MYANMAR
Police find huge drugs cache
Police have seized more than US$30 million worth of heroin and methamphetamine, a senior investigator said yesterday. A smorgasbord of narcotics was found in a container vehicle on an industrial zone in Mandalay, including 82kg of methamphetamine, 24kg of heroin, 6.8 million stimulant tablets and 15kg of opium. “This is the biggest seizure of 2016,” a senior police official of the anti-drugs squad in Naypyidaw said on condition of anonymity. “It’s scary as drugs trafficking has been increasing and spreading around the country.”
CHINA
Workers held over body
Authorities in Xian say they have detained an elevator maintenance crew after a woman was found dead inside an elevator that had its power improperly cut off 30 days earlier. The Gaoling District Government said two maintenance workers turned off the power source in a residential building on Jan. 30 after they were called to check on a glitch, but that they failed to check if anyone was inside the elevator. The maintenance crew found a female corpse there on Tuesday last week when they returned for repairs. It said the woman was a resident who lived on her own.
SAUDI ARABIA
Kingdom to keep supplies
Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Saturday said that the kingdom would keep French military supplies intended for Lebanon under a US$3 billion aid program, as Riyadh toughens its stance against Hezbollah. The kingdom last month halted the program to protest against Hezbollah’s support of Syria’s regime. “We didn’t stop the contract. It’s just going to Saudi Arabia, not to Hezbollah,” al-Jubeir said at a news conference in Paris. “The contracts will be completed.”
UNITED STATES
Dog seen ‘driving’ vehicle
A dog has apparently learned a new trick: how to drive a semi-truck. Customers at a Minnesota gas station saw a golden Labrador retriever appear to drive the semi across a road on Friday. Mankato police say the idling truck was apparently was put into gear, then went through a parking lot, across the street and over a curb. The Free Press of Mankato reported that a passer-by discovered the dog sitting in the driver’s seat when he jumped into the truck to stop it. David Stegora was at the store when he heard the truck smash into a tree and a parked car. He could not see the driver, but saw the dog climb up near the driver’s side. Police say the truck was taken off the road. The driver had left the unoccupied truck running in a nearby parking lot.
UNITED STATES
Bankroll Fresh shot dead
Rapper Bankroll Fresh, whose real name was Trentavious White, was shot dead at an Atlanta, Gerogia, recording studio, authorities said on Saturday. White, 28, known for his hit Hot Boy, was declared dead late on Friday at a hospital, Cobb County coroner’s office spokesman Clint Harbin said. Police had been called to the studio when shots were heard and several people were seen running out of the building. Witnesses told local media they heard several shots at Street Execs studio. White co-owned the studio with rapper 2 Chainz.
UNITED STATES
Navy loosens body-fat rules
The navy is giving another chance to thousands of sailors who otherwise would be kicked out for repeatedly failing their physical fitness tests because they exceeded body-fat limits. The service branch loosened its body fat restrictions in January and is allowing those who failed their exams three or more times to get one more opportunity to be tested this spring under the more lenient guidelines. The navy said it has been losing too many talented sailors. Some were said to be resorting to liposuction, diet pills and other measures to save their careers. The navy allowed about 2,400 sailors who passed a preliminary test under the new rules to stay, reducing the number of failures on their records from three to one, navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Nate Christensen said. In the past, three failures were grounds for being kicked out. The sailors are to be measured again this spring and allowed only two failures now instead of three.
BENIN
Voters go to polls
Voters yesterday went to the polls in an election with a record number of independent candidates as outgoing President Thomas Yayi Boni is set to hand over power after two terms in office. As many as 33 men and women are vying for the presidency, including some of the west African nation’s wealthiest businessmen. Among the hopefuls are Sebastien Ajavon, who amassed millions of US dollars in trucking and selling frozen chicken, and Patrice Talon, who made a fortune importing fertilizers for the cotton industry. The ruling Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin has chosen Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou, a former investment banker, as its candidate. Polling stations opened shortly after 7am and were due to close at 4pm. About 4.7 million people in the nation of 10 million are eligible to vote, according to the national electoral commission. A run-off election is to be held if none of the candidates wins an outright majority. The US$9 billion economy relies mainly on cotton exports. It is Africa’s fourth-largest cotton producer.
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