UNITED STATES
Chin to run for Congress
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who has been fighting President Donald Trump’s travel ban and other policies over the past year, has announced he will run for Congress. Chin, a Democrat, seeks to replace Hawaii Representative Colleen Hanabusa, who is running for governor. Hanabusa is also a Democrat. Chin made the announcement on Monday, saying that the past year of legal battles over White House actions sparked him to run for the House of Representatives seat. Chin has been a vocal opponent to decisions by Trump’s administration. Before Trump was sworn in, Chin and five other attorneys general asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s pick withdraws
US President Donald Trump’s judicial nominee, whose inability to answer basic legal questions at his confirmation hearing brought him widespread ridicule, has withdrawn, a White House official said on Monday. Matthew Peterson, nominated by Trump to the District Court for the District of Columbia, became an Internet sensation after the video of his confirmation hearing — during which Peterson was unable to define basic legal terms — was posted online. A White House official said Peterson withdrew from consideration and Trump accepted the withdrawal.
TURKEY
German journalist freed
A court on Monday ordered German journalist Mesale Tolu and five codefendants released from prison pending the outcome of their trial on terror-related charges. Tolu, 33, a German citizen with Turkish roots, is charged with engaging in terrorist propaganda and being a member of a banned left-wing group — the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. She has denied the accusations. The court in Istanbul said Tolu could go free, but it barred her from leaving the country. Prosecutors considered her attendance at the funerals of several members of the party as evidence of her membership in the outlawed group.
LEBANON
Uber driver arrested
An Uber driver has been arrested in the killing of a woman who worked at the British embassy in Beirut. The driver confessed to murdering 30-year-old Rebecca Dykes, whose body was found on a highway outside the capital on Saturday, according to the official National News agency. Uber confirmed the suspect was registered to drive for the company. “We are horrified by this senseless act of violence. Our hearts are with the victim and her family,” Uber said in a statement. “We are working with authorities to assist their investigation in any way we can.”
UNITED STATES
Streep denies knowledge
Meryl Streep has said she did not know Harvey Weinstein was allegedly harassing and assaulting women when they worked together. Streep on Monday in a statement said that Weinstein “needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know.” The Oscar winner said her association with him brought him credibility, which she said he used “to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.” Streep said she composed the statement in response to a since-deleted tweet from Rose McGowan, who called out Streep for working with Weinstein.
SYRIA
France terror sponsor: Assad
President Bashar al-Assad yesterday accused France of supporting bloodshed in his country, making it unfit to talk about a peace settlement. “France spearheaded support for terrorism and their hands are soaked in Syrian blood from the first days and we do not see they have changed their stance fundamentally,” al-Assad was quoted in state media as telling reporters after meeting a Russian delegation on Monday. “Those who support terrorism have no right to talk about peace,” he added. France on Friday accused Syria of doing nothing to reach a peace agreement after almost seven years of war and said it was committing mass crimes in the Eastern Ghouta region, where 400,000 people are besieged by government forces. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said Paris would push for peace talks involving all parties in the six-year-old Syrian conflict, including al-Assad, promising “initiatives” early next year.
TONGA
PM Akilisi back in power
Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva has been returned to power for a second term, just months after the king effectively sacked him by dissolving parliament and calling a snap election. Pohiva won a parliamentary ballot late on Monday to decide the prime ministership by 14 votes to 12 over rival candidate Siaosi Sovaleni, his former deputy. It caps a remarkable comeback for the 76-year-old, whose career appeared over following King Tupou VI’s dramatic political intervention in August. In an unprecedented move, the monarch dissolved parliament a year before the next scheduled election, ordering a poll to be held on Nov. 16. Against expectations, Pohiva’s Democratic Party won a resounding 14 of the 17 seats elected by the people, five more than in the 2014 election. It gave Pohiva a majority in the 26-seat parliament, in which nine seats are taken by hereditary nobles, paving the way for Monday’s vote to select the prime minister.
JAPAN
Two executed for murder
The nation yesterday executed two convicted murderers, including one who committed his crime while in his teens, the Ministry of Justice said, ignoring calls from international rights groups to end capital punishment. The hangings of Teruhiko Seki and Kiyoshi Matsui bring to 21 the total number of executions since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in late 2012. Seki, 44, was convicted of killing four people in Chiba in 1992 when he was 19, the ministry said. It was the first execution of a death-row prisoner who committed crimes as a minor since 1997 in Japan, local media said. Matsui, 69, was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend and her parents in 1994.
PHILIPPINES
Man dies after rescue
Filipino fishermen rescued three Australians adrift at sea for days after their yacht capsized in the nation’s south, but one died on the way to hospital, police said yesterday. Two fishermen on Sunday picked up the Australians, who waved for help while clinging to a life buoy, about 80 km off Surigao province. Police in the provincial capital of Tandag said the men had been in the water for several days after the holed yacht capsized near Mindanao while sailing to Subic Bay. “Unfortunately, Anthony John Mahoney did not make it as he was already unconscious at the time of the rescue,” police official Evelyn Tidula said. The Australian embassy in Manila is to help repatriate Mahoney’s remains, while the other two are in stable condition in hospital. One of them has an address in the nation’s north.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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