Dozens of police and other officials in Brunei, a Malay Muslim absolute monarchy, shut down a New Year's party at the city's only internationally run hotel, its manager said yesterday.
About 70 locals and foreigners were celebrating the arrival of the New Year at the Sheraton Utama hotel when at least 50 police and representatives of other government agencies arrived at about 12:20am on Tuesday, general manager Alex Riva said.
"I don't know if `raid' is the terminology to be used but yes, we had a visit by the authorities," he said.
Riva said the authorities checked people's identification and remained until everybody had left the executive lounge where the party took place.
He said he has not been told what prompted such a large-scale police operation, which he described as unheard of.
"They wanted to make sure that everything was in order and to do that, they asked us to stop the party," Riva said.
A government spokesman could not immediately comment but said he would look into it.
Riva described the gathering as a restrained affair where families and the elderly were present.
"At the time when they arrived we had a quiz going on," he said, adding a disc jockey was playing some music, but not at excessive levels.
"It was a little bit like a school party," he said. "This is Brunei, so the parties are very smooth."
Alcohol is not sold in Brunei but non-Muslim foreigners who fill out a form on arrival are allowed to bring in a small amount for personal consumption.
Riva said the hotel's executive lounge does not sell alcohol but people with the form can drink from their own bottle.
"We are the first one to want to make sure we are doing the right things," he said.
A diplomatic source suspected the authorities acted because of alcohol consumption and said such raids, though not common, are not unprecedented.
"My sense is that occasionally these things happen and the Brunei religious authorities want to send a signal that there are limits," the source said, adding that some restaurants which discreetly allowed alcohol consumption are being more cautious since the Sheraton incident.
Brunei has fewer than 400,000 citizens and has been trying to diversify its economy through tourism and other ventures in the face of the dwindling oil and gas reserves it has relied on.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS