BEIJING — A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China’s southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, state media said. Rescue teams were headed to the quake-hit area but heavy rains and the region’s rugged terrain hampered their efforts, Xinhua News Agency said. The quake killed 17 people in Sichuan and five others in the neighboring province of Yunnan, Xinhua said. Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed in Panzhihua, and it was not known how many people were buried in the rubble, the report said.
Malaysia: Pirates seize cargo ship
Pirates have hijacked a tanker and its 41 crew members off Yemen’s coast in the Gulf of Aden, the owner said Saturday. It was the second tanker owned by MISC Berhard to be hijacked in the gulf in the last 10 days, and maritime officials said Somali pirates are believed to be behind both attacks. MT Bunga Melati 5, laden with 30,000 metric tons of petrochemicals, was heading to Singapore from Yanbu in Saudi Arabia when it was attacked late Friday, MISC said.
Nigeria: Militants report attacks
Nigeria’s main militant group claimed Saturday that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said the near-simultaneous battles came in the three main oil producing states of southern Nigeria, leaving 29 dead and others unaccounted for after they jumped from their military boats. The group reported that six of its own fighters were killed in the clashes.
India: Land mine kills 12 police
A land mine blew up a police van in a communist rebel stronghold in eastern India on Saturday, killing at least 12 officers, police said. The officers were on a mine-clearing operation in a densely forested part of the Burudih area, about 100 miles south of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state, police said. The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than three decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor.
Sri Lanka: Bombing wounds 45
A bomb blast blamed on separatist Tamil Tigers wounded 45 people in Sri Lanka’s capital Saturday, while renewed fighting in the embattled north killed 19 rebels and six soldiers, the military said. “They are desperate because of defeats along the northern front lines and are targeting civilians,” a military spokesman said. The small bomb exploded in a commercial area of Colombo shortly after noon, tearing through a crowd of weekend shoppers.
Minnesota: McCain to head south
Likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are traveling to Mississippi today to check on people getting prepared for Hurricane Gustav. Their trip comes just as delegates are preparing for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday. Aides say McCain and his wife Cindy will join Palin in traveling to Jackson, Miss., today at the invitation of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour because of concerns about people threatened by the storm. The McCains and Palin will receive a briefing at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
D.C.: Tropical Storm Hanna
The State Department urged Americans on Saturday to be aware of the risks caused by Tropical Storm Hanna to people traveling to the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The travel alert urged U.S. citizens lacking safe shelter and likely to be affected by the tropical storm to consider leaving while commercial flights are still available. On Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said Hanna was projected to pass near the Turks and Caicos Islands late today or on Monday, then curl through the Bahamas by early next week.
Pennsylvania: Whooping cough
Medical officials in Pittsburgh say staff members and some patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital are getting preventive treatment for whooping cough after an outbreak was traced to several workers at an outpatient clinic. Officials said tests confirmed 11 cases of the respiratory bacterial infection among employees at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System facility. The chief of the VA’s infectious disease division said no patients have been found to be ill with the disease but some have been offered antibiotics. Whooping cough causes severe coughing spells but is not considered a threatening illness in adults.
California: Cessna crash injures 3
A small plane overshot a runway and crashed into some power lines near Bob Hope Airport. Three people inside the aircraft were injured, authorities in Burbank said. The Cessna 172 single-engine plane landed upside down in the power lines and its nose struck a car parked on the street below. A woman standing outside her parked car near the crash site saw the plane coming down and ran, a fire official said. “She fell and scraped up her knees,” he said. She was treated at the scene.
From Herald news services
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