MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has condemned Japan’s 27th sanctions package as illegitimate. “The Japanese government continues to take reckless steps that provoke further degradation of what little remains of that state’s relations with Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement. On Oct 2, Tokyo announced its 27th package of measures against Russia, affecting 33 Russian legal entities and nine individuals, as well as a number of companies abroad. For the first time, the restrictions also cover the sphere of shipping, Zakharova noted.

 

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BERLIN (AFP) - Germany’s former foreign spy chief was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of espionage, accused of seeking to pass sensitive information to overseas intelligence services, prosecutors said. August Hanning, who ran Germany’s BND intelligence agency between 1998 and 2005, is suspected of charges including “attempted treason” and “espionage”, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Hanning’s former chief of staff, partially named as Manfred D., was also arrested on suspicion of “aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage”.

 

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MAGDEBURG, Germany (Reuters) - The far-right Alternative for Germany convened for the first sitting of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament on Tuesday but, a month after its landmark election win, the party still lacks a clear path to forming what would be its first state government. Despite winning the vote in the September 6 election in the eastern German state, the AfD fell three seats short of the absolute majority that candidate Ulrich Siegmund had aimed for. Siegmund said before Tuesday’s sitting that he aimed to win parliamentary backing to become state premier in a first round of voting that he said would only take place in December, giving him more time to build support. He did not elaborate. The party has so far failed to secure enough support from potential partners or publicly win over defectors from rivals, leading to a stalemate in its efforts to form a government

 

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NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Tuesday confirmed its first imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease, one day after a man died in a Nairobi hospital, the country’s health authorities said. The patient was a Kenyan citizen who had lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the past seven years, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said in a statement. He fell ill about a month ago and was treated at several hospitals while still in the DRC. He traveled by road from the DRC to Kampala, Uganda, then boarded Jambojet flight 8523 and arrived in Nairobi on Oct. 3.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea’s Foreign Ministry rejected on Tuesday blame from South Korea for a border landmine blast, and threatened its neighbor with “immediate and powerful counteraction” for any violation of territory. The comments came a day after the South said a joint inquiry with the United Nations Command and scientific analysis showed two of its soldiers were seriously wounded by an anti-personnel mine planted by North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone.  In a statement on state news agency KCNA, the ministry dismissed the South’s investigation of the September 21 blast as a “premeditated farce” aimed at linking it to North Korea and justifying diplomatic and military measures against Pyongyang.