UNITED STATES

East Coast rattled by Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene howled ashore in North Carolina with heavy winds, rain and surf on Saturday on a path threatening the densely populated US East Coast with flooding and power outages.

Irene was expected to remain a hurricane as it hit the mid-Atlantic states on Saturday night and New England on Sunday. With winds of 140 km (85 miles) per hour, Irene had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, but forecasters warned that it remained a large and dangerous storm. Civil officials evacuated at least 250,000 people and shut down mass transit in New York City.

PAKISTAN

Afghan militants attack paramilitary post

Militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on six Pakistani paramilitary posts in the Chitral district on Saturday, killing three soldiers and wounding four, security officials said. The border area faces Afghanistan's Nuristan province where Taliban militants have been active for years.

INDONESIA

7 dead, 5 missing after ferry sinks in storm

Seven people died and at least 95 were rescued after a ferry sank in bad weather off Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Saturday, an official said, an accident that comes as people rush to family gatherings to mark the end of the month-long Ramadan fast.

Indonesian search and rescue teams have pulled at least 95 people from the water and five remained missing, said a spokesman at the transport ministry. But the total number of passengers on the ferry has not been confirmed yet.

Police prevent train hijacking during holiday

Indonesian police in Jakarta foiled a hijack attempt on a train carrying hundreds of passengers during the peak of travel to hometowns for Ramadan-ending festivities on Saturday, a transport ministry spokesman said.

Three hijackers boarded the train at a station in West Java and forced the locomotive engineer to direct the train out of its route, which may have caused a crash during the rush hours as over three million people were forecast to be traveling by train on the weekend.

MEXICO

Calderon berates US after casino attack

President Felipe Calderon declared three days of mourning on Friday and demanded a crackdown on drugs in the United States after armed men torched a casino in northern Mexico, killing at least 52 people.

Under intense pressure as violence soars, Calderon said he would send more federal security forces to the city of Monterrey, where gunmen set fire to an upscalecasino on Thursday in one of the worst attacks of Mexico's drug war.

Lashing out at corrupt officials in Mexico and "insatiable" US demand for drugs for fomenting the violence, Calderon urged the US Congress to stamp out drug consumption and stop illegal trafficking of weapons across the border into Mexico.

4th body recovered from mine disaster

Four miners were killed when a coal mine collapsed in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, a senior government official said. The labor ministry said a fourth body was recovered late on Friday and an extraordinary inspection of the mine was under way.

SINGAPORE

Voters turn out for presidential poll

Singapore voters headed to the polls on Saturday to elect their next president, which is largely ceremonial with custodial powers.

The four candidates in the first presidential polls since 1999, all surnamed Tan, include apparent front-runner and former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, 71. He formerly headed government ministries such as finance, trade and ministry, and defense.

NEWS WATCH

A convoy of six Mercedes cars have crossed from Libya into Algeria, Egypt's state MENA news agency reported on Saturday, quoting a rebel source. It was impossible to verify the report and it was not immediately clear who might have been in any convoy, but MENA quoted the source as speculating that senior Libyan officials or Muammar Gadhafi himself and his sons may have fled the country.

Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 08/28/2011 page2)