MALASYIA
PM plans crash site team
The country aims to send a search team to the crash site in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 before winter sets in to gather physical evidence to prove that it was shot down, Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday. Najib said the government has “pretty conclusive” intelligence reports about what happened to the jet carrying 298 people, but evidence must be collected so that its downing can be proved beyond a doubt if the case goes to court. “That’s why we are very, very keen to re-enter the crash site before winter sets in. We need at least a few weeks not only to search for the body parts of victims, but to assemble physical evidence,” Najib said at a joint press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. “Once that process is completed, we will look at the criminal side, who is responsible for this atrocious crime,” Najib said. The plane plunged from the sky on July 17, killing all on board, while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine.
PAKISTAN
Flooding death toll rises
A government official says 110 people have been killed across the country in heavy monsoon downpours and flooding as more rain is forecast for the coming days. Ahmad Kamal, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, said yesterday that 61 people died in the eastern Punjab Province since Thursday. He said another 38 people died in Kashmir and 11 died in northern Gilgit Baltistan Province. Kamal said officials believe all those were killed when the roofs of their homes collapsed.
INDONESIA
Surfer dies off Lombok
An Australian man has died after being hit by a wave while surfing in central Indonesia, police said, while another Australian surfer remains missing near the holiday island of Bali. Friends on Friday noticed the 54-year-old man floating about 100m from the shore of Sorga beach on the island of Lombok, which lies just east of the popular resort island of Bali, local police chief Arif Budiman said. “He went out Friday morning and only surfed for a few minutes before he was seen floating in the water,” Budiman said, adding he is believed to have been hit by a wave.
PAKISTAN
Chinese leader’s visit on ice
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) first visit to the country has been postponed over the mass anti-government demonstrations shaking its capital, Islamabad. Protesters have been demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif step down over allegations of fraud in last year’s election. The ministry issued a statement yesterday saying Beijing and Islamabad “mutually agreed” to postpone the visit, which was to take place later this month. It said new dates for the visit were being discussed.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii declares emergency
Hawaii’s Big Island has declared a state of emergency as lava from an active volcano threatens nearby homes, which could be evacuated within days, officials and reports said on Friday. Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi signed a proclamation on Thursday after the lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano advanced to within 1.6km of a residential area. The emergency proclamation lets authorities close roads to non-residents, to make it easier for people who live there to evacuate rapidly if necessary, Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said.
MEXICO
Storm headed for California
Heavy rains brought by Hurricane Norbert prompted evacuations as the storm roared up the coast of Baja California Peninsula. Forecasters said the storm might help bring weekend precipitation to the parched US Southwest. Baja California Sur State Govenor Marcos Covarrubias urged people in vulnerable areas to evacuate and said travelers should stay off highways as the storm passed by. He said most government services would be closed or restricted, and schools in Los Cabos and La Paz were closed on Friday. At least 1,000 people remained in shelters in Los Cabos, where the storm knocked out electricity in parts of the area. Ports in the area popular with US tourists remained closed to navigation and police officers were sent to evacuated neighborhoods to prevent looting, Pettit added.
UNITED STATES
Opera star extends contract
Placido Domingo’s contract as general director of the Los Angeles Opera has been extended through the 2018-2019 season. The 73-year-old tenor became artistic consultant to the company in 1984 and was artistic director from 2001 to 2003 before becoming general director. His previous contract was announced in September 2010 as a deal running through last year that would renew automatically by mutual consent. Domingo sings the baritone part of Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata this month, his 26th role with the company. The LA Opera’s board of directors announced the extension on Friday, when it also extended the deal of chief executive officer Christopher Koelsch through June 2018 and promoted John Nuckols to executive vice president.
POLAND
Robots vie in Mars tests
Robots built to tackle Mars’ rugged terrain battled it out on Friday in a competition in Checiny to find the best way to explore the Red Planet. The European Rover Challenge has drawn competitors from as far as Colombia, Egypt and India, keen to prove their machines have what it takes to conquer the giant mountains and unforgiving canyons of Earth’s neighbor. The automated vehicles, designed to emulate NASA’s Mars rover explorers, were tested performing four tasks on red soil imitating Mars’ surface. Tasks include surface exploration, helping an injured astronaut, gathering soil samples and searching for signs of life. “At last, our robot, Scorpio 4, is ready for the competition,” Szymon Dzwonczyk, a 21-year-old student at the Wroclaw University of Technology said. “It’s a four-wheeled modular build that can be used in different ways for scientific exploration,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Agency finds old pathogens
The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials. The agency began an investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the agency’s campus in Washington. On Friday, the agency said it found in different facilities small amounts of five improperly stored “select agents,” pathogens that must be registered and kept only in certain highly regulated laboratories. All were found in sealed and intact containers, with no evidence that they posed a safety risk to anyone in the labs or surrounding areas, the agency said in a memo to employees. All have been destroyed, it added.
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