JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will develop its defense industry with Chinese support, as the two countries agreed to expand joint drills and deepen military technology cooperation on Friday after talks between their defense and foreign ministers in Jakarta. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Defense Minister Dong Ju and their Indonesian counterparts Sugiono and Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin discussed bilateral ties across several meetings, including their second 2+2 meeting and the inaugural China-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue. 

 

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ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was transferred back to jail early on Friday, hours after being taken to a hospital for court-ordered medical checks, the government said. The Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday that Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, be taken to the private Shifa International Hospital in the capital Islamabad within 48 hours for treatment, after his lawyers petitioned the court over concerns that his health was poor. The ex-cricket captain and his wife Bushra Bibi, who is also his spiritual guide, were both sentenced late last year to 17 years in prison.

 

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees were among eight killed in a small plane crash near the site of a remote aircraft-tracking radar in western Alaska, the U.S. military said. The agency had chartered the plane, which crashed at about 11:45 a.m. Thursday near its destination, the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport, approximately 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Anchorage, Alaska, officials said. The two pilots and six passengers were not immediately identified. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were traveling to the scene Friday. The twin-engine Cessna 441 had taken off from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

 

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ABUJA (Reuters) - At least 50 people, mostly children, died after an overloaded boat capsized on Thursday in Nigeria’s northwest Sokoto state, witnesses said. The accident took place near Gorau in Goronyo local government area and rescue efforts are continuing, said Abdulkadir Yusuf, an area manager at the National Inland Waterways Authority. A Reuters witness saw 50 bodies, many wrapped in mats and traditional cloths, lying in the forecourt of a community mosque ahead of their burial in Gorau later on Thursday. Deadly boat accidents are relatively common in Nigeria, where overcrowding, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of safety regulations often contribute to disasters on the country’s rivers and waterways, particularly during the rainy season.

 

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CAPE TOWN (Xinhua) – South Africa has returned ancestral remains and the mortal remains of two Namibian political prisoners during a solemn repatriation ceremony in Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital. Two rooms were filled with ivory-colored coffins, side by side, each draped with the Namibian flag. The mortal remains of 84 indigenous people had been held at the Iziko South African Museum for more than 100 years and were said to have been used for “scientific reasons.” Chairperson of the Council of Iziko Museums of South Africa Marvin Mdhluli said: “They entered the South African Museums as objects of race-based pseudo-scientific research,” aimed at portraying indigenous communities as having inferior attributes and status.