Welcome to NHK Newsline. I'm Yoko Nishimura in Tokyo with the latest news.
A Japanese man who was convicted of murdering a teenage girl in 1986 and who served out his prison sentence has been granted a retrial.
The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court ordered a fresh trial as requested by Maikawa Shoshi. Maikawa was charged with murdering the junior high school student at her home in the city of Kui, central Japan. His trial found him not guilty, but a higher court overturned that outcome and sentenced him to seven years in prison. The guilty ruling was finalized at the Supreme Court. Maikawa has maintained his innocence. He previously requested a new trial after completing his sentence. A court granted a retrial in 2011, but prosecutors appealed.
Maikawa made a special appeal to the Supreme Court, which was dismissed. Maikawa reacted to the latestdevelopment.
I'm relieved. But, as I've told myself many times,I can't allow myself to be happy just yet. 38 years have passed since this case started, which is a lot of time. I remind myself of blessings I have had in those 38 years, and for the moment I am happy.
At issue has been the credibility of witnesses who said they saw Michael in blood-stained clothes on the night of the murder. In granting the retrial on Wednesday, Presiding Judge Yamada Koji said the accounts are not credible and doubts remain over if investigators acted appropriately in obtaining those accounts.
Japanese are set to head to the polls Sunday for the lower House election. They have more than 1,000 candidates to choose from in a process that's more complicated than just checking a box. NHK World's Takao Minori has this primer on how the vote works and the complexities of voting from overseas.
Citizens 18 or older are eligible to cast a ballot, or in this case, two. They're deciding who will fill 465 seats. One ballot is for picking a candidate running in their local constituency. 289 lawmakers win seats in this way. The rest are decided through the proportional representation system, with voters using the other ballot to choose a party or group. Now, there are no boxes to check. Voters have to actually write out the candidate's name, and proper penmanship is important. Let me use this fake campaign poster to explain.
These kanji characters, for my name, have lots of strokes. That makes it harder to write. So lately, candidates have been using characters like these.
For their official registration, they're called hiragana. The 46 characters cover the basic sounds used in Japanese. We learned them in early elementary school. They're faster to write and less likely to be mistaken. Being user-friendly may encourage people to vote for the candidate. As for citizens living overseas, they need to notify their local officials of their wish to vote from abroad before they leave Japan.
And after arriving overseas, they must register online or in person at their Japanese embassy or consulate. But it only becomes official after residing there for three months. They can choose from three ways to vote. In person at the embassy or consulate by mailing their ballots to Japan directly or traveling back home. Saito Didi moved to London in May and voted in person. She told NHK it was not an easy process.
I received notice from the Japanese embassy here that the election was going to happen, with campaigning beginning on October 15th. But the voting period at the embassy was between the 16th until the 20th. That's only five days. I hardly had time to learn much about the candidates running this time.
In Japan, we have close to two weeks to vote, but people overseas have less time to vote because the ballots must be physically carried back to Japan by embassy staff. As for mail-in ballots, you have to receive the forms from your constituency and be sure that your ballots arrive back to Japan before election day, so time is just as limited.
Japan's electoral system involves some complexities that experts say help prevent fraud and protect the privacy of the voter. As for the number of people actually voting in the last four general elections, turnout has been less than 60%, so any effort to help voters go to the polls is crucial. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that Japan's turnout is lower than most of its member countries.
The Constitution here guarantees the right of citizens to vote. We'll see how many exercise their right this election.
♪
North Korea's leader has inspected ballistic missiles at strategic missile bases. Kim Jong-un stressed he will promote nuclear and missile development ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
North Korea's ruling party newspaper reported Kim's visits on Wednesday. The Rodon Sinmun does not give the dates or locations. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency says the report is a first time for the North to show inside the country's strategic missile bases. Photographs show Kim examining what appear to be ICBM-class Hwasong-18 missiles and hypersonic missiles capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.
Kim said U.S. strategic nuclear weapons pose an ever-increasing threat to North Korea's security environment. Kim also said the strategic missiles make up the core force that plays a pivotal role on North Korea's deterrence. He expressed his intention to comprehensively modernize the armed forces by continuing to give priority to the force. The remarks appear to be a show of defiance against the United States. It's not the only move Pyongyang's making.
