INDONESIA
Boy dies of bird flu
A 12-year-old boy on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has died from bird flu on Tuesday, the fourth human death from the virus this year, an official said yesterday. The boy developed fever on Feb. 11 and was admitted to hospital five days later, said Rita Kusriastuti, head of the Indonesian ministry of health’s animal-borne infectious disease control department. “He suffered shortness of breath and eventually died on Feb. 21. Laboratory tests confirmed he died from the H5N1 virus,” she added.
PAKISTAN
US efforts failing: cable
The US ambassador to Afghanistan sent a top-secret cable to Washington last month warning that the existence of enemy havens in Pakistan was placing the US strategy in Afghanistan in jeopardy, the Washington Post reported late on Friday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said that the cable, written by ambassador Ryan Crocker, amounted to an admission that US efforts to curtail activities in Pakistan by the Haqqani network, a key Taliban ally, were failing.
ITALY
Church property to get taxed
Italy’s government announced measures on Friday to end tax exemptions on commercial property owned by the Catholic Church, a move expected to add as much as 600 million euros (US$805 million) to state coffers each year. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who is a practising Catholic, tacked the measure — which also affects other non-profit organizations — onto a larger deregulation package currently going through parliament. The Church owns many private clinics, hotels and guesthouses that enjoy tax-exempt status, because parts of them are also occupied by priests or nuns, or have a chapel. The new law closes this loophole. The income it makes from the measure will go towards cutting taxes, the government said.
KAZAKHSTAN
Opposition leaders arrested
Kazakh police arrested three leading opposition members yesterday as hundreds of protesters braved a much stronger security presence to rally against strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s rule. About 1,000 protesters had gathered on the main Palace of the Republic square in the financial capital Alamty to express outrage at the energy-rich state’s rights record under the veteran leader. Police raided the homes of three top members of the unregistered Azat (Freedom) party before the event began and hauled them off to a central police station for questioning, a party spokesman said by telephone.
NORTH KOREA
Talks no closer: diplomat
A US diplomat said yesterday that talks with North Korea aimed at restarting six-party negotiations on the country’s nuclear programs are unlikely to produce a breakthrough in the near future. Glyn Davies, coordinator for US policy on North Korea, said there was still a “long way” to go before the six-party talks could resume. Davies was speaking in Seoul, where he arrived yesterday to brief South Korean officials on two days of discussions with North Korean diplomats in Beijing. In the Chinese capital he had said he had seen “a little bit of progress,” but no breakthrough. Asked about the prospect of the six-party talks resuming, Davies was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying: “We are so long away from anything like that.”
VENEZUELA
Chavez back in Cuba
President Hugo Chavez arrived in Cuba for urgent cancer surgery following an emotional departure in which he vowed to win the presidential election in October despite his illness. The socialist leader said he was greeted at the airport by Cuban President Raul Castro and that he planned to meet with Cuban doctors for medical tests scheduled for yesterday. “I have faith that everything will go well,” Chavez told state television by telephone late on Friday. Chavez, who is seeking his fourth term as president, has said the tumor that doctors will try to remove is probably malignant.
UNITED STATES
UK businessman faces trial
A retired British businessman accused of plotting to sell missile components to Iran arrived in the country late on Friday to face charges after failing to overturn an extradition order. Christopher Tappin faces charges in El Paso, Texas, that he tried in 2006 to buy specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for US$25,000 from undercover agents with the intention of exporting them to Iran. His first court appearance is scheduled for tomorrow. The 65-year-old Tappin faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted. He fought extradition for two years until last month when he was denied a petition to take the case to Britain’s Supreme Court. A subsequent appeal to the European Human Rights Court was also rejected.
UNITED STATES
Bout removed from solitary
A judge on Friday ordered Viktor Bout, a Russian convicted of arms trafficking, to be removed from solitary confinement and put into a regular facility, saying that to continue his 15-month ordeal violated the constitution. Bout was convicted in November last year in New York federal court. Since his extradition Bout has been kept in severely restrictive conditions in the special housing unit of the metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan. While there, he has been confined to a tiny cell with just one hour of exercise in another small room, where he is also alone.
SPAIN
Treasure heads back home
Tonnes of gold and silver from a Spanish ship that sunk in 1804 and was discovered by a US deep sea exploration company was on its way home on Friday aboard two military transport planes. The transfer ends a five-year legal battle between Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc and Madrid over treasure from the sunken frigate Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, the most valuable sunken treasure discovery in history. “The total was 49,000lbs, much more than the 17 tonnes thought at first, because the first quantity the company announced was not correct,” Ministry of Defense press spokesperson Miguel Morer said. he added that the treasure was believed to be worth about US$500 million.
RUSSIA
Anti-Putin protests continue
Alexei Navalny vowed to lead 10,000 people through the streets of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s native city yesterday in protest against his likely return to the Kremlin in March 4 polls. The event was called a day before thousands more hoped to link hands around Moscow in a poignant show of frustration with the former KGB spy’s decision to seek a third presidential term after dominating politics for 12 years. “The head of the party of swindlers and thieves has to be crushed [in Saint Petersburg] on March 4,” Navalny wrote in his blog.
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