IN BRIEF

Missing Taiwan soldier found in China

nuclear-powered submarines will be sold to Australia over the next decade, The Washington Post reported. Australia and Britain would then both embark on building a new submarine model, using US propulsion technology and dubbed the SSN-AUKUS, with delivery in the 2040s.

While the plan will require years to come to fruition, it marks an ambitious shift from Australia and the United States as they contemplate the rapid expansion of Chinese military power, including Beijing’s building up a sophisticated naval fleet and turning artificial islands into offshore bases.

CRATER LIGHT. Lava spews out of Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano, as seen from the Kaliurang Selatan village in Srumbung, Magelang, Central Java on March 12. AFP

According to US media, Biden will announce a long-term, multi-stage plan destined to make Australia a full partner in fielding top-secret US nuclear technology previously only shared with historic ally Britain.

As many as five Virginia-class US

Diplomatic spat with France Australia had previously been on track to replace its aging current fleet of diesel-powered submarines with a $66-billion package of French vessels, also conventionally powered.

The abrupt announcement by Canberra that it was backing out of that deal and entering the AUKUS project sparked a brief but unusually furious row between all three countries and their close ally France. AFP

Fueled by Ukraine, European arms imports double in 2022

STOCKHOLM—Arms imports into Europe almost doubled in 2022, driven by massive shipments to Ukraine, which has become the world’s thirdlargest destination, researchers said Monday.

With a 93 percent jump compared to the year before, imports have also increased due to accelerating military spending by European states including Poland and Norway, said the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

And the rate of imports is expected to accelerate further, it said.

RAMADAN NEAR. A child blows soap bubbles as she stands in front of a wall painted in vivid colors with Arabic calligraphy that reads ‘Ramadan Karim’ as part of an initiative by a Palestinian artist in the Zeitun district of Gaza City, on March 12. Muslims across the world will start fasting later this month to mark the holy month of Ramadan, during which believers refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. AFP

“The invasion has really caused a significant surge in demand for arms in Europe, which will have further effect and most likely will lead to increased arms imports by European states,” Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at SIPRI, told AFP.

Ukraine was until last year a negligible importer of arms.

But in 2022 it very quickly became the third-largest arms destination in the world, behind Qatar and India, as Western nations delivered arms following Russia’s invasion. Ukraine alone accounted for 31 percent of arms transfers to Europe and eight percent of world deliveries overall, according to SIPRI’s data.

Ukraine’s imports, including donations, grew more than 60-fold last year, the institute found.

The deliveries to Ukraine were mainly weapons lifted from stockpiles.

Among them were some 230 artillery pieces from the US; 280 Polish armoured vehicles; and more than 7,000 British anti-tank missiles, as well as more newly produced pieces such as anti-aircraft systems, SIPRI said. AFP

TAIPEI—A Taiwanese soldier who went missing last week while stationed on an island near China has been found in the mainland, the government said Monday.

The soldier, identified only by his family name Chen, was reported missing on Thursday after morning roll-call on Erdan Island, which lies just five kilometres (three miles) off the mainland coast.

“It has been confirmed that he is in mainland China,” said Chiu Tai-san, head of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top policy-making body on China.

When asked if Chen had deserted his post, Chiu said the government will “follow up on the situation”.

“The defense ministry has relevant mechanisms for identifying deserters,” he added.

The defense ministry, which formed a special task force to search for the soldier, has so far not commented on his presence in the mainland.

Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said Friday that it was too early to conclude if the soldier was “running away”.

Chen is a staff member in a kitchen at the Lieyu Garrison Battalion on Erdan, according to the Taiwanese military. AFP

Japan court orders retrial for inmate

TOKYO—Tokyo’s High Court ordered a retrial on Monday for an 87-year-old former boxer, dubbed the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, nearly six decades after he was convicted of murder.

Lawyers for Iwao Hakamada left the court after a brief session and unfurled banners reading “retrial” as supporters shouted “Free Hakamada now”.

“I was waiting for this day for 57 years and it has come,” said Hakamada’s sister Hideko, who has campaigned tirelessly on her brother’s behalf.

“Finally a weight has been lifted from my shoulders,” the 90-year-old said.

Hakamada spent nearly five decades on death row and was certified the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, before a lower court ordered a retrial and freed him while his case proceeded.

He was sentenced to death in 1968 for robbing and murdering his boss, the man’s wife and their two teenage children.

He initially denied the accusations but later confessed after what he subsequently claimed was a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.

His attempts to retract the confession were in vain and his verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1980.

After a prolonged battle, a district court in the central city of Shizuoka granted a retrial in 2014, finding investigators could have planted evidence.

But Tokyo’s High Court overturned the lower court ruling four years later, and the case was sent to the Supreme Court on appeal. AFP