Alive News

JAKARTA: An elderly village witch doctor in Indonesia entrapped a 12-year-old girl and tricked her into having sex with him for the next 15 years by claiming to be possessed by the “jin”, or spirit, of a young boy, police said on Tuesday.

The woman, an identified by police as “H”, was rescued on Sunday in Tolitoli regency, in Central Sulawesi province.

Acting on a tip-off, police said they had found the woman, who was now aged 28, in a rocky crevice in a jungle near Bajugan village, where she had been held during the day since her disappearance in 2003.

At night, police said she stayed in a hut near the house of the 83-year old man, identified by police as JG.

Central Sulawesi Police Chief Muhammad Iqbal Alqudusy said the man had shown the girl a picture of a boy named Amrin “who she thought was her boyfriend”.

“She was led to believe that Amrin’s spirit had entered (the elderly man’s) body,” Iqbal said on Tuesday at a news conference that was posted online. “It is obvious that he was satisfying his lust.”

Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country but old beliefs about spirits and other paranormal activity are still held by some.

Iqbal later told Reuters the woman said she had been having intercourse with “Jin Amrin” since 2003 “but she was really having sex with JG”.

The man, he said, admitted to sexual relations since 2008.

Police said they found the woman after her sister alerted neighbours she was nearby.

According to the Jakarta Post, the sister was married to the son of the shaman, known for his traditional healing methods and abilities to channel spirits.

The man explained the victim’s disappearance to her parents by saying she had gone to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, to work, the newspaper reported.

The man has been charged with offences under Indonesia’s child protection laws, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Liverpool’s Georginio Wijnaldum celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates. Photo: Reuters

MANCHESTER: Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final and their impressive three wins over Manchester City in the last campaign have raised hopes on Merseyside that they could be the closest challengers to Pep Guardiola’s side this season.

Their work in the transfer market has also added to the positivity around the club after German manager Juergen Klopp made some major moves that have clearly strengthened his squad.

The most glaring weakness in last year’s team was in goal, where Loris Karius’s nightmare performance in the Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid exposed their lack of a reliable top-class keeper.

Klopp responded by signing 25-year-old Brazil international Alisson Becker from AS Roma, smashing the world record for a goalkeeper in a deal worth up to 72.5 million euros ($84 million).

The departure of Emre Can to Juventus and the long-term injury absence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain left Klopp short of options in the centre of midfield.

Yet the arrivals of Brazilian Fabinho from AS Monaco and Guinea international Naby Keita from RB Leipzig have provided plenty of additional quality.

Liverpool’s strength last season was their attack, which remains unchanged, with Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane a potent trident that will trouble any defence in the Premier League.

The surprise purchase of Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke City offers some cover and flexibility, rounding out what has been an impressive transfer window for Klopp.

As well as the close-season signings, the arrival in January of Virgil van Dijk brought much-needed solidity and stability to the centre of defence and with Joe Gomez and Nathianel Clyne back to fitness, there are increased options at fullback.

While City start as title favourites, Liverpool know they are capable of outgunning Guardiola’s side — they beat them 4-3 in the league at Anfield in January before a 3-0 victory in the Champions League quarter-final, first leg.

Klopp is well aware that Liverpool need to eliminate some of the sloppy performances, which left them trailing City in the league last season, and while he is not promising silverware, he expects to see progress.

“Improvement, development, using our football last season as a basis and make the next steps. More consistency – we were not inconsistent, but we can be more consistent,” he said.

“The mood in the club at the moment is really good and we want to build on that, we want to come even closer.”

File: Usain Bolt before the match in England. Photo: Reuters

SYDNEY: Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt will train with Australia’s Central Coast Mariners as he continues his quest to become a professional soccer player, the A-League team said on Tuesday.

Bolt won eight Olympic golds and since retiring from athletics has trained with Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and Norway’s Stromsgodset.

He will link up with the Australian side later this month.

“I am very excited about coming to Australia and would like to thank the owner and management of the Central Coast Mariners for giving me this opportunity,” the 31-year-old Jamaican said.

“It has been my dream to play professional football and I know it will involve a lot of hard work and training to get to the level required to play and make an impact in the A-League.”

Mariners said the deal did not guarantee a professional playing contract with them.

“Having Usain Bolt come to the club to train and hopefully develop into a professional football player is perfectly aligned to this part of the club’s philosophy,” Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp said.

“It is important that we don’t get too caught up in the hype of possibilities, but the reality is that Usain Bolt has placed his faith in the Central Coast Mariners to accelerate his football journey.”

Manchester United fan Bolt has previously stated his desire to play for the Premier League champions.

BANGKOK: Businesses in Thailand’s southwestern Petchaburi province blocked doors with sandbags and bricks against possible flooding on Tuesday as heavy rains threatened to cause a dam to overflow.

Rain storms are forecast through coming days, and the head of Thailand’s military government warned that evacuation plans might need to be set in place.

“Many areas might need to have an evacuation plan in place,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters as he prepared to visit the province, some 168 km (104 miles) southwest of Bangkok, on Wednesday.

“Any homes downstream must be prepared to evacuate to higher ground,” he added.

Thailand suffered its worst floods in half a century in 2011. The floods killed more than 900 people, crippled industry and dented economic growth.

Officials in Petchaburi said they were confident that water levels at the Kaeng Krachan Dam and any water run-off could be managed.

“Four districts could be affected … The governor and local administration are preparing sandbags and water pumps,” Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Television news channels showed residents in Petchaburi laying sandbags and bricks in front of the doorways to shops and banks, and authorities intended to issue warnings to tourists visiting resorts on the Gulf of Thailand’s coast.

“Operators and resort owners are aware of the situation. We will send an alert to tourists,” Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat told reporters.

The current rainy season has already caused havoc in neighboring Cambodia and Laos.

In Laos, 31 people have been confirmed dead and 130 are still missing after a part of hydroelectric project in the southern province of Attapeu collapsed last month.

The company building the dam has said heavy rain and flooding caused the collapse.

Cambodia’s National Disaster Management Center said flooding caused by rising water levels in the Mekong River has killed eight people and 5,000 families have been evacuated from across five provinces.

• Death toll at 105, expected to rise


• Thousands homeless, many desperately need water, food, shelter


• Woman rescued from collapsed store after neighbours heard cries


• Tourists leave Lombok, more than 4,600 rescued from Gili islands

Soldiers and rescue workers remove the body of a victim recovered from a collapsed mosque following Sunday’s earthquake in Tanjung, North Lombok, on Tuesday, August 7, 2018. Photo: Reuters

KAYANGAN: The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia’s tourist island of Lombok topped 100 on Tuesday as rescuers found victims under wrecked buildings, while thousands left homeless in the worst-affected areas waited for aid to arrive.

A woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed grocery store in the north, near the epicentre of Sunday’s 6.9 magnitude quake, the second tremor to rock the tropical island in a week.

That was a rare piece of good news as hopes of finding more survivors faded and a humanitarian crisis loomed for thousands left homeless by the disaster in the rural area and in desperate need of clean water, food, medicine and shelter.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) put the toll at 105, including two on the neighbouring island of Bali to the west, where the quake was also felt – and the figure was expected to rise.

Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 29 that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

THOUSANDS SCATTERED ON HILLS

Few buildings were left standing in Kayangan on the island’s northern end, where residents told Reuters that as many as 40 died.

Some villagers used sledgehammers and ropes to start clearing the rubble of broken homes, but others, traumatised by continued aftershocks, were too afraid to venture far from tents and tarpaulins set up in open spaces.

There has been little government relief for the area, where the greatest need is for water and food, as underground water sources have been blocked by the quake and shops destroyed or abandoned.

About 75 percent of the north has been without electricity since Sunday, officials said, and some communities were hard to reach because bridges were damaged and trees, rocks and sand lay across roads cracked wide open in places by the tremor.

“Thousands of people moved to scattered locations,” Sutopo told a news conference in Jakarta.

“People have moved to the hillsides where they feel safer. It’s difficult for help to reach them. We advise people to come down and move closer to the camps.”

Aid agency Oxfam said it was providing clean drinking water and tarpaulin shelters to 5,000 survivors, but the need was much greater, with more than 20,000 estimated to have been displaced.

“Thousands … are under open skies in need of drinking water, food, medical supplies, and clothes,” it said in a statement. “Clean drinking water is scarce due to the extremely dry weather.”

Villagers in Pemenang on Lombok’s northwestern shoulder heard cries for help emerging from the mangled concrete of a collapsed minimart on Tuesday and alerted rescuers. Four hours later they pulled out alive Nadia Revanale, 23.

“First we used our hands to clear the debris, then hammers, chisels and machines,” Marcos Eric, a volunteer, told Reuters. “It took many hours but we’re thankful it worked and this person was found alive.”

Rescuers heard a weak voice coming from under the wreckage of a nearby two-storey mosque, where four people were believed to have been trapped when the building pancaked.

“We are looking for access. We have a machine that can drill or cut through concrete, so we may use that. We are waiting for heavier equipment,” Teddy Aditya, an official of the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), told Reuters.

TOURIST EXODUS

Thousands of tourists have left Lombok since Sunday evening, fearing further earthquakes, some on extra flights added by airlines and some on ferries to Bali.

Officials said about 4,600 foreign and domestic tourists had been evacuated from the three Gili islands off the northwest coast of Lombok, where two people died and fears of a tsunami spread soon after the quake.

Saffron Amis, a British student on Gili Trawangan – the largest of the islands fringed by white beaches and surrounded by turquoise sea – said at least 200 people were stranded there with more flowing in from the other two, Gili Air and Gili Meno.

