PAKISTAN
Storms kill 15, injure more
Violent rainstorms in the northwest have caused at least 15 deaths and injured dozens, officials said yesterday. Latif Khan, a senior disaster management official, said most of the deaths from the severe weather overnight were caused by the collapse of mud and stone walls and houses. He says the heavy rains also caused flash flooding in some places. Another official, Inayatur Rehman, said the roof of a seminary collapsed in the Bajur tribal region, killing six children and injuring nine. Motorists were killed and wounded in the cities of Nowshera and Peshawar by falling billboards and downed electrical cables. 0Khan said the toll could rise as rescue and relief operations continue.
SOUTH KOREA
North’s plan welcomed
The Presidential Office yesterday said it welcomed North Korea’s schedule to dismantle its nuclear test site next week. “This shows they are willing to keep their promise made at the inter-Korean summit through action beyond words,” Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a media briefing. Pyongyan has scheduled the dismantlement of its nuclear bomb test site for some time between Wednesday and Thursday next week to uphold its pledge to discontinue nuclear tests, state media reported on Saturday.
CHINA
Iranian minister visits
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif arrived in Beijing yesterday as part of a whirlwind diplomatic tour in the wake of Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord. Zarif is leading a large delegation to “exchange views with relevant parties on the developments of the Iranian nuclear issue,” local officials said. The delegation is scheduled to head to Moscow and Brussels afterwards and will hold meetings with all of the remaining parties to the 2015 agreement, an Iranian official said. “China is highly concerned with the direction of the Iranian nuclear issue and is willing to maintain communication with all relevant parties, including Iran,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said ahead of Zarif’s arrival.
PHILIPPINES
Mayor survives attack
A mayor accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking yesterday survived an ambush, police said, four months after President Rodrigo Duterte publicly threatened to kill him. Retired police chief superintendent Vicente Loot, a mayor in Cebu Province, had been repeatedly named by Duterte as one of the so-called “narco-generals” protecting the illegal drug trade. Loot was on a boat arriving with his family at a port in the town of Daanbantayan yesterday when unidentified gunmen opened fire and wounded four people, police said. The mayor was unhurt. “We are looking at all possible motives and angles, including his being tagged in the narco-list, politics, or his previous work in the police force,” acting town police chief Senior Inspector Irish Dilem said.
AUSTRALIA
Father blames grandfather
The grieving father of four children who were killed in a family mass murder and suicide case yesterday said their grandfather was to blame for what he called a planned shooting. Aaron Cockman’s children, his estranged wife, Katrina Miles, and her parents, Peter and Cynda Miles, were found dead on Friday by police at the Miles’ farm in Osmington. “Peter didn’t snap… I think he’s thought this through. I think he’s been thinking this through for a long time,” Cockman said.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
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