Interpol said that it has issued a worldwide security alert following the escape of the alleged leader of an Islamic terror group from a jail in Singapore.
The international police organization said on Friday it put out an "Orange Notice" for Mas Selamat Kastari, a suspected commander of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah's Singapore arm.
Mas Selamat, a 47-year-old who is accused of once plotting to hijack an airplane and crash it into Singapore's international airport, escaped from a detention center on Wednesday.
The Interpol notice was issued to the group's 186 national member bureaus following a request by Singapore, the agency said.
"When it comes to escapes, the first hours are crucial," said Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol's executive director of police services.
"The state of Singapore has put into operation everything that's needed to be done. It's a small country, so it's easy to cross and leave," he said.
Louboutin said authorities have "no trail for the moment."
Mas Selamat is "someone who presents a potential physical danger to others, but also a potential danger by organizing future bombings," he said.
The government said Mas Selamat escaped because of a "security lapse" at the detention center. He had been taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for his family to make a scheduled visit. He escaped after being granted permission to visit the washroom, authorities said.
Singaporean authorities have launched a nationwide manhunt for the fugitive they say walks with a limp.
Police and military personnel set up a blockade around the detention center, while security was tightened at land, air and sea entry ports.
Security breaches are virtually unheard of in Singapore. Among its biggest successes were pre-empting alleged plots to bomb the US embassy, the American Club and government buildings in 2001 -- schemes in which Mas Selamat allegedly had a hand.
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,
RSS