■CHINA
Explosion closes airport
A fire and subsequent explosions at a plastics factory in the capital of the country’s northwestern region prompted a major airport nearby to shut briefly, an official said yesterday. The blaze broke out late on Saturday at a factory near the Diwopu International Airport in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, said a man surnamed Li who was on duty at the Xinjiang regional government’s information office. No casualties were reported. The cause of the fire was being investigated, Li said. Li said explosions at the factory after the fire threw chunks of debris onto the airport’s grounds, forcing authorities to shut the airport to clear the area. The airport resumed operations at midnight, he said. At least 15 flights were disrupted, Xinhua News Agency said. Li would not say if foul play was suspected.
■CHINA
Pneumonic plague reported
Authorities say five people have been sickened with pneumonic plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them. The Tibetan regional health department says the cases were reported in Laduo, a village in Lang county in the remote region. The department said in a statement yesterday that the first case was found on Sept. 23 and that the patient died of a severe lung infection. The remaining four people have been quarantined. The disease can kill in as few as 24 hours if left untreated. Last year, an outbreak of the disease in a farming town in Qinghai Province killed three people and sickened nine, prompting authorities to seal off the community of 10,000 people for more than a week.
■BANGLADESH
Dhaka urged to send troops
The US has urged the country to send combat troops to Afghanistan to help the multinational effort bring stability to the war-torn country, Dhaka’s foreign ministry said yesterday. The request was made during meetings in New York between Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke said the US needed the “help of friends like Bangladesh” to ensure security in Afghanistan, according to a government statement released in Dhaka. “He sought for any kind of help like deploying combat troops, providing economic and development assistance or giving training among the law enforcement agencies,” it said. Moni said the government would consider the request.
■SOUTH KOREA
Seoul pledges aid to North
The country will send a promised 5,000 tonnes of rice and other aid supplies to North Korea next month after torrential rain devastated the northwestern region of reclusive nation, a report said yesterday. The South’s government will meet tomorrow to approve an eight billion-won (US$7 million) aid package to be sent via the Red Cross, according to a report from Yonhap news agency. The relief, announced by Seoul earlier this month, includes 5,000 tonnes of rice, 10,000 tonnes of cement, 3 million packs of instant noodles and other medical and emergency supplies. Last month floods washed away thousands of homes, roads, railways and farmland across North Korea, causing an unspecified number of deaths. Typhoon Kompasu, which hit the peninsula earlier this month, further battered the impoverished country, killing dozens of people and bringing more damage to the nation, which is vulnerable to flooding after years of deforestation.
■UNITED STATES
Shooter targeted coworkers
An official in Nebraska says three employees wounded in a shooting at a cold-storage warehouse don’t appear to be random victims. Saline County Attorney Tad Eickman said on Saturday that authorities are trying to determine why Akouch Kashoual shot those workers and not others gathered in the break room at the Americold Logistics plant in Crete. The Omaha World-Herald first reported similar comments from Eickman. Authorities say the 26-year-old Sudanese immigrant shot his three coworkers before killing himself on Wednesday night. Kashoual’s brother, John Bol, has said his brother was “a good kid,” and he thinks the motive for the shootings would be found by talking with his brother’s coworkers.
■CANADA
Relief, reconstruction begins
The military has arrived in eastern Newfoundland to help rebuild two bridges and deliver water if needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor. Brigadier General Tony Stack of the Canadian Forces said on Saturday that 140 engineers have arrived in the province to help reassemble bridges on two peninsulas. The storm caused extensive damage in several communities when it swept through the region on Tuesday, flooding roads and downing trees. Stack says three ships have arrived to serve as platforms for helicopters with heavy-lift capabilities. Igor carried Allan Duffet, an 80-year-old man, into the sea off Random Island. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed Duffet’s body was found on Saturday buried under debris.
■ISRAEL
Leaders praise Castro
Government leaders are praising former Cuban president Fidel Castro for supporting Israel in a series of interviews, President Shimon Peres’ office says. Peres sent Castro a personal letter on Saturday thanking him for his remarks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent reporters text messages drawing attention to a series of interviews published in the Atlantic magazine early this month. The praise was highly unusual, as Castro has traditionally supported the Palestinians and has been highly critical of the Jewish state in the past. In the interview, Castro chided Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust, in which some 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. In another interview, Castro said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.
■UNITED STATES
Help Mexico, senator says
US President Barack Obama’s administration should provide additional resources to help Mexico as the two countries try to root out drug traffickers along their shared border, said Senator Richard Lugar, the influential top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He called on Obama to consider using the US military and intelligence community to provide more surveillance assets to help interdict drugs and weapons crossing the border to and from Mexico. “Transnational drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico represent the most immediate national security threat faced by the US in the Western Hemisphere,” he said in prepared remarks for a Mexican prosecutors conference yesterday in Indiana. “The United States should undertake a broad review of further steps the US military and the intelligence community could take to help combat the Mexican cartels in association with the Mexican government.” He suggested aviation, surveillance and other intelligence assets. Lugar is one of the Senate’s most-respected voices on foreign policy.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the