Eight injured in hammer attack spree at Tokyo university
Japanese police have arrested a female student on suspicion of carrying out a hammer attack at a Tokyo university that left eight people injured.
The suspect, a 22-year-old South Korean sociology student, was subdued and arrested at the scene of the attack during class at Hosei University‘s Tama campus in western Tokyo.
Police say the assailant attacked a male student, causing minor injuries. Several others also suffered minor injuries as they were hit in succession.
Police received an emergency call around 3.45pm local time, reporting the attack in the classroom where some 150 students studied.
Witnesses said the attacker swung the hammer aimlessly, hitting students seated in the last row of the classroom.
One student told local news that the attacker’s face was expressionless and she did not seem to be targeting anyone specifically.
“Everyone was panicking. I was so scared at first that my hands were shaking,” a student who witnessed the incident told local broadcaster TV Aashi.
Investigators allege that the suspect attacked fellow students using a hammer she found on campus in frustration after being bullied by classmates. Koreans continue to face discrimination in Japan due to a bitter past between the two countries, including Japan’s colonisation of the Korean Peninsula which ended in 1945.
The woman said she “was filled with anger” because she “had been ignored,” the Japan Times quoted police as saying.
It remains unclear whether the attack was premeditated, police say.
Police said the investigation is still ongoing, adding that the eight students who sustained injuries are recovering.
Hosei University said in a statement that the students received medical treatment but did not need hospitalisation.
It said it would cooperate with police in the investigation and would increase efforts to ensure campus safety.
Violent crimes are rare in Japan but high-profile random stabbing and shooting incidents have occurred in recent times.
Last month, a junior high school student was killed and her friend injured as they were waiting in a queue at a McDonald’s restaurant in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu. A man was later arrested over the attack.
In 2022, three people were stabbed, including two students on their way to writing exams at the University of Tokyo. The same year Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated with a homemade gun.
UK chancellor says growth is ‘number one mission’ for China visit
Rachel Reeves has been warned that she and Labour have abandoned their principles by seeking deals with China in a desperate attempt to save Britain’s faltering economy.
The chancellor doubled down on her controversial trip to Beijing as concerns grow that she will return home next week to a full-blown economic crisis.
But her visit was condemned by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader and prominent China critic, who likened it to “dealing with Nazi Germany in the 1930s”, and by former Hong Kong governor Christopher Patten who called it “delusional”.
As she arrived in China on Saturday, Ms Reeves said she is willing to have “uncomfortable conversations” with its Communist rulers – and defended the trip as a “significant milestone” in Britain’s ties with the country.
At the opening of the 11th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, where Ms Reeves was greeted by vice-premier He Lifeng, she said the global situation was “more complex and more challenging” than at the last summit in 2019, adding: “It is precisely in such times that practical, pragmatic cooperation between the world’s major economies is most needed.”
The Treasury added that Ms Reeves would explicitly raise the case of British national and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, who has been detained in Hong Kong since 2020, as well as allegations of the use of forced labour in Xinjiang and the Chinese government’s sanctions against UK parliamentarians.
But Sir Iain, who has been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), feared Ms Reeves is returning to the now-discredited David Cameron policy of keen business ties with Beijing, which Whitehall officials dubbed “operation kowtow”.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Sir Iain said: “China is laughing at us. They think Britain is soft and weak.”
“This is a return to ‘operation kowtow’. It really is quite awful and dreadful. Just as the EU and the USA are cutting their ties with China, she is rushing over to prostrate herself before president Xi Jinping in the hope he will rescue her because she has trashed the economy.”
He noted that major firms such as Apple have moved factories from China to India, while the US has sanctioned CCP officials for breaking the terms of the deal on freedoms in Hong Kong.
And he alleged that energy secretary Ed Miliband’s push to buy solar panels from China is effectively supporting their use of Uyghur slave labour and concentration camps.
Sir Iain went on: “This is as bad as dealing with Nazi Germany in the 1930s. You have to wonder what has happened to this great country. What Starmer and Reeves are doing is absolutely pathetic.”
Lord Patten, who negotiated the Hong Kong deal with China and was the territory’s final governor, accused Labour is “abandoning its principles”.
He described Ms Reeves’s approach as “delusional” and said that her attempts to raise human rights concerns were “by the way” and “not serious”.
He said Britain has failed to secure consular access to Mr Lai, while others are being denied access to the Chinese pension scheme.
He said: “There’s a terrible sense in which delusion creeps into every aspect and the sooner, the better that we actually behave towards China, with the same balance, and reason, and evidence-based policies as we try to apply to other countries.”
Meanwhile, it is reported the chancellor is planning on slashing billions from disability benefits and postponing the rise in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP until the 2030s in a bid to stay within her borrowing limits.
Turmoil in the gilt markets has left a huge question mark over her economic plans, with the Conservatives accusing the chancellor of having “fled to China” rather than explaining how she will fix the economy.
The visit is part of Labour’s push for greater engagement with Beijing, after a freezing of relations under recent prime ministers.
But it also comes amid speculation that Ms Reeves is going to be forced to break her “golden rule” on borrowing limits, and follows a report revealed in The Independent showing a new cost of living crisis could be around the corner as the price of imports on food, electrical items and other key goods is set to rise by up to 20 per cent.
The value of the pound also slid last week as investors held their breath on the state of the UK economy.
Significantly, however, Ms Reeves is accompanied on her trip by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Nikhil Rathi. China has purchased significant amounts of UK national debt, which gives it leverage and makes it an important partner in potentially tackling a financial crisis.
At her meeting with Mr He, the chancellor said: “I believe that increasing trade and investment with an economically important partner like China is crucial for achieving my number one mission in government – economic growth.
“Improving market access is essential for enhancing our bilateral trade, reducing barriers to trade and creating a level playing field for businesses will benefit not only our economies but also consumers and citizens in our countries.”
Increased investment between Britain and China is “important to prevent economic links weakening our national security and economic resilience”, she added.
She announced agreements worth £600m to the UK economy over the next five years, adding that “re-engagement” with China “already sets us on course to deliver up to £1bn of value for the UK economy”. This includes deals on financial services, agri-food and cultural exports, along with other areas.
However, there are serious concerns about the measures Ms Reeves may need to take in the short and medium term to stabilise the economic situation. The Daily Telegraph reported that billions in benefits for people with disabilities could be slashed in a move which could spark a rebellion among Labour MPs. They are already unhappy about winter fuel payments being withdrawn from 10 million pensioners and a refusal to end the two-child benefit cap.
The cost of disability benefits is forecast to rise from £22bn to £35bn by 2029, a 60 per cent increase which is seen as unsustainable, and Ms Reeves is understood to have told Treasury officials that “tough” decisions need to be made to keep the bill down with her vision of Labour being “the party of work”.
Meanwhile, her restraints could put the UK on another collision course with the Trump administration with the push to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP shelved until the 2030s. The president-elect has called on Nato allies to increase spending to 5 per cent of GDP but Labour is set to struggle to achieve even half that amount during his term in office.
Paul Johnson, outgoing director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, warned that in financial terms it would be “staggeringly hard” to achieve the 2.5 per cent target in the next five years, and described Ms Reeves breaking her borrowing limits as “pretty scary for the markets” which were already “concerned about the UK position”.
Shadow chancellor, Mel Stride said: “Rachel Reeves has got her priorities badly wrong. Whilst she’s absented herself on the far side of the world her economic decisions here are pivoting us back towards the 1970s, with borrowing costs soaring, stagnant inflation and growth crumbling.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: “The chancellor must come back now to urgently address the ongoing crisis in the markets and announce a serious plan for growth.”
Myanmar junta airstrike kills 40 people and burns down 500 houses
At least 40 civilians, including children, have been killed in an airstrike by Myanmar’s army on a village controlled by an armed ethnic group, officials and a charity said.
