PHILIPPINES
Typhoon kills four
A powerful typhoon is moving away from northern Philippines after killing at least four people even though it did not make landfall. Office of Civil Defense chief Benito Ramos said slow-moving Typhoon Muifa was packing sustained winds of 175kph and gusts of 210kph. It is moving away from the eastern coast of Luzon yesterday and heading toward southern Taiwan and Japan. Ramos said two fishpond workers drowned when their boat overturned north of Manila. Two children also died in a landslide amid fierce rain and wind in a sand quarrying site in Bohol over the weekend.
THAILAND
Prince offers to pay
The crown prince has offered use of his personal assets to settle a dispute with a German firm, which had impounded a plane he uses as part of a long-running battle with the Thai government. German authorities seized the Boeing 737 used by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn on July 12 as part of an ongoing dispute over payments between construction firm Walter Bau AG and the Thai government. The company says the plane belongs to the government. Thailand says it is the property of Vajiralongkorn. A statement issued on Sunday by the prince’s office said he did not want relations between the two nations to suffer, so he “has granted his personal assets to be used in solving the dispute.”
INDIA
Singh calls for cooperation
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to the opposition to help pass crucial legislation on corruption and land acquisition on the opening of a new session of parliament yesterday. Parliament’s 39-day monsoon session is expected to debate or approve 32 new laws, including the hard-fought Lokpal Bill, which if passed will arm a national ombudsman with powers to punish corrupt politicians and officials. “My appeal to the opposition is let us unite on this occasion to tackle jointly, collectively major problems that our nation is faced with,” Singh told reporters. Despite Singh’s plea, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to attack the government over a string of recent corruption scandals.
INDIA
Train collision kills one
Two passenger trains collided head-on in West Bengal on Sunday, killing at least one person and leaving many trapped in the wreckage, a local official said. The engine of the Guwahati-Bangalore express derailed as it collided with a local train in Malda District, about 350km north of the state capital, Kolkata. Malda magistrate Rajesh Sinha said the engines of the trains caught fire after the collision and some carriages tumbled into a paddy field next to the line. “Some of the carriages are twisted and many passengers are trapped,” he said, adding that one person had been confirmed dead. Twelve passengers had been pulled out of six mangled coaches and rushed to the government hospital in Malda, he said.
MALAYSIA
Labor amnesty launched
The government has started legalizing up to 2 million immigrant workers in a massive amnesty program aimed at managing the waves of foreigners seeking menial jobs unwanted by Malaysians. The program launched yesterday includes fingerprinting each immigrant for improved security. Those who fail to fulfill requirements could be deported. Authorities hope the amnesty will make it easier for foreigners to fill labor shortages for low-paying jobs at palm oil plantations, factories, construction sites and restaurants.
ISRAEL
Mob boss gunned down
One of the country’s top organized crime figures was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Police said two men on a motorcycle opened fire on Francois Abutbul early on Sunday as he stopped to fill up at a gas station north of the coastal city of Netanya. Police said the Abutbuls are one of the most powerful families in Israeli organized crime. Abutbul ran the family business along with his brother Assi, who is serving jail time for extortion, arson and unlawful imprisonment. The family patriarch, Felix, was assassinated in 2002.
WEST BANK
Two killed by Israeli forces
Two men were shot dead overnight by Israeli soldiers in the Qalandiya refugee camp, medics and security officials said yesterday. The dead men, Moatassem Adwan, 22, and 23-year-old Ali Khalifa, were killed by soldiers as they carried out arrests in the camp on the road from Ramallah to Jerusalem. An official from Fatah said Israeli troops entered the camp at around 3:30am and arrested one youth before clashes broke out, with young men throwing stones at soldiers. The soldiers then opened fire on the stone-throwers, killing two, the official said on condition of anonymity. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the clashes.
ITALY
Bodies found on boat
Coast guards found 25 bodies in the hold of a refugee boat with 271 people crammed on board that arrived on the southern island of Lampedusa yesterday, local port authorities said. It was not immediately clear how the refugees — all young men — had died, but it may have been from asphyxiation due to crowded conditions. The corpses were found while the refugees were being moved from their boat onto a coast guard vessel. The 271 refugees found alive included 36 women and 21 children. Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya, most of them migrant workers from other parts of Africa, have arrived on Lampedusa in recent weeks.
UNITED KINGDOM
Winehouse tops chart again
Amy Winehouse’s album Back To Black has climbed back to the top of the UK album chart, eight days after the singer died in London. The Grammy award-winning album was also No. 1 in 2006 when it was released. Also on Sunday, Winehouse’s debut album, Frank, reached No. 5.
MOROCCO
Protests coincide with Be’ya
Thousands of people marched on Sunday to press the Arab world’s longest-ruling dynasty to relinquish more of its sweeping powers and stamp out corruption. The protests coincided with the holding of a centuries-old Be’ya, or allegiance ceremony, where hundreds of regional representatives renewed vows of obedience to King Mohammed VI the day after the anniversary of his enthronement. The monarch promised constitutional changes to reduce his powers in March. A referendum on July 1 endorsed a new Constitution, but the changes have failed to end peaceful protests by the Feb. 20 Movement. In Rabat on Sunday, hundreds of protesters chanted the slogan “May God bless the life of my people” and carried placards demanding a “change that marks a break with the past,” according to a witness. “This protest is not meant to be a response to the allegiance ceremony. It is our response to the overall political climate in the country,” said Mohamed al-Aouni, an activist from the Feb. 20 Movement. About 4,000 people protested in Casablanca and about 5,000 in Tangier, local officials said.
CUBA
Smell diverts US flight
A United Airlines jetliner carrying 135 passengers from Washington to Cancun, Mexico, made an unplanned landing in Havana on Sunday after a strange odor was detected on board, a spokesman for the carrier said. Flight 831 landed safely in Havana after “the crew noticed an unfamiliar smell in the cabin,” spokesman Charles Hobart said in a statement. “In an abundance of caution, the pilots decided to land the aircraft at the nearest available airport,” he said. Airport and other officials had no immediate comment. “We have nothing to inform,” said an operator who answered the telephone at the airport.
MEXICO
Calderon’s sister wins poll
President Felipe Calderon’s political party says his sister has won a primary election to become its gubernatorial candidate in the president’s home state of Michoacan. Committee chairman Gustavo Madero of the National Action Party says former senator Luisa Maria Calderon will represent the party in state elections on Nov. 13. She won about 60 percent of the votes in the party’s primary against another senator.
VENEZUELA
Guard wounded in shooting
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on offices of a state-run television network on Sunday, wounding a police guard, the network’s president said. Ricardo Marquez, president of state-run ViVe TV, said the gunmen opened fired from a passing vehicle as a news team was leaving the station’s office in the western state of Zulia. He said a police guard suffered a gunshot wound and a station employee broke a leg when he fell down a stairway in trying to flee the shooting. “What they want is to intimidate and silence what we do at ViVe,” Marquez said, adding that the station had received telephoned threats before the shooting incident. “They won’t succeed.” ViVe TV specializes in educational and cultural programming.
CANADA
War crime suspect deported
The Border Services Agency on Sunday said on Sunday that it deported a Peruvian suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity after he was taken into custody last week. Manuel de la Torre Herrera, 57, was questioned in Toronto on July 25, four days after the government published a list of 30 wanted war criminals in the country and encouraged citizens to help identify the suspects. Authorities said de la Torre would be sent back to Peru. The government did not explain the crimes he allegedly committed, but the National Post reported that he was a 14-year veteran of Peru’s security forces who had been hiding after his asylum request was denied in 2004.
VENEZUELA
Prison release urged
The new minister for the prison service, Iris Varela, said on Sunday that about 20,000 prisoners should be released as part of a plan to ease overcrowding in facilities plagued by violence. “Of the country’s 50,000 prisoners, 20,000 should be out of jail, and rightly deserve to be out,” Varela said in an interview with El Nacional. “In prison there are people that do not pose danger to society, such as shoplifters who have no history of violence. They can be handled outside prison,” she said. Varela, who was installed last week by President Hugo Chavez, said red tape in the prison system and the courts keeps the prisons from operating efficiently. Her job was created in mid-June, amid riots in El Rodeo prison, which left more than 30 dead, most of them prisoners.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
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