PHILIPPINES
No coup talk: security head
National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano yesterday rejected talk of a plot to destabilize the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, saying the military and entire security sector were loyal to the commander-in-chief. “Yes, there were healthy and passionate exchanges [and] debates among some retired or former military officers and even some criticism against certain policies of the current administration, but they are within the bounds of our democratic space,” National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said. “There is no destabilization plot [and] movement against the government,” he said in a statement. His remarks came after Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces General Romeo Brawner was quoted in the media as telling troops on Friday that he had heard of “destabilization efforts,” with some military officers saying “the president should be replaced for many reasons” and “there should be another coup d’etat.”
PAKISTAN
Forces kill base attackers
The military said its forces killed nine armed men who attacked an air force training base yesterday, with a group affiliated with the Pakistan Taliban claiming responsibility. “All nine terrorists have been sent to hell,” the military said in a statement, adding that its operation had concluded. Three men were killed before they entered the base, and three other attackers had been “cornered/isolated,” the military said earlier. The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a newly emerged militant group that is an affiliate of the home-grown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to media.
GUINEA
Camara freed in shoot-out
Gunmen yesterday stormed the main prison in the capital and freed former military leader Moussa “Dadis” Camara, the justice minister said, announcing the closure of the nation’s borders. The announcement by Minister of Justice Charles Alphonse Wright came several hours after heavy gunfire erupted in the Kaloum district of the capital, Conakry. Among the others who escaped were Claude Pivi and Blaise Goumou, Wright said. “We will find them. And those responsible will be held accountable,” Wright told local Radio Fim FM. Camara, who came to power in a 2008 coup d’etat, had been detained in connection with a stadium massacre during his brief time in power. He had lived for years in exile after surviving an assassination attempt before returning home in late 2021. “The city center has been sealed since dawn, we can neither enter, nor leave,” a shopkeeper said of the shooting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
AUSTRALIA
PM to ask Xi about detainee
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said that he would protest a lack of transparency in China’s treatment of a detained Australian democracy blogger when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing during a trade-focused state visit. The detention of Yang Hengjun (楊恆均) without conviction for almost five years would be one of the topics raised with Xi when they meet in the Great Hall of the People tomorrow. Yang is being held in a Beijing detention center awaiting the verdict of a 2021 closed-door trial on espionage charges. “I’ll be saying that Dr Yang’s case needs to be resolved and I’ll be speaking about his human rights, the nature of the detention and the failure to have transparent processes,” Albanese told reporters in Darwin, hours before he was to fly to Shanghai.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home