World

TOKYO — Japan's Emperor Naruhito renewed his wish for world peace on his birthday, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Imperial Household Agency said on Sunday.

"I hope that this year, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, will be an occasion... to remember the preciousness of peace in our hearts, and to renew our commitment to peace," Naruhito said in a speech to the IHA ahead of his 65th birthday.

"I believe that it is important to pass on the tragic experiences and history of war from the generation that experienced it to the generation that does not know of it," he said.

"Many precious lives were lost in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, air raids on Tokyo and other cities, ground battles in Okinawa, and fierce battles on Iwo Jima and overseas," he added.

"I believe it is important to nurture a love for peace by deepening our understanding of the past, not forgetting those who died and those who suffered."

With the world still suffering from wars, natural disasters and climate change, "I believe that even greater cooperation and collaboration within the international community is needed to build a tolerant society that respects and accepts different values and a peaceful world", he said.

Japan will mark the 80th anniversary of its surrender in World War II on August 15.

During WWII, Japan fought in China and Burma -- today, Myanmar -- against Allied forces, and tried to invade British-ruled India, of which Bangladesh was then a part.

The war ended in August 1945 after the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan.

BERLIN — Germans began voting Sunday in a pivotal election, with the conservatives the strong favourites after a campaign rocked by a far-right surge and the dramatic return of US President Donald Trump.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) with more than 59 million Germans eligible to vote and first estimates based on exit polls expected after polls close at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Frontrunner Friedrich Merz has vowed a tough rightward shift if elected to win back voters from the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is eyeing a record result after a string of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.

If he takes over from embattled centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as widely predicted given a yawning poll gap, the CDU leader has promised a "strong voice" in Europe at a time of chaotic disruption. 

The high-stakes vote in the European Union's biggest economy comes amid tectonic upheaval in US-Europe ties sparked by Trump's direct outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin over their heads to end the Ukraine war.

Across Europe, NATO allies worry about the future of the alliance, nowhere more than in Germany which grew prosperous under the US-led security umbrella.

However, it may take Merz many weeks to negotiate a coalition government, spelling yet more political paralysis in Berlin during such fraught times.

In a strange twist to the polarised campaign, the AfD has basked in the glowing support lavished on it by Trump's entourage, with billionaire Elon Musk touting it as the only party to "save Germany".

Trump, asked about the elections in Germany, which he has berated over its trade, migration and defence policies, said dismissively that "I wish them luck, we got our own problems".

Merz, in his final CDU/CSU campaign event in Munich on Saturday, said Europe needed to walk tall to be able to "sit at the main table" of the world powers.

Voicing strong confidence, the 69-year-old former investment lawyer told supporters that "we will win the elections and then the nightmare of this government will be over".

"There is no left majority and no left politics anymore in Germany," Merz told a raucous beer hall, promising to tighten border controls and revive flagging Germany Inc.

Trade war feared 

For the next German leader, more threats loom from the United States, long its bedrock ally, if Trump sparks a trade war that could hammer Germany's recession-hit economy.

Scholz will stay in charge as caretaker until any new multi-party government takes shape -- a task which Merz has already said he hopes to achieve by Easter in two months.

Up to 30 percent of voters remained undecided last week, among them Sylvia Otto, 66, who said that "I still find it difficult to make a decision this time".

Speaking in Berlin, she said she wanted "a change -- but now a change to the right. That's very important to me".

At an AfD rally elsewhere in Berlin, a 49-year-old engineer, who gave his name only as Christian, praised the party's leader Alice Weidel as a "tough woman, stepping on the toes of the other parties".

These, he said, "are now adopting the AfD's programmes and passing them off as their own. So she is doing something right."

Spate of attacks 

Germany's political crisis was sparked when Scholz's unhappy coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Trump was re-elected.

Scholz's SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP had long quarrelled over tight finances.

The SPD's historically low polls ratings of around 15 percent suggest Scholz paid the price for policy gridlock and Germany's parlous economic performance at a time the Ukraine war sent energy prices through the roof.

Frustration with the leadership fuelled the rise of the AfD, which has been polling at 20 percent but looks set to stay in opposition as all other parties have vowed to keep it out of power.

The AfD, strongest in the ex-communist east, is on track for its best-ever result after Germany was shocked by a series of high-profile attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers.

In December a car-ramming through a Christmas market crowd killed six people and wounded hundreds, with a Saudi man arrested at the scene.

More deadly attacks followed, both blamed on Afghan asylum seekers: a stabbing spree targeting kindergarten children and another car-ramming attack in Munich.

On Friday, a Syrian man who police said wanted to "kill Jews" was arrested after a Spanish tourist was stabbed in the neck at Berlin's Holocaust memorial.

While Merz has vowed to shutter German borders and lock up those awaiting deportation, the AfD has argued that Germans will "vote for the original".

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis's ninth night in hospital was peaceful, the Vatican said Sunday, the day after revealing the 88-year-old was in a "critical" condition.

The pope had on Saturday suffered a prolonged respiratory attack and required blood transfusions, the Vatican said that evening, while adding that he was alert and sitting in a chair.

"At the moment the prognosis is reserved," the Saturday statement had concluded, sparking widespread alarm about the leader of the world's almost 1.4 billion Catholics.

Sunday morning's update from the Vatican was brief, saying: "The night passed peacefully, the pope rested."

A Vatican source later said that unlike earlier in the week, the Argentine pontiff had not eaten breakfast, nor had he read the newspapers.

Francis, head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was initially admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 with bronchitis, but it developed into double pneumonia.

Doctors had on Friday confirmed he was "not out of danger" but said he was slightly improved -- building hopes for a recovery that were swiftly dashed.

Suffering more 

"The Holy Father's condition continues to be critical, therefore, as explained (Friday), the pope is not out of danger," the Vatican said on Saturday evening.

It said Francis continued to be alert and "spent the day in an armchair even if he was suffering more than" the day before.

It said he had on Saturday morning suffered a "prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, which also required the application of high-flow oxygen".

Daily blood tests also "showed thrombocytopenia, associated with anaemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions", it added.

Thrombocytopenia is a condition that occurs when the platelet count in someone's blood is too low, which can cause trouble stopping bleeding -- and can be life threatening.

Blood or platelet transfusions, delivered via an intravenous (IV) line into a blood vessel, are given to people who are either bleeding heavily or at very high risk of bleeding, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"The pope gets worse," headlined Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday morning, while La Repubblica described it as the "darkest day" at the Vatican.

"The situation is becoming more worrying," Fabrizio Pregliasco, a leading Italian virologist, told La Stampa daily, adding that "the next few hours and days will be crucial".

Prayers for the pope 

The Vatican had already confirmed Francis would not deliver his usual weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday, saying the text would be published, as it was last weekend.

The pontiff has delivered the prayer in the past from the balcony of the Gemelli, where he is staying in a special papal suite on the 10th floor.

A senior prelate was also brought into replace Francis in celebrating a Sunday morning mass for the Jubilee 2025, a special year of Catholic celebrations.

"Even though he is in a hospital bed we feel him close to us," Rino Fisichella said before reading out the homily at St Peter's Basilica, offering prayers for Francis in this "moment of trial".

The cardinal vicar of Rome, Baldo Reina, also urged believers to join him at a mass on Sunday evening in the Basilica of St John Lateran, calling on God to give Francis "the necessary strength".

A group of nuns and priests from around the world gathered Saturday outside the entrance of the Gemelli hospital, singing and praying for the pope.

Well-wishers have since Francis's admission been leaving candles bearing his picture at the foot of the statue of former pope John Paul II, who was also treated there many times.

Francis has said the papacy is a job for life, but has also left the door open to resigning like his predecessor Benedict XVI.

The German theologian in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step down, citing his ailing physical and mental health.

Francis had repeatedly said it was not yet the time to quit -- but his illness has raised fresh questions about his ability to fulfil his role.

The pope maintains a punishing work schedule, and in September made a 12-day tour to the Asia-Pacific.

