■CHINA
Explosion closes airport
A fire and subsequent explosions at a plastics factory in the capital of the country’s northwestern region prompted a major airport nearby to shut briefly, an official said yesterday. The blaze broke out late on Saturday at a factory near the Diwopu International Airport in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, said a man surnamed Li who was on duty at the Xinjiang regional government’s information office. No casualties were reported. The cause of the fire was being investigated, Li said. Li said explosions at the factory after the fire threw chunks of debris onto the airport’s grounds, forcing authorities to shut the airport to clear the area. The airport resumed operations at midnight, he said. At least 15 flights were disrupted, Xinhua News Agency said. Li would not say if foul play was suspected.
■CHINA
Pneumonic plague reported
Authorities say five people have been sickened with pneumonic plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them. The Tibetan regional health department says the cases were reported in Laduo, a village in Lang county in the remote region. The department said in a statement yesterday that the first case was found on Sept. 23 and that the patient died of a severe lung infection. The remaining four people have been quarantined. The disease can kill in as few as 24 hours if left untreated. Last year, an outbreak of the disease in a farming town in Qinghai Province killed three people and sickened nine, prompting authorities to seal off the community of 10,000 people for more than a week.
■BANGLADESH
Dhaka urged to send troops
The US has urged the country to send combat troops to Afghanistan to help the multinational effort bring stability to the war-torn country, Dhaka’s foreign ministry said yesterday. The request was made during meetings in New York between Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke said the US needed the “help of friends like Bangladesh” to ensure security in Afghanistan, according to a government statement released in Dhaka. “He sought for any kind of help like deploying combat troops, providing economic and development assistance or giving training among the law enforcement agencies,” it said. Moni said the government would consider the request.
■SOUTH KOREA
Seoul pledges aid to North
The country will send a promised 5,000 tonnes of rice and other aid supplies to North Korea next month after torrential rain devastated the northwestern region of reclusive nation, a report said yesterday. The South’s government will meet tomorrow to approve an eight billion-won (US$7 million) aid package to be sent via the Red Cross, according to a report from Yonhap news agency. The relief, announced by Seoul earlier this month, includes 5,000 tonnes of rice, 10,000 tonnes of cement, 3 million packs of instant noodles and other medical and emergency supplies. Last month floods washed away thousands of homes, roads, railways and farmland across North Korea, causing an unspecified number of deaths. Typhoon Kompasu, which hit the peninsula earlier this month, further battered the impoverished country, killing dozens of people and bringing more damage to the nation, which is vulnerable to flooding after years of deforestation.
■UNITED STATES
Shooter targeted coworkers
An official in Nebraska says three employees wounded in a shooting at a cold-storage warehouse don’t appear to be random victims. Saline County Attorney Tad Eickman said on Saturday that authorities are trying to determine why Akouch Kashoual shot those workers and not others gathered in the break room at the Americold Logistics plant in Crete. The Omaha World-Herald first reported similar comments from Eickman. Authorities say the 26-year-old Sudanese immigrant shot his three coworkers before killing himself on Wednesday night. Kashoual’s brother, John Bol, has said his brother was “a good kid,” and he thinks the motive for the shootings would be found by talking with his brother’s coworkers.
■CANADA
Relief, reconstruction begins
The military has arrived in eastern Newfoundland to help rebuild two bridges and deliver water if needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor. Brigadier General Tony Stack of the Canadian Forces said on Saturday that 140 engineers have arrived in the province to help reassemble bridges on two peninsulas. The storm caused extensive damage in several communities when it swept through the region on Tuesday, flooding roads and downing trees. Stack says three ships have arrived to serve as platforms for helicopters with heavy-lift capabilities. Igor carried Allan Duffet, an 80-year-old man, into the sea off Random Island. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed Duffet’s body was found on Saturday buried under debris.
■ISRAEL
Leaders praise Castro
Government leaders are praising former Cuban president Fidel Castro for supporting Israel in a series of interviews, President Shimon Peres’ office says. Peres sent Castro a personal letter on Saturday thanking him for his remarks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent reporters text messages drawing attention to a series of interviews published in the Atlantic magazine early this month. The praise was highly unusual, as Castro has traditionally supported the Palestinians and has been highly critical of the Jewish state in the past. In the interview, Castro chided Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust, in which some 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. In another interview, Castro said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.
■UNITED STATES
Help Mexico, senator says
US President Barack Obama’s administration should provide additional resources to help Mexico as the two countries try to root out drug traffickers along their shared border, said Senator Richard Lugar, the influential top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He called on Obama to consider using the US military and intelligence community to provide more surveillance assets to help interdict drugs and weapons crossing the border to and from Mexico. “Transnational drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico represent the most immediate national security threat faced by the US in the Western Hemisphere,” he said in prepared remarks for a Mexican prosecutors conference yesterday in Indiana. “The United States should undertake a broad review of further steps the US military and the intelligence community could take to help combat the Mexican cartels in association with the Mexican government.” He suggested aviation, surveillance and other intelligence assets. Lugar is one of the Senate’s most-respected voices on foreign policy.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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