NORTH KOREA
Floods leave 400 missing
Pyongyang said 400 people were missing and about 212,000 were left homeless following heavy rains and floods that lasted through last month. The floods killed 169 people and injured 144, while destroying more than 8,600 houses and submerging 43,770 residential buildings, the official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) said on Saturday. At least 65,280 hectares of farmland was damaged, KCNA said. Premier Choe Yong-rim toured Anju, where almost all public buildings and industrial facilities were flooded or destroyed, with water and power supplies cut off, KNCA said. Choe was briefed on the damages in the city and held a meeting, the agency said.
CHINA
Fake medicines seized
Police have detained almost 2,000 people in a nationwide sweep on fake drugs, seizing more than US$180 million worth of counterfeit products and destroying about 1,100 production facilities, the public security ministry said yesterday. The operation, involving about 18,000 police officers, discovered fake or adulterated drugs purporting to deal with illnesses ranging from diabetes to high blood pressure and rabies, the ministry said. The suspects even advertised their drugs online, in newspapers and on TV and the drugs caused problems ranging from liver and kidney damage to heart failure, the ministry said.
VIETNAM
Gay pride parade held
Dozens of cyclists decorated with balloons and rainbow flags streamed through Hanoi yesterday for the first-ever gay pride parade in the country. The event, organized by the city’s small, but growing Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community, went ahead peacefully with no attempt by police to stop the colorful convoy of about 100 activists. Activists said they had modified the parade route after coming under pressure from police to avoid sensitive areas where anti-China demonstrations were taking place.
JAPAN
Truman grandson visits
A grandson of former US president Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, is in Hiroshima to attend a memorial service for the victims. Clifton Truman Daniel visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Saturday and laid a wreath for the 140,000 people killed by the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing authorized by his grandfather. Daniel, 55, will attend ceremonies next week in Hiroshima and Nagasaki marking the 67th anniversary of the bombings. His visit, the first by a member of the Truman family, is sponsored by the peace group Sadako Legacy, named after Sadako Sasaki, an A-bomb victim who died of leukemia at age 12.
PAKISTAN
NATO supply route reopened
The government on Saturday allowed 14 NATO containers to cross into Afghanistan from the northwestern border checkpoint at Torkham, officials said. Islamabad had temporarily stopped NATO supplies on July 24 because of security concerns after gunmen attacked a convoy of NATO trucks, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud. A local intelligence official also confirmed resumption of supplies and the departure of 14 NATO containers to Afghanistan. However, a senior local customs official, Ubaidullah Khan, put the figure of containers at seven, adding that they carried foodstuff and clothes.
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