But he has suffered increasing health issues, from colon surgery in July 2021 to a hernia operation in 2023. 

He is also overweight and has constant hip and knee pain, which force him to use a wheelchair most of the time.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will miss the Angelus prayer on Sunday for the second straight week as the 88-year-old is treated in hospital for pneumonia, the Vatican said Saturday.

The text will only be published, not read out, as it was last Sunday, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

One of the doctors treating Pope Francis said on Friday the 88-year-old, who has pneumonia, was "not out of danger" and would likely stay in hospital "at least all next week".

Professor Sergio Alfieri said the pontiff's condition was "slightly better", made clear he was not hooked up to any machine -- and said Francis was cracking jokes.

"The question is, is the pope out of danger? No, the pope is not out of danger," he told a press conference at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where Francis was admitted on February 14 with breathing difficulties.

What began as bronchitis developed into double pneumonia, causing widespread alarm.

"If we send him to Santa Marta (his home at the Vatican), he'll start working again as before," Alfieri continued.

"So we're keeping him here. Right now, he's in the hospital, at least for all next week.

"We're keeping him here so that when he goes back to Santa Marta, it'll be harder for him to overdo it."

Francis, admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital with breathing difficulties, has slightly improved over the past couple of days despite pneumonia in both lungs, according to the Vatican.

Francis has disappeared from public view since his admittance to a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the Gemelli.

The Vatican said he is cheerful and has been alternating rest with reading, but has yet to publish the standard photographs of him in hospital that have marked his previous stays, fuelling rumours.

Francis -- who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, making him more prone to respiratory diseases -- has undergone hernia as well as colon surgery in the past four years.

He is overweight and suffers constant hip and knee pain, which force him to use a wheelchair most of the time.

"I love this Pope immensely", Gege Gerald, a deacon from Switzerland, told AFP in St Peter's Square, summing up the feelings of many faithful.

"I know he has done a lot of good for the Church, and he will do even more", he said.

Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi told the Corriere della Sera on Friday he did not rule out Francis stepping down.

"Francis himself has said he had already signed a letter of resignation at the beginning of his pontificate," he said.

The fact that "a fundamental vital function such as breathing" was compromised complicates the matter, Ravasi told the paper.

"The knee is one thing, but if one feels that the entire body is in difficulty, it's another thing."

French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline also said that while "completely confident in the lucidity of the pope", he would not rule out a resignation.

"If he considers that it is the best thing for the good of the Church, he will do it," he told journalists on Thursday.

But Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg said Francis certainly would not bow to pressure from his opponents to quit.

"The resignation will depend on how the pope recovers. The decision is up to Francis alone", he was quoted by AGI news agency as saying.

And rumours the pope was far sicker than believed were "fake news", Ravi said.

Whether or not he is contemplating retirement, Francis's "great desire is to at least complete the Jubilee", which began in December and is a year of Catholic celebrations, Ravasi said.

"He feels it is his great moment", he said.

BERLIN — German politicians made a final scramble for votes Saturday on the eve of key elections in which conservatives hope to win despite the dramatic rise of the far right targeting a record score.

Sunday's vote comes at a time of upheaval for Europe and its biggest economy as US President Donald Trump has ended a united Western stance on the Ukraine conflict by reaching out to Russia.

Trump' threats of a trade war spell more trouble ahead for Germany, after its economy has shrunk for the past two years, and as it also faces bitter social polarisation on the flashpoint issues of immigration and security.

Sunday's vote is being held more than half a year ahead of schedule after centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition collapsed in early November.

The conservative CDU-CSU alliance, led by Friedrich Merz, has long had a strong lead in opinion polls on around 30 per cent; double that of Scholz's SPD.

The far-right Alternative for Germany [AfD] has been polling in second place on around 20 per cent, boosted by anger over a spate of deadly knife attacks and car rammings blamed on migrants.

Just 10 days before the election, an Afghan man was arrested for ploughing a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a two-year-old child and her mother and wounding dozens.

Germany was again shocked by a stabbing that badly wounded a 30-year-old Spanish man at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial on Friday, though police have not yet spoken about the suspected motive.

 'Two major problems'

The AfD has had strong support from Trump's inner circle, with tech billionaire Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance speaking out in support of the party.

With domestic tensions running high, two far-right demonstrations as well as a counter protest are expected to draw crowds in Berlin on Saturday.

In a final TV debate with Scholz on Wednesday, the CDU's Merz called on Germans to give him a strong mandate to "solve the country's two major problems: migration and the economy".

On Saturday afternoon, Merz will hold a final election rally in Munich alongside Markus Soeder, leader of the CSU, the CDU's sister party in the southern state of Bavaria.

Scholz, speaking at his final campaign rally in Dortmund on Friday, stressed his support for Ukraine's sovereignty and defended Germany's commitment to free speech in a pushback against recent comments Vance made in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Scholz pledged that "we won't leave Ukraine alone and decide things over their heads and we will ensure that Ukraine is a country that can choose its own government".

UNITED NATIONS, United States - M23 fighters advanced on several fronts in DR Congo's volatile east Friday as the UN Security Council for the first time called on Rwanda to stop backing the armed group and halt the bloodshed.

The M23 movement, supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts, now controls large swaths of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a troubled region rich in natural resources. 

Its rapid advance has sent thousands fleeing. Fighters took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu last Sunday, weeks after capturing Goma, the capital of North Kivu and main city in the country's east.

Friday's unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolution "strongly condemns the ongoing offensive and advances of the M23 in North-Kivu and South Kivu with the support of the Rwanda Defense Forces."

It also "calls on the Rwanda Defense Forces to cease support to the M23 and immediately withdraw from DRC territory without preconditions."

The Security Council had previously called for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" by all parties, but on Friday all countries including the three African members pointed the finger at Kigali.

Recent gains have given M23 control of Lake Kivu following its lightning offensive in the east. According to the UN, the latest fighting has led to an exodus of more than 50,000 Congolese to Burundi, Uganda and other countries.

The European Union on Friday summoned Rwanda's ambassador to demand Kigali pull out troops from the country and stop backing the armed group.

In a call with Kenyan President William Ruto, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for an immediate ceasefire, saying there was "no military solution to the conflict", according to a State Department spokesperson. 

Since the fall of Bukavu, the Congolese armed forces have been retreating without offering significant resistance.

"Almost no Congolese soldiers are fighting," an observer said Friday, adding that the "only ones still fighting are the Wazalendo" pro-Kinshasa militia.

The North Kivu city of Masisi and its surroundings "are the scene of almost daily clashes" between the M23 and Wazalendo, medical charity MSF said.

The M23 is now moving toward the town of Uvira near the Burundi border on the northwestern tip of Lake Tanganyika -- the main exit route for fleeing Congolese soldiers.

A source in Uvira's municipality said Friday the military commander had taken "measures to secure the population and their property, adding that "undisciplined elements had been arrested."

Residents told AFP that Uvira was engulfed in chaos, with hundreds of soldiers and their families crossing the town on foot to reach the port.

At least 423 inmates from Uvira prison have escaped and the bishop was robbed by armed men.

 'If you hesitate, they shoot' 

On the northern front, which has been relatively stable since December, M23 fighters are just 14 kilometers from Lubero, a strategic town.

Some Congolese soldiers have fled Lubero, but others were seen looting shops, according to local sources.

"The Congolese soldiers we met along the way robbed us of our phones, money and other belongings," said Aline Nyota, a displaced person who left Lubero to go further north. 

"If you hesitate, they shoot."

The Congolese army spokesman in the region urged fleeing soldiers to return "to their authorities" and to "avoid looting, extortion and rape".

Traders in central Lubero have removed their goods and schools are closed. A relative calm returned on Thursday evening with the intervention of Ugandan troops deployed in the region as part of a joint operation with the Congolese army.

Analysts have questioned how the Ugandan army would react if it were to encounter M23 fighters.

Kampala is accused by UN experts of maintaining relations with the M23, while seeking to protect its influence in the area. 

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday denied his troops intended to fight the M23.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday urged UN members to approve a new US-proposed resolution on the Ukraine war that according to diplomats omits any mention of Kyiv's territory occupied by Russia.

"The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace," Rubio said in a statement, without commenting in detail on the contents of the proposed resolution.

The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv's territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Washington's proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between US President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was "not important" for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.

It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies, countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.

The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv's "territorial integrity."

The text also repeats the UN General Assembly's previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. 

Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favour.

Washington's text, seen by AFP, calls for a "swift end to the conflict" without mentioning Kyiv's territorial integrity, and was welcomed by Moscow's ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia as "a good move" -- but stressed that it did not address the "roots" of the conflict.

In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.

Instead the 65-word text begins by "mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict."

It then continued by "reiterating" that the United Nation's purpose is the maintenance of "international peace and security" -- without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.

France's ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU's only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment "for the moment."

"A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine's territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law," said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group. 

"I think even a lot of states that favour an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter."

BERLIN — German voters head to the polls in a winter election on Sunday but may not have a new government until the spring.

The confident frontrunner Friedrich Merz has said he's aiming for an Easter deadline and urged potential allies to get ready for speedy talks.

But arduous coalition negotiations tend to drag on for weeks if not months in Germany, spelling long stretches of political paralysis before a new chancellor takes charge.

"If we spend weeks, possibly months, possibly with party conferences and even member surveys then the period in which this country is without a majority capable of governing will be too long for me," he said in a Politico interview this week.

In Berlin, a bulging in-tray of challenges awaits whoever is the next leader, from a stagnating economy to the Ukraine war and an increasingly hostile Trump administration.

Current polls give the conservative CDU-CSU alliance of Merz a strong lead over Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD).

But the surveys also suggest that Merz's Party, now polling around 30 per cent, would need a junior coalition partner to gain a parliamentary majority.

Merz could potentially opt to work with Scholz's centre-left SPD in a so-called "grand coalition" of the two big-tent parties, known as the "GroKo" in German.

Scholz — whose own motley alliance with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) broke up in November — would not be expected to personally join such a government.

Alternatively, a victorious Merz could invite the Greens into an alliance, but this so far has been strongly opposed by the CDU's Bavarian sister party the CSU.

Marathon talks 

Attempting to forge any such pact forces former campaign trail foes to quickly make nice. The parties first engage in exploratory talks before moving on to full coalition negotiations.

Scholz in 2021 needed 10 weeks from polling day to form his government with the Greens and the FDP.

Tired-looking selfies posted by party leaders during the marathon talks attested to the arduous work to forge a coalition of unprecedented complexity.

But the time span was "within the usual range", said Uwe Jun, political science professor at Trier University.

Coalition agreements are highly detailed and have a "contractual character", said Dorothee de Neve, politics professor at Justus Liebig University, but have long been a "feature of German politics".

The longest wait came in 2017, when it took Angela Merkel's conservatives some six months to forge a GroKo with the SPD.

Merkel's initial attempt at a coalition with the Greens and FDP spectacularly failed, prolonging the wait.

'Divided society' 

Once staid German politics have been disrupted by the over decade-long rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, now polling around 20 per cent.

Although all other parties have vowed not to govern with the anti-immigration AfD, its popularity has eroded their voter support.

A wild card in the election is whether a number of smaller parties will cross the 5-per cent threshold to enter parliament or be cast into oblivion.

The FDP and the upstart far-left BSW are fighting for their lives around the five percent death zone, while the other small leftist party Die Linke has polled somewhat higher in recent days.

Jun said that forming another grand coalition would "not be simple", given their "clear differences" especially on social and economic policy.

Nonetheless, the two mainstream parties have ruled together in three of the last five governments — a trend decried by the AfD, which labels them the establishment or "system parties".

When the ballots are counted, "fragmentation could produce a historically fractured parliament", said Michael Broening of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

"Regardless of the parliamentary makeup, social fragmentation is likely to persist," he told AFP.

"This will make coalition-building more challenging — not only within parliament but also in terms of broader engagement with an increasingly divided society."