Storms in China traps tourists, kill 69

AT least 100 tourists have been left trapped after a landslide cut off a road amid storms that have flooded rivers and triggered mudslides, killing at least 69 people in China.

The tourists became trapped on Friday night in the northwest province of Gansu after a landslide cut off traffic, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

They were en route to a nature reserve in Sichuan province, which has been hit hardest by the week-long series of storms, and road repair work was under way in an effort to free them.

Sichuan has reported at least 31 storm-related deaths.

A massive mudslide that struck a scenic resort outside the city of Dujiangyan in Sichuan killed 26 people and left 123 people missing, according to Xinhua.

An entire hillside collapsed onto clusters of holiday cottages where city dwellers escape summer heat, a survivor told the news agency.

Flooding in Sichuan was the worst in 50 years for some areas, with more than 220,000 people forced to evacuate.

Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people every year but in some areas the current floods are already the worst in half a century.

In the northwest province of Shaanxi, 23 people died in landslides or house collapses.

At least 12 workers were killed in the northern province of Shanxi when a violent rainstorm collapsed an unfinished coal mine workshop.

Another three people were drowned in a car in Hebei province outside Beijing.

AP j

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two dead, 100 hurt as Soulik hits Taiwan

TYPHOON Soulik is battering Taiwan with torrential rain and powerful winds which have so far left two people dead and at least 100 injured.

Roofs have been ripped from homes, debris and fallen trees litter streets and some areas are submerged by flood waters.

One town in central Taiwan reported on Saturday widespread landslides and water levels a storey high.

Around 8000 people were evacuated from homes before the typhoon struck, with hundreds of soldiers deployed to high-risk areas and the whole island declared an "alert zone" by authorities.

In the capital Taipei, a 50-year-old police officer died after being hit by bricks loosened during the typhoon, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said.

A 54-year-old woman from central Miaoli county died after falling from the roof of her home.

In Taichung city, a man was missing after falling into a river.

104 people were reported injured, mostly by trees or flying debris, with the majority recorded in Taichung.

Soulik made landfall on the northeast coast around 3am local time on Saturday, packing winds of up to 190 kilometres an hour, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

Strong winds battered the island for much of the day but by late afternoon the CWB downgraded Soulik to a tropical storm and lifted the land warning as it churned towards mainland China.

Nine people were rescued from flooded homes in the Shiangshan area of Puli, a town in central Nantou county, which was also hit by landslides.

"The water came very fast, catching residents totally unprepared - in some areas, it was one-storey deep," township official Wu Yuan-ming told AFP.

The nine were rescued by firefighters in rubber boats after the river broke its banks, Wu said.

"Flooding and landslides were widespread in the town, especially in the areas near mountains," he added, calling the effects of the typhoon "more serious than we predicted".

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia awaits Snowden asylum request

RUSSIA is waiting on a promised request for asylum from fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden that risks straining relations with Washington.

Snowden on Friday dramatically summoned activists to the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he has been marooned without a passport for three weeks after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong.

But a day after saying he would immediately request asylum from Russia, officials in Moscow say they are not aware of any approach by the former National Security Agency contractor.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared on Saturday to want to distance himself from the controversy, insisting the government was "not contacting" Snowden and that he had found out about the details of his meeting with activists through the media.

"Russian laws specify a procedure for obtaining political asylum and the first step is approaching the Federal Migration Service," he added, quoted by Russian news agencies.

The United States has told Moscow Snowden must be extradited home to face justice over his leaking of sensational details about US surveillance activities, a demand President Vladimir Putin has rejected.

Snowden, 30, making his first publicised appearance since arriving in Moscow, told the activists he wanted to claim asylum in Russia until he could safely travel to Latin America for a permanent sanctuary.

He had said he would make the asylum request on Friday evening.

The head of Russia's Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky said on Saturday "there is for the moment no application from E. Snowden".

If one was made, it would be examined "according to normal legal procedures", he added.

Curiously, Snowden had last week withdrawn a request for asylum in Russia after Putin insisted he could stay only if he stopped releasing information that harmed the United States.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Islamists kill 42 in Nigeria school attack

GUNMEN believed to be Islamists from Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgent group killed 42 people, mostly students, in an attack on a secondary school in restive Yobe state, officials say.

Eyewitnesses said some of the victims were burned alive in the attack, in Mamudo town.

"We received 42 dead bodies of students and other staff of Government Secondary School (in) Mamudo last night. Some of them had gunshot wounds while many of them had burns and ruptured tissues," Haliru Aliyu of the Potiskum General Hospital told AFP.

Mamudo is some five kilometres from Potiskum, the commercial hub of Yobe which has been a flashpoint in the Boko Haram insurgency in recent months.

"From accounts of teachers and other students who escaped the attack, the gunmen gathered their victims in a hostel and threw explosives and opened fire, leading to the death of 42," Aliyu said.

He said security personnel were combing the bushes around the school in search of students who were believed to have escaped with gunshot wounds.

"So far six students have been found and are now in the hospital being treated for gunshot wounds."

A local resident who did not want to be named confirmed Saturday's attack.

"It was a gory sight. People who went to the hospital and saw the bodies shed tears. There were 42 bodies, most of them were students. Some of them had parts of their bodies blown off and badly burnt while others had gunshot wounds," he said.

He said the attack was believed to be a reprisal by the Boko Haram Islamists for the killing of 22 sect members during a military raid in the town of Dogon Kuka on Thursday.

Nigeria declared a state of emergency in three flashpoint states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in mid-May as it launched a major offensive to end the insurgency.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has left some 3600 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

Boko Haram which means "western education is evil" has killed hundreds of students in attacks on schools in the tense region in recent months

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Retrial of Mubarak adjourned to August 17

A CAIRO court has adjourned to August 17 the retrial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak over charges of corruption and involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ousted him.

Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, who are on trial for corruption, appeared at the court session on Saturday.

Mubarak is charged with both corruption and responsibility for the deaths of some 850 protesters during the early days of the 2011 revolt.

The former leader was convicted in 2012 of the charges, but an appeals court granted a retrial.

Mubarak's democratically elected successor, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown by the military on Wednesday and replaced with an interim president as part of what the army says is a roadmap to new elections.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bus plunge from bridge kills 10 in Nepal

TEN people have been killed in central Nepal when a passenger bus plunged into a river.

A child was among those killed when the bus skidded off a bridge into the Madhi River in Damauli, 150 kilometres west of Kathmandu.

Police said 10 people were rescued with injuries and the remaining 15 on board were missing.

Security personnel with the help of local residents were conducting rescue operations, but they said darkness and rising water level due to rainfall made the search difficult.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Karzai urges Taliban to 'fight enemies'

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai has urged Taliban insurgents to fight Afghanistan's enemies, an apparent reference to Pakistan after an Afghan soldier died in border clashes with the Pakistani army.

"Instead of killing their own people and destroying their own country, they must point their guns against places where plots are being made against Afghan prosperity and progress," Karzai told journalists in Kabul on Saturday.

An Afghan soldier died this week in clashes with the Pakistani army in the east of Afghanistan, sparking anti-Pakistan protests.

"They must stand along with this youth Mohammad Qasim who martyred to defend this soil," Karzai said, referring to the dead soldier.

Karzai's remarks are likely to worsen relations with Pakistan, whose military Afghanistan blames for supporting Taliban-led insurgents.

The United States and its allies want Pakistan to help broker peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban as the NATO-led military alliance prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

The deadly clash took place along the Durand Line, a 19th-century British-drawn boundary through the tribal Pashtun region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan recognises the line as an international border between the two countries. Afghanistan disputes this.

Afghan officials say that the Pakistani government has built new military installations on Afghan soil near the line, which it wants removed.

Meanwhile, five US soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.

