News Headlines - 22 December 2020

▽Prosecutors Question Ex-PM Abe over Dinner Party Scandal - JIJI PRESS

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad has questioned former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a voluntary basis over a high-profile dinner party scandal, informed sources said Tuesday.

▽Ex-farm minister Yoshikawa resigns as lawmaker | NHK WORLD

Former agriculture minister Yoshikawa Takamori has resigned as a member of the Lower House of Japan's Diet. The move came amid allegations that he received cash from a lobbyist.
Yoshikawa, of the Liberal Democratic Party, submitted a letter of resignation to Lower House Speaker Oshima Tadamori on Tuesday morning. Oshima accepted the resignation, a move allowed under law when the Diet is out of session.

▽Japan's top 2 maritime defense force officers test positive for coronavirus

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force said Tuesday its top two officers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and will be working remotely under quarantine.
MSDF Chief of Staff Hiroshi Yamamura pictured on April 2, 2019. (Kyodo)
Chief of Staff Hiroshi Yamamura and Vice Chief of Staff Naruto Nishi took polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests Monday due to possible close contact with someone who contracted the virus.

▽COVID travel ban leaves hundreds of trucks stuck in UK | DW

Hundreds of trucks were stuck in massive traffic jams in the port of Dover on England's southern coast on Tuesday, with drivers expressing anger and sadness over the sudden travel ban.
France shut its borders with the United Kingdom on Sunday, imposing a ban on travel by land, sea, rail and air, after a new strain of the coronavirus was discovered in Britain.
The sudden restrictions to prevent the spread of the potentially more infectious strain have snarled one of Europe's most important trade routes.

▽Coronavirus Reaches End of Earth as First Outbreak Hits Antarctica | US News

The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free from COVID-19, Chile's military said this week, as health and army officials scrambled to clear out and quarantine staff from a remote research station surrounded by ocean and icebergs.
Chile's armed forces said at least 36 people had been infected at its Bernardo O'Higgins base, including 26 army personnel and 10 civilian contractors conducting maintenance at the base.
The permanently staffed research station, operated by Chile's army, lies near the tip of a peninsula in northernmost Antarctica, overlooking a bay often dotted with icebergs.