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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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