SINGAPORE
Hoax bomb call reported
The air force mobilized two fighter jets late on Tuesday in response to a bomb threat on an Air India Express flight bound for the city-state, the defense minister said. Two air force F-15SG jets scrambled and escorted Air India flight AXB684 away from populated areas after the airline received an e-mail that there was a bomb on board its plane, Minister of Defense Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said in a Facebook post. Ng said the plane was escorted and landed safely at Changi Airport at 10:04pm on Tuesday, adding that ground-based air defence systems and explosive disposal team were also activated. The police said that “no threat items were found” on board the plane after completing security checks, adding that investigations were ongoing. “Air India notes that it, and other local airlines, have been subject to a number of threats in recent days. Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” the airline said on social media.
UNITED STATES
Pandas arrive in Washington
A pair of giant pandas arrived in Washington from China on Tuesday to move into their new home at the National Zoo, which has been without the black-and-white bears, one of its most popular attractions, for about a year. China sent the pandas as part of an agreement announced earlier this year by US and Chinese government officials intended to warm relations between the two superpowers. The zoo returned three other giant pandas — two adults and their cub — which had been on loan from China. The new male and female pandas, named Bao Li (寶力) and Qing Bao (青寶), arrived at Dulles International Airport on a FedEx plane, transported in large white crates with breathing holes along the side, and were driven by truck to the zoo. Bao Li and Qing Bao are to stay inside the National Zoo’s panda house for 30 days under quarantine, the zoo said.
AUSTRALIA
‘Mysterious’ objects seen
Hundreds of mysterious black tar-like balls have washed up on two popular Sydney beaches, prompting lifeguards to close the strands to swimmers. “Mysterious, black, ball-shaped debris” began appearing on Coogee Beach on Tuesday afternoon, the local mayor said, leaving flummoxed authorities scrambling to find out what they might be, and where they might have come from. Hundreds of golf-to-cricket-ball-sized spheres could be seen littering the coast, which is usually thronged with Sydneysiders and tourists. “At this stage, it is unknown what the material is,” Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker said in a social media post. “However, they may be ‘tar balls’ which are formed when oil comes in to contact with debris and water, typically the result of oil spills or seepage.”
EGYPT
Museum starts trial run
The Grand Egyptian Museum is to open 12 halls with exhibits about ancient Egypt in its main galleries starting this week in a trial run ahead of the still-unannounced official opening, officials said on Tuesday. The museum, a mega-project near the famed Giza Pyramids which has cost well over US$1 billion so far, was to open the halls for 4,000 visitors per day starting yesterday, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities al-Tayeb Abbas said. The museum has been under construction for more than a decade, and an overall opening date has not yet been set, having been repeatedly delayed for various reasons.
‘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
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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
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