CHINA
Scores evacuated over storm
More than 130,000 people have been evacuated to shelters as a tropical storm slammed into Shanghai. Downgraded from a typhoon, Tropical Storm Jongdari yesterday morning arrived in the financial hub packing powerful winds. It is expected to gradually weaken as it moves westward into the Yangtze River delta. It had earlier disrupted transportation and knocked out power to thousands of homes in Japan, leaving at least 16 people injured. There were no immediate reports of damage in Shanghai, although 151 flights at the city’s two airports had been canceled and 122 parks across the sprawling urban area had been closed. Jongdari, which means skylark in Korean, is the 12th typhoon of the season.
COSTA RICA
Authorities capture drugs
Law enforcement officials on Thursday said they had recovered 2 tonnes of cocaine from a low-profile boat found about 80 nautical miles (148.2km) off the coast, one of the biggest drug confiscations made at sea. Authorities said they began an operation in the Pacific Ocean after receiving a tip from the US Coast Guard on Wednesday that resulted in the discovery of about 2,000 packets of cocaine of about 1kg each. The drugs were found on a four-motor low-profile vehicle, a kind frequently used by drug traffickers because they are difficult to detect by radar. The Coast Guard and drug control police said three Colombian men were arrested and remain in custody. “The joint work between the authorities of the United States and the national police is yielding good results in the fight against international drug trafficking, which has permitted us to seize more than 17 tonnes of drugs this year,” Minister of Public Security Michael Soto said.
MEXICO
Mine collapse kills three
Part of a marble mine on Thursday collapsed in central Hidalgo State, killing at least three people, state officials said. The Hidalgo State Government said in a statement on Facebook that the collapse occurred in a locality known as Dengantzha in the township of Francisco I. Madero. The state prosecutor’s office confirmed that one body had been recovered and the search continued for four miners believed to be trapped under rock, it said. The missing people were inside a vehicle that was traveling on one of the mine’s roads when the collapse occurred, it added. Late on Thursday night, Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad said on Twitter that two more bodies had been found, bringing the total to three. The state was offering to support the affected families, he said. Images from the scene appeared to show a collapsed section of an open-pit mine, with rescuers and civilians climbing among car-size boulders.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
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