■PHILIPPINES
Bodies recovered from mine
Two bodies have been retrieved from a flooded mine shaft in the northern Philippines but there was no sign that 14 other trapped miners were still alive, rescuers said yesterday. The authorities raised to 16 the number of miners trapped 213m below the surface near Itogon town when the mine flooded at the height of Typhoon Hagupit on Monday. Rescuers retrieved the bodies, presumed to be those of missing miners, on Thursday, said local Mines and Geosciences Bureau official Felizardo Gacad. Their recovery raised the Philippine death toll from Hagupit to 10.
■SOUTH KOREA
Officer killed in clash
The body of a South Korean Coastguard officer was found floating in the sea yesterday after he went missing during a clash with illegal Chinese fishermen, officials said. The body of Park Kyong-jo, a 48-year-old sergeant, was retrieved near the southwestern island of Gageo-do about 17 hours after he vanished, a Coastguard spokesman said. “Park fell into the water last night when a group of officers tried to seize two Chinese boats fishing illegally in our exclusive economic zone,” the spokesman said. “The boats escaped after their crew members wielded iron pipes, spades and clubs,” he said. A 50-tonne boat with 11 Chinese fishermen aboard was captured yesterday after a 15-hour chase, he said, adding they were being questioned over Park’s death.
■THAILAND
King swears in Cabinet
The new Cabinet was formally sworn into office on Thursday in a ceremony presided over by the country’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat on Wednesday unveiled a line-up of veteran politicians, academics and allies of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra — his brother-in-law — after days of tough negotiations within the ruling coalition. “I hope the Cabinet will be successful. It is not easy these days to achieve in work. I wish [you all] to do your duty as you have sworn,” Bhumibol told the new team of ministers at his home in the southern coastal resort of Hua Hin. Anti-government protesters remain camped out at the main government complex in Bangkok, meaning the Cabinet will need to find somewhere else to work.
■TIBET
Police beat monks
Chinese police in the restive mountainous region of Tibet beat up around 50 monks who had tried to complain about the beating of one of their colleagues, a rights group said. Four of the monks had to be hospitalized, the Free Tibet Campaign said in an e-mailed statement of the incident, which happened earlier this week at the Kirti monastery, citing an unnamed source. “The monk had left the monastery earlier that day, having obtained the relevant permission from the monastery authorities. As the monk returned to the monastery a short time before dark, he was stopped by Chinese armed police,” the group said. “According to the source, the returning monk was beaten so badly by the armed police that he was bleeding when he managed to return to the monastery.” When other monks went to the police station to demand an explanation, they too were beaten up, the statement added. It was not possible to independently verify the report but China regularly denies claims of repression in Tibet. Beijing laid out its case in a “white paper” issued on Thursday, amassing statistics about literacy, education and religion to argue that Tibet had enjoyed a cultural revival since the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1950.
■GREECE
Jet diverts after lightning hit
A plane flying from Zurich to the Greek city of Thessaloniki had to divert to Athens airport yesterday after being struck by lightning and briefly losing power in one engine, the airline Swiss said. Nobody was injured. The Airbus 321 was carrying 178 passengers, said Ioannis Zografakis, the head of Swiss in Greece. “For about 15 seconds, the power was cut to one engine,” he said, adding that the pilot asked to divert to Athens International Airport so the plane could undergo thorough checks. No emergency landing was necessary. The plane was scheduled to fly back to Zurich later in the day.
■IRAQ
Archeological dig to start
Archeologists will soon begin a dig at a site in the southern province of Muthanna that may date back to the Sumerian period, local heritage chief Tawfiq Mohammed said on Thursday. The excavation will take place in hills near Rumetha, just north of the provincial capital Samawa, Mohammed said, referring to an area on the banks of the Euphrates River. “This place is a very important heritage site,” he said. “The exploration could lead to the discovery of orginal architecture that can be added to the heritage of Mesopotamia.” What is now Iraq is often described as the cradle of civilization, with some of the first evidence of complex urban life appearing within its borders around 3,000 BC.
