PHILIPPINES
Authorities provide aid
The authorities rushed to bring food and other emergency provisions yesterday to more than 2 million people affected by widespread flooding, as the death toll rose to 66, an official said. The flooding that submerged 80 percent of Manila earlier in the week has largely subsided, allowing people to return to their homes, but low-lying farming regions to the north remained under water. Nearly two weeks of monsoon rains across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon peaked with a 48-hour deluge earlier this week that battered Manila and surrounding regions.
INDONESIA
Man dies of bird flu
A man has died of bird flu, the health ministry said yesterday, in the country’s ninth fatal case this year. The man was hospitalized on July 24, according to the report. He died on July 30. Authorities do not know how the man contracted the virus, but said he lived near poultry farms. Indonesia has been hardest-hit by bird flu, with 159 fatalities reported since 2003 out of 359 worldwide, according to WHO figures, which include the latest death.
BANGLADESH
Lightning strikes mosque
At least 13 people were killed and 15 injured when lightning struck a makeshift mosque in a remote village as locals were holding special Ramadan prayers, police said yesterday. A powerful lightning bolt hit the flimsy tin and thatch building at Saraswatipur village in the northeast late on Friday. About 35 people from the village, which is in the lake district of Sunamganj, were holding prayers known as taraweeh, offered during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the lightning struck, police chief Bayes Alam said.
CAMBODIA
Prince quits politics again
Prince Norodom Ranariddh on Friday announced that he was quitting politics for a second time after he was perceived as an obstacle to a merger between royalist parties. The son of former king Norodom Sihanouk agreed in May to combine his Norodom Ranariddh Party with Funcinpec in a bid to reinvigorate the royalist movement ahead of next year’s general elections. Ranariddh was ejected from Funcinpec in 2006 for alleged fraud involving the illegal sale of the party’s headquarters. He formed his own party shortly afterwards. He was sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail over the charges the following year and quit politics in late 2008 after receiving a royal pardon. He returned to the political scene in late 2010, vowing to reunite the royalists.
CHINA
Kidney-for-iPad trial starts
A surgeon and four other people are on trial over the case of a teenager who is said to have sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad 2, state media reported on Friday. The China Daily newspaper said that 18-year-old Wang Shangkun is in serious condition after receiving an illegal transplant operation last year. The five people on trial stand accused of intentional injury and illegal organ trading over the removal and sale of the organ and face three to 10 years in prison if convicted, the paper said. Citing court documents, the China Daily said Wang agreed to sell his kidney after contacting an illegal agency online. Wang’s mother, Ou Linchun, told the court that her son did not sell his kidney to purchase the Apple devices. “My son was tempted by the illegal organ traders and might have been afraid of getting caught with such a large amount of money, so he bought a cellphone and a tablet PC,” she said, according to the paper. The kidney was sold for 150,000 yuan (US$23,600) and US$10,000 in cash, though Wang received just 22,000 yuan, the paper said.
NEW ZEALAND
Rocks found floating in sea
A huge cluster of floating volcanic rocks covering almost 26,000 square kilometers has been found drifting in the Pacific, the New Zealand Navy said on Friday. The strange phenomenon, which witnesses said resembled a polar ice shelf, was made up of lightweight pumice expelled from an underwater volcano, the navy said. An air force plane spotted the rocks on Thursday about 1,000km from New Zealand. Lieutenant Tim Oscar said it was “the weirdest thing I’ve seen in 18 years at sea.” “The rock looked to be sitting two foot [60cm] above the surface of the waves and lit up a brilliant while color in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf,” he said. Scientists aboard the ship said the pumice probably came from an underwater volcano called Monowai, which has been active recently.
INDIA
Bus crash kills at least 39
A crowded bus fell into a deep gorge in the north yesterday, killing at least 39 people, police said. The driver lost control of the vehicle at a sharp bend on a mountain road in Himachal Pradesh state, nearly 620km north of New Delhi, police officer Raj Kumar said. The bus then plunged more than 100m into the gorge, Kumar said. Twenty other people injured in the accident have been hospitalized, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Kumar said the rescue operation was continuing and that the death toll of 39 was likely to rise.
GUYANA
Official buildings torched
Government offices were burnt down on Friday amid fresh clashes in the southeast over rising electricity rates and claims that officers killed three demonstrators on July 18 during fighting between police and protesters in Linden after power costs had been increased 400 percent, officials said. The Defense Force said police fired tear gas to disperse about 30 protesters who had set fire to a key river bridge. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but the demonstrators, who had massed in large numbers, still managed to set fire to two buildings housing a branch of the tax collection agency and several other government offices. Opposition lawmakers are demanding the prosecution of those responsible and an official investigation into the killings is due.
POLAND
Body of priest on trial found
A charred body found at an eastern cemetery is believed to be that of a priest suspected of pedophilia in Germany and in Poland, a prosecutor said on Friday. Zamosc deputy chief prosecutor Miroslaw Buczek said that authorities are 99 percent sure the body is that of the priest, identified only as Boguslaw P. Earlier this week, prosecutors charged him with sexually abusing two teenage boys 10 years ago in his parish of Turka. The priest denied the charges, which could have brought a 12-year prison term. The priest was also on trial in another town, Krasnystaw, on charges of molesting an altar boy in Germany, where he worked in 2004 and 2005. The body was found on Friday morning by the grave of his parents in the village of Lopiennik Nadrzeczny along with a knife and a broken bottle that had contained flammable liquid. DNA tests are being made to confirm the body’s identity.
BOSNIA
Boy killed by landmine
Authorities say a six-year-old boy died when he triggered a landmine while collecting wood with his father in the central forests. The father was wounded in the blast. Aldina Ahmic, spokeswoman for local police, said the area the two were exploring on Friday is a marked minefield about 50km north of Sarajevo. Ahmic says the boy died instantly. His father, 37, is being treated at a Sarajevo hospital for serious shrapnel wounds. The war of 1992 to1995 war turned made the country one of the most mine infested in the world. Clearing the explosive devices is costly and complicated. According to Bosnia’s Mine Action Center, 1,674 people have been killed or injured by mines since the war ended.
SPAIN
Robin Hood robbers arrested
Police have arrested seven left-wing union activists for their alleged role in a “Robin Hood”-style looting of a supermarket made to highlight the plight of people suffering through the country’s recession. A handful of activists from the southern Andalusian Workers’ Union took with nine carts full of food from the supermarket in Ecija and left without paying on Tuesday. They later gave the food to poor, unemployed people. The mayor of the nearby town of Marinaleda, Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, has admitted taking part in the heist. Police said one person was arrested during an eviction on Friday of union members who were squatting on government land near Ecija that is lying fallow to demand it be given to hard-pressed farmers. Four others were arrested elsewhere Friday, and two Thursday, although all but two have been released on bail pending legal action.
UNITED STATES
Sewage threatens contest
Ironman contestants will go through anything — well, almost. A sewage leak into New York’s Hudson River has thrown the swimming portion of the Aquadraat Sports Ironman US Championship into doubt. The event yesterday was meant to feature swimming, biking and running over an 226km course in and around New York. “We are diligently monitoring the situation and are working with local entities to ensure the appropriate testing protocol is followed,” contest spokeswoman Jessica Weidensall said. “Athlete safety is our first priority. We will be sure of the water quality and that the venue is safe before we allow our athletes to swim.”
UNITED STATES
Doctor accused of torture
A pediatrician in Delaware has been arrested after his 11-year-old daughter accused him of waterboarding her, a police source said on Friday. State medical authorities temporarily suspended Melvin Morse — who has appeared several times on US television after publishing books on the near-death experiences of children — for “clear and immediate danger to the public health.” Morse’s daughter told authorities on Thursday that her father had held her face under flowing tap water, simulating drowning, four times between 2009 and last year, saying her mother was sometimes present, but did nothing to stop it.
ARGENTINA
Pilots face killings trial
Pilots accused of flying “death flights” during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship will be tried for allegedly throwing live prisoners — including a nun — into the sea, the judiciary said on Friday. The defendants include former pilots Julio Poch and Enrique de Saint Georges as well as lawyer Gonzalo Torres de Tolosa, said the Judicial Information Center (ICJ) of the country’s Supreme Court. Torres de Tolosa is the only civilian alleged to have participated in the flights and tortured political prisoners. The trial is part of an ongoing effort to investigate crimes against humanity committed at a notorious naval school. Poch, a 59-year-old Dutch national, is a former military pilot who was extradited to Argentina from Spain in May 2010, eight months after his arrest at an airport in Valencia. Hundreds of prisoners were the victims of the death flights, thrown alive into the river or sea from military aircraft. Some 30,000 people were disappeared during the dictatorship, according to human rights organizations.
RUSSIA
Politician slams ‘Madonna’
A deputy premier has made a rude statement apparently aimed at Madonna regarding her support for the jailed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot awaiting a verdict in their trial. Dmitry Rogozin did not name Madonna when he tweeted this week that “every former w. wants to give lectures on morality when she grows old. Especially during foreign tours.” By “w.” he apparently meant “whore.” Just before Vladimir Putin returned to the Russian presidency, members of the feminist band danced in Moscow’s main cathedral, singing “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!” Madonna supported the band at her concert in Moscow on Tuesday, saying she’d “pray for them.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Record euro lottery pay-out
A ticket-holder has won a record 190 million euros (US$233.5 million) in the Euro Millions lottery, the Francaise des Jeux announced on Friday. It beats a 185 million euro jackpot scooped by a Scottish couple in July last year
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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