INDONESIA
US names JAD terror group
The US has designated an Indonesian radical network behind an attack in Jakarta as a terrorist group and announced sanctions on four militants in an effort to disrupt Islamic State (IS) group operations and recruitment in Australia and Southeast Asia. The US Department of State on Tuesday said it had designated the IS-affiliated Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) as a terrorist group, which in practice prohibits US citizens being involved with it and enables the freezing of any property in the US. JAD militants are believed responsible for an attack in January last year in the Indonesian capital that killed eight people, including the attackers. The US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against two Australians, both previously believed killed in the Middle East, and two Indonesians, one of whom is in prison in Indonesia.
MALAYSIA
Sarawak chief dies
The veteran chief minister of the state of Sarawak yesterday died of a heart attack, in a fresh blow for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was counting on him to help secure victory in upcoming elections. Adenan Satem, 72, was one of Najib’s closest allies, whose popularity helped the ruling Barisan Nasional alliance secure a landslide victory in the Sarawak state elections last year. Najib was counting on Adenan to help him in a general election that he is expected to call this year. Najib is mired in a multibillion-dollar graft scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. The fund is being investigated in at least six countries, including the US, Singapore and Switzerland. Najib has denied wrongdoing.
AUSTRALIA
Mercury soars above 40°C
Sydney temperatures topped 40°C yesterday, with beaches packed, bushfire warnings issued and people urged to stay hydrated. Some towns in the northwest of New South Wales (NSW) could reach 47°C tomorrow, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Authorities issued a total fire ban for several areas across the state, while Surf Life Saving NSW warned of an increased risk of dehydration as temperatures soared. “Lifeguards and lifesavers have been extremely busy over the last few weeks and we are urging the public to do what they can to help lessen the load by taking some responsibility for their own safety,” Surf Life Saving NSW manager Andy Kent said. New South Wales has had a balmy summer, but it has been marred by tragedy with more than 20 drownings in backyard pools, waterways or the ocean since Christmas Day.
NIGERIA
Aid groups ‘misusing funds’
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettim on Tuesday accused aid agencies, including UNICEF, of profiting from funds meant to help refugees from Boko Haram, and said they should leave the country. The criticism follows President Muhammadu Buhari’s charges that the UN and private agencies are exaggerating a massive humanitarian crisis created by the northeastern militant uprising to boost funding. For months, children and others have been dying of starvation there. The UN last month launched an appeal for US$1 billion, warning that tens of thousands of children will die this year without critically needed aid. Shettima said that only eight of 126 registered agencies “are actually providing humanitarian services.” He said the rest are “using the name of Borno to make money, and enriching themselves.”
CANADA
Trudeau shuffles Cabinet
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shaken up his Cabinet less than two weeks before US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. Trudeau on Tuesday named Chrystia Freeland as foreign minister amid worries that Trump will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Freeland was trade minister when she oversaw last year’s ratification of the Canada-EU free-trade agreement. John McCallum, who oversaw the arrival of more than 39,000 Syrian refugees as immigration minister, is retiring from parliament to become ambassador to China. Somalian refugee Ahmed Hussen was named immigration minister.
UNITED STATES
Lucas chooses Los Angeles
The force, it seems, was with Los Angeles. Star Wars creator George Lucas and his team on Tuesday chose Los Angeles over San Francisco as the home of a museum that will showcase his life’s work and huge film history collection. Organizers announced that the museum would be built in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. Lucas has been trying to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art for nearly a decade and is financing the project by himself with plans to spend more than US$1 billion. It is to house an extensive personal collection that includes 40,000 paintings, illustrations and film-related items.
UNITED STATES
Authorities rescue Honduran
Authorities have rescued a Honduran immigrant who fell about 122m down a steep cliff in southern Arizona. Tohono O’odham police contacted Border Patrol agents at the Three Points Substation on Sunday night about a man in their custody saying his traveling partner was left behind in the Baboquivari Mountains because of a broken ankle. Agents and an air crew located the man late on Monday, but were unable to locate a safe approach on foot. An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter lowered a trooper-paramedic, who stabilized the unidentified man before transporting him to hospital.
UNITED STATES
Drug ‘gifts’ land man in jail
A passenger flying from Los Angeles International Airport to Ohio last month was not toying around when he checked a bag with packages gift-wrapped in Christmas paper, authorities said. The Yuletide bundle included nearly 6kg of heroin with a street value of more than US$2 million, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday as the man was charged with drug trafficking. James Mitchell, 25, checked a duffel bag on a Dec. 10 flight to Cincinnati, Ohio, but neither he nor the bag made the trip, court records showed. The bag was intercepted by a Transportation Security Administration officer who found the gift-wrapped cache of heroin inside. Mitchell was arrested more than a week later at his home and remains in custody.
UNITED STATES
Woman freed after abortion
A Tennessee woman initially accused of attempted murder for unsuccessfully using a coat hanger to try to abort a 24-week-old fetus has been released after spending more than a year in jail, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday. Anna Yocca, 32, was arrested after the botched abortion attempt in 2015 that led to complaints by pro-abortion activists in a state where no provider offers the procedure after a fetus reaches 16 weeks. In a plea deal with prosecutors, Yocca pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of attempting to procure a miscarriage, according to the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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