TURKEY The state-run news agency says police have detained a Syrian Islamic State militant suspected of planning a suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. Anadolu Agency said the man was detained yesterday in Kahramanmaras, a province close to the border with Syria. It didn’t cite a source for the report. The U.S. Consulate was closed down last week over an unspecified threat.
THAILAND King Bhumibol Adulyadej has made a rare, brief appearance yesterday on television amid concerns about his ailing health. The people of Thailand marked the 88th birthday of their king, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, but with their once-vigorous leader in a hospital and unseen in public for three months, the celebrations were the most subdued in memory.
PHILIPPINES Typhoon Melor left at least one person dead and wide areas without power yesterday as it crossed over the central Philippines. About 730,000 people were evacuated to safer grounds before the storm hit. The typhoon had weakened but was still packing winds of 140 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 170 kph as it passed over Oriental Mindoro province. Classes, flights and ferry trips remained suspended in affected areas.
IRAN The U.N. nuclear agency prepared to close the books on a decade-long probe of allegations that Iran worked on atomic arms, despite acknowledgement by its head that his investigation remains incomplete. The probe has to be formally closed as part of a deal between Iran and six nations to crimp present Iranian nuclear programs that could be used to make such weapons, in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions.
USA There’s no legal or historical precedent for closing US borders to the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, but neither is there any Supreme Court case that clearly prevents a president or Congress from doing so. Legal experts are divided over how the high court would react to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s call for a temporary halt to Muslims entering the United States.
HAWAII The U.S. Air Force community is mourning the death of a 22-year-old senior airman from Hawaii who had been supporting Operation Christmas Drop 2015 when he collapsed following a training exercise. The Air Force said that Senior Airman Jeremy M. Jutba-Hake collapsed Sunday during post-flight duties at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. He was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead, The Pacific Daily News reported.
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