TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday pledged to deepen his country’s alliance with the United States under Japan’s new defense policy that breaks from its exclusively self-defense-only stance in the face of growing regional tensions. Kishida, speaking in a news conference after visiting Ise Shrine in central Japan, said he will visit Washington for talks with President Joe Biden to underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and highlight closer cooperation between the countries under Japan’s new security and defense strategies adopted last month.

 

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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Two car bombs detonated by al Shabaab militants killed at least 15 people and flattened homes in central Somalia’s Hiraan region on Wednesday, a resident involved in the rescue operations said. It was the latest in a string of attacks launched by al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab since government forces and allied clan militias last year began pushing the insurgents out of territory they had long held. “I have counted 15 dead people including soldiers, militiamen and civilians. Dozens were wounded,” said Abdullahi Osman, a shopkeeper in the town of Mahas.

 

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PARIS (AFP) – French authorities last month opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations that the former archbishop of Paris had committed “sexual assault on a vulnerable person,” prosecutors said. The probe was opened based on a report filed by the diocese of Paris, they said. Michel Aupetit offered to resign in late 2021 following media reports of an intimate relationship with a woman in 2012 before he took on the post, allegations he has categorically denied. Pope Francis accepted the resignation.

 

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PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at bringing defense spending at the required NATO goal of 2% of gross domestic product as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said the move would“ensure a stable and transparent financing of big defense strategic projects in the future.” Cernochova said the war in Ukraine “made it clear we have to be ready for the current and future conflicts and that’s why a fast modernization of the army is absolutely necessary.”

 

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PAILON, Bolivia (Reuters) – Hundreds of trucks have lined highways in Bolivia’s farming region of Santa Cruz, as protesters blockaded routes out of the region following the arrest of the local governor, and hard-hit local businesses urged a return to order. Protests have gripped the lowland region since the Dec 28 arrest of right-wing local leader Luis Camacho on “terrorism” charges related to an alleged 2019 coup against then president Evo Morales. Protesters demanding Camacho’s release have blocked highways out of the region with tires, branches and stones, leaving long lines of standstill traffic, Reuters witnessed. The blockades threaten deliveries of grains and food around the country.