MALASYIA
PM plans crash site team
The country aims to send a search team to the crash site in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 before winter sets in to gather physical evidence to prove that it was shot down, Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday. Najib said the government has “pretty conclusive” intelligence reports about what happened to the jet carrying 298 people, but evidence must be collected so that its downing can be proved beyond a doubt if the case goes to court. “That’s why we are very, very keen to re-enter the crash site before winter sets in. We need at least a few weeks not only to search for the body parts of victims, but to assemble physical evidence,” Najib said at a joint press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. “Once that process is completed, we will look at the criminal side, who is responsible for this atrocious crime,” Najib said. The plane plunged from the sky on July 17, killing all on board, while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine.
PAKISTAN
Flooding death toll rises
A government official says 110 people have been killed across the country in heavy monsoon downpours and flooding as more rain is forecast for the coming days. Ahmad Kamal, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, said yesterday that 61 people died in the eastern Punjab Province since Thursday. He said another 38 people died in Kashmir and 11 died in northern Gilgit Baltistan Province. Kamal said officials believe all those were killed when the roofs of their homes collapsed.
INDONESIA
Surfer dies off Lombok
An Australian man has died after being hit by a wave while surfing in central Indonesia, police said, while another Australian surfer remains missing near the holiday island of Bali. Friends on Friday noticed the 54-year-old man floating about 100m from the shore of Sorga beach on the island of Lombok, which lies just east of the popular resort island of Bali, local police chief Arif Budiman said. “He went out Friday morning and only surfed for a few minutes before he was seen floating in the water,” Budiman said, adding he is believed to have been hit by a wave.
PAKISTAN
Chinese leader’s visit on ice
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) first visit to the country has been postponed over the mass anti-government demonstrations shaking its capital, Islamabad. Protesters have been demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif step down over allegations of fraud in last year’s election. The ministry issued a statement yesterday saying Beijing and Islamabad “mutually agreed” to postpone the visit, which was to take place later this month. It said new dates for the visit were being discussed.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii declares emergency
Hawaii’s Big Island has declared a state of emergency as lava from an active volcano threatens nearby homes, which could be evacuated within days, officials and reports said on Friday. Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi signed a proclamation on Thursday after the lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano advanced to within 1.6km of a residential area. The emergency proclamation lets authorities close roads to non-residents, to make it easier for people who live there to evacuate rapidly if necessary, Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said.
MEXICO
Storm headed for California
Heavy rains brought by Hurricane Norbert prompted evacuations as the storm roared up the coast of Baja California Peninsula. Forecasters said the storm might help bring weekend precipitation to the parched US Southwest. Baja California Sur State Govenor Marcos Covarrubias urged people in vulnerable areas to evacuate and said travelers should stay off highways as the storm passed by. He said most government services would be closed or restricted, and schools in Los Cabos and La Paz were closed on Friday. At least 1,000 people remained in shelters in Los Cabos, where the storm knocked out electricity in parts of the area. Ports in the area popular with US tourists remained closed to navigation and police officers were sent to evacuated neighborhoods to prevent looting, Pettit added.
UNITED STATES
Opera star extends contract
Placido Domingo’s contract as general director of the Los Angeles Opera has been extended through the 2018-2019 season. The 73-year-old tenor became artistic consultant to the company in 1984 and was artistic director from 2001 to 2003 before becoming general director. His previous contract was announced in September 2010 as a deal running through last year that would renew automatically by mutual consent. Domingo sings the baritone part of Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata this month, his 26th role with the company. The LA Opera’s board of directors announced the extension on Friday, when it also extended the deal of chief executive officer Christopher Koelsch through June 2018 and promoted John Nuckols to executive vice president.
POLAND
Robots vie in Mars tests
Robots built to tackle Mars’ rugged terrain battled it out on Friday in a competition in Checiny to find the best way to explore the Red Planet. The European Rover Challenge has drawn competitors from as far as Colombia, Egypt and India, keen to prove their machines have what it takes to conquer the giant mountains and unforgiving canyons of Earth’s neighbor. The automated vehicles, designed to emulate NASA’s Mars rover explorers, were tested performing four tasks on red soil imitating Mars’ surface. Tasks include surface exploration, helping an injured astronaut, gathering soil samples and searching for signs of life. “At last, our robot, Scorpio 4, is ready for the competition,” Szymon Dzwonczyk, a 21-year-old student at the Wroclaw University of Technology said. “It’s a four-wheeled modular build that can be used in different ways for scientific exploration,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Agency finds old pathogens
The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials. The agency began an investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the agency’s campus in Washington. On Friday, the agency said it found in different facilities small amounts of five improperly stored “select agents,” pathogens that must be registered and kept only in certain highly regulated laboratories. All were found in sealed and intact containers, with no evidence that they posed a safety risk to anyone in the labs or surrounding areas, the agency said in a memo to employees. All have been destroyed, it added.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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