INDIA
Warehouse collapse kills 11
Eleven construction workers were killed yesterday after the boundary wall of a warehouse collapsed in the south in the country’s latest building disaster. The workers had built lean-tos and shacks near the wall that came down before dawn after heavy rains, senior district official K. Veera Raghav Rao said. One worker was hospitalized in a village in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur District. Rao said that cause of the collapse will be investigated. Yesterday’s accident came less than 10 days after an 11-story building under construction collapsed in state capital Chennai, killing more than 60 people.
KENYA
Attacks kill at least 22
At least 22 people have been killed in new attacks in the coastal county of Lamu, the same area where about 60 people were massacred last month, the Kenyan Red Cross said yesterday. The organization said it had confirmed 22 deaths in the locality of Gamba and in Hindi, a trading post near Lamu Island. The areas were attacked late on Saturday evening, authorities said. The police have blamed the Mombasa Republican Council for the attacks.
INDIA
Dalai Lama pleas for peace
The Dalai Lama yesterday reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Muslims, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday. In front of the massive crowd on the outskirts of Leh, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Muslims was unacceptable. “I urge the Buddhists in these countries to imagine an image of Buddha before they commit such a crime,” Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader said. “Buddha preaches love and compassion. If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Muslims whom the Buddhists are attacking.
CANADA
Arthur hits Maritimes
Arthur hit the Maritime provinces with winds still near hurricane strength and torrential rains, knocking down trees and leaving about tens of thousands of people without power. Canadian Hurricane Centre spokesman Chris Fogarty said that winds were easing, but more rainfall is predicted for already drenched southwestern New Brunswick. Environment Canada measured wind gusts topping 116kph in the Halifax area, while more than 12.7cm of rain had already fallen in some areas of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia Power said about 135,000 of its customers were without power at mid-afternoon on Saturday. New Brunswick’s main electrical utility reported more than 115,000 outages by mid-afternoon. The Canadian Hurricane Center said the storm would end in the Maritimes overnight and then track northeast through the Gulf of St Lawrence toward Newfoundland yesterday.
CHINA
Rescuers dig for 17 miners
Rescuers yesterday worked to free 17 miners trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine, Xinhua news agency reported. The blast at the mine 120km from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, happened on Saturday evening, Xinhua said. It said three other people working inside the mine at the time had been rescued. Xinhua said the pit is mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co, which is owned by the sixth agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. A duty officer at Xinjiang work safety bureau said he had no information about the incident.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not