INDIA
Warehouse collapse kills 11
Eleven construction workers were killed yesterday after the boundary wall of a warehouse collapsed in the south in the country’s latest building disaster. The workers had built lean-tos and shacks near the wall that came down before dawn after heavy rains, senior district official K. Veera Raghav Rao said. One worker was hospitalized in a village in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur District. Rao said that cause of the collapse will be investigated. Yesterday’s accident came less than 10 days after an 11-story building under construction collapsed in state capital Chennai, killing more than 60 people.
KENYA
Attacks kill at least 22
At least 22 people have been killed in new attacks in the coastal county of Lamu, the same area where about 60 people were massacred last month, the Kenyan Red Cross said yesterday. The organization said it had confirmed 22 deaths in the locality of Gamba and in Hindi, a trading post near Lamu Island. The areas were attacked late on Saturday evening, authorities said. The police have blamed the Mombasa Republican Council for the attacks.
INDIA
Dalai Lama pleas for peace
The Dalai Lama yesterday reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Muslims, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday. In front of the massive crowd on the outskirts of Leh, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Muslims was unacceptable. “I urge the Buddhists in these countries to imagine an image of Buddha before they commit such a crime,” Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader said. “Buddha preaches love and compassion. If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Muslims whom the Buddhists are attacking.
CANADA
Arthur hits Maritimes
Arthur hit the Maritime provinces with winds still near hurricane strength and torrential rains, knocking down trees and leaving about tens of thousands of people without power. Canadian Hurricane Centre spokesman Chris Fogarty said that winds were easing, but more rainfall is predicted for already drenched southwestern New Brunswick. Environment Canada measured wind gusts topping 116kph in the Halifax area, while more than 12.7cm of rain had already fallen in some areas of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia Power said about 135,000 of its customers were without power at mid-afternoon on Saturday. New Brunswick’s main electrical utility reported more than 115,000 outages by mid-afternoon. The Canadian Hurricane Center said the storm would end in the Maritimes overnight and then track northeast through the Gulf of St Lawrence toward Newfoundland yesterday.
CHINA
Rescuers dig for 17 miners
Rescuers yesterday worked to free 17 miners trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine, Xinhua news agency reported. The blast at the mine 120km from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, happened on Saturday evening, Xinhua said. It said three other people working inside the mine at the time had been rescued. Xinhua said the pit is mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co, which is owned by the sixth agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. A duty officer at Xinjiang work safety bureau said he had no information about the incident.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
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