Local police and the FBI continue to look for the white male who shot a Sikh man after telling him to “go back to your own country” in a Seattle, Washington (state) suburb Friday.

The victim had been released from the hospital Sunday, but wishes to remain anonymous and has not made any public statement after being shot in his own driveway in the town of Kent.

Local Sikhs, however, quickly came together over the weekend to work on increasing awareness and understanding of their community. And the larger community of Kent has expressed their solidarity as well.

“We have been getting so much appreciation, love, amazing support from the community. Everybody is rallying behind us,” Satwinder Kaur, a Sikh, candidate for Kent city council, and longtime local resident, told VOA.

“People are scared. But…we are not going to let this crime bring us down. We’re going to continue educating people. And we are going to talk about our culture and our community,” she said, speaking from her car as she drove to the local Sikh temple to speak on upcoming community outreach programs.

The town of Kent, which recorded a population of just over 125,000 according to 2015 census data, is about 15 percent Asian, including South Asians. Kent, just south of Seattle in the Northwestern state of Washington, boasts diversity, claiming its school district speaks 138 different languages.

The shooting of the Sikh man in Kent comes just one week after an Indian-American was fatally shot in Kansas City. Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, died of the wounds he sustained when a man allegedly opened fire in a crowded bar in suburban Kansas last Wednesday. Another Indian and an American who tried to intervene were injured in the incident.

The Kansas City Star quoted a witness as saying a man shouted “Get out of my country” before shooting at the Indian men.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the backlash against Muslims across the U.S. at times also included members of the Sikh faith.  Followers of the Sikh faith, a monotheistic religion that originated in northern India, are often confused with Muslims.

Over the past year, the number of incidents of anti-Muslim (whether actually Muslim or simply perceived as Muslim) violence has risen dramatically, according to a report released by Georgetown’s Bridge Initiative (in December).

Despite growing unease among American-South Asians as anti-immigrant rhetoric and hate crimes increase, Satwinder says that for her and the town of Kent, focusing on the local is what is important.

“We will just need to be more vigilant, more aware, stay in close touch with our authorities at the local level – that’s what you can do. We can’t really wait on our administration right now,” she said.

“There’s no hope there, I think.”

 
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Japanese Emperor Akihito paid his respects to the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Sunday, arriving in Bangkok following a weeklong trip to Vietnam aimed at winning support against Chinese expansionism.

The monarchies – two of a handful remaining in Asia – have maintained close ties. Bhumibol first visited Japan in 1963, touching off a decades-long friendship with numerous visits back and forth, most recently a visit by Akihito to Thailand in 2006.

Akihito, accompanied by his wife, Empress Michiko, laid wreathes and signed a condolence book at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. He was to meet later with King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, who ascended the throne after the death of his widely revered father in October.

The emperor’s two-day visit to Bangkok comes as Thailand tilts closer to China, Japan’s main rival in East Asia.

Thailand and Japan have traditionally enjoyed close relations, unburdened by the legacy of World War II that has complicated Japan’s relations with other Asian countries. After a brief struggle, Thailand formally became Japan’s ally through much of the war, suffering little of the destruction wrought on others like China, Myanmar and the Philippines.

But following a 2014 coup, Thailand’s Western allies cut back on assistance, pushing the country’s ruling military junta closer to Beijing.

“The visit is symbolic of Japan’s interest in boosting Japanese-Thai relations at a time when China seems to enjoy favor in Bangkok,” said Paul Chambers, research director at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs.

China frightens many in Southeast Asia with expansionist policies in the South China Sea. But China’s claims do not clash with Thai territorial waters, paving the way for friendly relations.

The 83-year-old emperor is Japan’s constitutional head of state, a role symbolic rather than political. However, his trips often serve to bolster relations with nations friendly to Tokyo.

The emperor’s itinerary has been packed with visits across Southeast Asia, a move aimed at shoring up a regional bulwark against China. Vietnam, which has sparred with China over territorial waters, rolled out the red carpet for Akihito’s visit last week. In January 2016, the Japanese imperial family visited the Philippines, which also has disputes with China, paying its respects at a World War II memorial.
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Philippine troops have found the remains of a German hostage who was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants in the country’s south, vowing Sunday to rescue more than 30 other captives and crush the ransom-seeking extremists.

Marines dug up the head and body of Jurgen Gustav Kantner late Saturday in the mountainous hinterlands of Indanan town in Sulu province, where the militants are holding at least 31 other foreign and Filipino hostages, said regional military commander Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr.

The 70-year-old Kantner was seized from his yacht with his female German companion off Malaysia’s Sabah state in November. Kantner’s companion was fatally shot on the yacht, which was later found in the southern Philippines, according to the military.

The couple had survived a kidnapping ordeal off Somalia in 2008.

“Once again, the command is sending its deep regrets to the family for not being able to rescue Mr. Kantner on time,” Galvez said. He repeated a pledge to rescue other hostages and crush the Abu Sayyaf.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said the government “will leave no stone unturned in squarely addressing the evils of extremism and plain banditry.”

“Rest assured these mindless acts will not go unpunished,” Abella said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned Kantner’s killing as an “abominable act.” The Abu Sayyaf circulated a video of the beheading online.

Duterte has said Filipino forces tried their best but apologized to Germany and Kantner’s family after troops failed to rescue him in his nearly four months of jungle captivity in Sulu, a poor Muslim province 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila.

About two dozen Filipino troops were wounded in clashes that also killed 16 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in efforts to rescue Kantner. After he was beheaded, troops intensified ground assaults and airstrikes.

On Sunday, marines killed four Abu Sayyaf militants in an assault near Sulu’s Maimbung town. At least 10 other militants were killed in a separate clash Friday that also wounded 18 troops near Patikul town, said Sulu’s military commander, Col. Cirilito Sobejana.

An intelligence report seen by The Associated Press said the militants behind Kantner’s abduction and killing included Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan and his nephew, Mujil Yadah, who was also allegedly involved in the 2015 kidnappings of a Norwegian, a Filipina and two Canadians from a yacht club in the south. The two Canadians were separately beheaded last year.

According to the report, the other kidnappers of the German included Moammar Askali and Idang Susukan. Askali, a young militant, insisted that Kantner should be killed on schedule as they had threatened to do, but others wanted to wait longer to get a huge ransom, which was last pegged at 30 million pesos ($600,000), the report said.

The Abu Sayyaf, which has more than 400 fighters, has been blacklisted by the Philippines and the United States as a terrorist organization for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.
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The killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader who had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau may be top news around the world, but for some Macanese legislators at China’s parliament it’s more a case of Kim Jong Who?

Kim Jong Nam was killed on Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Malaysian police believe he was assaulted by two women who smeared his face with VX, a chemical classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

He had been planning to travel back to the former Portuguese colony of Macau. The story has also been widely covered in Chinese state media, though Beijing, with its close ties to Pyongyang, has had little to say about it so far in public.

Macau delegates to China’s annual meeting of parliament said they knew little or nothing of the case, and were unwilling to say whether Kim’s family was still in Macau or if they were under police protection, underscoring the case’s sensitivity.

Asked on Sunday about Kim’s family, Jose Chui, a cousin of Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui, first said he didn’t understand the question, and then walked away.

Asked later in English whether Kim’s family was still in Macau, Chui answered: “I have no idea.”

“I read [about it] in the newspaper, but I have no information from my sources. I don’t think I’m in a position to give you any details.”

Lu Bo, president of Chinese-language paper the Macao Daily News, initially said he knew nothing of the case. Pressed further, he said: “I’m not interested in it.”

Lionel Leong, Macau’s secretary of economy and finance, declined to comment.

Macau, like neighboring Hong Kong, sends representatives to the annual meeting of China’s largely rubber stamp parliament, which opened on Sunday. They are all carefully chosen by Beijing.

