MYANMAR
Floods claim at least 10
Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 10 people in Myanmar in the past 48 hours, state media and officials reported yesterday. Six people were killed by flash floods on Saturday in Thabeikkyin, central Mandalay Region, the Ministry of Information said, while another three died the same day in Thibaw, northern Shan State. A 19-year-old boy also died in Muse, Shan State, on Friday, the ministry said. State media yesterday said those killed in Thibaw were swept to their deaths as they stood watching rising floodwaters from a 100-year-old bridge which collapsed. The Global New Light of Myanmar ran pictures of a the stone bridge sliced in half by a raging flood waters and said rescue workers were dispatched to try and find the victims’ bodies.
CHINA
Passenger tries to light fire
A man attempted to set a fire on board a Chinese flight early yesterday, but was restrained by passengers and crew members and taken into custody, the aviation authority said. It was the latest in a spate of dangerous incidents aboard Chinese flights, including passengers opening emergency exits and fights between passengers and crew members. The attempted arson occurred at around 1am yesterday aboard a Shenzhen Airlines flight from Taizhou to Guangzhou, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said. It said an investigation was under way but gave no other details. Photos posted on newspaper Web sites showed a partially charred passenger seat and a blackened emergency exit door. Official broadcaster CCTV and other state media reported that the pilot issued a mayday call and the plane was guided into Guangzhou airport. Slides were deployed and 95 passengers and nine crew members were evacuated. Two people were injured.
NEPAL
Sacrificial child murdered
Five people have been arrested and face charges of murdering a 10-year-old boy in southwest Nepal, police said yesterday, in a suspected case of human sacrifice. Police official Nal Prasad Upadhyaya said the decomposed body of Jivan Kohar, who had been missing for three days, was recovered from a bush on Friday in Kudiya village in Nawalparasi district, which borders India. The boy’s throat had been slit. The Kathmandu Post said the father of a sick man had confessed to the killing “to chase away the evil spirits” from his ailing son after seeking advice from a village shaman. He lured the boy with the help of neighbors to an isolated place by offering biscuits and promising to pay him US$0.50. All five will be charged with murder, Upadhyaya said.
UNITED KINGDOM
EU referendum speculation
British Prime Minister David Cameron intends to hold a referendum on the country’s membership of the EU around June of next year, the Independent reported yesterday. “The Independent on Sunday has learned that Mr Cameron has decided to pencil in June of next year,” the newspaper reported, citing an anonymous source. A spokeswoman for Cameron’s Downing Street office declined to comment on the report, which said the prime minister would announce the timing of the referendum during the annual conference of his Conservative Party in October. A comment from the Conservative Party was not immediately available. Cameron has promised to re-negotiate the terms of Britain’s membership of the 28-member block before holding a referendum by the end of 2017.
UNITED STATES
Teenager to be charged
An Oklahoma 16-year-old is to be charged as an adult alongside his elder brother in the stabbing deaths of his parents and three siblings, authorities said on Saturday. The suspect is to face the same counts as his 18-year-old brother, Robert Bever, who is accused in a booking document of five counts of first-degree murder and a count of aggravated assault related to an attack on Wednesday last week. Police have not released the 16-year-old’s name, but Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler on Saturday confirmed that both siblings have been booked on first-degree murder complaints. It was not immediately clear in jail records when either sibling is due in court. Trial as an adult means that the 16-year-old could get a maximum sentence of life in prison, or life in prison without parole if he is convicted of first-degree murder, Kunzweiler said. While the death penalty is legal in Oklahoma, the US Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of anyone under the age of 18 at the time a crime was committed. The brothers are accused of fatally stabbing their parents, two brothers and a sister. An unidentified 13-year-old sister was in a serious, but stable, condition in hospital, and an unnamed two-year-old sister, who was not harmed, was placed in state custody.
UNITED STATES
Trump attacks governor
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday opened an attack on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, accusing the leader in recent polls in early-voting Iowa of running his state into financial trouble. Last week, Trump went after South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham for calling him a “jackass.” The outspoken New York billionaire has characterized other candidates as unfit for the office and said the party’s 2008 nominee, Senator John McCain, was not a war hero in spite of his years as a prisoner in Vietnam. Trump said Walker has an advantage in Iowa because he is from a neighboring state, but that Walker has mismanaged Wisconsin’s budget. “He grew up right next door. A little advantage, right?” Trump said. “Except Wisconsin is doing terribly.” Trump held up a stack of paper during his Iowa speech that he said were letters of support he had received from veterans.
UNITED STATES
Cougar petter to be charged
Ohio zoo officials say they are pressing charges against a man who jumped a fence to pet cougars, then posted his video on YouTube. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said the Delaware County Sheriff’s office has charged a suspect with a misdemeanor count of trespassing. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Tracy Whited said 35-year-old Joshua Newell was on Friday served with a summons to appear in court on Wednesday. The video posted earlier this week shows an outer fence being jumped, then two cougars being petted through another fence as a voice says: “Kitty, kitty, kitty.” Columbus Zoo chief executive officer Tom Stalf said in a statement that animal welfare and safety are top priorities. He called the video “alarming.”
CANADA
Old tar lawsuit dismissed
An industrial contamination lawsuit brought a quarter-century ago has been dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada, bringing an end to a case dating as far back as 1924 that involved black tar so sticky that horses caught in its grip had to be shot. The Supreme Court of Canada this week refused to hear a case filed by Canadian National Railway Co in 1989, relating to the contamination.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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