IRAQ
France was warned of attack
Senior intelligence officials warned members of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week’s attacks in Paris. Intelligence officials sent a dispatch saying the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead. The dispatch said Baghdad had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official said that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day.” Six senior Baghadad officials confirmed the information in the dispatch, and four of these intelligence officials said they also warned France specifically of a potential attack. Among the warnings: that the Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria — the Islamic State’s de facto capital — where the attackers were trained specifically for the operation and with the intention of sending them to France. The officials also said a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them execute the plan. There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning. The officials all spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Without commenting specifically on the warning from Baghdad, a senior US intelligence official said he was not aware of any threat information sent to Western governments that was specific enough to have thwarted the Paris attacks.
UNITED STATES
Flags at half-staff
The national flag will fly at half-staff at the White House and other official buildings across the country and abroad until sunset on Thursday to honor the dead in the Paris terror attacks. President Barack Obama issued the order on Sunday. The Stars and Stripes will also be flown at half-staff at all of the country’s embassies and missions overseas. Flags at the Congress were at half-staff on Sunday in honor of the victims of the Paris attacks. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan gave the order out of what he called “respect and solidarity.”
TURKEY
‘Major’ attack foiled
Authorities foiled a plot to stage a “major” attack in Istanbul on the same day as the attacks in Paris, a senior official said on Sunday. Police on Friday detained five people in Istanbul, the source said, including a suspected close associate of the notorious Islamic State group militant known as “Jihadi John.” “We believe they were planning an attack in Istanbul on the same day as the Paris attacks” on Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity. “The initial investigation shows we foiled a major attack.”
GERMANY
Merkel defends refugees
Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed back against critics of her open-door policy on refugees, saying those fleeing war zones should not have to bear the blame for the terrorist attacks in Paris. Merkel’s comments during a G20 summit in Turkey on Sunday were a rebuff to domestic opponents who cited the slaughter in the French capital as evidence that the chancellor must reverse her stance and turn people away. Merkel called for a swift investigation into the motives behind the terrorist carnage.
INDONESIA
Trafficking trials open
Separate trials opened yesterday for three local boat captains and five Thais charged with human trafficking connected with slavery in the seafood industry. The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina in May. They are being tried separately in Tual, a municipality in Maluku Province. All eight are employees at Pusaka Benjina Resources, one of the largest fishing firms in the eastern part of the nation. They are accused of locking up fishermen for one to six months in a prison-like cell located in the company’s compound in Benjina. If found guilty they could face jail sentences of up to 15 years and fines as high as US$46,000.
MALAYSIA
Band faces deportation
Members of the Australian metalcore band I Killed The Prom Queen yesterday were in an immigration lock-up after being detained for performing at the weekend without a permit, Immigration Department Director General Mustafa Ibrahim said. “I want to release them as soon as possible and send them back home. I do not want the news of their arrest to go viral,” he said. Guitarist Jona Weinhofen on Sunday tweeted that the band had been detained late the night before by immigration officials, some of whom asked for their autographs. “Weirdest part is some of the immigration officers asked us to autograph stuff & one is wearing a prom queen shirt. Still locking us up tho,” he tweeted.
ARGENTINA
Grandson deletes past
The grandson of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has been granted permission to drop his grandfather’s surname from his official documents, media reports said on Sunday. Tomas Erick Ramon Priebke Ortiz, 25, began the process of changing his name two years ago, shortly after his grandfather’s death caused an international crisis over what to do with his body, which no country wanted. Erich Priebke was convicted of taking part in the 1944 massacre of 335 people in the Ardeatine caves near Rome.
UNITED STATES
Five freed from Guantanamo
Five men who have been held for more than 13 years in the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Pentagon said on Sunday. The five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Persian Gulf nation after authorities determined they no longer posed a threat, the Department of Defense said in a statement. Their release brings the Guantanamo prison population to 107. The men arrived in the UAE on Saturday. None had been charged with a crime, but had been detained as enemy combatants. They could not be sent to their homeland because the US considers Yemen too unstable to accept prisoners from Guantanamo.
CHINA
Police probe illegal urnings
Thieves stole urns filled with ashes from a cemetery in Henan Province in a bid to extort ransoms from relatives of the deceased, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The ghoulish scheme was revealed after a woman surnamed Liu was told her late husband’s tomb had been ransacked and found his ashes missing. A telephone number had been scrawled on the headstone, and a person answering the number told Liu that the urn’s return would cost 20,000 yuan (US$3,000).
Liu paid up, but the tomb raiders then demanded more money, the report added. Police are investigating the case.
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Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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