CHINA
Wall collapse kills 18
A wall collapse at a recycling plant triggered by heavy rains killed 18 people and injured three others early yesterday in Qingdao, state media reported. According to the Qingdao government’s information office, the collapse crushed a house for workers in which 40 people were gathered. Authorities are investigating the cause of the collapse. The area has been drenched by heavy rainfall in recent days.
HONG KONG
Dog saved from python
A woman used a pocket knife to fight off a huge Burmese python that attacked her dog while out walking in a country park, the Sunday Morning Post reported yesterday. Courtney Link told the newspaper that a 5m-long snake had coiled itself around her 24kg mongrel Dexter the previous weekend. “When I suddenly saw the snake’s head, I just started stabbing furiously,” Link said, adding she resorted to using the knife only after hitting the serpent with her fists had failed to make it release the dog. The snake finally loosened its grip and slithered away, leaving the dog with bite wounds on its chest and legs. Burmese pythons are the territory’s biggest natural predator and are a protected species.
PHILIPPINES
Two men kill five in ‘spree’
Two men on a motorcycle killed five people in an apparent shooting spree in a suburb of Manila yesterday, a police official said. Investigators are still trying to establish the motive behind what appeared to be random shootings, said Inspector Roldante Sarmiento, deputy chief of the Quezon City neighborhood where the killings took place. “There were five people in four different locations. They had no connection. They were just bystanders. We have no idea why they were shot,” he said. “It looks like a shooting spree.” The two men on a motorcycle started their rampage before dawn, first shooting a man riding a motorcycle, then a woman waiting for a bus, Sarmiento said. They then shot dead a man and a woman on a motorcycle. Their last victim was a scavenger picking through rubbish.
INDIA
Bus crash kills 17
Seventeen people have died after a bus plunged off a mountain road in the Himalayan foothills before dawn on Saturday. The bus fell 300m and smashed into pieces at the bottom of a gorge in Chamoli District, in the state of Uttarakhand. Disaster management officials said 15 people died instantly, two others died later and five were injured. There was no one else on board. The bus was traveling from Rishikesh and was half a kilometer from Ghat, its destination, when it crashed.
PHILIPPINES
Diplomat probed over nanny
The government on Saturday said it was investigating a diplomat charged in Canada for alleged human trafficking involving the exploitation of her nanny. Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said Buenaflor Cruz was formerly assigned to the embassy in Ottawa, but had since been reassigned to the home office in Manila “as part of the department’s normal rotation.” Canadian federal police said they filed charges on Cruz and her husband for mischief, uttering threats, withholding their former nanny’s identification documents and human trafficking. It said the suspects had left the country while the 26-year-old nanny, who worked at the couple’s Ottawa home between July 2009 and December last year, had been “relocated to a safe location” in Canada.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
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