Dozens still missing after Japan floods
HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Rescuers in southwestern Japan dug up more bodies Monday as they searched for dozens still missing after heavy rains caused severe flooding and left residents to return to their homes unsure where to start the cleanup. More than 100 people were confirmed dead in the disaster.
Minoru Katayama, 86, rushed back to his home in Mabi city, in Okayama prefecture, and found his 88-year-old wife, Chiyoko, collapsed on the first floor. Floodwaters had started rising so fast that the elderly couple was caught by surprise.
"My wife could not climb up the stairs, and nobody else was around to help us out," Katayama told national broadcaster NHK. His wife, who stayed behind and let her husband flee, was among more than 20 people who were found dead in the city, where a river dike collapsed.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 108 people were confirmed dead as of Monday night. Officials and media reports said at least 80 people were still unaccounted for, many of them in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area.
The assessment of casualties has been difficult because of the widespread area affected by the rainfall, flooding and landslides since late last week. Authorities warned that landslides could strike even after the rain subsides.
U.S. couple, son found dead in Eurasia
TBILISI, Georgia -- Police officials said a U.S. couple and their 4-year-old son were found dead in a province of ex-Soviet Georgia.
Ryan Smith and his wife, Laura Smith, both in their early 40s, had been living in the republic of Georgia in Eurasia for over 10 years, working to revive the traditional carpet weaving industry.
Police said in a statement Monday that a man had been arrested in the central Georgian province of Dusheti, suspected of premeditated murder. Police said the suspect, around 20 years old, has confessed to the crime.
Police believe the man shot Ryan Smith and the boy with a hunting rifle on July 4, while Smith's wife fell into a ravine trying to escape.
The U.S. Embassy in Georgia declined to comment.
Death toll climbs in Turkish derailment
ISTANBUL -- The death toll has risen to two dozen people from the passenger train that derailed in northwestern Turkey on Sunday, officials said Monday.
Health Minister Ahmet Demircan said 318 people were injured, with 124 of them still hospitalized. Initial reports had 73 people injured.
Investigators believe that heavy rains caused the ground under the rails to collapse, causing Sunday's crash, Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said.
The train was heading to Istanbul from Edirne, on the border with Greece, with 362 passengers and six crew members on board. Five of its six cars derailed.
Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said other trains had used the route earlier Sunday, and that the rain caused "extraordinary swelling" under the tracks.
But critics say the derailment could have been prevented. Experts from a Turkish engineering union issued a statement saying a drainage system was incorrectly built.
The union added that the government has cut costs, including eliminating route inspector jobs about five years ago. It said that inspectors would have identified the collapsed ground and stopped the train before it reached that section of track.
Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said two machinists were called in for questioning at the prosecutor's office.
China paper blasts U.S. ships' passage
BEIJING -- A ruling Chinese Communist Party newspaper on Monday denounced the passage of a pair of U.S. Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait as a "psychological game," as the two sides square off over trade and relations with self-governing Taiwan.
The Global Times said in an editorial that the U.S. was adding to tensions by sailing the Japan-based guided missile destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold through the 100-mile-wide strait that divides Taiwan from mainland China.
Though such missions are not uncommon, both Taiwan and the U.S. made unusual public confirmations of the ships' passage over the weekend.
Washington is "sending political signals by sending warships through the Taiwan Strait," said the Global Times editorial, with the headline "U.S. psychological game in Taiwan Strait."
At a daily briefing Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said China had "played close attention to" the passage of the ships, but declined to connect the incident to other issues affecting relations between Beijing and Washington.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be conquered by force if necessary, has criticized recent U.S. moves to strengthen relations with the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 07/10/2018