With the consent of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Yang Di-Pertua of Adat Istiadat Negara announced the royal wedding ceremony for Her Royal Highness Princess Fadzilah Lubabul Bolkiah and Yang Mulia Awang Abdullah Nabil Mahmoud Al-Hashimi.

The announcement was carried across Radio Television Brunei (RTB) last Friday evening.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

Students are heading back to school starting today after a four-month hiatus following the second COVID-19 outbreak in the Sultanate last August.

In a recent statement, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that the learning and teaching session for the first phase of the Endemic Stage would begin on January 3 for Years 10-13 students, with physical classes to be held five times a week. Meanwhile, Years 7 – 9 students will commence in-person classes on January 17, in the second phase of the Endemic Stage.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

Several offences were recorded in a series of joint roadblock operations in the Belait District on Saturday.

The roadblocks at Jalan Tengah in Panaga and Seria Highway Bypass saw the involvement of Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF), Traffic Control and Investigation Department (JSKLL), Royal Customs and Excise Department (RCED) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union is planning to label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as “green” sources for investment despite internal disagreement over whether they truly qualify as sustainable options.

The proposal, seen by AFP on Saturday, aims to support the 27-nation bloc’s shift towards a carbon-neutral future and gild its credentials as a global standard-setter for fighting climate change.

But the fact the European Commission quietly distributed the text to member states late Friday, in the final hours of 2021 after the much-delayed document had been twice promised earlier in the year, highlighted the rocky road to draft it.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

BEIJING (Xinhua) – Soon after midnight on New Year’s Day, a freight train departed from south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for Vietnam, a member country of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The RCEP – the world’s largest free trade deal – came into force on Saturday.

The X9101 train carried electronics, daily necessities and chemical products worth more than USD10 million. It is expected to reach Hanoi in 28 hours after leaving Nanning, the regional capital of Guangxi.

 Also on early Saturday, 5.6 tonnes of imported reflective films from Japan arrived at a port in south China’s Shenzhen City, which will be used for the production of mobiles, digital cameras and other electronic products.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

KUALA LUMPUR (CNA) – Continuous heavy rain has resulted in floods in several low-lying areas in seven Malaysian states, with more people being evacuated to relief centres (PPS) yesterday morning.

 Two districts in Sabah – Telupid and Sandakan – are the latest to be hit by the floods, after Kota Marudu, Paitan and Beluran.

The State Disaster Management Secretariat said in a statement that the number of flood evacuees districts has increased to 717 people from 212 families, up from 566 people on Saturday night.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

SEOUL (AFP) – An unidentified person entered North Korea from the South on New Year’s Day, the military in Seoul said yesterday, a rare breach of the heavily fortified border between the neighbours.

Years of repression and poverty in North Korea have led more than 30,000 people to flee to the South in the decades since the Korean War, but crossings in the other direction are extremely rare.

The person was detected by surveillance equipment in the Demilitarised Zone – which divides the Korean peninsula – at 9.20pm local time on Saturday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.  It sparked a search operation by the military, but to no avail.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

CAPE TOWN (AFP) – A major fire broke out at South Africa’s seat of Parliament in Cape Town early yesterday, sending a thick column of smoke into the sky and threatening the National Assembly building.

The fire was believed to have started in one of the older buildings in the Parliament precinct, leading to a security cordon nearby the cathedral where anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu was buried just hours before.

“The roof has caught fire and the National Assembly building is also on fire,” a spokesman for the city’s emergency services told AFP, requesting reinforcements at the scene.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

SUPERIOR (AFP) – Three people are missing after a wildfire tore through several Colorado towns, quickly destroying nearly 1,000 homes as part of the latest in a string of United States (US) natural disasters.

“We’re very fortunate that we don’t have a list of 100 missing. But unfortunately we do have three confirmed missing people,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told a press conference.

At least 991 homes are thought to have been destroyed as the blaze raced through the towns of Superior and Louisville on Thursday, just outside the state’s biggest city Denver, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee with little notice.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin

UPI – A British family of six brothers and sisters with albinism was awarded a Guinness World Record in the category of most albino siblings.

Coventry, England, residents Naseem Akhtar, Ghulam Ali, Haider Ali, Muqadas Bibi, Musarat Begum and Mohammed Rafi received the title after Guinness World Records confirmed all six siblings were born with albinism, a genetic condition that causes a person to lack pigment in their skin, hair and irises.

More details on Monday’s Borneo Bulletin