Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
February 15, 2016
Four Chinese miners rescued after 36 days trapped underground
UNDERGROUND ORDEAL OVER. The
first rescued miner, center on hoist, is lifted from a
collapsed mine in Pingyi, in east China’s Shandong
province. Chinese state media said four miners were
rescued from a collapsed mine after spending 36 days
trapped underground. The gypsum mine collapsed on
Christmas Day, killing one and leaving 17 missing,
including the four survivors. In the days that followed,
rescuers detected the survivors about 660 feet below
the surface. (Guo Xulei/Xinhua via AP)
By Louise Watt
The Associated Press
B
EIJING — Rescuers in eastern
China have pulled out four miners
who spent 36 days trapped
underground in a collapsed mine.
The gypsum mine in Shandong province
collapsed on Christmas Day, killing one
and leaving 17 missing, including the four
survivors. In the days that followed,
rescuers detected the four at about 660 feet
below the surface.
State broadcaster CCTV showed a
miner being pulled out, surrounded by
cheering rescuers in helmets and news
crews. Medical staff rushed another miner
along hospital corridors on a stretcher
with his eyes covered.
Rescuers brought out the workers
through two access tunnels they had
drilled, and the first miner was pulled out
in a capsule, the official Xinhua News
Agency reported.
The collapse on December 25 was so
violent it registered as a seismic event of
magnitude 4. Five days later, infrared
cameras detected the four miners weak
with hunger waving their hands. The
miners told rescuers they were in
underground passages that were intact,
and rescuers began slowly drilling a route
to save them. They sent food and clothes to
the men through four small tunnels they
drilled.
Eleven other people in the mine at the
time of the collapse made it to safety or
were rescued earlier.
Two days after the collapse, the owner of
the mine, Ma Congbo, jumped into a well
and drowned in an apparent suicide. Four
top officials in Pingyi county, where the
mine is located, have been fired.
In 2010, 33 miners in Chile were rescued
after being trapped for 69 days
underground, including more than two
weeks when no one knew whether they
were alive.
China’s mines have long been the
world’s deadliest, but safety improve-
ments have reduced deaths in recent
years.
Sushil Koirala, Nepal’s former
prime minister, dies at age 78
POOCH PATROL. Jung Myoung Sook, 61, holds puppies she rescued, at a shelter in Asan, South Korea.
In the country, where dogs are considered a traditional delicacy and have only recently become popular as pets,
Jung’s love for her canine friends is viewed by some as odd. But others see her as a champion of animal rights.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Korean woman raises 200 dogs
saved from streets, restaurants
By Hyung-Jin Kim
The Associated Press
SAN, South Korea — Puppies bark
and wag their tails as they follow a
gray-haired woman through a
hillside compound that shelters more than
200 dogs.
“Hey, my babies. Give your mom a kiss,”
says Jung Myoung Sook, 61. She lowers
her face and one puppy near a snow-
covered kennel licks her lips; another
gently paws her cheek.
In South Korea, where dogs are
considered a traditional delicacy and have
only recently become popular as pets,
Jung’s love for her canine friends is viewed
by some as odd. But others see her as a
champion of animal rights.
Rescuing and caring for dogs for 26
years, Jung has moved seven times
because of complaints by neighbors about
noise. She often stops to pick up dogs
roaming the streets, and has bought others
in danger of being sold to dog meat farms
or restaurants.
Some question whether someone as poor
as Jung, who ekes out a living cleaning a
store and collecting recyclable boxes, can
feed and care for so many dogs. While
Jung’s dogs looked healthy and well-fed
during a recent visit by The Associated
Press, their condition couldn’t be
independently confirmed.
Authorities in the central city of Asan
know about Jung’s current shelter, which
she opened in 2014, but have no legal
responsibility to inspect it, according to an
official who refused to give his name
A
because he wasn’t authorized to speak to
media on the matter.
Pets are growing in popularity in South
Korea, where one in five households has a
cat or dog, but activists say public
attitudes toward pets lag those in the west.
Supporters of Jung see her as a heroine,
saving stray or lost dogs from being killed
for food or euthanized at public shelters if
not adopted or found by their owners.
About 81,000 stray or abandoned animals,
mostly dogs and cats, were sent to public
shelters in 2014, down from 100,000 in
2010, the government said.
“My babies aren’t hungry. They can play
and live freely here,” said Jung, whose
clothes are worn and hair is dishevelled.
“Some people talk about me, saying, ‘Why
is that beggar-like middle-aged woman
smiling all the time,’ but I just focus on
feeding my babies. I’m happy and
healthy.”
Dozens of other South Koreans are
believed to be raising large numbers of
dogs, sometimes in unsanitary conditions
where diseases spread easily. Jung says
her dogs are mostly healthy, although
some die in fights with each other.
Most of the dogs live with her for good.
She said she spends about $1,600 a month
on food and medicine, and otherwise relies
on donations of soybean milk, pork, dog
food, and canned meat. Family, friends,
and sometimes strangers send her money.
Park Hye-soon, a local restaurant
owner, has given Jung leftover pork for
four years.
“She lives only for her dogs,” he said,
“without doing much for herself.”
KATHMANDU, Nepal
(AP) — Sushil Koirala, a
former Nepalese prime
minister and leader of the
nation’s largest political
party, has died in Kath-
mandu. He was 78 years
old.
His doctor, Karbir Nath
Yogi, said Koirala died due
to
complications
from
pneumonia and respiratory
failure.
Koirala was a key figure
in the adoption of Nepal’s
new
constitution
last
September. After ethnic
Madhesis later blocked
border points with India
and imposed a general
strike in southern Nepal to
protest
against
the
constitution,
Koirala
attempted to resolve the
issue by negotiating with
the protesters.
Koirala spent his life in
politics
fighting
for
democracy in Nepal and led
protests in 2006 that ended
a centuries-old monarchy
ADVOCATE OF DEMOCRACY. Sushil Koirala greets journalists
at Koirala’s residence in Kathmandu, Nepal, in this June 13, 2014 file
photo. Koirala, a former Nepalese prime minister and leader of the na-
tion’s largest political party, has died. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)
and turned Nepal into a kings.
He never married and
republic.
His politics meant he was living in his nephew’s
was always in trouble with house in Kathmandu.
His body was kept
the country’s kings, who
had barred political parties initially at the party’s
since the 1960s, and was headquarters and later
jailed for at least six years. moved to the national
He spent 15 years in exile stadium in Kathmandu for
in India because of his supporters to pay their
opposition to the no-party respects, where hundreds
system imposed by the gathered.
Elephant rampages in east
Indian town, smashing homes
By Manik Banerjee
The Associated Press
OLKATA, India — A wild
elephant rampaged through an
east Indian town, smashing cars
and homes and sending panicked people
running
before
the
animal
was
tranquilized to be returned to the forest.
As the frightened elephant ran amok,
trampling parked cars and motorbikes,
crowds of people gathered to watch from
balconies and roof tops. Some followed
from a distance as the elephant moved
through the streets.
K
“The elephant was scared and was
trying to go back to the jungle,” said
Papaiya Sarkar, a 40-year-old homemaker
who watched the elephant amble down a
street near her home.
The elephant wandered from the
Baikunthapur forest, crossing roads and a
small river before entering the town of
Siliguri in West Bengal state.
Divisional Forest Officer Basab Rai said
the female elephant appeared to be a loner
without a herd, and was likely searching
for food when it strayed into the town.
He said it did not attack any people and
Continued on page 15
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