The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This is a red line for the United States.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, explaining the U.S. stance on the potential use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime Article, 1A

Japan orders inspection of tunnels

TOKYO - Japanese officials ordered the immediate inspection of tunnels across the country Monday after nine people were killed when concrete slabs fell from the roof of a highway tunnel onto moving vehicles below.

Early today, police were searching the offices of the company operating the expressway tunnel.

Those killed in Sunday’s accident were traveling in three vehicles in the 3-mile-long Sasago Tunnel 50 miles west of Tokyo. The tunnel, on a highway that links the capital to central Japan, opened in 1977 and is one of many in the mountainous country.

The transport ministry ordered that inspections be carried out immediately on 49 other tunnels around the country that are either on highways or roads managed by the central government and of similar construction.

Police and the highway operator Central Japan Expressway Co. were investigating why the concrete slabs in the Sasago Tunnel collapsed.

Gunman wounds Swede in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan - A gunman on a motorcycle shot and severely wounded an elderly Swedish woman who worked at a church in eastern Pakistan on Monday, officials said.

The woman, was getting out of her car in front of her home in Lahore when she was shot in the neck by an unknown assailant. Her servants reported the shooting to police, said Pakistani police officer Malik Awais.

Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Teo Zetterman confirmed an elderly Swedish woman was shot and severely wounded in Lahore. He said she was a volunteer worker in her 70s but did not provide her name or where she worked.

The woman is a Swedish citizen but has lived and worked in Pakistan for several years, said Zetterman.

The gunman escaped, and the motive was unclear.

Also in Lahore, gunmen Monday desecrated more than 100 graves of Ahmadis, members of a persecuted religious sect in Pakistan, Awais said. More than a dozen gunmen held the caretakers of the graveyard hostage while they defaced the graves.

Typhoon hits southern Philippines

A powerful typhoon pounded the southern Philippines today, cutting power, suspending travel and flooding areas already vulnerable to landslides.

More than 41,000 residents have moved out of their homes in high-risk coastal villages and along rivers, including in southern provinces that were devastated by a deadly storm a year ago. Power has been cut off in at least eight municipalities in southern Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental while parts of Agusan del Sur province are flooded, Civil Defense chief Benito Ramos said.

On Monday, President Benigno Aquino III made a national TV appeal for people in Typhoon Bopha’s path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.

The storm slammed into southern Davao Oriental province early today but did not immediately weaken. Government forecasters said it maintains winds of 109 mph and gusts of up to 130 mph.

Its eye, which is moving west at 16 mph, was last tracked at 50 miles southeast of Bukidnon province’s Malaybalay city.

Bopha, which has a 373-mile-wide rain band, was expected to barrel across southern and central provinces before blowing out into the South China Sea on Thursday, forecasters said.

No casualties had been reported early today. Bopha is the 16th weather disturbance to hit the Philippines this year, less than the 20 typhoons and storms that normally lash the archipelago annually.

89 hurt when Singapore oil rig leans

SINGAPORE - Officials say 89 workers have been injured, some seriously, in an accident at a Singapore shipyard.

The Ministry of Manpower said the accident occurred Monday on an oil exploration rig being built by Jurong Shipyard Pte. Ltd.

The rig consists of a platform on three legs that can be raised or lowered. A shipyard spokesman said one of the legs failed to operate when workers were testing the rig, causing it to tilt to one side.

The ministry said the injured workers were taken to hospitals, and 80 were later discharged. Three remained in an emergency ward.

An investigation of the accident is continuing.

Jurong Shipyard is a subsidiary of offshore engineering group Sembcorp Marine Ltd.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/04/2012

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