Flooding forces people from homes in some parts of Iowa
Washington, June 23: Floodwaters forced people out of their homes in parts of Iowa, the result of weeks of rain, while much of the United States longed for relief Saturday from yet another round of extraordinary heat. Sirens blared at 2 am in Rock Valley, Iowa, population 4,200, where people in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. The city lacked running water because wells were unusable. Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo said a state helicopter was on its way to help but was called off when boats were able to reach stranded residents. Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for 21 counties in northern Iowa, including Sioux County, which includes Rock Valley. In drone video posted by the local sheriff, no streets were visible, just roofs and treetops poking above the water. In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem declared an emergency after the southeastern part of the state received heavy rainfall. The town of Canton, 48 kilometres southeast of Sioux Falls, has received 18 inches of rain. (AP)
Philippines says it won’t back down, but won’t start a war
Manila, June 23: The president of the Philippines said Sunday his country would not yield to “any foreign power” after Chinese forces injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged at least two military boats with machetes, axes and hammers in a clash in the disputed South China Sea, but added the Philippines would never instigate a war. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew with his top generals and defence chief to the western island province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, to meet and award medals to navy personnel who came under assault by the Chinese coast guard Monday as they attempted to deliver food and other supplies to an outpost on the hotly contested Second Thomas Shoal. Videos and pictures of the chaotic face-off made public by the military showed Chinese coast guard personnel hitting a Philippine navy boat with a wooden bar and seizing a bag while blaring sirens and using blinding strobe lights. The Chinese government said that its coast guard had to take action after Filipino forces defied warnings not to stray into what China calls its own offshore territory, a claim long rejected by rival claimant governments and international arbitrators. (AP)
Ex-B’desh PM Khaleda Zia on ‘deathbed’: BNP leader
Dhaka, June 23: Accusing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of a “personal political vendetta” against her predecessor and political rival Khaleda Zia, a senior leader from her party on Sunday claimed she is on her “deathbed” as she has been deprived of advance medical treatment abroad. A report in The Daily Star said that Khaleda Zia, 78, was rushed to Evercare Hospital here in an ambulance around 3:30 am on Saturday as she suddenly fell ill at her residence, ‘Firoza’ in Gulshan. Hasina’s action is a result of “personal political vendetta,” Bangladesh Nationalist Party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged. (PTI)