CHINA
Heavy rain kills at least 50
Authorities said that three days of heavy rain in the sourth of the nation have left 50 people dead and 12 missing. The Hubei Province Department of Civil Affairs yesterday said that torrential rains caused the deaths of 27 people and left 12 missing since Thursday. Nearly 400,000 people have been evacuated or are in need of aid in the province. In mountainous Guizhou Province, 23 people were confirmed dead after a landslide on Friday. Rainstorms soak the south of the nation every year, but this rainy season has been particularly wet. The Yangtze River flood control headquarters has ordered local authorities to brace for severe floods.
IRAN
Supreme leader slams US
Tehran would never coordinate with Washington in Syria or in other regional conflicts, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks published on his Web site yesterday. “We don’t want such a coordination as their main objective is to stop Iran’s presence in the region,” Khamenei said in a transcript from a speech to university students. Iran and Russia support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against armed rebels and Muslim extremists, including the Islamic State group. Khamenei repeated demands for the US to stop interfering in the region and said Washington was still acting aggressively despite last year’s nuclear accord with world powers to end Iran’s isolation. “Americans are still engaged in hostility against the nation of Iran, be it the Congress or the US administration,” he said. “Those who believe in looking to the West for the progress of the country have lost their minds because wisdom tells us to learn from experience.”
CAMBODIA
Four face fraud charges
A New York state assemblyman and a former US ambassador to the UN are among four people facing fraud charges in Cambodia. Republican Assemblyman William Nojay, former ambassador Sichan Siv and two others are accused of obtaining a US$1 million investment for their rice-exporting company, then shutting the company down. The Khmer Times reported that court proceedings are scheduled to begin today. The other two defendants are Richer San, a Cambodian-American community leader, and Thomas Willens, former head of a non-profit in Cambodia. Lawyers for the defendants have denied the allegations. Nojay told the Democrat and the Chronicle of Rochester that he expects to be exonerated.
SIERRA LEONE
Stinking weed clogs beaches
The nation has launched a clean-up operation after the beaches around the capital Freetown became clogged with foul-smelling seaweed, hitting tourism and fishing. At Lumley Beach in the west the city, the white sands have become covered with a brownish-yellow carpet, forcing motorists and fishermen to use masks to ward off the stench since the invasion began a week ago. A local environmentalist estimated that there are now more than four tonnes of seaweed deposited over the sparkling sands, with the capital’s 14 other beaches also badly affected. Veteran beachcomber Salifu Deen told reporters on Saturday that, “the seaweed is back in volumes and the stench is unbearable,” adding that, “most locals and particularly tourists will be put off by the smell.” Minister of Tourism Sidi Yahya Tunis told reporters on Saturday work was beginning to clean the beaches. “We have undertaken a massive mechanism for a daily clearing exercise using dredgers. The weeds are taking over the beaches and this is unfortunate,” he said.
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