AUSTRLIA
Fire conditions ‘catastrophic’
Western Australian officials yesterday warned of “extreme to catastrophic fire conditions,” as a large bushfire burned out of control in the west of the country, forcing families to flee their homes. More than 2,300 hectares have burnt over the past couple of days just west of the town of Denmark, about 420km south of Perth, fueled by gusty winds and high temperatures. “Severe heat wave conditions and extreme to catastrophic fire dangers are forecast ... on Sunday,” the Western Australia Bureau of Meteorology wrote on Twitter. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan urged people in at-risk areas to follow the emergency service’s advice, which calls for people to evacuate if the way is clear. Residents have been told not to return home.
NEW ZEALAND
Case record reported
Health authorities yesterday reported a record 243 new COVID-19 community cases, as officials warned that more cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 are expected, but urged people in the highly vaccinated nation not to panic. The country of 5 million people has kept its borders closed since early 2020, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday said that a full reopening would happen only by October. The border closure, combined with lockdowns and strict social distancing rules, has limited the spread of the virus, with just over 17,000 infections and 53 related deaths. However, with Omicron spreading, health officials said the caseload would likely grow. “I urge people not to panic but to plan for that,” COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The best thing you can do to prevent illness is to get vaccinated and get your booster.” Official data show that 93 percent of those eligible have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 49 percent have received a booster shot.
MEXICO
Students clash with police
Student protesters from a teachers’ college in the south of the country on Friday rolled a driverless semi-truck at considerable speed down a slope toward a line of National Guard and police officers. The officers got out of the way of the out-of-control truck, which crashed into a structure near a toll booth. The National Guard said that 14 of its officers were injured by stones and bottle rockets launched by the students. The guard was called in after the students blockaded a highway between Mexico City and Acapulco. Students from the rural teachers’ college have a long-standing reputation for clashing with authorities. In 2014, 43 students from the college hijacked buses in the nearby city of Iguala when they were kidnapped and presumably killed by a drug gang.
GUATEMALA
Migrant smugglers charged
Prosecutors on Friday charged 10 members of a smuggling ring that allegedly organized a trip in January last year during which 15 migrants were killed in northern Mexico. Prosecutors said the suspects are charged with criminal conspiracy, money laundering, human trafficking and other crimes. A dozen members of an elite police unit in the Mexico state of Tamaulipas have been charged there with the killing of 19 people, including the 15 Guatemalan migrants. A migrant trafficker, two Mexicans and an unidentified person were also among the dead, their bodies shot and burned. The motive for the killings remains unclear. Prosecutors said the smuggling ring has continued sending migrants to the US on a route that includes northern Mexico even after the slayings.
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
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
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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