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BBC News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
China executes man who stabbed Japanese school boy
China has executed a man for fatally stabbing a 10-year-old Japanese boy last September, the Japanese embassy in China has told the BBC. Zhong Changchun was sentenced to death in January for attacking the boy, who had been walking to a Japanese school in south-eastern Chinese city of case had sent shockwaves through both countries and fuelled diplomatic tensions amid allegations of it being a xenophobic attack."The Government of Japan considers the murder of a completely innocent child to be an unforgivable crime, and we take this execution with the utmost solemnity," the Japanese embassy said in its statement to the BBC. "In light of this incident, the Japanese government will continue to take all possible safety measures and strongly urge the Chinese side to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in China."It said that it had been informed of the execution by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign incident heightened fears among Japanese living in China and prompted Japanese companies including Toyota to ask their staff to take precautions. Others, like Panasonic, offered employees free flights verdict on Zhong's case made no mention of Japan, Japanese officials previously said. Kenji Kanasugi, Japan's ambassador to China said Zhong had requested to speak to the victim's family, but did not say if he had been targeting Japanese incident has also shone a light on the unchecked nationalism on Chinese social media, which has fuelled anti-foreigner sentiment in recent commentators noted that the schoolboy's killing happened on a politically sensitive date - 18 September, the anniversary of an incident that led to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in China in the early stabbing also came amid a spate of high-profile attacks on foreigners in China, including the stabbing of four American teachers in June, a man attacked a Japanese mother and her child at a bus stop in Suzhou but ended up killing a Chinese woman trying to protect them. The man has also been executed, Japanese officials said last week.
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Azerbaijan orders suspension of BBC News Azerbaijani in Baku
The Azerbaijani government has ordered the suspension of BBC News' Azerbaijani operation in the capital city, BBC said in a statement on Thursday that it had made the "reluctant decision" to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal instruction from the Ministry of Foreign corporation added that it "deeply" regrets "this restrictive move against press freedom".State-controlled media has reported that the government wanted to reduce the number of BBC staff working in the country to one, in alignment with the current number of Azerbaijani journalists accredited to work in the UK. The BBC says its team of journalists in Baku have suspended their journalistic activities, while it seeks clarification on the instruction, but that it remains committed to continuing to report in the Azerbaijani language."We deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom, which will hinder our ability to report to and from Azerbaijan for our audiences inside and outside the country," a BBC spokesperson said in a BBC has received nothing in writing from the Azerbaijani government and has sought clarification via a number of ministry of foreign affairs has also not responded to the BBC's request for News Azerbaijani reaches on average one million people every week and its audience has been has operated in Azerbaijan since 1994, providing impartial news and information, initially via radio broadcasts and later across a range of digital platforms.