Before he was killed in Malaysia, Kim lived quietly in the Asian gambling hub of Macau, avoiding controversy and seemingly relaxed about personal safety, according to sources close to him.

U.S. and South Korean government sources say they believe North Korean agents killed Kim, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Despite China’s ostensible friendship with North Korea, Beijing has been angered by Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests.
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A moderate 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the Philippines on Sunday, killing a woman and hurting 25 people, the Philippine seismic agency and a provincial governor said.

The quake that hit the southern island of Mindanao was an aftershock of a 6.7 magnitude quake on Feb. 10, which killed four people and hurt more than 100, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

The institute said Sunday’s quake was of 5.9 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was magnitude 5.7.

Surigao del Norte Governor Sol Matugas said an elderly woman died of cardiac arrest while 25 people suffered minor injuries.

Two homes collapsed and some properties damaged by last month’s quake suffered more damage, she said in a radio interview. 
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Anti-India protests erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following a fierce gunbattle in which two rebels and a counterinsurgency policeman were killed, police said Sunday.

Government forces, acting on a tip, encircled a civilian home in southern Tral area overnight, said police chief S.P. Vaid. He said fighting erupted after militants hurled grenades and fired automatic rifles to break the security cordon.

Two militants and a policeman working with counterinsurgency unit were killed, he said. At least three other security officials, including an army officer, were wounded.

No rebel group immediately issued any statement.

As the fighting raged, clashes erupted between government forces and villagers who tried to march to the site of the fighting in solidarity with militants.

Troops fired shotgun pellets and tear gas to stop the rock-throwing protesters. No injuries were reported.

Rivals India and Pakistan each administer a portion of Kashmir, but both claim the disputed Himalayan territory in its entirety. Most people in the Indian-controlled portion favor independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Since then, more than 68,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising and ensuing Indian military crackdown.
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China will work to clear its skies by increasing investment in clean energy and punishing polluters, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday in comments aimed at mollifying public anger over chronic smog.

Swathes of northern China were blanketed under toxic smog this winter, affecting more than 100 million people and forcing government agencies to take emergency measures to curb pollution.

“Environmental pollution remains grave, and in particular, some areas are frequently hit by smog,” Li told delegates to the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) in opening its annual session.

But “we will make our skies blue again”, he said in his annual state-of-the-nation speech.

Pollution has plagued China for years, with the dramatic fouling of the country’s air, water and soil representing the dark side of breakneck economic growth that has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.

Li listed a series of measures China will take this year to help clear the air, including upgrading coal-fired power plants to make them less polluting, reducing coal-fired heating, and implementing “round-the-clock monitoring” of industrial pollution.

He said China would “basically” scrap all high-emission vehicles and pursue a three percent cut in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide — key components of the country’s toxic smog.

“Faster progress in work to improve the environment, particularly air quality, is what people are desperately hoping for,” Li said.

China also will decrease its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 3.4 percent and reduce coal-fired power capacity.

China has long promised to clean up its act, but the pledges have taken a back seat to ensuring rapid economic growth, which the government sees as critical for guaranteeing social stability.

“Environmental issues are the most important because this affects people every day and leaves problems for the next generations,” Chang Chunbun, a NPC delegate from Hong Kong, told AFP.

“To solve pollution the authorities have to add power behind their laws to better enforce environmental protection policies.”

The ruling Communist Party is seeking to make a difficult transition away from dependence on heavily polluting industries to a more service-oriented economy fueled by consumer demand.

Last year GDP grew 6.7 percent, the slowest rate in a quarter of a century, and Li on Sunday lowered the growth target to “around 6.5 percent” for 2017.

Maintaining the desired growth rates has so far meant spinning up the output of goods like steel, coal and cement, whose production is heavily polluting.

But the government is increasingly having to balance its concern over an economic slowdown with fears of a public backlash over environmental pollution.

In recent months, police have cracked down on protests sparked by pollution in several major cities and moved to censor complaints about bad air online.
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Japan’s ruling party approved a change in party rules Sunday that could pave the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to become the country’s longest-serving leader in the post-World War II era.

It is a remarkable turnaround for Abe, who lasted only a year during an earlier stint as prime minister, and in a country that had six prime ministers in the six years before Abe returned to office in December 2012.

Analysts say that Japan’s 62-year-old leader learned from his first term in office, when he focused on divisive issues such as constitutional revision and patriotic education that contributed to his early downfall. This time, he has made an expansionary economic policy with a catchy name, “Abenomics,” front and center at election time.

“The interesting thing is that formerly Abe did not seem to be interested in economic policy,” said Yu Uchiyama, a professor of politics at Tokyo University.

He said that Abe, a conservative, had been more interested in things like constitutional change. “But right after he got power for the second time, he did not put forth such a right-wing agenda. Instead he introduced and emphasized the economic issue.”

That doesn’t mean Abe has given up on goals such as revising the constitution, which was drafted by a U.S.-led occupation force after World War II. However, Abe needs to win over a reluctant public _ any amendment requires approval by two-thirds of the legislature and a national referendum _ and that will take time.

“The constitution represents the shape of our country, and it should describe Japan’s idea future,” Abe told the annual convention of his Liberal Democratic Party. He said the LDP will take the lead in promoting discussion over details of a revision.

The party on Sunday rubber stamped a decision by its leaders last fall to allow the head of the party to run for a third 3-year term, rather than be limited to two. In Japan’s parliamentary system, the ruling party leader generally becomes the prime minister. The change would allow Abe to stay until 2021, if he can maintain the support of his party and voters, rather than step down in September 2018.

Abe, now in his fifth year in office, is Japan’s sixth longest serving prime minister since 1945. The record-holder is Eisaku Sato, who led the country for more than seven years from 1964 to 1972. He is also the brother of Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who was prime minister from 1957 to 1960. If Abe can hold on, he would surpass Sato in August 2020.

Uchiyama said that Abe has maintained his hold on power in part by taking advantage of electoral and administrative reforms that strengthened the prime minister’s control of both his party and the bureaucracy.

Jeff Kingston, a Japan expert at Temple University’s Japan campus in Tokyo, called Abe the most powerful prime minister in the postwar era.

“There has been an incredible concentration and centralization of power in the prime minister’s office under Abe, unlike his predecessors, where power was widely distributed and the prime minister was one among many,” he said.

Still, given public opinion, Kingston gave Abe only a 50-50 chance of achieving constitutional revision: “Polls suggest he has got a long battle to get the public with him.”

A third term would also give Abe more time to try to resolve a thorny territorial dispute with Russia that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty to end World War II hostilities.
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Philippine soldiers have found the remains of a German man who was beheaded by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants last week, a military official said late on Saturday.

Both the head and body of Jurgen Kantner were recovered while the troops were conducting combat, search and retrieval operations in Indanan town in the remote southern province of Sulu, Colonel Cirilito Sobejana told reporters

Kantner’s remains would be kept in a hospital morgue in Sulu while documents were being prepared to transport the body, said Sobejana, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu.

The Philippines and Germany have condemned Kantner’s killing by the militants who posted a video of the murder after a deadline for a $600,000 ransom passed.

The 70-year-old German, who had been held on the small southern island of Jolo, had appealed for help twice in short video messages, saying he would be killed if a ransom was not paid.

President Rodrigo Duterte has apologized to Germany for failing to save Kantner while insisting that ransoms should not be paid.

The Philippine military has vowed to bring Kantner’s killers to justice and to continue operations to free other hostages held by Abu Sayyaf, which had raised tens of millions of dollars from piracy and ransom payments.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the government “will leave no stone unturned in squarely addressing the evils of extremism and plain banditry.”

“Rest assured these mindless acts will not go unpunished,” he said in statement.
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