Japan: Video game launch canceled after stabbing
TOKYO - The suspect in a deadly stabbing rampage had an arsenal of knives with him during the attack, police said Wednesday, as an electronics maker canceled a launch event promoting a game that features a character armed with a huge dagger.
Tomohiro Kato, a 25-year-old factory worker who was spattered with blood when police arrested him after Sunday's assault, was carrying two knives and had two more stashed in his knapsack in a nearby truck, a police official said. Kato apparently dropped another knife during the attack, said the official, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol,
The official said it appears Kato only used one knife to stab more than a dozen people in Tokyo's trendy Akihabara electronics district, the center of Japan's comic book and anime culture.
Police conducted a search of Kato's apartment Tuesday and confiscated empty packages that had contained knives and a club. They also found catalogues and receipts for the weapons.
No charges have been filed against Kato. Under Japanese law, prosecutors have 20 days after receiving suspects to either file charges or release them.
The assault began when a driver crashed a rental truck into a group of pedestrians, killing three of them. He then jumped out of the truck and slashed his way through the crowd, fatally stabbing four people. Another 10 were injured.
The attack horrified Japan, where news reports and talk shows have focused on what may have prompted the assault, Kato's troubled personality and a string of messages he sent to an Internet bulletin board warning he was planning to kill.
Amid rising concerns about street violence, gamemaker Konami canceled three launch events scheduled in Tokyo - including one in Akihabara - on Thursday for "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots," an action game in which a grizzled commando shoots and stabs his way through enemy lines.
Konami canceled the events with the "safety of participants in mind," though similar events in the U.S. were to proceed as planned, a spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing company rules. The game is stamped with a "mature" rating due to graphic blood and violence.
Woman convicted in partner's plot on London subway
LONDON - The partner of a would-be suicide bomber who attempted to attack London's subway system was convicted Wednesday for not warning police about the plot.
A jury in London found 32-year-old Yeshi Girma guilty of failing to provide information before her partner Hussain Osman and others attempted to set off explosions on the transit system on July 21, 2005. The bombs didn't explode fully and no one was injured.
The attempted attacks came two weeks after four suicide bombers killed 52 subway and bus passengers in London.
Mulu Girma, 24, and Esayas Girma, 22, Yeshi's sister and brother, were also both found guilty of failing to disclose information and helping Osman.
Mulu Girma's boyfriend Mohamed Kabashi, 25, pleaded guilty to both charges before the trial.
A date for sentencing was not set immediately. The maximum sentence for failing to inform police is five years.
Yeshi Girma, who wept as the verdict was announced, had claimed that she was not married to Osman, with whom she had three children, that she didn't live with him, and knew little of what he was doing. Prosecutors say she is his wife.
They said she helped Osman flee the country after the attempt, and that her fingerprints had been found on tapes of extremist Islamic sermons. She allegedly also allowed Osman to take their young son to a training camp in northwestern England where he met others involved in the plot.
"Yeshi Girma had prior knowledge of the events of 21/7. She had some information about what the bombers intended to do on 21/7, but failed to bring this to the attention of the police," prosecutor Max Hill told jurors.
"Armed with that prior knowledge of what was going to happen, Yeshi Girma could have attempted to prevent the attacks, which, but for shortcomings in the production of the explosive devices, would have killed and injured many people," he said.
Osman was sentenced to life in prison in the case along with Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed. Another plotter, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Five other men were also convicted and sentenced to prison for assisting the plotters.
A month after quake, Chinese wait for housing
China - The sun is low in the mountains as Wang Wenying fries up potatoes, beans and chunks of braised duck over an outdoor wood fire.
Behind her is the camouflage-patterned tent that she and five other family members have occupied since shortly after their once-bustling village was toppled May 12 by the worst earthquake to hit China in three decades.
"The living conditions are poor. It's hot in the tents, the lines are long for water. ... I don't know when things will improve. The sooner the better," said the 38-year-old Wang, a rotund pharmacist with a ready laugh despite the hardships.
One month after the magnitude-7.9 quake centered in Sichuan province killed more than 69,000 people and left 5 million homeless, tents - and for some, the lack of them - are defining life in the disaster zone.
The lucky ones have already moved into prefabricated homes being erected by the government. But most remain in hundreds of tent communities that have sprung up on fields, mountains and city sidewalks as refugees try to regain a semblance of normal life. Many are small and haphazardly planned. Others resemble miniature villages, with row after row of bright blue, government-issued emergency tents converted into homes, schools and shops.
Still, there are not enough of them. As of Tuesday, more than 1 million tents had been delivered to the earthquake zone, short of the 3 million the government says is needed. Relief workers had put up 68,000 temporary houses and were at work on another 23,400.
Some survivors complained that only those with connections to local officials got tents. Others said they simply did not know how to get them.
Wang Xiuyu, an unemployed widow with two young sons, lives under the eaves of the Jiuzhou Stadium in Mianyang city, where tens of thousands were taken right after the quake. Now, only a few thousand are left.
"We don't know where to go. We have no tent," said Wang as she sat on a thin mattress on the concrete floor. "We are still waiting for accommodations from the government. We have no idea how to get one and when we are going to leave the stadium."
The disaster was a milestone for China in many ways. Unprecedented 24-hour TV news coverage united the nation as journalists were allowed to report with rare freedom. Hundreds of thousands of troops, police and emergency personnel were mobilized in a frantic scramble to save lives. Volunteers from across the country swarmed into the region, and donations poured in, unusual gestures of charity in a country where most are still busy trying to climb into the middle class.
But as with any disaster of this size - from the tsunami that struck parts of Asia in 2004 to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - restoring people's lives will take time. And it is already trying the patience of many.
With or without a tent, Sichuan's oppressive, muggy heat is the hardest part of living outdoors, said Wang Wenying, the woman cooking her dinner outdoors. She wore her hair pulled back in a bun, a white T-shirt, denim shorts and pink rubber flip-flops.
Wang's house in the village of Zundao, a solid two-story concrete building, remains standing but the walls are cracked. "I don't dare stay inside," she said. "Even as I'm standing here, I feel the ground shaking and my heart is beating fast."
Instead, she lives with her parents, her mother-in-law, her daughter and nephew in a tent with three beds, a sofa, a TV and computer, all taken from her home.
"Our lives have been set back by 20 years," Wang said as she stirred her dinner.
On Taohua mountain, six members of an extended family live in a tent crafted from wooden poles and sheets of canvas. They and about 3,000 other residents of Qinglian town were forced up the slopes to wait for waters of a "quake lake" - the biggest of 30 formed after earthquake rubble blocked rivers - to recede.
The heat means their clothes are constantly soaked in sweat. At night, the mosquitoes swarm. The public toilets are overflowing, so they use the nearby forest and bury their human waste to prevent disease.
"I'm scared all the time. First there was the earthquake, then there are aftershocks and now maybe a flood," said Suo Jingyong, a 34-year-old clothing vendor, who shares the tent with her parents, her husband, his father and the couple's year-old daughter. The preserved meat they salvaged from their home is beginning to go bad, and fresh vegetables are hard to come by.
"There's nothing we can do," said Suo who makes sure visitors have cushions to sit on and apologizes for the spartan conditions.
A colorful maze of tents has been set up on the peak, a temporary village filled with makeshift homes, a clinic and a tiny convenience store offering shampoo and soft drinks. A water truck comes up to three times a day, and the area is disinfected at least twice daily.
But residents have been told they will be moved later in the month to another part of the mountain so that officials can better manage the area.
For some in the camp, it will be fifth or sixth time setting up a home since May 12.
"We're not scared of the earthquake, we're not scared of floods but we fear being moved frantically," Yu Taichun, a doctor in Qinglian, said in a text message. "It makes our lives harder. ... We appeal to the officials and the experts to think about the ordinary people."
The town of Hanwang, where almost all the buildings collapsed or were partially destroyed, is almost deserted. A few residents have salvaged furniture from their ruined homes and are selling it to scrap buyers.
A group of tents sit in front of a factory at one end of town. It is hot, and garbage is strewn on the ground. Residents sit slumped under any shade they can find outside the tents. One woman slicing sausage for lunch starts crying when asked how she's doing.
While many in the disaster area expressed gratitude for the central government's swift response, anger has been brewing over what some say is lower-level corruption and hoarding of donations.
State media reported one instance in which a tent was pitched in a well-to-do neighborhood of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, where there was little damage from the quake.
In Mianzhu county, taxi driver Yang Pengwei said he and his pregnant wife were denied a tent at an emergency station and a government office before finally getting one more than three weeks after the quake. Until then, they lived in a homemade shelter that trapped heat when it was sunny and leaked when it rained.
"The biggest problem is the long queues for food and the shortage of tents," said the round-faced Yang, 23, who cheerfully recounted his problems. "We've now entered the time of reconstruction. What needs to be fixed will be fixed, what needs to be torn down will be torn down."
Nepal's deposed king leaves palace for last time
KATMANDU - Nepal's deposed king has left the royal palace for the last time but has no plans to leave the Himalayan country.
Former King Gyanendra says he wants to stay to "help establish peace" as the country moves from a monarchy to a republic.
Hundreds of people came to see Gyanendra leave Katmandu's royal palace Wednesday night. His departure marks the end of the final chapter of the world's last Hindu monarchy.
Nepal was declared a republic last month after elections that saw the country's former communist rebels win the most seats in a special assembly charged with rewriting the constitution.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. The earlier story is below.
KATMANDU - Nepal's deposed king made final arrangements to vacate Katmandu's main palace Wednesday and begin life as a civilian in the newly declared republic, saying he had no plans to leave the country.
Ousted King Gyanendra said he handed in his royal scepter and crown of peacock feathers, yak hair and jewels to the Nepali government Wednesday as he prepared to move to one of his former summer palaces on a forested hill on the outskirts of Katmandu.
There, he will be protected by police but will otherwise live as any other Nepali - albeit an incredibly wealthy one who some believe should still reign.
"I have no intention or thoughts to leave the country," Gyanendra said in his first public statement in months. "I will stay in the country to help establish peace."
The vast majority of Nepalis have made it clear they are pleased to see the monarchy no more, and while Gyanendra's throne was formally abolished last month, Wednesday's move carries great symbolism in a nation that was ruled by Shah dynasty monarchs for 239 years.
"This marks the beginning of a new Nepal and the end of a dynasty that has done nothing but harm this country," said Devendra Maharjan, a farmer who came to Katmandu to see the king leave the palace. "If it had not been for the kings, Nepal would probably not have remained a poor nation."
Nepal was declared a republic last month after elections that saw the country's former communist rebels win the most seats in a special assembly charged with rewriting the constitution.
"I have accepted the decision," Gyanendra told reporters.
Speaking in a grand palace hall decorated with portraits of the Shah dynasty kings, stuffed tigers and ornate chandeliers, he said: "I have done all I can to cooperate with (the government's) directives."
The Narayanhiti palace has been Gyanendra's home since becoming king in 2001, after a palace massacre in which a gunman, allegedly the crown prince, assassinated King Birendra and much of the royal family before killing himself.
Government officials plan to turn the pink concrete 1970s palace into a museum.
After his brother's death, Gyanendra assumed the throne. But the killings helped pierce the mystique surrounding a line of kings who had once been revered as reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu.
No proof has ever surfaced that Gyanendra was involved in the massacre, but rumors have swirled for years that he was behind the slaughter.
On Wednesday, he dismissed the accusations as a baseless "campaign to defame the royal institution."
In 2005, Gyanendra seized power from a civilian government, a move that made him deeply unpopular. He said he needed total authority to crush the communist insurgency. But the rebellion intensified, and a year later massive protests forced Gyanendra to restore democracy, after which the rebels began peace talks.
The king does not leave public life a pauper, even if his palaces have been nationalized and his $3.1 million annual allowance cut.
Before assuming the throne, he was known as a tough businessman with interests in tourism, tea and tobacco. He also inherited much of his family's wealth after the palace massacre.
The government is letting Gyanendra live in the summer palace - which was among the royal residences that were nationalized - because the former king's son is living in the family's private Katmandu residence.
Canada prime minister to apologize to aboriginals
OTTAWA - Michael Cachagee was 4 years old when he was taken from his parents and forced to attend a state-funded school aimed at stripping him of his aboriginal culture.
"The intent was to destroy the Indian," Cachagee said of the decades-long government policy.
On Wednesday, Cachagee and more than 80,000 surviving students will receive a public apology delivered in Parliament by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
At least 200 former students have been invited to Ottawa to witness what native leaders call a pivotal moment for Canada's more than 1 million aboriginals, who today remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse, as part of a program to integrate them into Canadian society.
"Aboriginal Canadians have been waiting for a very long time to hear an apology from the Parliament of Canada," Harper told lawmakers a day before the apology.
Canada's Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said it would be a respectful and sincere recognition of widespread cultural devastation, as well as the physical trauma and sexual abuse, that continues to plague generations to this day.
The aboriginals say they are hoping it will be heartfelt.
"If it's just a hollow and shallow apology he might as well get one of the pages to do it," said Cachagee, who will have a seat on the floor of the House of Commons to hear it.
Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, agreed that if the apology is sincere and complete it would go a long way toward repairing the relationship between aboriginals and the rest of Canada.
"The fact that we are going to be there on the floor to witness this first hand, it's quite a moment," Fontaine told The Associated Press. "This is not just about survivors, this is about Canada coming to terms with its past and maturing as a nation."
The apology comes just months after Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a similar gesture to the so-called Stolen Generations - thousands of the continent's Aborigines who were forcibly taken from their families as children under assimilation policies that lasted from 1910 to 1970.
But Canada has gone a step farther, offering those who were taken from their families compensation for the years they attended the residential schools. The offer was part of a lawsuit settlement.
Cachagee spent 12 1/2 years at three different schools in Canada beginning in 1944.
"I was beaten. I was put in tubs of hot water. I suffered great pains of hunger. I was force fed rotten food. They called me all kinds of names," he said.
The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.
That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.
Fontaine was one of the first to go public with his past experiences of physical and sexual abuse.
"All kinds of abuse was inflicted on innocent children," Fontaine said. "There are thousands of these stories, all of them true. I think it's important to acknowledge that."
Fontaine said the prime minister's apology should mention all of the injustices done to Canadian aboriginals, who didn't have the right to vote until 1960.
Fontaine said he's been told the apology will incorporate much of what they requested and said framed copies of the apology will be handed out.
In 1998, Canada's former Indian affairs minister Jane Stewart expressed "profound regret" for the establishment of residential schools, but aboriginals didn't consider it sufficient in detail or substance.
Aboriginals set a sacred fire and conducted a ceremony at sunrise near Parliament to mark Harper's apology. More than 100 people gathered for a ceremony at the site of a former residential school in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, on Canada's east coast.
Television screens are being set up at locations across Canada so the event can be watched live. The House of Commons plans to put aside all other business for the apology.
In addition to the apology, a truth and reconciliation commission will examine government policy and take testimony from survivors.
The commission was created as part of a $4.9 billion class action settlement in 2006 - the largest in Canadian history - between the government and churches and the surviving students. About $59 million will fund the commission.
Also under the settlement, students who attended residential schools are eligible to receive $9,800 for their first they attended one of the schools and $2,900 for every year after. Victims of physical and sexual abuse are eligible for additional funds.
Aboriginal Judge Harry LaForme will oversee the commission and will eventually travel across the country to hear stories from former students, teachers and others. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and educate Canadians about a grim period in the country's history.
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(all items above from the AP)
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