CHINA
Journalist stabbed to death
A journalist who had been following a scandal involving the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers taken from gutters has been stabbed to death, police and state media said yesterday. Li Xiang (李翔), 30, a reporter with Luoyang Television Station in Henan Province, was knifed more than 10 times early on Monday as he returned home from a karaoke session with friends, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported. The laptop computer Li had been carrying was missing and police were treating the case as a murder-robbery, but have not ruled other motives, the report said. Li, who was due to be married next month, had apparently been following the latest food scandal to hit China, a “gutter” cooking oil scam which has led to the arrests of 32 people caught selling the carcinogenic product.
CHINA
Heavy rains, floods kill 57
Heavy rains and floods have left 57 people dead, dozens of others missing and hundreds injured, while more than 1 million residents have been evacuated from their homes, the government said. Unprecedented rains over the past week have swamped parts of northern, central and southwest China, and although the affected region is breathing a tentative sigh of relief as the downpours pause, rivers continue to swell. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement that the rain had forced authorities to evacuate more than 1.2 million people from their homes. More than 120,000 houses have collapsed and economic losses from damaged houses, crops and land is estimated to have reached 17.27 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion), it added.
AUSTRALIA
Gillard to lose asylum vote
The government may have to resume dealing with asylum seekers on its mainland because proposals to move their processing overseas are being blocked by the opposition and by legal obstacles, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday. In a fresh blow to the minority government, opposition leader Tony Abbott has refused to support a deal to process asylum seekers in Malaysia because Kuala Lumpur has not signed the UN refugee convention. Abbott’s opposition means the Malaysia plan will be defeated in a parliamentary vote after it is introduced today, with the government then being forced to deal with asylum seekers on the mainland, Gillard said.
CHINA
Space lab ready to launch
A prototype module for a planned space lab will be launched next week, state media said yesterday. The Tiangong 1, or “Heavenly Palace,” will blast off from the Gobi Jiuquan launch site in a remote part of Gansu Province between Sept. 27 and Sept. 30, Xinhua news agency said. The eight-tonne unmanned module, and the rocket that will carry it skyward, have been moved onto the launch pad, the report said, citing a spokesman for the country’s space program. It gave no other details.
PAKISTAN
Militants attack checkpoint
Taliban gunmen stormed a checkpoint in the tribal belt yesterday, killing one soldier and sparking clashes in which up to 20 militants died, officials said. Five soldiers and five civilians were also wounded after the militants attacked the Dabori post manned by paramilitary troops in the tribal district of Orakzai, the officials said. “At least 20 militants have been killed in the pre-dawn clash,” a military official said by telephone. Their bodies were spotted during a search carried out by helicopter gunships, he said.
TURKEY
Explosion injures 15
An explosion across from a secondary school in Ankara injured 15 people and set several vehicles on fire yesterday, officials said. “There is information that a bomb was planted on the vehicle,” that exploded in the downtown Kizilay district, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said. Three people were seriously injured and some of them might have lost their limbs, officials said. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
ITALY
Seismologists go on trial
Seven scientists and other earthquake experts went on trial yesterday on manslaughter charges for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn residents before a devastating quake that killed more than 300 people in 2009. The case is being closely watched by seismologists around the world who insist it’s impossible to predict earthquakes and that no major temblor has ever been foretold. The seven defendants are accused of giving “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” about whether smaller tremors felt in L’Aquila in the months before the April 6, 2009, quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.
UNITED KINGDOM
Seven arrested in raids
Police arrested a group of suspected Islamic extremists on Monday in what officials called one of the most significant counter-terror operations of the year. Officers were also carrying out raids on more than a dozen homes and businesses in Birmingham. Security officials said the threat appeared significant and involved Islamic extremists. Six men were being held on suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation” of an act of terrorism in Britain. A woman was also arrested for failing to disclose information. The suspects are aged between 22 and 32 and are British residents.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dale Farm wins reprieve
A group of Irish Travelers facing eviction from their English campsite won a last-minute reprieve on Monday when a judge prevented bailiffs from removing any structures in their settlement. A judge at London’s High Court issued an injunction preventing the local Basildon Council from clearing structures, including cars and mobile homes, from the Dale Farm site, 50km east of London, before another court hearing on Friday. Council leader Tony Ball said authorities were “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by the ruling.
