Degree mills: Certificates from Benin Republic varsities valid— NANS

The National Association of Nigerian Students in Benin Republic on Friday assured Nigerian students in the West African country of a speedy completion of the investigative process into the activities of degree mills which has led to the suspension of degree certificates from Benin Republic, Togo and some other countries.

The body, in a statement made available to our correspondent by its President, Ikenna Favour, also urged the students not to pay attention to purveyors of fake news while stressing the fact that the degrees obtained from universities in the country are valid and legal.

The Federal Ministry of Education had announced a suspension of degree certificates from some African countries following an investigative report by a Daily Nigerian reporter, Umar Audu.

In the report, the journalist exposed the activities of degree mills in Benin Republic, Togo, among others.

While encouraging his colleagues, the NANS Benin president said, “We kindly ask that we put our mind to rest as thorough investigations are still ongoing and on the process we urge everyone to pay deaf ears to any erroneous information circulating online.

“We understand your worries, concerns, and the destabilising situation it may have caused, but we assure you that your degrees obtained from your institutions here in Benin Republic are recognised, valid, and respected. “We urge and encourage you to remain focused and prioritise your education over any other thing, having self-determination, and not having anything to be a hindrance to your educational pursuits.

“NANS-RB is working effectively alongside, the Nigerian Embassy in Benin, the registrars and management of our various citadels of knowledge, lecturers and various stakeholders in Nigeria and in diaspora are all working collectively towards providing assistance and guidance to Nigerian students.

“We are monitoring the situation closely and keep you in touch with valid and positive updates concerning the suspension of accredited institutions.”

A committee has since been inaugurated by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, to look into the issues raised by the journalist and proffer solutions.

 

Eric Tabaro Nshimiye: Rwandan Genocide suspect arrested in Ohio

A Rwandan-born man has been arrested in Ohio on charges of hiding his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Federal prosecutors accuse Eric Tabaro Nshimiye of concealing his involvement in the mass murders, including personally hacking people to death.

Mr Nshimiye has lived in Ohio since 1995 after fraudulently gaining refugee status in the US, prosecutors say.

He has previously denied participating in the genocide.

He is due to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

“[Mr] Nshimiye is accused of lying to conceal his participation in one of the greatest human tragedies of all time,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Michael Krol said in a statement.

“The government alleges his testimony in the defence of a convicted genocidaire was a calculated attempt to conceal the horrific crimes committed during the genocide.”

Mr Nshimiye testified at the 2019 trial of Jean Leonard Teganya, who was convicted as a genocide perpetrator. Prosecutors accuse him of lying under oath in order to conceal his involvement in the killings. He is alleged to have personally participated in killings of ethnic Tutsis by hitting them on the head with a nail-studded club and then hacking them to death with a machete, according to court filings.

He left Rwanda in mid-1994. The following year, he travelled to Kenya, where he is accused of lying to US immigration officials in order to enter the US.

He faces charges of falsifying, concealing and covering up a material fact, obstruction of justice, and perjury.

David Johnson, a defence lawyer for Mr Nshimiye, did not immediately answer a telephone call requesting comment.

The Rwandan Genocide saw about 800,000 people slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists over just 100 days in 1994. So-called génocidaires targeted members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin.

 

Apple lawsuit: US accuses tech giant of monopolising smartphone market

The US has filed a landmark lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolising the smartphone market and crushing competition.

In the legal action, the justice department alleges the company abused its control of the iPhone app store to “lock in” customers and developers.

It accuses the firm of taking illegal steps to thwart apps seen as a threat and make rival products less appealing.

Apple has vowed to “vigorously” fight the lawsuit and denies the claims.

The sprawling complaint, filed at a federal court in New Jersey along with the attorneys general of 16 states, marks one of the biggest challenges to date for Apple, which has been fending off mounting complaints about its practices in recent years.

It alleges that Apple used “a series of shapeshifting rules” and restricted access to its hardware and software, in a bid to boost its own profits while raising costs for customers and stifling innovation.

“Apple has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market not simply by staying ahead of the competition on the merits but by violating federal anti-trust law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the suit.

“Customers should not have to pay higher prices because companies break the law.”

The 88-page complaint focuses on five areas where Apple allegedly abused its power.

For example, the US alleges that Apple used its app review process to thwart development of so-called super apps and streaming apps, because it was worried such apps would provide less incentive for customers to stick with iPhones.

It also says Apple has made it difficult to connect iPhones to smart watches made by rivals and blocked banks and other financial firms from accessing its tap-to-pay technology, allowing Apple to earn billions in fees from processing Apple Pay transactions.

The complaint also focuses on the way Apple treats messages sent from rival phones, distinguishing them with green bubbles and limiting videos and other features. It says Apple’s moves have created “social stigma” that has helped the tech giant maintain its grip on the market.

Apple said customers were loyal because they were happy and that under US law it was free to choose its business partners. It has pointed to privacy and security concerns to justify its rules.

The company said it would ask the court to dismiss the lawsuit, which it predicted would fail.

“We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it,” the company said.

The case will hinge on the question of motivation, said Bill Baer, a visiting fellow at Brookings who was an anti-trust official under the Obama administration.

“Anti-trust laws and the courts’ interpretation of them suggest that once you’re a monopolist,” he said, “if you do engage in behaviours that have no legitimate business justification other than to limit competition and cement your monopoly, then that is problematic.”

It is the third legal action Apple has faced from the US government since 2009 and the first anti-trust challenge filed against the company under President Joe Biden’s administration.

If the government wins its case, it could force Apple to overhaul its current contracts and practices – or even lead to a break-up of the company.

Shares in Apple fell more than 4% as investors digested the implications of the legal battle.

Any potential changes would take years to materialise as the case makes its way through the courts.

Vanderbilt University professor Rebecca Allensworth called the case “a blockbuster”, following other lawsuits the justice department has brought against the major tech giants. Google, Meta and Amazon all face similar lawsuits.

She said at its core, it was about increasing functionality between smartphones and making the technology and software more accessible to consumers and other businesses.

“It’s not about breaking up Apple into small units or spinning off divisions,” she said.

Apple has faced a growing legal backlash over its iOS ecosystem and business practices.

It is engaged in a lengthy legal battle with Epic Games, which makes Fortnite.

Last month, it was fined €1.8bn (£1.5bn) by the EU for breaking competition laws over music streaming.

The firm had prevented streaming services from informing users of payment options outside the Apple app store, the European Commission said.

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple had abused its dominant position in the market for a decade, and ordered the tech giant to remove all of the restrictions. Apple said it would appeal against the decision.

Anat Alon-Beck, a business law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said the justice department’s new lawsuit was “far more extensive” than its previous legal challenges in the EU.

“It’s not just about the 30% app store fee, but about the core unfair practices of Apple,” she said, adding that it was “about time” that the DOJ took action.

“Apple systematically excludes rivals from the Apple ecosystem. By doing that, Apple is hurting so many startup businesses, stakeholders, customers and, in my opinion, its shareholders,” she said.

According to the justice department, Apple’s share of the US smartphone market exceeds 70%, and its share of the broader smartphone market exceeds 65%.

 

Why Trump may reap billions in Truth Social stock market merger

Donald Trump appears to be scrambling for funds to pay a $464m (£365m) fraud fine. Could the stock market ride to his rescue?

Trump Media, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, is poised to become a publicly listed company, with shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp set to vote on Friday on whether to acquire it.

Mr Trump would have a stake of at least 58% in the merged company, worth more than $3bn at Digital World’s current share prices.

Digital World, or DWAC (pronounced D-whack), is what is known as a SPAC, or a shell business created expressly to buy another firm and take it public.

It’s an astonishing potential windfall for Mr Trump in exchange for a business whose own auditor warned last year it was at risk of failure.

Never mind the many red flags associated with the deal, including unresolved lawsuits from former business partners. There’s also an $18m settlement that Digital World agreed to pay last year to resolve fraud charges over how the merger plan came together.

Backers of Digital World – the vast majority of whom are individual investors instead of Wall Street firms, many apparently Trump loyalists – seem undaunted.

