SINGAPORE
Lee KuXUL3an Yew’s wife dies
The wife of the city-state’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), died yesterday at age 89, the Prime Minister’s Office said. Kwa Geok Choo (柯玉芝), who had been bedridden for over two years, unable to speak or move, passed away at 5:40pm in her home. Her husband, Lee Kuan Yew, 87, the architect of modern Singapore, has been in hospital since Wednesday for a chest infection. However, he was shown in good spirits on Friday in his hospital room. Lee is credited with transforming Singapore from a swampy Third World sea port into a First World financial dynamo.
UNITED STATES
Bin Laden behind plots: US
Counter-terrorism officials say they believe that senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are involved in the latest terror plots against European cities. The multi-pronged scope of the emerging plan — which aimed to launch coordinated shooting sprees or attacks in Britain, France and Germany — is an al-Qaeda hallmark. One US intelligence official added, however, that the details of how the plan was directed or coordinated by the group’s core leaders is not yet clear.
THE NETHERLANDS
Anti-Islam MP faces trial
Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, set to become a shadow partner of the next coalition government, goes on trial in Amsterdam tomorrow for inciting hatred against Muslims. The controversial politician with his signature shock of blonde-dyed hair risks up to a year in jail or a 7,600 euro (US$10,471) fine, according to prosecutors, for calling Islam “fascist” and likening the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Wilders, 47, will stand trial on five charges of giving religious offense to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans. Wilders campaigns for a stop to Muslim immigration, banning the construction of new mosques and a tax on headscarves.
SOUTH AFRICA
Charity trustee facing charges
A former trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is facing criminal charges after supermodel Naomi Campbell told a war crimes tribunal she gave him three alleged blood diamonds in 1997, prosecutors said. Jeremy Ractliffe, who admitted he had the stones after they came under scrutiny at the war crimes trial of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, has been charged with illegal possession of uncut diamonds, South Africa’s national prosecuting authority said on Friday. Campbell told judges she gave the three uncut diamonds to Ractliffe to “do something good with.” The day after her testimony, Ractliffe confirmed he had kept the stones.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police pay review launched
The government said on Friday it was launching the most comprehensive review of police pay and conditions in more than 30 years to maximize value for money in tough economic times. Home Secretary Theresa May said “nothing would be off limits” in a re-evaluation of roles, pay, pensions and work conditions. She said detailed scrutiny of practices aimed to inject a dose of modern management thinking into the running of the 43 forces in England and Wales. In July police watchdog Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Audit Commission said better procurement, more collaboration between forces and reforming old-fashioned shift patterns to meet demand could save £1 billion (US$1.6 billion)
NORWAY
Oil firms resist US pressure
Major European oil firms resisted pressure from the US on Friday to stop doing business with Iran, in spite of Washington’s drive to isolate Tehran over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. France’s Total said it was still buying Iranian crude as it was not illegal under new UN sanctions, Norway’s Statoil said it was providing Iran with technical assistance and Italy’s Eni said it would exit Iran only when existing deals expire. The US had said on Thursday that all three, as well as Royal Dutch Shell, would abandon their Iranian activities voluntarily to avoid US sanctions. US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said on Thursday the firms “have provided assurances to us” that they have stopped or are in process of stopping activity in Iran and would not undertake new deals that may be sanctionable.
UNITED STATES
New US$100 bill delayed
The Federal Reserve said on Friday that the Feb. 10 release of the new high-tech US$100 bill had been postponed because of printing troubles, adding that it would announce a new date as soon as possible. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing said the new bills, which have been redesigned with sophisticated elements aimed at thwarting counterfeiters, had come out of some of initial printing runs with unwanted creases. Officials unveiled the redesigned US$100 bill in April. Benjamin Franklin is still on the C-note, but he has been joined by some snazzy new features. Those include a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon that is composed of thousands of tiny lenses. Those lenses magnify the objects underneath them to make them appear that they are moving in the opposite direction from the way the bill is being moved.
UNITED STATES
Michigan official under fire
An assistant attorney general in Michigan has taken a personal leave of absence and may be disciplined for his online attacks on a gay campus leader at the University of Michigan. The official, Andrew Shirvell, has drawn national attention — and calls for his ouster — because of his attacks through his personal blog on the student, Chris Armstrong, who is believed to be the first openly gay president of the university’s student assembly. Shirvell has called Armstrong a racist with a “radical homosexual agenda.” Shirvell will face a disciplinary hearing when he returns to work, a spokesman for the attorney general said on Friday. Armstrong, 21, has filed for a personal protection order against Shirvell, saying Shirvell took pictures outside his house at 1:30am. University officials and students have come together to support Armstrong. The university has banned Shirvell from campus, and its president, Mary Sue Coleman, called his behavior reprehensible.
FRANCE
Interpol raids counterfeiters
Police taking part in an operation against illegal counterfeiting in 13 Latin American countries have arrested 600 people and seized US$50 million in fake goods, international police agency Interpol said on Friday. The counterfeit articles ranged from car parts to soft drinks and falsely branded designer clothes, and included sub-standard toys that pose a health risk to children. The raids were launched under Interpol’s Operation Jupiter against counterfeiting in 12 countries in South America as well as Panama, which has seized goods worth an estimated US$340 million since 2005 and helped dismantle criminal gangs smuggling guns and narcotics.
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