27/09/2025

SATURDAY | SEPT 27, 2025

8

At least three killed as fresh storm batters Philippines

S. Korea begins new Yoon trial SEOUL: South Korean ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in court yesterday at the start of a new trial on obstruction charges after weeks of boycotting a separate ongoing trial for masterminding insurrection by leading a failed martial law bid. Yoon, 64, appeared slimmer, with his hair greyer and cropped short after more than two months out of public view in prison and having refused to attend trial since early July citing health reasons. The conservative former president faces fresh charges, including obstruction stemming from attempts to block investigators trying to arrest him in January when his powers had been suspended by parliament impeachment and he barricaded himself inside the presidential compound. The new charges were brought by a special prosecutor who was appointed in June and whose team has widened a probe of Yoon and several former government and military officials. Yoon, who was removed from office in April by the Constitutional Court, is also being investigated by another special prosecutor who has indicted his wife for corruption. Yoon has denied all wrongdoing and said it was within his powers as president to declare martial law in December. He has also rejected all investigations against him as politically motivated. – Reuters SEOUL: South Korea military fired warning shots after a North Korean vessel entered its waters, prompting the ship to retreat, Seoul said yesterday. The North Korean merchant ship crossed the maritime boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), northwest of Baengnyeong Island at 5am (2000 GMT) yesterday, South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff said. North Korea does not formally recognise the NLL. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung vowed on Tuesday at the United Nations to work to end the “vicious cycle”of tensions with the North as he promised not to seek regime change. – AFP JAPAN TO START NEW FOREIGN WORKER PROGRAMME IN 2027 TOKYO: The Japanese government yesterday approved replacing its controversial foreign trainee programme in 2027 with a new system aimed at improving rights protections, offering increased flexibility for job changes and implementing tougher oversight, Kyodo News reported. With related laws taking effect on April 1, 2027, foreign workers would be allowed to change workplaces within the same industry under certain conditions, marking a turnaround from the existing programme that prohibited job transfers in principle and has resulted in many fleeing harsh working environments. – Bernama-Kyodo SEOUL FIRES WARNING SHOTS AT PYONGYANG VESSEL

in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty. Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to the effects of human-driven climate change. Authorities warned on Thursday of a “high risk of life-threatening storm surge” of up to three metres with the coming storm. Thousands also remain displaced in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which passed over the country’s far northern end and killed at least nine people earlier in the week. The storms come as public anger spikes over a scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. – AFP

Tropical Storm Bualoi, which is sweeping west by northwest at sustained speeds of 110kph. Evacuees in one province took cover under pews as the roof of a church where they were sheltering was ripped off by the storm. “At 4am, the wind destroyed the door, the windows and the ceiling of the church,” said municipal engineer Jerome Martinez in southern Luzon island’s Masbate province. “That is one of the strongest winds I have ever experienced,” he said, adding that some children suffered minor injuries requiring stitches. “I think more people would have to evacuate because many houses were destroyed and many roofs were blown off. They are now blocking the

streets and roads.” About 400,000 people have been evacuated, said civil defence official Bernardo Alejandro at a press briefing yesterday. “We are clearing many big trees and toppled electric posts because many roads are impassable,” said rescuer Frandell Anthony Abellera in Bicol’s Masbate City. “The rain was strong but the wind was stronger.” Videos shared on social media and verified by AFP showed people using boats or trudging through waist-deep water to navigate flooded streets further south in the central Philippine Visayas islands. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people

MANILA: Philippines evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and confirmed at least three deaths yesterday as a severe tropical storm battered the country, which was still feeling the effects of Super Typhoon Ragasa . Civil defence officials in southern Luzon’s Bicol region said three people were killed as walls collapsed and trees were uprooted by Severe o New tempest makes landfall on heels of Super Typhoon Ragasa The

Taiwan rescuers battle thick mud after typhoon HUALIEN: Rescue workers in Taiwan battled through thick mud yesterday, looking for 11 missing people after Super Typhoon Ragasa this week sent a wall of water into a small town on the east coast. The flooding death toll was reported at 14.

The heavy rains in Hualien county caused a “barrier lake” in the mountains to overflow on Tuesday and release a thick sludge of water and mud on the town of Guangfu. While the floodwaters have receded, the dark grey mud continues to blanket large parts of the area, creating problems for residents and rescuers. Rescue workers, sometimes wading in mud up to their waists, have been cutting holes in the roofs of buildings to check for missing people. A man who gave his family name as Hwang said he is still looking for his elder sister’s body. “She died in the house because it was completely filled with mud and there was no way to get her out,“ he said. Many deaths occurred on the first floors of houses after people, often elderly, were unable to follow government orders to move upstairs and out of the way. Huang Ju-hsing, 88, had been trapped inside his second-floor home

BR I E F S

While the floodwaters have receded, the dark grey mud continues to blanket large parts of the area, creating problems for residents and rescuers. – REUTERSPIC

About 3.5 million people have been displaced internally due to the conflict, with at least 30% of them being children who are constantly exposed to poverty, security and health crises, the United Nations said. The Southeast Asian nation’s humanitarian woes are worsened by a series of natural disasters, including Cyclone Mocha in 2023, Typhoon Yagi last September, a huge earthquake in March and yearly monsoon floods. – Bernama Barrier formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage. The government has ruled out using explosives to break through the bank holding up the water, fearing it could bring more landslides and worsen the situation. – Reuters lakes are

Reporting local laws, while ministries are carrying out awareness campaigns on the recruitment of minors. “Tatmadaw senior officers conducted 2,720 talks to prevent the recruitment of underage soldiers from 2021 to August,” said the paper. The military is engaged in armed conflict on multiple fronts with at least 20 ethnic groups in parts of Myanmar. 78, after climbing through aisles of fallen objects to reach her husband. Mountainous, sparsely populated and largely rural, Hualien is one of Taiwan’s top tourist destinations due to its natural beauty. The issue of what to do about the barrier lake, formed by earlier typhoons and which has now shrunk in size to only 12% of what it was before the disaster, remains unresolved.

their parents. “The eligible people were summoned and those mistakenly summoned were allowed to return. Those who mistakenly summoned the underage people were charged,” said Myanmar Defence Minister Gen Maung Maung Aye on Thursday, reported Global New Light . He also said the Tatmadaw, or the Myanmar armed forces, conducts recruitment based on guidelines of the Country Task Force on after the flooding blocked access to his family-run grocery store downstairs. “There was no time to escape. We told him to hurry up and go upstairs,“ said his wife Chang Hsueh-mei, who was able to scramble over the wreckage downstairs and get outside. “When you are faced with an emergency, you suddenly find the courage to do anything,“ said Chang,

Myanmar returns 1,000 child soldiers to families PHNOM PENH: Myanmar has discharged over 1,000 child Monitoring and mechanism and

soldiers and returned them to their families over the last decade, and steps are being taken to prevent the recruitment of minors into military service. State media The Global New Light of Myanmar yesterday reported that between 2012 and this year, 1,152 mistakenly recruited underage soldiers were withdrawn from army services and sent back to