FIJI
PM not to face charges
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama will not face charges over an alleged assault due to double-jeopardy rules, Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde said yesterday, despite finding that there would be enough evidence to take the case to court. Bainimarama was accused of assaulting opposition lawmaker Pio Tikoduadua outside parliament in August, shortly after the pair had engaged in a heated debate in the chamber. Tikoduadua accused Bainimarama of “thuggery,” saying that the prime minister threatened him and shoved him, breaking his spectacles. Mobile phone footage shared widely online showed an argument between the pair, with Bainimarama advancing on Tikoduadua and appearing to grab his suit jacket. Pryde said he would not press any charges, because parliament’s privileges committee had already dealt with the issue. Pryde said that as the altercation took place on parliamentary grounds, the committee had the power to make a ruling on it and had done so. This meant that pursuing the matter through the criminal courts would expose Bainimarama to double jeopardy, which was against the constitution, he said. “Had the matter not been heard by the privileges committee and dealt with by parliament, there was sufficient evidence for the matter to proceed to court,” Pryde said.
SAUDI ARABIA
Bus crash kills 35
Authorities said yesterday that 35 people have been killed in a bus crash near Mecca. The Saudi Press Agency reported that four others were injured in the crash. The agency, quoting police in Medina Province, said the crash happened at about 7pm on Wednesday on a road linking Mecca to Medina. The chartered bus carried Asian and Arab nationals, it said, without elaborating. Police were investigating the incident. Authorities gave no immediate cause for the crash.
SPAIN
Protesters block roads
After another night of clashes in Catalonia that left nearly 100 people injured according to emergency services, activists again blocked roads yesterday in the northeastern region. For the third night running, protesters clashed violently with riot police in the Catalan capital of Barcelona on Wednesday night, torching cars and garbage bins, as they expressed their fury over the sentencing of nine Catalan separatist leaders to long jail terms over their role in a failed independence bid. Emergency services said 58 people were injured, including a 17-year-old who was hit by a police van. Another 38 people were injured in protests in other Catalan cities.
UNITED STATES
Blood floods basement
Blood might be thicker than water, but it can still flood your basement. Nick Lestina found this out the hard way two weeks ago when he discovered 13cm of blood, fat and other animal tissue flooding his family’s basement in Bagley, about 72km northwest of Des Moines, Iowa. He told the Des Moines Register that he has not been able to clean it up because it is still seeping in. The waste is coming from a neighboring meat locker, where blood and tissue from slaughtered animals was washed down a drain. Officials say a clog or break in the pipe sent the waste into Lestina’s basement through a floor drain. A state environmental specialist traced the waste to Dahl’s Custom Meat Locker and says the company is now pumping it into a large tank. The Lestina family has temporarily moved in with a relative.
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