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KONFRONTASI -  Russia on Friday accused the United States of brazenly threatening it after a senior U.S. general said Washington had drawn up a plan in case it needed to destroy air defenses in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave in Europe.

KONFRONTASI -  If all goes to plan for St. Petersburg’s new governor, Russia’s second-largest city may soon have the landscaped public parks, brand-new buses and budget surpluses of its big brother Moscow.

KONFRONTASI- Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for a bus bombing that killed 12 people near the Iraqi city of Kerbala, the Amaq news agency reported on Saturday.

Iraqi security services said on Friday that 12 people were killed and several others wounded when a bus bombing occurred near the holy city south of Baghdad.

Two police spokesmen in the area said an explosive device planted on the bus detonated at a northern entrance to the city, setting fire to the vehicle.[mr/reuters]

KONFRONTASI- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday approved sending American troops to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air and missile defenses after the largest-ever attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities, which Washington has squarely blamed on Iran.

The Pentagon said the deployment would involve a moderate number of troops - not numbering thousands - and would be primarily defensive in nature. It also detailed plans to expedite delivery of military equipment to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Reuters has previously reported that the Pentagon was considering sending anti-missile batteries, drones and more fighter jets. The United States is also considering keeping an aircraft carrier in the region indefinitely.

“In response to the kingdom’s request, the president has approved the deployment of U.S. forces, which will be defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at a news briefing.

“We will also work to accelerate the delivery of military equipment to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to enhance their ability to defend themselves.”

The Pentagon’s late Friday announcement appeared to close the door to any imminent decision to wage retaliatory strikes against Iran following the attack, which rattled global markets and exposed major gaps in Saudi Arabia’s air defenses.

Trump said earlier on Friday that he believed his military restraint so far showed “strength,” as he instead imposed another round of economic sanctions on Tehran.

“Because the easiest thing I could do, ‘Okay, go ahead. Knock out 15 different major things in Iran.’ ... But I’m not looking to do that if I can,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

But the deployment could further aggravate Iran, which has responded to previous U.S. troop deployments this year with apprehension. It denies responsibility for the attack on Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which has been battling a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the UAE, has claimed responsibility for the strikes.

KONFRONTASI -    An old woman named Natividad Pujares was severely wounded and unconscious after being bitten by several dogs in Quezon.
 
In a GMA News report, the 70-year-old woman was brought to the hospital to get her anti rabies vaccine. 
 
The woman said that she came from Camarines Sur, but she cannot recall how and why she was in Quezon. 
 
More two dogs have attacked her, but she could no longer remember what triggered the attack. 
 

KONFRONTASI -   Weather bureau PAGASA has denied issuing haze bulletin which is now being circulated on social media. 
 
The ‘Haze Bulletin’ which can be found at the DOST_PAGASA Visayas is not an accredited social media page of the State Weather Bureau. 
 
“The public is advised to remain vigilant against unofficial information coming from unverified sources,” PAGASA said in a statement. 
 
The haze problem comes from Indonesia’s forest fires and have been reaching some places in the country. 
 

KONFRONTASI -  Thousands of young people are expected to take part in school strikes across Scotland and around the world to demand urgent action on climate change.

They are the latest in a series of strikes started a year ago by 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg.

The protests have now spread across 150 countries, with Friday's action billed as the largest so far.

Events are planned in all of Scotland's major cities, many towns and some islands including Iona and Skye.

KONFRONTASI -  Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has censured support for the Saudi-led coalition of aggressors in the wake of Yemeni retaliatory drone attacks on Aramco oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia, stressing that those who have no reservations at all about the bloodletting in the war-ravaged country must bear the consequences of their actions.

KONFRONTASI -   Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the recent missile and drone strikes on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in the Eastern Province while meeting Saudi leaders in Jeddah on Thursday.

“Pakistan fully supports the Kingdom with all its capacities in confronting these sabotage acts,” Khan said. 

The king stressed that the Kingdom is capable of dealing with the criminal acts that target the security and stability of the region and global energy supplies.

KONFRONTASI -     The cataclysmic asteroid impact off Mexico’s coast that doomed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not the only time an astronomical event shaped the history of life on Earth.

Scientists on Wednesday said dust spawned by a gigantic collision in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter 400 million years earlier triggered an ice age on Earth that ushered in a significant increase in marine biodiversity.