PAKISTAN
Militants bomb four schools
Suspected Taliban militants yesterday bombed four boys’ schools in the northwestern tribal belt, officials said, in the latest attack on government educational institutions. No one was injured in the pre-dawn blasts in the Mohmand tribal district, where officials said Taliban attacks have destroyed more than 100 schools. “Militants from TTM [Tehreek-e-Taliban Mohmand] blew up the buildings of four schools at around 2:30am,” an intelligence official in Mohmand said. Liaqat Ali, a government official, confirmed the incident and said that militants planted locally made explosives to dynamite the school buildings.
INDONESIA
No pressure to go: minister
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo yesterday denied he was being pushed out of his job, dismissing speculation that he was being shifted to the post of central bank governor because he had crossed swords with politically powerful businessmen. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unexpectedly nominated Martowardojo to replace Darmin Nasution, whose term as Bank Indonesia governor ends in May. There has been no clear explanation from the presidential palace why either man is moving from his current job nor who would be the new finance minister if Martowardojo is approved by parliament to head Bank Indonesia, which MPs will debate later next month.
CHINA
Six held over fatal stampede
Authorities have detained six people after a stampede at a primary school saw four children die in an incident in which they were crushed against a locked gate, a local official said yesterday. The six — including the principal — were among 12 people being investigated for the accident in Laohekou in Hubei Province, a city official said. The stampede happened at 6am on Wednesday when large numbers of pupils left their school dormitory, on the fourth floor, and attempted to exit the block. The ground floor gate was closed, resulting in the crush. Another seven pupils were injured in the stampede, although the ages of those involved was unclear.
AFGHANISTAN
Officer ‘kills’ 17 colleagues
A police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead on Wednesday with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called “insider” attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban. The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni. “An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taliban and they together shot them all,” Ghazni chief police detective Mohammad Hassan said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
INDONESIA
Mom kills son over penis
A 38-year-old woman drowned her nine-year-old son in the bath, claiming she was worried that his “small penis” would affect his prospects for the future, police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, said yesterday. The woman from Jakarta told police her son had had a small penis prior to being circumcised, but that it appeared to shrink further after the operation, Rikwanto said. “She told police investigators that she killed him, as he would have a bleak future with his small penis,” he said. Police have ordered a psychological test to assess her mental condition, Rikwanto said.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and