The Philippines

13 fishermen lost in typhoon

The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year triggered landslides and floods on Monday, disrupting power and communication links, leaving one man dead and 13 fishermen missing, weather and disaster officials said. Typhoon Utor, packing winds of 150 km per hour near its center and gusts of up to 185 kmph, regained strength as it moved out of northern Luzon island towards the South China Sea.

Hungary

WWII Nazi aide dies before trial

A 98-year-old Hungarian man has died awaiting trial on charges of torturing Jews and helping to send them to Auschwitz in World War II, his lawyer said on Monday. Laszlo Csatary, who always denied the accusations, died of pneumonia in a Budapest hospital on Saturday, lawyer Gabor Horvath said.

Indonesia

Volcano spews more ash

A volcano on a tiny Indonesian island that erupted over the weekend and killed five people spewed more clouds of red-hot ash on Monday, as hundreds of villagers were evacuated to safety. Mount Rokatenda, on Palue island in East Nusa Tenggara Province, was belching out columns of smoke up to 100 meters high, an AFP journalist on the nearby island of Flores said.

Bangladesh

Worker dead after long coma

A Bangladeshi garment worker who spent 108 days in a coma after being badly injured in one of the world's worst industrial disasters has died, officials said on Monday. Manwar Hossain, 22, was ironing clothes in one of the garment factories housed in the nine-story building outside the Bangladeshi capital when it collapsed on April 24, killing more than 1,100 people.

Sudan

Floods affect thousands

The number of people affected by this month's flooding in Sudan has climbed to around 150,000 and is expected to rise further, the United Nations said on Monday. More than half the victims are in the area around the capital Khartoum, said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

South Korea

Govt warns of energy crisis

South Korea ordered sweltering government offices to turn off their air conditioning as two power plants stopped operations on Monday, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis. The timing could hardly be worse with South Korea in the grip of an extended heat wave and temperatures nudging 34 C. One Seoul city government employee described her office as "one big dim-sum basket".

Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 08/13/2013 page11)