A Japanese businessman was indicted yesterday for the rape of British bar hostess Lucy

A Japanese businessman was indicted yesterday for the rape of British bar hostess Lucy Blackman, although he escaped a murder charge.
Joji Obara, a wealthy property developer, is suspected of drugging Blackman ­ 21 at the time ­ and raping her in his seaside apartment southwest of Tokyo, resulting in her death last July.In Japan, suspects convicted of rape resulting in death or injury face prison terms from three years to life. The 49-year-old Obara was formally arrested in connection with Miss Blackman’s death earlier this month in what police described as a “milestone”.He was first arrested in October last year and is already in jail facing five charges of raping Japanese and foreign women and another charge involving sexual violence resulting in the death of a young Australian woman.He has denied those charges, saying the sex was consensual, and police have said Obara was exercising his right to silence on the charge relating to Miss Blackman.Obara is suspected of mutilating Miss Blackman’s body before burying her in a seaside cave near one of his homes. Police found her dismembered body partly encased in concrete and buried in a cave in February.Miss Blackman, a former British Airways flight attendant, had been working at a hostess bar in the Roppongi entertainment district in Tokyo and vanished after saying she was going for a drive with a man on 1 July.Her father, Tim Blackman, 48, said he was relieved at the news. “For us it’s the loss of Lucie that is the real tragedy and the news that Joji Obara has been charged with her death is a great relief to all the family.”If Obara is Lucie’s killer then there will never be another girl like my daughter to suffer at his evil hands.”I think we have felt all along that it would be extremely difficult to prove that Obara actually intended to kill Lucie.”. Six Red Cross staff ­ most of them in their twenties and thirties ­ have been shot and hacked to death in an apparent vehicle ambush in the unstable north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the organisation said yesterday.

Six Red Cross staff ­ most of them in their twenties and thirties ­ have been shot and hacked to death in an apparent vehicle ambush in the unstable north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the organisation said yesterday.
Little was known about the circumstances in which two female nurses, one of whom was Swiss, and four men were killed on a road near Bunia in Ituri province. They were on a routine journey to distribute medical aid.Antonella Notari, a spokes-woman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said details were still sketchy and the bodies were being taken to Goma for examination She said she did not know who killed the staff. It was too early to say whether the ICRC would pull out of Ituri.”The delegation in Goma is in mourning and is trying to cope with the situation,” she said “We would need to know more about the circumstances … behind the killings before we can evaluate what to do.”The killings marked the single biggest loss for the ICRC since 1996, when six nurses were murdered in their beds in Chechnya.

The same year, three ICRC employees were killed in Burundi.The killers are understood to have struck on Thursday afternoon when the six workers were travelling in two four-wheel-drive vehicles, marked with the Red Cross emblem, on a road near Bunia that aid organisations had considered to be safe. Colleagues in Goma raised the alarm after losing radio contact with the cars and a military search team later found the bodies by their vehicles. The ICRC workers had visited refugees in the area.Ituri has seen some of the most intense fighting in the war in Congo, which began nearly three years ago when the late Laurent-D?r?abila turned against the Rwandan and eastern Congolese forces that had helped to bring him to power at the end of Mobutu Sese Seko’s 32-year reign in 1997.In a country that has become lawless, the killings are more likely to have been the work of bandits or tribal warriors than of the forces opposed to Kabila’s son, Joseph, who became President after his father was assassinated earlier this year. In January, about 200 people were killed in clashes between rival communities in the area.In New York, Congo’s UN envoy, Atoki Ileka, said his government believed the aid workers “more than likely were murdered by the elements of the Ugandan Army who discovered the bodies”.. The high commissioner of Zimbabwe was summoned to the Foreign Office yesterday amid “deep concern” about British diplomats and aid workers operating in the country. The high commissioner of Zimbabwe was summoned to the Foreign Office yesterday amid “deep concern” about British diplomats and aid workers operating in the country.
The Foreign Office minister, Brian Wilson, warned Simbarashe Mumbengegwi that the eyes of the world would be on President Robert Mugabe’s government after officials said they could not guarantee foreigners’ safety.Militant members of the ruling party, who have attacked journalists and opposition members, have turned their attentions to the embassies of countries supporting the democratic reform programmes.The Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday that the government would not intervene if foreign agency personnel “further the political goals” of the opposition.Mr Wilson told the high commissioner that Britain was “deeply concerned” about the deterioration in the situation over recent days.

This has led to increased fears of attacks on nationals from the United States and the European Union.Mr Wilson said: “Businesses, individuals and non-governmental organisations from Britain, South Africa, Australia and several EU countries have been attacked. There has been clear evidence of intimidation, extortion and in some cases, physical violence.”The shadow Foreign Secretary, Francis Maude, said the Government’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” had failed. He said: “This statement gives the green light to Mugabe’s henchmen to storm and attack the British Embassy. This is a frightening prospect and deeply worrying, yet we hear nothing from Robin Cook.”Zimbabwe should be suspended from the Commonwealth immediately, a travel ban should be imposed on Mugabe’s close associates and their overseas accounts should be frozen.”On Thursday, the Foreign Office said it was treating “extremely seriously” threats by Mr Mugabe’s war veterans to take action against foreign embassies in Harare, with Britain’s considered one of the most likely targets.Veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzvi said that after “solving workers’ problems” their next target would be to “deal once and for all” with embassies and non-governmental organisations which he accused of funding the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The further extension to Mr Mugabe’s strong-arm tactics follows a court ruling two days ago which upheld the MDC’s challenge to two seats won in last year’s election by Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party. The ruling represented a major victory for the MDC which is disputing the outcome of last June’s election in a further 36 seats.