CHINA
Suspects arrested for blast
Authorities have detained “several” suspects in the wake of an explosion at a chemical plant that left 19 dead and injured 12, state media said yesterday. The blast occurred at 6:30pm on Thursday at an industrial park in Yibin, Sichuan Province, a statement on the Web site of the local work safety administration said. Photographs on a local news Web site showed what appeared to be the burned-out shell of a building surrounded by rubble. The building was owned by chemical manufacturer Yibin Hengda Technology Co, which was “conducting illegal construction at the plant, which had not passed safety and fire control checks,” Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing local authorities. The Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a team to further investigate the cause of the explosion, Xinhua added.
DR CONGO
Not guilty Bemba to run
Former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba has been declared an opposition party candidate for the December presidential election after being acquitted of war crimes charges in an appeal with the International Criminal Court. Bemba on Friday accepted the candidacy from his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) party by telephone from Brussels, where he was released days after the court overturned his 18-year sentence. He is awaiting his diplomatic passport so he can return to the country. Bemba had encouraged his party to make him the candidate for a coalition of opposition parties. The court in 2016 found Bemba guilty as a military commander of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes with a campaign of murder, rape and pillaging by his MLC troops in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.
SPAIN
Fastest bull run injures six
Health officials yesterday said the final bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona has left six people injured in the fastest dash this year in the northern city. Tomas Belzunegui, a spokesman with Navarra’s provincial hospital, said the six were bruised after being trampled as the bulls completed the 850m course along cobbled streets in 2 minutes, 12 seconds. One man was dragged for several meters by a bull after a horn got entangled in his neckerchief; he was taken away on a gurney. The eight bull runs on consecutive days caused injuries to a total of 28 people this year. Two of them were gored. The festival draws about 1 million visitors each year. Dancing, food and alcohol are among the main attractions.
THAILAND
Cave boys to be discharged
A dozen boys and their soccer coach who were rescued from a flooded cave are to be discharged from a hospital next week, Minister of Public Health Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said yesterday. The last group of the 12-member Wild Boars soccer team and their coach was on Tuesday night evacuated from the Tham Luang cave complex, near the border with Myanmar, safely ending a dangerous rescue and evoking international relief and joy. The 12 boys and their coach are recovering both physically and mentally, and are to be discharged from hospital on Thursday, Piyasakol told reporters. “We need to prepare both the children and their families for the attention they will receive when they come out,” he said.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS