UNITED STATES
Idaho mulls darkness reserve
Tourists heading to central Idaho will be in the dark if local officials get their way. The first International Dark Sky Reserve in the US would fill a chunk of the state’s sparsely populated region that contains night skies so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way. The International Dark-Sky Association has said the region is one of the few places remaining in the contiguous US large enough and dark enough to attain reserve status. Nearby towns, county and federal officials, as well as a conservation group are working to apply this fall to designate 3,600km2 as a reserve, but they will have to limit light pollution. Researchers have said 80 percent of North Americans live in areas where light pollution blots out the night sky.
MEXICO
New storms head for land
A weakening Tropical Storm Max on Thursday dumped rain over southern Mexico after slamming into a sparsely populated stretch of Pacific Ocean coast as a Category 1 hurricane. Near the resort city of Acapulco in Guerrero state, the government worked frantically to widen a channel to the sea to prevent a coastal lagoon from flooding. Guerrero Governor Hector Astudillo warned that the rains would continue through the night, creating fears of flooding and landslides in Guerrero and Oaxaca states. The US National Hurricane Center said that the rapidly weakening Max should become a tropical depression before dissipating by yesterday. Also on Thursday, Tropical Storm Norma formed farther out to the west in the Pacific and was expected to strengthen and head toward the resort-studded Baja California Peninsula. The storm had winds of 75kph and was moving north at 9kph. On that track, Norma could be at hurricane strength near Los Cabos by Sunday or Monday.
UNITED STATES
Dallas’ Lee statue removed
Crews arranged by Dallas officials on Thursday removed a statue of former US Confederate Forces general-in-chief Robert Lee from a pedestal and carted it away from a park named for Lee. In an unannounced move, a large crane was brought through the city by a police escort to Lee Park, where it lifted the large statue from its pedestal. City officials said in a statement that an art conservator monitored the proper handling of the statue and police tactical officers with automatic rifles provided security. The statue was lowered onto a flatbed trailer for transport to an abandoned naval air station owned by the city on its western outskirts. It is expected to remain there until city officials decide on the statue’s future. The Dallas City Council on Sept. 6 voted to remove the statue, but was met with a series of delays, including a brief court stay obtained by a pro-Confederacy group and a collision.
UNITED STATES
Cassini crashes into Saturn
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which was orbiting Saturn, yesterday sent its final signal following a remarkable journey of 20 years. Cassini plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere at 7:55pm Taiwan time last night. Flight controllers at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory expect one last burst of scientific data from Cassini, before the radio waves go flat and the spacecraft falls silent. The only spacecraft to ever orbit Saturn, Cassini showed the planet, its rings and moons up close in all their glory. Cassini departed Earth in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. Its hitchhiking companion, Huygens, landed on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Nothing from Earth has landed farther.
CHINA
Nine trapped in rail tunnel
Rescuers yesterday were racing to save nine construction workers trapped for more than a day after a railway tunnel collapsed, local authorities said. The tunnel collapsed on Thursday morning in a mountainous area in southern Yunnan Province, near the borders with Myanmar and Laos. Xinhua news agency said rescuers dug a small opening in the rubble and were able to confirm yesterday morning that all the workers had survived. A small pipe had been fed through the opening and a mobile phone signal amplifier had been installed to make it easier to keep in contact with the trapped workers, local authorities told Xinhua.
SRI LANKA
Croc drags man into river
A young journalist at the Financial Times was dragged into a river and killed by a crocodile while holidaying in Sri Lanka, the BBC reported yesterday. Paul McClean, an Oxford University graduate with a first-class degree in French, joined the newspaper as a graduate trainee two years ago. McClean had been on a beach holiday near Arugam Bay on the island’s southeast coast with friends when people heard him screaming for help as he was pulled into a river by the crocodile, an eyewitness cited by the BBC said. “By the time they went to the spot where the croc attacked, they couldn’t save him because already the crocodile had pulled him inside the water so they couldn’t see what was going on,” Fawas Lafeer was quoted as saying.
PAKISTAN
Court dismisses PM appeal
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal from former prime minister Nawaz Sharif against his disqualification from the premiership over corruption allegations tied to the Panama Papers leak. “All these review petitions are dismissed,” said Supreme Court justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who oversaw the five-member review panel. In a long-winded appeal, Sharif’s legal team presented 19 points challenging the court’s judgement, saying the ruling suffered “from errors floating on the surface.” The court has also ordered the National Accountability Bureau to open a criminal case against Sharif, his sons and daughter.
VIETNAM
Powerful typhoon hits center
Typhoon Doksuri yesterday lashed central Vietnam, tearing roofs from houses, knocking out power and causing localized flooding, in the nation’s most powerful storm in years. Nearly 80,000 people have been evacuated from coastal regions in preparation for Doksuri. Winds exceeded 130kph, according to the nation’s meteorological agency. There were no immediate reports of deaths, but one person drowned in central Vietnam on Thursday after flooding caused by heavy rain that preceded Doksuri.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in