■ Philippines
Landslides kill five
Pounding rains triggered landslides and flooded six villages in the south over the weekend, killing at least five people and forcing 600 others into emergency shelters, officials said yesterday. Landslides and floodwaters damaged or blocked portions of a major road leading into the villages in Kapatagan town in Lanao del Norte Province, making it difficult for rescue workers to access the affected villages, police said. Water was so deep in some neighborhoods that residents were forced to climb on top of their shanties, where they waited for hours for rescue, officials said.
■ China
Top official in Tehran
A top official in charge of nuclear nonproliferation issues headed to Iran yesterday, state media said, amid international efforts to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program. The official Xinhua news agency said Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) would discuss nuclear issues and other topics of mutual concern with Iranian officials. The brief report gave no other details. Iran vowed this month to expand uranium enrichment, defying a UN Security Council deadline for it to suspend its nuclear activities by Aug. 22 or face the threat of political and economic sanctions. Tehran has denounced the July 31 UN nuclear vote as illegal.
■ Malaysia
Horse patrols begin
Police have started using horses to patrol Kuala Lumpur's major shopping zone in a move to clamp down on petty thefts and robberies as well as encourage tourism, a news report said yesterday. The police horse unit, which had previously only been used during riots and for crowd control, was chosen for its maneuverability. "They will be able to cover more ground, especially in crowded areas and alleys," district police chief Kamal Pasha Jamal said.
■ China
Bills to help displaced
The state plans to hike electricity bills to help pay for a new compensation package for some 22 million people forced to relocate for dam and reservoir projects, state media said yesterday, amid rising public anger over graft. The official Xinhua news agency said the central government will pay those displaced people 600 yuan (US$75) a year over 20 years, with money transferred directly into their bank accounts to prevent local officials from skimming profits off the fund. The program, announced on Sunday by the State Development and Reform Commission, is meant to relieve poverty among displaced communities and help to restore social stability, Xinhua said.
■ New Zealand
Industry fails in flab fight
The food, media and advertising industries have failed to tackle a growing trend toward obesity, despite their voluntary accord two years ago to trim the nation's expanding waistline, a researcher said yesterday. Half of those aged 15 and over are overweight or obese and their numbers are increasing, according to recent government figures. But Janet Hoek, a marketing professor at Massey University, said that her review of results so far showed that stronger measures were needed, and that it was time for the government to step in. "Foods high in fat, salt and sugar are still regularly advertised and discounted, and consumers are rewarded with loyalty gifts and competition entries for purchasing them," she said.
■ Iran
Ahmadinejad launches blog
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched his own blog. The hardline leader's debut on the international blogosphere came in the form of a 2,300-word tract that asked readers to decide if the US and Israel were trying to start a new world war. Ahmadinejad, who has identified himself with Iran's army of poor people, also described his humble origins in an impoverished rural village. His entry into the mass ranks of bloggers marks the latest step in a concerted effort to communicate directly with ordinary Iranians over the heads of the elites.
■ Iran
Activist fasts in protest
One of the nation's most famous political dissidents has gone on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. Ahmad Batebi, of the country's student pro-democracy movement, told his family he would fast after being arrested more than two weeks ago in a crackdown on political activists. Close relatives say he is in a section of Tehran's Evin prison for political prisoners run by the feared intelligence ministry. Batebi, 28, gained fame when he was photographed during a 1999 rally holding the bloodied T-shirt of a fellow protester.
■ Germany
Docs slam grubby Germans
The stereotype of German tidiness and cleanliness has received a blow from health experts who say that Germans are making themselves and others sick because they do not wash their hands or change their underwear often enough. "As a nation, we have become dangerously lax about the most fundamental behavior concerning personal hygiene and health safety," according to the report by the German Hygiene Council compiled by eight leading health experts. "On the contrary, it has become fashionable, even trendy to refuse to inoculate your children and to take the attitude that too much cleanliness is actually bad for you," says Martin Exner, managing director of the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Bonn.
■ France
Mystery feline on the loose
Scores of policemen, some armed with shotguns, are hunting a mysterious big black feline spotted in northern France, officers said. The operation was launched last Wednesday near the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer after several people first raised the alarm on seeing what they described as a "panther" about 1.2m long on a popular beach. Some 80 officers and a helicopter were immediately deployed on a search, but they failed to find their quarry. Belgian tourists and residents then reported seeing it on Friday, and on Saturday people out strolling saw it in the middle of a cornfield. Police finally spotted the feline through binoculars. One officer said it that it disappeared into forested areas, frustrating efforts to catch it or kill it.
■ United States
Protester mocks Islam
A protester staked out the home of a Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates, holding a sign and wearing a T-shirt that mocked Islam. Timothy Truett sat in a folding chair on Saturday on the street outside Saqib Ali's home in Gaithersburg with a sign reading "Islam sucks," and a shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone." Montgomery County police sent a trespass notification form to Truett warning that he would be subject to arrest on trespassing charges if he steps onto Ali's property within the next year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema