12  theSun | TUESDAY AUGUST 11 2009

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briefs
China breaks up underground bank ring
BEIJING: Police in southern China have broken up a ring that oper-
Dozens feared trapped in
Taiwan mudslides
ated as an underground bank to illegally send around 10 billion yuan survived the mudslides by seeking
(RM5.1 billion) abroad since 2004, state media said yesterday. shelter on a nearby mountain.
Eight of the 11 people arrested were Vietnamese, who operated Rescuers earlier flew 45 people
in the southern region of Guangxi, which borders Vietnam, Xinhua to safety and survivors spoke of
news agency said. Most of the money was sent to Vietnam, the family members being engulfed.
report added. A 46-year-old man, identified
Beijing has pledged to crack down harder on illegal capital flows An aerial
TAIPEI: Taiwan yesterday airlifted were helicoptered into Hsiaolin, in only by his surname Weng, told
across its borders, which stem in part from the country’s restrictions view of
emergency teams into a remote southern Kaohsiung county, where TVBS cable news network that
on currency conversion. – Reuters flooded
village where dozens are feared to reports said up to hundreds of vil- he had narrowly escaped as he
Chiatung
have been trapped by mudslides lagers could have been buried by checked a makeshift wooden house
in Pingtung
55 injured in California prison riot county,
after Typhoon Morakot brought the mud. near his home, but that 10 other
LOS ANGELES: A riot at a prison in southern California left 55 torrential rain to the island. State-funded Central News family members had disappeared
Taiwan,
inmates hospitalised with serious injuries and more than 200 Eight specially trained rescuers Agency said the rescuers had in the mud.
yesterday.
others with minor injuries, a spokesman for the state prison and 13 soldiers from an elite unit found more than 100 villagers who “All of them were gone,” he said
said on Sunday. in tears.”

AFPPIX
Fighting erupted on Saturday night among inmates in a Rescue authorities
medium security section of the California Institute for Men in plan to send up to 160
the town of Chino, 56km east of Los Angeles, authorities said rescuers to the village, an
in a statement. official from the disaster
“More than 200 inmates have been treated by medical staff contingency centre sur-
at the institution for minor non-life threatening injuries and 55 named Liang told AFP.
have been transported to hospitals for treatment,” the state- “As long as weather
ment said. – AFP permits, well send more
people there.”
Su Shen-tsun, one
Youth dies fleeing police on bike the rescuers flown into
BOBIGNY (France): An 18-year-old man died on Sunday after crashing Hsiaolin by helicopter,
his motorbike into a concrete barrier in a Parisian suburb while trying told reporters that he was
to flee police, investigators said. surprised by what he had
The man refused a request by a police car to pull over and began seen.
to flee, only to lose control of his bike at a nearby corner, an investiga- “I could hardly believe
tor said, adding that “there was no contact between the motorbike my eyes. For a while, I
and police car”. even suspected we had
Youths in the town of Bobigny quickly began to gather to vent the wrong search target.
their anger, brandishing metal bars in front of police, destroying a bus The whole village disap-
shelter and setting garbage bins on fire. Riot police were dispatched peared and even roofs of
to the scene, but there were no immediate clashes. – AFP the houses could not be
seen.
Teenager attacked with snake “Also, the whole
mountain against which
LONDON: A gang pinned down a 14-year-old boy and attacked the village sat was flat-
him with a non-venomous snake, forcing the reptile to bite the tened. How come this
teenager on the arm, British police said on Sunday. happened?”
Police said they were interviewing two teenagers over Local television re-
the attack in the southeast English city of Bristol which they ported that 200 homes
suspect was racially motivated. may have been destroyed
The boy was taken to hospital on Saturday after the snake, by mudslides in Hsiaolin.
thought to be a python about 1.2m long, sank its fangs into his – AFP
arm, leaving two puncture wounds. – AFP

Protesters stone Jerusalem mayor’s car

JERUSALEM: Ultra-Orthodox Jews stoned the car of Jerusalem’s
Mayor Nir Barkat on Sunday, police said, amid an ongoing controversy
over the opening of a parking lot in the city on Saturdays.
Shanghai braces for torrential rain
The mayor was not injured in the incident, in which the vehicle was SHANGHAI: Shanghai braced for torrential said, adding it destroyed more than 5,000 houses collapsed, Xinhua news agency
damaged, but in a statement Barkat – who was returning from a visit rain yesterday after Typhoon Morakot houses and caused damage estimated at said earlier.
to a rabbi – said he had no intention of “giving way to violence”. slammed China's southeast coast, prompt- up to six billion yuan (RM3.1 billion). In Cangnan, one of 20 flooded coun-
He was referring to a decision by the city hall to open a private ing the evacuation of 1.4 million people and Morakot hit mainland China after leav- ties in Zhejiang, vehicles left parked on
parking lot located near the tourist-popular Old City on Saturdays, the leaving three dead, officials said. ing at least 15 dead in Taiwan, where it main roads were submerged in a metre
traditional Jewish day of rest. Strict Jewish tradition forbids all form The typhoon was downgraded to a caused the worst flooding in 50 years. of water, according to Xinhua.
of work, use of money and energy during the Sabbath. – AFP tropical storm as it approached Shanghai The storm's centre hit the border The city of Wenzhou recorded the first
but was still forecast to bring up to 90mm of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces early fatality when a four-year-old child died
50 left high and dry in giant wheel scare of rain an hour to China's largest city and yesterday, lashing cities in the area with after his family's house collapsed in heavy
the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, 83kph winds, Shanghai's meteorological rains and winds before the typhoon even
MOSCOW: Some 50 people were subjected to a lengthy scare Shandong and Anhui, the National Mete- bureau said. made landfall in mainland China.
as a 73m high giant wheel they were riding on stopped func- orological Centre said. More than 3.4 million people in Zhejiang The child was buried along with four
tioning in Moscow on Sunday. The storm had left three dead and suffered property losses as hundreds of adults in debris and died after emergency
Emergency crews used fire brigade ladders to bring the one missing, the ministry of civil affairs villages were flooded and more than 1,800 treatment failed, Xinhua said. – AFP
approximately 20 children and 30 adults to safety, the Itar-Tass
news agency said. No one was injured.
The 12-year-old giant wheel on the All Union exhibition site
had already attracted adverse publicity because of technical
problems, media reports said. – dpa Tropical storm nears Japan, 13 killed
Five years for leaving partner to die TOKYO: An approaching tropical NHK said.
SYDNEY: An Australian man was jailed for five years yesterday for storm triggered mudslides and At least 12 people were killed
the manslaughter of his partner after he attacked her and left her floods in Japan, killing at least 13 and eight more missing in Hyogo,
bleeding and then went out to drink beer and watch sport. people, local officials said yester- western Japan, a police official
David John Reid, 51, was found guilty of manslaughter and reck- day. Tropical storm Etau is nearing said. He could not confirm how the
lessly causing injury after he hit 62-year-old Nola Ritter over the head Japan after Typhoon Morakot bat- victims had died.
with a ceramic cup for finishing the last drop of cheap wine. tered the Philippines, Taiwan and In addition, a 68-year-old woman
Reid, who has struggled with alcoholism, then left their Mel- China. was killed when a mudslide hit a
bourne home to drink beer and watch sport with his brother after the More than 47,000 people house in Okayama, western Japan,
incident in May 2006, Victoria Supreme Court heard. – AFP in western Japan were told a local official said.
to evacuate, national broad- Tropical storm Etau may hit
caster NHK reported, as the central Japan today, an official at
41 killed in wave of Iraq bombings Japan Meteorological Agency the meteorological agency said.
BAGHDAD: At least 41 people were killed and nearly 150 wound- warned of rain, floods or mudslides It was forecast to bring wind
ed in a spate of bomb attacks near the restive northern Iraqi city in many areas in western and cen- gusts to 126kph, heavy rain and
of Mosul and in the capital Baghdad yesterday, police said. tral Japan. high seas, the agency said on its
In the deadliest single attack, two booby-trapped lorries “The water flashed by in just a website (www.jma.go.jp).
exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of Mosul, moment,” a man told NHK. “I Tropical storms and typhoons
leaving 25 people dead and 70 others wounded. Thirty-five was holding on to the power pole regularly hit Japan, China, Taiwan
REUTERSPIX

houses were destroyed in the village, which is home to mem- and waiting for an hour and a and the Philippines in the second
bers of the tiny Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin. half.” half of the year, gathering strength
Mosul has seen frequent attacks despite a marked decline Several domestic flights and from the warm waters of the Pa-
in violence elsewhere in the country and US commanders train services were cancelled and cific Ocean, before weakening over A car washed away by floodwaters is pictured in
describe it as the last urban bastion of Al-Qaeda loyalists in some highways partially closed, land. – Reuters Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan yesterday.
Iraq. – AFP