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.
A museum in southern French city Marseille is inviting visitors to discover Europe’s relationship to the naturist lifestyle by wandering its halls in the nude. “It’s not every day you get to walk around a museum naked,” said Julie Guegnolle, 38, who was celebrating her birthday at the “Naturist Paradises” exhibition in the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (Mucem). Once a month, visitors to Mucem can explore the history of naturism in Europe in only their shoes — a precaution not for modesty’s sake but simply to “avoid getting splinters,” said Eric Stefanut, head of French naturist organization
SOVEREIGNTY ‘VIOLATION’: China was possibly probing Japan’s air defense network, seeking to obtain intelligence and putting pressure on Tokyo, analysts said Japan yesterday criticized what it called the first confirmed incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace as a “serious violation” of its sovereignty, saying Beijing was becoming “increasingly active.” China’s growing economic and military clout in the Asia-Pacific region and its assertiveness in territorial disputes — mostly with the Philippines — has rattled the US and its allies, and Monday’s incident represents a further heightening of tensions. Japan, Washington’s closest ally in the region, said it scrambled fighter jets after the two-minute incursion from 11:29am on Monday by the Y-9 surveillance aircraft off the Danjo Islands in the East China
APP ACCUSATIONS: Investigators said they were surprised Durov would fly to Paris, knowing he was wanted for failing to curb the criminal use of his platform Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was yesterday expected to appear in court after being arrested by French police at an airport near Paris for alleged offenses related to his popular messaging app, sources said. The 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire was detained at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday evening, one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Durov had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, another source close to the case said. The Russian embassy in Paris yesterday said French authorities were “refusing to cooperate” after Durov’s arrest. “We immediately asked French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded
UNDERBUDGETED: UN head has called for more funding for the support mission as only about one-fourth of pledged amount has been received Two months after the first Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti, little progress has been made against the country’s rapacious gangs — and the buildup of an international policing mission appears stalled. With UN backing and funding from the US, the mission was supposed to bring order to a nation where armed groups control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. However, the Kenyan police — now numbering 400 — and their Haitian counterparts have not recaptured any gang strongholds, with frustration palpable among city residents. “The abuse from the gangs continues, and the bandits aren’t even worried,” motorcycle-taxi driver Watson