VIETNAM
Typhoon kills 27
Extreme weather caused by Typhoon Rammasun has killed 27 people, with the storm unleashing flash floods, landslides and lightning strikes, officials said yesterday. Heavy rain flooded 7,200 houses and 4,200 hectares of cropland, with the north of the country worst hit, the national flood and storm control committee said. The cost of the damage was estimated at about US$6 million.
INDIA
Medical kickbacks probed
The government has ordered an investigation into doctors and laboratories suspected of offering kickbacks for referring patients for medical tests, following a sting operation by Hindi news channel News Nation TV. The channel showed laboratories in New Delhi offering commissions as high as 50 percent to doctors who referred patients to their diagnostic centers. Officials at one laboratory visited by News Nation’s undercover reporters said they had kickback arrangements with 10,000 doctors, with monthly payments running into tens of thousands of rupees for some neurosurgeons who prescribe expensive tests.
TURKEY
Police officers arrested
Authorities yesterday arrested 55 senior police officers in a criminal probe over alleged corruption and abuse of office, the latest apparent crackdown on opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of presidential polls. Forty serving and former top police officers were arrested in Istanbul, including the former head of the anti-terrorism unit of Istanbul police, television reports said. Fifteen others were arrested elsewhere. The suspects are accused of espionage, illegal wire-tapping, forgery in official documents, violation of privacy, fabricating evidence, and violation of secrecy of investigation.
PHILIPPINES
Bishops caution president
Catholic bishops yesterday warned President Benigno Aquino III to resist temptations to bully the Supreme Court to reverse a decision that an economic stimulus fund was illegal, asking him to uphold the constitution. Aquino has warned the court of a possible constitutional crisis if it does not reverse its decision that the Disbursement Acceleration Program was illegal. “There is a very important distinction between what is popular — or appears to be so — and what is right,” said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
AUSTRALIA
Senator sorry about joke
A federal senator who told breakfast radio she would only date men who were rich and “well-hung” apologized yesterday, saying she had tried to hide her embarrassment with a joke. Jacqui Lambie told Tasmania’s Heart 107.3 that she had not been in a relationship for more than a decade. When the hosts offered to help her find love, she replied: “Now they must have heaps of cash and they’ve got to have a package between their legs, let’s be honest. And I don’t need them to speak, they don’t even need to speak.” A young male listener rang the show to say he met her criteria. “I’m just a bit concerned because you’re so young, I’m not sure you’d be able to handle Jacqui Lambie,” the politician said. “Are you well-hung?” “Like a donkey,” he replied. Lambie later apologized. “When Kim and Dave on Hobart’s Heart FM 107.3 this morning asked me about my love life in a light-hearted segment — I tried to cover up my embarrassment by making a joke,” she said. “A lot of people laughed, some people may have got offended.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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