■PHILIPPINES
Landslides, floods kill 17
Seventeen people were dead or missing after two tropical depressions caused landslides and floods in the north and center of the country, the Office of Civil Defense said yesterday. Seven people drowned in floods and swollen rivers, while eight victims were buried in landslides after days of heavy rains. Two people were also missing and feared dead after being swept away by strong river currents, the office said. Nearly 400,000 people were affected by the tropical depressions.
■THAILAND
Five die in southern violence
Suspected Islamist militants killed five people in the south, including a teenager who had his throat slit and his body set on fire, police said yesterday. The 19-year-old Muslim was attacked on Saturday at the rubber plantation in Yala Province where he worked. On the same day in Narathiwat Province, a group of up to eight gunmen in a pick-up truck opened fire on a family, killing a 51-year-old man was killed and injuring three of his relatives, police said. Separately, a Muslim man aged 56 was shot dead at a teashop in Narathiwat on Saturday night by attackers on motorcycles, while a 10-year-old boy and another man were wounded in the shooting, police said.
■AUSTRALIA
Asylum seekers stopped
The navy has intercepted a suspected people-smuggling boat carrying 65 asylum seekers, officials said, the second such vessel stopped in 24 hours off the country’s northwest coast. The HMAS Maitland intercepted the boat on Saturday night near Ashmore Island, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said. Earlier Saturday, the same navy boat stopped another vessel with 83 asylum seekers further away from the uninhabited Indian Ocean island.
■INDIA
Train derails, no injuries
A coach of the Delhi Metro derailed in New Delhi yesterday but there were no injuries, a news report said. Two wheels of the front coach of the metro train went off the tracks near eastern Yamuna bank station early yesterday, leading to temporary disruption of services on the route, IANS news agency reported. “Fourteen passengers were traveling in the train at that time and no one was injured,” an official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation told IANS. “The number of commuters was low as this was the first train service of the day on the route.”
■HONG KONG
Workers killed at skyscraper
At least three workers were killed yesterday when a lift in the territory’s tallest skyscraper plunged 22 floors, emergency workers said. The elevator in the 118-story International Commerce Center, which is still under construction, fell from the 30th floor to the eighth floor. Workers inside the lift shaft were struck as the lift plunged, and several were pulled unconscious and rushed to hospital, government-run radio station RTHK said. Preliminary reports said at least three people were killed. The 484m tower is to open next year. It will be Hong Kong’s tallest building and will have the third-highest roof in the world after Burj Dubai and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
■HONG KONG
Maid jailed over bleach
An Indonesian maid began an eight-month jail term on Saturday after putting bleach in a baby girl’s milk as revenge for being sacked. Muhari Lismiwati, 30, admitted putting a drop of bleach into the milk she was preparing for the nine-month-old girl in March, one day before she was due to leave her job. The infant’s mother fed a small amount to the infant who vomited and resisted attempts to feed her more. She then opened the bottle and smelled a strong smell of bleach. The mother called police and Lismiwati was arrested. The baby was admitted to hospital with a reddish throat and discharged the following day, the court heard on Friday.
RSS