■PHILIPPINES
Appeals made for priest
Authorities and church officials yesterday launched fresh appeals for the safety of an elderly Irish priest they fear may be in dire need of medical attention eight days after he was abducted by unknown gunmen. Thousands of flyers were being handed out in coastal communities on the troubled southern island of Mindanao seeking help to get medicine delivered to Father Michael Sinnott, 79. “We appeal to your kind heart that the medicines will be delivered to Father Sinnott who currently has a serious heart ailment,” read one flyer released by the provincial government of Zamboanga del Sur. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the Roman Catholic missionary.
■PHILIPPINES
Bridge bombed on Jolo
Suspected Muslim militants bombed a bridge before dawn on Saturday on a southern island where two US soldiers were killed recently, the military said. The blast damaged one of the lanes of the bridge in Talipao town on Jolo, but caused no casualties, military spokesmen said. Despite the damage, the bridge was still passable, the military said.
■PHILIPPINES
Shootout erupts at mall
A shootout erupted yesterday in a posh shopping mall in Manila after suspected robbers broke into a watch shop, police said. One suspect was killed, but no customers were hurt in the incident at Greenbelt 5 in Makati City, Chief Superintendent Jaime Calungsod said. According to initial investigations, at least six heavily armed suspects barged into the Rolex shop on the ground floor of the mall before noon. Calungsod said authorities were conducting an inventory to determine how many watches were stolen. The mall was temporarily closed.
■CHINA
Villagers being resettled
Authorities have started resettling 330,000 people in central China to make way for a project to divert water from its major rivers across hundreds of kilometers to the booming cities in its arid north. People in Hubei and Henan provinces are being relocated from their homes near the Danjiangkou reservoir, where a sluice will be built to divert water from the Yangtze river to northern regions, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The resettlement will be completed in 2011, Xinhua said, citing Henan provincial authorities. An official said earlier this year the water project would be delayed to allow for more time to resettle villagers, saying the central route of the plan will not be finished until 2014, instead of next year. When completed, the project’s three routes will move billions of tonnes of water from China’s central, southern and western regions through pipes and man-made canals to Beijing and other fast-growing cities in the country’s north.
■AUSTRALIA
Train-strike mum stressed
The mother of a baby that miraculously survived a collision with a train is still recovering from the experience and becomes upset by footage of the accident, a report said yesterday. The six-month-old boy, who has not been named, was strapped into a pram which rolled away from his mother and into the path of an oncoming train at Melbourne’s Ashburton Station on Thursday. The train driver slammed on the brakes, but was unable to avoid hitting the stroller, which was pushed about 35m along the tracks before coming to a stop. The baby escaped with only a bump to the head. The incident was captured by a surveillance camera and the video has been shown around the world. The baby’s father said his wife had seen the footage. “My wife has seen the footage, but every time she sees it she gets very upset,” the 20-something man, who asked not to be identified, told Melbourne’s Sunday Herald Sun. “My wife is very stressed. We are all OK — my wife and my baby are OK — but we really just need some time to get over this.”
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