The UK's defense chief says hundreds of North Korean troops are potentially being dispatched to Russia. John Healy called North Korean soldiers supporting Russia as shocking as it is desperate.
This developing military cooperation between Russia and the DPRK has serious security implications for Europe and for the Indo-Pacific. It represents A wider growing alliance of aggression, which NATO and the G7 nations must confront.
South Korea's intelligence service earlier claimed that the North had sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia's Far East. to be deployed to the battlefront in Ukraine. An independent media outlet in Russia released a video it says shows a group of North Korean soldiers. The outlet says analysis of the video pinpoints its location to a base in Sergeyevka, in Russia's Far East. The man shooting the video says handsome allies have arrived from North Korea and expresses the hope that this will end the war.
The U.S. Secretary of State has embarked on a tour of the Middle East with his first stop in Israel. He urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
State Department officials say Blinken underscored the need to capitalize on the killing last week of Hamas leader Yahya Simwar. He wants to free hostages taken by the militants a year ago and end the conflict.
U.S. news site Axis reports that mediators from Egypt have proposed what they're calling a small deal. Their plan would include the release of a small number of captives in return for a ceasefire lasting a few days. But Israeli forces are not letting up. They claim to have killed what they called tent terrorists in northern Gaza in a single strike. Health authorities in the territory say more than 42-thousand people have been killed during more than a year of fighting.
♪
For more details, please access the NHK World Japan website. NHK has won three top prizes at the annual meeting for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. The ABU is a federation of broadcasters from 65 countries and regions.
This year's General Assembly opened in Istanbul on Tuesday, under the theme The Nexus of AI: Broadcasting and Society. The awards recognize excellence in TV, radio and digital content. The TV ABU Perspective Award went to NHK's Frontiers: How Smart is AI? The documentary explores progress in AI and the meaning of intelligence.
In the TV category for sports, the award went to NHK's At Home in Kobe, soccer star Andres Iniesta. The documentary looks at Iniesta's bond with the Japanese city he lived in for five years. And for entertainment, it went to NHK's Mirador: Soundscape Through Japan. The film captures the natural sounds of northern Japan's wilderness.
♪
It's time for a check on the weather with our meteorologist, Jonathan Oh. So Jonathan, we've been dealing with rain across many parts of Japan Wednesday. How are things looking the rest of the week?
Hello, we've been watching a cold front and a low pressure system sweeping across the country and in the process has brought plenty of rainfall. It looks like that as we head toward Thursday and especially for the rest of the weekend to the weekend, we may be seeing some improvement and some drier weather as the cold front sweeps by will have high pressure building in behind it and so we will be dealing with fair weather. A temperatures will still be above average for this time of year, but we are going to be seeing a slight cool down for those located toward the north. Places like Sapporo looking at highs in the upper teens as opposed to 20s as we go through Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Tokyo looking at mid 20s and then we'll be seeing the clouds increasing as we head toward the. Latter part of the week weekend into the first part of next week.
Meanwhile, we go down toward the Philippines. Chami continues to really smack, especially the northern portions of the Philippines, and we will be dealing with continued heavy rainfall concerns of landslides and flooding will be in place as you go throughout the next couple of days. Interesting enough, as that moisture moves through, we're going to be seeing some interactive moisture up toward Okinawa as well. And so we may be dealing with some rain that could be heavy at times as we go forward throughout the next couple of days.
Looking over into South Asia, we're looking at some heavy rain impacting the southern areas of India. Take a look at this video that's coming out from the region. Heavy rain in Bengaluru caused severe flooding and damage on Tuesday. Roads return into fast flowing rivers with muddy water leaving many cars trapped. The city's fast growth and urbanization leaving little ground for water absorption. Local media say that at least 15 people were rescued from a building that collapsed due to the flooding. So we've got that moisture taking place. We have a system that's located over the Bay of Bengal that's going to be impacting the eastern portions of India as we go toward Thursday and also into Friday. So be prepared for some wet weather, some of the heaviest times, especially place like Calcutta as. as you go into Thursday.
Hope you have a good day wherever youare.
And that's it for now on NHK Newsline. I'm Yoko Nishimura in Tokyo. Thanks for joining us.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