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.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS