Nigerian man sues over evidence cover-up in 2001 robbery case

KOBE —

A Nigerian man who is seeking a retrial over his conviction in a 2001 robbery case has filed a damages suit with the Kobe District Court against the central and local governments, accusing authorities of suppressing evidence, his lawyer said Monday.

The 40-year-old man is demanding 100 million yen ($912,000) in damages and an apology from the state and Hyogo prefectural government for the actions of prosecutors and police. He argues evidence that could have exonerated him was suppressed.

The man has also lodged a special appeal to the Supreme Court to reopen his case. The man was released in 2009 after being convicted of robbing a post office in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, of 22.75 million yen with a male relative in June 2001, and given a six-year prison sentence.

According to the lawsuit filed on May 20, prosecutors hid the results of a DNA test performed on a sample taken from a ski mask believed to have been worn by the thief, and did not submit the results to the court. In seeking a retrial, his lawyer has presented new evidence showing that the DNA sample could not have come from the Nigerian man and thus the real culprit could be a different person.

The lawsuit further asserts that police deleted surveillance camera footage showing the post office at the time of the robbery, which also could have identified the culprit.

Both the Himeji branch of the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and the Hyogo prefectural police have declined to comment on the damages suit.

In March this year, the Osaka High Court sent the robbery case back to the Kobe District Court, saying deliberation by the court’s Himeji branch were insufficient. The branch had rejected the man’s appeal for a retrial.

Quake-hit town to remove evacuation tents for fear of heatstroke

KUMAMOTO The town of Mashiki in Kumamoto Prefecture, one of the communities hit hardest by the devastating earthquakes in April, began relocating people staying in a tent village to other evacuation centers on Tuesday to protect them from possible heatstroke due to scorching weather.

The local government, located on the southwestern main island of Kyushu, plans to close the open-air evacuation center in the town’s central park by the end of May, moving around 600 people currently taking a refuge there.

The town has been calling on evacuees to move to other facilities to protect them from possible heatstroke and flooding of nearby rivers as Japan’s rainy season nears. But some residents are wary about staying in buildings for fear of possible aftershocks.

Katsuko Tomita, 75, who is evacuating with a family of seven including three grandchildren aged between 2 and 11 said, “I do not want to make trouble to others around.”

The tent village was set up in late April by a group of volunteers including Japanese alpinist Ken Noguchi and the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia, Okayama-based non-governmental organization which provides emergency reliefs, so that evacuees sleeping in cars can have space to take shelter in tents.

Noguchi said he is now looking for an alternative site to open a new tent village, noting, “I believe we can take measures to prevent heatstroke in tents but I am taking the issue of river (flooding) seriously.”

Following a magnitude 6.5 quake on April 14 and a M7.3 quake two days later, many people are still unable to return home. In the tent village, 602 people are staying in 165 tents as of Monday.

Police bolster 'soft target' security for G-7 summit

Police patrol Tokyo Station Tuesday as part of increased security measures ahead of the Ise-Shima G-7 summit that starts in Mie Prefecture on Thursday.REUTERS/Thomas Peter

TOKYO —

The National Police Agency (NPA) on Tuesday bolstered security at so-called “soft targets” around the nation ahead of the two-day G-7 summit that starts in Ise-Shima, Mie Prefecture, on Thursday.

Police presence has been noticeably strengthened at major train stations, shopping complexes and other crowded places that are potentially vulnerable to terrorist attacks, Sankei Shimbun reported.

According to NPA chief Masahito Kanetaka, a total of 70,000 policemen will be dispatched to 3,500 locations across the country through Friday, including major stations, such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya.

The NPA has set up security observation stands at several areas in Tokyo, including Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi exit and Tokyo International Forum in Hibiya.

“Attacks on soft targets can impact a massive number of people. It is important to increase security at busy stations, for example, and it is also crucial to cooperate with private businesses (to strengthen security). Residents’ safety is our priority,” Kanetaka said.

As part of the same initiative, the NPA also announced that it will enhance cyber-monitoring for information that could potentially relate to terrorism.

For the summit venue itself in Mie, the NPA will dispatch up to 23,000 police officers and another 4,600 to Hiroshima when U.S. President Barack Obama makes a historic visit there on Friday.

