Tokyo, July 6 (IANS) Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries has been implicated in a scandal for allegedly using slush funds to purchase goods for the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) submarine crew members, according to local media reports.

The company, responsible for constructing and maintaining parts of the JMSDF submarine fleet, allegedly manipulated subcontractors to fabricate false transactions, securing billions of yen in secret funds used to bribe submarine crew members, reports Xinhua news agency on Friday.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has admitted to the Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau that its Kobe Shipyard’s maintenance division has been directing subcontractors to create fictitious transactions for the past 20 years.

The funds obtained were transferred to subcontractor accounts as secret funds, used to purchase personal items for submarine crew members or for entertainment expenses.

JMSDF submarines submitted lists of needed items to Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ maintenance division, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported, noting that the maintenance division then instructed subcontractors to use the secret funds to buy the items, which were subsequently handed over to the respective submarine personnel.

The Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau is investigating Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Japan’s Defence Minister Minoru Kihara on Friday announced that a special investigation into the matter has been launched, besides the current investigation conducted by the Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau.

Tetsuo Maeda, a local commentator, criticised the use of taxpayer money, which was meant for enhancing defence capabilities, being misappropriated by the JMSDF.

“The misuse of funds, originating from the Defence Ministry and submarine construction and maintenance budgets, is intolerable for taxpayers,” Maeda said.

–IANS

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Beijing, July 6 (IANS) Five people were confirmed dead after tornadoes struck the Heze City in east China’s Shandong province, said local authorities on Saturday.

Tornadoes hit the Dongming County and the Juancheng County, leaving 88 people injured. Five of them were later confirmed dead after medical treatment failed, according to Heze’s emergency management bureau, reports Xinhua news agency.

Preliminary investigation showed that a total of 2,820 houses, 60,900 mu (4,060 hectares) of crops and 48 power supply lines were damaged in the disaster.

Thanks to overnight repair efforts, local roads, communication, water and power supplies have been restored, while local rescuers are evacuating and resettling the affected people.

A task force has been deployed to carry out a comprehensive survey of the damage to residents’ houses and infrastructure.

Shandong averages 1.5 tornadoes every year, according to data from the National Climate Centre.

–IANS

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Jerusalem, July 6 (IANS) The Israeli Ministry of Health reported a fresh fatality from West Nile fever, pushing the death toll due to infections in the country to 12.

The ministry also reported on Friday 61 new cases of infection with the virus, increasing the total number of cases detected in the country since the beginning of May to 236, reported Xinhua news agency.

It is the highest annual number of West Nile fever cases since 2000, during which more than 400 cases of infection with the virus were diagnosed in Israel, according to the ministry’s data.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection announced the detection of mosquitoes infected with the West Nile virus in several locations in the central Shfela region.

The ministry added that it directed local authorities to expand the monitoring and extermination actions and called on the public to dry up sources of stagnant water, the best place for mosquitoes to breed.

–IANS

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Sydney, July 6 (IANS) A 16-year-old boy died and three other teenagers injured in a road accident in Australia’s New South Wales (NSW).

The NSW Police Force said in a statement on Saturday that emergency services were called to a rural suburb of the Port Stephens in NSW at about 10.45 p.m. local time.

Police officers arrived to find a white Ford Falcon sedan containing five young persons, aged 14-17, had left the roadway and impacted with a tree, it added, Xinhua news agency reported.

The 16-year-old teenage boy died on the way to hospital. The three injured teenage passengers were taken to hospital for various non-life-threatening injuries.

The police said the driver of the vehicle, a 17-year-old boy, was subject to a roadside breath test, which allegedly returned a positive reading. He was taken to hospital for mandatory testing.

–IANS

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Washington, July 6 (IANS) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its Indo-Pacific partners, including South Korea, plan to discuss resilience, support for Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies during their summit in Washington next week, a senior US administration official said.

The NATO summit is set to take place in the US capital from Tuesday to Thursday. The leaders of the alliance’s four Indo-Pacific partners (IP4) – South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have been invited to the summit that marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding, reported Yonhap news agency.

“We are bringing together some of our closest non-NATO partners to have a discussion around issues like resilience, cyber, disinformation, and technology,” the official said in a virtual briefing.

He added, “This particular grouping of IP4 as we call them in NATO lingo — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and ROK (Republic of Korea) ,These are some of our closest partners that we work with in the region”.

The NATO summit involving Indo-Pacific partners is set to take place on Thursday.

The official did not elaborate on the issue of resilience. In a NATO context, resilience refers to the capacity to prepare for, resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions across the full spectrum of threats, according to an article on NATO’s Allied Command Transformation website.

At the NATO gathering, there will be a “strong” demonstration of U.S. and allies’ support for Ukraine, the official said, highlighting Washington’s plan to announce new steps to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and military capabilities.

“Together, the Washington summit will send a strong signal to Putin that if he thinks he can outlast the coalition of countries supporting Ukraine, he’s dead wrong,” he said.

“We are also sending an important message to the rest of the world, including through our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, as we stand together united and in support of democratic values,” he added.

The summit comes amid growing concerns about Biden’s mental health and physical fitness, which was called into question again following a poor debate performance last week.

Observers said that Biden is likely to capitalise on the summit to highlight that he is up for the job and capable of leading the nation for another four year term.

“Foreign leaders have seen Joe Biden up close and personal for the last three years. They know who they are dealing with and they know how effective he’s been,” the official said.

“What the president has done over the last three years is to reinvigorate the NATO alliance, including expanding it, making it more capable. He has stood up to President Putin’s unprecedented aggression against Ukraine by mobilising a coalition of a minimum of 50 allies and partners to provide capabilities to Ukraine.”

–IANS

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