ARGENTINA
President leaves hospital
President Cristina Fernandez, who has faced recurring medical problems, was released from hospital on Sunday after a new health crisis that forced her to cancel a trip to this week’s G20 summit. The Argentine leader, 61, who was hospitalized the previous week with fever and stomach pains, was diagnosed as having an intestinal infection. Doctors allowed her to leave hospital, but have ordered her to rest for 10 days, her office said. Fernandez had to cancel her attendance at the G20 summit later this week in Brisbane, Australia. The nation is to be represented instead by Economy Minister Axel Kicillof and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman. It is the third time in less than a year that Fernandez, who is in her last year in office, has been sidelined by health issues. She was waylaid for several days last month by pharyngitis and in July Fernandez was sidelined for several days by laryngitis, forcing her to cancel a trip to Paraguay.
COLOMBIA
Seven guerrillas jailed
An indigenous court convicted seven Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas of murdering two leaders of the Nasa tribe in western Colombia on Sunday, sentencing them to between 40 and 60 years in jail, and 20 lashes. The harshest sentence — 60 years in prison — was handed down to Carlos Ivan Silva, who confessed to killing two native leaders on Wednesday. The victims were removing billboards praising late FARC leader Guillermo Leon Saenz, also known as Alfonso Cano, when they were murdered. Four other defendants were sentenced to 40 years each for having “fired indiscriminately on other members of the community” alongside Silva. Two teenagers also arrested were sentenced to 20 lashes and will be held at a rehabilitation center until they are 18, at which point a new assembly will reconsider their cases. When crimes are committed in Aboriginal territory, the punishment for the accused is decided by the community and not the justice system.
AFGHANISTAN
Bomb attacks kill 10 cops
Bombs struck three cities, including the capital Kabul, on Monday, killing at least 10 police officers, officials said, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber penetrated police headquarters in Kabul killing at least one person. In Kabul, a magnetic bomb planted in a flower bed near a university wounded three people, while seven police were killed in Logar Province when a suicide bomber blew himself up at police headquarters, echoing Sunday’s attack in the capital. In Nangarhar Province, three policemen were killed by a bomb planted in a rickshaw, officials said.
EGYPT
Group pledges IS allegiance
The nation’s deadliest militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), in a recording posted on its Twitter account on Monday. “We announce our pledge of allegiance to the caliph Ibrahim Ibn Awad... to listen and obey,” the audio recording said, referring to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group has waged a campaign of violence from its Sinai Peninsula stronghold that has killed scores of police officers and soldiers since the Egyptian army ousted former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in July last year. Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif said the announcement would make no difference to the fight against the militants. “They are just different names for the same terrorists,” he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Warning shots fired in DMZ
Troops yesterday fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers approached too close to the border separating the two nations, Seoul defense officials said. About 10 North Korean soldiers retreated without returning fire after troops fired 20 rounds of warning shots, the officials said. There were no reports of casualties. The incident happened near the military demarcation line inside the 4km wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
HONG KONG
Murder suspect faces tests
The Eastern Magistrates’ Court yesterday adjourned the case against a British banker Rurik Jutting for two weeks of psychiatric exams. Jutting, a 29-year-old securities trader, is accused of killing two young Indonesian women whose mutilated bodies were found at his apartment. The law requires reports by two different doctors, prosecutor Louise Wong said. Jutting will next appear on Nov. 24, principal magistrate Bina Chainrai said. Wong told the court that a reconstruction of the crime “has not yet been conducted because the defendant did not give consent.” Defense lawyer Tim Parker said that Jutting had not agreed to a reconstruction “yet” — but may do in future. Jutting is being held at the maximum security Siu Lam psychiatric center, Wong said.
PHILIPPINES
Dog alerts handler to bomb
A police dog handler in Zamboanga narrowly avoided death after his dog alerted him just before a bomb exploded, police said yesterday. Officer Manuel Ynid was slightly injured when a bomb hidden in a cardboard box exploded late on Sunday, police spokesman Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca said. The dog has been given a week to recover from the stress, officials said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of