FRONT PAGES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
MONDAY
Daily Star, Beirut
France hits Islamic State
France launched major air strikes on the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria on Sunday night, destroying a militant training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned. Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said.
Leaders vow tough response
U.S. President Obama vowed Sunday to step up efforts to eliminate the Islamic State and prevent more attacks like those in Paris, while urging Russia’s Vladimir Putin to focus on combatting the militant group in Syria. As a twoday summit meeting opened in Turkey, world leaders vowed a vigorous response to the Islamic State’s terror spree in Paris.
TUESDAY
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Makati
Sea row to eclipse agenda
Thorny American ties with China and the Paris terrorist attacks are expected to grab attention from trade issues at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that will be held under extra-heavy security in Manila this week. U.S. President Obama and the leaders of China, Japan, Mexico and other nations in the 21-member bloc will converge along with 7,000 officials, CEOs and other participants on the Philippine International Convention Center by Manila Bay.
Editor’s note: The sea dispute between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors is over Beijing’s claims to most of the South China Sea.
Aquino to attend summit
The terrorist attacks in France notwithstanding, President Aquino said Monday that he is set to attend a crucial climate change summit in Paris at the end of the month.
WEDNESDAY
Irish Examiner, Cork
Marriage breakthrough
The unlikely setting of a health center waiting room was the backdrop for Ireland’s first gay marriage. Same-sex couples rushed to exchange vows days after new equality laws were signed into being following last May’s referendum in which voters overwhelmingly chose to legalize the practice. Cormac Gollogly, 35, a barrister from Terenure in Dublin, and banker Richard Dowling, 35, from Athlone (both pictured from right to left in a front-page photo), traveled from South Tipperary to be the first to tie the knot. “It feels really special, we feel so honored and privileged to be not only the first but now that we are actually married as well,” said Dowling. Before two witnesses and registrar Mary Claire Heffernan, the pair signed the register at around 8:30 a.m. in a spartan waiting room inside a registration center for births, deaths and marriages in a hospital in Clonmel.
THURSDAY
Guardian, London
French raid on terror cell
French police fired nearly 5,000 bullets Wednesday during a ferocious raid north of Paris against a fourth terrorist cell officials say was “ready to strike.” At least two people died in the assault targeting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Islamic State militant suspected of orchestrating the Paris attacks. A woman, identified as Abaaoud’s cousin, reportedly blew herself up. Identification was proving difficult because the bodies had to be pieced together. Officials said three terrorist groups in three Belgium-registered rental cars “armed with a veritable arsenal of war” carried out Friday’s deadly attacks on cafes, restaurants and the national stadium. The health ministry said of the 352 people injured in the attacks, 195 were still in the hospital.
Editor’s note: Police later confirmed that Abaaoud died along with his cousin and an unidentified third person in the raid on the building. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said French authorities did not know for certain whether more suspects linked to the attacks were still at large.
FRIDAY
Star, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Standing up to terrorism
From dive resort operators in Sabah’s east coast to the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the 27th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, the foremost issue has been terrorism and how to stand up to it. Prime Minister Najib Razak said the barbaric beheading of a Malaysian by the Abu Sayyaf terror group has made him more determined to defeat militant groups in the region and their extremist ideologies.
Editor’s note: Philippine military officials believe a severed head left this week in a bag in front of a police station in the city of Jolo belongs to Bernard Then Ted Fen, 39, an engineer who officials have said was abducted from Malaysia in May and taken to the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines.
Reports of the beheading prompted outrage in Malaysia, where several citizens have been kidnapped by kidnap-for-ransom rebel groups operating along the nation’s maritime border with the Philippines.