04/11/2025

TUESDAY | NOV 4, 2025

7 Strong quake in Afghanistan kills 20

o United Nations and aid agencies say hunger rising among Afghan population

Thousands evacuated in Philippines MANILA: Thousands were evacuated in the coastal provinces of the Philippines yesterday, ahead of a typhoon due to make landfall. Typhoon Kalmaegi is on a collision course with Leyte island, bringing 120kph winds and gusts of up to 150kph, according to the national weather service. “Evacuations are ongoing in Palo and Tanauan,“ said Leyte disaster official Roel Montesa, naming two towns hardest hit by storm surges in 2013, when Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people. Thousands of residents have been evacuated since Sunday on neighbouring Samar island, where three-metre surges are predicted, according to civil defence official Randy Nicart. “Some local governments are resorting to forced evacuations, including Guiuan town, where the storm is likely to make landfall.“ The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty. With Kalmaegi , the archipelago country has reached that average, and at least “three to five more” storms could be expected by December’s end, said state weather service specialist Charmaine Varilla. Just south of Leyte, in Dinagat Islands province, governor Nilo Demerey said between 10,000 and 15,000 people have been preemptively moved to safer areas. “We have been implementing preemptive evacuations for the past two days, while there is time.“ Disaster official Joy Conales said residents of Dinagat’s Loreto town were told to evacuate to higher ground. The town has a one-storey-tall “wave breaker” dike intended to protect its centre from big waves. Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Varilla said higher numbers of cyclones typically accompany La Nina, a naturally occurring climate pattern that cools surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The Philippines was hit by two storms in September, including Super Typhoon Ragasa . – AFP It often takes hours or days to travel by steep roads and paths to remote villages, which are often cut off from help during disasters or poor weather. – AFP compounded by drought, economic restrictions on the banking sector, and the pushback of millions of Afghan citizens from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet. Many homes in the predominantly rural country, devastated by decades of war, are shoddily built.

earthquakes since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, even as the foreign aid that formed the backbone of the country’s economy has dramatically dropped. In August, a 6.0-magnitude quake in the country’s east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people. Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023 and in eastern Nangarhar province in 2022 killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes. The United Nations and aid agencies have warned that hunger is rising among the Afghan population. The isolated country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis

and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities for hours or even days from reaching far-flung villages to assess the extent of the damage. The quake sent residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of Afghanistan’s largest northern cities, running into the streets due to fears their homes would collapse, an AFP correspondent observed. Correspondents in the capital Kabul, around 420km to the south, also said they felt shaking. It is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: strong earthquake has killed at least 20 people in northern Afghanistan, just months after another deadly tremor left the country reeling, authorities said yesterday. The 6.3-magnitude quake struck overnight at a depth of 28km with the epicentre near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the US Geological Survey. Four people were killed in Balkh province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is the Indonesia braces for floods, gales JAKARTA: Indonesia’s weather agency has warned of a higher risk of floods, landslides and gales, now that much of the country has entered the height of its rainy season, with heavy downpours drenching parts of Java. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the rainy period’s peak is expected between next month and January 2026. “Moderate to heavy rain has been recorded in Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and Yogyakarta, with daily totals reaching up to 15cm in some areas,” said agency head Dwikorita Karnawati. She said active monsoon winds and warmer sea surface temperatures have made the atmosphere unstable and moisture-rich, driving the recent increase in rainfall. The agency warned that tropical cyclone activity south of Indonesia is expected to intensify this month. It urged residents to stay alert, avoid sheltering under trees or billboards during storms, and get the latest forecasts through the InfoBMKG app. – Bernama NEW DELHI: At least 15 passengers were killed in a road crash in India’s northwestern Rajasthan state on Sunday. The van in which they were travelling rammed into a lorry parked on a highway in the Phalodi district, about 350km from the state capital Jaipur, local media reported. Fifteen people died on the spot while two women sustained serious injuries, a police official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a payment of 200,000 rupees (RM9,435) to the next of kin of each deceased from the Prime Minister’s BEIJING: China has expelled former senior government officials from the Communist Party for violations of discipline and law, the country’s top anti-graft watchdog said yesterday. The actions targeted former China Securities Regulatory Commission vice-chairman Wang Jianjun and former National Development and Reform Commission vice-director Xu Xianping, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said. – Reuters A FIFTEEN DEAD IN INDIA ROAD CRASH National Relief Fund. – Bernama CHINA EXPELS PARTY OFFICIALS OVER GRAFT

capital, said Health Department spokesperson Kamal Khan Zadran. He said the provincial hospital is also treating 120 people for injuries. Five people have been killed and 143 wounded in Samangan province, said National Disaster Management Authority spokesperson Mohammadullah Hamad. “Most of the injured have returned home after receiving treatment,” he said in a statement. Poor communication networks

Singapore to designate home of first PM as national monument COLLECTIVE REMEMBRANCE ... Roodebrug Soerabaia Community and Reenactor Indonesia members on Sunday re-enacting the Battle of Surabaya, which took place in November 1945 between Indonesian nationalists against British and British Indian forces for the re-imposition of Dutch colonial rule. – AFPPIC

BR I E F S

SINGAPORE: The government here said yesterday it plans to gazette the site of its first prime minister’s home as a national monument, following a bitter dispute between Lee Kuan Yew’s children over what to do with the building. An advisory board has assessed the single-storey bungalow, built in 1898 in central Singapore, as worthy of preservation, the National Heritage Board and Singapore Land Authority said in a statement, adding that it “bore witness to pivotal events in the 1950s that marked Singapore’s transition from a colony to an independent nation”. The advisory board “found the site to be of national significance, with great historic merit, and worthy of preservation”, the statement said, adding that it would be converted into a public space if the site is “preserved and acquired”.

Lee, who died in 2015, had publicly said he wanted the house to be demolished. He included that request in his will and said if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to anyone except family and descendants. Preserving the site does not obligate the government to preserve all buildings and structures in their current state, and all options would be considered, the government said. “The government will respect Lee’s wishes and remove all traces of Lee’s and his family’s private living spaces from the buildings.” The question of what to do with the house became a major issue in a public spat between Lee’s children after his death. Eldest son Lee Hsien Loong, who stepped down as the country’s third prime minister last year, thought it should be up to

the government to decide what to do with the property, including potentially retaining it as a heritage landmark. His sister Lee Wei Ling and brother Lee Hsien Yang said the bungalow should be demolished as per their father’s wishes. In a 2018 report, a ministerial committee said there was no need to make an immediate decision on the house as Wei Ling was still residing there. After his sister’s death last year, Hsien Yang applied for permission to demolish the house. Kuan Yew told the Straits Times in 2011 that he wanted the house demolished because it would “become a shambles” if it were opened to the public, and expressed hope that its removal would improve land values in the neighbourhood. – Reuters