JAKARTA: An Indonesian court yesterday jailed an Islamist militant with links to one of Asia’s most notorious terror leaders for 10 years for recruiting people to militant-training camps. Badri Hartono led Al Qaeda Indonesia and was found guilty of sending recruits to a camp on an island known as a terror hotbed. Hartono also provided shelter in 2009 to Noordin Mohammed, head of a splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiah network that carried out attacks on Western targets, prosecutors said.
Blackout hits Malaysia state
KUALA LUMPUR: Almost all of Malaysia’s largest state was plunged into darkness yesterday evening after a main transmission line was tripped, reports said. National news agency Bernama cited a Sarawak Energy spokesperson as saying the power outage occurred at 5.40pm while the English daily The Star said some areas had power restored within an hour in the state capital Kuching. Ahadiah Zamhari of Sarawak Energy, the state’s electricity provider, said the supply cut could have affected the entire state but the company was yet to ascertain it.
Genghis Khan invoked in win
ULAN BATOR: President Tsakhia Elbegdorj invoked Mongolia’s warrior hero Genghis Khan yesterday as he celebrated winning a second term in elections defined by a debate over inequality in a nation enjoying a mining bonanza. Thousands of supporters of the former journalist, who helped throw off decades of communist rule, sang democratic songs in the capital’s Soviet-style square as he addressed them. “Thank you great Genghis. Today 2.9 million Genghises are waking up on the Mongolian steppes,” he said, speaking in front of a statue of the empire-building figure who unified the nation’s tribes 800 years ago.
Another bird flu death in China
SHANGHAI: Shanghai has reported another death from H7N9 bird flu, the local government said, bringing the total fatalities nationwide to at least 40. A 56-year-old man, the husband of an earlier victim, died on Wednesday, the Shanghai government said. He had been hospitalised since April. The couple was believed to be from a rare “family cluster” in which relatives can infect each other through prolonged, close contact. But Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organization have said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in China with the source of infection believed to be poultry. Agencies
