Japan defence ministry seeks record budget
AP, Tokyo
Japan’s defence ministry on Friday requested a record $50.3 billion budget to fund purchases of fighter jets and missile defence as the country eyes the threat from North Korea and China.
The 5.32 trillion yen ($50.3 billion) request for the year from April is 1.2 percent higher than last year’s, marking an eighth straight increase.
Ukraine President picks young lawyer as PM
AFP, Jakarta
Abandoning Jakarta for a new capital in Borneo won’t save the fast-sinking Indonesian megacity from disaster and could even spark a fresh environmental crisis in a region home to rainforests and endangered orangutans, critics have warned.
President Joko Widodo announced this week that the Southeast Asian nation’s political heart would be moved nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) east to a yet-to-be-built model city as a way of easing pressure on densely populated Java.
Iran, Hezbollah intensifying missile efforts: Israel
AP, Jerusalem
Israel’s prime minister on Thursday accused Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah of racing to build a missile-production program in Lebanon, vowing to destroy the ambitious project and issuing a stern warning to his enemies to “be careful.”
The threats ratcheted up an already tense standoff that has pushed the bitter adversaries closer toward open, armed conflict in recent weeks.
Body of deported Iraqi national returning to US for burial
AP, Detroit
The body of a 41-year-old Iraqi man who died in Baghdad after being deported from the U.S. for committing multiple crimes is being returned to the Detroit area for burial.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, of Michigan, announced Thursday that Jimmy Aldaoud’s body was in transit and was expected to arrive Friday. Aldaoud, who came to the U.S. as an infant and lived in the Detroit area, was deported in June. Levin says Aldaoud had diabetes as well as schizophrenia and other mental health issues.
He spoke no Arabic and had no family in Iraq.
