DT
8
World
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015
SOUTH ASIA
Sri Lankan judge says war crimes claims ‘credible’ Allegations that Sri Lankan troops committed war crimes are “credible”, a judge appointed by the island’s former president has concluded in a report presented to parliament on Tuesday. The findings mark the first time a domestic inquiry has said there is evidence the army committed war crimes, and are all the more remarkable given that the report was commissioned by Mahinda Rajapakse. “There are credible allegations which, if proved to the required standard, may show that some members of the armed forces committed acts during the final phase of the war that amounted to war crimes giving rise to individual criminal responsibility,” said the 178-page report presented to parliament on Tuesday. -AFP
INDIA
Soldier kills four in shooting in north India Police gunned down an Indian army soldier Tuesday after he opened fire indiscriminately, killing four people and injuring four others following a suspected family feud, an official said. The soldier, identified as Jagdip Singh, climbed onto the roof of his home in Sangrur district in northern India where he was on vacation and started shooting at a house below, the official said. The dead include a child and Singh’s aunt and sister-in-law, the official said, adding two of the injured are in a critical condition following the shooting in Punjab state -AFP
CHINA
China says South China Sea lighthouses not meant to alter ‘status quo’
China does not seek to change the existing status of territorial claims in the South China Sea with its newly built lighthouses, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, arguing that Beijing already had “indisputable sovereignty” in the contested waters. China says its lighthouses on Cuarteron Reef and Johnson South Reef in the Spratly islands will assist navigational security, but experts and diplomats call them a shrewd move to buttress Beijing’s territorial claims. -REUTERS
ASIA PACIFIC
Flood misery in Philippines after typhoon kills 22 Head-high floodwaters churned across vast farming regions of the northern Philippines on Tuesday as heavy rain compounded the misery of a typhoon that killed at least 22 people and displaced thousands. Koppu weakened into a tropical storm and moved into the South China Sea by Tuesday morning, but its huge rain band ensured more downpours while flooding swept within 40 kilometres of Manila, the capital. Koppu forced 70,000 people from their homes and impacted about 230,000 others across the main island of Luzon, the government’s disaster management agency said. -AFP
MIDDLE EAST
Turkey ready to accept sixmonth transition period for Syria’s Assad Turkey is ready to accept a political transition in Syria in which President Bashar al-Assad stays in symbolic power for six months before leaving office, and is discussing the plan with Western allies, two senior government officials said on Tuesday. Nato member Turkey has long been one of Assad’s fiercest critics, insisting that no lasting peace can be achieved in Syria without his removal from power. -REUTERS
French far-right leader goes on trial for inciting hatred
Japan acknowledges possible radiation casualty at Fukushima nuclear plant n Reuters, Tokyo
n AFP, Lyon Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s farright National Front, went on trial Tuesday on charges of inciting hatred after comparing Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation. The 47-year-old appeared in a court in the central city of Lyon over the comments she made while campaigning to take over the leadership of the party from her father five years ago. “I have committed no crime,” said a smiling Le Pen as she entered the court. If convicted, she faces up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 45,000 euros ($51,000). While on the campaign trail in December 2010, Le Pen complained about places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when they were full. “I’m sorry, but for those who like talking a lot about World War II, if it comes to talking about the occupation, we can talk about it, because that (Muslims praying on the street) is the occupation of territory,” she told a crowd in the southeastern city of Lyon. “It is an occupation of part of the territory, suburbs where religious law is applied. Sure, there are no armoured vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation nonetheless and it weighs on residents.” After the comments, which provoked outrage in France, Le Pen was investigat-
French National Front political party leader Marine Le Pen arrives in court on October 20 to face charges of making anti-Muslim remarks REUTERS
ed but the probe was later closed without further action. However, a complaint by an association led to the launch of a judicial enquiry in January 2012. Le Pen was charged in July 2014 after her immunity as a member of the European Parliament was lifted following a vote requested by French authorities. She is accused of “inciting discrimination, violence or hatred toward a group of people based on their religious beliefs.” The French Muslim Council’s secretary general Abdallah Zekri said that it was “such comments often made by politicians that feed the climate of islamophobia we currently live in.” l
Japan on Tuesday acknowledged the first possible casualty from radiation at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, a worker who was diagnosed with cancer after the crisis broke out in 2011. The male worker in his 30s, who was employed by a construction contractor, worked at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi plant and other nuclear facilities, a health ministry official said. Of total radiation exposure of 19.8 millisieverts (mSv), the worker received a dose of 15.7 (mSv) between October 2012 and December 2013 working at Fukushima, said the official. The health ministry’s recognition of radiation as a possible cause may set back efforts to recover from the disaster, as the government and the nuclear industry have been at pains to say that the health effects from radiation have been minimal. It may also add to compensation payments that had reached more than 7 trillion yen ($59 billion) by July this year. More than 160,000 people were forced from their homes after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier. Hundreds of deaths have been attributed to the chaos of evacuations during the crisis and because of the hardship and mental trauma refugees have experienced since then, but the government had said that radiation was not a cause. l
UN: Over 500,000 migrants reach Greece this year, arrival rate rising n Reuters, Geneva
Over half a million refugees and migrants have arrived by sea in Greece this year and the rate of arrivals is rising with over 8,000 coming on Monday alone, in a rush to beat the onset of freezing winter, the United Nations said on Tuesday. UN refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said 27,500 people remained in transit on Greek islands near Turkey, many voicing fears that borders ahead of them in northern Europe will close again, although migrants were passing from Croatia into Slovenia after Hungary sealed its frontier with Croatia. “We have reached another dramatic milestone, with the arrival yesterday (Monday) of 8,000 people, bringing the total to 502,500. Obviously we knew this was coming, but we do see a spike in arrivals in Greece,” Fleming told a news briefing. In all, more than 643,000 refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year and at least 3,135 have died en route, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “We are reporting 25 deaths in the Aegean (Sea) this week, many of them children,” said Joel Millman of the International Or-
A Syrian refugee cries while disembarking from a flooded raft at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast on an overcrowded raft, October 20 REUTERS ganization for Migration (IOM). People smugglers are offering “discount rates” to some passengers leaving Turkey but are packing ever more people onto each boat, making conditions even more dangerous, Fleming said. Migrants continue to stream north through the Balkans from Greece but Hungary shut its border with Croatia on Friday and Slovenia imposed daily limits on mi-
grants entering from Croatia, holding up thousands on cold, rain-sodden frontiers. Slovenia said on Tuesday it would deploy the army to help guard its border and appealed for help from fellow members of the European Union. By late morning on Tuesday, 5,000 migrants had entered Slovenia from Croatia, after some 8,000 on Monday, Slovenia’s Interior Ministry said. l