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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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