Subianto vows to strengthen ties with Japan
TOKYO, April 3, (AP): Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he wants to “further strengthen” relations with Japan as he met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday on the heels of a visit to China.
Subianto, who’s currently defense minister, told Kishida that the two countries are longtime friends who have built a cooperative relationship, and that he hoped to further strengthen the relationship.
Japan has been seeking closer ties with Southeast Asian countries, especially in maritime security and defense, in the face of China’s increasingly assertive military presence.
Subianto, who will succeed Joko Widodo in October, chose Beijing for his first official overseas trip after his February election victory in a bid to emphasize steady ties with China amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines have had repeated high-seas confrontations. In his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Subianto pledged a continued friendly policy toward China.
China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner, with Beijing investing in major infrastructure projects, and Indonesia has maintained a relatively neutral stance amid rising tensions between China and the Philippines over rival territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Kishida welcomed Subianto’s early visit to Tokyo, telling his future counterpart that the two countries are longtime friends that share basic values and principles, and that Japan hoped to further strengthen cooperation in regional and global issues as “comprehensive and strategic partners.”
Also:
BEIJING: Violent rain and hailstorms have killed seven people in eastern
this week, including three people who fell from their apartments in a high-rise building.
Dozens of homes were severely damaged by the storms, which started Sunday, and more than 800 people have been resettled, state broadcaster CCTV said Wednesday, citing a Jiangxi government emergency agency.
Four people died on Sunday in Nanchang, the provincial capital. It wasn’t clear from the report when or where the other three died, but another violent storm on Tuesday left people trapped
China’s Jiangxi province Prosecutors widen probe:
Peru’s top prosecutor told a committee of lawmakers Tuesday that the scope of an investigation into President Dina Boluarte’ s ownership of three luxury watches has broaden to include fine jewelry that authorities estimate
in a collapsed house in the same city. Eleven people were hospitalized, according to an earlier CCTV report.
The first storm blew out floor-toceiling windows in a apartment building, killing three in the middle of the night. A grandmother and her 11-year-old grandson fell to their deaths from the 20th floor, as did a 60-year-old woman from the 11th floor, according to Chinese media reports.
Authorities are investigating how the three people fell. Media reports suggested they may have been blown out by extremely strong winds. A resident on the 20th floor of the building told online outlet Jimu News that her family had to hold on to avoid being blown away, and that they were so frightened that they stayed up all night.
The storms also damaged 5,700 hectares (14,000 acres) of crops in Jiangxi province, CCTV said.
Nanchang ❑ ❑ ❑
BANGKOK: A deputy chief of Thailand’s national police force involved in many high-profile cases turned himself in to fellow officers on Tuesday after a
could be worth more than $500,000 and money transactions that exceed $400,000.
Attorney General Juan Villena told Parliament’s oversight committee that the transactions under investigation include “deposits of unknown origin” of $296,000
court issued a warrant for his arrest on money laundering charges.
Police Gen had recently been suspended from his duties due to his involvement in infighting among the department’s top ranks.
Thai media reported that the Bangkok Criminal Court approved an arrest warrant for Surachate on money laundering charges earlier Tuesday. Public broadcaster Thai PBS and Thai Rath, the country’s largest circulation newspaper, reported that the court issued the warrant because Surachate failed to report for questioning after three summonses had been issued for him.
Surachate went to Bangkok’s
neighborhood police station Tuesday evening to hear the charges against him, and after several hours emerged to tell reporters he had come to comply with the warrant and would let due process take its course.
“I’m not worried,” he commented as he jostled his way through a scrum of reporters before getting into a waiting car. He said he had been released on bail but did not specify the amount.
Taopoon Surachate Hakparn
to the Boluarte’s bank accounts. His testimony came hours after the president’s attorneys said prosecutors will interview her Friday over the alleged illicit enrichment accusations, which are threatening her presidency.
Prosecutors have also instructed Boluarte to show them on Friday the three Rolex watches that led to the ongoing preliminary investigation and prompted lawmakers to seek her removal from office Monday. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ Obrador mourns local candidate:
Mexico’s president said Tuesday he was saddened by the killing of a mayoral candidate just hours after she requested protection and started campaigning. A city council candidate also went missing in the same attack on Monday, but later turned up, authorities said.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the killing of his own party’s candidate “hurts a lot,” but he did not announce any increase in security for politicians.
Candidate Bertha Gaytán was gunned down on a street in a town just outside the city of Celaya, in the north-central state of Guanajuato. She had just launched her campaign for Celaya mayor on Monday and acknowledged she had asked for protection.
Federal Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said Tuesday morning that Celaya city council candidate Adrián Guerrero died of wounds suffered in the same attack, but later her office said he was missing. (AP)