CHINA
Dengue outbreak hits south
The dengue virus has killed six people and infected more than 20,000 in the worst outbreak of the mosquito-transmitted disease to hit the south of the country in about two decades. Authorities in Guangdong Province — the worst-affected area — attribute the severity of the outbreak to exceptionally hot, wet weather and increasing travel by residents to Southeast Asia. The Guangdong health agency said on its Web site that 21,527 people had been infected as of Sunday, with more than 1,000 new cases reported every day. Other provinces also reported a few dozen cases. Xinhua news agency said the Guangdong capital of Guangzhou has dispatched teams to spray insecticide to kill the mosquitoes that spread the virus.
JAPAN
Typhoon, volcano tolls rise
The death toll from Typhoon Phanfone has risen to six, while five other people, including two US serviceman, remain missing, reports said yesterday. The powerful storm whirled over Tokyo and other major cities on Monday, canceling about 600 flights and suspending more than 100 bullet train services, while many factories were shuttered. The storm was downgraded to a low-pressure system by Monday night as its eye moved out over the Pacific Ocean, the meteorological agency said. Among the dead was a US military official who had been photographing the storm with two still-missing colleagues in Okinawa, police said. In Yokohama, two men in their 20s and 30s were killed separately in landslides, a city official said. About 62 people were injured across the country, public broadcaster NHK reported. The National Police Agency has not yet announced an official death toll. Heavy rains also forced rescuers to suspend the search for victims of the Sept. 27 eruption of Mount Ontake. Two more bodies were found near the volcano’s summit yesterday, putting the death toll at 53, with 12 others missing.
INDIA
Civilians hurt in Kashmir
Four Indian civilians were wounded when Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged fire in the disputed Kashmir region yesterday, a day after one of the bloodiest days in the cross-border conflict for more than a decade. Pakistan forces fired at 40 Indian army posts early yesterday, and Indian forces retaliated with gunfire and mortar bombs, police official Uttam Chand said. Five Indian civilians and four Pakistani civilians were killed and dozens were injured by shelling on Monday. It was the highest death toll among non-military personnel in a single day in the region since 2003, police said.
PHILIPPINES
Thieves ‘jack’ cash with fruit
Thieves have been robbing high-tech cash dispensers with a low-tech device: jackfruit sap, police said yesterday. The sap is daubed on a metal bar that thieves insert into the card slot of automated teller machines, Metro Manila police spokesman Inspector Edwin Malabanan said. When a person tries to withdraw cash, the bills stick to the bar, which thieves retrieve once the customer has left. “The sap is really sticky. It was really clever of them to think of it,” Malabanan said. Customers of several banks complaining of losses prompted police to look into the matter and one of two thieves was arrested last week, he said. Malabanan said police charged the suspect for tampering with electronic devices for theft, but it was thrown out since he used a non-electronic tool. The suspect will now be charged with simple theft, which carries a lesser penalty.
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