DR CONGO
‘Disease X’ spreads
More cases of a mysterious flu-like illness labeled “Disease X” were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the WHO has dispatched a rapid response team to help investigate. From Oct. 24 to Thursday, 406 cases of the unidentified illness — marked by fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body aches — have been reported in the Panzi health zone in the southwest, the WHO said in a statement on Sunday. While more than half of the cases involve children under five, a 50-year-old male traveler hospitalized in Lucca, Italy, is suspected to have recovered from the disease, Il Tempo reported. Thirty-one deaths have been recorded, down from 79 reported last week, the WHO said. The outbreak is centered in a remote rural area of Kwango province that is hard to access. All severe cases involve people with severe malnutrition, adding complexity to identifying an infectious source. “Laboratory tests are under way to determine the exact cause. At this stage, it is also possible that more than one disease is contributing to the cases and deaths,” the WHO said.
PHILIPPINES
Eruption sparks evacuation
Mount Kanlaon in Negros province erupted at 3:03pm yesterday, sending a huge ash column into the sky as the government called for the evacuation of surrounding villages. Rising more than 2,400m above sea level, Kanlaon is one of the nation’s 24 active volcanoes. in the Philippines. “All local government units are advised to evacuate the 6km radius from the summit of the volcano and must be prepared for additional evacuation if activity warrants,” the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a statement. Video clips posted by residents on social media showed a giant cauliflower-shaped grey mass of smoke billowing above Kanlaon’s crater. The seismology office said the plume rose to 3,000m above the vent, with red-hot ashes and other materials also falling on its southeastern slope.
SOUTH KOREA
Seven killed in sea collision
A fishing boat capsized early yesterday after colliding with a sand barge in waters off the nation’s southeastern coast, leaving seven crew members dead and one missing, the local coast guard and fire departments said. The 29-tonne fishing boat, which had eight passengers — three South Koreans and five Indonesians — capsized after colliding with a 456-tonne barge in waters near the city of Gyeongju, Pohang coast guard official Kim Eul-dong said. Dozens of emergency workers, along with 15 coast guard vessels and six helicopters, were mobilized to search for the missing passenger, who was Indonesian. None of the passengers from the barge were hurt.
THAILAND
Police bust ‘drug party’
Police have detained more than 120 people at a “drug party” in Bangkok, officers said yesterday. Police Colonel Pansa Amarapitak said they were tipped off about the party at a hotel early on Sunday morning. Police photos showed a room full of mostly male suspects in handcuffs and wearing nothing but underpants as officers searched them for drugs. They found 31 of the 124 people arrested were in possession of illegal narcotics, such as crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine, Pansa said. All of them were tested for the substances and 66 were found with traces in their system. All except two were men, and about five were foreigners, he said. Police are seeking the courts’ permission to hold those suspected of drug possession for questioning beyond the 48-hour window, Pansa said. The rest have been released.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
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