Briefly

JAPAN

Suga poll surge aids chances in PM bid

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is now the most preferred candidate among the public to become the next prime minister, surging in popularity after he entered his party's leadership race, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed on Friday. The survey highlights the growing momentum for Suga, the government's chief spokesman, who this past week emerged as the front-runner to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after securing the backing of several of the Liberal Democratic Party's key factions. Suga gained 38 percent support in the poll, against 25 percent for former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba, who had previously led several media opinion polls. Fumio Kishida, the ruling party's policy chief, came in last with 5 percent. In a June Asahi survey, Ishiba led a pack of seven potential contenders with 31 percent, while Suga had just 3 percent.

FRANCE

Washington urged to drop sanctions on ICC

France called on the United States on Thursday to withdraw sanctions leveled on top officials of the International Criminal Court, saying they are a "grave attack" on the court and put into question the independence of justice. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the sanctions are "a grave attack against the court… and beyond that a questioning of multilateralism and the independence of the judiciary. France calls on the United States to withdraw the announced measures". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions on Wednesday against the chief prosecutor of the court, based in The Hague, and a top aide, for investigations into the US and its allies. The sanctions include a freeze on assets held in the US or subject to US law and target Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the court's head of jurisdiction, Phakiso Mochochoko. The court is, notably, investigating allegations of torture and other crimes by US forces in Afghanistan. Washington has never been party to the court, and Pompeo said the US would not tolerate "its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction".

AFGHANISTAN

Mothers set to see names on birth papers

The government has accepted a proposal to put mothers' names on their children's birth certificates, in a win for women's rights activists. This past week, the Cabinet's legal affairs committee, headed by Vice-President Mohammad Sarwar Danish, agreed to the proposal to change the law and allow the names of both parents. Campaigners have for years pushed for women to be named on official documents including children's birth certificates, which like Afghan identity documents carry only the name of a person's father, under the hashtag #Whereismyname. A woman's name often does not appear on the invitation to her wedding－only those of her father and husband-to-be－or even on her grave.

Agencies - Xinhua