Widespread flooding has crippled agricultural centers and killed dozens as heavy rains continue across Southeast Asia.
Nineteen people were killed in southern Thailand in the past week, raising to 35 the death toll in the region's worst floods in nearly 30 years, the Thai Interior Ministry said yesterday.
Relief agencies rushed food, clothes and blankets to nine provinces, including three bordering Malaysia, where more than 700,000 people have been affected, the ministry said.
In Malaysia, six people have died in Kelantan, the worst affected of four northern states hit by floods since Friday, the government said.
About 30,000 people were evacuated in the four states, but many have returned home as floodwaters receded in some areas.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was criticized for not touring the flooded deep south where his ruling Thai Rak Thai Party was trounced in general elections earlier this year.
"I follow the flood reports every two to three hours and have instructed relief officials to do their best. I will visit the provinces if necessary. But for now, I am sending out relief instructions by phone," he told reporters in Bangkok.
The flooding prompted former prime minister Chuan Leekpai, a member of the opposition Democrat Party, to delay a planned trip to Myanmar this week and fly to the embattled region.
The floods, brought by heavy seasonal tropical rains, have damaged 14 bridges, cut 463 roads and inundated 15,000 hectares of farmland, including vast stretches of rubber plantations, the Interior Ministry said.
Floods have also killed six more people in Vietnam's Central Highlands coffee belt, taking the death toll in the central region to 60 over the last 10 days, but officials said yesterday that the important coffee crop was not affected.
The six, two of them children, drowned as heavy rains triggered floods in the eastern and southeastern parts of Daklak Province, which are not key coffee growing areas, an official at Daklak's disaster management department said.
Irrigation projects suffered damage and more than 1,100 homes were inundated in the districts of Ea Kar, Krong Bong and Krong Ana.
A total of 54 people have died in floods that struck five central coastal provinces since early last week, 40 of them in the provinces of Khanh Hoa and Phu Yen near Daklak, the government's floods and storms committee said.
Meanwhile, the drowning death of a man in northern Malaysia brought that country's death toll in recent flooding to seven on Wednesday, while two people were missing and 30,000 put up in relief centers, reports said.
A 40-year-old fisherman in northeastern Kelantan state drowned when his boat overturned as he and two friends were rowing to their homes to salvage their belongings, the Star newspaper reported. Six other people have died in what has been described as the worst flooding in northern Malaysia in three decades.
A total of 29,180 people were evacuated in five states, the New Straits Times report said.
In the Philippines, three villagers drowned in flooding that has engulfed several central provinces after days of heavy rains, bringing the death toll to nine, the military said on Tuesday.
Despite improving weather, nearly 13,000 people remained in evacuation centers in the agricultural region, mostly in the hard-hit province of Oriental Mindoro, awaiting floodwaters to ease in their villages and farms, according to a statement from the military's Office of Civil Defense.
A nine-year-old girl was found dead on Saturday in a village in Irosin town in Sorsogon province after her family's house was swept away by rampaging floodwaters, while a 14-year-old boy was swept away in the tourist town of Kalibo in Aklan Province, the statement said.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS