BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: Brunei’s all-powerful and fabulously wealthy sultan marked 50 years on the throne in spectacular style Thursday, traveling in a gilded chariot through the streets and holding a tradition-filled ceremony at his golden-domed palace.
Tens of thousands of well-wishers waving the country’s flag lined the streets and cheered as Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the world’s second-longest reigning monarch, passed by in a chariot pulled by dozens of his subjects.
Marching bands took part in the colorful procession as it made its way through the streets, the highlight of about two weeks of celebrations to mark the golden jubilee of one of the world’s wealthiest men.
An absolute monarchy with strict Islamic laws, Brunei is one of the world’s wealthiest nations thanks to abundant oil and gas reserves.
Among the crowds was Melissa Ibrahim, an airline employee, who said she was grateful to Hassanal for ensuring the people of the tiny sultanate were well looked after.
“His majesty cares about the people, their welfare, education and heath,” she told AFP
“Everything is subsidized by the government, so for that we are very, very thankful.”
Celebrations got under way earlier at the sultan’s sprawling palace, where an honor guard performed a 21-gun salute and the ruler and his wife sat on golden thrones for a royal audience.
The 71-year-old ascended to the throne of the Muslim country perched on the north of tropical Borneo island in October, 1967.
He is the 29th sultan of Brunei from a royal family that has ruled the country continuously for over 600 years.
His decades in charge of one of the world’s few absolute monarchies have seen the country gain full independence from Britain and living standards soar to among the highest in the world due to its huge energy reserves.
But his reign of Brunei, which has a population of about 400,000, has also been marked by controversies.
These include the introduction of tough Islamic laws in 2014, and a sensational family feud which revealed details of his brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah’s jet-set lifestyle, including allegations of a high-priced harem and a luxury yacht he owned called “Tits”.
Still, the jubilee was a chance for citizens to focus on the positive aspects of Hassanal’s rule as well as a rare source of excitement in the sleepy sultanate, which is known for its slow pace of life and lack of nightlife — alcohol is largely banned under Islamic practice.
Thursday’s festivities began with Hassanal, dressed in yellow and gold royal finery and accompanied by his wife Anak Hajjah Saleha, inspecting a guard of honor in the grounds of his palace, before the gun salute.
The couple then held the royal audience in the throne room of the palace, a vast complex of resplendent white buildings with golden domes and almost 1,800 rooms, attended by hundreds of guests including members of the royal family ministers.
The sultan and other members of the royal family traveled through the streets in a convoy of Rolls-Royces before boarding the golden chariot, known as the Usongan Diraja, which has long been used for royal ceremonies in Brunei.
The festivities will continue Friday when Southeast Asian leaders and Middle Eastern royalty attend a banquet to mark the jubilee.
Guests include Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to organizers.
The sultan only comes behind one sovereign in terms of having the longest reign — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the throne in 1952.
She became the world’s longest serving monarch a year ago following the death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose reign spanned seven decades.
Brunei monarch Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah marks golden jubilee
Brunei monarch Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah marks golden jubilee
Thais send over 100 smuggled tortoises home to Tanzania
- The smuggler fled Thailand but was eventually tracked down and arrested in Bulgaria, Interpol said
BANGOK: More than a hundred baby tortoises, most of them dead, have been returned to Tanzania from Thailand as evidence in a case against a wildlife smuggling network, the international police organization Interpol said Friday.
The 116 tortoises were discovered hidden in the luggage of a Ukrainian woman at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport more than two years ago, it said. Of the total, 98 have since died, but all were handed over Thursday for use in criminal proceedings in a ceremony attended by Thai and Tanzanian officials,
Interpol said. No reason was given for the deaths.
They included endangered or vulnerable species such as pancake tortoises, radiated tortoises and Aldabra giant tortoises. All are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Tortoises are commonly removed from the wild for sale as exotic pets.
The smuggler fled Thailand but was eventually tracked down and arrested in Bulgaria, Interpol said. Her arrest helped police map a larger wildlife trafficking network, resulting in the arrests of 14 additional suspects in an operation involving Thai and Tanzanian police and officers from Interpol.
The surviving tortoises will be quarantined and cared for while experts assess whether they can be put back into their
natural habitat.
Indian munitions factory blast kills at least eight workers
- Industrial disasters are common in India, with experts blaming poor planning, lax enforcement of safety rules
- Nine workers were killed in a 2023 blast at a factory in Maharashtra that manufactured drones and explosives
MUMBAI: At least eight workers were killed in a blast at a munitions factory in western India, government officials said Friday, with several others still trapped inside the building.
The explosion happened Friday morning in Bhandara, around 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of India’s financial hub Mumbai, and caused the factory’s roof to collapse.
“In an unfortunate incident today, a blast at Bhandara munitions factory has killed at least eight people and injured seven others,” India’s cabinet minister Nitin Gadkari said.
Gadkari, a lawmaker from Maharashtra state where the explosion occurred, offered his condolences.
Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said earlier on X that up to 14 workers had been trapped after the blast and emergency rescue operations were underway.
Indian defense minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply saddened” by the blast.
“My condolences to the bereaved families. Praying for the speedy recovery of the injured,” Singh said on X.
Industrial disasters are common in India, with experts blaming poor planning and lax enforcement of safety rules.
Nine workers were killed in a 2023 blast at a factory in Maharashtra that manufactured drones and explosives.
Leading British Muslims back new community network in UK
- Early discussions with the government and opposition parties are underway, and the launch event is expected to feature senior political figures
LONDON: A new national body, the British Muslim Network, launches next month with the aim of providing a mainstream voice for Britain’s Muslim communities and engaging directly with the government, The Times newspaper reported on Friday.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim cabinet minister and a crossbench peer, is among its most prominent supporters, while Mishal Husain, a former BBC Radio 4 presenter and upcoming Bloomberg host, is understood to support the initiative, although she will not play a formal role.
Early discussions with the government and opposition parties are underway, and the launch event is expected to feature senior political figures.
“The British Muslim community is hyper-diverse in class, culture, background, ethnicity, religiosity, age,” Warsi told The Times. “It is such a vibrant, clever, and engaged community. But what we’ve had for nearly 17 years (is) a policy of disengagement with British Muslim communities by successive governments.”
The network will have a governing board co-chaired by a man and a woman, bringing together Muslim figures from broadcasting, the arts, sport, academia, and religious leadership. A source described it as “the most high-profile network of British Muslims that has ever existed.”
Warsi stressed the need for a group that could represent the full spectrum of British Muslims and their contributions and concerns, moving beyond what she called the government’s past focus on counter-terrorism.
“Governments have only really spoken to representatives from the UK’s Muslim communities through the prism of counter-terrorism,” she said.
Akeela Ahmed, founder of the She Speaks We Hear online platform, and who was recently honored with an MBE for services to Muslim women, emphasized the network’s focus on everyday issues. “We want to bring together expertise and insight and share this with policymakers,” she said.
The initiative has also won the backing of Brendan Cox, co-founder of the Together Coalition and widower of Jo Cox, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016.
He described it as “an incredibly influential group.”
The Right Rev. Toby Howarth, the bishop of Bradford, said: “The British Muslim Network is a much-needed voice, and I look forward to working with them.”
Trump immigration enforcement memo targets migrants who entered legally under Biden
- The US Department of Homeland Security memo provides guidance for the use of a fast-track deportation process
- The process, known as “expedited removal,” had been applied only to people apprehended within 14 days of entering the country
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is empowering federal immigration officers to consider whether to strip temporary legal status from migrants who entered through former President Joe Biden’s signature “parole” programs in an effort to ramp up deportations to record levels, according to a memo issued on Thursday.
The US Department of Homeland Security memo provides guidance for the use of a fast-track deportation process that the Trump administration reinstated earlier this week, suggesting officers focus on migrants who failed to request asylum within a one-year deadline after arriving in the US
The process, known as “expedited removal,” had been applied only to people apprehended within 14 days of entering the country and within 100 miles (160 km) of the border under Biden. On Tuesday, it was expanded nationwide and applied to all those who entered within two years.
President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders after returning to the White House on Monday intended to deter illegal immigration and position the US to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.
The Republican president says the moves are necessary after millions of immigrants entered the US under Biden, both crossing illegally and through Biden’s legal entry programs.
Some Democrats and advocates counter that Trump’s aggressive enforcement could target non-criminals, disrupt businesses and split apart families. Immigrant rights group Make the Road New York sued on Wednesday to block Trump’s expansion of the fast-track deportation process.
Some 1.5 million migrants entered the US from 2022 to 2024 through two Biden legal entry “parole” programs aimed at reducing illegal crossings, according to US government statistics. One program allowed migrants waiting in Mexico to schedule an appointment to request asylum at a legal border crossing. Another allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans outside the US to enter by air if they had US sponsors and underwent vetting.
Trump ended those programs on Monday, leaving some migrants in Mexico
stranded and unsure of next steps. Migrants who might have entered legally could face riskier routes if they cross illegally and higher prices from smugglers.
The latest guidance allowing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to consider stripping active parole from people who entered in the past two years could face legal challenges, one former Biden official said.
ICE made some 500 arrests on Thursday, Fox News reported, about a third of which were people without criminal records. The agency’s daily average for arrests was 311 in fiscal year 2024 and 467 in fiscal year 2023.
Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, criticized ICE last night
for an enforcement action in his city that involved detaining US citizens and a military veteran.
University students lead a strike in Serbia as populist president plans a rally to counter protests
- Daily traffic blockades took place on Friday in various cities and towns in the Balkan nation
- “Let’s take freedom in our hands,” students told the citizens in their strike call
BELGRADE: A student-led strike closed down numerous businesses and drew tens of thousands into the streets throughout Serbia on Friday as populist President Aleksandar Vucic planned a big rally to counter persistent anti-government protests that have challenged his tight grip on power.
Daily traffic blockades took place on Friday in various cities and towns in the Balkan nation, held to commemorate the victims of a deadly canopy collapse which killed 15 people in November. Huge crowds later flooded the streets for noisy protest marches through the capital Belgrade and elsewhere in the country.
“Let’s take freedom in our hands,” students told the citizens in their strike call.
Many in Serbia believe the huge concrete canopy at a train station in the northern city of Novi Sad fell down because of sloppy reconstruction work that resulted from corruption.
Weeks-long protests demanding accountability over the crash have been the biggest since Vucic came to power more than a decade ago. He has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia.
It was not immediately possible to determine how many people and companies joined the students’ call for a one-day general strike on Friday. They included restaurants, bars, theaters, bakeries, various shops and bookstores.
Vucic will gather his supporters in the central town of Jagodina later on Friday. He has announced plans to form a nationwide political movement in the style of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that would help ensure the dominance of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party.
The president and his mainstream media have accused the students of working under orders from foreign intelligence services to overthrow the authorities while pro-government thugs have repeatedly attacked protesting citizens.
No incidents were reported during the 15-minute traffic blockades on Friday that started at 11.52, the exact time of the canopy collapse in Novi Sad.
During a blockade last week in Belgrade, a car rammed into protesting students, seriously injuring a young woman.
Serbian universities have been blockaded for two months, along with many schools. A lawyers’ association also has gone on strike but it remained unclear how many people stayed away from work in the state-run institutions on Friday.
As well as Belgrade and Novi Sad, protest marches were also held Friday in the southern city of Nis and smaller cities, and even in Jagodina ahead of Vucic’s arrival.
“Things can’t stay the same anymore,” actor Goran Susljik told N1 regional television. “Students have offered us a possibility for a change.”
Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges against 13 people for the canopy collapse, including a government minister and several state officials. But the former construction minister Goran Vesic has been released from detention, fueling doubts over the probe’s independence.
The main railway station in Novi Sad was renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure deal with Chinese state companies.
