PHILIPPINES
Military kills nine militants
Nine Islamist militants including three suspects in a Catholic Mass bombing have been killed in a clash with troops, the military said yesterday. Army soldiers shot it out with about 15 Dawlah Islamiyah suspects hiding out at a mountain farm close to the remote southern municipality of Piagapo on Thursday, the commander of the military unit said. The firefight left nine of the militants dead and four soldiers wounded, including two with “serious” wounds, army Brigadier-General Yegor Rey Barroquillo said. Three of the six suspects in the bombing of a Catholic Mass at a school in the southern city of Marawi last month were among those killed in Thursday’s fighting, he added.
UNITED STATES
Hundredth Maui victim found
A 100th victim has been identified from the wildfire that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui over the summer, police said on Friday. Lydia Coloma, 70, was initially listed on a tally of missing persons that has since dwindled to just a handful of people. The Aug. 8 fire largely destroyed the city of Lahaina, the old capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Among the charred debris and buildings reduced to ashes, the search for and identification of human remains has been difficult, often requiring DNA samples from living relatives of those listed as missing.
VENEZUELA
Machado ban upheld
The Supreme Tribunal of Justice on Friday upheld a ban on the candidacy of Maria Corina Machado, a longtime government foe and winner of the primary held by the opposition faction backed by the US. Machado, a former lawmaker, won the opposition’s independently run presidential primary in October last year with more than 90 percent of the votes. Her victory came despite the government announcing a 15-year ban on her running for office just days after she formally entered the race in June. She insisted throughout the campaign that she never received an official notification of the ban, and said that voters, not ruling-party loyalists, are the rightful decisionmakers of her candidacy. After the court issued its ruling, Machado wrote on social media that her campaign’s “fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections” is not over. “Maduro and his criminal system chose the worst path for them: fraudulent elections,” she wrote. “That’s not gonna happen.”
MEXICO
Passengers back wing man
The Mexico City International Airport on Friday said that a man had opened an emergency exit and walked out on a wing of a plane that was parked and waiting for takeoff on Thursday. The airport said in a statement the man had been turned over to police. However, at least 77 passengers aboard the AeroMexico flight to Guatemala signed a copy of a written statement saying the airline made them wait for four hours without ventilation or water while the flight was delayed. According to photographs of the statement posted online, fellow passengers said he acted “to protect everyone, with the support of everyone,” adding that “the delay and lack of air created conditions that endangered the health of the passengers. He saved our lives.” An incident report filed with airport authorities largely confirmed that version, stating that the incident occurred at 11:37am, after the plane was held for maintenance. “The passengers were unhappy and one of them opened the emergency door and stepped out on the wing,” the report said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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