INDONESIA
UN candidacy announced
The nation on Friday announced its candidacy for membership on the UN Security Council, saying its commitment and contribution to the world body make it a true partner for world peace. In a speech at the UN General Assembly, Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla said the UN needs reforms to make it stronger and more relevant to 21st-century challenges and realities. Kalla said the nation has a commitment to increase its peacekeeping force to 4,000 personnel by 2019 and fights terrorism both regional and globally. As the world’s most populous Muslim nation and its third-largest democracy, Jakarta sees Islam modernity and women’s empowerment as going hand-in-hand with democracy, tolerance, pluralism and peace, he said. Selections of the new non-permanent Security Council members in 2019-2020 will be made in mid-2019.
MONTENEGRO
Sniper kills man in jail
A sniper has shot dead a prisoner in broad daylight in a yard at the Balkan nation’s highest-security jail, officials said on Friday. The victim, named only by the initials D.Dj, was shot in the chest on Thursday while walking in the grounds of the main jail in the capital, Podgorica, prison authorities said in a statement. The prisoner died of his injuries later on Thursday, the statement said, adding that he had been jailed for extortion in 2014. “Clearly this is a clash of criminal groups and this brutal murder requires the maximum engagement of all institutions involved in implementing justice,” the statement said. Local media identified the victim as Dalibor Djuric, saying he was the 10th person killed in feuds between drugs gangs in the past two years. Earlier this month, police arrested nine men suspected of belonging to a drugs gang responsible for a surge in violence in the nation’s top tourist destination.
UNITED STATES
Boy blamed for fire
Police say a 12-year-old boy riding a push scooter set fire to the arts-and-crafts section of a Wal-Mart store in the Southern California desert, leading to losses of more than US$1 million. The store in Barstow remained closed for a third day on Friday because of the damage. Barstow police said in a statement that the boy, who was not with his parents, set the fire with a lighter on Wednesday afternoon. Wal-Mart employees tried to put it out with fire extinguishers, but failed and some had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze, but serious damage was done by both fire and water. Police looked at surveillance video and saw the boy with a scooter and a backpack. He was found on a street corner later in the day. He was arrested and taken to juvenile hall.
UNITED STATES
Dummy caught in truck
A California driver has been cited for using a mannequin — not the required human being — while driving in a carpool lane. The Orange County Register reported that Brea police found the mannequin on Wednesday in a truck on the congested No. 57 freeway. The truck veered out of the carpool lane close to an officer’s motorcycle. As the officer attempted to warn the driver to be careful, he noticed the passenger was not a passenger. Police say the driver acknowledged using the mannequin in the carpool lane for some time. The driver told police that he would now accept that he needs to sit in traffic like everyone else. California requires that a vehicle have a minimum of two people for carpool lanes. Driving alone can bring a fine of at least US$481.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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