Montenegro
New government voted in
Lawmakers yesterday voted in a new government, backed by a pro-Russian alliance, nearly five months after general elections. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic’s government was voted in after a marathon overnight debate, supported by 46 of 66 lawmakers present in the 81-member parliament. “Our vision is Montenegro as the Switzerland of the Balkans and the Singapore of Europe,” Spajic told lawmakers ahead of the vote. His Europe Now party won a slim lead in parliamentary elections in June amid a crowded field of parties, which led to lengthy talks to hammer out a new coalition. The new coalition includes pro-Russian and pro-Serbian parties, notably the alliance For the Future of Montenegro, whose leader, Andrija Mandic, was elected parliamentary speaker late on Monday. Mandic’s alliance is against the recognition of Kosovo and does not support international sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
INDONESIA
Police arrest 59 militants
Counterterrorism police have arrested 59 militants over suspected plots targeting the presidential election in February, an official said yesterday. Police earlier last month arrested 40 suspects from the Islamic State-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah and 19 suspects from al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, and seized weapons, propaganda material and bomb-making chemicals, Aswin Siregar, spokesman for anti-terrorism unit Densus 88, told a news conference in Jakarta. “For them, the election is part of democracy, whereby democracy is immoral. Democracy is something that violates the law for them,” he said. “They planned to carry out attacks on security forces who focus on securing the series of election activities.”
CHINA
Weather stations warned
The Ministry of State Security is cracking down on weather stations with foreign links it says pose a threat to national security. Hundreds of illegal meteorological facilities were sending information abroad, some of them from sensitive sites such as military bases, industrial enterprises and grain-producing areas, it said yesterday. A number of the stations were “directly funded by foreign governments,” the spy agency said in a post on social media, adding that data went to overseas security officials — although it did not give details on what nations were supposedly involved. Chinese security officials are “investigating and dealing with the relevant illegal activities,” it said. Foreign embassies and research groups gather domestic weather data — an activity that becomes more important as the nation deals with bouts of extreme weather.
UNITED STATES
Tarantula blamed for crash
A tarantula crossing the road in Death Valley National Park caused a traffic crash that sent a Canadian motorcyclist to the hospital, the National Park Service said. Swiss travelers, driving a rented camper van, braked suddenly to avoid hitting the tarantula as it crossed State Route 190 on Saturday, the park service said. The 24-year-old motorcyclist then struck the back of the camper van. The motorcyclist’s condition was not immediately available on Monday. “The spider walked away unscathed,” the park service wrote in a statement. While tarantulas spend most of their lives in underground burrows, eight to 10-year-old males go aboveground in the fall to search for a mate, the park service said. A bite from the non-aggressive arachnids is reportedly similar to a bee sting, officials said, and is not deadly to humans.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
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