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B8 China floods leave over 100 dead or missing BEIJING—Flooding in China’s Yangtze river basin has left 112 people dead or missing in recent days, media said Tuesday, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land within days. Some 16 million people have been affected by heavy rain that has left vast areas under water near the Yangtze, China’s longest river, the Beijing News cited the civil affairs ministry as saying. Water levels in Taihu Lake, close to Shanghai, are at their highest level since 1954, it said, adding the area faced a “serious” risk of flooding if a typhoon hit nearby on Friday. Pictures of a farmer in eastern China breaking down in tears as waters mounted around his 6,000 pigs were posted by state media. Other images showed a sports stadium in the central province of Hubei turned into a “giant bathtub” by the rainfall. Flooding is common during the summer monsoon season in southern China, but rainfall has been particularly heavy this year and many areas have been lashed by torrential rains this week. Rain is expected to move north this week towards the Huai river, the Beijing News added. China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang warned last month that a strong El Niño effect this year would increase the risk of floods in the Yangtze and Huai river basins. An El Niño effect was linked to China’s worst floods of recent years when more than 4,000 people died in 1998, mostly around the Yangtze. The paper quoted a meteorologist as saying that rain patterns this year were more disparate than in 1998, diminishing the risk of a similar toll. China’s national observatory issued an orange alert for storms across the country’s south and east last week -- the second highest warning in a four-tiered system. Whole villages were leveled and at least 98 killed in the eastern province of Jiangsu last month after the region was hit by a storm with hurricane-force winds and the worst tornado in half a century. Floods have also hit South Asia this week, with 33 killed in Pakistan and 25 left dead in India after unusually heavy rains. AFP
CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR
editorial@thestandard.com.ph
WORLD 3 suicide bombings strike Saudi, including holy site RIYADH—Three suicide bombings struck Saudi Arabia in a single day, including a shocking attack at Islam’s second holiest site, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, where four security guards were killed.
Concert. Classical crossover star Jackie Evancho performs at A Capitol Fourth concert at the US Capitol West Lawn on July 4, 2016, in Washington, DC. AFP
Monday’s attacks on Islam’s spiritual home came as Muslims prepared for the feast this week marking the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan. There were no claims of responsibility, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during the holy month and has claimed or been blamed for a wave of Ramadan shootings and bombings including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad. The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque—where Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year. The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that security forces became suspicious of a man who was heading for the Prophet’s Mosque through a parking lot. “As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four security personnel,” the statement said, adding that five others were injured. The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage. Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed “the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet’s Mosque.” Saudi Arabia’s supreme council of clerics said the attacks “prove that those renegades... have violated everything that is sacred.” The head of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, the kingdom’s main advisory body, said the attack was “unprecedented”. “This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart,” Abdullah al-Sheikh said. Iran, the main Shiite power, also condemned the bombings and called for Muslim unity against extremists. “There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter. At the same time as the Medina attack, across the country in the Shiite-populated Gulf city of Qatif another suicide bombing took place near a Shiite mosque, residents and the interior ministry said. The ministry said “the body parts of three people were found” at the site but had not yet been identified. AFP
Abbas Kiarostami, giant of Iran cinema, dies in France at 76
TEHRAN—Tributes poured in on Tuesday for Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, acclaimed as a “towering figure” in world cinema, following his death in France at the age of 76. Kiarostami, who won the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for “Taste of Cherry”, emerged from the Iranian New Wave of the late 1960s to become one of the world’s most re-
vered directors. Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese praised his “extraordinary body of work”. “He was a true gentleman, and, truly, one of our great artists,” Scorsese told The Hollywood Reporter. Kiarostami’s poetic parables of ordinary lives won him international acclaim, with French director Jean-Luc Godard once
declaring that “film begins with D.W. Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.” News of his death broke late on Monday, with Iranian media reporting that he died from a blood clot in the brain following months of treatment for intestinal problems. The ISNA news agency said he had returned to Iran from his home in Paris to undergo several operations between February and April,
before traveling back to France last week for further treatment. “Kiarostami’s different and deep outlook on life, and his invitation to peace and friendship, will be an everlasting achievement,” tweeted President Hassan Rouhani. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif added: “Iran has lost a towering figure in international cinema”. Just last week, Kiarostami had been invited to join the Academy in
Hollywood as part of its efforts to increase the diversity of its Oscar judges. “He wasn’t just a filmmaker. He was a modern mystic, both in his cinema and his private life,” Asghar Farhadi, another of Iran’s renowned directors, told Britain’s The Guardian. Iranian cinemas were due to pause showings on Tuesday evening for a prayer in Kiarostami’s memory, ISNA reported. AFP