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WORLD NEWS Thursday 21 March 2019

Philippines seizes drugs in upscale area, arrests 4 Chinese

By JIM GOMEZ China but they could still
Associated Press enter our country. We have
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — arrested many of those
Philippine authorities said identified foreign offend-
Wednesday that they have ers here,” Aquino told The
seized methamphetamine Associated Press by tele-
concealed in tea wrappers phone.
and biscuit cans in their “The Chinese will never stop
second-largest drug haul putting up drug laborato-
this year in a sign of how the ries because, firstly, there is
problem has persisted de- no death penalty, and sec-
spite the president’s bloody ondly, they can buy any-
anti-drug crackdown. body,” Aquino said. “They
Three Chinese nationals can buy judges, they can
and a Chinese-Filipino in- buy prosecutors and even-
terpreter were arrested tually they can go home
late Tuesday in “buy-bust” safely.”
raids in an upscale residen- Aquino has also sought leg-
tial enclave and outside islation to make it easier to
a shopping mall in Ala- criminally charge owners of
bang village in the Manila plush residences, condo-
metropolis, said Philippine minium units and buildings,
Drug Enforcement Agency In this Tuesday, March 19, 2019, photo provided by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, where he said drug traffick-
chief Aaron Aquino. PDEA, Aaron Aquino, second from left, chief of PDEA, looks at more than 160 kilograms (353 ers have shifted their bases
The drugs, with a street pounds) of methamphetamine drugs concealed in tea wrappers following “buy-bust” raids in from more public areas
value of 1.1 billion pesos Alabang township, Muntinlupa city east of Manila, Philippines. and rural warehouses that
($20.7 million), were con- Associated Press have been raided by law
cealed similarly to seizures Tanza town in Cavite prov- shabu, Aquino said. of foreign drug suspects for enforcers. Tuesday’s drug
in Malaysia, Thailand and ince south of Manila, killing Aquino has called for the the immigration bureau to raid targeted a house that
Myanmar, indicating an in- two suspected Chinese return of the death penalty deter drug trafficking. Cor- the Chinese suspects rent-
ternational drug syndicate drug dealers in a gunbattle in the Philippines for drug ruption also fosters the drug ed in posh part of Alabang
was behind the trafficking, and seizing 1.9 billion pesos traffickers, better security menace, he said. village where prominent
Aquino said. ($36 million) worth of meth- along the archipelago’s “There are those who have lawmakers, politicians and
Last month, anti-narcotics amphetamine, a powerful extensive coastlines and been detained for drug business executives live un-
agents raided a house in stimulant locally known as more extensive databases offenses, for example, in der tighter security.q

Japan urged to stop requiring surgery for ID gender change

By MARI YAMAGUCHI surgery, though the court cess that remains anchored
Associated Press acknowledged that the to a diagnostic framework
TOKYO (AP) — Human practice restricts freedom that fails to meet interna-
Rights Watch urged Japan and could become out of tional standards,” the re-
on Wednesday to drop step with changing social port said. It said the law,
its requirement that trans- values. which still defines gender
gender people be steril- Human Rights Watch said incongruence as a “dis-
ized before their gender is the compulsory sterilization order,” is out of step with
changed on official docu- requirement is abusive and international medical stan-
ments. outdated. In a report, the dards.
A 2004 law states that peo- international rights group The group based its report
ple wishing to register a said requiring invasive and on interviews with 48 trans-
gender change must have irreversible medical proce- gender people and legal,
their original reproductive dures violates the rights of medical and other experts
organs removed and have In this May 7, 2017, file photo, participants smile as they transgender people who in Japan. It said the country
a body that “appears to march with a banner during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade want their gender identity has fallen behind globally
have parts that resemble celebrating the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) legally recognized. in recognizing transgen-
the genital organs” of the community in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. “Japan’s government der people’s rights and still
gender they want to regis- Associated Press needs urgently to address enforces “outdated, dis-
ter. ary rejected an appeal by wanted legal recogni- and fundamentally revise criminatory and coercive
The Supreme Court in Janu- a transgender man who tion without undergoing the legal recognition pro- policies.”q