AFP, Manila
A Philippine police van on Wednesday rammed and ran over baton-wielding protesters outside the US embassy in Manila.
Police used tear gas and truncheons to try to disperse hundreds of people who had gathered in support of President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent comments that he wanted to loosen his nation’s alliance with the United States.
Japan ministers visit controversial war shrine
AFP, Tokyo
Two Japanese cabinet ministers visited a controversial war shrine Wednesday, after a mass visit by lawmakers angered China and South Korea which see it as a painful reminder of Tokyo’s past aggression.
The ministers-internal affairs chief Sanae Takaichi and Katsunobu Kato, in charge of women’s empowerment-are close to conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did not visit the Yasukuni shrine during this year’s four-day autumn festival.
Toxic leak from US air force base
BBC Online
An air base in the US state of Colorado says it has accidentally released 150,000 gallons of toxic contaminated water into the sewer system of the nearby city of Colorado Springs.
Peterson Air Force base said the water contained perfluorinated compounds or PFCs, a component of firefighting foam.
Iran sentences two US citizens to 10 yrs jail
Reuters, Dubai
An Iranian court has sentenced an Iranian-American businessman and his elderly father to 10 years in prison on charges of cooperating with the United States, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, the latest sign of an intensifying crackdown against Iranians with ties to the West.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October 2015 detained Siamak Namazi, a businessman in his mid-40s with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, while he was visiting family in Tehran. The IRGC in February arrested his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian provincial governor and former UNICEF official who also has dual citizenship.
