PHILIPPINES
Defense talks with US begin
US and Philippine officials are expected to agree on an increase in the number of US military ships, aircraft and troops rotating through the Philippines, Manila officials said, as tensions simmer with China over its maritime claims. Senior US and Philippine officials met yesterday in Manila to discuss strengthening security and economic ties at a time of growing tension over China’s aggressive sovereignty claims over vast stretches of the South China Sea. “What we are discussing right now is increasing the rotational presence of US forces,” Philippine Assistant Secretary for American Affairs Carlos Sorreta told reporters. A five-year joint US-Philippine military exercise plan would be approved this week, he added. One US official said Washington was not ready to wade directly into the territorial dispute in the South China Sea and would instead focus on strengthening security ties with long-standing allies like Manila.
TURKEY
Ozal autopsy reveals poison
The exhumed body of former president Turgut Ozal, who led the country out of military rule in the 1980s, contained poison, but the cause of death was unclear, media reported an autopsy as revealing yesterday. There have long been rumors that Ozal, who died of heart failure in 1993 aged 65, was murdered by militants of the “deep state” — a shadowy group of security establishment figures and criminal elements. Ozal’s efforts to end a Kurdish insurgency and create a Turkic union with central Asian states have been cited as motives for would-be enemies. Ozal survived an assassination bid in 1988. The national forensic institute completed the autopsy on Tuesday and the results will be sent to prosecutors who are investigating suspicions of foul play, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. Previous media reports have said Ozal’s body, dug up in October on prosecutors’ orders, revealed traces of insecticides, pesticides and radioactive elements.
IRAN
Local-made choppers shown
State television said the country has put its first domestically produced helicopters into service, displaying them at an air show. The report said the 12-passenger Panha-1 and eight-passenger Panha-2 helicopters have military capabilities. The unveiling came on Tuesday during an aviation exhibition on the Gulf island of Kish. The government also displayed a new six-passenger airplane and landing gear for a jet fighter. The nation began a military self-sufficiency program in 1992. It periodically announces accomplishments in the fields of industry and military production. Ten countries, including Russia, China, Ukraine, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sudan, are participating in the exhibition, which ends tomorrow.
SINGAPORE
Paper to publish pet obits
Grieving pet owners can soon share their feelings about their deceased furred family members via obituaries in the nation’s largest newspaper, the Straits Times. The paper’s pets section will let pet owners publish goodbye messages to their non-human companions along with a photo. In a report on the country’s pet care market, research firm Euromonitor said: “Many pet owners are increasingly treating their pets as household members and are therefore pampering their pets with luxurious food, products and services, just as they would dote on their family.” Needless to say, the obituaries are not free — they will each cost S$50 (US$40.96), with a goods and services tax of 7 percent on top of that.
UNITED STATES
Ex-policeman executed
A former police officer who murdered nine people during a 1986 crime spree in Florida was executed on Tuesday after his attorneys’ last-minute appeals were rejected. Manuel Pardo, 56, was pronounced dead at Florida State Prison at 7:47pm, about 16 minutes after the lethal injection process began. His attorneys had tried to block the execution by arguing that he was mentally ill, but federal courts declined to intercede. Prison officials said his final words were: “Airborne forever. I love you, Michi baby,” referring to his daughter. Pardo also wrote a final statement that was distributed to the media, in which he claimed that he never killed any women, but “accepted full responsibility for killing six men.”
UNITED STATES
Terror suspects arrested
Federal authorities on Tuesday arrested two Alabama men on terrorism charges, accusing them of plotting to wage violent jihad overseas after meeting online in 2010. Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, were arrested in separate locations in Georgia, according to the FBI and US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama. Authorities said Wilson was a friend and former roommate of Omar Shafik Hammami, a US citizen who was added to the FBI’s most wanted list of terrorism suspects last month. Hammami is suspected of being a senior leader in al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant group, and is wanted on terrorism charges in Alabama. Wilson was taken into custody in Atlanta as he attempted to board a flight headed to Morocco on Tuesday, and Abukhdair was apprehended at an Augusta bus terminal, authorities said.
UNITED STATES
Quintuplets’ mom dies
Mary Ann Darling Fischer, the woman who gave birth to the first known surviving quintuplets in the nation, passed away on Sunday at age 79. Thrust into the spotlight after giving birth to the four girls and one boy, Fischer and her then-husband retreated into the most quintessential South Dakota activities: They took part in a bowling league, hunted pheasants and attended regular Sunday church services. “I would rather go into the delivery room than come down here,” Fischer said as she faced 30 reporters at her first news conference following the birth of the babies. The Fischers didn’t know they were expecting quintuplets until a few days before the babies were born two months premature. Andrew Fischer said he “shook,” while Mary Ann, 30 at the time, started crying when the doctor told them that instead of one baby, they were having five.
TURKEY
‘Doomsday’ good for village
Believers of a Mayan calendar prediction that the world will end on Dec. 21 have flooded into a small village near the ancient city of Ephesus. Some New Age spiritualists are convinced of a Dec. 21 “doomsday” foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs — at least according to some interpretations. Sirince, a village of about 600 inhabitants, has a positive energy, according to the doomsday cultists, who say that it is close to an area where Christians believe the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven. The Mayan prophecy has sparked a tourism boom in the village, which is now expected to host more than 60,000 visitors, local media said. “It is the first time we witness such an interest during the winter season,” local media quoted hotel owner Ilkan Gulgun as saying.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in