■INDONESIA
Brother visits bombers
The younger brother of two militants on death row over the deadly 2002 Bali bombings visited their island prison yesterday as speculation mounted over their impending executions. Ali Fauzi, a brother of condemned bombers Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, left the militants’ home village in East Java early yesterday to visit them in the island prison where they await the firing squad, another brother Muhammad Chozin said. A source in the prison confirmed that Fauzi had arrived but could not say if he had met the brothers or if he would have access to their bodies.
■INDONESIA
Quake rattles Malaku
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck in waters off Maluku Province early yesterday, seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of damage. The quake hit at a shallow depth of 10km at 1:04am, the US Geological Survey said, 293km from Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands. An official at the Geophysics and Meteorological Agency confirmed there had been no reports of damage and the quake had not been felt “anywhere.”
■HONG KONG
Sports car kills tourist
Police yesterday were trying to identify a US tourist who was mowed down and killed by a speeding sports car. The tourist, aged around 30, was trying to hail a taxi in the city’s Happy Valley area early on Friday when the high-powered Nissan sports car ploughed into him. The victim was thrown 5m by the car’s impact and was pronounced dead in hospital half an hour after the collision, a police spokesman said. The car’s driver, who drove off before later returning to the scene, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and dangerous driving causing death.
■CHINA
Pandas sick, starving
More sick and hungry giant pandas than in past winters may seek food at lower altitudes in China’s earthquake-affected areas, straining facilities at the local panda research center, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The devastating May 12 Sichuan earthquake caused landslides and destroyed some of the wild pandas’ habitat, reducing supplies of their main source of food, bamboo, in the range of 2,500m to 3,200m where they normally live. In normal winter periods from December to March, four to five wild pandas are found at lower levels, seeking food or showing signs of illness, but the Wolong Nature Reserve Administration said two had already been found by local residents late last month.
■Philippines
Militants free nurse
Al-Qaeda-linked militants have freed a nurse they held hostage for four months after her family paid a ransom, officials said yesterday. Regional police commander chief superintendent Bensali Jabarani said members of the Abu Sayyaf group handed over Preciosa Feliciano late on Friday to provincial authorities on the island province of Basilan near the southern port city of Zamboanga. Gunmen snatched the 24-year-old nurse in July and took her by boat to Basilan. Her family said she was missing for a week until the kidnappers called asking for ransom. The victim’s elder brother, Ben Feliciano, has told reporters the family paid 2 million pesos (US$40,000) to the kidnappers. The family also gave them a motorcycle and an M-16 rifle, he said. The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for kidnappings, beheading hostages and bombings and is on the US list of terror groups.
■AUSTRIA
Man convicted of killing five
A court has convicted a man of murdering five family members with an ax and sentenced him to life in prison. The 39-year-old was distraught after losing money on stock dealings when he killed his wife, their seven-year-old daughter, his parents and his father-in-law. The man has not been identified in keeping with custom. He turned himself in after the May killings in Vienna and the northern province of Upper Austria. He said he murdered his family to spare them the shame of his financial ruin. A court in Vienna gave the verdict and judgment on Friday.
■BELGIUM
Berlusconi defends remark
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday defended his description of US president-elect Barack Obama as “young, handsome and even tanned,” and said critics who saw the remark as racist were “imbeciles.” Berlusconi was visibly annoyed when reporters questioned him after an EU summit in Brussels about the possibility of political fallout from comments he made on Thursday while in Moscow about the US’ first black president. On Friday, Berlusconi told reporters that the remark was meant to be complimentary and “cute.” Italy’s only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, said Thursday he was “deeply disappointed” by Berlusconi’s first public comments about such a historic event but said he didn’t think Berlusconi was racist.
■NORWAY
Bank crisis dooms circus
A traveling circus fell victim to the financial crisis on Friday, declaring bankruptcy after failing to get paid for shows in Iceland. “When we didn’t get paid for Iceland it broke our back,” Cirkus Agora founder and director Jan Ketil Smoerdal said. Agora had a tour of Iceland this summer. But it lost about US$146,600 when the company that handled its finances there went belly-up as Iceland’s financial system collapsed in the global credit crunch. He said Agora did not pay workers last month and had sent its animals to Germany, where they may find work at another circus.
■GAZA STRIP
Rockets hit Israeli towns
A barrage of rockets hit Israeli towns early yesterday as Palestinian militants again breached an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Yesterday morning, the Islamic Jihad faction said it fired 10 homemade rockets into Israeli cities. The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the less-influential Islamic Jihad, said six of the rockets were fired at Sderot and four missiles were aimed at the coastal city of Ashkelon. Israeli planes responded by bombing four abandoned rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad said. No injuries were reported.
■MONACO
Arctic talks to open
Talks will take place today and tomorrow on how to increase environmental research in the Arctic, officials said on Friday. The conference, unfolding under the chairmanship of EU president France, will gather countries of the 27-nation EU, as well as Norway, Iceland, Monaco and representatives from Greenland, a Danish territory. Invitations have also gone out to Canada, Russia and the US and to representatives from China, India, Japan and South Korea, which have scientific activities in the region. Experts will draw up an inventory of research and discuss a network of observational stations. Tomorrow ministers or stand-ins will debate the experts’ recommendations.
■Myanmar
Leader congratulates Obama
Myanmar’s state-controlled press says the country’s military leader has sent congratulations to US President-elect Barack Obama. The Myanma Ahlin daily reported that Than Shwe, chairman of the Southeast Asian nation’s military government, sent a message to Obama following his win in the US election. The US is one of the strongest critics of a Myanmar regime that routinely jails dissidents and keeps Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
■United States
Palin fires back
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin fired back on Friday against post-election claims by aides to Republican presidential candidate John McCain that she thought Africa was a country, not a continent. Palin told CNN the allegation “is not true.” She said the leaks could have come from people who helped her with preparation for her debate against Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. She said she remembered having conversations during debate preparation about Africa and the North American Free Trade Agreement. A Fox News report cited unidentified campaign sources who said Palin did not know Africa was a continent and could not name the three countries in NAFTA — the US, Canada and Mexico. “I think if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA or about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context, and that is cruel and mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks,” Palin said.
■Venezuela
Chavez sings ode to rebel
President Hugo Chavez has made a show business appearance singing on a new compilation of revolutionary songs released by his United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Chavez, who is prone to belting out folk songs during his frequent television appearances, sings an ode to a 19th century rebel leader on the album. The president’s familiar growling baritone rolls over a traditional harp-led joropo backing in the song, which praises the exploits of Maisanta, a rebel fighter from whom Chavez claims to be descended. The album, called Battle Music, also features a rap track that samples a Chavez speech. Last year a Chavez aide put together a selection of his top singing moments.
■United States
Boy accused of killing dad
An eight-year-boy is accused of fatally shooting his father and another man in Arizona. St Johns police chief Roy Melnick says the boy is charged with two counts of premeditated murder after the shootings on Wednesday. The victims were the boy’s father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero, and 39-year-old Timothy Romans. Melnick says police arrived at a home shortly after the shooting and found one victim just outside the front door. The other was found in an upstairs room. Melnick says the boy initially denied involvement but later confessed.
■United States
Craigslist cracks down
Online classified site craigslist.com has introduced new rules aimed at cracking down on ads for prostitutes. Craigslist said it would now charge a small fee and require credit card verification for postings in the “erotic services” section of the site, in addition to an existing requirement that a working phone number be supplied. The site said all of the revenue from the ads would be donated to charity.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
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