CHINA
Injured toddler ignored
More than a dozen passers-by ignored a two-year-old girl as she lay critically injured on a street in the southern city of Foshan after being run over first by a van and then a truck outside her family’s shop, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Xinhua said a garbage collector who finally came to the girl’s aid, moving her to the curb and shouting for help, was ignored by several shopkeepers before he finally tracked down her mother who took her to hospital. Doctors said Yue Yue was in a coma and unlikely to survive the ordeal. Police have detained the drivers of both vehicles involved in the incident, Xinhua said.
CHINA
Bus crash kills 10
A tourist bus carrying many elderly passengers overturned on a winding highway in the south on Sunday, leaving 10 people dead and 33 injured, state media said. The bus carrying 49 people may have blown a tire, causing the vehicle to flip over into a ditch outside Zhangjiajie City, the reports said.
VIETNAM
Girl trampled by elephant
A circus elephant scooped up an 11-year-old girl with its trunk as she tried to feed it, threw her to the ground and trampled her to death, police said yesterday. Nguyen Thao Anh was offering sugarcane to the animal in the city of Lao Cai on Sunday when the attack happened, police officer Phan Van Quang said. Vietnam Circus Federation deputy director Nguyen Xuan Quang said the girl’s father had taken her in to feed the elephant, which was in a fenced compound with its legs chained. The father was talking on the phone when the attack happened, he said.
NEPAL
Controversial minister fired
The Maoist party said on Sunday it was removing a minister accused of involvement in the murder of a Hindu activist. Party leaders said parliamentary protests against land reforms minister Prabhu Sah were distracting from the peace process and had made his position untenable. Kashi Nath Tiwari, the president of Nepal’s Hindu Youth Association, was shot dead by three masked gunmen near his house in the town of Birgunj in June last year. Sah has been identified as a suspect in the killing, but state prosecutors have refused to lodge a case against him, citing a lack of evidence.
SOUTH KOREA
US$4 for war death
A woman has been offered a little more than US$4 in government compensation for the death of her brother during the Korean War. The woman was two years old when her brother was killed in combat in 1950, but never knew of his existence until told of his death by a neighbor, local media said, adding the woman’s mother has suffered from dementia. The family had not received any compensation until April when the soldier’s sister was awarded 5,000 won (US$4.33) under a law in effect during the war. The presidential Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has called the decision “incomprehensible” and urged the government to review it.
PHILIPPINES
Drill near Spratlys starts
About 3,000 Filipino and US marines yesterday started two weeks of military drills that will include a hostile beach assault exercise west of Palawan near the disputed Spratly Islands (南沙). US Marine 1st Lieutenant Nick Eisenbeiser said the exercises through Oct. 28 would focus on honing the military allies’ capability to ensure regional security and were not aiming at China or any nation as an imaginary target.
COLOMBIA
Women end no sex strike
The women of Barbacoas have ended a three-month, 19-day “crossed legs” strike of sexual abstinence aimed at getting a road to their isolated town paved, after officials pledged to invest in the project. “That night we devoted to our husbands. The desire was great and we took advantage of it,” Luz Marina Castillo, the leader of the protest, told Bogota newspaper El Tiempo in comments published on Sunday after the strike was lifted. Transport Minister German Cardona has pledged to invest an estimated US$21 million to pave the first 27km of the 57km road. At least 300 women began the strike on June 22.
UNITED KINGDOM
Passengers stuck on plane
Hundreds of air travelers were left stranded on Sunday after an incoming Air India flight was grounded for nine hours at London’s Gatwick Airport by a combination of fog and aviation rules. Police were called onto the Boeing 777 jet as tempers frayed among the 200 passengers after the airline prevented them from disembarking. The flight from Ahmedabad via Mumbai was due to arrive at Heathrow at 8am, but was diverted to Gatwick because of fog. The plane was unable to complete the 70km cross-city journey as aviation law limits the length of time for which flight crew are allowed to work in one shift. A replacement crew was shuttled across London, but reportedly got lost in Gatwick Airport.
VATICAN CITY
Pope gives up walking
Pope Benedict was wheeled up the main aisle of St Peter’s Basilica on a mobile platform at a ceremony on Sunday to spare him the unnecessary fatigue of walking, but the Vatican said there was no concern for his overall health. The 84-year-old pontiff stood on the platform as aides pushed it up the central aisle, which is about 100m long. He appeared to be in good health. He later used the same platform to leave the basilica. The platform, which has three steps and brass handles, was built to transport the late Pope John Paul II during the last five years of his life after he suffered a broken femur and had hip replacement surgery.
UNITED KINGDOM
Town gets ‘royal’ makeover
Wootton Bassett, the town which became a focal point for honoring soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, was on Sunday officially renamed with the prefix “Royal” in recognition of its efforts. Thousands lined the streets of the town in Wiltshire as Princess Anne handed over the Letters Patent on behalf of the Queen Elizabeth II. The sleepy town became known round the world for the dignified manner in which its residents lined the high street as a mark of respect to the army dead from Iraq and Afghanistan as the hearses passed bearing their bodies.
JORDAN
King Abdullah sacks Cabinet
King Abdullah yesterday sacked Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, a conservative former army general and asked Awn Khaswaneh, an international jurist, to head a new government, a senior political source said. Khasawneh, 61, has been a member of the International Court of Justice since 2000, and was a former chief of the royal court and a legal advisor to the Jordanian team that negotiated the peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Bakhit’s government, which came to power in February after Abdullah sacked an unpopular prime minister after pro-reform street protests inspired by Arab uprisings, has been criticized for its inept handling of domestic problems, including preparations for elections.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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