VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Yasukuni shrine in central Tokyo honours 2.5 million war dead including convicted war criminals - 

Japan's new prime minister on Sunday (Oct 17) sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni shrine that honours war dead and is seen by neighbouring countries as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism.

Fumio Kishida sent the "masakaki" tree offering under his name as prime minister to celebrate the shrine's biannual festival held in the spring and autumn, a spokeswoman for the shrine told AFP.

The shrine in central Tokyo honours 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, who have perished since the late 19th century.

But it also enshrines senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal.

Two of Kishida's ministers - health and labour minister Shigeyuki Goto and Kenji Wakamiya, minister in charge of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka - also offered sacred trees.

Earlier this year, three top ministers paid their respects at the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.

But a Japanese prime minister has not appeared there since 2013, when Shinzo Abe sparked fury in Beijing and Seoul and earned a rare diplomatic rebuke from close ally the United States.

Visits to the shrine by government officials have angered countries that suffered at the hands of the Japanese military during World War II, particularly South Korea and China.

Kishida, who became Japan's prime minister on Oct 4, does not plan to visit the shrine during the two-day autumn festival that runs through Monday, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed people close to him//CNA

FILE PHOTO: An Iraqi woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Sadr city, Baghdad, Iraq October 10, 2021. REUTERS/Wissam Al-Okaili - 

Turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election earlier this month reached 43 per cent, the electoral commission said late on Saturday (Oct 16), a small increase from preliminary results but lower than that in the last election in 2018.

More than 9.6 million people cast their ballots in the Oct 10 vote, the commission said.

Populist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said his movement secured the biggest number of seats in the parliament adding that he would not challenge the results.

"We will seek to form (a) non-sectarian and non-ethnic national coalition under the umbrella of reform," al-Sadr, who opposes all foreign interference and whose main rivals are Iran-allied Shi'ite groups, said in a statement on Saturday.

The electoral commission had previously said on Oct 10 that turnout was 41 per cent in preliminary results. In the last election in 2018, total turnout was 44.5 per cent.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is not running for re-election, but negotiations after the vote could yet see him get a second term. Kadhimi, who is viewed as friendly to the West, has no party to back him.

At least 167 parties and more than 3,200 candidates are competing for parliament's 329 seats, according to the election commission//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A person receives a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Acres Home Multi-Service Center in Houston, Texas, U.S., October 13, 2021. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare - 

The United States has administered 407,446,961 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday (Oct 16)  morning and distributed 494,918,755 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Thee figures are up from the 406,570,875 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Oct 15 out of 493,139,295 doses delivered.

The agency said 218,562,924 people had received at least one dose while 188,902,483 people were fully vaccinated as of 6am ET Saturday.

The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine.

Over 10.1 million people have received a booster dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine since Aug 13, when the US authorised a third dose of the vaccines for those with compromised immune systems. The authorisation for booster shots has since been broadened to a wider population//CNA

Opposition leader Martin Fayulu, addresses a crowd of his supporters during a demonstration over the independence electoral commission, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 16, 2021. REUTERS/Justin Makangara - 

Police in Democratic Republic of Congo used tear gas to break up clashes between supporters of the president and an opposition leader on Saturday (Oct 16), as lawmakers selected a new head of the electoral commission.

The National Assembly chose Denis Kadima, an election expert with decades of experience, to lead the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), a body that political analysts and diplomats criticised for its role in the disputed 2018 vote where Felix Tshisekedi emerged as president.

Tshisekedi is expected to seek a second term when Congolese voters return to the polls in 2023, with CENI likely to play a pivotal role again.

"His (Kadima's) electoral expertise is not disputed," said Tresor Kibangula, of the Congo Research Group at New York University. "However, the fact that his candidacy was pushed behind the scenes by people close to President Felix Tshisekedi quickly raised suspicions about his independence."

Opposition leader Martin Fayulu and Tshisekedi formed an electoral pact in the run-up to the 2018 election, but Tshisekedi eventually split off to form another political group before the vote.

Amid widespread accusations of fraud, the CENI declared Tshisekedi the winner, while Fayulu, who said he had won a landslide victory, came second.

On Saturday, around 10,000 Fayulu supporters marched through the streets of Kinshasa in protest over several issues including the accusation the process to select the leadership of the CENI was being influenced by politicians.

Police fired tear gas to break up clashes in the Limite neighbourhood between Fayulu's followers and those of Tshisekedi, who hurled petrol bombs at the protesters, according to Reuters witnesses.

Standing on the back of a truck, Fayulu told a large crowd of supporters that Congo needed an independent and transparent CENI, and a CENI president who would publish "the real results".

Albert Malukisa, a political science professor at the Catholic University of Congo, said Tshisekedi had already managed to gain control of the constitutional court.

"With the CENI, he can be confident of winning the next elections," he said.

Religious groups, who are mandated by the constitution to nominate the leadership of the CENI by consensus, have been at loggerheads for months and failed to reach agreement.

Leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches say they have been pressured and threatened//CNA