AFGHANISTAN
Taliban attack checkpoint
The Taliban attacked a checkpoint in Ghazni Province, killing at least 13 soldiers and policemen, a spokesman for the provincial governor said yesterday. Arif Noori said seven soldiers, six policemen and six insurgents were killed, while four soldiers are more than 10 rebels were wounded in the early morning attack. Noori said the checkpoint had just been set up two days ago to cut off a supply route for the Taliban. The Taliban is also demanding the body of an assassin who shot dead a powerful police chief on Oct. 18 in return for the remains of 13 people killed in an army helicopter crash on Oct. 31. Only 12 of the 25 people killed in the crash have been turned over to authorities so far.
MALAYSIA
Ex-Sabah leader indicted
Former chief minister of Sabah Musa Aman was yesterday charged with allegedly receiving bribes for the award of timber concessions. He was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission before being taken to court, where he pleaded not guilty to 35 counts of corruption for allegedly receiving a total of US$63.3 million in Hong Kong and Singapore through proxies between 2004 and 2008 in exchange for timber contracts. He was released on bail and faces up to 20 years in jail for each offense if convicted.
PAKISTAN
Twitter suspends TLP cleric
Twitter on Sunday suspended the account of an ultra-right cleric following inflammatory statements targeting the judiciary, prime minister and military after the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy who had spent eight years on death row, the government said. Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party blocked off roads in Lahore for three days last week and threatened the Supreme Court judges who acquitted Asia Bibi on Wednesday — urging their cooks and servants to kill them. The TLP condemned the suspension of Rizvi’s account, terming it a “conspiracy by the opponents of the protection of prophethood and Islam.” A second account that was created on Sunday was also suspended soon after.
INDIA
Air quality drops sharply
Air quality in the haze-hit north of the country, including New Delhi, deteriorated sharply yesterday because of unfavorable weather and an increase in smoke from stubble burning in fields across the region. Levels of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller — were above 400 in most parts of the capital, and in some places soared above 600. That is nearly 24 times the WHO’s recommended level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter on average over a 24-hour period. Forecasts said worse is to come, as crop residue burning peaks over the next few days, while the Hindu festival of Diwali is to be celebrated tomorrow with celebratory fireworks.
INDIA
Villagers crush tiger
Villagers in the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh state crushed a tigress to death with a tractor after she killed a man, forestry officials said yesterday. The villagers had circled around the tigress after it killed a man late on Sunday. Villagers said the tiger had also injured a youth about 10 days ago. The village is in the core zone of the reserve. Killing a tiger in protected areas is illegal, and reserve director Ramesh Pandey said a case under the Wildlife Protection Act would be registered with police against the offenders.
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
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing