World 12
Ashburton Guardian
Friday, August 14, 2015
www.guardianonline.co.nz
■ CHINA
In brief
Massive explosion kills 44 A series of enormous explosions at an industrial area in the Chinese port of Tianjin has killed at least 44 people and injured more than 500, unleashing a fireball that ripped through the night sky. An AFP reporter at the scene saw shattered glass up to three kilometres from the blast site, after a shipment of explosives detonated in a warehouse on Thursday, raining debris on the city and starting huge fires. Images showed a monumental blast soaring into the air, walls of flame enveloping buildings, ranks of burned-out cars, and shipping containers scattered like children’s building blocks. Paramedics stretchered the wounded into the city’s hospitals as doctors bandaged up victims, many of them covered in blood after the impact of the explosion was felt for several kilometres, even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite. “The fireball was huge, maybe as much as 100 metres tall,” said 27-year-old Huang Shiting, who lives close to the site. “I heard the first explosion and everyone went outside, then there was a series of more Tucks pass a bridge near the site of explosions in the Binhai New Area in northeastern China’s explosions, windows shattered Tianjin municipality early yesterday. AP PHOTO and a lot of people who were Plumes of smoke still bilinside were hurt and came run- past, along with two other bodIt was not clear what caused ies. lowed over buildings hours af- the shipment of explosives to ning out, bleeding,” he said. Xinhua said 520 people had ter the blast, which occurred detonate inside a storage conImages showed residents, some partially clothed, running been hospitalised, 66 of them shortly before midnight local tainer. time. for shelter on a street strewn in critical condition. The magnitude of the first Mei Xiaoya, 10, and her Communist Party newspaper explosion was the equivalent with debris. Citing rescue headquarters, mother were turned away from the People’s Daily said in a so- of detonating three tonnes of the official Xinhua news agency the first hospital they went to cial media post that there were TNT, the China Earthquake said 44 people were killed, in- because there were too many people trapped by the fire, but Networks Centre said on its people, she said. CCTV said efforts to put out verified Weibo account, folcluding 12 firefighters. All the windows of her home the blaze had been suspended lowed by a second blast equal Scores of firefighters were already on the scene before the and the door were destroyed in as it was not clear what danger- to 21 tonnes. ous items remained in the storPolice have taken into cusexplosion, responding to re- the explosion, she said. “I’m not afraid, it’s just a age facility. tody the head of the company ports of a fire, and at one city Specialised anti-chemical involved, Tianjin Dongjiang hospital a doctor wept over the scratch,” she said pointing to warfare troops were being sent Port Rui Hai International Loremains of a firefighter still the bandage on her arm. “But mum was hurt badly, she to the site, the broadcaster add- gistics, local authorities said. in uniform, his skin blackened ed. - AFP from smoke, as he was wheeled couldn’t open her eyes.”
■ MALAYSIA
MH370 ‘intact on the ocean floor’ A new theory has emerged about what might have happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in its crash landing, published by Malaysia’s government news agency Bernama. Satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman, who helped British satellite firm Inmarsat analyse data shortly after the plane went missing in March last year, said the jet probably
made a soft landing on the water, floated for a while on the surface, and then sank mostly in one piece. Rahman’s view tallies with what other experts have said about the likely fate of the plane after new evidence came to light last month with the discovery of the flaperon. The piece of debris that was almost certainly part of MH370 suggests that the air-
craft may have glided along after running out of fuel and descended slowly into the water. The Boeing 777 flaperon washed up on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. On the day the flaperon was found, Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford told AFP: “What it does show is that the aircraft has gone into the water in a controlled-type crash and as the engines have hit the wa-
ter, they’ve sheared off and this part is straight behind one of the engines.” Former US National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith told Bloomberg that since the piece was not “crushed,” experts could “deduce it was either a low-energy crash or a low-energy intentional ditching.” Rahman said he came to the same conclusion. - AFP
Teen’s death plunge The Filipina mother of a teenager who plunged to her death from an upmarket Hong Kong apartment has had a charge of child neglect against her dropped. Herminia Garcia, 53, still faces a charge of “breach of condition to stay” in Hong Kong. Her British businessman partner, Nick Cousins, faced fresh charges of helping her to stay in the city illegally, plus two counts of failing to register a birth. The 58-year-old is the managing director of the Hong Kong office of British multinational Jardine Lloyd Thompson, one of the world’s leading insurance brokers. Their 15-year-old daughter fell 21 storeys from the apartment block in Repulse Bay in April. - AFP
Don’t feed the hungry McDonald’s France was forced to apologise following the emergence of an internal note reportedly ordering staff not to hand out food to “tramps” at a restaurant on the swish Cote d’Azur. The note was revealed on Twitter by consumer group “60 Million Consumers”. “Following an incident on July 25, it is formally forbidden to give food to tramps,” says the note, which is signed by “the management”. McDonald’s is not here to feed all the hungry people in the country!” concluded the note. - AP
‘Super underpants’ Smart underwear designed to protect male fertility from radiation emitted by smartphones and laptops has been unveiled by a British scientist. Described by Richard Branson as “underpants for superheroes”, the Wireless Armour underwear contains a mesh of pure silver woven into the fabric that shields against 99.9 per cent of electromagnetic radiation, which is emitted from devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, and has been linked to fertility problems by scientists. - AP
Carter has cancer Former US President Jimmy Carter says he has cancer and will undergo treatment at an Atlanta hospital. Carter announced the diagnosis in a statement from the Carter Center yesterday. Carter, 90, had surgery earlier this month to remove a small mass in his liver. He says that the surgery revealed the cancer. Carter was the nation’s 39th president. After leaving the White House, he founded the centre in Atlanta in 1982 to promote health care, democracy and other issues globally. - AP
Fears over drones Rogue drone operators are rapidly becoming a nuisance in the United States, invading sensitive airspace and private property, with the regulators of the nation’s skies largely powerless to stop them. In recent days, drones have smuggled drugs into an Ohio prison, smashed against a Cincinnati skyscraper, impeded efforts to fight bushfires in California and nearly collided with three airliners over New York City. Earlier in the northern summer, a runaway two-pound drone struck a woman at a gay pride parade in Seattle, knocking her unconscious. In Tampa, a drone reportedly stalked a woman outside a downtown bar before crashing into her car. - AP