UNITED STATES
US steps up Gulf forces
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday approved the deployment of the USS Bataan amphibious readiness group and the 26th Marine Expeditional Unit to the Gulf region in the wake of Iranian attempts to seize commercial ships there, US officials said. The readiness group consists of three ships, including the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. An expeditional unit usually consists of about 2,500 Marines. The deployment would provide “even greater flexibility and maritime capability in the region,” US Central Command said in an announcement. Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz early this month, opening fire on one of them. The fighter aircraft are intended to give air cover for the commercial ships moving through the waterway and increase the military’s visibility in the area, as a deterrent to Iran, officials said.
ITALY
Police seize record cocaine
Authorities have seized a record 5.3 tonne cocaine haul being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily, police said yesterday. The consignment had an estimated value of 850 million euros (US$946 million) and five people have been arrested, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement. Police had been tracking a ship that sailed from South America and swooped in the early hours of Wednesday, when a surveillance aircraft spotted packages being thrown from its deck into the waters of the Strait of Sicily to be collected by a waiting fishing trawler. They stopped the trawler and found large quantities of drugs in a hidden compartment behind some paneling on the vessel. Two Tunisians, an Italian, an Albanian and a French national were arrested.
INDIA
Four held over naked video
Police have arrested four men accused of parading two women naked in front of a mob in the northeastern state of Manipur, where months of ethnic violence have left at least 120 people dead. The suspects were identified from a video clip of the incident in early May that went viral on social media on Wednesday, causing outrage across the country. “Four main accused arrested in the Viral Video Case,” police in Manipur wrote on Twitter late on Thursday. The video clip showed the women walking naked along a street, being jeered at and harassed by a mob in the state, where the authorities have imposed an Internet shutdown. A “thorough investigation” was under way, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh wrote on Twitter. “We will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment,” he added.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos rejects ICC probe
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said his government would not cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into the thousands of killings committed during his predecessor’s “war on drugs.” He said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the country, which withdrew from the ICC in March 2019. “We will not cooperate with them in any way, shape or form,” Marcos told reporters, just days after appeals judges at the ICC rejected Manila’s attempt to block an investigation by the court’s prosecutors into the anti-narcotics campaign of former president Rodrigo Duterte. Thousands of people were killed during anti-drug operations that ended in shootouts during Duterte’s six-year term, rights groups have said.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
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