NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Japan crash: U.S. military personnel in Okinawa have been restricted to base and banned from drinking alcohol after a Marine was arrested over a crash that killed a Japanese man. Police on the southern Japanese island arrested Nicholas JamesMcLean, 21, late Sunday on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in injury or death and driving under the influence of alcohol, said Okinawa police. Hidemasa Taira, 61, died in the crash in Naha, the main city in Okinawa. The incident could fuel greater opposition to the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, where about 25,000 American troops are stationed and where local residents have expressed concerns in the past about military crime and crowding on the island.
Drug targets: American aircraft have targeted drug producing facilities in Afghanistan for the first time under a new strategy aimed at cutting off Taliban funding, the top U.S. general in the country said Monday. Gen. John Nicholson said the raids, involving an F-22 bomber, were carried out Sunday in the southern Helmand province, as part of the strategy unveiled by President Trump in August. Nicholson said the insurgents generate an estimated $200 million a year from poppy cultivation and opium production. Nicholson said the Taliban were becoming a criminal organization. “They fight so that they can keep profiting from narcotics trade and other criminal activities,” he said.
Iran quake: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Monday visited the earthquake-hit region along the border with Iraq and urged more aid for residents. The Nov. 12 temblor killed over 530 people and injured thousands. Khamenei told residents in the worst-hit Kurdish town of Sarpol-e Zahab that he is not yet “content” with how the aid has been delivered. Khamenei praised the rescue and relief operations following the magnitude 7.3 earthquake, but said “officials should double their efforts.”
War crimes trial: A lawyer for Gen. Ratko Mladic said Monday it is not certain the former Bosnian Serb military commander will show up in a United Nations courtroom when judges deliver their verdicts in his long-running trial for allegedly masterminding atrocities during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Mladic’s attorneys have filed a motions to have the ailing 75-year-old’s health assessed before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announces it decisions Wednesday in The Hague, Netherlands. He was tried on 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Kurdish vote: Iraq’s top court on Monday paved the way for the self-ruled northern Kurdish region to step back from its controversial independence referendum and annul the vote that overwhelmingly backed secession from Baghdad. The Supreme Federal Court on Monday affirmed an earlier ruling that said the Sept. 25 referendum was unconstitutional and that its results are to be annulled. In the crisis that followed the vote, Iraqi federal forces seized the northern city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas from the Kurds.
Royal anniversary: Britain marked the 70th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, on Monday with a peal of bells, a set of portraits and commemorative stamps. The then-Princess Elizabeth married naval officer Lt. Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey on Nov. 20, 1947. Elizabeth became queen in 1952. Now 91, she is the first British monarch to reach a platinum anniversary. Philip is 96.