CHINA
Highway collapse kills 19
A section of a highway collapsed early yesterday in southern China leaving at least 19 people dead, local officials said, after heavy rain in the area in the past few days. Eighteen cars fell down a slope after a 17.9-meter-long section of the highway collapsed, authorities in Meizhou City in Guangdong Province said. The incident occurred at about 2am. Witnesses told local media they heard a loud noise and saw a hole open up several meters wide behind them after driving past the section of the road just before it collapsed. Video and photos in local media showed smoke and fire at the scene, with highway rails slanting downward into the flames. Blackened cars could also be seen on the slope leading down from the highway. Rescue workers have taken 30 people to the hospital, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
VIETNAM
Explosion kills six
Six people were killed and seven injured in an explosion at a timber factory in southern Vietnam yesterday, local reports said. The incident occurred at about 8am at the Binh Minh Wood Production Co in Dong Nai province, with the media reporting it was caused by a malfunctioning boiler. “Arriving the site, I saw a horrifying scene: debris scattered everywhere and several bodies lying in the yard,” a witness quoted by news site VNExpress as saying. State media photos of the site — where about 30 employees were working at the time — showed part of the building had collapsed, with the corrugated iron roofing flung to the ground.
CHINA
Virologist allowed into lab
The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Virologist Zhang Yongzhen (張永振) early yesterday wrote in an online post that authorities had “tentatively agreed” to allow him and his team to return to his laboratory and continue their research for the time being. Zhang had been staging a sit-in protest outside his lab since the weekend after he and his team were suddenly notified they had to leave their lab, a sign of Beijing’s continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on COVID-19. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center previously said Zhang’s lab was being renovated and was closed for safety reasons. However, Zhang said his team was not offered an alternative until after the eviction and the new lab did not meet safety standards for conducting their research.
UNITED KINGDOM
Migrant sent to Rwanda
Britain has sent a first asylum seeker to Rwanda as part of a controversial but voluntary scheme for irregular migrants whose applications have been rejected, British media reported on Tuesday. The government last week adopted a highly criticized law allowing irregular migrants to be deported to Rwanda. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government plans to begin the expulsions by July. However, the man who left the UK on Monday had agreed to be sent to Kigali following his asylum rejection at the end of last year, several media said. The African national left on a commercial flight, they said. In exchange for his agreement to leave Britain, he is due to receive up to ￡3,000 (US$3,746), according to government sources quoted by the Times. The Home Office did not confirm the reports. “We are now able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda under our migration and economic development partnership,” a government spokesperson said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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