■VIETNAM
Flood death toll rises to 98
At least 98 people have been killed by flooding sparked by Tropical Storm Mirinae, which slammed into the country after pummeling the Philippines, an official report said yesterday. A further 20 people are missing after the storm struck on Monday, the latest report from the national flood and storm control committee said. It said 69 of the fatalities were from Phu Yen Province, with the rest coming from Binh Din, Khanh Hoa and Gai Lai provinces. Mirinae destroyed 900 homes and damaged more than 14,000 others, while 18,000 hectares of rice land was flooded, according to a UN report that cited Vietnamese authorities.
■PHILIPPINES
Bus attack leaves two dead
Two people were killed and eight injured when gunmen strafed a passenger bus in the south, a military spokesman said yesterday. The bus was traveling on Wednesday along the highway in Gutalac town in Zamboanga del Norte province when the gunmen opened fire at it. A regional military spokesman said authorities were investigating the possibility that the attackers mistook the bus for their intended target.
■AUSTRALIA
Two killed at psychiatric unit
Police have arrested a 49-year-old man over a stabbing rampage at a secure psychiatric hospital which left two patients dead, they said yesterday. The man is being held after reportedly attacking his roommate with a kitchen knife late on Wednesday, before turning on another patient who was lying in bed. Police said a 54-year-old victim was stabbed several times in the upper body while the body of the second man, 36, was found nearby at the low-security Thomas Embling Hospital in Melbourne. The motive for the attack was unknown. “It’s my understanding that both the victims and offender were in the facility after committing the offence of murder,” Detective Sergeant Wayne Cheesman told reporters. “I know the roommate and the offender were considered quite friendly,” he said. “They would often go out on day pass and leave and go fishing together, and what brought on the altercation, we don’t know.”
■MALAYSIA
Pythons saved from the pot
Wildlife authorities rescued 59 pythons from being skinned and sold to restaurants and leather dealers, an official said yesterday. Wildlife and National Parks Department enforcement head Saharudin Anan said the pythons were rescued in a raid last Monday from a warehouse south of the capital. Two people were arrested and were being investigated under the Wildlife Act.
■CHINA
Beating Web addicts banned
The government has issued rules banning the beating and confinement of youths being treated for Internet addiction after revelations of abuse at rehabilitation clinics, including the death of one teenager. The regulations posted on the health ministry’s Web site on Wednesday stressed that restraint must be used in dealing with such youngsters. “Parents and teachers must analyze the causes and not arbitrarily condemn, hit or scold youths ... intervention methods that restrict personal freedom are strictly forbidden and corporal punishment [is] strictly forbidden,” it said. Up to 60 percent of the nation’s estimated online population of 338 million users were not of adult age, the ministry said. In August, local press reports said China had up to 10 million teenage Web addicts and at least 400 private Internet rehabilitation clinics nationwide.
■FRANCE
Prosecutors won’t appeal
Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday they would not appeal a judge’s decision to order former president Jacques Chirac to stand trial. Last week, investigative Judge Xaviere Simeoni shocked the nation by deciding to try Chirac for embezzlement and breach of trust in a corruption case dating back to his 1977 to 1995 tenure as mayor of Paris. If convicted, the former leader could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined 150,000 euros (US$221,800) and disqualified from public office for 10 years. However, observers have said a prison sentence would be highly unlikely.
■UNITED KINGDOM
X-ray tops achievements
The X-ray was named the most important modern scientific achievement on Wednesday in a poll conducted for the Science Museum, beating the Apollo spacecraft and DNA. Nearly 50,000 members of the public voted in the museum or online on 10 of the greatest achievements in science, technology and engineering selected by the museum curators. The X-ray machine topped the poll, which marks the London museum’s centenary. The discovery of penicillin antibiotics came second, followed by the DNA double helix. After that, in order, came the Apollo 10 space capsule, the V2 rocket engine, Robert Stephenson’s Rocket steam locomotive, the Pilot ACE early computer, the steam engine, the Model T Ford motor car, and the electric telegraph. The 10 are featured in a special section of the museum.
