Abe's hospital trip sparks speculation
TOKYO • Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose first term in office ended in part for health reasons, sparked fresh speculation yesterday about his well-being with an unexpected, hours-long hospital visit.
Mr Abe emerged from the Tokyo hospital where he was previously treated for ulcerative colitis more than seven hours after he entered, and left by car without saying anything, according to TV footage of local media.
His previously unannounced arrival yesterday morning prompted a local media frenzy and comes after weeks of speculation about his health.
Local media said yesterday that Mr Abe completed his regular annual health check-up in June but cited an aide as saying he was now undergoing an additional "one-day regular health check-up".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
4G Internet restored in parts of Kashmir
SRINAGAR • India has restored high-speed 4G Internet services in two districts of Kashmir after the Supreme Court last month said an indefinite shutdown of the Internet there was illegal.
The communications lockdown had been imposed after partial autonomy of the Muslim-majority region was scrapped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
The authorities had said the security situation was not conducive to restoring mobile Internet access.
"The high-speed mobile data services in the districts of Ganderbal and Udhampur shall be restored forthwith, on a trial basis," a government statement said on Sunday, adding that Internet speed would continue to be curbed in other cities.
REUTERS
Death toll in Mogadishu hotel attack rises to 16
MOGADISHU • At least 16 people were killed in an attack on Sunday by Al-Shabaab on a seaside hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar said, as the Islamist group launched a similar assault on a Somali military base yesterday.
Sunday's toll includes 11 victims and five assailants.
Militants stormed the high-end Elite Hotel in Lido beach, detonated a car bomb and then opened fire with assault rifles, the latest attack by Al-Shabaab, which has been battling the country's central government since 2008. Aamin ambulance services transported at least 43 injured people to hospitals, its head Abdikadir Abdirahman said yesterday.
Meanwhile, five soldiers were killed yesterday after fighters from Al-Shabaab launched a car bomb and gun assault on a Somali military base in the Goofgaduud area, about 30km from the town of Baidoa in Somalia's south-west.
REUTERS
Vietnamese fisherman shot dead off Kelantan
KUALA LUMPUR • The Malaysian coast guard shot dead a Vietnamese fisherman whose boat tried to ram a patrol vessel in the South China Sea, an official said yesterday.
The incident took place in Malaysian waters, where local fisherman have complained in the past about Vietnamese fishing boats that damage their nets.
Coast guard chief Mohamad Zubil Mat Som said two Vietnamese fishing boats entered Malaysian waters some 80 nautical miles from Tok Bali, off the north-eastern state of Kelantan, late on Sunday. He also said the Vietnamese crew had thrown petrol and a tyre to try and set fire to the coast guard boat, which was damaged by the "aggressive ramming".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
