Key words : sources say Tokyo prosecutor questioned five
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200104_18/
Tokyo prosecutors have reportedly questioned five Diet members on a voluntary basis in connection with allegations of bribery over an integrated resort project involving a Chinese firm.
Sources say former advisers to the Chinese firm, 500.com, had in their possession a memo suggesting they provided cash to the five lawmakers. Another lawmaker, Tsukasa Akimoto, has already been arrested for allegedly taking bribes.
Akimoto is suspected of receiving cash worth about 27,000 dollars in late September 2017 from the Chinese firm. The company was seeking to enter Japan's integrated resort business, which includes casinos. Akimoto served as a Cabinet Office state minister in charge of integrated resorts at the time.
As Lower House elections were scheduled for the following month October, prosecutors suspect the money was handed to Akimoto on the pretext of a campaign contribution.
The sources say the memo suggests the ex-advisers to 500.com provided cash to the five lawmakers around the same time. They have reportedly told investigators they gave about 9,200 dollars to each of the lawmakers.
The five are former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Justice Masahisa Miyazaki, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Toshimitsu Funahashi, and former minister for postal privatization Mikio Shimoji. Iwaya, Miyazaki, Nakamura and Funahashi are members of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, while Shimoji is a member of Nippon Ishin.
Four of them except Iwaya are from Hokkaido and Okinawa, which both aimed to host integrated resorts. Iwaya, Shimoji and Nakamura were senior members of a nonpartisan group of lawmakers pushing the gambling-related projects.
Four of the five lawmakers denied to NHK that they received money from the Chinese firm. The remaining member Shimoji said he is checking his facts as the charge relates to a matter over two years ago.
Prosecutors are believed to be studying the money trail suggested by the memo.
Key words : Trump defend
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Key words : Iraqi prime minister called the attack
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200104_16/
Iraqi interim prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has condemned the US air strike in his country that killed Iran's top military commander Qassem Soleimani as an aggression against Iraq.
Mahdi in a statement called the attack a dangerous escalation that is likely to ignite war in Iraq and the region.
He added the attack is a violation of the conditions of the US troop presence in Iraq, which is limited to training the country's forces to fight terrorism.
The nation's highest Shia Muslim leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called the US strike a "blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty."
The religious leader mourned all victims of the attack including Soleimani, who he said led the victory against Islamic State group militants.
He said Iraq is expecting to face very difficult times and called for restraint on all sides.
Two Middle East airlines have suspended services with Iraq amid rising tensions.
Bahrain's flagship carrier Gulf Air has suspended flights to and from Baghdad as well as the southern city of Najaf since Friday.
Jordan's carrier, Royal Jordanian, said on Friday it has halted all services between Amman and Baghdad.
Key words : UN antonio deep
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200104_11/
Tensions are rising between the United States and Iran after US forces killed a senior officer of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. General Qassem Soleimani died in a US airstrike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on Friday.
US President Donald Trump gave a speech on Friday in which he said, "We always protect our diplomats, service members, all Americans and allies."
Trump added: "Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him. We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start war."
Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force, an elite brigade responsible for military operations outside Iran.
The general was a legendary figure in Iran, and was seen as a national hero. In the southeastern province of Kerman, where Soleimani is from, thousands gathered, holding up pictures of him and chanting slogans denouncing the US.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the assassination would only strengthen resistance against the United States. He added that severe retaliation awaits those who killed Soleimani.
As tensions rise, the US Embassy in Baghdad has urged US citizens to leave Iraq immediately.
Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq read a statement from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday. Guterres expressed his deep concern, saying, "The world cannot afford another war in the Gulf."
Key words : Carlos US newspaper
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200104_20/
The Wall Street Journal says Turkish officials suspect former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn was smuggled out of Japan inside a container used to move sound equipment.
The US newspaper, quoting multiple Turkish sources, reported on Friday that Ghosn was "packed into a case typically used for concert audio equipment" and then "sneaked onto a private jet at an airport in Osaka."
Ghosn, who is accused of financial misconduct in Japan, arrived in Lebanon on Monday via Turkey in violation of his bail conditions which banned him from overseas travel.
Some Lebanese media earlier reported that Ghosn was hidden inside a wooden container for musical instruments although his wife Carole denied the reports.
The Wall Street Journal says Ghosn was accompanied by two Americans and that both men's passports bore stamps showing they had left Japan.
The newspaper says one of the men is a private security contractor known for his involvement in helping rescue a US journalist in Afghanistan in 2009.
Turkish prosecutors have arrested five people from the Turkish aircraft operator MNG Jet, including pilots, after confirming that Ghosn's transit via Turkey had been illegal.
Key words : health official
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Key words : Kyoto
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200104_04/
Players dressed in ancient costumes have played the Japanese traditional card game karuta at a shrine in Kyoto.
Twelve women and children took part in the annual New Year's event on Friday at Yasaka Shrine in the Japanese ancient capital.
The game features a collection of tanka short poems written by 100 poets from the 7th through 13th centuries.
A reader recites the first half of a poem, and players pick the card bearing the latter half. The players hit the cards as fast as they could once a reader began reciting.
The shrine houses a Japanese mythological deity, Susanoh-no-mikoto, who is said to have composed the first tanka in Japan.
The karuta competition drew a large crowd. A woman in her 50s said she enjoyed the players' elegant movements and beautiful costumes. She said she had a wonderful New Year holiday.
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