CHINA
Detentions in hotel probe
The authorities have taken several people into custody as part of an investigation into the collapse of a COVID-19 quarantine facility that killed 29 people. Officials told reporters that preliminary investigations had shown “serious problems exist in the construction, renovation, and examination and approval” of Xinjia Hotel, Xinhua news agency reported. The hotel in Quanzhou was being used to quarantine suspected coronavirus patients when it collapsed on Saturday. One person previously listed as missing was pulled dead from the rubble on Thursday. Forty-two people survived the disaster. “Those responsible for the accident have been taken into custody,” Xinhua quoted Quanzhou Executive Deputy Mayor Hong Ziqiang (洪自強) as saying, but gave no further details.
NEPAL
Everest permits suspended
The nation yesterday suspended permits to climb Everest over the COVID-19 pandemic, closing off the world’s biggest mountain a day after China halted access from its side. The government has halted climbing on all mountains and stopped issuing tourist visas, Nepalese Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said. The Himalayan nations earns millions of dollars a year from Everest permits. “The government has decided to suspend all spring expeditions and scrap permits for the time being. The decision can be reviewed after analyzing the global scenario over the coming month,” Bhattarai said. Last year in spring a record 885 people climbed Everest, 644 from Nepal and 241 from Tibet, with 11 deaths recorded on the mountain. Everest attracts hundreds of mountaineers from all over the world each spring. Nepal has so far confirmed only one COVID-19 case.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
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
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
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