MALAYSIA
Thousands flee floods
Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains forced almost 14,000 people to flee their homes and seek shelter at relief centers, the Bernama news agency said yesterday. Rain showers which coincided with high tides flooded hundreds of homes in the northeastern states of Terengganu, Pahang and Kelantan, it said. Bernama said the flood situation was deteriorating as the number of evacuees continued to rise and some major roads in Pahang were closed as rivers burst their banks. Muhammad Helmi Abdullah, the meteorological department’s weather forecast director, warned that there could be more rain in Terengganu, Pahang and southern Johor State in the next few days.
THE PHILIPPINES
Fires incite mob anger
Angry residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a shantytown fire left thousands of people homeless and another Christmas Day blaze in Manila left seven people dead, officials said yesterday. A resident was beaten to death by his neighbors after shouting that he started Tuesday’s shantytown fire in San Juan, Senior Fire Officer Domingo Cabog said. The man was reportedly drunk and not responsible for the fire. About 5,000 people were left homeless and 13 hurt in the fire. The injured included two firefighters and a volunteer hit by rocks that were thrown by residents who were impatient and tried to grab fire hoses to save their own shanties, Cabog said. “It’s Christmas and many of the men in the neighborhood were drunk,” Cabog said. In Quezon City, a predawn fire on Tuesday killed a veterinarian and six household members who were trapped inside a house, arson investigator Rosendo Cabillan said. The blaze was suspected to be triggered by an overloaded electrical circuit, he said.
PAKISTAN
Political attack sparks chaos
Businesses were closed in Karachi yesterday after an attempt to murder a politician left six dead on Tuesday and ensuing violence killed 10 others. Aurangzaib Farooqi, leader of the hardline Sunni Muslim organization Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, survived an attack yesterday by gunmen, prompting his party to demand a day of mourning, the Dawn newspaper reported. Farooqi was shot in the thigh, while five of his guards and chauffer were killed in the shootout. People with bamboo shafts and some with pistols took to the streets after television channels reported the news of the attack. Armed men fanned across the city during a wave of violence in which 10 more people were killed, either in reaction or related to the attack, the daily said. Trade unions said they will refrain from opening shops to join a day of mourning.
KAZAKHSTAN
Military jet crashes, kills 27
All 27 people on board a military jet carrying top border guard officials that crashed have died, the National Security Service said in a statement. The victims included the acting head of the Federal Border Service, Turganbek Stambekov, and his wife, the statement said. The 22-year-old plane crashed late on Tuesday about 20km from Shymkent Airport where it had been due to land after a flight from Astana. State KTK television said the jet fell from a height of 800m. Witnesses also reported hearing a loud explosion at the time of the crash. Footage of the crash site aired on state television yesterday showed only fragments of the An-72 military transport plane remaining on the ground. However, the security service said that the plane had recently undergone all necessary checks and repairs.
THE NETHERLANDS
Drunk drives on runway
A drunken British man was arrested on Tuesday after driving a stolen car on an Amsterdam airport runway “for a few minutes,” police said. The unnamed passenger headed home for Christmas had pushed an emergency exit button at one of Schiphol airport’s gates, stumbled onto the tarmac and stole a car belonging to an airport contractor, police spokesman Dennis Muller said. “He drove around for a few minutes, but at no point was there any danger to flight traffic,” Muller said. “We don’t know why he took the car, these are things you do when you’re drunk.”
RUSSIA
Blast, quake rock Sochi
A gas pipeline blast followed by a mild earthquake has struck the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a local government spokeswoman said yesterday. Irina Gogoleva of the Emergencies Ministry said no one was hurt and there was no apparent damage to the city’s infrastructure after a magnitude 5.2 earthquake was reported at 2:42am yesterday. Gogoleva said the epicenter of the quake was about 150km off Sochi in the Black Sea. In an unrelated incident, a gas pipeline that feeds a local power station exploded a couple of hours before the quake. Gogoleva said the power plant had switched to fuel oil and the city was receiving electrical power. She said the reason for the blast was unknown. Sochi, the first city in the nation to have been awarded the Winter Olympics, is located on the coast close to Georgia.
UNITED STATES
Bush Sr still in hospital
Former president George H.W. Bush spent Christmas in a Houston hospital with his wife, Barbara, and other relatives who planned to treat him to a special holiday meal. Bush’s son Neil and his wife also visited on Tuesday, and one of Bush’s grandsons was planning to stop by as well, said Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston. The 88-year-old has been in the hospital since Nov. 23 with a lingering, bronchitis-like cough. A hospital spokesman had said Bush was likely to be released to spend Christmas at home, but then McGrath said the former president developed a fever.
UNITED KINGDOM
Thatcher remains in hospital
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher spent Christmas in hospital recovering from bladder surgery, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. There has been no change in Thatcher’s condition since Sunday, when the 87-year-old was said to be “in good spirits,” the spokeswoman added. Thatcher was admitted to hospital on Thursday last week for a minor operation to remove a growth in her bladder. She suffers from dementia and has appeared increasingly rarely in public in recent years.
UKRAINE
Police helicopter crashes
A police helicopter belonging to the Interior Ministry crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday afternoon in the central part of the country, killing five people on board, officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter slammed into the ground just after taking off from an airport in the city of Alexandria in the Kirovograd region, about 320km southeast of the capital, Kiev, ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov said. Investigators were working to determine what caused the helicopter to hit the ground as it was gaining speed, Burlakov said. Three of the dead were crewmembers, and two were ground staff on board the helicopter.
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