The Kandahar governor's office said the soldiers were killed in the Maiwand district of the province.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Italian quake-hit town of Onna rebuilds

RECONSTRUCTION work funded by the German government has started on a 13th century church in Onna, a village in the central Italian region of Abruzzo that was destroyed by an earthquake four years ago.

The 6.3-magnitude quake that hit the medieval town of L'Aquila and its surroundings on April 6, 2009, killed 309 people and left nearly 70,000 homeless. In Onna, 41 of 280 inhabitants were killed.

Italy's new culture minister, Massimo Bray, and Germany's public works minister, Peter Ramsauer, travelled to the village for the inauguration of the rebuilding works.

The German embassy in Rome said on Saturday that Berlin pledged 3.5 million euros ($A4.4 million) for Onna's church, where occupying German troops shot dead 17 civilians as a reprisal for partisan activities during World War II.

"On June 11, 1944, Germans inflicted on Onna unspeakable sufferings. With the sustainable reconstruction of the Church of Saint Peter Apostle we want to offer a proof of reconciliation and friendship between our two countries," Ramsauer said.

Il Centro, a local newspaper, wrote: "Everything that has been done in Onna in the last four years is due to the solidarity from the German Federal Republic," noting that reconstruction work should have started in 2010 but was blocked by "Italian bureaucracy".

Locals have repeatedly complained about slow progress on rebuilding. Work on the historic centre of L'Aquila started in recent weeks, and Italy's former regional aid minister, Fabrizio Barca, has told the DPA news agency that it would take "10-12 years" to be completed.

Barca quit office last week, as a new government was appointed. In his last report to parliament, he said that there were still more than 22,000 displaced people in the L'Aquila region and that 10 billion euros ($A12.8 billion) would be needed to fund the reconstruction.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

$100m Vic budget boost for Frankston line

TRAIN services are set to be more reliable on one of Melbourne's busiest rail services under a $100 million boost that will be part of this week's state budget, the government says.

Premier Denis Napthine will on Sunday announce a cash injection for the south-eastern Frankston line, which carries about 60,000 people every weekday.

The money will pay for track, signalling and power upgrades, which will in turn improve service reliability, he says.

"This $100 million will mean the Frankston line will also be able to accommodate the X'Trapolis trains, giving passengers the fastest, most reliable and most comfortable commute to and from the city," Dr Napthine said.

Poor service on the Frankston line was a key issue in the 2010 election, with a swathe of seats along the line, including Bentleigh, Mordialloc and Carrum, switching from Labor to the coalition.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder said one in three trains on the Frankston line ran late under Labor as at June 2010.

Over the past year, punctuality had jumped to 91 per cent, he said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan officials visit hurt prisoner

PAKISTANI embassy officials have visited a hospital in north India where a Pakistani prisoner is in critical condition in the intensive care unit after being attacked by an Indian inmate.

Convicted murderer Sanaullah Ranjay suffered multiple head injuries in a prison in Jammu in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.

On Friday, Ranjay was airlifted to a government hospital in the city of Chandigarh, 250km north of New Delhi.

A spokeswoman for the government hospital said Ranjay was in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator as his condition "continues to remain critical".

The Pakistani High Commission (embassy) officials "came to the hospital and we have given them Ranjay's medical update", added Manju Wadwalkar, the spokeswoman of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Hospital.

Ranjay, who hails from the city of Sialkot in Pakistan, was attacked by a prisoner who was identified as a former Indian army soldier nearly 24 hours after Singh's death in Lahore.

Singh died on Thursday in Pakistan and was cremated with state honours on Friday in his native village in northwestern India where hundreds of protesters shouted "Down with Pakistan!" as they gathered to pay their tributes.

Singh had been on death row after being convicted by a Pakistani court 16 years earlier for espionage and for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan that killed 14 people in 1990.

His family insisted he was a farmer who became a victim of mistaken identity after inadvertently straying across the border while drunk. India's government also denied he was a spy.

The prison violence could aggravate tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, whose relations were hit by a border flare-up earlier this year that undermined efforts to build trust.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More