WASHINGTON (AFP) -- A former U.S. military pilot has been accused by the United States of conspiracy and breaking an arms control law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers, according to an unsealed indictment. Daniel Edmund Duggan, an Australian citizen, was arrested in Australia in October, the same week Britain and Australia issued unusually candid warnings about China’s attempts to recruit retired military pilots. The training involved “instruction on the tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with launching aircraft from, and landing aircraft on, a naval aircraft carrier,” the indictment said. According to the indictment, Duggan faces two counts of violating the arms export control act and international arms trafficking regulations, one charge of conspiracy to launder money, and one count of conspiracy. He has been detained under Australia’s Extradition Act, pending an official request from the U.S. government.

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DHAKA (AFP) -- Bangladeshi police said on Tuesday that they had arrested the chief of the country’s largest Islamic party, days after it announced it would join the main opposition in protests to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Counter-terrorism officers arrested Jamaat-e-Islami party emir Shafiqur Rahman in Dhaka, metropolitan police spokesman Faruq Ahmed said, without elaborating on the charges. A spokesman for Jamaat -- the country’s third-largest political party, which has been banned from contesting elections since 2012 -- condemned the 64-year-old’s arrest, saying it was intended to “scuttle the opposition’s anti-government movement”. For years, Jamaat was a major ally of the right-of-centre main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and their coalition ruled the country between 2001-2006. But after Hasina came to power in 2009, Jamaat’s entire leadership was arrested and tried for war crimes dating back to the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

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ROME (Reuters) -- The European Union must do more to protect its borders and to halt the departure of migrant boats from north Africa, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday. Meloni was speaking to the Italian parliament ahead of an EU summit this week. Italy, which has vowed a tough line on immigration, took in more than 500 migrants on Sunday when two charity rescue ships were allowed to dock.

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SYDNEY (AFP) -- Australia signed a security pact with the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, with Canberra seeking to cement its place in the region against rising Chinese influence. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the signing during a visit to Vanuatu, Canberra’s second such agreement with an important Pacific partner after a similar pact with Fiji in October. Wong said Australia was proud to be Vanuatu’s “security partner of choice”. “We believe security is a shared responsibility,” she said in Port Vila, in comments released by her office. The agreement would cover areas such as defense, policing and disaster relief. The pact signed with Fiji covered greater military mobility. Australia and the United States have been attempting to reinforce their influence in the Pacific after China announced in April it had signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, just to Australia’s north.

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SYDNEY (AFP) -- An Australian climate activist who was sentenced to 15 months in jail for blocking traffic on Sydney’s Harbor Bridge was ordered released on bail Tuesday, pending her appeal. Deanna “Violet” Coco was sentenced on December 2 in a ruling pilloried as “outrageous” and “repressive” by rights groups. The 32-year-old parked a rental truck on the famed bridge in April, climbed on the vehicle’s roof and lit a distress flare, blocking one lane of traffic for about 25 minutes. “Coco’s release on bail restores her freedom, but she should never have been put in prison,” said Sophie McNeill, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Australian prosecutors have been seeking disproportionately harsh punishments on climate protesters that appear aimed at curtailing peaceful climate activism,” McNeill added. But UN special rapporteur Clement Voule said he was “alarmed” at the prison term and the initial denial of bail.

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WELLINGTON (AFP) -- New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern apologized for calling a political rival an “arrogant prick” in parliament on Tuesday, as the prime minister faces a drop in public support. In the throes of spirited parliamentary debate, Ardern took issue when the leader of an opposition party asked her to give an example of an occasion when she had made a mistake, apologized and fixed it. The prime minister gave an impassioned, detailed response, then as she sat down muttered “such an arrogant prick” which was picked up by the microphones in parliament. David Seymour, leader of New Zealand’s ACT party, objected to the remark lobbed in his direction and petitioned the speaker of the House of Representatives to have it withdrawn. Ardern’s office later said she had apologized. With New Zealand expected to go to the polls in late 2023 and the cost of living skyrocketing, she is under increasing political pressure.