US President Barack Obama’s administration has authorized the targeted killing of an American citizen, radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing US officials.
The rare, if not unprecedented, authorization was given earlier this year in the belief that Awlaki had gone from encouraging attacks on the US to directly participating in them, the Times said.
Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico but is now based in Yemen, has come under intense scrutiny since being linked to Major Nidal Hassan, a US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November.
He also has been linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who was arrested on charges of trying to bring down a US airliner with explosives as it was approaching to land at Detroit on Christmas Day last year.
“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” the Times quoted a US official as saying. “He’s gotten involved in plots.”
“The United States works, exactly as the American people expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual — through his own actions — has become one,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
“Awlaki knows what he’s done, and he knows he won’t be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone,” the official was quoted as saying.
US officials assert that international law permits the use of lethal force against individuals and groups who pose an imminent threat, the Times said.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
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The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
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