■EGYPT
Pharaoh’s head unearthed
The country’s antiquities council says that archeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old red granite head believed to portray the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramses II. The Supreme Council of Antiquities says the discovery was made recently at Tell Basta, 80km northeast of Cairo. The council’s statement on Thursday says the 76cm-high head belonged to a colossal statue of Ramses II that once stood in the area. Its nose is broken and the beard that was once attached to the king’s chin is missing. The site at Tell Basta was dedicated to the cat-goddess Bastet and was an important center from the Old Kingdom until the end of the Roman Period.
■GERMANY
Suspected hijackers nabbed
Police arrested two male terrorist suspects on a KLM aeroplane at Cologne airport yesterday, police said. The men were suspected of wanting to take part in Islamist attacks and farewell letters had been found, a police spokesman told German television. One of the men was a Somali and the other was a German born in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the spokesman said, adding they were hauled out of the plane just before take off.
■UNITED KINGDOM
‘FusionMan’ made to wait
A Swiss adventurer postponed his bid to fly across the English Channel on Thursday using only a jet-powered wing, blaming bad weather, but said he would try again yesterday. Yves Rossy, a 49-year-old pilot, said thick clouds had wrecked his attempt to fly the 35km across the Channel. Rossy, who calls himself FusionMan, had already postponed the flight from Calais in France to Dover on England’s south coast on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions. In a statement on his Web site, he said he hoped to make the flight at yesterday “pending favorable conditions.” With the carbon wing strapped to his back, Rossy was due to leap out of a plane at an altitude of 2,500m before jetting off at speeds of more than 200kph. He has never flown for longer than 10 minutes but the cross-channel flight is expected to take 12 minutes.
■CANADA
Ancient rocks discovered
The oldest rocks on Earth have been discovered in Canada, offering scientists a glimpse at the origins of the planet, scientists said in a study expected to be published yesterday. The rocks, found in a belt of ancient bedrock in Quebec, are estimated to be 4.28 billion years old. The find pushes back the age of the most ancient discovered remnants of the Earth’s crust by 300 million years. The rocks also suggest that continents formed very early in the Earth’s history, said Richard Carlson at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, co-author of the study, to be published in the Sept. 26 edition of the journal Science. Estimates of the rocks’ age were made using isotopic dating, a technique that can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older.
■MEXICO
Prize for worst bureaucracy
For decades, locals have confronted complicated, bureaucratic red tape that begs for a bribe. Now they can turn their frustrations into quick cash. The federal government is holding a contest to find the worst example of bureaucracy and corruption, an attempt to clean up and streamline government requirements. Officials announced the first details on prizes and rules on Thursday, after President Felipe Calderon said earlier this month that the contest was in the works. “Governments serve to facilitate the development of people and communities, not to complicate them,” Public Administration Secretary Salvador Vega said at a news conference. Officials handed out contest entry forms featuring a photo of a bureaucrat at his desk, surrounded by stacks of documents and pointing a long line of weary residents in another direction. An assistant in a red tank-top paints her nails at his computer. A clock on the wall gives the time as 11:30am, while a digital counter announces that the second person of the day is currently being served. Residents have until Oct. 31 to submit the entry forms, which ask questions like: Were you asked for difficult-to-acquire or nonexistent documents? Were you asked for a bribe to complete the service? They also ask for suggestions on ways to improve government agencies. The worst example of federal red tape and the best suggestion for improvement will win US$27,900.
■UNITED STATES
Mint cancels buffalo coins
The Mint said on Thursday it was temporarily suspending sales of Buffalo 24-carat gold 28g bullion coins because strong demand depleted its inventory. The Mint also told dealers that it would work to build up its inventory to resume sales shortly. In mid-August, a shortage of American Eagle 28g gold coins because of “unprecedented” demand had also forced the Mint to temporarily suspend sales of the popular coins. The Mint said on Thursday it would continue to supply the American Eagle 22-carat gold 28g and American Eagle silver bullion coins on an allocation basis to coin dealers.
■BRAZIL
Birdnapper arrested
Authorities detained a Portuguese man at Sao Paulo’s international airport with 200 birds in his bag, police said on Thursday. Customs officials found 65 of 200 Canary birds dead, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. Police will charge the man, who arrived from Peru and resides in the Portuguese speaking country, with animal trafficking, a federal police officer at the airport said. The remaining live birds will be sent back to Peru by plane — in more humane conditions.
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
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
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