Travels

MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Two landslides triggered by heavy rains buried more than 20 houses in a remote gold–mining village in the southern Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and 16 others missing, officials said Sunday.

Small stone houses and huts at the foot of the mountain village of Masara were destroyed Saturday by falling mud and rocks, killing six villagers and injuring 17 others.

(Read the full post about ‘27 dead in Philippines’…)

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos (AP) – Hurricane Ike damaged most of the homes on Grand Turk island as it roared onto the Bahamas, raked Haiti’s flooded cities with rain and threatened the Florida Keys on its way to Cuba as a ferocious Category 4 storm Sunday.

Islanders load food supplies onto a speedboat bound for nearby North Caicos Island from the island of Providenciales, in the Turks & Caicos Islands, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. Ike was due to arrive the night of Sept. 6 in the Turks and Caicos as a Category 3 hurricane.

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Syria’s leader said Thursday he offered a proposal for peace with Israel but also refused to break off ties with Hezbollah and militant Palestinians – a key Israeli demand.

President Bashar Assad also said indirect negotiations with Israel were on hold until that country chooses a new prime minister and that direct talks would have to wait until a new U.S. president takes office.

Assad’s comments came after meetings with France’s leader and regional mediators in talks focusing on Mideast peace and Iran’s nuclear program.

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BEIJING (AP) – Nearly four months after China’s devastating earthquake, a government scientist acknowledged Thursday that a rush to build schools in recent years likely led to construction flaws causing so many of them to collapse.

It was the first official admission that low building standards may have been behind the deaths of thousands of children.

Government critics have raised questions about shoddy construction after the 7.9–magnitude quake killed nearly 70,000 people in Sichuan province, including many students crushed to death when their classrooms crumbled.

Ma Zongjin, chairman of an official expert committee on the May 12 earthquake in southwest China, said Thursday that poor quality construction materials were one possible reason more than 1,000 schools were damaged.

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LONDON (AP) – Ice in fuel lines probably caused a British Airways jet to lose power and make a jarring emergency landing in London in January, investigators said Thursday.

Nineteen people suffered minor injuries when the British Airways Boeing 777 made a crash landing just inside the airport perimeter on Jan. 17.

Investigators from the Air Accident Investigations Branch said that water, which is normally present in aircraft fuel, may have frozen because of unusually cold weather on a flight from Beijing to London on Jan.

(Read the full post about ‘Hard landing blamed on ice at Heathrow’…)

(Marianas Variety)

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has told the Northern Marianas government it must provide stable electrical power supply at Saipan’s international airport or risk losing its operating certificate, the Marianas Variety reports.

The newspaper says FAA Regional Administrator William C. Withycombe in a July 21 letter to Gov. Benigno Fitial said the commonwealth government is supposed to provide consistent electricity to the airport as a condition of maintaining its federal operating certificate. The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.

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(Saipan Tribune)

A Northern Marianas government official says federalization of the commonwealth’s labor department will mean a $4.4 million reduction in revenues for the local treasury, the Saipan Tribune reports.

Deputy Labor Secretary Cinta M. Kaipat said fees and other assessments it charges the tens of thousands of foreign workers in the Northern Marianas generates a net $4.4 million in revenue for the commonwealth general fund.

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(Pacific Daily News)

Some $40 million in U.S. federal education funding remains on hold until Guam’s territorial government officially determines who is responsible for its public school system, the Pacific Daily News reports.

DOE Risk Management Services Director Philip Maestri has told the Guam Public School System that the federal funding will continue to be withheld until the territorial Attorney General determines who has ultimate authority for public schools.

Public Schools Superintendent Nerissa Bretania-Shafer says a telephone conference call has been set for 7 a.m.

(Read the full post about ‘$40M In Federal Education Funds Still At Risk’…)

(Taipei Times)

Taiwan officials are keeping in detention one of the key players in the botched 2006 attempt to get Papua New Guinea to drop Beijing and recognize Taipei, the Taipei Times reports.

Wu Shih-tsai remains in detention following his indictment on Friday on charges of fraud and defamation. Wu, a Singaporean, and Ching Chi-ju, an American who remains on the run, were paid $30 million by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after they promised to get Port Moresby to switch diplomatic allegiances and recognize Taipei.

(Read the full post about ‘Broker In Botched ‘PNG Deal’ Kept In Detention’…)

(Solomon Star)

The Solomon Islands is at the forefront of renewed global efforts to eliminate malaria, thanks to a new, AusAID-funded support center.

The Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Center (PacMISC) is part of an A$25 million AusAID commitment to intensified malaria control and progressive elimination in the South-West Pacific.

(Read the full post about ‘New Solomons-Based Center To Battle Malaria’…)