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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema