■ Afghanistan
US pounds rebel outposts
US fighter jets and helicopters pounded suspected Taliban positions before dawn yesterday in a fresh assault on insurgents in the rugged mountain peaks of southern Zabul province, an Afghan intelligence official said. The latest round of bombing in the Dai Chupan district of Zabul went on for three hours overnight ending shortly before dawn yesterday, said Khalil Hotak, the province's intelligence chief. For nearly a week now, the mountainous region, about 70km north of Qalat, the provincial capital, has been the scene of intense battles between suspected Taliban rebels, Afghan soldiers and their US allies. Dozens of Taliban fighters are reported to have been killed and several others arrested so far, although it has been impossible to get independent confirmation on casualty figures.
■ Indonesia
Peace concert turns violent
A free rock concert meant to promote peace and social harmony ended abruptly with rioting and police warning shots yesterday. At least six people were reportedly injured. Veteran rocker Iwan Fals, whose regime-baiting songs were banned by former dictator Suharto, tried to calm the 100,000-strong crowd with a nationalist anthem as people began throwing stones and bottles. But the concert was aborted minutes later as police fired warning shots to disperse the crowd, the Jakarta Post said. Rioters torched several food stalls around the stadium, which is used for political rallies. There was no reason given for the violence.
■ Malaysia
National Day celebrated
Malaysia yesterday celebrated its 46th National Day with a massive parade, fireworks and flowing tributes to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who retires in two months after 22 years in power. Officials estimated more than 300,000 people joined Mahathir and other government leaders in Putrajaya, the administrative capital, to witness this Southeast Asian country's most lavish National Day parade since achieving independence from Britain in 1957.
■ Thailand
One dies in gang battle
Rival school gangs battled with knives and guns at an open-air concert and other areas of downtown Bangkok, killing one student and injuring more than 150, police said yesterday. The fighting between rival vocational schools erupted as thousands of people attended a concert Saturday night, staged to highlight the need to prevent piracy of intellectual property. Police Lieutenant General Damrongsak Nilkooha said Surapong Songsawat, 22, was found dead near a pond close to the concert venue at the Lumpini Park Night Bazaar. He had a bullet wound, and a deep cut in his right leg. At least 152 students were injured, with four in serious condition, he said.
■ United States
Police puzzled by pizza man
A pizza delivery man told police he had been forced to rob a bank and asked authorities to help him minutes before a bomb strapped to his chest exploded and killed him. On Saturday, federal agents and police in northwestern Pennsylvania were trying to solve the bizarre case of 46-year-old Brian Douglas Wells, who left to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with a bomb strapped to his body.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.