Changsha, July 30 (IANS) At least seven more people have been confirmed dead and three others remain missing after intense rain triggered flash floods and mudflows in central China’s Hunan Province, pushing the death toll due to the rain-related incidents to 22, local authorities said Tuesday.

Among the dead are three villagers from Yongxing County in the city of Chenzhou. A rain-triggered mudflow claimed their lives after they went missing last Wednesday while patrolling the mountains, according to the county’s emergency management bureau.

The other four deaths and three missing persons were reported in four villages in the city of Zixing, which has experienced record precipitation since Friday, with one location recording over 645 mm of rain in just 24 hours, Xinhua news agency reported.

Heavy rainstorms in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi have wreaked havoc across Hunan. In Xiangtan County, three dike breaches occurred in the Juanshui River in the past few days, prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents.

In Zixing, the rain has toppled or damaged the homes of 867 households and caused 1,345 road cave-ins. Officials said that communications with many villages were disrupted, hindering timely updates on the situation.

The city has dispatched more than 5,400 rescuers. A total of 11,379 people have been evacuated for safety, said the city’s flood control and drought relief headquarters.

On Tuesday morning, volunteers were seen loading bottled water, rice and cooking oil onto a helicopter parked on the sports ground of Zixing No.1 Middle School.

Since Monday, helicopters have been taking off from the school to air-drop supplies to disaster-hit areas where rain-triggered landslides have disrupted road traffic and telecommunications.

“These supplies are urgently needed in disaster-hit areas, so we continued flying,” said Ou Deqing, board chairman of a Hunan-based general aviation company whose helicopters joined the relief efforts.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, helicopters have made 101 trips to evacuate residents and deliver 20.9 tonnes of materials to 28 villages in Zixing, according to the headquarters.

China’s meteorological authorities on Monday issued an orange alert for rainstorms, the second-highest level in its four-tier warning system, across parts of the country.

Heavy rain is expected in regions including the Chinese capital Beijing and neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin, as well as Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan, on Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Meteorological Center.

–IANS

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Tehran, July 30 (IANS) Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York has rejected claims by US intelligence officials that Tehran sought to influence the US presidential election, the official news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.

The remarks were made in a statement released on Monday after US intelligence officials earlier in the day claimed that Iran was working to “influence the US presidential election and undermine Donald Trump’s bid to regain the White House,” the report said.

Iran’s permanent mission stressed that Tehran had no objective or activity to influence the US election, adding a major part of such accusations were within the framework of the “psychological operations designed to artificially pep up election campaigns” in the United States, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024.

–IANS

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Wellington, July 30 (IANS) New Zealand and Indonesia launched a plan of action on Tuesday which sets a course for intensified cooperation to guide bilateral ties over the next five years.

New Zealand and Indonesia share an important partnership, said New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters following official talks in Auckland with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two sides agreed on a dedicated Plan of Action for 2025-2029, which sets a new goal of 6 billion NZ dollars ( $ 3.54 billion) in annual two-way trade by 2029, replacing the one released in 2020.

Meeting this goal will necessitate even greater trade cooperation, including on halal, Peters said.

“We also agreed to work towards a joint Working Holiday Scheme and closer education cooperation,” he said.

–IANS

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Seoul, July 30 (IANS) North Korea’s recent campaign of launching trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea has disrupted operations of Incheon International Airport, the South’s main gateway, on 12 occasions, a lawmaker said on Tuesday, citing government data.

According to data from the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Party, runways at the airport have been shut down for a total of 265 minutes across 12 occasions due to the balloons sent from North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.

The first disruption incident occurred from 10.48 p.m. to 11.42 p.m. on June 1, four days after North Korea first began launching the balloons. The most severe disruption occurred on June 26, when runways were shut down on eight occasions, resulting in 166 minutes of halted takeoffs and landings.

“North Korea’s trash balloons not only have landed within the premises of the presidential office but also have had a broad impact on the operations of Incheon International Airport and flights there,” Yang said.

He added that the government must work to suspend the vicious cycle connected to both anti-North Korean leaflet balloons from the South and trash balloons from the North.

According to the South’s intelligence agency, the North has sent some 3,600 trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea this year, which the North has claimed are in retaliation for South Korean activists sending propaganda leaflets across the border.

–IANS

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Ulan Bator, July 30 (IANS) A suspected bubonic plague case has been reported in the western Mongolian province of Govi-Altai, according to local media on Tuesday.

The individual from the Taishir soum (administrative subdivision) in the province has been recently hospitalised after consuming marmot meat, Xinhua news agency reported.

In response, at least 13 people who were in close contact with the patient are being isolated, and the soum has been placed under quarantine.

Although hunting marmots is illegal in Mongolia, many Mongolians regard the rodent as a delicacy and ignore the law.

The National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases has indicated that 17 out of Mongolia’s 21 provinces are at risk of bubonic plague infection.

Bubonic plague, a bacterial disease spread mostly by fleas on wild rodents and other animals, can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organisation.

–IANS

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