HONG KONG
Police stabbing yields arrests
Police yesterday said that they have arrested seven people for “assisting” a suspect in the stabbing of a police officer during a protest against new national security legislation on Wednesday last week. Authorities arrested five males and two females aged 24 to 71 on suspicion of offenses, including helping to arrange the suspect purchase an air ticket and transportation to the airport, police said at a news briefing. Police on Thursday last week arrested a 24-year-old man at the airport on suspicion of stabbing and wounding an officer during the demonstration, just hours after the new legislation was imposed.
KAZAKHSTAN
Super pneumonia ‘fake news’
The government yesterday dismissed as incorrect a warning by China’s embassy for its citizens to guard against an outbreak of pneumonia in the nation that it described as being more lethal than COVID-19. In a statement late on Thursday on WeChat, the Chinese embassy flagged a “significant increase” in cases in the Kazakh cities of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent since mid-June. However, the Ministry of Healthcare branded Chinese media reports based on the embassy statement as “fake news.”
THAILAND
US’ ‘strategic vision’ inked
US Army Chief of Staff General James McConville yesterday met with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Royal Thai Army Commander in Chief General Apirat Kongsompong, and signed a Strategic Vision Statement, a US embassy statement said, as Washington looks to reassure allies about its commitment to the region. The US has sought to counter China’s influence in Southeast Asia after having scaled back some military exchanges with Thailand after its 2014 military coup, when Bangkok began to forge closer ties with China.
INDIA
Australia welcomed to drills
The government plans to invite Australia to join the trilateral India-Japan-US Malabar naval exercises. The decision to include Australia in the drills — the first time that all members of the regional grouping known as the Quad would be engaged at a military level — comes as Beijing and New Delhi are caught up in their worst border tensions in four decades. The exercise would bring together the countries’ navies in the Bay of Bengal at the end of the year, said senior officials, on condition of anonymity. “The Quad has always been a security platform, but didn’t have a military context to it,” Observer Research Foundation distinguished fellow Rajeswari Pillai Rajagoplan said. “The Malabar exercises might give it just that thanks to China upping its ante and threatening the region’s security.”
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
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