13 reported dead in China typhoon
BEIJING -- A typhoon has killed 13 people in China and left thousands in need of basic living supplies, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Sunday.
Typhoon Matmo dumped heavy rain on Taiwan before making landfall in China on Wednesday and being downgraded to a tropical storm. It carried strong winds and heavy downpours to several provinces.
Nine deaths were reported in eastern Jiangxi province and four in southern Guangdong province. Nearly 290,000 residents have been relocated and about 37,000 are in urgent need of basic living supplies, the ministry said. The storm also destroyed homes and crops and caused direct economic losses of $547 million, it said.
The bad weather associated with Typhoon Matmo in Taiwan is considered a likely factor in a plane crash that killed 48 people on a small Taiwanese island on Wednesday.
Wife of Cameroon official kidnapped
Cameroon said Boko Haram kidnapped the wife of Deputy Premier Amadou Ali in the northern part of the country, signaling that the Nigeria-based Islamist militants are increasing operations in the region.
Gunmen attacked Ali's home and killed an unknown number of people and abducted others, including Ali's wife, Minister of Communications Issa Tchiroma said by phone in Yaounde. Tchiroma didn't provide the name of Ali's wife.
"The government has intensified control in the area and sent more soldiers there," Tchiroma said.
Boko Haram has been fighting security forces in neighboring Nigeria for the past five years to impose Islamic law on Africa's biggest economy and oil producer. The group claimed responsibility for the worst bombing in Nigeria's capital in April and has killed more than 2,500 people in the first half of the year.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya sent more than 1,000 troops to the border with Nigeria as Boko Haram intensified cross-border attacks into Cameroon this year. Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger agreed at a May conference in Paris to set up a joint force to patrol the border areas, as the Islamists continue to expand their reach in the region.
In April, the group abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, a Nigerian town in the northeastern state of Borno, close to the border with Cameroon. Boko Haram's name means "western education is a sin" in the Hausa language. Most of the schoolgirls are still missing.
200 reconstruct World War I battle
SZKOTOWO, Poland -- About 200 history enthusiasts from across Europe gathered on a hilly area in Poland to reconstruct the Battle of Tannenberg, an engagement between the Russian and German empires in the first days of World War I.
The re-enactment was held Sunday, one day before the 100th anniversary of the start of the war. It was held on the site of the original battle, which a century ago was in eastern Prussia but now lies in northern Poland.
The battle took place from Aug. 26-30, 1914, and resulted in a major defeat for Russia. The victorious German commander, Paul von Hindenburg, became a national hero and was later Germany's president. The battle is also sometimes known as the second Battle of Tannenberg. The first took place in 1410.
A Section on 07/28/2014