Japan bows in somber farewell to slain Shinzo Abe

Japan bows in somber farewell to slain Shinzo Abe
Mourners pray for late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, in Tokyo on July 12, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 12 July 2022

Japan bows in somber farewell to slain Shinzo Abe

Japan bows in somber farewell to slain Shinzo Abe
  • ‘There was a sense of security when he was the prime minister in charge of the country’
  • Nearly 2,000 condolence messages arrived from nations around the world, Kyodo news agency said

TOKYO: With prayers, flowers and flags draped in black ribbons, Japan on Tuesday said farewell to Shinzo Abe, a polarizing figure who dominated politics as the country’s longest-serving premier, before being gunned down at a campaign rally last week.
Crowds packed pavements lined with a heavy police presence as the hearse carrying Abe, who died at age 67, departed from a central Tokyo temple on a procession through the city.
With nearly a dozen helicopters circling overhead, people bowed deeply, their hands clasped in prayer, as the hearse passed in a procession carried live on broadcaster NHK. Others clapped, cheered or waved.
“Thank you very much for your work for our country!,” one man repeatedly shouted.
Hundreds had filed into the temple where Abe’s funeral was held on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, prior to the private ceremony, to pay their respects. His killing on Friday by an unemployed man wielding a homemade gun stunned a nation where both gun crime and political violence are extremely rare.
The funeral procession passed through the capital’s political heart of Nagatacho, where hundreds had lined up in front of the parliament building Abe first entered as a young lawmaker in 1993, after the death of his politician father.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a group of cabinet ministers waited quietly in front of the office from which Abe led the nation for two stints, the longest from 2012 to 2020.
As the hearse slowly passed, Kishida bowed his head, a set of Buddhist rosary beads around his clasped hands. Abe’s widow, Akie, bowed back from the front seat of the hearse.
From early morning, long lines of people dressed in black, mixed with others in informal clothing with backpacks, formed outside the temple.
Keiko Noumi, a 58-year-old teacher, was one of many who came to offer prayers and flowers to a large photograph of Abe set up inside the temple grounds showing him in a simple white shirt, laughing with his hands on his hips
“There was a sense of security when he was the prime minister in charge of the country,” she said. “I really supported him, so this is very unfortunate.”
Others queued in front of ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters to make offerings at a makeshift shrine that will be in place until Friday. Party staffers come out to offer cold barley tea to mourners sweating in the sultry air.
Tributes have poured in from international leaders, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken making a brief stop en route to the United States from Southeast Asia on Monday morning to pay his respects. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Taiwan Vice President William Lai, on a private visit as a family friend, also joined mourners.
Nearly 2,000 condolence messages arrived from nations around the world, Kyodo news agency said.
French leader Emmanuel Macron sent his condolences in footage posted on the country’s official presidential Twitter account after he visited the Japanese embassy in Paris.
“I remember all our meetings and work together, especially during my visit (to Japan) in 2019 ... I’ve lost a friend,” said a solemn Macron.
“He served his country with great courage, and audacity.”
The suspected killer, arrested at the scene and identified by police as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, believed Abe had promoted a religious group to which his mother made a “huge donation,” Kyodo news agency has said, citing investigators.
The Unification Church, known for its mass weddings and devoted following, said on Monday the suspect’s mother was one of its members. Reuters could not determine whether the mother belonged to any other religious organizations.
Yamagami shot Abe from behind, unloading two shots from a 40-cm-long (16-inch) improvised weapon wrapped with black tape.


How an expat Egyptian got elected by focusing on America

How an expat Egyptian got elected by focusing on America
Updated 9 min 50 sec ago

How an expat Egyptian got elected by focusing on America

How an expat Egyptian got elected by focusing on America
  • Egyptian-American Bolingbrook Illinois Mayor Mary Basta says connecting with local community paves the way for a better understanding of Arab immigrants with Middle Eastern roots

CHICAGO: An Egyptian-American immigrant successful in US political and activism life says that the key to countering pro-Israel propaganda is to make a direct connection with Americans and educate them on the truth about the Middle East conflict.

Mary Basta, who came to America from Egypt in the 1970s at the age of five, pursued a career in hospitality in Nashville, Tennessee, but quickly found herself rising in local politics to become the mayor of the 16th-largest city in Illinois, a state that has 1,456 cities.

Basta told Arab News on Wednesday (June 7) that she achieved her meteoric rise in American politics by focusing on “American interests” first before focusing on the interests of her former homeland Egypt — though not forgetting that heritage either.

“Egyptians and Middle Eastern in general is a little bit unique. We have a hard time because we can’t let go. We always carry the burden on our shoulders of where we are from and the issues that we face. We underwent a revolution and we changed two presidents. And you are always carrying that and you always feel like this is my home, this is my country and my culture and what can I do to help. But for us, we have lots of different issues that we encounter here. Both, one, we aren’t pure Americans so therefore you always feel you have to work harder. You have to achieve more. And then from our family, you always have to be this engineer, or doctor, dentist or this lawyer, because anything else you haven’t been successful in your life,” Basta said.

“So, there are definitely some high benchmarks that we instill in ourselves, and our families instill in us, and trying to live up to those expectations is very hard, while still trying to maintain our traditions and our cultures. Some people hold on to those like they are holding on to life, and some people are glad to get rid of them as soon as possible. So, it is hard to navigate between being true to yourself, your culture, as well as what we are thinking and where your current situation is. It’s not always when in Rome do as the Romans do. Sometimes you have to do as the Greeks do.”

Basta told Arab News that she and her family came to the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook in 2003 to find a better life, volunteering to assist the local schools and local government to help her children.

Less than 16 years later, Basta entered local politics — what she prefers to call “public service” — serving as a volunteer on several Bolingbrook commissions, including the powerful Zoning Board, which oversees community and business expansion.

She quickly was named chairwoman. Soon after, in 2019, she was named by the city’s mayor and board to fill a vacancy as one of the village’s six trustees. Within a year, after the mayor left office, in 2020, her board colleagues elected her as mayor. And the following year, in 2021, was elected by a majority of the village’s 75,000 residents to a four-year term as the mayor, which she is now serving.

Basta said that her rapid rise in politics, which dwarfs the decades-long efforts of other Arab Americans to enter politics, is different because she focused her attention first on serving the residents of Bolingbrook rather than dedicating her life to changing the politics of the Middle East more than 9,000 miles away.

“This will always be home to my children, where I can say Egypt is my home or even Nashville, but Bolingbrook will be where my kids were born and where they grew up and where they graduated from. So I want that to be a place that they are proud of to bring their kids back here, even grandkids, and say this is where I grew up, this is where I was born, this is my soccer field, this is my school. For that to be something to be proud of it takes effort and it takes work and it takes long-term planning and thinking. So, putting the right people in place, putting the right policies in place, and then watching them getting carried out from that point,” Basta said.

“It’s not about me, it is about we. It’s not what I want but it’s what is better for the community.”

Basta said that running for American political office is much like running a business. It takes “a thick skin” to withstand the criticism, as well as a local focus on the community that elected you. She said that she did face the same discrimination and stereotype “bullying” many Arabs, Christian and Muslims have faced, but she persevered.

“Today’s kids have not seen bullying until you see a little foreign girl growing up in a very white, I am going to use the term redneck, portion of Nashville, Tennessee. So, I definitely know what bullying is. I definitely felt it growing up as being someone who is different. Not just in the way that I looked but also in the culture. As you know, Middle Eastern culture is very different from that in the US, especially for females,” Basta said.

Basta made her comments during an appearance on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show,” broadcast Wednesday May 31 live in Detroit and Washington D.C. on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News.

You can listen to the radio show’s podcast by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.


Somalia security forces end hotel siege claimed by Al-Shabab

Somalia security forces end hotel siege claimed by Al-Shabab
Updated 10 June 2023

Somalia security forces end hotel siege claimed by Al-Shabab

Somalia security forces end hotel siege claimed by Al-Shabab
  • Rebels have been waging an insurgency against the government for more than 15 years and have often targeted hotels

MOGADISHU: Somali security forces brought to an end the siege of a hotel in the capital Mogadishu, state media said Saturday, after the Islamist Al-Shabab group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The rebels, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government for more than 15 years and have often targeted hotels, which tend to host high-ranking Somali and foreign officials.
The security forces “shot and killed” rebels who carried out “the desperate terrorist attack on the Pearl Beach... in Mogadishu,” SNTV reported on Saturday.
It added that security forces had rescued “many civilians from inside the hotel” and “shot and killed” those responsible.
Security and intelligence sources confirmed the end of the attack to AFP on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire and explosions at the hotel on Lido beach.
“I was near the Pearl Beach restaurant when (a) heavy explosion occurred in front of the building,” witness Abdirahim Ali said.
“I have managed to flee but there was heavy gunfire afterwards and the security forces rushed to the area.”
Yaasin Nur was at the restaurant and said it was “full of people as it was recently renovated.”
“I’m worried because there are several of my colleagues who went there and two of them are not responding to their phones,” he said.
Several ambulances were also parked nearby, an AFP journalist saw.
Al-Shabab has been driven out of Somalia’s main towns and cities but retains power in large swathes of rural areas, and continues to carry out attacks against security and civilian targets, including in the capital.
In August 2020, Al-Shabab launched a large-scale attack on the Elite, another hotel at Lido beach popular with officials, killing 10 civilians and a police officer.
It took security forces four hours to regain control over the site in that attack.
The latest attack at Lido beach highlights the endemic security problems in the Horn of Africa country as it struggles to emerge from decades of conflict and natural disasters.
Last year, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched an “all-out war” against Al-Shabab, rallying Somalis to help flush out members of the jihadist group he described as “bedbugs.”
His pledge came after 21 people were killed and 117 others were wounded in an Al-Shabab siege on a Mogadishu hotel in August 2022 that lasted 30 hours.
The attack raised serious questions about the security forces, who failed to protect a heavily guarded administrative district.
In October 2022, twin car bombings in Mogadishu killed 121 people and injured 333, in the country’s deadliest attack in five years.
The army and militias known as “macawisley” have in recent months retaken swathes of territory in the center of the country in an operation backed by the African Union mission ATMIS and US air strikes.
But Al-Shabab fighters killed 54 Ugandan peacekeepers in an attack on an African Union base in the southern town of Bulo Marer last month.


