THAILAND
Power line aids cave rescue
Electricians extended a power line into a flooded cave in northern Thailand to help the search and rescue efforts for 12 boys and their soccer coach stranded three nights in the sprawling caverns and cut off by rising water. Rescuers led by elite navy divers were forced to suspend their search on Monday night due to flooding, but were to resume yesterday. Officials said the power line would provide lights and ventilation for the rescuers and could help pump out water.
JAPAN
Man stabs policeman
Two people, including a policeman, were killed yesterday in Japan, when a man stabbed the officer and grabbed his gun in a rare violent crime, officials said. The attacker had stabbed the officer with what appeared to be a knife at a police station in central Toyama Prefecture, then grabbed his gun and fled the scene, a police spokesman said. “But police caught the man afterwards,” the spokesman said, adding that the officer, 46-year-old Kenichi Inaizumi, was confirmed dead at a hospital. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed that two people died in the incident, but the identity of the second victim was not immediately known. Police said the attacker and Shinichi Nakamura, a 69-year-old security guard, were also injured in the incident. According to public broadcaster NHK, the attacker shot Nakamura.
UNITED KINGDOM
Heathrow runway passed
British MPs on Monday overwhelmingly approved long-awaited plans to build a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest airport, after decades of debate over its potential impact. Lawmakers, by a wide margin of 296 votes, backed expansion proposals agreed earlier this month by Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, overcoming vehement opposition from MPs with constituencies nearby where residents fear increased pollution and noise. The government argues that the ￡14 billion (US$18.5 billion) plan would provide a major boost to Britain’s post-Brexit economy and could create up to 114,000 local jobs by 2030.
UNITED STATES
Bases to house migrants
President Donald Trump’s administration has chosen an army base and an air force base in Texas to house detained migrants swept up in the federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration, several defense officials said on Monday. The Pentagon had been asked to be prepared to shelter as many as 20,000 unaccompanied children, it said last week. Under the arrangement, the Defense Department would provide the land but the operations would be run by other agencies.
UNITED STATES
Locklear attacks police, EMT
Actress Heather Locklear has been arrested on suspicion of fighting with first responders for the second time this year, authorities said on Monday. Locklear appeared extremely intoxicated when deputies arrived at her Southern California home at about 11pm on Sunday to investigate a dispute between her and either family members or friends, Ventura County Sheriff’s Captain Garo Kuredjian said. Locklear kicked one of the deputies then kicked a paramedic who was called to evaluate her because of her intoxication, Kuredjian said. Locklear was released Monday morning on US$20,000 bail. The 56-year-old was among the biggest television stars of the 1980s and 1990s, with roles on Dynasty, T.J. Hooker and Melrose Place.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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