■JAPAN
Rescue helicopter crashes
A Japanese rescue helicopter with seven people aboard crashed yesterday on a mountain in Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, police said. “Police could not immediately confirm the state of the seven,” a local police spokesman said. The helicopter — reportedly carrying two pilots, three aviation security officers and two rescuers — was on an operation to rescue a climber, local reports said.
■PAKISTAN
Minister’s son shot dead
Suspected Taliban in northwest Pakistan on Saturday shot dead the only son of a provincial minister well known for speaking out against the militants, police said. Mian Rashid Hussain, 28, was on his way home with a friend in Nowshera district, 25km east of Peshawar, when they were attacked. “He died on the spot when unknown gunmen sprayed them with bullets,” senior police officer Liaqat Ali said by telephone. The friend was critically injured, he said, before the attackers managed to flee by car. Bashir Ahmad Bilour, senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, blamed Taliban militants. “We will never bow down to them,” he said. The dead man was the only son of provincial information minister Mian Iftekhar Hussain. Mian Iftekhar Hussain is considered the most vocal minister against Taliban militants. He also worked as a spokesman for the provincial government. Bilour described the attack as a targeted killing. “Mian Iftekhar Hussain always raised a voice against terrorists and this was the only reason that his son was attacked,” he said.
■CHINA
Captive pandas released
Four pregnant pandas bred in captivity have been released into an area of forest in southwest China to prepare their cubs for life in the wild, state media reported. The pandas, aged four to five, have been taken to a tract of forest at a training base in Sichuan Province that was built to help the endangered animals adapt to the wild, Xinhua news agency said. They are expected to give birth to their cubs in the woodland, which covers two hectares, and live there until the young animals turn three or four, the report said late on Saturday. There are only about 1,590 pandas left in the wild in China, and authorities would like to increase that figure to save the endangered species. But so far, the only attempt at releasing a captive-bred panda into nature ended tragically. Xiang Xiang, a male cub who was trained to adapt to the wild and released in 2006, was found dead 10 months later, apparently killed by wild pandas native to the area. This new attempt aims to see the four pandas give birth and raise their cubs on their own, while workers keep watch through surveillance cameras.
■VIETNAM
Storm kills eight people
Vietnam’s government says floods and landslides triggered by remnants of Typhoon Chanthu killed eight people and left two others missing in the north. The national floods and storms control department said on its Web site yesterday seven people, including a three-year-old girl, died in Ha Giang Province, and a two-year-old girl was swept away by floods in neighboring Lao Cai Province. Two people were reported missing in Cao Bang Province when a mine they were working in collapsed. Typhoon Chanthu killed three people in southern China before weakening into a tropical storm on Friday after making landfall in Guangdong Province.
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