Asian governments will meet this week on bomb-scarred Bali to look at expanding their anti-terror fight beyond their often-sporadic, two-way agreements that have damaged -- but failed to defeat -- the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group.
But critics say they doubt the Cabinet ministers and other senior officials from 33 countries will be able to sign anything beyond a vague declaration when they meet today and tomorrow because of the region's history of mutual suspicions, national self-interest and varying assessments of the terror threat.
"We've seen many declarations of intent in the past. But we haven't seen regional mechanisms to put these declarations in place," said Andrew Tan, a security analyst at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.
Tan said the region needs something like the EU police organization Europol to handle transnational crimes, or an agency to craft Asia-wide anti-terror policy and coordinate legislation.
Transnational cooperation has forced Jemaah Islamiyah further underground and helped jail many of its leaders. But the terrorists are regrouping, helped by porous borders, lax maritime security and rising fanaticism, officials say.
"When we look at Southeast Asia, we see the mutual suspicions and diversity of interests," Tan added. "We lose in terms of coordination and closer permanent institutional exchange of information that would help us fight terrorism."
Officials admit there's no comprehensive proposal on the table in Bali. They say they'll aim to bolster information exchanges and intelligence gathering, and announce new anti-terror aid for developing countries like Indonesia.
They're also expected to announce the opening of a transnational crime center in Indonesia, run jointly by this country and Australia, to offer anti-terror training and serve as an information clearinghouse.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
‘RADICALLY DIFFERENT’: The Kremlin said no accord would be reached if the new deal with Kyiv’s input did not remain within the limits fixed by the US and Russia in August Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia on Friday accused him and his EU backers of seeking to “torpedo” a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting. Today’s meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes amidst Trump’s intensified efforts to broker an agreement on Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line, but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by
RSS