CANADA
Minister dies in plane crash
Former Alberta premier and long-time-federal minister Jim Prentice and three others died in an airplane crash in southern British Columbia. The Conservative Party of Canada on Friday confirmed his death. He was 60. Prentice was among former prime minister Stephen Harper’s most trusted Cabinet ministers. He served as the minister for industry, minister of the environment and minister of Indian and northern affairs. He left federal politics for provincial politics and became premier of Alberta in 2014. Prentice, a moderate conservative who voted for same-sex marriage before many of his Conservative colleagues, was widely respected. A team of investigators from the board was on its way to the scene of the crash near Kelowna, British Columbia. Transportation Safety Board spokesman Bill Yearwood said a Cessna Citation aircraft with four people on board went down at about 10:30pm on Thursday after taking off from Kelowna on a flight to Springbank, outside Calgary.
UNITED STATES
Kansas militia accused
Three members of a Kansas militia group are accused of plotting to bomb an apartment complex that’s home to Somalian immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City. Prosecutors said the thwarted attack was planned for the day after the November election. A complaint unsealed on Friday charges 49-year-old Curtis Wayne Allen, 47-year-old Patrick Eugene Stein and 49-year-old Gavin Wayne Wright with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. The complaint said they are members of a small militia group that calls itself “the Crusaders.” Members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs. The complaint alleges group members hoped to inspire other militia groups and “wake people up.”
UNITED STATES
Two charged with IS intent
Two Milwaukee men were charged in federal court on Friday with trying to join the Islamic State (IS) group by traveling through Mexico to Syria. Jason Michael Ludke, 35, is charged with attempting to support a foreign terrorist organization, and Yosvany Padilla-Conde, 30, is charged with aiding and abetting Ludke. Both men face up to 20 years in prison. According to the complaint, Ludke and Padilla-Conde began corresponding on social media with an undercover FBI agent last month and said they planned to travel to Mexico, where they could get passage to Syria and join the Islamic State group in Iraq. The agent received an e-mail on Oct. 1 containing video footage of Padilla-Conde and Ludke with a handmade Islamic State group flag in the background. The agent told Ludke that people in Mexico would be able to get them passports for Arab counties. On Oct. 5 Ludke told the agent that he and Padilla-Conde were in Texas heading toward El Paso. Police captured them later that day.
UNITED STATES
Brothel boss’ house razed
A wildfire fanned by high winds destroyed 22 homes in a wooded area of northern Nevada on Friday, among them a mountain property belonging to the owner of a famous brothel in the state. Dennis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in the Carson City area, said on Twitter that one of his houses was destroyed by the blaze, which fire officials said had scorched 809 hectares in the area of Washoe Valley just south of Reno. Hof, who was profiled along with workers at his legal brothel in the TV series Cathouse on cable channel HBO, posted a photo of the house reduced to rubble.
CHINA
Xi inks deal with Dhaka
China has signed off on more than US$33 billion in government and private-sector investment to fund a series of large-scale infrastructure projects in Bangladesh during President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to Dhaka on Friday. Xi’s visit, the first by a Chinese head of state to Bangladesh in 30 years, is part of the Asian economic giant’s ambition to advance its “One Belt, One Road” initiative — a plan devoted to reviving the ancient Silk Road trading route from Asia to Europe by boosting economic ties and investing in transport hubs.
THAILAND
Regent appointed caretaker
The government said that a regent is to be the caretaker of the monarchy while the nation mourns the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thais in their thousands descended on the Grand Palace in Bangkok yesterday to pay respects to Bhumibol, but were met with the unexpected closure of the complex. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam appeared on television on Friday evening to explain that the head of the Privy Council, which is an advisory body to the king, is automatically the regent until a new monarch is crowned. There was no official statement that the council’s head, 96-year-old Prem Tinsulanonda, had been named regent, creating uncertainty, but Wissanu said an announcement was not needed because the process is mandated by Thailand’s constitution.
AUSTRALIA
Two arrested in drugs bust
Australian Federal Police yesterday said they had arrested two Polish men in connection with the seizure of 1.2 tonnes of crystal MDMA, the main chemical used in ecstasy pills. A raid on a storage facility in Sydney’s north on Thursday uncovered the drugs — Australia’s largest seizure this year — in a consignment of aluminum rollers imported from the Czech Republic, police said. The haul equates to more than 4.1 million ecstasy tablets, with an estimated street value of US$145 million. Two Polish men, aged 28 and 29, were arrested on Friday and charged with serious drug importation of fences. They could face life in prison if found guilty.
FRANCE
Refugee killed by train
An Iraqi refugee was killed and two others injured on Friday after being mowed down by a freight train near a camp in the northern French port of Dunkirk, authorities said. The accident occurred as the refugees were trying to cross the railway tracks near the Grande-Synthe humanitarian camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk. One of the injured was treated in hospital for shock while the other suffered a minor hip injury, the authorities said. The port of Dunkirk is situated about 40km east along the Channel coast from Calais.
INDIA
Goa secured for meeting
Goa has been turned into a high-security zone with thousands of paramilitary troops, coast guards and police guarding venues where the leaders of five emerging market economies are meeting over the weekend. Sniffer dogs and troops with mine-detectors combed the beaches next to the five-star hotel in Benaulim, where the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were meeting for their eighth summit yesterday. Goa police also shut sections of the main road and tourists had to take long detours to reach the few beaches that are open to the public this weekend.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was