CHINA
Mudslide cuts off village
Rescue workers are searching for more than 100 people trapped by a mudslide in Yunnan Province. Xinhua news agency said the mudslide engulfed a village in Yunnan yesterday morning, trapping at least 200 people. The slide was triggered by days of storms. It says local firefighters have so far rescued more than 80 people. Xinhua says the village has a population of about 940.
THAILAND
Aussie’s alleged killers tried
The trial of two men charged with killing an Australian travel agent has opened on Phuket. Michelle Elizabeth Smith was walking near her hotel on June 20 when two men on a motorcycle tried to grab her bag and then stabbed her when she resisted. The 60-year-old walked away from the attack, but collapsed and died shortly afterward. Surasak Suwannachote and Surin Tabthong were arrested within days after a huge manhunt. On their way to court yesterday, the 26-yeard-old Surasak told reporters: “I confess” to the crime. He is accused of stabbing Smith. The 37-year-old Surin is accused of driving the motorcycle. He denied the charges yesterday despite having confessed to the killing earlier. Both men could face the death penalty if convicted.
AFGHANISTAN
Parliament causes shake-up
The country faces a period of damaging uncertainty after President Hamid Karzai bowed to parliament’s surprise decision to unseat his two top security officials, but said they would stay in their jobs indefinitely, while he looked for replacements. The coming shakeup at the defense and interior ministries has the potential to complicate the ongoing handover of security from NATO, unbalance a Cabinet stacked with powerful rivals, and stir up Western fears about loss of influence.
AUSTRALIA
Ferry hits humpback whale
A humpback whale and its calf were injured yesterday after apparently being hit by a ferry in Sydney Harbour, with witnesses saying the animals had ugly gashes and cuts. The ferry Collaroy was sailing from Circular Quay to the beachside suburb of Manly when the whales “just popped up.” “There was nothing the ferry could do,” said Richard Ford from Sydney Whale Watching, whose boats were on the water monitoring the whales at the time. “Obviously if you get hit by a Manly ferry you are going to be in distress, but we watched afterwards and they seemed to be swimming in a normal pattern,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. Aerial photos showed a female humpback with a gaping wound near its dorsal fin and its calf with a long gash.
MACAU
Police crack down on gangs
Police said yesterday they had arrested 150 people during raids on casinos and hotels after a spate of murders raised fears of a return to the gaming hub’s violent past. Police questioned nearly 1,300 people and detained 150 in an operation codenamed “Thunderbolt 2012” conducted across the territory late on Friday, police spokesman Chong Su-pong said. The operation came after three unsolved murders and an attack on a casino hotel boss, which revived memories of the former Portuguese colony’s past troubles with gang--related crime. “The operation was a joint operation among the Macau, Hong Kong and Chinese police,” Chong said, adding that a suspect in a Hong Kong murder case was among those in custody.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing