CHINA
Man kills eight with bus
Police have detained a 48-year-old unemployed man surnamed Qiu (邱), who hijacked a bus in Fujian Province’s Longyan after a dispute with a neighborhood official that resulted in eight people being killed, Xinhua news agency reported late on Tuesday. “The initial police investigation showed that on that day, the suspect had a conflict with an official of the neighborhood committee, with whom he had long been at odds, during the official’s visit to his home,” Xinhua said. “He then attacked people with a knife, hijacked a bus and used it to hit pedestrians.” Eight people were killed and 22 injured, one seriously, the report said.
INDONESIA
Weather poses new threat
Authorities yesterday warned of “extreme weather and high waves” around the erupting Anak Krakatoa volcano, urging people to stay away from the coast already devastated by a tsunami that killed more than 400 people. Clouds of ash spewed from Anak Krakatoa, almost obscuring the island. Rough weather around the volcano could make its crater more fragile, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said late on Tuesday. “We have developed a monitoring system focused specifically on the volcanic tremors at Anak Krakatoa so that we can issue early warnings,” agency head Dwikorita Karnawati said, adding that a 2km exclusion zone had been imposed.
SYRIA
Israeli missiles ‘shot down’
Air defenses on Tuesday shot down Israeli missiles near Damascus, state media reported, while Israel said it was protecting itself from anti-aircraft fire. Air defenses “intercepted hostile missiles launched by the Israeli warplanes” from over Lebanese territories, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported, citing a military source. The majority of them were downed before reaching their targets near Damascus, it added. Three soldiers were injured and an ammunition depot damaged. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment, but the military said in a statement: “An aerial defense system went off against an anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria. No damage or injuries were reported.” The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also reported “an Israeli raid.” If confirmed, the strike would be the first by Israel since the US withdrawal of troops was announced.
UNITED STATES
Baltimore buys back guns
Baltimore police last week collected 1,860 weapons, including a rocket launcher, as part of a buy-back program aimed at reducing violence. The three-day operation was announced in a bid to rid the streets of illegal weapons in a city where the number of homicides has surpassed 300 for the fourth year in a row. Authorities offered US$25 for large magazines, US$100 for handguns and rifles, US$200 for semiautomatic rifles and US$500 for automatic rifles, as well as promised anonymity.
GERMANY
Carriage collision hurts 20
Police said that 20 people were injured, two of them seriously, on Tuesday, when two horse-drawn carriages collided during a Christmas Day outing. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted Bavarian police as saying that the two carriages were approaching a rail crossing single file when the first carriage halted. The second did not and overturned during the collision. One man had to be taken to hospital by helicopter. The driver of one of the carriages was also seriously hurt. The other 18 injured people included children.
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