■IRELAND
Police seize oriental swords
Police have seized about 7,000 swords, including some with blades up to 121cm long, during raids in northern Dublin, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Air rifles were also confiscated during the raids by detectives on warehouses and other premises on Monday, police said. “Approximately 7,000 swords of different length and specification, and also a number of air rifles, have been seized,” police in a statement. Reports said the Garda, or police, have smashed a massive illegal supply network for lethal swords. Some of the samurai and ninja-style swords had decorative and colorful handles, photographs released by police showed. Two men in their 20s were detained after the weapons were recovered but have since been released without charge.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Man broke Sudan embargo
A British millionaire who sent 15 amphibious personnel carriers to Sudan was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Wednesday for breaking a government arms embargo. Andrew Jackson, 46, had pleaded guilty to flouting a ban on exporting items which could be used by the Sudanese military to wage war in Darfur, where more than 300,000 people have been killed in the government’s campaign against ethnic African rebels.
■SPAIN
Global privacy forum begins
Hundreds of privacy experts met in Madrid on Wednesday for a three-day conference which aims to arrive at a global standard for the protection of personal data. US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, as well representatives from data protection agencies from 50 nations and top managers from key Internet firms like Google and Facebook, are taking part in the event. Participants hope the international standards reached at the gathering will serve as the basis for a universal, binding legal instrument on data protection.
■BRAZIL
Man turns up at own funeral
A man reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by showing up alive at his funeral. Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday night car crash in Parana state, police said. The funeral was held the following day. What family members didn’t know was that Goncalves had spent the night with friends, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already underway on Monday morning. A police spokesman said Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let family members know he was not dead. “The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing,” the police spokesman said. “People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case.” Sampaio told O Globo that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves. The police spokesman confirmed there were doubts. “His mom looked at the body in the casket and thought something was strange. She looked and looked and couldn’t believe it was her son,” Sampaio said.
■UNITED STATES
Drugs raids net 53 people
Federal prosecutors in New York City have charged 53 people with running open-air drug markets at two housing projects near Yankee Stadium. Authorities say the gang sold heroin and crack, and some of the heroin was sold under the brand name American Gangster — an apparent reference to the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington as a Harlem drug lord. Federal agents and police officers arrested 37 of the suspects during raids on Wednesday.
■MEXICO
US airman killed in strip bar
A US Air Force sergeant was among six people shot dead by masked men in a strip bar in Ciudad Juarez, local and US officials said on Wednesday. Three other US service members were also wounded in the attack, said an official from the state deputy attorney general’s office who declined to be named. A military spokesman confirmed the death of Air Force Staff Sergeant David Booher.
■UNITED STATES
Obama signs cheesehead hat
Mansfield Neblett just wanted to wear his big yellow triangular “cheesehead” hat to US President Barack Obama’s speech at a school in Wisconsin, the self-proclaimed “dairy state.” The first roadblock were Secret Service agents. They told him the bright yellow hat in the shape of a slice of cheese usually worn by fans at Green Bay Packers games was a security risk. Neblett told them he’d skip the Wednesday speech. The agents relented and Neblett took his place in the gymnasium. But before Obama took the stage, someone representing him approached Neblett and offered to get the hat signed by the president. Neblett gladly turned it over. “I’m going to sell it on eBay!” he said.
■COLOMBIA
Secret service seizes bills
The country’s secret service seized US$6.2 million in counterfeit US bills that were hidden in Bogota and were set to be distributed in the US, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The Administrative Department of Security (DAS), said on Wednesday that the fake money was found in a raid in Bogota. During the proceedings, agents seized diverse printing material, including some to reproduce the front and back of US$100 bills, the DAS said in a statement. “The bills seized were of excellent quality and were advanced in the production process,” the statement said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in