The attack reportedly occurred in the Kyauk Ni Maw village on Ramree Island, a township currently held by the Arakan Army in western Rakhine state, on Wednesday.
The bombing caused a huge fire in the densely populated village that reportedly burned down at least 500 houses.
The military has not announced any attack in the area.
Myanmar has been engulfed in a civil war since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in a coup in February 2021.
The army has used lethal force to crack down on ethnic groups as well as peaceful demonstrations opposing junta rule, sparking conflict and armed violence in many parts of the country.
The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
It is a member of an alliance of armed groups that recently gained territory in the country’s northeast on the border with China.
The group captured Ramree, which is 340km northwest of Yangon, the largest city, in March last year.
The airstrike on Kyauk Ni Maw also injured more than 20 people, Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told the Associated Press.
“All the dead were civilians. Among the dead and injured are women and children,” Mr Thukha said, adding that a fire sparked by the airstrike spread through the village, destroying over 500 houses.
The villagers told The Irrawaddy newspaper that the death toll was expected to rise as medicines and treatment facilities in the area were scarce.
Mr Thukha denounced the strike, which took place at 1.30pm on Wednesday, as “cowardly”. It was carried out even though there was no fighting in Ramree, he added.
“Launching deadly airstrikes on civilians is a blatant war crime,” the spokesperson said.
A local charity said the strike targeted the village’s market and put the number of injured at around 50.
The military junta has intensified airstrikes on armed groups over the last three years, leading to the displacement of thousands of people, especially the minority Rohingya Muslims.
The Arakan Army launched its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and went on to gain control of 14 of its 17 townships as well as a strategic regional military headquarters, leaving only the state’s capital, Sittwe, and two important townships near Ramree still in military hands.
Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, was the site of a brutal army crackdown in 2017 that drove some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh.
Indian actor responds to CEO’s ‘90-hour work week’ comment
Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone advocated for the importance of work-life balance after the chair of an Indian multinational company backed a 90-hour work week during a company interaction.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chair SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks, made during an internal meeting, sparked outrage online after an undated clip of his speech surfaced on Reddit on Thursday. In the video, he expressed regret at not being able to enforce work on Sundays.
“If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy. What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife or how long can the wife stare at the husband?” he said.
He further emphasised that working 90 hours a week was necessary to “stay on top of the world”.
Padukone, known for her advocacy on mental health issues, expressed her distress over the remarks on social media, saying: “Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements. “#MentalHealthMatters,” she said, adding the hashtag
While the statement drew widespread criticism, with many calling out the apparent disregard for employees’ personal lives, an L&T spokesperson described Mr Subrahmanyan’s remarks as a reflection of the company’s commitment to “nation-building”.
The statement read: “For over eight decades, we have been shaping India’s infrastructure, industries, and technological capabilities.
“We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress and realise our shared vision of becoming a developed nation,” said the spokesperson.
“The chairman’s remarks reflect this larger ambition, emphasising that extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort. At L&T, we remain committed to fostering a culture where passion, purpose, and performance drive us forward.”
Several social media users including journalist Nidhi Razdan, called Mr Subrahmanyan’s remarks “shameful”, pointing out their sexist undertones. “Does L&T not employ women? The comments also reflect disrespect for a wife or partner,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Another social media user pointed out: “Those hardworking people who work for your company don’t have 7 to 8 servants to do the pending jobs piling up at home like washing clothes, cleaning cars, taking their kids for a movie, or clearing their doubts, or just simply cleaning out a cupboard or getting a haircut.
“Let your young employees enjoy family life. Give them an option to work on Sundays or enjoy a holiday. Family life and leisure time is as important as work life and money.”
She added, “When did you last receive a call from your loved one saying we are waiting for you at home and dinner is ready ?? I receive such a call everyday, and I consider myself the richest daughter in the world.”
Padukone’s post has further amplified the debate on work-life balance in India, an issue reignited last year by Infosys co-founder and father in-law of former British prime minister Rishi Sunak, Narayana Murthy. Mr Murthy had controversially suggested a 70-hour work week for employees, dismissing the concept of work-life balance.
Echoing similar sentiments, Ola cab service CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also supported extended working hours, claiming they were necessary for professional growth. However, their comments faced backlash, with critics arguing that such expectations disregard the wellbeing of employees, particularly those without the financial privileges of business owners.
Namita Thapar, a judge at an Indian business reality television series, earlier countered these viewpoints, stating it was unreasonable for business leaders to impose their gruelling schedules on salaried employees. “While building one’s own company, it’s natural to work extra hours, but it’s unfair to expect the same from employees,” she said in an interview.
Australia violated human rights of asylum seekers in Nauru camps
Australia violated the human rights of asylum seekers by detaining them on the remote Pacific island of Nauru, a UN panel has ruled, asking the country to pay compensation.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee found that Australia violated two provisions of the human rights treaty in cases involving 24 refugees and asylum seekers, including minors, who were detained while trying to enter Australia by boat in 2013.
The asylum seekers, who came from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, ended up suffering years of arbitrary detention.
“A state party cannot escape its human rights responsibility when outsourcing asylum processing to another state,” committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said.
After introducing a hardline immigration policy over a decade ago, Australia started sending asylum seekers intercepted at sea to detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for “offshore processing” instead of allowing them to live in the country as refugees.
“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve states of accountability,” Mr El Haiba noted. “Offshore detention facilities are not human rights free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the covenant.”
The UN panel found Canberra violated two provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one on arbitrary detention and the other on protecting the right of refugees to challenge their detention in court.
The ruling came on a 2016 petition from a group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who said they were held in an overcrowded detention centre “with insufficient water supply and sanitation, high temperatures and humidity as well as inadequate healthcare”.
“Almost all of these minors have suffered from deterioration of physical and mental wellbeing, including self-harm, depression, kidney problems, insomnia, headaches, memory problems and weight loss,” the committee ruled on Thursday.
Australia had argued there was no proof the alleged violations occurred within its jurisdiction.
The committee, however, ruled that the Nauru camp counted as being within Australia‘s jurisdiction, citing the country’s role in constructing and financing it.
In a second case evaluated by the committee, it found an Iranian refugee held in a Nauru camp had also been subjected to arbitrary detention.
The woman, accompanied by family members, arrived by boat on Christmas Island in 2013 but was transferred seven months later to Nauru.
She was not released despite being recognised as a refugee by Nauru in 2017. She was transferred to Australia a year later for medical reasons but remained in detention.
The UN committee called on Australia to provide compensation to the victims and asked it to ensure similar violations did not happen again.
A spokesperson for Australia‘s Department of Home Affairs said in a statement it was engaging with the UN on the complaints.
“It has been the Australian Government’s consistent position that Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centres,” the department said in a statement.
“We welcome Nauru’s continued partnership in the effective delivery of regional processing arrangements.”
At least 12 refugees and asylum seekers have died in Australian immigration detention centres on Manus and Nauru, either by murder by guards or suicide or medical neglect, according to human rights organisations.
Human Rights Watch has said Australia forcibly transferred more than 3,000 asylum seekers to the camps where they suffered severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and medical neglect.
Australia’s policy of detaining asylum seekers offshore is popular with voters. Its government claims that they are treated with dignity, fairness and respect and given access to a range of support services.
Additional reporting by agencies.
Marriage annulled after bride says wedding was social media stunt
A Melbourne court annulled a marriage after the bride testified that she thought the wedding was a social media stunt to boost the groom’s Instagram popularity.
In a judgment issued in October and released on Thursday, the family court annulled the December 2023 marriage saying the bride “believed she was acting in a social media event” rather than a legally binding wedding.
The couple had met three months prior.
