The death toll from a devastating cyclone that swept through Myanmar has risen to almost 4,000, a state radio station said yesterday. Nearly 3,000 were unaccounted for in a single town.
The radio station, broadcasting from the capital, Naypyitaw, said 2,879 people were unaccounted for in Bogalay, a town in the country’s low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.
The government had put the death toll countrywide from Saturday’s Cyclone Nargis at 351 before increasing it to 3,939 late yesterday.
Meanwhile, soldiers and police killed 36 prisoners inside Myanmar’s most infamous jail to quell a riot that started in the devastating wake of Nargis, a Thailand-based human-rights group said yesterday.
After the storm ripped zinc roof sheets of many cell blocks, guards at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison herded about 1,000 prisoners into a large hall and locked the doors, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma said. The men lit a fire to get warm, but thick smoke quickly filled the building, sparking panic.
“The situation escalated and chaos ensued,” the group, one of the most reliable sources of information about conditions in Myanmar, said in a statement.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS