Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he regrets statements he made last week during his country’s elections, when he warned that “Arabs are voting in droves” in an attempt to get his supporters to vote.
“I know that the things I said a few days ago hurt some citizens in Israel, the Arab Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said in a meeting with Arab community leaders, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“This was not my intention and I am sorry,” he said, adding that he sees himself as prime minister of every Israeli, regardless of religion, race or sex.
President Barack Obama ripped Netanyahu’s remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post published over the weekend, calling it “rhetoric … contrary to the best of Israel’s traditions.”
Netanyahu’s post on Facebook last Tuesday told his followers that “funding from foreign governments to get more Israeli Arabs to vote worked, which means all right-wing voters must make sure to go to the polls,” according to a translation from The Jerusalem Post.
Money thought to be funding terrorism networks has been detected flowing from Australia into Indonesia, authorities say.
“We do have a significant amount of funds coming from Australia. We suspect it to be supporting terrorism in Indonesia,” said Indonesia’s Financial Transactions and Analysis Centre (PPATK) deputy head, Agus Santoso.
“Not specifically ISIS (Islamic State militants), because there are many organisations,” he said.
Mr Santoso would not say how much money was being transferred, or by whom.
Local media has reported that the money was supporting organisations linked to IS militants, but Mr Santoso has denied that the link could be made.
Mr Santoso said Indonesian authorities were working closely with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) to track the money.
Singapore-based terrorism researcher from the University of Nanyang, professor Rohan Gunaratna, said there were about 18 Indonesian terrorist groups with links, or sworn allegiances, to IS.
One of those is the offshoot of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was responsible for the Bali bombings and led by the radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Bashir, who is the spiritual leader of another terrorist organisation he founded called Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), has sworn allegiance to IS militants.
He is currently in prison on Nusa Kambangan, the island where convicted Australian drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are awaiting execution.
JAKARTA – Four suspected militants believed to be ethnic Uighurs from China went on trial yesterday, after being caught in Poso in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province last September.
The four, aged between 20 and 30, are accused of being supporters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group and trying to link up with Indonesian militants in Poso belonging to a group led by Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, Santoso.
Of the four, three travelled last August from the Turkestan region of north-west China to Cambodia and then Bangkok, where they met the fourth suspect from China, who passed them forged Turkish passports.
The group later travelled to Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur, where the Indonesian Embassy issued travel visas.
The three – Ahmet Mahmud, 20, Abdullah alias Altinci Bayyram, 28, and Abdul Basit Tuzer, 30 – stood together in court, while the fourth suspect, Ahmat Bozolgan alias Hamzah, 27, was tried separately.
Prosecutor Dicky Oktavia told the North Jakarta district court that before the three entered Indonesia, they had travelled to Turkey but failed to cross over into Syria to join ISIS.
“They were held up at the border in Turkey as it was difficult to cross over. Then they received directives to join Santoso, who has pledged allegiance to ISIS.”
This is the first case involving suspected foreign terrorists accused of supporting ISIS entering Indonesia. The four were charged with spreading terror and are facing life in jail under Indonesia’s anti-terrorism laws.
The charges read out in court yesterday were based on police dossiers prepared after interrogation of the suspects and witnesses, according to Mr Kamsi, a lawyer representing the suspects.
“We understand (the suspects) were not willing to talk much. Accounts to build the indictment were mainly from the witnesses,” said Mr Kamsi, who, like many Indonesians, uses one name.
The hearing was adjourned to next Monday, when the court will hear testimonies from witnesses, including arrested local militants who harboured the suspects.
Meanwhile, Colonel Rikwanto, a spokesman for the police, said they have arrested five suspects for allegedly recruiting and training ISIS supporters intended to be sent to Iraq and Syria.
The authorities said more than 350 Indonesians have joined ISIS.
Analysts point out that as Indonesia does not ban anyone or any group that declares support for ISIS, government agencies find it difficult to check the spread of militant ideology.
The police are pushing for changes to anti-terrorism laws that will allow them to take tougher preventive measures.
A Germanwings plane carrying 150 people has crashed in the French Alps on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
The Airbus A320 – flight 4U 9525 – went down between Digne and Barcelonnette. There are no survivors, officials say.
The “black box” flight recorder has been found, France’s interior minister says. The cause of the crash is not known and the plane sent no distress signal during an eight-minute descent.
Among the passengers were 16 German pupils returning from an exchange trip.
Germanwings, a low-cost airline owned by Germany’s main carrier Lufthansa, has an excellent safety record. French, Spanish and German leaders have expressed shock.
A recovery team reached the site, in a remote mountain ravine, earlier on Tuesday. Their work was called off in the evening and will resume at first light on Wednesday, the French interior ministry said.
Bruce Robin, a prosecutor from Marseille, told the Reuters news agency that he had seen the wreckage of the aircraft from a helicopter.
“The body of the plane is in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage,” he said.
Key points
Weather reportedly good when A320 Airbus came down
Plane descended rapidly but sent out no distress signal
White House says no suspicion of terrorism
Helicopters ferried recovery teams to a crash site marked by smouldering debrisSections of the aircraft could be identified amid the wreckage strewn down the mountainside
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was also flown over the crash site and described it as “a picture of horror”, the Associated Press news agency says.
Officials believe 67 of those aboard the plane were German citizens. Forty-five of the passengers had Spanish names, Spain’s deputy prime minister said.
The passengers included a German school class on its way back from an exchange trip as well as two opera singers, Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak.
Ms Radner was travelling with her husband and baby.
The flight was also carrying citizens of Australia, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was “sadly likely” that some British nationals were on board.
The relatives of passengers aboard the flight received a police escort at Barcelona airportNews of the crash was also greeted with shock at Duesseldorf airportOnly small sections of the aircraft survived the impactRecovery workers will return to the site on Wednesday morning
Sandrine Boisse, a tourism official from the ski resort of Pra Loup, told the BBC that she believed she had heard a strange noise in the mountains at around 11:00 (10:00 GMT).
“At first we thought it was on the ski slopes, an avalanche, but it wasn’t the same noise,” she said.
Analysis: Richard Westcott, BBC Transport correspondent
We know the aircraft went from a normal cruising height of 38,000 feet to crashing in the mountains in just eight minutes. One pilot told me that is twice the normal descent rate, but he also said that the aircraft is capable of coming down even more quickly and still being okay.
In an emergency, the pilots’ first priority is to fly the plane, but as soon as they have some control they are trained to make an emergency call. That didn’t appear to happen in this case, which suggests the pilots were coping with something so catastrophic they never had time to radio in a mayday, or turn to find the nearest runway.
It’s still too early to know anything for certain, but that might point to both engines failing, a fuel problem or something critical breaking off the aircraft.
The plane began descending one minute after it reached its cruising height and continued to lose altitude for eight minutes, Germanwings managing director Thomas Winkelmann told reporters.
He said the aircraft lost contact with French air traffic controllers at 10:53 at an altitude of about 6,000 feet.
The plane did not send out a distress signal, officials said. Earlier reports of a distress call, quoting the French interior ministry, referred to a message from controllers on the ground.
The White House has said there is no evidence so far of a terror attack. A Lufthansa official said they were assuming for the time being that the crash had been caused by an accident.
The Airbus A320 is a single-aisle passenger jet popular for short- and medium-haul flights.
Rescue workers and gendarmes assembled at an airfield near the crash siteThe Germanwings airliner, similar to this one, had been flying to Duesseldorf in Germany
In a Facebook post, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck dedicated a workout he just completed to former Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, which he created and named “LKY91″, as a tribute to the elderly statesman who passed away on Monday, 23 March.
The contentious Facebook post that attracted flak from netizens
Mr Teo’s tribute, however, did not go down too well among his fans. When the Strait Times later shared his post, the number of commenters who felt that the ‘tribute’ was “distasteful” also grew in number. In fact, it drew so much flak that he deleted the post soon after.
Some, like Mr Benny and Ms Li also drew comparisons between Ministers who were under Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Government and the current slate of Ministers and lamented at the “type of Ministers we have now.”
Ms Li also added that, in her opinion, Mr Lee Kuan Yew would “prefer ministers to think of ways to improve the country, rather than waste time.”
“Your pay this month should be $91,” another comment read.
Others remarked that it represented nothing less than an act of “personal glorification” and “self promotion.”
Others who were evidently infuriated by the Minister’s post suggested that Mr Teo should head to “Pinnacle @ Duxton and shout his (Mr Lee’s) name 91 times.”
