PHILIPPINES
BIFF blamed for bombing
Muslim rebels are suspected of carrying out a bus bombing that claimed 10 lives, the military said yesterday. A military spokesman said the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a band of a few hundred guerrillas operating on Mindanao Island, are believed to have staged the attack, which also left 42 wounded. The bomb was similar to one used last month in an attack on another vehicle belonging to the same bus company, which the BIFF is also believed to have orchestrated, said Major Ezra Balagtey, spokesman for the region. “The bomb/IED is made of an 81mm mortar round [that was] cellphone-activated. The same bomb signature with the IED explosion that happened last November,” Balagtey said in an SMS message to journalists. BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama denied the charges. “Bombing civilians would not benefit us. The [military] is fabricating stories again to malign us,” Mama said. The Rural Transit bus had picked up passengers, mostly students, and was passing near the main gate of Central Mindanao University in Maramag Town in Bukidnon Province when the powerful blast sent shrapnel and debris flying through the vehicle, local police said.
ISRAEL
Man charged over bomb plot
A US Christian who passed himself off as an ex-US Navy SEAL faces charges of trying to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Police and the Ministry of Justice identified the man as Adam Everett Livix, 30. Police said he faces drug charges in the US and that he once turned down an offer from a Palestinian to assassinate US President Barack Obama during the leader’s visit to the Holy Land last year. The ministry said the man they identified as Livix underwent a psychiatric evaluation on Tuesday after his indictment on Monday on charges of illegal weapon possession and overstaying his visa by more than a year. Operating in cooperation with Shin Bet security service, police went to arrest Livix last month at his 7th-floor apartment, the ministry said, but he initially tried to escape by leaping down to a patio on the floor below.
AUSTRALIA
Web piracy laws outlined
The government yesterday outlined plans to tackle online piracy as it moves to end the country’s position as one of the world’s top illegal downloaders of television shows such as Game of Thrones. Copyright holders will be able to apply for court orders requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to Web sites outside the country that give access to infringing content, according to the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act. ISPs have also been given 120 days to develop an industry code that includes issuing warnings to consumers who breach copyright laws.
AUSTRALIA
‘Shirtfront’ named top word
“Shirtfront,” an aggressive sports term used by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin, was yesterday picked as the National Dictionary Centre’s word of the year. Abbott in October vowed to “shirtfront” — an Australian Rules football term in which a player charges an opponent — Putin over the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Amanda Laugesen, director of the center at the Australian National University, said “shirtfront” was chosen as it resonated across the nation’s social, cultural, and political spheres.
GERMANY
CDU reappoints Merkel
The Christian Democrat Union (CDU) congress in Cologne on Tuesday confirmed Chancellor Angela Merkel as party leader for the eighth time, giving her overwhelming support to fend off a growing challenge from the left and fueling talk that she plans to seek a fourth term as chancellor. Merkel won 96.7 percent of the congress vote, which she called an “overwhelming vote of confidence,” although the result was slightly down on the last vote in 2012. She ran unopposed.
UNITED KINGDOM
Drinkers stay out of pubs
Taxation and a smoking ban are to blame for the “decimation” of the the nation’s pub industry, according to a study released yesterday that said 10,000 pubs had closed since 2006. The report, Closing Time, by the Institute of Economic Affairs found that 21,000 pubs had closed since 1980, and that this trend was accelerating. Of the pubs that had closed since 2006, the bulk had shut due to a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and a tax on alcohol, according to the report. The public seems to be losing their taste for beer, with a 30 percent fall in beer consumption among those aged over 15 between 2003 and 2011, the report said. Overall alcohol consumption per person has fallen by 18 percent in the past decade, according to the study, while Britons increasingly choose to drink at home.
NETHERLANDS
MH17 UN probe rejected
The government on Tuesday rejected a proposal from relatives of victims of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 to let the UN take charge of its criminal investigation into the disaster. A request to appoint a special UN envoy to take over the inquiry was sent on Friday last week by a law firm representing 20 relatives, who have accused the government of failing to build a legal case to prosecute those responsible. “The investigation by the Dutch Safety Board is being carried out not only by Dutch investigators,” wrote Dick Schoof, a senior Minister of Justice and Security official in a reply to the law firm, listing the 11 countries that had contributed to the team, including Malaysia, Russia and Ukraine.
ITALY
PM gets tough on corruption
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi proposed changes to the law to crack down on corruption on Tuesday, after dozens of arrests last week uncovered a “Mafia Capitale” criminal network in Rome. Renzi said he wanted to raise the minimum jail time for corruption, make it easier to confiscate perpetrators’ assets, ensure their spoils were returned, and extend the statute of limitations. Prosecutors in Rome last week arrested 37 people and put dozens of others under investigation, including politicians from the opposition and Renzi’s Democratic Party who are suspected of taking kickbacks in return for awarding contracts to businesses run by a criminal gang.
UNITED STATES
Festive sheep found
A sheep wearing a festive red-and-green sweater that was found wandering around Omaha has been reunited with its owner. Owner Margaret Vazquez told KMTV she initially panicked when the sheep, named Gage, went missing. She said the sheep “follows me everywhere.” Nebraska Humane Society spokeswoman Pam Wiese says the sheep was reclaimed on Tuesday evening. Gage is used to walking on a leash. Vazquez said it was the first time Gage has escaped and the sheep now would spend more time indoors.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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