Japan PM’s son to resign after public outrage over private party at official residence

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday his son is resigning as his executive policy secretary to take responsibility for using the prime minister’s residence for a private party, which was exposed in magazine photos that triggered public outrage.
Shotaro Kishida, his father’s executive secretary for political affairs and eldest son, invited a group of people including relatives to a party on Dec. 30 at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence.
Photos published by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine showing Kishida’s son and his relatives posing on red-carpeted stairs in an imitation of the group photos taken of newly appointed Cabinets, with his son at the center — the position reserved for the prime minister. “As secretary for (the prime minister’s) political affairs, a public position, his actions were inappropriate and I decided to replace him to have him take responsibility,” Kishida told reporters Monday night. He said his son will be replaced with another secretary, Takayoshi Yamamoto, on Thursday.
He said he severely reprimanded his son for the party, but that failed to quell ongoing criticism from opposition lawmakers and public outrage which have pushed down his support ratings.
Kishida appointed his son as policy secretary, one of eight secretary posts for the prime minister, in October.

Police: Puerto Rico assailants targeting drug rival killed 2 and injured 13

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Assailants in Puerto Rico who killed two people and injured 13 when they fired indiscriminately outside a bar during a birthday party were targeting just one man in a drug trafficking feud, police said Monday.
No arrests have been made in the weekend shooting.
Police believe the target was a man in his 20s who was killed outside the Piel Kanela bar in San Juan when assailants in cars opened fire early Sunday, Col. Roberto Rivera told The Associated Press in an interview.
The man, Luis E. Guzmán González, 28, had eluded earlier attempts at assassination in attacks linked to drug trafficking. All of the other victims were bystanders, Rivera said.
Eight people were being treated in hospitals for wounds suffered in the attack, and five had been treated and released.
Investigators who reviewed security camera footage believe one vehicle drove past the bar and identified the target. Then, occupants of two other vehicles opened fire.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the Sunday morning attack was “hard,” but expressed confidence that investigators would crack the case. He also lauded the work of police forces under his administration, saying that 57 fewer people have been slain in violence through this date this year, as compared with last year.
So far in 2023, there have been 204 slayings, compared with 261 during the same period in 2022.

Teenage girl in Guyana charged as adult with 19 counts of murder in dormitory fire

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A teenage student whom police in Guyana accuse of deliberately setting a fire in a girl’s dormitory that killed 18 schoolmates and a 5-year-old boy was charged as an adult Monday with 19 counts of murder.
The 15-year-old girl appeared virtually at the hearing in a court south of the capital, Georgetown, and was ordered held in custody pending further court proceedings.
Investigators allege she ignited the blaze at Mahdia Secondary School on May 21 in anger with the administrator over the confiscation of her mobile telephone. The government boarding school serves remote Indigenous villages in the country’s southwest.
If found guilty, the defendant could face life in prison.
The fire at the school began shortly before midnight. More than two dozen students were injured while rescuers pulled at least 20 others from the heavily iron-grilled building. All five doors were locked with keys from inside.
National Security Advisor Gerald Gouveia has said that the dorm administrator, or house mother, locked all the doors to prevent the female students aged 12-18 from sneaking out to socialize in the mining town with adult males. She panicked and fumbled with the keys as the blaze raced through the building.

Lebanese officials say Saudi Arabian citizen kidnapped in Beirut, motive unclear

BEIRUT — Assailants kidnapped a Saudi Arabian citizen in Beirut, but the motive behind the abduction was not immediately clear, Lebanon’s interior minister and security officials said Monday.
State-run Saudi TV station Al-Ekhbariya reported that the kidnapped man works for Saudia, the Saudi national airline, and that the kidnappers demanded a $400,000 ransom.
The officials in Beirut said the man was kidnapped around midnight Saturday on the road leading to the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, and search operations were underway to find him.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, gave no further details.
Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi tweeted that members of the intelligence department of Lebanon’s police have been searching for the Saudi citizen since Sunday. Mawlawi did not release the name of the Saudi citizen.
“We are working with an iron fist” to liberate the kidnapped person, Mawlawi tweeted. He said those behind the kidnapping will be punished.