Serbia: An Australian saleyards director and steel importer is among three men arrested at gun-point in Serbia over a A$500 million international cocaine-smuggling ring. Canberra businessman Rohan Arnold is one of three Australian men locked up in a Serbian jail following a dramatic arrest at a five-star hotel over a syndicate that tried to bring more than a tonne of cocaine into Sydney last year. Arnold is one of nine shareholders in the South Eastern Livestock Exchange in NSW, which also runs the Western Victorian Livestock Exchange. Two men aged in their 40s and another in his 30s were arrested by Serbian police, alongside a Lebanese man, also aged in his 40s. Dramatic footage shows officers with guns drawn swooping on the lobby of the luxury Metropol Palace hotel in Belgrade. The video shows the four men handcuffed and lying on the floor next to a table where moments before they were enjoying drinks. A bag filled with foreign currency banknotes is shown in the video, with local police saying the arrests were made during a "money handover". Serbian police allege the men are linked to 1280kg of cocaine — worth A$500 million — seized in April 2017 from a Chinese container boat docked in Sydney.
Australia: A toddler has been rescued from a locked car in an affluent Sydney suburb with police smashing a window to save him. The boy, believed to be just 2 or 3 years old, was found dehydrated and visibly distressed inside the car parked outside a unit block on leafy Powell Street in Neutral Bay about 11.15am local time. Officers broke the window of the car to rescue the toddler who is believed to have been inside the vehicle alone for close to 40 minutes, police say. The boy was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital where he was treated for mild dehydration, NSW ambulance spokesman said. His parents have been located and are being questioned, police said. The incident prompted police and paramedics to again warn parents of the potentially deadly consequences of leaving children in cars, especially in summer.
United States: President Donald Trump's views on immigration and building a wall along the Mexico border have evolved since his presidential campaign, the White House chief of staff John Kelly said. Those changes are giving some people hope that a compromise with Congress on the thorny issue is possible. But they are perplexing others — even as the clock ticks down to a showdown. Kelly's comments came amid a shaky effort to craft an accord protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation — a push the White House and Republicans say they would back if it's coupled with tough border security measures and other restrictions.
President Trump's promise to build a border wall was "not fully informed" and his immigration views have "evolved," his chief of staff John Kelly said https://t.co/dje1HNCQWZ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 17, 2018
Papua New Guinea: Seismic activity beneath a Papua New Guinea volcano could mean that a major eruption was imminent, a volcanologist said. Thousands of people have been evacuated from islands surrounding Kadovar Island off the north coast since a volcano there began erupting on January 5, spouting ash. Flights nearby have been cancelled due to the risk posed by ash plumes and ships were warned to stay away from the island. Steve Saunders, principal geodetic surveyor at the Rabaul Volcano Observatory in Papua New Guinea, said seismic activity had recently increased beneath the volcano. "The reason we're getting activity is probably because new magma is moving up from deeper down," Saunders told the ABC.