BANNU, Pakistan (AFP) -- More than 30 Pakistan Taliban militants were holding several officers hostage on Monday after breaking free from custody and seizing a police station, officials said. Members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group -- separate from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline ideology -- overpowered their jailers on Sunday and snatched weapons. The militants, held on suspicion of terrorism, are demanding safe passage to Afghanistan, Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the provincial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said in a statement late Sunday. A senior government official in Bannu, where the incident is unfolding near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan’s former self-governed tribal areas, said hostages were still being held after a failed operation to free them. “During the interrogation, some of them snatched guns from the policemen and later took the entire staff hostage,” he told AFP, on condition of anonymity.  A video posted to social media, which the government official confirmed to be from the scene, showed a group of armed men with long beards, with one threatening to kill all the hostages.

 

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HONOLULU (AP) -- Severe turbulence rocked a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu Sunday, seriously injuring 11 people in what a Hawaiian Airlines official called an isolated and unusual event. Jon Snook, the airline’s chief operating officer, said the airline hasn’t experienced “an incident of this nature in recent history.” The flight was full, carrying 278 passengers and 10 crew members, he said during an afternoon news conference. Jim Ireland, director of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, said 20 people were taken to hospitals, including 11 people deemed to be in serious condition. At least one person was reported to have been rendered unconscious but all patients were awake and talking when they arrived at hospitals, he said.

 

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COLOMBO (Reuters) -- Sri Lanka’s navy has rescued 104 Rohingya adrift off the Indian Ocean island’s northern coast, an official said on Monday, as members of the Muslim minority continue to escape violence in Myanmar and hardship in Bangladesh refugee camps. Many Rohingya risk their lives every year by attempting to reach Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia on rickety vessels, and their numbers have surged following deteriorating conditions in the camps and last year’s military coup in Myanmar. The boat was first detected by the Sri Lanka Navy when it was 3.5 nautical miles from shore and a search and rescue operation was launched to eventually tow the vessel to a northern harbor on Sunday night, a navy spokesperson, Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya, said.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China reported its first COVID-related deaths in weeks on Monday amid rising doubts over whether the official count was capturing the full toll of a disease that is ripping through cities after the government relaxed strict anti-virus controls. Monday’s two deaths were the first to be reported by the National Health Commission (NHC) since Dec. 3, days before Beijing announced that it was lifting curbs which had largely kept the virus in check for three years but triggered widespread protests last month. Officially China has suffered just 5,237 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, including the latest two fatalities, a tiny fraction of its 1.4 billion population and very low by global standards. But health experts have said China may pay a price for taking such stringent measures to shield a population that now lacks natural immunity to COVID-19 and has low vaccination rates among the elderly.

 

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BANGKOK (AFP) -- Thai military frigates and helicopters were on Monday searching for 31 sailors after a naval vessel sank, with dozens of others having been hauled from choppy waters. The HTMS Sukhothai capsized late on Sunday night as it was patrolling the Gulf of Thailand, about 37 kilometers (22 miles) off the nation’s southeastern coast. Some sailors survived by jumping into a life raft at night, according to images shared by the Royal Thai Navy, which said 75 people had been rescued. However 31 sailors were still missing on Monday afternoon, according to navy spokesperson Admiral Pogkrong Montradpalin. The search and rescue operation involved two seahawk helicopters, two frigates and one amphibious ship, according to a navy statement. 

 

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JAKARTA (Reuters) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday he supports plans to scale back the presence of troops in the eastern region of Papua, where the country’s military has been accused of human rights abuses in tackling a long-running independence movement. Jokowi, as the president is known, said “the reduction of military troops in Papua is good, but we need to continue to be stern,” after appointing a new chief of armed forces. Otherwise, he said, armed rebel groups will always continue to operate there and “the problem will never end”. Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has seen a long-simmering separatist movement, which has intensified in recent years. The military maintains a heavy presence in the impoverished region, and has been accused by activist groups of human rights abuses, which it denies.