Tokyo, 24 March, /AJMEDIA
G-7 to meet to add more pressure on Russia as invasion marks 1 month
BRUSSELS – Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations will meet in person on Thursday for the first time after Russia began invading Ukraine, seeking to add further pressure on Moscow to cease its attack and to thwart any attempts by other countries to aid its war effort.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is heading to Belgium for the gathering to represent the sole Asian member of the G-7, with the Ukraine crisis seen to have implications for the Indo-Pacific, a region facing increasing Chinese military assertiveness.
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NATO expected to urge China to refrain from aiding Russia war: chief
BRUSSELS – NATO leaders are expected to call on China to refrain from supporting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine when the alliance members gather on Thursday for an extraordinary summit meeting, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
“Allies are concerned that China could provide material support for the Russian invasion,” the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization told a press conference Wednesday, indicating members of the security bloc share Washington’s worries that China is considering assisting Russia with military equipment in the conflict.
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Albright, 1st female U.S. secretary of state, dies at 84
WASHINGTON – Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, died of cancer on Wednesday, her family said. She was 84.
A native of Prague who came to the United States with her family in 1948, Albright became the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993 under the administration of President Bill Clinton and was named the country’s 64th secretary of state in 1997 during Clinton’s second term.
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Zelenskyy calls for sanctions on Russia to stop “tsunami” of invasion
TOKYO – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday asked Japan to ban trade with Russia to stop what he called the “tsunami” of its invasion into Ukraine, as he stressed the need to ramp up sanctions to punish Moscow.
Speaking to Japanese lawmakers by video link, Zelenskyy underscored the “extremely dangerous” state of all nuclear power plants in his country after Russia took control of the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Russia is also said to be preparing to use chemical weapons, he said.
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Black box of crashed China Eastern plane with 132 aboard recovered
WUZHOU, China – One of the black boxes from the China Eastern Airlines Boeing jet with 132 people aboard that crashed in the southern part of the country on Monday has been recovered, rescue authorities said Wednesday.
But a fire official said there is less chance of survival for those aboard as search and rescue operations have been hampered by bad weather and the harsh mountainous terrain of the crash site in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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Putin to attend G-20 summit in Indonesia: Russian envoy
JAKARTA – Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend the summit of the Group of 20 economies in Indonesia in November this year, the Russian envoy to Indonesia said Wednesday amid a reported attempt from some G-20 members to expel Russia from the group following its invasion of Ukraine.
Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Lyudmila Vorobieva told reporters in Jakarta that Putin “has been invited” by Indonesia, this year’s rotating chair of the group, to the summit to be held on the island of Bali, stressing the reaction from the Western countries to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is “disproportional.”
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Japan OKs Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster for children aged 12-17
TOKYO – A Japanese health ministry panel approved on Wednesday the administration of third booster shots of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine to children aged between 12 and 17.
The ministry will decide Thursday on the details of the rollout, including offering the booster shots free of charge, as with the first two shots, with vaccinations to begin as early as next month.
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China raps ex-Japanese PM Abe for “colluding with” Taiwan forces
BEIJING – China on Wednesday lambasted former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for “colluding with Taiwan independence forces,” a day after he held a virtual meeting with the island’s president Tsai Ing-wen.
“China firmly opposes any form of official exchanges” between Taiwan and countries that have diplomatic ties with the mainland, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing.
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U.S. envoy to Japan, Kishida to visit A-bombed Hiroshima on Sat.
TOKYO – U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit atomic-bombed Hiroshima this weekend, a Japanese government source said Wednesday, amid growing fears Russia could use nuclear weapons in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Emanuel, once a top aide to former President Barack Obama, who visited Hiroshima in 2016, and Kishida, a lawmaker representing a constituency in the city, will offer prayers and flowers to those who suffered the U.S. atomic bombing in 1945, at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Saturday, according to the source.