“This is putting your money where your mouth is for free speech, to save your country, potentially losing it all,” Chad Nedohin, a deal supporter, said recently on his show DWAC Live, on the video platform Rumble.

If the purchase is approved, which is expected, shares will start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker DJT.

The deal is unlikely to immediately resolve Mr Trump’s most pressing financial issues, such as his New York fraud penalty.

The former president is barred from selling his shares for at least six months – though the new company could grant him an exemption.

Mr Trump could try to get a loan, backed by the value of the shares. But in this case, analysts said a bank would probably lend him significantly less than the shares are worth on paper, given the potential risks of the business.

That hasn’t stopped some of his supporters hoping their backing will help.

Mr Nedohin, who identifies himself on his website as a Canadian “worship leader” and goes by Captain DWAC on Truth Social, declined to be interviewed.

But on his show this week he urged investors to approve the deal, speculating it could help the president in his legal battles.

“If the merger is complete Friday at 10am and Trump all of a sudden has 120 million shares of DJT that’s worth three, four, five $10bn, who knows? He could easily leverage that to get a loan,” he said.

The risk that Digital World shareholders will lose money on their investment is significant, according to analysts.

Shares in the company are currently trading at nearly $43 apiece.

That’s down from the highs it reached after the plans to purchase Trump Media were announced.

But it still implies Trump Media has a value of more than $5bn, which is a lot given it brought in just $3.3m in revenue in the first nine months of last year and lost nearly $50m.

The merger will provide an influx of more than $200m in cash to Trump Media, which it could use for growth and expansion.

But for now Truth Social, which launched to the general public in 2022, branding itself as an alternative to major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, remains small.

It claims about 8.9 million sign-ups and in regulatory filings Trump Media warns prospective investors that it does not track metrics like user growth or engagement that could give them a sense of its operations. And it says it has little intention of doing so.

Outside firms estimate Truth Social received about 5 million visits in February. By comparison, Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, and recently valued by one investor at about $14bn, received more than 100 million.

Analysts said Digital World was a prime example of a “meme stock”, in which the share price is divorced from a company’s fundamentals – and near-destined to fall, eventually.

“With Trump Media, I expect that it will collapse but whether it’s going to occur a week from now or two years from now and how rapidly … those things are really difficult to predict,” said University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, who tracks public listings.

Marco Iachini, senior vice-president of research at Vanda Securities, said individual investors piled into Digital World stock after the Trump deal was announced, and again in January, after he won the Iowa primary.

This week, he said there’s been less activity, a sign that professional firms may be the ones driving the trading.

Whatever is motivating buyers, Mr Trump, whose main contributions to Trump Media have been his name and posts on the platform, appears poised to be the top beneficiary.

“It’s an enormous transfer of value from [investors]… to Trump, which stands to be extremely lucrative for him,” says Michael Ohlrogge, a law professor at New York University who has studied listings of companies such as Trump Media.

 

Australia to contribute $3bn for construction of AUKUS submarines

Australia is set to provide 4.6 billion Australian dollars ($3bn) to British industry to help support the construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS deal with the United Kingdom and the United States and ensure its new vessels arrive on time.

Senior officials from the UK and Australia, as well as the US ambassador to Australia, visited the naval shipyard where the submarines will be built in the South Australian city of Adelaide on Friday.

“The three governments involved here are working at pace to make this happen,” Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters at the Osborne shipyard where he was accompanied by his British counterpart Grant Shapps, as well as the foreign ministers of the two countries.

“This is going to happen and we need it to happen.”

Shapps said the submarine programme was expensive, but necessary.

“Nuclear-powered submarines are not cheap, but we live in a much more dangerous world where we are seeing a much more assertive region with China, a much more dangerous world all around with what’s happening in the Middle East and Europe,” Shapps told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The announcement came a day after Australia and the UK signed a defence pact to better meet security challenges such as China’s increased activity in the South China Sea and the Pacific.

Australia, the UK and the US first announced the AUKUS trilateral security alliance in 2021 and revealed further details of how Australia would acquire the nuclear-powered submarines a year ago.

