The tourist attraction is Japan’s most active volcano (Picture: Getty Images)
A volcano in southern Japan blasted ash into the sky during a dramatic eruption on Wednesday.
There were no immediate reports of anyone being hurt around the tourist destination of Mount Aso, but officials warned about the threat of lava flows and falling rocks.
Dramatic footage shows the volcano, located in Kumamoto on one of Japan’s southern islands, Kyushu, sending plumes of smoke 2.2 miles high.
Hikers rushed away from the column of ash, which could be seen for miles around and was captured on CCTV footage.
Japan Meteorological Agency’s raised the alert level for the volcano to 3 (on a scale of 5) and told people not to approach following the eruption at 11.43am local time.
It also warned of pyroclastic flows within a radius of about 0.6 miles from the mountain’s Nakadake crater.
The warning was issued for the city of Aso and two nearby towns in the north-central region of Kyushu, Japan’s third largest island.
A column of ash was sent 2.2 miles into the air (Picture: Reuters)
People have been advised to stay away from the mountain (Picture: AFP)
The volcano is the most active in the country.
Local police said there were no reports of people injured or missing as of Wednesday evening local time, and that 16 people who had gone hiking on the mountain earlier on the day came back safely.
Ash from the 1,592-metre mountain were expected to shower nearby towns, the weather agency added.
There was a small eruption at Mount Aso in 2019, while Japan’s worst volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years killed 63 people on Mount Ontake in September 2014.
Yoshihiko Isozaki, the deputy chief cabinet secretary in the national government, said authorities were still collecting information on the eruption.
Shayasta Wardak, a graduate of Kabul University’s sharia law faculty, spent years working as a judge in a Kabul district court, adjudicating disputes over marital splits, property and child custody.
But after the Taliban took over the Afghan capital in August, Wardak and her female colleagues were told their services were not required. When the women — who had tried to return to work in a group a few days after the takeover — demanded to know why, the young Taliban blocking their entry to the courthouse scoffed.
“They told us clearly that you cannot work as judges any more,” Wardak said. “Some were impolite towards us. Some told us, ‘go home — women are meant for home’. I cried a lot. I was earning a good salary. We had everything in our life. Now, everything is destroyed.”
Across Afghanistan, women’s lives are being severely circumscribed as the Taliban moves to reimpose the segregation that marked their previous rule in the 1990s.
Strictures vary from region to region depending on the sentiments of local commanders and communities. But except for healthcare workers, primary schoolteachers and women who do jobs that men are not permitted to do, such as frisking female passengers at airports, nearly all female public-sector employees have been dismissed or ordered to stay at home indefinitely.
While girls can attend primary school, most girls’ secondary schools are still closed a month after older boys went back to class. Female students at public universities are uncertain whether they will be permitted to resume their studies.
The policies fall far short of what many hoped for when the Taliban promised soon after its takeover that women’s rights would be protected “within the framework of Islamic law”.
“Taliban 2.0 is no different than Taliban 1.0 — the only difference is that they are more media savvy,” said Bahar Jalali, who founded the gender studies department at the private American University of Afghanistan in Kabul.
But if the Taliban’s attitude has changed little in 20 years, many Afghan women — particularly the urban and educated — appear unwilling to accept the constraints.
In recent weeks, small groups of women in Kabul, Herat and other cities have held demonstrations under the eyes of armed Taliban, demanding that their rights be restored and girls’ schools reopened.
“Today’s women are not like women the first time the Taliban took over Afghanistan,” said Qudsia, a 29-year-old lawyer and former government prosecutor who has joined several of the protests. “We are going against people who only know the language of arms and nothing else. It is a huge risk, but we have no choice.”
Taliban fighters have responded to such protests with force, using tear gas, firing warning shots into the air and beating women and journalists covering the demonstrations. But the protesters said they will continue their campaign.
“When we have lost everything, there is nothing left for us to lose,” said Qudsia. “They are treating us as though we are not human. They just want us to be like prisoners.”
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, women were under de facto house arrest — barred from schools and universities, prohibited from working and allowed to leave home only if escorted by male relatives. Those accused of adultery were stoned to death, and other infractions — including violation of the requirement to wear the all-encompassing burka in public — incurred violent punishments.
In the two decades after the 2001 US-led invasion drove out the Taliban, Afghan women made strides in education, employment and public life. Prior to the US withdrawal in August, Zalmay Khalilzad, the erstwhile US special representative for Afghanistan, argued that Taliban leaders had also changed and now understood the importance of respecting women’s rights.
Since their seizure of Kabul, Taliban leaders have tried to strike a more moderate tone as they seek international recognition and access to the country’s estimated $9bn in frozen foreign currency reserves.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s main spokesman, declared soon after the victory that women would not require a male chaperone to conduct routine daily business or for journeys shorter than three days. No nationwide dress code for women has been imposed and they have not been barred from private sector jobs.
In practice, heavily armed Taliban fighters supervised by local commanders are enforcing their own ideas of appropriate behaviour for women — leading to regional differences in how they are treated.
“These Taliban foot soldiers have been completely segregated from women,” Jalali said. “They have been taught and trained that women should never be seen in the public sphere, that they should be locked up inside the home and all their movements controlled.”
The government has closed the ministry of women’s affairs, which focused on female empowerment, and replaced it with one for the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice”, a kind of religious police.
“The Taliban have changed but not very much — Afghanistan has changed much more than they have,” said Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. “If you go outside without [a male chaperone] in Herat, there is a significant likelihood that you are going to be harassed in a frightening way.”
Barr said the Taliban’s concessions on women’s rights fell far short of international expectations. Their refusal to let girls return to secondary school and other curbs were among the reasons no country had yet recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, she said.
“The standard is not whether they are better than 2001,” she said. “The standard is whether they are complying with the [UN] convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, which Afghanistan signed in 2003.”
The new regime has disrupted life for men as well as women. But female workers face a more precarious future as the economy deteriorates without the foreign aid that previously kept it afloat.
Humaira worked at the Kabul Police Academy for 14 years, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. The academy has now been closed, leaving all the officers jobless. “The Taliban told them to get lost — your kingdom is ended,” she said. She is considering joining the exodus of women who feel they have no future in Afghanistan.
“I am talking with my mother and friends about whether to stay here or leave,” she said. “For now, I have no choice but to clean houses — because I need a piece of bread.”
North Korea has successfully tested a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, state media say, confirming earlier reports by South Korea.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said the missile had "lots of advanced control guidance technologies", and was fired from the same vessel as in a 2016 test.
It did not mention leader Kim Jong-un, suggesting he did not attend the test.
On Tuesday, South Korea's military reported an apparent weapons test in waters off Japan's coast.
North Korea has carried out a flurry of missile tests in recent weeks, including of what it said were hypersonic and long-range weapons.
Some of these tests violate strict international sanctions.
The country is specifically prohibited by the United Nations from testing ballistic missiles as well as nuclear weapons.
The UN considers ballistic missiles to be more threatening than cruise missiles because they can carry more powerful payloads, have a longer range and can fly faster.
On Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said one missile had been launched from the port of Sinpo, in the east of North Korea where Pyongyang usually bases its submarines. It landed in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
They said it was suspected to have been a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
South Korean media reported that this particular missile was believed to have travelled about 450km (280 miles) at a maximum height of 60km.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday said two ballistic missiles had been fired, calling the launches "very regrettable".
Why 'submarine-launched' is significant
In October 2019, North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, firing a Pukguksong-3 from an underwater platform.
At the time, KCNA said it had been fired at a high angle to minimise the "external threat".
However, if the missile had been launched on a standard trajectory, instead of a vertical one, it could have travelled about 1,900km. That would have put all of South Korea and Japan within range.
Being launched from a submarine can also make missiles harder to detect and allow them to get closer to other targets.
The latest launch comes as South Korea develops its own weapons, in what observers say has turned into an arms race on the Korean peninsula.
Seoul is holding what is said to be South Korea's largest ever defence exhibition this week. It will reportedly unveil a new fighter jet as well as guided weapons like missiles. It is also due to launch its own space rocket soon.
North and South Korea technically remain at war as the Korean War, which split the peninsula into two countries and which saw the US backing the South, ended in 1953 with an armistice.
Kim Jong-un said last week that he did not wish for war to break out again. He said his country needed to continue developing weapons for self-defence against enemies, namely the US which he accused of hostility.
Meanwhile, South Korean, Japanese and US intelligence chiefs are meeting in Seoul to discuss North Korea.
The US envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, is expected to discuss how to restart dialogue with Pyongyang, including on whether there should be a formal declaration of the end of the Korean War.
In the last 24 hours, he has reiterated the stance of US President Joe Biden's administration that it is open to meeting with North Korea without pre-conditions.
Previous talks between the US and North Korea broke down due to fundamental disagreements on denuclearisation.
The US wants North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons before sanctions can be eased, but North Korea has so far refused.
Ankara blasts the European Commission report as based on ‘unfair criticisms and baseless claims’.
The European Union’s executive body has said that Turkey’s bid to join the bloc had “come to a standstill” amid serious democratic shortfalls in its annual report, which was slammed by the Turkish foreign ministry as making “baseless claims”.
The European Commission said in the report published on Tuesday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had overseen a continued erosion of democracy and the rule of law and had ignored the EU’s recommendations last year.
The report also suggested for the first time that Ankara was no longer serious about delivering on EU-backed reforms, even though Erdogan recommitted in April to the goal of full EU membership as both sides tried to improve relations.
“The EU’s serious concerns on the continued deterioration of democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary have not been addressed. There was further backsliding in many areas,” the Commission said.
“Under the current circumstances, Turkey’s accession negotiations have effectively come to a standstill,” it said.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the report showed a “double-standard approach” by the EU and rejected the “unfair criticisms and baseless claims”. It accused the bloc of failing to keep its promises to Turkey and of not fulfilling its responsibilities.
“Turkey maintains in the strongest terms its strategic choice of full EU membership,” the ministry said in a statement.
“It would be in everyone’s interest if the EU, taking into account our common general interests, sees Turkey as a candidate country that is negotiating, not as a partner with whom to have daily give-take relations.”
Since Erdogan’s hardline response to an attempted coup in July 2016, the paths of EU and Turkey have diverged sharply [File: Reuters]
A NATO ally, Turkey has been negotiating its EU membership since 2005 after economic and political reforms that made it an important emerging market economy and trade partner.
But since Erdogan’s hardline response to an attempted coup in July 2016, the paths of EU and Turkey have diverged sharply, despite better diplomatic relations since the start of 2021.
A purge of opponents launched in mid-2016 continues, the report said, noting “broad-scale restrictions imposed on the activities of journalists, writers, lawyers, academics, human rights defenders and critical voices”.
Ankara said its security measures are necessary, given the severity of the threats facing Turkey, which shares land borders with Iraq and Syria.
Erdogan’s increase of presidential powers from 2017, which the EU said lack sufficient democratic checks, and his more forceful foreign policy, have also badly strained relations.
In its 2021 report, the Commission questioned Turkey’s “ability to assume the obligations of membership” and said Ankara pursued reforms in areas from the economy to rule of law “on a rather ad hoc basis”.
It is for the EU’s 27 member states, not the Commission, to decide whether Turkey’s EU membership bid should be formally annulled. Many believe they should nudge Turkey into a different, looser relationship based around deeper trade ties.
SPOOKY images show the inside of a "haunted" castle left abandoned following a series of alleged deaths.
The Moulbaix castle in Belgium was built in 1860 and occupied until 2007.
The castle in Belgium has been left abandonedCredit: Jam Press
A creepy-looking playroom in the empty mansion
The building has a reputation for being hauntedCredit: Jam Press
A lounge covered in dust in the spooky propertyCredit: Jam Press
Known as a "haunted" hotspot, three suicides are believed to have occurred on the property and two children went missing while on the grounds, according to local legend.
Another myth is that a burglar was found dead on the stairs after mysteriously passing away during a raid on the property.
The creepy castle, which has 344 windows and is surrounded by 62 acres of land, also burned down and was restored in 1889.
Roman Robroek, 32, from the Netherlands, visited the castle to photograph its eerie rooms which have been untouched for years.
One image shows a large drawing room, with artwork on the walls and expensive furniture still in place.
The marble staircase appears remarkably untouched by time with paintings and marble busts.
What appears to be a dressing room is slightly weathered with dust and soot around the fireplace.
A playroom is the first hint of dilapidation, with a rocking horse perched amongst rubble, and a table overturned.
Roman entered the property having parked “miles away” and attempted to sneak in by crawling through narrow tunnels under the castle.
It took four attempts, trying different entryways, before he finally made it inside.
“Seeing the castle exterior for the first time in real life was breathtaking,” Roman said.
“It was everything I was looking forward to, and more. The top floor was in a lot of decay, and the other two floors were not – except for a lot of dust and cobwebs.
“After exploring and photographing for about two and a half hours we heard a car circling the castle.
“We were aware of the fact that guards regularly checked the castle but we were quite sure that we got in unseen, and did not leave any tracks.
“We did not worry about it, and the car left. Within 15 minutes the car returned with a ladder in the back and the man driving the car and his partner got out.
“They took the ladder, pushed it against one of the closed windows and started breaking it open – I have never been so scared while exploring.”
Roman hid from the guards before they were found – and escorted off of the grounds by police.
Moulbax Castle was originally built by order of Marquis Oswald du Chasteler, replacing a house from 1502 which was built on an old feudal fortress.
It is believed to have burned down and restored in 1889.
Until 2007 it was occupied by Nadine de Spoelberch, Countess d’Ursel. In September 2015 it was sold to Herman Govaert.
Sunlight shines into a room with a chandelierCredit: Jam Press
Some of the rooms have remained in good conditonCredit: Jam Press
One of the bedrooms in the huge castleCredit: Jam Press
A beautiful marble staircase in the mansion in BelgiumCredit: Jam Press
Inside empty $224M 'American Versailles' mansion with Titanic links that has 55 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms and HUGE ballroom
Irmgard Furchner is accused of having contributed to the murder of 11,412 people at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943-1945.
A 96-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary appeared before a German court on Tuesday on charges of committing war crimes during World War II, weeks after she fled from an earlier hearing.
Irmgard Furchner tried to skip the start of her trial at the end of September but was later picked up by police and placed in detention for several days.
On Tuesday, she appeared before the court in the northern town of Itzehoe, near Hamburg.
Furchner, accused of having contributed as an 18-year-old to the murder of 11,412 people when she was a typist at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943-45, was taken into the sparse courtroom in a wheelchair.
Her face was barely visible behind a white mask and scarf pulled low over her eyes. Security was heavy as the judge and legal staff made their way into the court.
Between 1939 and 1945, about 65,000 people died of starvation and disease or in the gas chamber at the Stutthof death camp near Gdansk, in today’s Poland. They included prisoners of war and Jews caught up in the Nazis’ extermination campaign.
Prosecutors have argued Furchner worked in the office of camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe, taking dictation of the SS officer’s orders and handling his correspondence.
Public prosecutor Maxi Wantzen said her clerical work at Stutthof “assured the smooth running of the camp” and gave her “knowledge of all occurrences and events at Stutthof”, including mass killings.
Furchner is being tried in juvenile court because she was under 21 at the time. She did not respond to the allegations levelled against her on Tuesday. The trial is scheduled to continue on October 26.
Furchner is the latest nonagenarian to have been charged with Holocaust crimes in what is seen as a rush by prosecutors to seize the final opportunity to enact justice for the victims of some of the worst mass killings in history.
Although prosecutors convicted major perpetrators – those who issued orders or pulled triggers – in the 1960s “Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials”, the practice until the 2000s was to leave lower-level suspects alone.
Since Erdogan’s hardline response to an attempted coup in July 2016, the paths of EU and Turkey have diverged sharply [File: Reuters]
