CHINA
Sichuan floods kill at least 8
Floods triggered on Saturday by heavy rain in Ya’an city the southwest have killed at least eight people, with about 30 others still missing, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. Rescue operations in the city in Sichuan Province are continuing, CCTV said, citing a news conference given by local authorities. Extreme weather is affecting large parts of the country, with 12 provinces issuing heat wave alerts, including Xinjiang, Shanxi, Hebei, Zhejiang and Guangxi, CCTV reported separately. Temperatures were expected to top 40°C in some areas yesterday, it added.
SOUTH KOREA
First lady questioned
First lady Kim Keon-hee has been questioned over allegations of stock manipulation and graft involving a US$2,200 luxury handbag, the prosecution said yesterday. The questioning comes as the opposition calls for a special probe into Kim, who has been under scrutiny for accepting a Dior bag in contravention of government ethics rules, and for her alleged role in a stock manipulation scheme. Prosecutors conducted “face-to-face questioning” of Kim on Saturday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. Kim’s aide told investigators earlier this month that the first lady told her to return the bag on the same day she had received it, but she had forgotten to, Yonhap news agency reported.
VIETNAM
Leader’s funeral this week
A state funeral is to be held for former Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who died on Friday, the government said on Saturday. There would be two days of national mourning on Thursday and Friday, a government statement said, with the state funeral on the second day. During the mourning period there would be no public entertainment, it said. Trong’s duties have been temporarily assigned to President To Lam.
AUSTRALIA
Stroller rolls in front of train
A stroller carrying twin two-year-old girls yesterday rolled into the path of an oncoming train in Sydney, police said, in an accident that killed one of the children and the “heroic” father who dashed to their rescue. One of the girls survived only “through good luck” after she landed between the rails when the stroller fell off a platform at southern Sydney’s Carlton Railway Station, police said. She was “largely untouched” by the train, police said. As they exited the station platform the parents took “their hands off the pram for a very, very short period of time,” New South Wales police superintendent Paul Dunstan said. “Whether it’s a gust of wind or — we’re not quite sure — but it appears that the pram has instantly started to roll in the direction of the train lines,” he said. The father had “just gone into parent mode,” Dunstan said. “In doing so it’s cost him his life, but it’s an incredibly brave and heroic act.”
BANGLADESH
Court scraps job quotas
The Supreme Court yesterday scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs that have sparked student-led protests in which at least 114 people have been killed, local media reported. The court’s Appellate Division dismissed a lower court order that had reinstated the quotas, directing that 93 percent of government jobs would be open to candidates on merit, without quotas, the reports said. The government extended a curfew to 3pm, and it was to continue for an “uncertain time” following a two-hour break for people to gather supplies, local media reported.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
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