The 10-year plan will boost capacity at the UK’s Rolls-Royce factory in Derby where the nuclear reactors for the vessels will be built, while the submarines themselves will be constructed by BAE Systems in Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia.

The Virginia-class submarines will be primarily from a British design but will have a US weapons system on board.

Australia hopes to have eight nuclear-powered vessels in the water by the 2050s, a mix of the new AUKUS-class subs built at home and in the UK, and Virginia-class vessels purchased from the US.

Marles said a “drumbeat” of AUKUS-class submarines would then continue to roll off Australian production lines “every few years” in perpetuity.

“There is no country in the world which has obtained the capability to build nuclear-powered submarines, which has then turned that capability off,” he said.

“We will see submarines being produced here on an enduring basis.”

The nuclear-powered submarines will be quieter and stealthier than Australia’s existing diesel fleet, and capable of deploying over vast distances without surfacing.

China has claimed the AUKUS deal risks setting off an arms race in the Asia Pacific.

Beijing has stepped up its own military activities in recent years, modernising and expanding its armed forces, including its navy.

It has also become more assertive over its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea where it has built artificial islands and reefs, and deployed its coastguard and maritime militia. The sea is also claimed all or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam and Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its claim on the sea had no legal basis.

Beijing has also become more assertive over its claim to the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan.

On Friday, authorities in Taiwan said they had detected 36 Chinese military aircraft around the island over the previous 24 hours, the highest number in 2024.

 

Malaysia welcomes Chinese tourists back in droves after pandemic slump

Chinese tourists are returning to Malaysia en masse after the COVID-19 pandemic slump, industry figures say, amid expectations arrivals could reach pre-pandemic levels this year following the introduction of visa-free entry.

Mint Leong, president of the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association, estimated that arrivals rose to 60,000 in January, up from about 45,000 last year, and as high as 120,000 in February during the Lunar New Year period.

“Chinese New Year will be the best arrivals post-COVID-19,” Leong told Al Jazeera.

Leong said he expects Chinese arrivals to reach 3.5-4.5 million this year, with the average tourist spending 5,000-6,000 Malaysian ringgits ($1,000-$1,200) during their trip.

Before the pandemic, China was the third-largest source of tourists after Singapore and Indonesia, sending 3.1 million visitors in 2019.

The Malaysian government has set a target of 5 million Chinese visitors in 2024, hoping to deliver a jolt to the post-pandemic recovery of Southeast Asia’s fifth-largest economy.

Malaysia’s economy grew 3.7 percent in 2023, missing official targets and lagging behind regional neighbours such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

In December, Kuala Lumpur introduced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, allowing visitors to stay in the country for up to 30 days for travel and leisure purposes.

The move added Malaysia to the list of 88 countries and territories that Chinese travellers, whose passport ranks 62nd on the Henley Passport Index for ease of travel, can visit without needing to apply for a visa.

“The visa-free deal will definitely boost Chinese tourist arrivals in Malaysia to aid stronger tourism and related services growth,” Lee Heng Guie, an economist and executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-based Socio Economic Research Center (SERC), told Al Jazeera.

“I expect the number to recover back to pre-pandemic levels this year,” Lee said.

In Kuala Lumpur, hoteliers have reported a noticeable uptick in Chinese bookings during the Lunar New Year period and expressed optimism that their numbers will remain strong throughout the year.

Gregory Gubiani, general manager at the five-star Westin Kuala Lumpur, which is popular with Chinese tourists due to its location in the busy Bukit Bintang shopping district, said Chinese arrivals doubled in January 2024 compared with last year.

“There was a high influx of mainland Chinese here at The Westin Kuala Lumpur and its vicinity recently during the Lunar New Year period,” Gubiani told Al Jazeera, explaining that guests typically stayed 2-3 nights at about 600 ringgit ($127) per room per night.

Gubiani said that although bookings had yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, the visa-free entry policy would contribute to the “upward trend.”

EQ, another 5-star hotel in the city centre popular with Chinese travellers, also experienced a surge in Chinese arrivals during the Lunar New Year period.

“These numbers are forecasted to remain steady and grow throughout the year. Increased flights from regional centres and larger capacity aeroplanes also play a part in the increasing number of arrivals,” EQ’s general manager Gerard Walker told Al Jazeera.

“The increased number of flights per day in the January to March period also point to Malaysia being an attractive travel prospect, or alternative destination to other, more crowded Southeast Asian destinations.”

Walker said his hotel’s “dynamic mix of guests” includes Chinese coming to Malaysia for luxury shopping and golf, and business guests coming for high-level business meetings.

“The stays are usually part of onward travel to other destinations in Southeast Asia, as part of a longer holiday,” he said.

“Our exchange rate, the cost of dining, the high-value experiences and outstanding appeal of hotels like EQ, makes Malaysia a positive alternative to other overcrowded destinations such as Bangkok.”

Yeah Kim Leng, an economics professor at Sunway University, said that China’s huge middle-class population should be able to sustain the influx into Malaysia despite slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy amid weak consumption, a shrinking population and a property market slump.

“Although a significant number of the middle class have been negatively affected by the slowing economy and property market distress, the sizeable middle-class population coupled with high savings rate will likely sustain China’s outbound tourism that has been eagerly awaited by Malaysia and other countries in the region,” Yeah told Al Jazeera.

Yeah said the scale of outbound travel from China would depend on Beijing’s willingness to provide fiscal support and undertake reforms to encourage a shift away from investment-driven growth towards a consumption-led model.

Malaya’s tourism sector was worth an estimated 251.5 billion ringgit ($53bn), or 14 percent of the gross domestic product in 2022, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Total tourism spending amounted to 92.7 billion ringgit ($19.6bn), of which 33.4 billion ringgit ($7bn), or 36.1 percent, came from foreign tourists.

While China accounted for the third-largest number of tourists, Chinese visitors’ average spending was among the highest for foreign visitors.

Chinese tourists spent an average of 661-768 ringgit ($140-$162) per day in Malaysia between 2017 and 2019, 19 to 72 percent higher than the average tourist, according to research by Hong Leong Investment Bank Research

“Hence, the expected boost in their numbers due to the visa-free initiative could have a significant impact on tourism spending in the country,” Yeah said.

 

Malaysia declines offer to host 2026 Commonwealth Games, citing cost

Malaysia has turned down an offer to host the next Commonwealth Games, citing concerns about the cost of the quadrennial sporting event.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports said on Friday it had declined to step in as host after concluding that the Commonwealth Games Federation’s offer of 100 million pounds ($126.21m) in supporting funds would not cover the cost.

“Additionally, the economic impact could not be identified in this short timeframe,” the ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia was asked to host the event after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year after claiming the estimated cost had blown out by 6.9 billion Australian dollars ($4.5bn).

A report by Victoria’s Auditor-General’s Office released on Wednesday found that the cost estimate that resulted in the event’s cancellation was “overstated and not transparent”.

 

Six in 10 nurses in England turning to credit or savings as costs rise

Six out of 10 NHS nurses have had to use credit or their savings over the last year to help them cope with the soaring cost of living, according to new research.

Acute financial pressures are forcing some nurses to limit their energy use while others are going without food. Many are doing extra shifts to help make ends meet.

The findings have added to fears that money worries and inadequate pay will prompt even more nurses to quit the NHS, which is already short of almost 35,000 nurses.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which undertook the survey of almost 11,000 nurses in England, claimed that too many in the profession had been left without enough money to cover their basic needs as they paid the price for “the government’s sustained attack on nursing”.

Nurses have seen a 25% real-terms fall in their income since 2010, separate research commissioned by the RCN found. Analysis by London Economics, a consultancy, found that the value of nurses’ salaries fell by 24.63% between 2010-11 and 2023-24 as a result of below-inflation pay rises and pay freezes during the last decade.

The RCN survey found that 60% of nurses surveyed had either used credit or dipped into their savings to cover their living costs during the last 12 months.

