■CHINA
A million people evacuated
Authorities have evacuated nearly a million people from the southeast coast of China, where Typhoon Morakot was expected to make landfall later yesterday, state media reported. Xinhua news agency said that 473,300 residents of the coastal province of Zhejiang had been moved, while more than 480,000 people were evacuated from neighboring Fujian Province. More than 35,000 ships have been called in to port as the storm closes in. Parts of Fujian had already reported 30cm of rain from early on Saturday until yesterday morning, Xinhua said.
■CHINA
Quarantine order lifted
Authorities have lifted a quarantine order that was imposed on a remote town of 10,000 people to contain a deadly outbreak of pneumonic plague, a report said yesterday. Local authorities removed the order on Saturday evening after no new cases of the plague were detected in a week, the Beijing News daily said. The outbreak of the highly virulent disease killed three people in Qinghai Province.
■HONG KONG
Activists protest crackdown
Pro-democracy activists protested yesterday against Beijing’s recent crackdown on dissidents — an apparent attempt to stifle opposition ahead of the 60th anniversary of communist rule on Oct. 1. Clutching a banner that said: “Protest the Chinese Communist Party’s violation of human rights,” the demonstrators chanted: “Release all dissidents” outside the Chinese government’s liaison office in the territory. “We are trying to use the power of non-governmental organizations in the freest place in China to awaken the conscience of the whole race,” Legislator Albert Ho (何俊仁) said.
■INDIA
Three killed along border
Troops killed three Islamic militants along the de facto Kashmir border, thwarting the seventh attempt by rebels to enter from Pakistan in a week, the army said on Saturday. “Soldiers have killed three more militants along the Line of Control in north Kashmir,” an army spokesman said, referring to the frontier that divides Kashmir. “Our soldiers are on high alert following repeated attempts by militants to enter our area,” the spokesman said in Srinagar. The army said attempts to cross the ceasefire line normally increase in the summer as the snow melts in the mountain passes.
■INDIA
Landslide strikes hamlets
The entire population of three hamlets was feared killed in a landslide in the northern state of Uttarakhand, the police said yesterday. “We have so far recovered 19 bodies, at least 26 people are still buried in the debris,” an official at the police control room in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district said by telephone. He said it was unlikely that there were any survivors. Heavy rains triggered the landslide in the Himalayan region about 450km west of Uttarakhand capital Dehradun on Saturday. The entire population of three villages — La, Jhegla and Lelu Nehar — was feared killed by rubble that buried their homes. Rescue workers were digging through rocks and rubble with heavy hammers and shovels, the police official said.
■THAILAND
Two killed in restive south
Suspected Islamic separatist militants have killed two villagers in separate shootings in the restive south, police said yesterday. A 47-year-old village chief assistant was shot dead in front of his house in Pattani Province on Saturday evening. A 27-year-old man, also an assistant to a village chief, was shot and killed yesterday morning as he drove his wife to a market in Yala Province, police said. His wife was slightly injured.
■JAPAN
Nuclear victims remembered
The mayor of Nagasaki called for a global ban on nuclear arms at a ceremony marking the 64th anniversary of the devastating US attack on the city that killed about 74,000 people. In a speech given just after 11:02 am — the time when a plutonium bomb flattened Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945 — Mayor Tomihisa Taue said some progress had been made toward eliminating nuclear weaponry but more needed to be done. A moment of silence was observed while a large bell rung repeatedly. As Taue finished his speech, doves were released. About 5,800 people, including dignitaries and representatives from 29 countries, attended the ceremony.
■INDONESIA
Experts discuss AIDS battle
Experts from 65 countries gathered yesterday to assess progress in the battle against HIV/AIDS amid concern that only a quarter of those in need in the Asia-Pacific region are getting treatment. The International Congress on AIDS in the region, which was to be opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the island of Bali, will look at how to ensure “universal access” to antiretroviral treatment, congress chairman Zubairi Djoerban said. An estimated five million Asians are living with HIV, a UN report said last year. The congress, which runs until Thursday, will also demand commitment from governments to tackle the disease, which killed 380,000 people across Asia in 2007, Djoerban said.
■EGYPT
Sadat’s daughter files suit
The daughter of slain president Anwar Sadat has filed legal complaints against the producers of an US film that portrays a dog named after her father, her lawyer said on Saturday. Roqeya Sadat’s complaint against the makers of the Hollywood film I Love You, Man will be heard by a Cairo court on Sept. 1, lawyer Samir Sabri said. Sadat was shot dead by Islamic militants at a military parade in Cairo on Oct. 6, 1981, three years after he signed the 1978 Camp David Accords that led to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first by an Arab country. His daughter is furious over the movie in which the leading character played by Jason Segel names his dog Anwar Sadat, claiming that he resembles the slain president.
■ITALY
Lottery hits record high
The lottery jackpot jingled to a record high for Europe of 127.5 million euros (US$180.8 million) after Saturday night’s draw went winner-less. Needed to win are six numbers in a field of 1-to-90 at the next drawing tomorrow. The jackpot is currently the largest in the world. On May 10, a Spanish player won 126.2 million euros in a multiple-country lottery. The Superenalotto jackpot was last won in January. Its largest to date was 100.7 million euros in October 2008.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Clinton ends state visit
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday ended an upbeat visit by dropping in on a housing scheme where she and her daughter Chelsea laid the first bricks 12 years ago. Clinton said she was “thrilled to be back to see what’s been done” since she visited the Victoria Mxenge housing project on the outskirts of Cape Town in 1997, returning a year later to lay more bricks with former US president Bill Clinton.
■SOMALIA
Pirates fight each other
Gun battles between clan militiamen killed at least 17 people and wounded 30 on Saturday at a pirate stronghold on the coast, witnesses said. The fighting began overnight and intensified in the morning, forcing most of Haradheere’s residents to flee, local man Farah Aden said by satellite telephone. “The two clans are fighting over land and a girl who was raped in the forest. Unfortunately, the battles spread into town ... Fighting is going on fiercely,” he said. The country has been torn by civil war since 1991, and the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only small pockets of the rubble-strewn capital Mogadishu.
■MAURITANIA
French embassy attacked
A suicide bomber blew himself up and wounded two guards outside the French embassy in Mauritania’s capital on Saturday, a French embassy source said. The source said no group had yet come forward to claim responsibility for the attack outside the embassy walls, which an eyewitness said caused no major damage to the building. In Paris, a French diplomatic source said two people had been slightly hurt in the attack. The attack took place three days after Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled Mauritania’s first democratically elected leader in a coup last year, was sworn in as president of the Islamic state promising to make the fight against al-Qaeda a priority. Defeated opponents denounced his poll victory last month as a fraud, but former colonial power France said it was ready to re-engage with the Saharan country, applauding his tough anti-terrorist stance.
■UNITED STATES
Man hides pistol in fat
A Texas newspaper said an obese inmate has been charged with firearm possession in a correctional facility after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh. The Houston Chronicle said 25-year-old George Vera told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol. The paper reported on Thursday that Vera was originally arrested on charges of selling illegal copies of compact discs. The 227kg man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon hidden in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.
■UNITED STATES
Luxury inn offers ‘package’
A luxury resort in San Diego, California, is offering rooms for US$19 a night — if you don’t mind sleeping in a tent. The Rancho Bernardo Inn boasts three pools, a spa and golf course. It typically charges more than US$200 a room. But business is down. So from Aug. 16 through Aug. 31, guests can get a “Survivor Package” that charges them less for each amenity they give up, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. For US$19, guests give up breakfast, air conditioning, lights, sheets and even a bed. Staff will remove the mattress and headboard and leave a small tent instead. Oh, and bring your own toilet paper.
■UNITED STATES
Alcohol behind deadly crash
The mother of three young children who drowned after she drove into a central Arkansas lake had been drinking before the crash, authorities said on Friday, the second recent case in which a mom was accused of drinking before getting behind the wheel with her kids. Amber Turley, 26, was driving during a storm in early morning darkness on April 19 when she took a wrong turn onto a road that led straight into Brewer Lake, about 70km from Little Rock. She swam to shore but told investigators she was unable to rescue her boys — Aaron, 8, Alex, 7, and two-year-old Anthony. She was arrested on Friday and is charged with three counts of felony endangerment of a child.
■ISRAEL
Diplomat to face questioning
The Foreign Ministry said it had summoned for consultation a senior diplomat who in a confidential memo criticized the government for harming ties with the US. A ministry statement said on Saturday that the consul-general in Boston, Nadal Tamir, would arrive in Jerusalem this week to give a “clarification” to the ministry’s director-general. It said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the summons. Tamir wrote an internal memo that was leaked to Channel 10 TV. It said that public clashes with Washington over the US demand for a settlement construction freeze were causing “strategic damage to Israel” and undermining the special relationship between the two countries.
■MEXICO
Crystal meth lab raided
Army troops shut down what they called one of the world’s largest and most modern illicit drug factories, a plant that covered an immense piece of property in a remote area of the state of Durango, media reports said on Saturday. The plant, which encompassed 22 different buildings on 240 hectares, was used to produce methamphetamine, the chemically produced drug also known as crystal meth, and to process marijuana. The buildings were spread out over the acreage and covered with camouflage to escape discovery from the air, the newspaper reported.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the