CHINA
Fire leaves 17 dead
A fire at a southern China wholesale market has killed at least 17 people and injured nine, including one firefighter who was seriously hurt, officials said yesterday. The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong Province and was controlled that night, a statement issued yesterday by the Propaganda Department in Huidong County said. The department said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but CCTV reported it started in a movie theater on the fourth floor where decorative materials were flammable and toxic. CCTV said authorities in the county detained nine people in connection with the blaze.
CHINA
Distemper kills fourth panda
A fourth giant panda has died from canine distemper virus in the same rescue center in the northwest, where three other pandas have died since December last year, state media reported. The Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that the six-year-old panda, named Feng Feng (鳳鳳), died after falling into a coma on Jan. 8.
UNITED STATEs
Pope to visit Congress
Pope Francis will address Congress on Sept. 24, becoming the first pontiff to do so, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday. “That day his holiness will be the first pope in our history to address a joint session of Congress,” Boehner told reporters at the US Capitol. “We are humbled that the holy father has accepted our invitation, and certainly look forward to receiving his message on behalf of the American people.” The address has been under consideration for nearly a year. Boehner, along with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, first extended the invitation in March last year. The Argentina-born pope confirmed late last year that he would be visiting the country in September to take part in a Catholic Church congress in Philadelphia.
VATICAN CITY
Pontiff admits tech deficit
Pope Francis, who has called the Internet a “gift from God,” confessed via webcam to an inquisitive girl on Thursday that he is a disaster with technology and does not know how to use a computer. Alicia, from Spain, who took part in a worldwide Google Hangout for children with special needs, asked the pope if he liked to take pictures and download them on his computer. “I have to tell you the truth. I am a disaster with machines,” he said. Francis used the Spanish word tronco, or tree trunk, which is colloquially used for someone who is clumsy. “I am not able to use computers,” the 78-year-old pontiff said, laughing. “What an embarrassment, right?”
spain
Nation hit by snow, cold
Heavy snowfall in the north has blocked roads and rail services as well as pilgrims attempting to reach the city of Santiago de Compostela. A fresh wave of bitterly cold weather on Thursday hit 33 of the nation’s 50 provinces, the meteorological service said. In the northern province of Leon, civil guards rescued 19 “disoriented” Catholic pilgrims, including three South Koreans, a South African and 13 children, on the road to Santiago de Compostela. In the small town of Aguilar de Campoo, north of Madrid, about 60 stranded travelers were put up in a gymnasium and a school, scenes reproduced elsewhere during the recent days of bad weather. Aid services rescued around 100 people from their cars on the nearby A-67 motorway.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing