Typhoon Soudelor pounded Taiwan with fierce winds and torrential rain Saturday, leaving four dead and dozens injured, state media reported. Fatalities included a girl, 8, and her mother, who were swept out to sea, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported. After Taiwan, Soudelor will churn across the sea to mainland China. It is forecast to weaken by then, but is still predicted to pack hurricane-strength winds when it makes landfall late Saturday.The girl’s twin sister is unaccounted for, it said. Soudelor made landfall north of the Taiwanese city of Hualien. Forecasters had predicted the storm would have maximum sustained winds at landfall of about 125 mph (200 kph), the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane. Authorities deployed more than 35,000 military personnel to relocate residents in vulnerable areas as the typhoon made its way across the Pacific Ocean. Parts of northern Taiwan have picked up more than 12 inches (300 millimeters) of rain in 24 hours, according to Taiwan’s
The US government is offering a $7.6 million reward for information leading to the capture of escaped Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Chuck Rosenberg, also says a tip-line for information about Guzman is being established. Guzman escaped from one of Mexico’s most secure prisons last month via a sophisticated 1.6 km-long tunnel that opened up in his cell’s shower. Mexican authorities have announced a $5.8 million reward for the drug kingpin, who’s believed to have a net worth of about $1.5 billion. Guzman was arrested in February 2014 in a seaside resort town after about 13 years on the run since his last prison break, in 2001.
Egypt has unveiled a major extension of the Suez Canal billed by its President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi as a historic achievement needed to boost the country’s ailing economy after years of unrest. Sisi, wearing his ceremonial military uniform and trademark dark sunglasses on a sweltering August day, flew to the site on Thursday aboard a military helicopter and immediately boarded a monarchy-era yacht that sailed to the venue of the ceremony. Later in the day, the president changed to a dark grey business suit and took his seat at the main stand for an elaborate ceremony in the canal city of Ismailia, attended by foreign dignitaries and organised amid tight security measures following a series of attacks by armed groups in the Sinai Peninsula and the capital, Cairo.A visibly triumphant Sisi stood on the vessel’s upper deck, waving to well-wishers and dance troupes performing on shore. At one point, a young boy in military uniform and holding an Egyptian red, black and white flag joine
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