■ Philippines
Candidate murdered
A candidate for congress in May 14 elections was shot dead early on Saturday in what police said was likely a politically-motivated slaying. Vicente Diestro Rabaya of the Nationalist People's Coalition was found dead in the front seat of his car in the Manila suburb of Quezon City. Clemente Barcena, head of the Quezon City homicide division, said Rabaya, 43, had been shot in the head and body. Rabaya's father was quoted by local media as saying he believed his son was killed by hired gunmen. Political killings are common in the country.
■ South Korea
Dust warning issued
The government yesterday issued a nationwide warning against yellow dust blowing in from China and Mongolia, advising people to stay indoors to avoid the choking mix of sand and pollutants. Officials at the Meteorological Administration said the dust had blanketed much of the country yesterday, with visibility in the capital Seoul at just 3km. Yellow dust -- fine sand from Mongolia's Gobi Desert which sometimes includes toxic chemical smog emitted by Chinese factories -- usually hits the country in the spring. It can cause respiratory disorders.
■ Singapore
Paddleboarder arrives
An Australian paddleboarder arrived at the Sentosa island yesterday, his knees covered with scrapes, after paddling seven hours across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and back -- all in the name of charity. Jackson English, 31, of Avoca Beach, New South Wales, was cheered by family and friends at the end of his feat, for which he hopes to raise about US$60,000 in donations. English, who teaches at United World College of Southeast Asia, is believed to be the first person to "paddleboard" from Singapore to Indonesia's Batam island and back, a total of 80km.
■ Indonesia
Pilots argued before crash
Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said in a television interview broadcast yesterday. The Boeing 737-400 caught fire after overshooting the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport on March 7. Chief investigator Tatang Kurniadi said his preliminary findings would point to human error and "absent-mindedness" as the cause of the disaster. "I worry that this accident came from the absent-mindedness from the cockpit," Kurniadi said on the Nine Network television broadcast in Australia.
■ Thailand
Millions suffer from drought
Scorching weather and lack of rain has left more than 8 million people suffering a drought that is ruining their farmland, officials in Bangkok said yesterday. The drought has hit 58 of the kindgom's 76 provinces, the government department responsible for disaster prevention and management said in a statement. Most of them are in the north of the country, a region only just recovering from a choking haze caused by forest fires. The department said about 18,210 hectares of farmland had been affected, along with 8.23 million people. Authorities said water pumps were being provided to help farmers and residents. The government warned that the northern, northeastern, eastern and central provinces would face more hot weather in the next 24 hours.
■ Sapin
Bomb materials seized
Authorities said on Saturday they smashed a commando unit of the armed Basque separatist group ETA and seized large quantities of bomb-making materials. The announcement came just hours ahead of a meeting by ETA's banned political arm, Batasuna, which was attended by 15,000 people in the northern Basque city of Bilbao. The commando unit, known as "Donosti" and based near San Sebastian, is suspected of being "behind 24 attacks in Spain between 2004 and 2006," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said. Materials to make around 170kg of explosives were recovered and eight people arrested, including the suspected head of the unit, Jose Angel Lerin Sanchez.
■ United States
Clown's bike stolen
There was a reward, a toll-free tip line and a news conference -- all for a lost little bike. But this wasn't just any bike. The 30cm high, 15cm wide contraption belongs to "Bello," the daredevil clown star of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus appearing at Madison Square Garden. The bitty bike was taken from a Manhattan street on Friday, while Bello, well, clowned around. "Can I please have my bike back?" he said a day after the disappearance, adding that he was "very upset." The orange-haired, Florida-born clown said he cannot replace his trademark bike, which was built in Mexico City and has been in his family for a dozen years.
■ Egypt
More bird flu cases reported
A four-year-old girl has become the 32nd case of bird flu reported in Egypt, and the fifth child afflicted in the country during the past week. The health ministry said late on Saturday that Mariam Abdel Fatah from the town of Qanater, just north of Cairo, had been diagnosed with the H5N1 virus and taken to a hospital specializing in treating the condition. Two other cases, both children from the impoverished south of Egypt, were announced the same day -- Ibrahim Mahmud Helmi, four, from Qena Province and Mahmud Mohammed Shalabi, seven, from Sohag.
■ Vietnam
Bird flu hits two farms
Bird flu has struck two duck farms in the south, the government said just days after claiming the virus had been contained. Sixty-five ducks died on two small, private farms in the southern province of Ca Mau, and tests late last month showed they were infected with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the Department of Animal Health said on its Web site. Local animal health workers culled the remaining 25 ducks on the two farms and disinfected the areas, the Thanh Nien newspaper said yesterday. The government said Wednesday that bird flu had been contained, because no outbreaks had been reported for three weeks.
■ Sri Lanka
Ceasefire vote planned
The government plans to hold a referendum on whether to maintain a fragile five-year-old ceasefire between government troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, a state-run newspaper said yesterday. The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse hopes to "soon" hold the vote on the controversial February 2002 truce arranged and put in place by Norway, the Sunday Observer said. "The president is interested in looking at the proposed abolition of the ceasefire agreement in a democratic manner, enabling the voters to decide on the fate of the ceasefire agreement."
■ United States
Soldier's trial delayed
The trial of a soldier accused in the rape and killing of an Iraqi teenager and the slaying of her family has been delayed after new information surfaced in the case, the soldier's attorney said. Jesse Spielman is the last of four soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to face trial in last year's attack on the family near Mahmoudiya, Iraq. His trial was to begin today. Attorney Dan Christensen said a military judge approved the delay late on Friday night. He did not disclose the new information. A new trial date was set for July 23, Christensen said.
■ United States
Agency's computers lost
The office in charge of protecting technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop computers, at least 14 of which have been used for classified information, the Energy Department inspector general reported on Friday. This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found the National Nuclear Security Agency, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs. Aside from computers it cannot find, the department is also using computers not listed in its inventory.
■ United States
Fake volcano erupts
An imitation volcano in a hotel and water park's swimming pool developed delusions of grandeur, forcing guests to flee to the parking lot in their bare feet and swimsuits. The 6.1m-tall plastic volcano at the Edgewater Hotel and Waterpark in Duluth, Minnesota, started belching black smoke and shooting flames on Thursday. The hotel manager said a malfunctioning internal speaker ignited the fire. Firefighters helped put out the fire, but not before part of the volcano melted. The displaced swimmers were given blankets and directed to nearby restaurants.
■ United States
Boy collects vacuums
A 12-year-old boy in Adrian, Michigan, who has collected more than 150 vacuum cleaners is learning to identify them by sound. "I'm getting pretty good at it," Kyle Krichbaum told the Detroit Free Press. Kyle has been in Hollywood taping a game-show pilot where he had to correctly identify vacuum models, the newspaper said on Saturday. Kyle's parents, Randy and MaryLynn Krichbaum, said their son played with a toy vacuum constantly as a toddler. "At first we thought it was something he would grow out of because babies like noisy things," MaryLynn Krichbaum said. Kyle's hobby also landed him a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
■ Argentina
Floods kill seven
Rising rivers in three rain-soaked provinces have forced some 38,000 people to flee their homes as police on Saturday reported seven deaths from the flooding. Civil defense officials said Santa Fe Province remained the hardest-hit area, with about 30,000 evacuees in and around the provincial capital of Santa Fe and the cities of Rosario and Canada de Gomez. Among newly reported victims on Saturday, coast guard officials said a woman's body was recovered from the rain-swollen Parana River. That brought to three the number dead after a house tumbled into the river on Friday, sweeping the woman and two men to their deaths. The bodies of the two men were recovered on Friday.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
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