News Headlines - 27 November 2019
▽Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe under fire for shredding documents - The Washington Post
The Abe administration's secretive approach to government papers - and an industrial-size shredder that can dispose of 1,000 pages of official documents in a single load - is dominating the headlines in Japan this week, as the opposition and media cry foul.
Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister last week, but his approval ratings are falling on accusations that he used an annual state-funded party over the cherry blossom season to invite hundreds of his supporters and cronies.
▽7 Bangladeshi Islamists sentenced to death for 2016 Dhaka cafe attack | South China Morning Post
A Bangladesh court handed death sentences to seven members of an Islamist militant group on Wednesday for plotting an attack on a cafe in 2016 that killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, in the south Asian nation’s worst such incident... The July 1 attack on the restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka’s diplomatic area shocked the nation of 160 million and unnerved businesses, including the vital garment exports sector and foreign investors.
Five young militants, armed with guns, sharp weapons and grenades stormed the Holey Artisan cafe, took diners hostage and killed them over 12 hours. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American and an Indian were among the dead. The attackers were also killed in a rescue bid by army commandos.
▽Japan doctors use experimental skin treatment on studio arsonist to save donor skin for his victims
The Japanese man accused of killing 36 people in an arson attack in Kyoto in July is undergoing experimental treatment for burns to 90 percent of his body.
It was decided that the survivors of the blaze should be prioritised for the limited amounts of donated human skin available to treat their burns... As a result, doctors have had to use the small patches of Aoba’s own skin that were not damaged for some of his grafts but have relied heavily on artificial skin for the majority of the reconstructive surgery.
The procedure has been carried out elsewhere in the world but is a first in Japan for such extensive third-degree burns, the sources said.
▽Manga on Uyghur woman's testimony of torture in China goes viral
A comic by a Japanese artist based on the testimony of a Uyghur woman who was detained and tortured in China after giving birth abroad, has gone viral on social media.
Titled "What has happened to me," the Japanese comic by Tomomi Shimizu, 50, illustrates the account of a Uyghur woman who, upon returning to China after giving birth to triplets in Egypt, was detained and tortured on three separate occasions between 2015 and 2017.
Female staff members at a new shop in Osaka, Japan are being encouraged to wear badges to indicate when they’re on their period to tackle the stigma surrounding menstruation in the country.
Women working at the Michi Kake store, which sells an array of female sexual and menstrual health products, do not have to take part in the scheme, but those that do will pin one of the “period badges” next to their regular name tags.
According to WWD Japan, the badges feature a cartoon character named Seiri-chan that is known as a symbol for the menstrual cycle in Japan.
