ISRAEL
Army suspends officer
The military has suspended the officer in charge during an incident in the West Bank that saw soldiers assault two Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists, take their equipment and destroy it, the army said. “The officer in charge of the operations on the ground has been suspended from operational duty until further notice,” Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said of the incident on Friday. Lerner said the move was an immediate step “pending further disciplinary measures” against the officer or other soldiers and that investigations were continuing. He added that the military considered it a “grave” incident. “Lessons from the incident will be learnt and disseminated within the [army],” Lerner told reporters on Saturday.
CANADA
Prisoner loses citizenship
The government has revoked the citizenship of the convicted mastermind of a 2006 al-Qaeda-inspired plot to detonate bombs in Toronto, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Zakaria Amara received a life sentence in January 2010 and is serving his time in a penitentiary in Quebec. The National Post reported that Amara was notified by letter that he is no longer a citizen and that the move is a first for the government following the new law’s implementation. Minister of Defense Jason Kenney appeared to confirm the development, tweeting: “This man hated Canada so much, he planned on murdering hundreds of Canadians. He forfeited his own citizenship.” Under a law that took effect in May, the government can revoke the citizenship of people convicted of terrorism, provided they hold dual citizenship. Amara, who still has a Jordanian passport, was deemed the mastermind of an al-Qaeda inspired plot to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canadian spy agency offices and a military base.
BOLIVIA
Term-limits law advances
Parliament passed a law on Saturday that, if ratified in a national referendum next year would allow President Evo Morales to run for another term. The law, approved in a marathon overnight session by more than two-thirds of lawmakers, would amend the constitution to eliminate presidential term limits. “It’s not about being forever,” Morales told reporters in New York, where he is attending the annual UN General Assembly. Morales, who came to power in 2006 and whose approval rating is above 60 percent, says he would happily give up office, but says his supporters are pushing for him to stay. Historically one of South America’s most unstable countries, Bolivia has enjoyed relative prosperity and calm under Morales, its first indigenous leader. The constitution, adopted in 2009, bars more than two consecutive terms.
UNITED STATES
Rapper DMX freed
Rapper DMX is free after serving more than two months in a New York jail for failing to pay child support. His lawyer says the 44-year-old rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, walked out of the Erie County Holding Center in Buffalo on Friday afternoon. Simmons’ attorney, Dominic Candino, said his client was “ecstatic” after his release. Candino says Simmons was freed after he filed a motion asking a judge to stay the sentence, which was granted. Cardino said there had been “some legal issues” in the case, but would not elaborate. Simmons was arrested before a performance in New York City in June. Authorities said at the time he owed US$400,000 in unpaid child support. Simmons will need to appear in court again in November.
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