■ 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.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion