JAPAN
Rain pounds Kyushu
Torrential rain yesterday swamped the island of Kyushu, hitting 361.5mm in 24 hours in one area and triggering landslides and highway closures, with more than 800,000 people urged to evacuate. One woman in Kagoshima Prefecture was killed by a landslide, while evacuation advisories were issued for 388,000 households in Kagoshima and three other prefectures, public broadcaster NHK said. Up to an additional 150mm of rain is expected in southern Kyushu overnight and today, a Japan Meteorological Agency official said.
NEW ZEALAND
Plastic bag ban takes effect
The nation yesterday officially banned single-use plastic shopping bags, introducing hefty fines for businesses that continue to provide them. Thin plastic single-use shopping bags can no longer be supplied, but reusable carriers can be provided. Companies that break the ban will face heavy penalties, including fines of up to NZ$100,000 (US$67,000). “New Zealanders are proud of our country’s clean, green reputation and want to help ensure we live up to it,” Minister of Conservation and Land Information Eugenie Sage told Radio New Zealand. “[The ban] doesn’t go far enough, but what is really great is it’s started the conversation” about how to phase out single-use plastics.
NEPAL
Police fire on protesters
One person was killed when police opened fire on protesters after a 12-year-old boy drowned on Saturday in a sand mining pit, officials said yesterday. Angry crowds on Sunday blocked the highway holding the young boy’s body in the southern district of Sarlahi, demanding the government stop rampant sand mining of rivers, which they say is putting local communities at risk. They were also demanding compensation for the family of the victim. “Police were compelled to fire after nearly two dozen police personnel were injured by stones pelted by the protesters. Unfortunately, one person died in the firing,” local police chief Gopal Chandra Bhattarai said.
SRI LANKA
President rejects UN appeal
President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said he had rejected a telephone appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to reconsider his push to reintroduce the death penalty after 43 years. “I told the secretary-general that I want to save my country from drugs,” Sirisena told a meeting in Colombo to mark his anti-narcotics drive. “He telephoned me last week shortly after I signed four death warrants. I told him to please allow me to stamp out the drug menace.” Sirisena also accused the EU of interfering in the internal affairs of his country, saying that EU diplomats had threatened him with tariffs if the government went ahead with the executions.
INDIA
Teen actress quitting film
Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim, who starred in the nation’s highest-grossing movie and has won two major acting awards, on Sunday announced she is quitting acting because it is incompatible with her Islamic faith, sparking a social media storm. Becoming a Bollywood star had “damaged” her relationship with God, the 18-year-old wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram. Some people criticized her for citing religion as a reason for quitting, while former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said he wished her well. Wasim’s last film is due out in October.
VENEZUELA
Government to probe death
The government said it will investigate the death of a navy captain who was being held on charges of treason, sedition and attempted assassination of President Nicolas Maduro. Captain Rafael Acosta Arevalo, 49, was arrested on Wednesday along with three other soldiers and two police officials, joining dozens of people detained since an April 30 uprising against Maduro. Officials said the prisoner died at about 1am on Saturday at a Ministry of Defense hospital in Caracas and did not give the cause of death, Acosta Arevalo’s lawyer, Alonso Medina, said in a telephone interview. Regional organization Lima Group and Luis Almagro, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, both called the death an assassination, with the Lima Group adding that Acosta Arevalo had shown signs of torture. In a hearing to impose charges on Friday morning, Acosta Arevalo was seen using a wheelchair, with his face bruised and his nails marked with blood, Medina said. Judge Maikel Amezquita Pion suspended the hearing and remitted the captain to Fuerte de Tiuna Hospital, which is inside a military facility in midtown Caracas.
UNITED STATES
Plane crash kills 10
A small twin-engine plane crashed on takeoff on Sunday into a hangar at a Texas airport, officials said, killing all 10 aboard. “The Dallas County Medical Examiner has confirmed 10 fatalities and no survivors,” a spokeswoman for the town of Addison told reporters. The plane was heading from Addison to St Petersburg, Florida, and was carrying two flight crew and eight passengers, said Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigator Jennifer Rodi said the plane — which had changed ownership recently — hit a private hangar at the airport. David Snell, who was waiting for another flight at the airport, told local news channel KDFW TV that he saw the plane take off. “It looked like it was clearly reduced power. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, but then, when the plane started to veer to the left and you could tell it couldn’t climb. My friend and I looked at each other and we’re like: ‘Oh my God. They’re going to crash,’” he said.
MEXICO
National Guard inaugurated
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday formally inaugurated the National Guard, a militarized police force aimed at cracking down on the country’s growing crime rate and securing its borders. Lopez Obrador said that the initial 70,000 members would be deployed to 150 regions and eventually 150,000 personnel would cover most of the country. Although the force was formally inaugurated on Sunday, National Guard members have been deployed since May.
MEXICO
Guadalajara hit by hail
A hail storm on Sunday struck Guadalajara, shocking residents and trapping vehicles in a deluge of ice pellets up to 2m deep. “I’ve never seen such scenes in Guadalajara,” Governor Enrique Alfaro said. “Then we ask ourselves if climate change is real. These are never-before-seen natural phenomenons,” he said. “It’s incredible.” Guadalajara has been experiencing summer temperature of about 31°C in recent days. While children scampered around and hurled iceballs at each other, Civil Protection personnel and soldiers brought out heavy machinery to clear the roads. Nearly 200 homes and businesses reported hail damage, and at least 50 vehicles were swept away by the deluge of ice in hilly areas.
‘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