Heavy rain at the castle — originally built in 1607 during Japan’s feudal era — caused a stone wall supporting the structure to crumble.

The spectacular collapse came amid a 20-year project to repair damage to the castle following a series of devastating quakes in April 2016.

The castle complex is surrounded by hundreds of cherry trees and was once a huge tourist draw, but had been closed to the public since the quakes.

The damaged “Mototaiko Yagura” tower was located close to the main gate of the castle, Tatsuo Nomoto, a municipal official at the castle, told AFP.

“Stories have it that it was used to beat drums when people came through the main gate,” he said.

The spectacular collapse came amid a 20-year project to repair damage to the castle following a series of devastating quakes in April 2016.

A guard patrolling the castle complex found the tower in ruins late Wednesday, he said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.

The tower had already been severely damaged by the 2016 quakes, which killed 267 people and injured more than 2,800 others.

The castle was devastated during a civil war in the late 1800s, with the existing buildings rebuilt in subsequent decades.

Japan is prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and heavy rains routinely cause landslides.

Most recently, Japan’s second city of Osaka experienced a major quake that killed at least five while injuring 370 others.

It was the first child for the 37-year-old and her 40-year-old partner Clarke Gayford, with the new arrival weighing in at 3.3 kilogrammes (7.3 pounds).

“I’m sure we’re going through all of the emotions new parents go through, but at the same time feeling so grateful for all the kindness and best wishes from so many people. Thank you,” Ardern said.

She added on Instagram that the baby was healthy and doing well.

“We’re all doing really well thanks to the wonderful team at Auckland City Hospital.”

Ardern and Gayford, who hosts a television fishing show, had known the sex of the baby for several months but decided to keep it secret from the public.

The birth capped an eventful year for Ardern who became prime minister last October, three months after inheriting the leadership of the Labour Party when it was languishing in the polls.

When no party won sufficient support in the election to form a government, she was anointed prime minister by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, the kingmaker in a three-party coalition also involving the Greens.

Peters, who became Ardern’s deputy, is now acting prime minister while she takes six weeks maternity leave, although she will continue to be consulted on significant issues.

“Can I extend very best wishes to all the family at this very happy time,” Peters said in a statement.

“Like the rest of the country we welcome the news of the birth of a healthy baby and are naturally delighted for the new parents.”

Former prime minister Helen Clark tweeted it was “a proud day for Jacinda & Clarke & for us all. New life, new hope” and described the proud parents as “role models” for gender equality.

Ardern’s Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio he was “really thrilled”, while New Zealand opposition leader Simon Bridges offered congratulations.

“Being parents is a joy and a privilege and we are sure your new arrival will fill your lives with all the happiness our children have ours,” Bridges said.

– Sexism row –

Ardern, who refused to discuss plans for motherhood during the election campaign, waited until January to reveal on Facebook she had conceived and was going to be “prime minister and a mum”.

Her plans for a family had sparked a sexism row during the election when a television host quizzed her on the issue, saying voters had a right to know before they cast their ballots.

She rejected the line of questioning as “unacceptable”, saying pregnancy and child rearing should not hinder women’s opportunities in the workplace.

“It is a woman’s decision about when they choose to have children and it should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities,” she said then.

The charismatic Ardern follows Pakistan’s prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990 as the only women in modern history to give birth while in power, but she downplayed the significance.

“Lots of people juggle a lot of things in their personal and private lives, and I’m not unusual in that. Plenty of women have multitasked before me, and I want to acknowledge that,” she said when revealing the pregnancy in January.

Pakistan’s Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, gave birth in January 1990 to her daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, who now describes herself on Twitter as “1st child born to a sitting female Prime Minister”.

Bakhtawar tweeted “congratulations” to Ardern after the announcement, and shared a link to a news story on how Bhutto showed it was possible to be a mother and a prime minister.

Government officials did not immediately confirm the reports, but authorities in one town told AFP they were suspending a drill planned for next week on orders from Tokyo.

The decision comes after US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un met last week in Singapore, with the pair signing a joint document calling for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Yaita in Tochigi prefecture north of Tokyo had been planning an evacuation drill for next week involving some 800 residents including 350 school children, city official Yutaka Yanagida told AFP.

But the city suddenly cancelled all preparations late Wednesday after being instructed by the government that “drills should be postponed for the time being following a change in the environment after the US-North Korea summit,” he said.

Contacted by AFP, a Cabinet Office official said the government would announce its policy on evacuation drills on Friday, declining to comment further.

Last year, Pyongyang fired two missiles over Japan and it has splashed others into the sea near the country, sparking a mix of panic and outrage.

Earlier this year, hundreds of Tokyo residents scrambled for cover in the Japanese capital’s first evacuation drill for a military attack by Pyongyang.

North Korea has singled out Japan, a key US ally in the region, for verbal attacks, threatening to “sink” the country into the sea and to turn it into “ashes”.

But the regional mood has turned towards diplomacy since the Winter Olympics hosted by South Korea, which set off a series of diplomatic moves culminating in the Trump-Kim meet.

The meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine, with about one million dogs believed to be eaten annually.

But consumption has declined as South Koreans increasingly embrace the idea of dogs as man’s best friend rather than livestock, with the practice now something of a taboo among younger generations and pressure from activists mounting.

Even so it remains a legal grey area. Despite no specific ban, authorities have invoked hygiene regulations or animal protection laws that ban cruel slaughter methods to crack down on dog farms and restaurants ahead of international events such as the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Animal rights group Care last year filed complaints against a dog farm operator in Bucheon, accusing him of “killing animals without proper reasons” and violating building and hygiene regulations, and prosecutors later charged him.

He was convicted by the Bucheon City court, which ruled that meat consumption was not a legal reason to kill dogs, and fined three million won ($2,700). He waived his right to appeal.

Care lawyer Kim Kyung-eun welcomed the ruling — made in April but with details only released this week — telling AFP: “It is very significant in that it is the first court decision that killing dogs for dog meat is illegal itself.”

The precedent “paved the way for outlawing dog meat consumption entirely”, she added.

Care leader Park So-youn said her group was tracking down dog farms and slaughter houses across the country with a view to filing similar complaints against them to judicial authorities.

“Over the past decades, public discourse over dog meat consumption has shifted towards banning it,” she said. “The dog meat industry will take greater heat because of the court ruling.”

Barking mad

A lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party introduced a bill in parliament this week that would effectively ban killing dogs for meat.

The measure would limit the slaughter of animals for food to species classed as livestock, which does not include canines.

Some 30 activists rallied outside the National Assembly on Thursday, urging it to pass the measure.

But some South Koreans object to what they describe as cultural double standards.

Dog is usually eaten in the country as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy red meat — invariably boiled for tenderness — believed to increase energy.

A survey last year found that 70 percent of South Koreans do not eat dogs, but only about 40 percent believe the practice should be banned.

Similar debates have emerged in other Asian nations where dogs are eaten.

China’s most notorious dog meat festival in the southwestern town of Yulin has continued to draw crowds despite international outrage.

The Bucheon court decision sparked angry protests from dog farmers, whose premises usually double as slaughter houses as the government does not license abattoirs to kill dogs.

“This is outrageous. We can’t accept the ruling that killing of dogs for dog meat consumption amounts to killing animals on a whim,” Cho Hwan-ro, a representative from an association of dog farms, said on YTN television.

There are some 17,000 dog farms across the country, Cho said, calling for the government to explicitly legalise dog meat consumption and license dog slaughter houses. “Otherwise, we’ll fight to the end,” he added.

“Dogs for eating and dogs as pets must be separated,” he said, adding they were different breeds, fed differently and raised for different purposes.

“Cows, pigs, chickens and ducks are all raised to be consumed and why not dogs?” he said.

India enjoys the dubious distinction of having more conflicts than any other country in the region and the world.  Despite opposition from people protesting coal mining, hydropower projects and various waste management plants, India has relentlessly pursued these projects. Recently in the southern state of India, 13 people lost their lives in protests demanding closure of Sterlite plant. The country has 271 political conflicts, which is way more than other countries.

China is second in Asia in terms of the number of conflicts. The conflicts range from resistance to copper mining, waste incarceration, chemical plants and construction of dams. In total, the country has 76 conflicts.

Indonesia has 61 environmental conflicts and has third highest conflicts in Asia. Out of total conflicts the country has 38 biomass and land conflicts. Philippines has the fourth highest number of environmental conflicts in Asia.  Out of 47 conflicts, 25 are related to mineral ores and building extraction.

