SOUTH KOREA
Camping site fire kills five
A fire swept through a camping site yesterday, killing five people, including three children, and injuring two others, firefighters said. The dead victims — all from two families — were asleep when the fire broke out, ravaging their tent close to an island beach near Incheon. An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the blaze, but firefighters suspect a short circuit in the victims’ electric sleeping mat might have triggered the fire. The two injured included a 43-year-old man surnamed Park, who was sleeping in another tent nearby. “I was awakened by the flame early in the morning. I ran out of my tent and saw a boy standing outside the burning tent. I took him to safety, but others had no chance,” Park was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
CHINA
Former police chief arrested
The former police chief of the northern region of Inner Mongolia has been detained on suspicion of murder, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing public security authorities. Zhao Liping (趙黎平) was in charge of the police in Inner Mongolia from 2005 until 2010 and had worked for almost three decades as a police officer, Xinhua said in a brief report. He is suspected of involvement in a murder that happened in Inner Mongolia’s Chifeng on Friday, Xinhua said. The state-run Legal Evening News said the person who was murdered was “a lady with whom he had quite a close relationship.” Neither report elaborated. It was not possible to reach Zhao for comment.
AFGHANISTAN
Ghani reveals candidates
President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday announced 16 new names to complete his Cabinet, nearly two months after parliament rejected two-thirds of his proposed ministers. Nearly six months after Ghani’s inauguration and the formation of a “national unity government” with his rival Abdullah Abdullah, only eight out of 25 ministerial posts have been filled. The rest were rejected by parliament on technicalities in late January, despite a power-sharing deal agreed between Ghani and Abdullah that was seen as saving Afghanistan from the risk of civil war. The 16 ministers announced on Saturday have not yet been approved by the lower house of parliament. In line with a commitment made by Ghani, four women are included in the list of 16 nominees. Names have also been proposed for several key portfolios, including economy, trade and industry and agriculture. However, no name has been released to head up the crucial defense ministry, just as “fighting season” between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents begins. The position is currently held by an interim minister.
INDIA
Officers arrested in brothel
Police in eastern India were left red-faced when a raid on a sex district discovered four of their own along with a convicted murderer whom they were supposed to be guarding, a report said yesterday. The four constables had been tasked with transporting the murderer from a jail in the underdeveloped state of Jharkhand to a hospital for a check-up, the Hindustan Times reported. However, the officers decided to make a 206km detour to visit the red light area in the town of Asansol, across the border in West Bengal State, the newspaper said. West Bengal police rounded up the four as part of the raid, although the murderer managed to escape — and then made his own way back to jail in the city of Kodarma in Jharkhand, the paper said.
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
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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