News in Brief
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia rejects protests from Japan over Russia's military deployments on a chain of disputed Pacific islands and reserves the right to bolster its security there as it sees fit, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
Moscow and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over the Pacific islands, known in Russia as the Kurile islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Russian military deployments on the islands were not aimed against neighboring countries, the ministry said in a statement, in which it also accused Tokyo of unhelpful "megaphone" diplomacy.
"We firmly reject such demarches since Russia has the sovereign right to (conduct) any activity on its territory, including measures to strengthen national defense," it said.
Japan said in July it had asked Russia to reduce its military activity on the islands.
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PARIS (AFP) -- French lawmakers Wednesday adopted two bills to prevent the spread of false information during election campaigns following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2017 presidential vote.
The "fake news" bills enable a candidate or political party to seek a court injunction preventing the publication of "false information" during the three months leading up to a national election.
They also give France's broadcast authority the power to take any network that is "controlled by, or under the influence of a foreign power" off the air if it "deliberately spreads false information that could alter the integrity of the election."
The measure is seen as aimed at Russia's state-backed RT network which began broadcasting in French late last year.
Macron has had Russian media in his sights since his 2017 campaign when a state-backed Russian site ran allegations that he was gay and had a secret bank account in the Bahamas.
France's opposition has criticized the bills as an attempt to create a "thought police", noting that a law dating to 1881 already protects politicians and other citizens against defamation.
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BEIJING (AP) -- China's far-northwestern region of Xinjiang has revised legislation to provide a legal basis for internment camps where up to 1 million Muslims are being held amid mounting international criticism.
New clauses adopted by the regional government officially permit the use of "education and training centers" to reform "people influenced by extremism."
Chinese authorities deny that the internment camps exist but say petty criminals are sent to vocational "training centers." Former detainees in the centers say they were forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the Communist Party in what they describe as political indoctrination camps.
"It's a retrospective justification for the mass detainment of Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang," said James Leibold, a scholar of Chinese ethnic policies at Melbourne's La Trobe University. "It's a new form of re-education that's unprecedented and doesn't really have a legal basis, and I see them scrambling to try to create a legal basis for this policy."
The revisions, published Tuesday, say government agencies at the county level and above "may establish occupational skills education and training centers, education transformation organizations and management departments to transform people influenced by extremism through education."
***
ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- Religious hardliners in Pakistan Wednesday threatened judges and announced protests as the country awaits a Supreme Court ruling on the fate of a Christian woman who faces becoming the first person to be executed for blasphemy.
Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010, is at the center of the high-profile case which has divided Pakistan and drawn prayers from the Vatican.
Successive appeals against her conviction have failed.
On Monday the Supreme Court heard her last appeal and said it had reached a judgment, but refused to announce it immediately "for reasons to be recorded later".
On Wednesday Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline religious political party -- which had a strong showing in nationwide elections earlier this year -- said in a press conference aired via YouTube that if she was freed the justices responsible would meet a "horrible" end.
The group's leaders also called for mass protests on Friday.
***
MADRID (AFP) -- At least eight people including two Britons were killed as heavy rain and flash floods hit the Spanish island of Mallorca late Tuesday, authorities said.
Torrents of brown water swept cars along narrow streets in the eastern town of Sant Llorenc. Rivers burst their banks and swamped roads and people's homes – forcing some to take shelter in a sports center in the nearby town of Manacor.
At least another nine people were still missing after the downpours, El Pais and other media reported, though emergency services said they could not confirm that figure.
Two of the victims were British, a senior official from the San Llorenc mayor's office, Antonia Bauza, told radio station Cadena Ser.
***
NAIROBI (Reuters) -- Fifty people were killed on Wednesday when a bus travelling between the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the western city of Kisumu swerved off the road coming down a slope and rolled repeatedly, police said.
"The initial report we have is that the driver lost control of the vehicle,” police officer James Mugera told Reuters at the scene.