Sri Lanka has fifth highest number of conflicts in Asia at 29, followed by Japan with 27 conflicts.  Japan has seven conflicts related to industries and utilities.

Cambodia has 22 conflicts out of which 17 are related to biomass and land conflict.  Land grab for sugar plantation, lake eviction, illegal sand mining and illegal rosewood logging are some of the environmental conflicts in Cambodia.  It is followed by Myanmar with 21 conflicts, most of which are related to water management.

Vietnam has 20 environmental conflicts followed by Thailand and Bangladesh with 16 and 14 conflicts respectively. South Korea has 9 conflicts related to nuclear, fossil fuels and climate justice.

Malaysia has 7 conflicts related to biomass and land conflict and water management. Pakistan has 7 conflicts. The location of dams in Pakistan administered Kashmir are a source of major conflict with India that stakes claim to the territory.

Nepal has four environmental conflicts mostly related to water management. Maldives has one conflict related to waste management. The landfill established in Thilafushi, an artificial island on an artificial lagoon has become a toxic bomb for the country.

Bhutan is the only Asian country that records no environmental conflict.

The spectacular about-face comes after more than 2,300 children were stripped from their parents and adult relatives after illegally crossing the border since May 5 and placed in tent camps and other facilities, with no way to contact their relatives.

Pictures and accounts of the separations sparked outrage and a rebellion among Republicans in Trump’s own party, as well as international accusation that the US was committing human rights violations.

“What we have done today is we are keeping families together,” Trump said as he signed the executive order. “I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.”

Trump said that even with the change, border enforcement will be “equally tough, if not tougher.”

For weeks, Trump had insisted he was bound by the law to split the children from their parents and that only Congress could resolve the problem — before he radically shifted gears.

“We want security for our country,” Trump said. “And we will have that — at the same time, we have compassion, we want to keep families together.”

The order says the Department of Homeland Security — and not the Justice and Health and Human Services Departments, as under previous policy — would have continuing responsibility for the families.

It also suggests the government intends to hold the families indefinitely by challenging an existing statute, the 1997 Flores Settlement, that places a 20-day limit on how long children, alone or with their parents, can be detained.

That move could lead to new legal battles for the administration.

Trump said there was a need to sustain his zero tolerance” policy to prevent crime, which he blames illegal immigrants for.

“We still have to maintain toughness, or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don’t stand for and we don’t want,” he said.

‘Deeply disturbing’ images

Earlier, as countries marked World Refugee Day Wednesday, world leaders assailed Trump for the separations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Council of Europe and Pope Francis all took issue with the “zero tolerance” policy.

May said images of migrant children kept in cage-like units were “deeply disturbing,” and the Council of Europe, a global human rights watchdog, said Trump had abdicated any claim to moral leadership in the world.

After a downturn last year, since October, the number of migrants seeking to cross the southwest US border from impoverished Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as well as from Mexico, has surged.

From March to May this year, more than 50,000 people a month were apprehended for illegally crossing the border from Mexico. About 15 percent of those are arriving as families, and eight percent as unaccompanied children.

Nearly all of the families, and many others, have officially requested asylum, citing the incessant violence in their home countries.

The policy, with mandatory separation of children from adults, was announced May 7 as a deterrent.

The issue struck an emotional chord, amid accounts of children screaming and crying in facilities prepared for them.

But the White House and officials had no answers Wednesday on how the 2,300 children would be reunited with their parents.

Gene Hamilton, a senior Justice Department official, said the executive order was a “stopgap” move and that Congress needs to pass new legislation to give the president more powers to fight illegal immigration.

Current laws including the Flores Settlement, he argued, simply encouraged people to enter the country with their children, expecting to be caught and then released into US society.

“Congress needs to provide a permanent fix for this situation,” he said.

Democrats and Republicans had at least two bills crafted Wednesday to address broader immigration issues, but it was not clear if any had adequate support to pass.

But Democrats and rights groups were immediately critical of the plan to change the Flores Settlement.

“The Flores settlement prohibits the indefinite detention of children — even with their families — and any order to undermine this critical protection will be immediately challenged in court,” said senior Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

“Locking up whole families is no solution at all — the Trump Administration must reverse its policy of prosecuting vulnerable people fleeing three of the most dangerous countries on earth, who are attempting to seek safe haven in America.”