TURKEY
TAK claims Ankara attack
A radical Kurdish group with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) yesterday claimed the deadly suicide car bomb attack that killed 35 people in Ankara last weekend. “On the evening of March 13, a suicide attack was carried out... in the streets of the capital of the fascist Turkish republic. We claim this attack,” the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) said in a statement on its Web site. The group said it was a response to security operations carried out by Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country. Sunday’s attack came three weeks after a similar car bombing in Ankara killed 29 people, also claimed by TAK.
THAILAND
PM lauds S Korean drama
A hit South Korean drama about a gun-toting soldier saving lives in a far away land has won over the mercurial junta chief, who yesterday called on citizens to watch the show. Former army chief turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha seized power in a 2014 coup and has often portrayed himself as an officer duty-bound to save the nation from years of political chaos, even penning two pop songs and commissioning a series of short films to spread his patriotic message. Now he has urged Thais to watch Descendants of the Sun. “What I have seen is that they have inserted a sense of patriotism, sacrifice, obeying orders and being a dutiful citizen,” he told delegates at a government function yesterday morning. “So please watch it and if anyone wants to make such a drama I will financially sponsor it to make people love government officials, uncorrupted officials and make the Thai people love each other,” he added.
JAPAN
Highway pileup kills two
A fiery pile-up inside a highway tunnel yesterday killed at least two people and left 70 needing treatment as dozens fled toxic smoke from burning vehicles, police and media said. The accident happened at about 7:30am inside the 860m Hachihonmatsu tunnel in Hiroshima Prefecture, a local police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. A truck crashed into several vehicles that were stopped inside the tunnel, causing it and at least one other vehicle to catch fire, he said. Local media said a dozen vehicles were involved, with at least five cars burning. The fire was put out a little more than two hours after the accident, the police spokesman said. Two people, including a woman, were confirmed dead, though the gender of the other fatality could not immediately be determined, the spokesman added.
THAILAND
Diamond thief turns monk
A gardener behind a US$20 million gem heist from a Saudi palace that has long soured relations between the two nations yesterday became a monk in hopes of redeeming his karma. Kriangkrai Techamong stole the precious gems from the palace of a Saudi prince where he worked in 1989, triggering a feud between Thailand and Saudi Arabia dubbed the “Blue Diamond Affair” that has yet to be resolved. Thai police later returned some of the jewels, but Saudi officials said most were counterfeits while the whereabouts of the most precious gem — a rare 50-carat blue diamond — remains unknown. Kriangkrai yesterday told local media his life has been haunted by the theft that unleashed an “avalanche” of suffering on his family. He was jailed for five years soon after the theft, but managed to sell most of the gems before his arrest.
UNITED STATES
First lady rules out race
First lady Michelle Obama showed off her vocal chops at the South by Southwest Music Festival, but drew a round of disappointed sighs on Wednesday when she told the crowd she has no plans to run for president. Obama made her debut at the Austin showcase of buzzworthy bands and technology, sitting with Grammy winners Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott to talk about girls’ education and empowerment. Obama broke into song when reflecting on seven years in the White House. She said “time is almost up” before softly singing some of the Boyz II Men hit It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday. Obama said she would most miss interacting with people as first lady, but says she has no presidential aspirations of her own. “No, no. Not going to do it,” she told the crowd. She mentioned her teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha, as two of the main reasons. “The daughters of a president. Just think about it. Come on, young people. Not so easy,” Obama said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Minister faced death threat
Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas received a death threat shortly before issuing a statement accusing a wealthy family with links to President Jacob Zuma of offering him the job of finance minister, the Business Day newspaper said yesterday. As he was preparing his bombshell statement, Jonas received a text message from a “prominent businessman” telling him to be quiet, the paper — South Africa’s main business daily — said. “Please keep your own counsel. Martyrdom is best left to Christ,” the text message read. The paper did not identify the sender.
RUSSIA
Hackers hit 13 banks
A newly discovered hacker group known as Buhtrap has attacked 13 Russian banks since August last year using malware that infiltrates their gateway to the central bank, Moscow-based cybersecurity company Group-IB said. The hackers spread the malware using infected e-mails that mimic correspondence from the central bank and Gazprombank JSC, Group- IB said in a report yesterday. The program then targets the automated bank-customer system that connects to the regulator. “This is the most critical system for Russian banks,” Dmitry Volkov, the head of Group-IB’s cyberintelligence department, said by telephone. “This is the same as if hackers were to get access to the SWIFT system at Citibank, for example.” In their biggest heist identified to date, the hackers stole 600 million rubles (US$8.65 million), the firm said.
UNITED STATES
Statue seized in New York
Federal agents seized an ancient Afghan statue from a Manhattan gallery on Wednesday morning, part of a string of seizures that began on Friday last week and have coincided with Asia Week festivities in New York. The object, identified by authorities as an eighth-century marble sculpture of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati seated on a tiger skin was taken from a gallery on East 67th Street, where it was being displayed by Leonardo Vigorelli, owner of the Milan-based Dalton Somare art gallery. Federal authorities, working in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, wrapped the relic in protective mats and loaded it onto a moving truck. Investigators estimated its value at US$450,000. The seizures are part of Operation Hidden Idol, under which Manhattan prosecutors and Homeland Security Investigations officials have been attempting to recover items stolen from temples and other ancient sites in Asia.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS