VIETNAM
Buffalo kills man in fight
A traditional water buffalo fight in northern Vietnam was suspended after an animal attacked and killed its owner, in the first human fatality since the sport resumed after the Vietnam War. The buffalo was killed and samples were taken to determine whether the animal had been given a stimulant to make it more aggressive, said Do Van Viet, a local official in Do Son, where the fight took place. Traditional buffalo fighting was halted during the Vietnam War and resumed 27 years ago. Several buffaloes have died in the fights that pit the animals against each other, but Saturday’s death was the first human fatality since the fights resumed, Viet said yesterday. The buffalo at first chased the owner of the other animal, but failed to catch him and then turned on its owner, who died several hours later from multiple wounds, Viet said. State media identified him as 46-year-old Dinh Xuan Huong, who trained fighting buffaloes for other owners for 10 years and this year had owned and trained a buffalo for himself for the first time.
CHINA
Floods kill 15 people
Floods in southern China have killed at least 15 people over the past few days and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands more, state media said. In Guangxi region, seven died and three were missing following torrential rains, with more than 23,000 people being evacuated to safer areas, the Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday. In neighboring Hunan Province, more than 300,000 people have been evacuated and eight people have died, the agency said. More rain is forecast in coming days, according to the China Meteorological Administration. Floods kill dozens of people every year in China during the summer rainy season.
IRAN
President criticizes dams
President Hassan Rouhani yesterday criticized Turkey’s construction of dams upstream from Syria and Iraq, saying such projects can be “dangerous” for the whole region. He did not name Turkey, but appeared to be referring to several dams built by Turkey on the Tigris and Euphrates in recent decades. Turkey has water sharing agreements with both Syria and Iraq, but disagreements arise from time to time. “Many of these sorts of activities should be stopped,” Rouhani said. “Construction of dams without sufficient studies can be dangerous for the future of the region,” he added, without elaborating. He was speaking at a conference on preventing or minimizing sandstorms. Experts have linked the storms, which afflict Iran’s capital and other regions, to upstream dam projects. Turkey has built 19 dams on the two rivers and has plans for three more.
CHINA
State asset regulator fired
China has removed the deputy head of its state asset regulator over serious disciplinary violations, but stopped short of expelling him from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government’s anti-graft watchdog said yesterday. Zhang Xiwu (張喜武) abused his position for personal and family gain, and illegally engaged in profiting activities, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement on its Web site. Although stripped of other ministerial-level roles, Zhang retains a non-leadership position in the government and is still part of the CCP, the watchdog said. He was chairman of China’s coal giant Shenhua Group before being appointed deputy head of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The