18/08/2025

MONDAY | AUG 18, 2025

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Australia grants asylum to former HK lawmaker

Northern China flash flood kills 9 BEIJING: At least nine people have died in a flash flood in northern China, state media reported yesterday, with three others still missing, as the East Asian monsoon continues to unleash atmospheric chaos across the world’s second-largest economy. The banks of a river running through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia burst on Saturday night, the report said, washing away 13 campers on the outskirts of Bayannur city, a major agricultural hub. One person has been rescued. China has suffered weeks of extreme weather since last month, battered by heavier-than-usual downpours, with the monsoon stalling over its north and south. Weather experts link the shifting pattern to climate change, testing officials as flash floods displace thousands and threaten billions of dollars in economic losses. Bayannur is an important national grain and oil production base, as well as a sheep breeding and processing centre. At the other end of the country, a three-and-a-half-month fishing suspension in the southern province of Hainan ended on Saturday, state media reported, after agricultural affairs officials ordered ships to shelter in port owing to heavy rain. In the southwestern province of Sichuan, “severe weather” on Friday killed two people and injured three others at a beer festival in the city of Mianzhu, after a truss fell on them, police said. The deluge in Inner Mongolia follows a deadly downpour in Beijing – just under 1,000km away – late last month, which killed at least 44 people and forced the evacuation of more than 70,000 residents. The central government announced last week 430 million yuan (RM252 million) in fresh funding for disaster relief, taking the total allocated since April to at least 5.8 billion yuan. – Reuters JAKARTA: Dozens of people were injured after a magnitude 6 earthquake struck central Sulawesi in Indonesia early yesterday, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said. The quake, at a depth of 10km, shook the Poso Regency and was felt in nearby areas. Twenty-nine people were injured, two critically, the agency said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of deaths. Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes. – Reuters THAILAND PLEDGES TO STEP UP PEACE EFFORTS BANGKOK: Thailand has pledged to step up cooperation with Cambodia through the Regional Border Committee (RBC) and General Border Committee (GBC), reaffirming its resolve to safeguard peace and stability along their shared frontier. Royal Thai Navy Deputy Spokesperson Rear Admiral Parach Rattanachiayaphan said Thailand remains committed to resolving tensions with Cambodia through peaceful dialogue and in full respect of international law. “The Royal Thai Navy reaffirms its readiness to cooperate with Cambodia under the RBC and GBC frameworks, with the shared objective of strengthening peace, stability and cooperation along the Thai-Cambodian border,”he said after the Thai-Cambodian RBC meeting in Trat province on Saturday. – Bernama DOZENS INJURED IN SULAWESI QUAKE

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HONG KONG: Pro-democracy activist Ted Hui has been granted asylum in Australia, the former lawmaker said on Saturday, more than four years after he left Hong Kong, where he faces criminal charges over the 2019 pro-democracy protests. Hui said he received written notice from the Australian Department of Home Affairs on Friday approving his claim and that his wife, children and parents were also granted visas. “When people around me say ‘congratulations’ to me, although I politely thank them, I can’t help but feel sad in my heart. How to congratulate a political refugee who misses his hometown?” Hui posted on Facebook. “If it weren’t for political persecution, I would never have thought of living in a foreign land. Immigrants can always return to their home towns to visit relatives at any time; Exiles have no home.” The Home Affairs Department did not o Wife, children, parents also granted visas

questions sent after business hours. The Hong Kong government said in a statement it was “against the harbouring of criminals in any form by any country”. China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about the decision. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Beijing last month as part of his administration’s years-long push to improve ties with China. A former Democratic Party lawmaker, Hui left Hong Kong in late 2020 after facing criminal charges over the 2019 pro-democracy protests. In 2023, Hong Kong accused him and seven others of national security offences, including incitement to secession, and put HK$1 million (RM547,667) bounties on their heads. Fellow Hong Kong activist Tony Chung said yesterday he had been granted asylum by Britain, in a post on X. He was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison in late 2021 after being convicted of secession and money laundering. Pro-democracy businessman Jimmy Lai is on trial in Hong Kong on charges related to a national security law imposed by Beijing and alleged sedition. – Reuters

Filepic of Hui being detained on June 12, 2020. – AFPPIC

FORGING AHEAD ... Students in Surabaya unfurling a long flag in Indonesia’s national colours during a parade to mark the country’s 80th Independence Day yesterday. – AFPPIC

Hopes for Pakistan flood survivors wane PESHAWAR: Thousands of Pakistani rescuers battled rain and knee-deep mud yesterday, digging homes out from under massive boulders in a desperate search for survivors after flash floods killed at least 344 people in the country’s mountainous north. under debris is ongoing,” said Bilal Ahmed Faizi of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s rescue agency. “There is still concern that dozens of people may be trapped under the rubble. The chances of those buried under the debris surviving are very slim.”

water receded. “Our belongings are scattered, ruined and are in bad shape,” said shopkeeper Noor Muhammad as he used a shovel to remove mud. “The shops have been destroyed along with everything else. Even the little money people had has been washed away.” The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas. “This disaster has spread everywhere and surrounded us from all sides. “We were trapped in our homes and could not get out,” said another Buner resident Syed Wahab Bacha. – AFP

Most of the deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where monsoon rains that are expected to intensify in the days ahead drove flooding and landslides that collapsed houses. In hardest-hit Bunar district, at least 208 people were killed and “10 to 12 entire villages” partially buried, said a provincial rescue spokesman. “The operation to rescue people trapped

He said about 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations across nine districts, where rain was still hampering efforts. Journalists in Buner saw half-buried vehicles and belongings lying strewn in the sludge, with mud covering houses and shops. Flooded roads hampered the movement of rescue vehicles, as a few villagers worked to cut fallen trees to clear the way after the