JAPAN
Princess to wed next year
Emperor Akihito’s oldest grandchild, Princess Mako, yesterday said that she is getting married to a university classmate who won her heart with bright smiles and sincerity. Mako and fiance Kei Komuro, both 25, said at a news conference in Tokyo that their relationship started when the princess sat behind him at a campuvs meeting five years ago. Komuro, who works as a legal assistant, said he was so thankful and happy to have been accepted by Mako’s parents and grandparents. Details of their wedding have not been decided, and palace officials say the ceremony is expected some time around autumn next year. Mako will lose her royal status after marrying Komuro, a commoner.
Photo: AFP
MALAYSIA
Abu Sayyaf suspects nabbed
Police arrested a suspected leader and seven members of the Abu Sayyaf group in Kuala Lumpur, a police source said yesterday. Hajar Abdul Mubin — also known as Abu Asrie — was detained in a raid on Wednesday, according to the source. Hajar, a Filipino, was arrested along with one other Filipino and six Malaysians from the Borneo state of Sabah. The arrests were first reported by the English-language newspaper, the Star.
AUSTRALIA
Immigration policy praised
The government yesterday said that it is stopping “undesirables” such as terrorists, pedophiles, organized criminals and drug smugglers from boarding flights to the nation. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said that Australian Border Force Airline Liaison Officers were operating in major transit airports to push those threats “beyond our borders.” Where other countries “allow people to arrive and then assess the threat then,” the “Australian model” was to bar those considered a threat. “[Liaison officers] try to identify the threats — particularly given that we’ve got foreign fighters coming back through Southeast Asia and all over — the idea is to stop them getting on planes,” he told the Nine Network.
THAILAND
Third charge expires
A third criminal charge against the fugitive heir to the Red Bull fortune over a fatal hit-and-run expired yesterday, but prosecutors said it would not affect their heavily criticized attempts to bring him to justice. Worayuth Yoovidhya, better known as “Boss,” is wanted for drunkenly ploughing his Ferrari into a policeman riding a motorbike in Bangkok in 2012, dragging the officer to his death. The statute of limitation on fleeing the scene of an accident expired yesterday. Speeding and drunk driving have already run out. The charge of causing death by dangerous driving does not expire until 2027. Worayuth fled the country earlier this year.
CHINA
Liu Xia back in Beijing
Liu Xia (劉霞), the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), is back in Beijing, but still under house arrest, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said yesterday. Center founder Frank Lu Siqing (盧四清) said he spoke to her by telephone at her Beijing home yesterday. He said a tearful Liu Xia, 56, explained in a “very weakened voice” that she was under treatment with strong anti-depressants.
UNITED STATES
Forest fires light up LA
A massive fire described as the biggest in the history of Los Angeles was raging on Saturday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters the blaze, which broke out on Friday and lit up the hills surrounding the northern suburb of Burbank overnight, had already burnt 2,000 hectares. “In terms of acres involved, this is probably the largest fire in LA city history,” he added. Garcetti has declared a local state of emergency and appealed to California Governor Jerry Brown to do the same at the state level.
FRANCE
Lawmaker injures colleague
French Republic on the Move lawmaker M’jid El Guerrab was on Saturday charged over a violent clash in Paris that left rival Socialist Party official Boris Faure in hospital. El Guerrab, 34, was accused of “voluntary violence with a weapon” after Faure was on Wednesday struck twice with a motorbike helmet. The two men have been in conflict for months, since El Guerrab left the Socialist Party for French President Emmanuel Macron’s party. A source close to the case said the violence followed Faure allegedly calling El Guerrab, who is his party’s deputy for French nationals living in North and West Africa, a “dirty Arab.” “Naturally Mr El Guerrab regrets this turn of events,” said his lawyer, Yassine Yakouti, adding that the lawmaker, who claims Faure was physically and verbally aggressive, denies starting the altercation.
FRANCE
Fire destroys 400 hectares
A forest fire broke out in Hyeres in southwestern Var department at about 10pm on Saturday, destroying more than 400 hectares near urban areas, damaging two houses and forcing the evacuation of a camping site, local authorities said Sunday. “The fire is very violent, very virulent,” Var Cabinet Director Emmanuel Cayron said from the crisis center. About 430 hectares had been burned, two homes were ravaged and 165 people were evacuated from a camping site, a spokeswoman for the local prefecture said. About 450 firefighters were battling the flames yesterday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Celebs play ball for Grenfell
Showbiz celebrities joined forces with top-name soccer players on Saturday for a match in aid of those affected by the Grenfell fire disaster in west London. A sell-out crowd packed Loftus Road Stadium, about 1 km from the tower, for the “Game4Grenfell,” with stars including US TV series Homeland actor Damian Lewis, Olympic runner Mo Farah and singer Olly Murs turning out for teams managed by former England strikers Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer. There was even an appearance from Man United manager Jose Mourinho, who took up the roal of goalkeeper.
UNITED STATES
Astronauts touch down
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and two crewmates on Saturday made a parachute touchdown in Kazakhstan, capping a career-total 665 days in orbit. Whitson, 57, ended a stay of more than nine months aboard the International Space Station. She returned to Earth with NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who had been aboard the station since June. The crew’s Soyuz capsule touched down at 9:21pm. Whitson’s 665 days off the planet — 288 days on this mission alone — exceed that of any other American and any other woman worldwide. Yurchikhin logged even more time in space: 673 days over five missions.
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