MYANMAR
Flood strands thousands
Flooding in the country’s north has trapped thousands of people in their homes and cut electricity and phone lines, residents and local media said yesterday, with the state weather office warning of more heavy rain. After days of heavy rain in Myitkyina, a city in northern Kachin State, the Ayeyarwady River had risen above its “danger level,” state media said. Images on local media showed inundated buildings and people wading through neck-high water carrying their belongings over their heads.
SOUTH KOREA
Car hits pedestrians, 9 dead
A driver whose car struck pedestrians waiting at a crowded intersection in Seoul, killing nine people, would be investigated for accidental homicide, police said yesterday. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that a 68-year-old driver crashed into people who were waiting at a traffic signal in central Seoul on Monday night. He was driving in the wrong direction and hit two other vehicles before hitting the pedestrians, Yonhap said. Six people were injured, including the driver who was detained. He told investigators that his car accelerated abruptly and unintentionally. Tests showed that the driver was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, police said.
STANDING HEAD
Xi arrives for summit
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday arrived in the country for a state visit, during which he is to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Astana. The group’s permanent members are Kazakhstan, India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and, as of last year, Iran. Belarus is expected to join this year.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
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