UNITED KINGDOM
Go for cancer checks: Fergie
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has urged people to make sure they go for cancer checks after disclosing that she has undergone surgery herself for the disease. Ferguson, 63, had successful surgery after breast cancer showed up in a routine mammogram screening, her spokesman said on Sunday, with her prognosis said to be good. In a podcast released yesterday, which she recorded the day before the surgery, Ferguson talked about the importance of having the medical checks, referencing her father, who had died of prostate cancer. “It’s very important I speak about it. I don’t mind if no one wants to hear from me,” she said in her podcast Tea Talks With the Duchess and Sarah. “I am telling people out here, because I want every single person listening to this podcast to go and get checked, go and get screened.”
ECUADOR
Eight killed in shooting
Eight people on Sunday died in the nation’s third suspected gang-related shooting this month, police said. Another five people were wounded in the violence outside a night club in the Pacific coast town of La Concordia, police told news outlets in a WhatsApp chat group. The country is enduring a surge in violence as rival cocaine trafficking gangs fight over turf and supply routes. The violence is at times gruesome in nature, with people beheaded or set on fire, and had left hundreds dead in recent years in the streets and in prisons. Several other attacks on Sunday left four people dead in the capital, Quito, police said. Authorities estimate that the country has more than a dozen organized crime groups within its borders, some with several thousand members.
UNITED STATES
James Meredith falls, unhurt
Civil rights icon James Meredith on Sunday fell outside the Mississippi Capitol at an event marking his 90th birthday, but he sustained no visible injuries and was resting comfortably at home later. Meredith leaned onto an unsecured portable lectern as he stood to speak to about 200 people. The lectern toppled forward, and he fell on top of it. Those around him quickly scrambled to stand Meredith up, and helped him back into the wheelchair he had been using. People also gave him ice packs and cold water as the temperature hovered at about 35°C. He remained at the event until it ended about 45 minutes later. An ambulance crew checked him afterward, and Meredith then left in a sport utility vehicle with friends and family. His wife, Judy Alsobrooks Meredith, said in a text message to The Associated Press later that he was at home with family. “He’s enjoying his birthday cake now,” she said. “He’s tougher than anybody I’ve ever known.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Prince targets homelessness
Prince William yesterday launched a five-year program to help homeless people in six locations, a cause close to his heart. William, 41, is a long term supporter of charities aimed at ending homelessness, following his late mother, Princess Diana, who took him to visit a shelter when he was 11. He also slept rough on a winter’s night in 2009 to highlight the issue. He said the “Homewards” project would provide funding, expertise and partnerships to help prevent homelessness in six areas. William was scheduled to reveal the locations yesterday and today as he visits them. “I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated, and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality,” he said in a statement.
JAPAN
Tokyo protests Russia move
Tokyo has lodged a protest against Russia over its decision to declare Sept. 3 a day of victory over “militaristic Japan” — a move it said would fan mutual antagonism, the top government spokesman said yesterday. “The passage of this law could not only stir anti-Japanese sentiment among the Russian people, but may also lead to anti-Russian sentiment among the Japanese people,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference, calling Moscow’s move “extremely regrettable.” Russia last week renamed the commemoration day of Sept. 3 — the day after Japan’s surrender in World War II — as the Day of Victory over Militaristic Japan, Japanese media reports said.
CHINA
Blast at eatery wounds two
A blast at an eatery in Gansu Province yesterday injured two people, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said, the third in a series of restaurant explosions in less than a week that have prompted a nationwide push to stem out fire hazards. A pressure cooker exploded at a braised meat restaurant yesterday morning, with the powerful blast damaging nearby motor vehicles and buildings, CCTV reported. On Wednesday last week, a gas explosion at a barbecue eatery killed 31 people in Ningxia region in one of the deadliest blasts in recent years, prompting President Xi Jinping (習近平) to call on all regions to rectify safety risks. The State Council and local governments quickly issued warnings and called for in-depth investigations into “hidden dangers” to stamp out fire hazards. On Friday, an explosion due to a gas leak in Zhengzhou City caused a house to collapse, burying four people, all of whom were later rescued.
INDIA
Obama hypocritical: official
Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman has derided comments by former US president Barack Obama that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government should protect the rights of minority Muslims, accusing Obama of being hypocritical. During Modi’s state visit to the US last week, Obama told CNN that the issue of the “protection of the Muslim minority in a majority-Hindu India” would be worth raising in Modi’s meeting with US President Joe Biden. Obama said that without such protection there was “a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart.” Sitharaman said she was shocked that Obama has made such remarks when Modi was visiting the US aiming to deepen relations. “He was commenting on Indian Muslims ... having bombed Muslim-majority countries from Syria to Yemen ... during his presidency,” Sitharaman told a press conference on Sunday. “Why would anyone listen to any allegations from such people?”
PAKISTAN
Lightning strikes kill 10
Lightning strikes across Punjab Province killed at least 10 people, officials said yesterday, as heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed the region. The strikes on Sunday mainly took place in the Sialkot and Sheikhupura districts. Lightning strikes are frequent across the nation, especially in Punjab’s mountainous areas and plains. The Pakistan Meteorological Department said more rains were expected this week, bringing some respite from the ongoing heatwave. The National Disaster Management Authority warned the ongoing rains could trigger flash flooding. Every year, many areas struggle with the annual monsoons, drawing criticism for poor government planning. The season runs from July through September.
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