PHILIPPINES
Duterte: ‘Bomb them all’
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he has ordered his troops to bomb extremists who flee with their captives in a bid to stop a wave of kidnappings at sea, calling the loss of civilian lives in such an attack “collateral damage.” Duterte has previously stated that he had told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge. He said in a speech Saturday that he instructed the navy and the coast guard that “if there are kidnappers and they’re trying to escape, bomb them all.” “They say ‘hostages.’ Sorry, collateral damage,” he said in a speech in Davao, his southern hometown. His advice to potential victims? “So, really, don’t allow yourselves to be kidnapped.”
BRAZIL
10 killed in prison riot
Fighting between rival gangs in a prison in northern Brazil on Saturday has reportedly left at least 10 inmates dead in the latest in a series of massacres in the South American country’s penitentiaries. Three of the victims were beheaded. News website Folha de Sao Paulo said the riot broke out at the Alcacuz Penitentiary in Rio Grande do Norte state after criminal factions clashed and some cellblocks were invaded by rivals. Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system, said “we could see the heads ripped off” three inmates. Police surrounded the prison and blocked the exits, but were waiting to dawn on Sunday to enter because the inmates were out of their cells and armed.
ITALY
Dozens of migrants missing
A migrant ship carrying around 100 people capsized in the frigid waters off Libya on Saturday and only four survivors had been rescued after hours of searching, aid groups said. Eight bodies were recovered but poor conditions were hampering the search taking place 30 miles off Libya’s coast, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.
POLAND
U.S. troops welcomed
Polish leaders held a ceremony to welcome U.S. troops to their country, a deployment that Russia calls a threat to its own security. The ceremony Saturday in the western Polish town of Zagan comes 23 years after the last Soviet troops left Poland. It also marks a new historic moment — the first time any Western forces are being deployed on a continuous basis to NATO’s eastern flank.
Compiled from wire reports