AFP, Beijing
China on Thursday warned Japan against “playing with fire” in the contested waters of the South China Sea, after Tokyo announced it may patrol alongside the US in the region.
China also sent fighter planes for the first time over a strait near Japan on Monday as part of a group of more than 40 jets headed to train in the West Pacific.
32 people missing in China landslides
AP, Beijing
At least 32 people were reported missing Thursday after rain-saturated hillsides collapsed onto villages in southeastern China following a typhoon.
A rescue operation was underway in Sucun village in China’s Zhejiang province, south of the financial hub of Shanghai, after it was hit by a landslide on Wednesday evening, leaving 26 missing, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Another six people are missing in Baofeng village, also in Zhejiang, after a landslide destroyed their homes.
75,000 could starve to death in Nigeria
AP, Lagos
As many as 75,000 children will die over the next year in famine-like conditions created by Boko Haram if donors don’t respond quickly, the U.N. Children’s Fund is warning. That’s far more than the 20,000 people killed in the seven-year Islamic uprising.
The severity of malnutrition levels and high number of children facing death make the humanitarian crisis confronting northeastern Nigeria perhaps the worst in the world, according to Arjan de Wagt, nutrition chief for UNICEF in Nigeria. He said children already are dying but donors are not responding.
Philippine Maoists won’t give up arms
Reuters, Manila
Philippine Maoist guerrillas will not surrender their weapons even if a peace deal is reached with the government of President Rodrigo Duterte, the rebels’ chief negotiator said on Thursday, a potential deal-breaker in the current talks.
The Philippines and the rebels declared indefinite unilateral ceasefires in Oslo last month as part of an accord to accelerate efforts to end a conflict that has lasted almost five decades and killed at least 40,000 people.
