AUSTRALIA
Chef cooked lover: report
Police yesterday said they had begun a murder probe after they found human remains in an apartment, but refused to confirm reports that body parts were cooking on the stove. Authorities went to the home in Brisbane on Saturday night after neighbors reported a terrible smell. “Upon attendance there, we’ve had cause to commence an investigation in relation to a murder-suicide,” Detective Inspector Tom Armitt said. Police confirmed that human remains were found inside the apartment in Teneriffe and that a man’s body was found in a nearby street. Queensland’s Courier-Mail said the man was a 28-year-old chef who had worked on cruise ships and had recently moved into the apartment with his Indonesian girlfriend. Police would not comment on the paper’s report that the man slit his throat, or that they found parts of the woman’s body cooking in a pot on the stove.
MALAYSIA
Navy looks for lost gunboat
The navy has launched a search for seven crew members after their gunboat went missing off Borneo in rough seas, a top naval official said yesterday. The incident happened after the vessel set out for a routine sea patrol in the South China Sea on Sunday near Mengalum Island off eastern Sabah State on Borneo. “Yes, it is true. Please pray for their safety,” navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said on Twitter when asked about the boat. The navy said the craft was on its way to the Layang Layang atoll, part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Brunei and the Philippines. Abdul Aziz said a search has been launched, but bad weather was hampering it.
AUSTRALIA
New MH370 search begins
The next phase in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 began yesterday, with a new vessel resuming the underwater hunt, said the Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the probe. Australia has been spearheading the hunt for the plane, which is believed to have come down in the ocean after disappearing on March 8 with 239 people onboard. Despite huge air and sea searches, no sign of the Boeing 777-200 has been found. In the latest phase, the Malaysia-contracted GO Phoenix will send sophisticated sonar systems up to 6,000m below sea level to search the ocean floor.
THAILAND
King’s gall bladder removed
King Bhumibol Adulyadej has had his gall bladder removed, the palace said yesterday, two days after the revered 86-year-old monarch was rushed to hospital sparking fears for his health. The world’s longest-serving monarch was driven from his coastal palace to Bangkok’s Siriraj hospital with a fever on Friday evening. Tests over the weekend found he had a swollen gall bladder, prompting the operation to remove it late on Sunday, the Royal Household Bureau said in a statement. Doctors were “satisfied” with the outcome of the surgery and the king’s condition was “improving” yesterday, the statement said.
JAPAN
Teen killer’s dad hangs self
The father of a 16-year-old schoolgirl who confessed to decapitating a classmate has killed himself, reports said yesterday. The 53-year-old, whose name was withheld, was found hanged in his Sasebo home on Sunday, Jiji Press said. His daughter was arrested in July on suspicion of murdering her 15-year-old classmate after police discovered a dismembered body in her home. “My daughter’s act can never be forgiven for any reason or cause,” her father had said in August.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing