PHILIPPINES
China exploring shoal
China has deployed vessels and divers to explore a South China Sea shoal for reclamation, Manila said, in another incident that could escalate the two nations’ maritime dispute. The coast guard sent a patrol ship to the area near Sabina Shoal (Sianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) to deter China’s activities close to the Southeast Asian nation’s coast, coast guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela was quoted as saying in a government statement on Saturday. Manila is closely monitoring Chinese research vessels in the area, Tarriela said.
INDONESIA
Floods, cold lava kill 12
At least 12 people after flash floods and cold lava flow from a volcano hit the west of the nation, rescue officials said yesterday. The disaster hit Agam and Tanah Datar districts in West Sumatra Province at about 10:30pm on Saturday after hours of heavy rain, triggering a flash flood and a cold lava flow from Mount Marapi, the National Search and Rescue Agency said. Cold lava is volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano’s slopes by rain. “Twelve people died and they had been taken to the hospital ... and four other people are still being searched in Agam district,” local rescue agency head Abdul Malik said in a statement yesterday. Nine bodies have been identified, including those of a three-year-old and eight-year-old, he said.
INDONESIA
At least 11 die in bus crash
A bus hit cars and motorbikes in West Java Province, killing at least 11 people, mostly students, and injuring dozens, officials said yesterday. The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta late on Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, West Java police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast said. Nine people died at the scene and two others died later in the hospital, including a teacher and a local motorist, Abast said. Fifty-three other people were hospitalized, he said. “A preliminary investigation showed the bus’ brakes malfunctioned,” Abast said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Man free days after collapse
Rescuers and onlookers on Saturday cheered and applauded as a survivor emerged after 116 hours from underneath the rubble of a collapsed building, with the tragedy having killed at least 13. “It is a miracle that we have all been hoping for,” Western Cape Premier Alan Winde wrote on X. An apartment block under construction in the southern city of George crumbled on Monday afternoon last week while a crew of 81 were on site. “I’m okay now, I’m okay now, everything is okay. Thank you, God bless you guys,” Gabriel Guambe said in a video shared by the municipality. “Mr Guambe is recovering well ... having remarkably sustained only minor injuries,” authorities said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Pig kidney recipient dies
The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said on Saturday. Richard Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. The transplant team at the hospital said in a statement that it was deeply saddened by Slayman’s passing. They said they did not have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant. The Weymouth, Massachusetts, man was the first living person to have the procedure.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home