AFGHANISTAN
More than 50 dead in floods
Flooding in a remote part of the north has claimed more than 50 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes, a provincial official said yesterday. Lieutenant Fazel Rahman, the police chief in the Guzirga i-Nur district of Baghlan Province, said 54 bodies have been recovered, including the remains of women and children, but many others are still missing. He said the death toll could climb to 100 and called for emergency assistance from the federal government. “So far no one has come to help us. People are trying to find their missing family members,” Rahman said, adding that the district’s police force was overstretched by the scale of the disaster. Jawed Basharat, the spokesman for the Baghlan provincial police, said they were aware of the flooding, but that it would take eight to nine hours for them to reach the remote and mountainous area.
PAKISTAN
Teen shot, thrown in canal
Police say an 18-year-old woman has “miraculously survived” after being shot and thrown into a canal by her father for marrying against the family’s wishes. Local police officer Ali Akbar said yesterday the girl’s father attacked her in Hafizabad, a city 200km southeast of the capital, Islamabad. The assault on Wednesday came days after a 25-year-old woman was beaten and stoned to death by her family for marrying against their wishes. Akbar says Saba Maqsood, married a man last week, but her father Ahmed brought her back to his home, promising she would not be harmed. The next day Ahmed took her to a deserted area and tried to kill her, he said.
PAKISTAN
Bombs kill two soldiers
Two soldiers were killed yesterday in separate bomb blasts in a restive tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said. The explosions took place in Bajaur, one of the seven tribal regions, where troops have been battling Taliban and Islamist militants. “Two soldiers embraced shahadat [martyrdom] in Bajur yesterday in two different improvised explosive device blasts planted by terrorists along road side in Bara Kamangara area and near a Pakistani post on Pak-Afghan border respectively,” the military said in a statement. Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but roadside bombs are often used by the Pakistani Taliban, who launched their insurgency in 2007.
JAPAN
Fans vote for AKB48 leader
Thousands of fans of girl group AKB48 gathered yesterday for the results of a ballot on which member will lead the band for the next year amid tight security after two members were attacked by a man wielding a saw. Organizers were to announce results of the popularity vote late yesterday at a football stadium in Tokyo in which 300 members ran for the top spot in one of the world’s highest grossing acts. Fans finished voting on Friday for the girl they want to lead the collective for the next year, using ballot slips only available with the purchase of their latest single. The annual vote was overshadowed by last month’s attack on two teenage members at one of the band’s regular meet-the-fans events in Iwate. Rina Kawaei, 19, and Anna Iriyama, 18, both suffered broken bones in their right hands and received cuts on their arms and heads after a 24-year-old man attacked them with the 50cm saw. Kawaei and Iriyama are running for the top spot, but may not show up at the venue as they are still under treatment, news reports said.
CROATIA
War crimes convict home
Hundreds of well-wishers welcomed home on Friday a Bosnian Croat wartime leader granted an early release after serving most of a 25-year jail term for war crimes. Dario Kordic was found guilty by the UN tribunal in The Hague in 2001 for war crimes against Muslims during Bosnia’s 1992 to 1995 conflict. A crowd gathered to welcome the 54-year-old at Zagreb Airport, carrying Croatian flags and a giant banner that read “Welcome Home Dario.” Some chanted pro-Nazi slogans after Kordic briefly addressed them. Top Croatian wartime officials were among the crowd along with a Croatian Catholic bishop. Kordic was vice-president of the self-declared Bosnian Croat state within Bosnia during the country’s 1992 to 1995 war. He was granted an early release after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
SOUTH AFRICA
Undertaker charged
An undertaker who ordered staff to saw off the legs of a corpse because it was too tall to fit into a coffin has appeared in court charged with mutilation. Ronel Mostert, who ran a funeral parlor in the southern city of Grahamstown, appeared in the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday after one of her employees blew the lid on a three-year-old secret. Mostert allegedly ordered staff “to get an angle grinder and cut off the legs” because the 33-year-old “man was too tall to fit into the coffin,” according to court documents. The employee, Siphamandla Dyasi, said the incident had been haunting him and so he decided to come clean. The remains of the man have been exhumed as part of the police investigation. They showed burn marks where the legs had been sawn off.
UNITED STATES
Man convicted of smuggling
A man who previously lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been convicted of selling military fighter jet parts to the Venezuelan Air Force. The jury rendered its verdict against Ronald Dobek after a three-day trial, and the sentence is to be determined at a hearing set for Sept. 10. Dobek, 39, was convicted on charges of conspiring to violate US export laws and exporting F-16 jet parts to Venezuela in violation of US law. He faces up to 25 years in jail.
UNITED STATES
Suspect dead in shootout
A man armed with guns and explosives was killed and a police officer wounded in a shootout on Friday at a courthouse in Georgia, authorities said. The latest incident came just one day after a gunman killed one person and injured three others at a university in Washington state and two weeks after an apparently mentally disturbed young man opened fire at a California university and killed six people. Officials identified the suspect as Dennis Marx, a gun seller who had been due in the court on Friday on charges of marijuana and gun possession. The shooting occurred at 9:57am in front of the courthouse, said the local sheriff’s office in Forsyth county, north of Atlanta, adding that the building was then evacuated. Marx “came for the purpose of occupying the courthouse,” armed with explosives and a large stash of ammunition, county sheriff Duane Piper told reporters. Witnesses said the attacker came in a vehicle to the courthouse gate and engaged in a prolonged shootout with police. The sheriff said Marx also used smoke bombs. One deputy was wounded in the leg and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was expected to recover, the sheriff told a local news channel, also confirming the suspect had died.
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