■KAZAKHSTAN
Dozens die in flooding
Heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region neighboring China, flooding villages and killing about two dozen people, officials said on Friday. The south was affected by unusually intense snowfalls this winter and fast-rising temperatures are causing major flooding and mudslides across the region. A dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured on Thursday, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents, the Emergency Services Ministry said. At least 25 deaths have been confirmed, Almaty regional government spokesman Ilyas Biyakhmetov said. Officials say residents in the affected district have been evacuated in buses sent from the regional capital, Taldykorgan. Some people have been put up in hotels and dormitories in Taldykorgan, Biyakhmetov said.
■RUSSIA
Nation to cut time zones
Two regions may get closer to Moscow, in time if not in space, after lawmakers took up a proposal by President Dmitry Medvedev to cut the country’s number of time zones. The regional assemblies in Samara and Chukotka both approved Friday measures, despite advice from experts and divided public opinion, to shift to one time zone later, news agencies reported. The change, if approved by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, would put the Samara region to the southeast of the capital in the same time zone with Moscow. Chukotka, in the extreme northeast of the country along the Bering Strait, would move to being eight hours ahead of the capital. Medvedev suggested last November cutting the number of time zones — the country currently spans 11 from Kaliningrad to Chukotka — in order to improve coordination across the country.
■AUSTRIA
Nazi mass graves found
At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the army, government officials said on Friday. An army statement suggested some of the remains may be that of US pilots shot down and imprisoned during World War II. Police Colonel Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry has planned talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation, adding that it was not yet clear whether the army owned the property or was renting it. The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contain about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson furniture on auction
Luxury furniture Michael Jackson commissioned before his death will go under the hammer in June in Las Vegas along with other personal items from the King of Pop, Julien’s Auctions said on Friday. The 22 pieces of furniture Jackson ordered from Italy’s Colombostile Artisans to fill the home where he was to live during his “This is It” London concert series will be featured in the June 25 “Music Icons” auction at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Before the event, the furniture and a recreation of Jackson’s home in Kent, England, will be exhibited at Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style Icon’s, in Ireland, from Tuesday to May 30, Julien’s said in a statement. The exhibit will then be shown in Las Vegas from June 14-25.
■PERU
Machu Picchu rail to reopen
Train services to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu will be restored on March 29, officials said. Fierce rains washed out the rail link in January. Transport Minister Enrique Cornejo told congress on Friday that while rail service from Cuzco to the famed tourist site would not be restored until June at the earliest, the last 28km would be ready by month’s end. Tourists will be able to take a bus from Cuzco to the town of Ollantaytambo, then go by road to the rail link.
■UNITED STATES
Police tow away ‘corpse’
A police tow truck removed a minivan parked outside a New York City funeral home — with a body inside. New York police spokesman Paul Browne said there was “nothing to indicate it was more than just an illegally parked car.” Redden’s Funeral Home director Paul DeNigris said a windshield placard had fallen flat. The van’s tinted windows helped obscure the white cardboard box that held the remains. DeNigris said he was “a wreck” after discovering the van missing on Monday in Manhattan, the Daily News newspaper reported. He rushed to the tow pound, where he discreetly explained the circumstances and got the van back. He also got the body to an airport in time for a scheduled flight to Miami. He plans to fight the US$115 parking ticket.
■UNITED STATES
Snails sicken devotees
Devotees of a Miami man who claims to practice a traditional African religion said they were sickened when they drank the mucus of a giant African snail. Federal authorities in January raided Charles Stewart’s home after receiving complaints. Stewart has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The giant African snail is prohibited in the US without special approval. Stewart told the Miami Herald he meant no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.
■UNITED STATES
Reid’s wife hurt in accident
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife suffered a broken back and neck in an auto accident in the Washington suburbs. Landra Reid, 69, underwent surgery yesterday and is on her way to making a full recovery, said Dr Elizabeth Franco at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. “She’s done very well,”Franco said. “She’s in good spirits.” Landra Reid could be released in a few days, said Jon Summers, a spokesman for the senator. The majority leader was at the hospital during the surgery, Summers said. Truck driver Alan Snader of Ohio was charged with reckless driving in the accident on Interstate 95 in Fairfax County, Virginia, state police said.
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
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
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