Bhinneka News Online: Friday Morning Briefing: Plane crashes after takeoff in Kazakhstan

Friday, 27 December 2019

Friday Morning Briefing: Plane crashes after takeoff in Kazakhstan

Top Stories

Plane crashes after takeoff in Kazakhstan, 12 dead, dozens injured. A passenger plane carrying nearly 100 people crashed near the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday after take off, slamming into a house in an accident that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.

Netanyahu wins party vote in boost ahead of Israeli election. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu easily won a vote to keep the Likud party helm, the party said on Friday, in a boost ahead of what is likely to be a hard-fought general election in March.

Australian authorities said on Friday they are focused on protecting water plants, pumping stations, pipes and other infrastructure from intense bushfires surrounding Sydney, the country’s largest city. Firefighters battling the blazes for weeks received a reprieve of slightly cooler, damper conditions over Christmas, but the respite is not expected to last long.

India

India tightens security for protests after Friday prayers. Indian authorities stepped up security in major cities on Friday and suspended mobile data services in some places in an effort to maintain order ahead of protests planned against a new citizenship law. The backlash against the law, pushed through parliament by the Hindu-nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is the biggest challenge he has faced since he was first elected in 2014.

A Norwegian woman on holiday in India’s southern state of Kerala has been told to leave the country after she joined a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new citizenship law, authorities said. A German exchange student was told to leave the country this week after taking part in two rallies against the law. “The Norwegian lady has participated in a protest in violation of her visa condition,” said Anoop Krishna, the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Officer at Kochi airport.

U.S.

Exclusive: The FBI is investigating British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell fand several other people linked to U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. Maxwell has been accused in court filings of facilitating a sex-trafficking operation that brought girls to Epstein’s opulent Manhattan home, but she has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Exclusive: After Cabinet opposed Mexican cartel policy, Trump forged ahead. In the weeks before President Donald Trump’s declaration last month that he would forge ahead with designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, Cabinet members and top aides from across the government recommended against it, five people knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters.

The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president’s spokesman said. President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S. nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to the United States, as sought by U.S. senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.

Business

U.S. energy shareholders seek to leave behind a lost decade

Volatile commodity prices amid growing supply, poor financial performance and disfavor from some investor groups all contributed to the energy sector’s transformation from investor darling to investor outcast.

5 min read

Exclusive: Nissan orders drastic spending cuts to stem profit slide and 'conserve every yen'

Japan’s Nissan Motor has told its managers to slash non-essential spending as the automaker grapples with slumping car sales and tumbling profits, three company sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

3 min read

China's Xi turns to financial experts to tame economic risks

As China struggles to deal with the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy, it has embarked on a new strategy of placing financial experts in provinces to manage risks and rebuild regional economies. Who's who of China's rising financial tsars.

11 min read