all the players save on cost and development time."
Read: India hits 1 billion Covid vaccination milestone
The iPhone assembler has vowed to turn its nascent EV venture into a $35 billion business in five years. Foxconn's revenue from its automotive-related business is projected to surpass NT$10 billion for the first time this year.
Foxconn on Monday unveiled three EV prototypes -- an SUV, luxury sedan and bus -- made by Foxtron, its joint venture with Taiwanese automaker Yulon Motors.
Yulon Chairperson and CEO Lilian Chen said her company will be one of the first to adopt Foxtron's prototypes.
Nine countries to follow additional measures as India revises COVID-19 guidelines for international travellers
As part of the revised travel guidelines issued by the Government of India for international passengers arriving in the country, travellers from nine countries need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing (countries at-risk).
According to an order issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, these are countries in Europe including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe, reports ANI.
The order further said that a category has been defined with which the Government of India has an agreement for mutual recognition vaccination certificate for individuals fully vaccinated with nationally recognised or WHO recognised COVID-19 vaccine and those exempting Indian citizens fully vaccinated with nationally recognised or WHO recognised vaccines.
Read: Foxconn aims to build EV factories in Europe and India by 2024
"These Countries are The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Nepal, Belarus, Lebanon, Armenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Hungary, and Serbia," read the order.
It further said, "The existing guidelines (issued on 17th February 2021 with subsequent addendums) for international arrivals in India have been formulated taking a risk-based approach. In view of increasing vaccination coverage across the globe and the changing nature of the pandemic, the existing guidelines for international arrivals in India have been reviewed."
"Standard Operating Procedure shall be valid with the effect of 25th October 2021 till further orders. Based on the risk assessment, this document shall be reviewed from time to time," read the order.
Read: India hits 1 billion Covid vaccination milestone
As per the order, if a person is planning for travel then he/she should submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal before the scheduled travel and Upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report.
The passenger shall also submit a declaration with respect to the authenticity of the report and will be liable for criminal prosecution if found otherwise, it added.
India hits 1 billion Covid vaccination milestone
India Thursday scripted history by hitting the milestone of one billion Covid-19 vaccinations in just nine months after it began its ambitious inoculation drive.
India is the second country in the world to achieve the feat in such "a short period of time". China, however, touched the one billion mark of Covid vaccinations in June.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the milestone as "historic" and described it as "the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and collective spirit of 130 crore Indians".
Read: FDA OKs mixing COVID vaccines; backs Moderna, J&J boosters
"Congrats India on crossing 100 crore vaccinations. Gratitude to our doctors, nurses and all those who worked to achieve this feat," he said in the national capital.
According to the Indian Health Ministry, around three-quarters of the country's adults have had one dose of a Covid vaccine while 30 percent are fully jabbed.
And the government aims to get all the country's adults inoculated by this year-end.
India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to hit the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach the 30-crore mark, as per the Ministry data.
The country took 24 days to reach the 40-crore mark and 20 more days to surpass the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6. It then took 76 days to hit the 100-crore mark.
"Congratulations India! This is the result of the leadership of our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted.
Read: Covid vaccine: India's Covaxin gets emergency use approval for kids aged 2-18
India's daily case count has also been dropping -- from less than 30,000 new daily cases in the past month to below 20,000 cases in the past 10 days.
India rolled out the world's largest Covid vaccination drive on January 16, with Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield and state-owned Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.
India also sent Covid jabs to neighbouring countries. And Bangladesh was the first to receive two million doses of Covishield as a gift from India.
At least 3 dead in apparent gas explosion in north China
An apparent gas explosion gutted part of a high rise in northern China on Thursday morning, killing at least three people and injuring 30.
It occurred at a hotel in Shenyang, a city of more than 8 million people and a major industrial center that is in the process of renovating and replacing decaying gas lines, state media reported.
Images posted online by news website The Paper and state broadcaster CCTV showed a cloud of dust and debris blowing onto a busy street, leaving the bottom three floors of the building a gutted shell. Concrete blocks were piled in the street and a three-wheeled delivery vehicle lay on its side.
Read: China's economic growth weakens amid construction slowdown
China is replacing decades-old infrastructure, with gas lines an especially dangerous part of the project. In June, a gas line explosion at a market and residential area in the central city of Shiyan killed 25.
That blast appeared similar to one that occurred in the northeastern port of Qingdao in 2013, in which 55 people were killed when underground pipelines ripped open following a leak.
Along with the deteriorations caused by age, weak adherence to safety standards, poor maintenance and corruption among enforcement bodies are all considered contributors to such disasters. Among China's worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers.
Death toll passes 150 in Nepal and India floods
More than 150 people have died after heavy rainfall triggered flash floods in two Indian states - Uttarakahand and Kerala - and parts of Nepal.
Homes were submerged or crushed by rocks swept into them by landslides, reports BBC.
At least 50 people, including five from a single family, died in Uttarakhand some 77 people died in Nepal, with dozens more missing in both nations.
Read: Floods, landslides kill at least 28 people in southern India
Rains further south in India's Kerala state also triggered deadly floods, leaving another 39 dead there.
Six more bodies were recovered on Wednesday in Uttarakhand, taking the death toll in the Himalayan state, a popular tourist spot, to 52.
Schools have been closed and religious and tourist activities suspended in the state.
The Ganges burst its bank in Rishikesh and the popular Nainital region was severely affected.
Uttarakhand, which normally sees up to 30.5mm (1.2in) of rain for the whole of October, recorded 328mm in a 24-hour period this week.
But the Indian Meteorological Department says the rainfall is now easing.
Rainfall in Nepal may not be so quick to ease.
The worst-affected areas are Panchthar district in east Nepal, and Ilam and Doti in west Nepal.
Read: 21 dead in India floods & landslides
Wave of killings triggers memories of dark past in Kashmir
The Kashmiri Hindu activist was listening to religious hymns on his cellphone when he was interrupted by a tragic WhatsApp message. It brought news of a fatal shooting of a prominent chemist from his community, just a few miles from the activist’s home in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Sanjay Tickoo, 54, anxiously bolted the gate of his house and gathered his family in the dining room. His phone kept buzzing with calls from frightened minority community members.
Within two hours of the killing of Makhan Lal Bindroo on Oct. 5, assailants shot and killed another Hindu man, a street vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar, and in a separate shooting a native Muslim taxi driver. Two days later, two teachers - one Hindu and one Sikh - were shot inside a school on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The killings led to widespread unease, particularly among the region’s religious minority Hindus, locally known as Pandits, an estimated 200,000 of whom fled Kashmir after an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989.Tickoo, who like the chemist and some 800 other Pandit families had chosen to stay behind to live with their Muslim neighbors, and other prominent Hindus were swiftly relocated to secured accommodations. He was later moved to a fortified Hindu temple guarded by paramilitary soldiers in downtown Srinagar, the urban heartland of anti-India sentiment.
“I have seen death and destruction from close quarters. But I have never felt as insecure, as fearful all my life,” Tickoo said. “The killings spread panic faster than the virus.”
The chemist Bindroo’s killing was the first in 18 years of a local Hindu from this tiny community, whose people chose not to migrate from the strife-torn region. Fearing more such attacks, authorities offered leave to nearly 4,000 Hindu employees who had returned to the region after 2010 as part of a government resettlement plan that provided them jobs and housing.
Tickoo again chose to stay, but nearly 1,800 Hindu employees left the Kashmir Valley after the killings. It brought back memories of the 1990s, which saw the flight of most local Hindus to the region’s Jammu plains and to other parts of Hindu-majority India amid a spate of killings that targeted the community.
The killings seem to have “triggered memory that resonates with earlier history and mass displacement of Pandits,” said Ankur Datta, who studied Pandit migrant camps for his doctoral research and now teaches anthropology at South Asian University in New Delhi.
The killings were widely condemned by both pro- and anti-India Kashmiri politicians. In a sweeping crackdown, government forces questioned over 1,000 people in an attempt to stem more violence. Police blamed rebel group The Resistance Front, or TRF, for the killings. The region’s top police officer Dilbag Singh described the attacks as a “conspiracy to create terror and communal rift.”
In a statement on social media, TRF claimed the group was targeting those working for Indian authorities and was not picking targets based on faith. The rebel group’s statement could not be independently verified.
Despite the ongoing crackdown, the targeted killings have continued.
Assailants again shot and killed four migrant workers - three Hindus from the eastern Bihar state and a Muslim from the northern Uttar Pradesh state - in three separate attacks on Saturday and Sunday, increasing the death toll in targeted killings to 32 this year. The slain included 21 local Muslims, four local Hindus and a local Sikh, along with five non-local Hindus and one non-local Muslim, according to police records.
Siddiq Wahid, a historian and former vice chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology in Kashmir, said the recent killings gained attention only in the context of sectarian concerns, even as people of all religions were killed, and noted that the subsequent debate has focused on statistics rather than the loss of lives.
“The first distorts and the second overlooks tragedy. Both represent a deep loss for Kashmir,” Wahid said.
In Kashmir, Hindus lived mostly peacefully alongside Muslims for centuries in villages and towns as landowners, farmers and government officials across the Himalayan region. A war in 1947 between India and Pakistan left Kashmir divided between the two countries as they gained independence from Britain. Within a decade, however, divisions emerged as many Muslims began to mistrust Indian rule and demanded the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
When Kashmir turned into a battleground in the late 1980s, attacks and threats by militants led to the departure of most Kashmiri Hindus, who identified with India’s rule over the region, many believing that the rebellion was also aimed at wiping them out. It reduced the Pandits to a tiny minority.
Most of the region’s Muslims, long resentful of Indian rule, deny that Hindus were systematically targeted, and say India moved them out in order to cast Kashmir’s freedom struggle as Islamic extremism.
These tensions were renewed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and as the Indian government pursued a plan to house returning migrant Kashmiri Hindus in new townships.
READ: Kashmir leader’s family charged under India anti-terror law
Muslim leaders described such plans as a conspiracy to create communal division by separating the region’s population along religious lines, particularly after India stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and removed inherited protections on land and jobs amid a monthslong lockdown and a communication blockade.
Authorities have since passed many new laws, which critics and Kashmiris fear could change the region’s demographics.
These fears became more pronounced in early September when authorities launched an online portal for migrant Hindus to register complaints of distress sales and encroachments onto their properties, an overwhelming majority of which have changed hands in the last three decades. According to official figures, 700 complaints were received in the first three weeks.
Thousands of Muslim families who bought properties from Hindus were left angered. Authorities even asked some Muslim families to vacate the properties.
“The online portal seems to be a major trigger for the killings,” said Tickoo, the activist.
Among the region’s minorities, Sikhs have lived relatively at ease with their Muslim neighbors and have emerged as the largest minority after the Hindu migration. But they too have faced targeted killings.
After the killing of 46-year-old Supinder Kour, a Sikh school principal, hundreds of angry community members carried her body in Srinagar and raised religious slogans while demanding justice. Some Muslim residents joined them.
“We don’t know who the killers are. Even if I knew, do you think I can talk freely?” said Sikh leader Jagmohan Singh Raina. “We are caught between two guns: the guns from the state and the non-state.”
Raina said no Sikh fled after Kour’s killing but maintained that his community was shaken. He said while the state was “provoking and punishing” the region’s majority Muslims through new laws, the minorities were being “manipulated for politics.”
READ: Resistance leader’s death deepens Kashmir strife
Tickoo and Raina said the killings were “ominous signs″ for Kashmir. They asserted in similar comments that India’s changes two years ago “wounded all of us living on the ground.”
“And the wound,” Raina said, “has become a cancer now.”
23 dead as heavy rains lash India's Uttarakhand state
As many as 23 people have died in flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy post-monsoon showers in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand in the past two days, officials said on Tuesday.
Of the deaths, 16 occurred in the district of Nainital on Tuesday. "Seven people were killed after the wall of a house collapsed in Nainital, following a cloudburst in the district. Some people are also missing in the district," a senior government official told the media.
The Indian Army has been carrying out relief and rescue operations alongside the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the local police. Three Army choppers have been pressed into action in the most-affected areas of the state.
Also read: Floods, landslides kill at least 28 people in southern India
Earlier in the day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and took stock of the situation in the hilly state.
The Chief Minister also conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas. "The CM has directed all district magistrates to complete the assessment of crop damage to farmers and send reports at the earliest," the government said in a statement.
Uttarakhand and the southern Indian state of Kerala have been witnessing the heaviest post-monsoon showers this year. In Kerala, at least 28 people have died since Saturday. Some people are still missing in the southern state, according to officials.
Also read: 21 dead in India floods & landslides
The deaths in Kerala occurred mostly in Kottayam and Idukki districts, where several houses were swept away following flooding and landslides on Saturday, rendering hundreds of people homeless. The displaced people are housed in makeshift camps.
Three years ago, in August 2018, over 400 people died in Kerala in what was touted as the state's worst flooding in a century.