GUATEMALA
Four quakes rock country
Four earthquakes struck the southeastern part of the country in less than two hours on Monday afternoon, causing at least one death as some walls collapsed, authorities said. At least three people were reported missing. President Alvaro Colom urged calm after the temblors were felt across much of the country; the largest was a magnitude 5.8. All were centered in an area about 51km southeast of Guatemala City, according to the US Geological Survey.
SOUTH KOREA
Tit-for-tat over sea names
Irked by Britain’s refusal to use the nation’s name for a sea off the east of the peninsula, Seoul is considering using an Argentine name for waters around the UK-ruled Falkland Islands, the JoongAng Ilbo reported yesterday. The newspaper said that Seoul might start referring to the Falklands Sea as the Malvinas Sea as well. The paper said the move appeared to be in response to Britain’s resistance to use the name the East Sea.
MEXICO
Inmates stage jailbreak
Inmates staged near--simultaneous jailbreaks from three prisons in Veracruz early on Monday and at least 32 of them escaped, officials said. Authorities said 14 of the fugitives were later recaptured, but prison officials were conducting reviews to establish who was still at large. Between 2:30am and 4am, prisoners escaped from prisons in Coatzacoalcos, Amatlan de los Reyes and Cosamaloapan, said Gerardo Buganza, the state’s top security official. A spokesman for the state, Miguel Valera, told reporters that initial indications were that the prisoners were armed with knives and had overpowered the guards. However, Buganza said authorities were investigating whether employees of the jails were involved in the jailbreaks.
URUGUAY
Marines arrested for assault
Five marines have been jailed in Montevideo after being indicted for the sexual assault of a young Haitian man while they were serving as UN peacekeepers in Haiti, the supreme military court announced on Monday. The scandal erupted earlier this month after video images taken with a cellphone circulated on the Internet showing the UN peacekeepers sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Haitian man in the town of Port-Salut.
BRAZIL
Suspected killers arrested
Police have arrested two suspects over the killing in May of a husband-and-wife team of environmental activists who had been identifying illegal loggers, officials said on Monday. The police in the northern Amazon state of Para, one of the most restive regions in the country because of land disputes, arrested landowner Jose Rodrigues Moreira and his brother Lindonjonson Silva Rocha. After evading capture for months, the two brothers were arrested on Sunday and a police spokesman said they were being transferred to a prison in the state capital Belem.
BELIZE
Founding father dies
Founding father and first prime minister George Price died in Belize City early on Monday, just short of three decades since he led the small Central American nation to independence. He was 92. Price died at the Belize Healthcare Partners Hospital in Belize City, said a grandnephew, Henry Charles Usher. He was hospitalized last Wednesday after a fall at his Belize City home and put in a medically induced coma following surgery to remove a blood clot. Prime Minister Dean Barrow declared a week of mourning lasting until Sept. 26. Price was Belize’s first leader when it became independent from Britain on Sept. 21, 1981.
UNITED STATES
Dolores Hope dies
Dolores Hope, the sultry-voiced songstress who was married to Bob Hope for 69 years and sometimes sang on his shows for troops and on his television specials, has died at age 102. Family spokesman Harlan Boll said Dolores Hope died on Monday of natural causes at home in Los Angeles. He did not elaborate. In 1933, when Bob Hope was appearing in his first Broadway show, Roberta, his friend and fellow cast member George Murphy persuaded him to visit the Vogue Club to “hear a pretty girl sing.” She was Dolores Reade, a dark beauty whose singing of It’s Only a Paper Moon entranced the young comedian. Hope returned every night and soon he was escorting her to her hotel after her shows. They married on Feb. 19, 1934, and she quit nightclubs to join his vaudeville act.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia