MYANMAR
Rebels control town
An armed alliance of ethnic minority groups claimed late on Friday to have captured a northern town notorious for online scam operations in another blow to the embattled junta. The military is facing its biggest threat since seizing power in a 2021 coup after three armed ethnic groups — known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance — launched a sweeping offensive in northern Shan state in October last year. Since November people have been fleeing Laukkai town, located in a district bordering China that is run by a Myanmar military-aligned militia and notorious for gambling, prostitution and online scams run out of compounds staffed by thousands of people, many trafficked. The alliance — made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — said the town was now under their control. “All members from the Myanmar Army’s Military Operational Command in Laukkai were disarmed and Laukkai became a clean area where there are no more members of the Myanmar Army,” the alliance said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Starsky and Hutch’ star dies
US-born actor and singer David Soul, a 1970s icon for his role as detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson in the classic TV series Starsky and Hutch, has died aged 80, his family announced on Friday. UK-based Soul, whose decades-spanning career included work as a director, producer and singer-songwriter, died on Thursday “after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family,” said his British wife, Helen Snell. “He shared many extraordinary gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend,” she added in a statement. “His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.” One-time heartthrob Soul starred opposite Paul Michael Glaser’s wisecracking tough guy detective Dave Starsky in the wildly popular 1970s US series that was exported around the world.
UNITED STATES
Plane window blows out
An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Oregon on Friday after a window and a chunk of its fuselage blew out in mid-air shortly after takeoff. A passenger sent Portland-based KATU-TV a photo showing a gaping hole in the side of the airplane next to passenger seats. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured. The airline said the plane landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members. “Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, experienced an incident this evening soon after departure,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. The airline said it would share more information when it became available.
UNITED STATES
Glynis Johns dies at 100
Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie Mary Poppins and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100. Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died on Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.” Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
Czech intelligence chief Michal Koudelka has spent decades uncovering Russian spy networks, sabotage attempts and disinformation campaigns against Europe. Speaking in an interview from a high-security compound on the outskirts of Prague, he is now warning allies that pushing Kyiv to accept significant concessions to end the war in Ukraine would only embolden the Kremlin. “Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and eastern Europe,” said Koudelka, a major general who heads the country’s Security Information Service. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
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