The bride testified in court that after three months of staying in contact, the groom invited her to a “white party” in Sydney in December 2023. She was surprised to find that he had “organised a wedding”.
When she asked him what was going on, the groom said it was “a simple prank”. “When I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’” she told the court.
“He told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media. To be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetising his Instagram page.”
The groom, who had 17,000 followers on the platform, denied these claims.
Footage showed the couple exchanging vows and rings during the ceremony.
The woman told the court she had to act to “make it look real”.
It was “all an act”, she said.
The bride discovered the “sham” wedding was legally binding when the groom asked to be added to her permanent residency application. He admitted he was not a permanent resident and had “organised the marriage to help him”.
The groom claimed it was an intimate ceremony before an official wedding at a later date but the court rejected his argument, finding inconsistencies and ruling in the bride’s favour.
The judge said the groom’s claims were “so bereft of detail as to be near meaningless”.
He also found it “impossible to accept” that the bride would have a wedding ceremony without a single friend or family member present.
“She was religious,” the judge said. “Precisely why she would participate in a civil marriage and not in a church marriage ceremony went unexplored. It made no sense to me that she would.”
Over 100 flights delayed as dense fog blankets Indian capital
More than 150 flights were delayed as dense smog engulfed Delhi on Friday and reduced visibility to almost zero in parts of the Indian capital.
At least 26 trains were also delayed as the city’s air quality deteriorated to “severe” category, with the Air Quality Index reading 409.
The Indian capital battles smog, a toxic mix of pollutants and fog, every winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.
According to aviation tracker FlightRadar24, flight delays at the Delhi airport on Friday averaged 41 minutes.
Budget airline IndiGo issued a travel advisory and expressed regret over the delay in flights departing and arriving due to reduced visibility.
“Poor visibility due to dense fog is having an impact on flight operations in Delhi and some cities in north India today,” Air India said.
The Regional Weather Forecasting Center in Delhi had issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog in the morning and shallow fog in the evening.
The Indian Meteorological Department issued a moderate to very dense fog warning for most of northern India, including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
The National Capital Region witnessed the worst fog this winter between 2 and 3 January, when visibility was reduced to zero for an unprecedented duration of nine hours.
Delhi recorded a temperature of 9.6C Friday morning, with the met department forecasting the minimum temperature in the city to be around 6C.
The year just gone was marked by particularly severe air pollution in Delhi, with 17 days classified as having a “severe” AQI of over 400, the most since 2022.
Crocodiles found at Indian politician’s home after income tax raid
Indian tax officials raiding a former lawmaker’s house in Madhya Pradesh state’s Sagar city found three crocodiles in a pond.
The crocodiles were found on the property of Harvansh Singh Rathore, former member of the state assembly from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
The officials, over the course of a three-day raid at properties linked to the politician, reportedly recovered 14kg gold and nearly Rs30m (£283,668) in cash and multiple luxury vehicles, NDTV quoted tax authorities as saying.
Mr Rathore was elected to the state assembly in 2013.
The raid was reportedly carried out following complaints of irregularities in transactions related to the former state lawmaker’s business of ‘bidi’, which is a handrolled local cigarette made from tobacco wrapped in a leaf of Coromandel ebony tree.
Mr Rathore reportedly claimed to have obtained permission to keep the crocodiles, despite it being illegal to keep crocodiles as pets in India.
The forest department was informed and an investigation launched, local media reports said.
Earlier this week, a Canadian man was arrested at the Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.
Customs officials stopped the 32-year-old man during a security check at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s international airport on Monday and found “a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile” wrapped in a cloth.
The skull weighed about 777 grams, the customs department said in a statement on Thursday.
The man was arrested for violating India‘s Wildlife Protection Act and the skull was handed over to the forest department.
In September 2024, two people were caught at the Mumbai airport allegedly attempting to smuggle baby Caiman crocodiles.
The five baby reptiles were found concealed in toothpaste boxes in their hand luggage, according to the customs officials.