Police and rescuers had counted 50 people dead, including seven children. "A few survivors” were taken to nearby hospitals, Mugera said.
Moscow and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over the Pacific islands, known in Russia as the Kurile islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Russian military deployments on the islands were not aimed against neighboring countries, the ministry said in a statement, in which it also accused Tokyo of unhelpful "megaphone" diplomacy.
"We firmly reject such demarches since Russia has the sovereign right to (conduct) any activity on its territory, including measures to strengthen national defense," it said.
Japan said in July it had asked Russia to reduce its military activity on the islands.
***
PARIS (AFP) -- French lawmakers Wednesday adopted two bills to prevent the spread of false information during election campaigns following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2017 presidential vote.
The "fake news" bills enable a candidate or political party to seek a court injunction preventing the publication of "false information" during the three months leading up to a national election.
They also give France's broadcast authority the power to take any network that is "controlled by, or under the influence of a foreign power" off the air if it "deliberately spreads false information that could alter the integrity of the election."
The measure is seen as aimed at Russia's state-backed RT network which began broadcasting in French late last year.
Macron has had Russian media in his sights since his 2017 campaign when a state-backed Russian site ran allegations that he was gay and had a secret bank account in the Bahamas.
France's opposition has criticized the bills as an attempt to create a "thought police", noting that a law dating to 1881 already protects politicians and other citizens against defamation.
***
BEIJING (AP) -- China's far-northwestern region of Xinjiang has revised legislation to provide a legal basis for internment camps where up to 1 million Muslims are being held amid mounting international criticism.
New clauses adopted by the regional government officially permit the use of "education and training centers" to reform "people influenced by extremism."
Chinese authorities deny that the internment camps exist but say petty criminals are sent to vocational "training centers." Former detainees in the centers say they were forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the Communist Party in what they describe as political indoctrination camps.
"It's a retrospective justification for the mass detainment of Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang," said James Leibold, a scholar of Chinese ethnic policies at Melbourne's La Trobe University. "It's a new form of re-education that's unprecedented and doesn't really have a legal basis, and I see them scrambling to try to create a legal basis for this policy."
The revisions, published Tuesday, say government agencies at the county level and above "may establish occupational skills education and training centers, education transformation organizations and management departments to transform people influenced by extremism through education."
***
ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- Religious hardliners in Pakistan Wednesday threatened judges and announced protests as the country awaits a Supreme Court ruling on the fate of a Christian woman who faces becoming the first person to be executed for blasphemy.
Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010, is at the center of the high-profile case which has divided Pakistan and drawn prayers from the Vatican.
Successive appeals against her conviction have failed.
On Monday the Supreme Court heard her last appeal and said it had reached a judgment, but refused to announce it immediately "for reasons to be recorded later".
On Wednesday Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline religious political party -- which had a strong showing in nationwide elections earlier this year -- said in a press conference aired via YouTube that if she was freed the justices responsible would meet a "horrible" end.
The group's leaders also called for mass protests on Friday.
***
MADRID (AFP) -- At least eight people including two Britons were killed as heavy rain and flash floods hit the Spanish island of Mallorca late Tuesday, authorities said.
Torrents of brown water swept cars along narrow streets in the eastern town of Sant Llorenc. Rivers burst their banks and swamped roads and people's homes – forcing some to take shelter in a sports center in the nearby town of Manacor.
At least another nine people were still missing after the downpours, El Pais and other media reported, though emergency services said they could not confirm that figure.
Two of the victims were British, a senior official from the San Llorenc mayor's office, Antonia Bauza, told radio station Cadena Ser.
***
NAIROBI (Reuters) -- Fifty people were killed on Wednesday when a bus travelling between the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the western city of Kisumu swerved off the road coming down a slope and rolled repeatedly, police said.
"The initial report we have is that the driver lost control of the vehicle,” police officer James Mugera told Reuters at the scene.
Police and rescuers had counted 50 people dead, including seven children. "A few survivors” were taken to nearby hospitals, Mugera said.