Indonesian police and the military launched a series of anti-terror exercises yesterday, a week ahead of a visit to the country by US President Barack Obama.
The exercises were expected to be held in several places, including the capital’s main international airport, the stock market building, upmarket hotels and an area of sea north of Jakarta.
“We hope that these exercises can make both the military and police more professional in handling cases related to terrorism,” Indonesian military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Tamboen said the timing of the exercises, about a week before Obama’s visit to the world’s most populous Muslim majority country, was a “coincidence.”
Obama, who was invited by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, lived in Jakarta as a boy between 1967 and 1971.
He is scheduled to leave the US on March 21 for the trip, which also includes stops in Guam and Australia.
Late last month, Indonesian police began a series of raids on militant suspects in remote Aceh Province. In the latest raids on Friday, two terror suspects were shot dead and eight arrested.
A senior leader of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, Dulmatin, was gunned down by police on the outskirts of Jakarta on Tuesday.
Dulmatin, who was accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was buried on Friday morning.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of