Storm hits Taiwan, sets off landslides
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A powerful tropical storm swept across southern Taiwan, triggering landslides and flooding and leaving at least one person dead before it hit southern China this morning, officials said.
Additionally, a 17-year-old died and two children were injured in a landslide triggered by the storm in the Philippines on Saturday, authorities reported.
In Taiwan, an 18-year-old motorcycle rider died shortly before midnight in Tainan city after hitting a fallen tree, a disaster response official said. Nine people were reported injured in Taiwan.
Fourteen tourists were among those trapped after a landslide in Taiwan’s Hualien county. About 450 people were evacuated around the island and 12,000 households were without power Saturday afternoon.
Tropical Storm Bailu carried heavy rain and winds up to 73 mph as it crossed the southern half of Taiwan.
The storm made a second landfall in China’s Fujian province today with maximum winds weakening to 55 mph, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Tropical storms and typhoons, which gather strength from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, hit Taiwan, China, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam from June through November each year.
Turk says U.S.-aided ‘safe zone’ in works
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s defense minister said Saturday that military officials from Turkey and the United States have begun work to create a “safe zone” along its border in northeastern Syria.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency quoted Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying that generals from Turkey and the U.S. had begun work in a joint operations center in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa to set up the zone and that joint helicopter patrols were set to begin.
Turkey has been pressing to control — in coordination with the U.S. — a 19-25-mile-deep zone within civil war-ravaged Syria, running east of the Euphrates River all the way to the border with Iraq.
Turkey wants the region along its border to be clear of Syrian Kurdish forces and has threatened on numerous occasions to open a new operation in Syria against Syrian Kurdish forces if such a zone is not established.
Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish fighters, who make up the majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces and are allied with the U.S., as terrorists aligned with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. American troops are stationed in northeast Syria, along with the Kurdish forces, and have fought the Islamic State group together.
The commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, said his group will do all it can to ensure that the understandings between the U.S. and Turkey are successful. He added in a speech Saturday in the northeastern province of Hassakeh that the Syrian Democratic Forces will be “a positive side in bringing” stability to the whole region.
Syria’s government has called the agreement reached earlier this month for a safe zone a serious escalation that violates its sovereignty. It said it was part of Turkey’s “expansionist ambitions” in Syria, aided by Washington and its Syrian allies, the Kurdish-led forces.
Robot Fedor fails to get on space station
MOSCOW — A Russian space capsule carrying a humanoid robot has failed to dock as planned with the International Space Station.
A statement from the Russian space agency Roscosmos said the failure Saturday was because of problems in the docking system. It said the space station itself and the six-person crew are safe.
Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter that a new docking attempt would be made on Tuesday.
The capsule was launched Thursday as part of tests of a new rocket that is expected to replace the Soyuz-FG next year.
It is carrying a robot called Fedor, which will perform two weeks of tests aboard the station. Vladimir Solovyev, flight director for the Russian segment of the space station, said the robot had not been taught to carry out a manual docking.
Toll 3 in blast at Shiite mosque in Iraq
BAGHDAD — A motorcycle rigged with explosives went off near a Shiite mosque south of the capital, Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 34, Iraqi security officials said Saturday.
The officials said the blast happened the previous evening on a commercial street in the village of Mussayyib. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted “gatherings of Shiites” near a Shiite mosque.
Iraq declared victory against the Islamic State in late 2017, but the group continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells, particularly in the country’s north.
Iraq’s military announced that it started a new operation early Saturday targeting Islamic State hideouts and sleeper cells in western Anbar province.
The military said the operation aims to “search and clear” wide desert areas in the province that borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.
