Diplomacy
Japan, China snub ties event
China and Japan yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties, but no major celebrations were likely with relations at historic lows over a simmering territorial row. No key events were planned in Japan after China last Sunday postponed a ceremony to commemorate four decades of diplomatic relations as tensions escalate over the uninhabited East China Sea islands. “Japan and China must build good relationships for their people. It is their joint duty to the world,” the Nikkei business daily said in an editorial. The liberal Asahi Shimbun said “ignorance” and “unappreciation” about the regimes and culture of each other have contributed to deteriorating relations.
INDONESIA
Plane crashes at air show
A light aircraft burst into flames after hitting a building during an air show yesterday, killing both the pilots, the transport ministry said. Television footage showed a thick plume of smoke rising from the crash site in Bandung in western Java, where the air show was held to commemorate the city’s 202nd anniversary. “A Cessna 202 plane lost altitude during a manoeuvre and crashed into a building … with two pilots on board, who were both killed instantly,” transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said. Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and is in the process of updating its ageing military aircraft and equipment.
NEPAL
Nepal probes plane crash
Police yesterday handed over the black box data recorder of a plane that crashed on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital, killing all 19 people on board, to authorities probing the accident. The twin-propeller Sita Air plane had just taken off on Friday from Kathmandu and was headed to the town of Lukla, gateway to Mount Everest, when it plunged into the banks of a river near the city’s airport around daybreak. Among the dead were seven Britons, five Chinese and seven local passengers and crew. “We have taken out the data recorder and handed it over to the civil aviation authorities. The rescue work at the site has ended,” national police spokesman Binod Singh said. Although the exact cause of the crash is still unclear, the manager of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu said the pilot had reported hitting a bird of prey, thought to be a vulture or kite, moments before the crash.
MALAYSIA
Drug mules to be executed
Malaysian courts have sentenced two women, a Filipino and an Indonesian, to death in separate cases of drug trafficking, reports said yesterday. Ani Anggraeni, an Indonesian working in the northern state of Penang, was convicted on Friday of trafficking nearly 4kg of methamphetamine on June 21 last year, The Star newspaper reported. The high court in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, also handed the death sentence to Marivelle Gonzales for trafficking a kilo of drugs, mostly heroin, into the country two years ago, the Bernama news agency reported.
Afghanistan
Police killed in bombing
Authorities say a roadside bomb killed two policemen in Herat Province in western Afghanistan, just hours before a ceremony to hand a nearby police training academy over from NATO to Afghan control. Last week, a bomb in a parked motorcycle exploded outside the training center, killing two security guards. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
SWEDEN
Friend serves prison term
A man convicted of smuggling outwitted his jailers by sneaking in a friend to serve most of his year-long sentence, prison officials said on Friday. The identity of the false convict was discovered only when he’d been released on probation after serving about two-thirds of his friend’s sentence “sometime in 2008 or 2009,” Elisabeth Lager of the Prison and Probation Service said. Lager said the in-lieu convict came to serve the sentence with a false ID — a driving license in the name of the smuggler friend, but with his photograph. An international arrest warrant was issued for the real convict earlier this year, Lager said, but declined to comment on why it took police more than three years after the switch was discovered to issue the warrant.
GERMANY
Powder sent to bank
Forty Deutsche Bank employees from an office in the eastern town of Schkeuditz are undergoing health checks after a letter containing a white powder was found at their building, police said on Friday. About 700 people were evacuated from the building, which is situated on an industrial estate near Leipzig, a spokeswoman for West Saxony police said. The “suspicious substance” was found in an envelope at the offices of Keba Schkeuditz, a Deutsche Bank-owned company, she said. A Deutsche Bank spokesman said the building housed back-office operations for the nation’s biggest lender.
UNITED KINGDOM
Teen found safe in France
A 15-year-old British schoolgirl who sparked an international search when she went missing along with her math teacher was found safe and well in Bordeaux, France, on Friday, police said. Megan Stammers was located along with 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest, a teacher at her school, police in Sussex said. Police say Forrest has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction. He is awaiting a court hearing on Tuesday which will decide whether to extradite him to Britain, and has said he will not oppose being handed over to British authorities, according to his lawyer Daniel Lalanne. Stammers was expected to be returned to Britain yesterday.
UNITED KINGDOM
James Bond auction opens
Props, costumes and memorabilia from 50 years of James Bond films went up for auction in London on Friday, with an Aston Martin car and a pair of Daniel Craig’s swimming trunks among the lots. Other star lots in the charity auction include an Aston Martin DBS, used by Craig in a car chase through Italy in Quantum of Solace. Other items include costumes worn by Bond stars from Timothy Dalton to Pierce Brosnan. Of the total 50 items, 40 went up for online auction on Friday, while the final 10 will be sold at Christie’s next Friday, the 50th anniversary of the first screening of Dr No. Proceeds from the auction will go to 12 different charities.
IRAQ
Prison break an inside job
The Interior Ministry says a prison break in Tikrit in which dozens of al-Qaeda-linked militants escaped was an inside job and that 20 people were killed, including 16 security force members and four inmates. The ministry’s statement late on Friday said there was “clear collusion” between some guards and inmates at the Tasfirat prison in Tikrit. Weapons were brought into the prison during family visits, and wardens left locks inside the facility open. Of 303 inmates at the prison, 102 escaped in Friday’s jailbreak. Four were killed and 23 captured, the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Man mistakenly kills son
A Connecticut man responding to his sister’s call for help during an apparent burglary at her home next door, shot and killed a masked intruder who turned out to be his own teenage son, state police said on Friday. Tyler Giuliano, 15, was wearing a ski mask and appeared to be armed when he was shot on Thursday by his father, who authorities declined to identify, said Lieutenant J. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police. The father’s sister, who lives next door, was home alone before 1am when she called him to report someone trying to break into her home. The father went over to investigate and was approached by a masked person dressed entirely in black and holding a shiny object, police said in a statement. Giuliano was pronounced dead at the scene. “[He] was lying on the ground in the driveway with obvious gunshot injuries, holding a weapon,” the statement said. Authorities seized the father’s gun, were investigating whether it is registered and will consult with the state’s attorney to determine if any charges will be filed, Vance said.
? UNITED STATES
Teens beat woman ‘for fun’
Six teenagers were in custody on Friday on charges they brutally beat a neighbor on her stoop “just for fun” and then posted cellphone video of the attack on Facebook, authorities said. Four 16 and 17-year-old girls were charged as adults in the attack on the 48-year-old woman in Chester, Pennsylvania. The girls were charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, burglary and harassment. The woman, whom police described as “mentally challenged,” was punched, kicked and hit with a shoe and chair, and suffered cuts and bruises, but no broken bones, authorities said. The Delaware County Daily Times first obtained video footage from police on Thursday. It showed a group of girls walking down a sidewalk then suddenly attacking a woman sitting on her stoop. The teens follow the woman into her home as she tries to escape, taking turns punching and beating her. Cashier Crystal Pate said she knows two of the girls — one babysits her daughter — and said they were not bad kids. “I can’t comprehend it. I trust her with my daughter’s life,” Pate said.
IRAN
Media fooled by joke report
A joke by the satirical US newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation. An Iranian news agency picked up — as fact — a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than for US President Barack Obama. However, it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper. The English-language service of Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency republished the story on Friday, several days after it appeared in The Onion. The Iranian version copied the original word-for-word, even including a made-up quote from a fictional West Virginia resident who says he would rather go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad because “he takes national defense seriously and would never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” Homosexual acts are punishable by death in Iran and Ahmadinejad famously said during a 2007 appearance at Columbia University that “in Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” The Iranian version of the article leaves out only The Onion’s description of Ahmadinejad as “a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed.”
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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