■ BANGLADESH
Sixteen killed in floods
Sixteen people were killed and more than 20,000 marooned as heavy rains over the past week triggered landslides and floods in the southeast, an official said yesterday. Three landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains killed 10 people while six others drowned in swirling flood waters in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, chief administrator Sajjadul Hasan said. Several rivers in the southeastern hill districts burst their banks and caused the floods, officials said. Bangladesh, which is crossed by over 200 rivers, was hit by major floods last year, when water fed by melting glaciers in the Himalayas and heavy rains inundated more than 40 percent of the land.
■ CHINA
Turbulence shakes up plane
More than 20 people were injured, one seriously, when an internal flight hit severe air turbulence, state press reported yesterday. Passengers and crew were slammed into the overhead luggage compartments when the Shanghai Air flight hit turbulence on the way to Beijing on Saturday, forcing the pilot to make an early landing, the Beijing News reported. One stewardess was hospitalized with a serious spinal injury while the others suffered head and neck injuries, it said. The plane was forced to land at the airport in Tianjin city.
■ BANGLADESH
Shrinks combat suicide
The country’s biggest university will appoint psychiatrists for students to counter a growing number of suicides by “betrayed” lovers, its acting chief said yesterday. At least four female students have taken their own lives in Dhaka University dormitories in recent months, prompting the authorities to seek professional help, vice chancellor Yusuf Haider said.
■ INDIA
Town pays for excrement
It pays to use a toilet in the southern town of Musiri, as residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals, a scheme launched by authorities to promote hygiene and research in rural areas. Dozens of people are lining up to use toilets the remote town in Tamil Nadu state, where authorities have succeeded in keeping street corners clean with the new scheme, the Times of India newspaper said yesterday. “In fact, many of us started using toilets for urination only after the ecosan [ecological sanitation] toilets were constructed in the area,” said S. Rajasekaran, a truck cleaner. The urine was also being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertilizer, an official of the state’s agricultural university said.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Public workers told to walk
The government will limit vehicle use by public workers as part of an energy-saving campaign. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said yesterday that officials in more than 800 public institutions are obligated to not drive their cars every other day beginning on July 15. The measure will be in effect until surging oil prices stabilize. The country imports virtually all of its oil and has been intensifying what it calls energy diplomacy to secure stable supplies amid rising prices.
■ INDIA
Monsoon kills 14 in north
Flooding, house collapses and lightening strikes caused by heavy rains killed at least 14 people in northern areas, taking the reported death toll in the annual monsoon season to 79, officials said yesterday. Heavy rains lashed the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh state, flooding all the major rivers in the region, Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman said in Lucknow, the state capital. Fourteen people died on Saturday in a variety of rain-related incidents. Army and paramilitary forces were put on high alert and relief camps set up to evacuate people left homeless or trapped by the flood waters, Charanjeet Singh, a state government official said.
■ CHINA
Torrential rains kill 14
At least 14 people, three of them children, were killed when heavy rains swept the country last week and more downpours were expected yesterday in the south, state press said. More than 14,000 people were evacuated from one city alone when torrential rains hit central Hubei Province on Friday and Saturday, Xinhua news agency said. Eight people died, among them three children killed in a landslide, and two were missing, it said. Near record rains in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province also left six people dead and three missing, Xinhua said. More than 250 people died when torrential rains and flooding swept China last month, the China Daily reported.
■ CHINA
Quake panda gives birth
A panda who was relocated following the deadly earthquake in May gave birth yesterday morning to twin cubs, a state news agency said. Guo Guo was the first panda to give birth since the 7.9-magnitude quake that rocked Sichuan Province on May 12, killing nearly 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless, Xinhua news agency reported. One cub weighed 170g, Xinhua said. Guo Guo was cuddling the other cub and staffers at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base were not able to weigh it. The report did not give the sex of the twins. Twelve-year-old Guo Guo was moved to the Bifengxia panda center after the quake caused heavy damage at the Wolong Nature Reserve.■ TURKEY
Former generals arrested
Two senior former generals were formally arrested under a broad police investigation into coup allegations, the state Anatolian news agency said yesterday. Former head of the paramilitary gendarmerie Sener Eruygur and former first army commander Hursit Tolon were sent to prison in Istanbul. Media said they were suspected of being members of a shadowy, ultra-nationalist, hardline secularist group known as Ergenekon, which was already under investigation. Twenty-one people were detained last week in a police investigation into allegations of a coup.
■ RUSSIA
Shoot-out leaves four dead
A seven-hour shoot-out on Saturday between soldiers and suspected militants holed up in a house in the Republic of Ingushetia left two dead on each side, the Ingush Interior Ministry said. Two other attacks in the restive region on the same day left one officer dead and two wounded. It was unclear whether the militants in the shoot-out were suspected in those attacks, which were in villages near Sagopshi where the shoot-out took place. A grenade attack on an armored vehicle on the outskirts of the village of Achaluki killed one officer and wounded another. And an officer was wounded by gunfire in an attack in the settlement of Malgobek, officials said. The three communities are within 20km of each other. In Dagestan, meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said three policemen were wounded on Saturday when a bomb went off near their vehicle. Attackers also set fire to the residence of Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev on Saturday. No injuries were reported.
■ SPAIN
Activists target bullring
Campaigners against bullfighting are planning to step up activities in an effort to mobilize the majority of the population, who claim to have no interest in the sport. The annual running of the bulls began in Pamplona yesterday. A poll for Gallup in 2006 found that 72 percent of the population has no interest in bullfights. Two groups, Equanimal and Igualidad Animal, have invaded bullrings, a new tactic that they intend to repeat throughout the bull-fighting season. Previous protests have been limited to placard-waving outside the bullrings. Anti-bullfighting campaigners say invading bullrings will not lead to violent clashes and damage their cause.
■ ITALY
Strikes hit commuters
Train and mass transit strikes could cripple travel today. A 24-hour nationwide railway strike was set to begin at 9pm yesterday. A railways Web site said some trains used mainly by commuters would run this morning and evening, but that service on long-haul runs was not guaranteed. The strikes were called to put pressure on national transport union contract renewal talks, which should begin soon.
■ SPAIN
Socialists re-elect leader
The Socialist Party has re-elected Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as leader at its general congress. Zapatero has secured his party’s leadership with 98.5 percent of the votes cast. In an address to party members, Zapatero said Jose Blanco had been elected deputy leader. The Socialists said they aimed to pass new legislation during this term in office, easing restrictions on abortion and further promoting the once staunchly Roman Catholic nation’s identity as a lay state.
■ CHILE
Contestant cut over porno
So much for “love is blind.” A contestant has been expelled from a popular TV dating show after he was found to have had previous acting experience — in a pornographic movie. Photographer Esteban Venegas was competing in the second season of reality dating show Blind Love in which competing single adults are gradually whittled down to a final couple, who if all goes well, fall in love along the way. “Esteban, the producers have decided you should leave the program for omitting relevant information about your personal life,” show host Katty Kowaleczko told him. Canal 13, which is producing the show, said Venegas was paying the price for not revealing his involvement in a “adult film.” Daily La Tercera identified the film as the pornographic movie Hot Bread released in 2001. “I understand I can’t go on, if that’s what you think and want, it’s OK,” Venegas said. “I pull out happy to have taken part.”
■ CANADA
Soldier found dead
A soldier in a Gulf region base providing logistical support for forces in Afghanistan has been found dead, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday. The man, a corporal in the military police, was discovered dead on Friday of unknown causes in accommodations on the base, the ministry said in a statement. Canadian media reported the base is located in Saudi Arabia. It said an investigation is underway into the cause of death, which brings to 86 the number of Canadian soldiers involved in the country’s Afghanistan mission who have died since 2002.
■ UNITED STATES
Suspect flees by wheelchair
Police in El Paso, Texas, arrested a man on a charge of attempted murder on Saturday after he was caught fleeing the scene of a stabbing in his motorized wheelchair. The 52-year-old is accused of stabbing his neighbor in an El Paso apartment complex after several days of feuding, police spokesman Darrel Petry said. Officers arrived at the complex on Saturday morning and found Billy Cheeks inside his apartment bleeding from a stab wound to his chest. Police said the attacker was James Grady, 52. Grady is accused of riding up to Cheeks’ apartment in his wheelchair, entering the apartment through a partially opened door and stabbing Cheeks with a knife, police said. Police arrested Grady on a street corner about 1km away in his wheelchair, Petry said.
■ UNITED STATES
Fireworks wash up on beach
A popular Long Island beach has been evacuated on a holiday weekend because unexploded fireworks washed up on shore. About 2,000 visitors were ordered to leave Jones Beach after the leftover shells were found around midday on Saturday. State officials say the fireworks apparently came from a barge used to launch an Independence Day show Friday night.
■ UNITED STATES
Man jailed over stun gun
A man in Waukesha, Wisconsin, who posted a video online showing him and his father shocking each other with a stolen stun gun has been sent to prison. Paul Crowell pleaded guilty to possession of an electric weapon and was sentenced on June 20 to two years in prison. Documents say he stole a Taser from an East Troy police officer. He got it while sitting in a patrol car after his vehicle was found in a ditch.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was