One nurse in the north-west told the RCN: “We have been using credit cards to live and now the interest is crippling us. We can’t afford basic things. I have nothing left at the end of the month. I am having to work extra shifts just to eat. I work with people who are all in debt and coming to work just to turn their gas on.”

A quarter (27%) said they were struggling with living costs and were increasingly worried about their financial situation.

The survey also found:

-77% of nurses said they were worse off than a year ago.

-43% said their mental health had been affected by financial problems.

-68% had rationed gas and electricity.

-32% said money struggles had damaged their physical health.

Prof Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, said: “Today nursing staff are rationing electricity and gas with financial pressures pushing a third into a state of mental distress. Pay has been devalued so much that they are effectively working five days or more for free each month. Ministers who once seemed glad to applaud NHS staff should reflect on this terrible state of affairs.”

Nurses in England received a 5% pay rise for 2023-24, the lowest in the public sector. The NHS in England has vacancies for 34,709 nurses, the most recent NHS figures showed. That means 8.8% of all nursing posts are unfilled.

Prof Dame Anne Marie Rafferty, a former president of the RCN who is a professor of nursing policy at King’s College London, said: “Given that 90% of nurses are women, and women are key decision-makers in the household in terms of resource management, nurses face the double jeopardy of home and work pressures and the invidious choices of what to buy and what to save and ration in the weekly shop and energy bills.”

She said parts of the NHS were being “hollowed out” through a combination of young nurses quitting and older nurses retiring because of workload pressures and burnout.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We hugely value care provided by our fantastic nurses, which is why we negotiated a fair and reasonable deal with the trade unions delivering a 5% pay rise, two additional one-off bonuses equivalent to 6% of pay and a series of non-pay measures to support the NHS workforce.

“There are almost 361,000 nurses working across the NHS – over 60,000 more than in September 2019 – and we will continue to grow the workforce through the first ever long-term workforce plan, backed by over £2.4bn. The plan commits to doubling training places for adult nurses by 2031 and improving retention with measures around working conditions, flexible working and training.”

 

N. Korea, Japan World Cup qualifier called off

North Korea’s home World Cup qualifier against Japan was called off on Friday, the Asian Football Confederation said, hours after announcing it would be moved to a neutral venue.

“The fixture between DPR Korea and Japan, scheduled to be played on March 26, will not take place as scheduled due to unforeseen circumstances,” the AFC said in a statement.

It said the decision was taken after talks with the world football governing body FIFA and came a day after North Korea said it would not be able to stage the game in the capital Pyongyang.

North Korean officials did not say why.

The AFC said the matter would now be referred to “the relevant committees” in FIFA with further updates expected.

It did not confirm if the fixture would be played at a future time or place.

Earlier Friday, AFC general secretary Windsor John told AFP the game would proceed but at a neutral venue.

The match in Pyongyang would have been the first game in North Korea for Japan’s men’s team since 2011 and a rare international football match in isolated North Korea.

Japan and North Korea’s women’s playoff for the Paris Olympics was switched from Pyongyang to neutral ground in Saudi Arabia last month.

Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Thursday that North Korea didn’t want to host the match over fears of bacterial infections in Japan.

North Korean officials the same day told their Japanese counterparts that they could not play host, without saying why.

“They asked us during half-time if we can organise (it) in Japan,” Japan Football Association chief Kozo Tashima said after the teams met in a first qualifier in Tokyo, which the hosts won 1-0.

“I told them it was so sudden and that I cannot give them an immediate yes,” Japanese media quoted Tashima as saying.

“I told them it would take us at least two or three days (to answer). I told them it’s difficult,” he said.

Earlier this week Japan’s foreign ministry warned football fans not to attempt to travel to the country for the match.

“As you know, North Korea takes a hostile view of Japan and travel is not recommended for the general public,” it said on X, formerly Twitter.

Fourteen government officials had been set to accompany the Japan team for the match and a small number of media outlets, broadcaster NHK reported.

Relations have long been dogged by issues including compensation for Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945 and more recently by Pyongyang’s firing of missiles over Japanese territory.

The abduction by North Korean agents of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s — forced to train spies in Japanese language and customs — has also long been a major point of contention.

Despite being isolated and poor, North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup.

But they were knocked out at the group stage following three defeats, including a 7-0 thumping by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.

They also qualified in 1966 when they famously beat Italy 1-0 and made it to the quarter-finals.

 

Ukraine war: Blackouts hit across country after wave of Russian strikes

Large areas of Ukraine are suffering blackouts after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure.

Fifteen blasts were reported in the second-largest city, Kharkiv, said the mayor, while more than 53,000 households in Odesa were without power.

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, accused Russia of trying to provoke “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system”.

A power line feeding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had been cut, he added.

Regional governor Ivan Fedorov said the power station was “on the verge of a blackout”, adding that seven buildings in the region had been destroyed and 35 others damaged.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 90 missiles and sent 60 explosive drones into Ukraine during the wave of overnight attacks.

At least two people have been reported killed and 14 wounded.

The fresh onslaught comes a day after Russian forces launched one of their biggest air strikes in weeks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. At least 17 people, including a child, were injured by falling debris.

The latest attack prompted President Zelensky to renew his call for more military aid and additional air defence systems from Western allies.

He said that the shortfall in ammunition facing his troops was “humiliating” for Europe, adding: “Europe can provide more, and it is crucial to prove it now.”

Ukraine’s state hydropower company said a Russian strike had also hit its largest dam, the DniproHES in Zaporizhzhia.

Video footage appeared to show the dam on fire, but there seems to be no threat of imminent breach.

Social media videos showed a trolleybus which was reportedly passing near the dam and caught fire after a missile strike.

Blasts were also reported from Kryvyi Rih, which is President Zelensky’s hometown, and Vinnytsia, both in central Ukraine. They damaged a “critical infrastructure object”, said Ukrainian officials.

Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine also came under attack overnight.

Governor Oleg Synehubov posted on his Telegram channel that there was no electricity in the city after the missile attack.

 

Egypt increases fuel prices following depreciation of local currency

The Egyptian government raised fuel prices on Friday in a move that is bound to exacerbate inflationary pressures on an already-struggling population.

The new prices were announced on the Cabinet’s Facebook page and came into effect Friday morning. The price of diesel, the main fuel for transport of people and goods, rose from 8.25 Egyptian pounds ($0.18) to 10 pounds ($0.21) per liter.

Egypt, a net importer of energy, increased the price of 95 octane gasoline to 13.5 Egyptian pounds ($0.29) per liter from 12.5 pounds ($0.27).

The government said the hikes resulted from the increased cost of importing energy because of the depreciation of the local currency and the global surge in energy prices following the turmoil in the Red Sea.

On March 6, Egypt’s central bank announced the adoption of a market-based exchange rate after nearly a year of defending an over-valued local currency, which inadvertently invigorated a parallel market. The pound’s official rate fell from nearly 31 to 51 per U.S. dollar before appreciating by nearly 10% in recent weeks as the banking sector began receiving large inflows of foreign currency, according to the government.

The government also increased the cost of widely used butane gas cylinders from 75 Egyptian pounds ($1.61) to 100 pounds ($2.14). Last year, a Cabinet member said Egyptians consume around 800,000 butane cylinders a day, 50% of which are imported.

The fuel price hikes are expected to further affect consumer purchasing power and inflation rates. Last month, the annual urban inflation rate jumped to 35.7% from 29.8% in January. The cost of food alone increased nearly 51% in February from a year earlier.

The price hikes are in line with conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for the disbursement of further loans to Egypt.

Egypt reached a deal with the IMF earlier this month to increase a bailout to $8 billion from $3 billion after marathon negotiations.

The lending institution has constantly urged the government to depreciate the currency and embark on monetary and fiscal tightening policies, including a cutback in government subsidies.

The Egyptian economy has been hit hard by years of government austerity, the coronavirus pandemic, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and most recently, the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Houthi attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea have slashed Suez Canal revenues, which are a major source of foreign currency for Egypt. The attacks forced traffic away from the canal and around the tip of Africa.

Last month, the United Arab Emirates threw a lifeline to Egypt by announcing a $35 billion investment project along its Mediterranean coast.