INDONESIA
UN candidacy announced
The nation on Friday announced its candidacy for membership on the UN Security Council, saying its commitment and contribution to the world body make it a true partner for world peace. In a speech at the UN General Assembly, Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla said the UN needs reforms to make it stronger and more relevant to 21st-century challenges and realities. Kalla said the nation has a commitment to increase its peacekeeping force to 4,000 personnel by 2019 and fights terrorism both regional and globally. As the world’s most populous Muslim nation and its third-largest democracy, Jakarta sees Islam modernity and women’s empowerment as going hand-in-hand with democracy, tolerance, pluralism and peace, he said. Selections of the new non-permanent Security Council members in 2019-2020 will be made in mid-2019.
MONTENEGRO
Sniper kills man in jail
A sniper has shot dead a prisoner in broad daylight in a yard at the Balkan nation’s highest-security jail, officials said on Friday. The victim, named only by the initials D.Dj, was shot in the chest on Thursday while walking in the grounds of the main jail in the capital, Podgorica, prison authorities said in a statement. The prisoner died of his injuries later on Thursday, the statement said, adding that he had been jailed for extortion in 2014. “Clearly this is a clash of criminal groups and this brutal murder requires the maximum engagement of all institutions involved in implementing justice,” the statement said. Local media identified the victim as Dalibor Djuric, saying he was the 10th person killed in feuds between drugs gangs in the past two years. Earlier this month, police arrested nine men suspected of belonging to a drugs gang responsible for a surge in violence in the nation’s top tourist destination.
UNITED STATES
Boy blamed for fire
Police say a 12-year-old boy riding a push scooter set fire to the arts-and-crafts section of a Wal-Mart store in the Southern California desert, leading to losses of more than US$1 million. The store in Barstow remained closed for a third day on Friday because of the damage. Barstow police said in a statement that the boy, who was not with his parents, set the fire with a lighter on Wednesday afternoon. Wal-Mart employees tried to put it out with fire extinguishers, but failed and some had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze, but serious damage was done by both fire and water. Police looked at surveillance video and saw the boy with a scooter and a backpack. He was found on a street corner later in the day. He was arrested and taken to juvenile hall.
UNITED STATES
Dummy caught in truck
A California driver has been cited for using a mannequin — not the required human being — while driving in a carpool lane. The Orange County Register reported that Brea police found the mannequin on Wednesday in a truck on the congested No. 57 freeway. The truck veered out of the carpool lane close to an officer’s motorcycle. As the officer attempted to warn the driver to be careful, he noticed the passenger was not a passenger. Police say the driver acknowledged using the mannequin in the carpool lane for some time. The driver told police that he would now accept that he needs to sit in traffic like everyone else. California requires that a vehicle have a minimum of two people for carpool lanes. Driving alone can bring a fine of at least US$481.
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