CHINA
Heavy rain kills at least 50
Authorities said that three days of heavy rain in the sourth of the nation have left 50 people dead and 12 missing. The Hubei Province Department of Civil Affairs yesterday said that torrential rains caused the deaths of 27 people and left 12 missing since Thursday. Nearly 400,000 people have been evacuated or are in need of aid in the province. In mountainous Guizhou Province, 23 people were confirmed dead after a landslide on Friday. Rainstorms soak the south of the nation every year, but this rainy season has been particularly wet. The Yangtze River flood control headquarters has ordered local authorities to brace for severe floods.
IRAN
Supreme leader slams US
Tehran would never coordinate with Washington in Syria or in other regional conflicts, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks published on his Web site yesterday. “We don’t want such a coordination as their main objective is to stop Iran’s presence in the region,” Khamenei said in a transcript from a speech to university students. Iran and Russia support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against armed rebels and Muslim extremists, including the Islamic State group. Khamenei repeated demands for the US to stop interfering in the region and said Washington was still acting aggressively despite last year’s nuclear accord with world powers to end Iran’s isolation. “Americans are still engaged in hostility against the nation of Iran, be it the Congress or the US administration,” he said. “Those who believe in looking to the West for the progress of the country have lost their minds because wisdom tells us to learn from experience.”
CAMBODIA
Four face fraud charges
A New York state assemblyman and a former US ambassador to the UN are among four people facing fraud charges in Cambodia. Republican Assemblyman William Nojay, former ambassador Sichan Siv and two others are accused of obtaining a US$1 million investment for their rice-exporting company, then shutting the company down. The Khmer Times reported that court proceedings are scheduled to begin today. The other two defendants are Richer San, a Cambodian-American community leader, and Thomas Willens, former head of a non-profit in Cambodia. Lawyers for the defendants have denied the allegations. Nojay told the Democrat and the Chronicle of Rochester that he expects to be exonerated.
SIERRA LEONE
Stinking weed clogs beaches
The nation has launched a clean-up operation after the beaches around the capital Freetown became clogged with foul-smelling seaweed, hitting tourism and fishing. At Lumley Beach in the west the city, the white sands have become covered with a brownish-yellow carpet, forcing motorists and fishermen to use masks to ward off the stench since the invasion began a week ago. A local environmentalist estimated that there are now more than four tonnes of seaweed deposited over the sparkling sands, with the capital’s 14 other beaches also badly affected. Veteran beachcomber Salifu Deen told reporters on Saturday that, “the seaweed is back in volumes and the stench is unbearable,” adding that, “most locals and particularly tourists will be put off by the smell.” Minister of Tourism Sidi Yahya Tunis told reporters on Saturday work was beginning to clean the beaches. “We have undertaken a massive mechanism for a daily clearing exercise using dredgers. The weeds are taking over the beaches and this is unfortunate,” he said.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
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