No injuries after planes collide on ground at Tokyo’s Haneda airport – NHK

No injuries after planes collide on ground at Tokyo’s Haneda airport – NHK
Updated 10 June 2023

No injuries after planes collide on ground at Tokyo’s Haneda airport – NHK

No injuries after planes collide on ground at Tokyo’s Haneda airport – NHK
  • Incident led to the closure of one of four runways at the airport

TOKYO: Some flights were delayed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Saturday after two planes appeared to have collided on the ground near a taxiway, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing Japan’s transport ministry.
No injuries occurred, NHK said, but the incident led to the closure of one of four runways at the airport at about 11 a.m. (0200 GMT).
The broadcaster showed footage of Eva Airways and Thai Airways jets on the ground.
Part of the wing of the Thai Airways plane looked to be broken, and what appeared to be fragments could be seen near the runway.
Japan’s transport ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reschedules postponed Beijing visit for June 18

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reschedules postponed Beijing visit for June 18
Updated 10 June 2023

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reschedules postponed Beijing visit for June 18

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reschedules postponed Beijing visit for June 18
  • First trip by a top US diplomat to China since his predecessor Mike Pompeo in October 2018

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China next week, rescheduling a visit that was canceled in February after a saga over a suspected surveillance balloon, US officials said Friday.
Blinken is expected to arrive in Beijing on June 18, the first trip by a top US diplomat to China since his predecessor Mike Pompeo in October 2018, US officials said on condition of anonymity.
The State Department has not officially announced his travel. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby recently said the United States would announce travel by senior officials “in the near future” without giving details.
Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Bali in November and agreed to try to stop high tensions from soaring out of control, including by sending Blinken to Beijing.
Blinken abruptly canceled a trip scheduled in early February after the United States said it detected — and later shot down — a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the US mainland, drawing fury from US lawmakers and denials by Beijing.
But the two sides have more recently looked again to keep tensions in check including with an extensive, closed-door meeting between Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna last month.
Tensions have risen sharply between the world’s two largest economies in recent years, especially over Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing claims and has not ruled out seizing by force.
The two countries are also at odds over China’s increasingly assertive posture in the region and over trade and human rights.
Biden, however, has looked to limited areas for cooperation with China, such as climate change, in contrast with the more fully adversarial position adopted at the end of the administration of his predecessor Donald Trump.


UN peacekeeper killed, 8 seriously injured in northern Mali attack

UN peacekeeper killed, 8 seriously injured in northern Mali attack
Updated 10 June 2023

UN peacekeeper killed, 8 seriously injured in northern Mali attack

UN peacekeeper killed, 8 seriously injured in northern Mali attack
  • Mali, ruled by a military junta since a 2020 coup against an elected president, has faced destabilizing attacks by armed extremist groups since 2013

UNITED NATIONS: Attackers killed one UN peacekeeper and seriously injured eight others Friday in Mali’s northern Timbuktu region, an area where extremists continue to operate, the United Nations said.

The peacekeepers were part of a security patrol that was targeted first by an improvised explosive device and then by direct fire in the town of Ber, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The United Nations joins the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, in srongly condemning the attack, Dujarric said.
Mali has been ruled by a military junta since a 2020 coup against an elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. It has faced destabilizing attacks by armed extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group since 2013.
In 2021, France and its European partners engaged in the fight against extremists in Mali’s north withdrew from the country after the junta brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group.
The United States warned Mali’s military government in April that it would be “irresponsible” for the United Nations to continue deploying its more than 15,000 peacekeepers unless the western African nation ends restrictions, including on operating reconnaissance drones, and carries out political commitments toward peace and elections in March 2024.
The warning came as the UN Security Council considers three options proposed by Secretary-General António Guterres for the peacekeeping mission’s future: increase its size, reduce its footprint, or withdraw troops and police and turn it into a political mission. Its current mandate expires on June 30.
Dujarric said the peacekeeper killed on Friday was the ninth to die in Mali this year.
“This tragic loss is a stark reminder of the risks that peacekeepers in Mali and other places around the world face while tirelessly working to bring stability and peace to the people of Mali,” he said.