Chinese military mulls new policies to seek educated recruits

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese military is appealing to qualified young recruits with a string of preferential policies, including financial aid and easy access to employment after service. The favorable policies target graduates and university students, according to a document on recruitment released by the department of defense mobilization under the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Education Monday. Each university student may obtain a certain amount in subsidies once they have been recruited, and the soldiers will be eligible to take exams for employment in state organs, public institutions or state-owned enterprises after their military service, it said. Meanwhile, university student recruits will continue to enjoy tuition waivers, loan reductions, and improved chances to seek master's degrees, among other benefits, the document added. Military recruiters, education departments and media organizations nationwide are also required to promote the recruitment drive to strengthen young people' patriotism and help them understand the army. This year's recruitment targeting university students has started and will last until the end of September.

First world summit urges to improve response to crisis

ISTANBUL, May 23, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Participants pose for a group photo during the world humanitarian summit in Istanbul, Turkey, May 23, 2016. The first world humanitarian summit opened here Monday with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging governments, aid groups, the private sector and other stakeholders to act to improve the global humanitarian system. (Xinhua/Anadolu Agency) Click here for more photos >> ISTANBUL, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The first world humanitarian summit opened here Monday with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging governments, aid groups, private sector and other stakeholders to act to improve the global humanitarian system. In his opening remarks to the two-day summit, Ban called on the participants to align themselves with the five core responsibilities, such as preventing and ending conflicts and respecting the rules of war. He put a particular emphasis on the issue of displaced populations, calling on the world to significantly reduce the number of the displaced in the years to come. "I urge you to commit to cutting half (the number of ) internally displaced people by 2030 and to find better long-term solutions for refugees and displaced people based on more equal sharing of responsibilities," he said. While addressing the opening ceremony, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan cited the heavy burden on Turkey in tackling the Syrian refugee crisis and stressed the need to revamp the global humanitarian system. "The current system fails to meet the demands in the face of emergency problems and fails to develop solutions. Only certain countries take the responsibility. From now on everyone should share the burden. We have to adopt a new system that would put the human beings at the center," he said. Attending the summit are some 5,200 participants, including 65 heads of state and government and representatives from crises-affected communities, NGOs, the private sector and UN agencies, according to figures released by the United Nations. Of the 192 UN member states, 177 are represented at the summit. The event, which was proposed by Ban Ki-moon in January 2012, is a culmination of a four-year-long preparatory process, including an extensive global consultation with 23,000 stakeholders in 153 countries to identify the key humanitarian challenges facing the world. The main topic for the summit is the Agenda for Humanity formulated by Ban, which focuses on five core commitments -- preventing and ending conflicts, respecting the rules of war, reaching out the vulnerable, complementing humanitarian actions with development efforts, and ensuring sufficient funding for humanitarian responses. Speaking to reporters Sunday in Istanbul, Stephen O'Brien, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, described the summit as "a once in a generation opportunity to set in motion an ambitious and far-reaching agenda to change the way that we alleviate, and most importantly prevent, the suffering of the world's most vulnerable people." The United Nations estimates that more than 130 million people are currently in need of assistance and protection across the world. Due to an increase of conflicts in the past two decades and various natural disasters taking place in the period, the need for humanitarian funding is unprecedented, with UN-led appeals having grown six-fold from 3.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2003 to nearly 21 billion dollars in 2015.

Obama confirms death of Taliban leader Mansoor

KABUL, May 23, 2016 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan man reads the news of Taliban leader's death on a local newspaper in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, May 23, 2016. U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah) WASHINGTON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike. "We have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al-Qaida," said Obama in a statement. Obama said that as the Taliban leader, Mansoor rejected efforts made by the Afghan government "to seriously engage in peace talks and end the violence that has taken the lives of countless innocent Afghan men, women and children." The airstrike against Mansoor was launched on Saturday in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, according to a Pentagon statement. Mansoor had been an aide to Taliban's iconic longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and a Taliban transportation minister. He emerged as the Taliban leader in 2015 after the news broke that Omar had died in 2013. Related: Obama confirms death of Taliban leader Mansoor HANOI, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday the death of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in a statement issued in Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Monday. "Today marks an important milestone in our longstanding effort to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. With the death of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, we have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al-Qaida," Obama said in the statement. Full story

China warns of geological disasters as heavy rain continues in south

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China Meteorological Administration (CMA) warned of "relatively high risks" of geological disasters in parts of rain-battered Yunnan and Sichuan provinces from Sunday night to Monday night. The CMA also forecasted possible mountain torrents in parts of rainy Hebei Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province in the same period. The administration asked local authorities to closely watch the bad weather and brace for any disasters.