“We still have no wi-fi and very little power. Gili Air has run out of food and water so they have come to us,” she told Reuters in a text message, adding later that she had been taken by boat to the main island en route to Bali.

BEIJING: Four workers were killed and nine were missing after an explosion at a small coal mine in China’s Guizhou province on Monday night, state-owned Xinhua News reported on Tuesday citing local authorities.

The incident happened at Zimujia coal mine, run by private-owned Pannan Coal Investment Co, in Panzhou city. The coal mine has designed annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes.

Cause of explosion was unclear, while rescue work was underway, it said.

Benchmark thermal coal futures soared as much as 5.5 percent to 622 yuan ($90.80) a tonne, their highest in 11 months, during early trade on Tuesday, as market expects more stringent inspections on coal mines across the country might lead to tight supply.

The accident comes not long after a blast at an iron ore mining project in Liaoning that killed 11 people in June.

According to Guizhou Energy Administration file, the coal mine was ordered to rectify on some safety issues during a safety inspection conducted by local authorities in late April.

Pannan Coal cannot be reached for comment. Panzhou city government declined to comment.

In this photo released by the Italian firefighters, an helicopter view of the explosion on a highway in the outskirts of Bologna, Italy, Monday, August 6, 2018. Photo: Vigili Del Fuoco via AP

MILAN: A tanker truck carrying a highly flammable gas exploded Monday after rear-ending a stopped truck on a crowded highway near the northern Italian city of Bologna. At least two people were killed, up to 70 injured and part of the raised expressway collapsed in the fireball.

Police said the accident and subsequent fire and explosion injured between 60 and 70 people, some with severe burns. It also shut down a highway north of the city that is a key route between northern Italy and the Adriatic Coast and other points south, including Florence and Rome, the capital.

A police video showed the tanker failing to slow down quick enough and plowing into the rear of a truck stopped in traffic, with flames exploding on impact. Another truck appeared to hit the tanker from behind. After an unspecified time lapse, during which the highway was cleared of most other vehicles, the truck erupted in a second, enormous explosion that spanned eight lanes of the highway and beyond.

Flames shot up into the air, followed by a thick black cloud of smoke. Aerial photos showed a gaping hole left in the raised highway. TV images hours after the flames were doused showed the burned-out skeletons of hulking tractor trailers.

Italian prosecutors said the tanker was filled with liquefied petroleum gas, otherwise known as propane, used as a fuel in heaters, cooking equipment and vehicles.

Firefighters said the extreme heat of the flames caused the raised roadway to collapse, sending a heat explosion that incinerated dozens of automobiles on new car lots nearby.

Carabinieri said the force of the explosion blew out windows on their barracks, injuring some officers with flying glass.

A woman living about a kilometer (half a mile) from the blast site said explosion caused panic because no one knew what it was.

“I was in the house and I heard a huge bang and screams from the window. I saw a huge plume of smoke,” Crisina Felicani told Sky TG24. “There was panic in the neighborhood, because it wasn’t clear what happened.”

Many people had evacuated the area, due to the thick black smoke, but also while firefighters checked to see if buildings where windows had been blown out were safe to enter.

“It almost would have been an ordinary accident except for the highly flammable material this truck was transporting,” firefighter Carlo Cardinali told Sky.

Authorities said they were working to finish the on-sight investigation so highway officials could reclaim the damaged road and adjacent lanes and begin to rebuild the roadway, which has long been subject to major traffic backups.

The accident closed down a key section of a major north-south highway that is heavily used year-round, but especially as Italy heads into next week’s peak summer holiday travel period.

Italy’s infrastructure and transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, said authorities were working to ensure that traffic would be able to move smoothly “on such a critical stretch.”

In a separate vehicle accident in the southern Italian region of Puglia, 12 farm workers were killed Monday when the van they were traveling in collided with a truck and overturned, ANSA reported.

The accident was similar to one on Saturday, when a truck laden with tomatoes crashed into a white van and four migrants died.

File – In this photo, model Chrissy Teigen poses at the 2017 Revolve Awards at the Dream Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles on Nov. 2, 2017.

Chrissy Teigen has shared her shock and worry in real time during a powerful and deadly earthquake in Indonesia with her social media followers.

The model, along with singer-husband John Legend and their two children, felt the shaking on neighboring Bali on Sunday.

“Bali. Trembling. So long,” Teigen tweeted to her 10.6 million followers.

The quake killed at least 39 people on the tourist island of Lombok, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) from Bali. A brief tsunami warning went into effect but was later lifted.

In another posting, she wrote, “Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride. 15 solid seconds of “hooooooly (expletive) this is happening.”

The aftershocks unnerved Teigen, too.

“im either still trembling or these little quakes won’t stop IM TRYING TO BE NORMAL HERE,” she wrote.

At one point, Teigen reacted to the temblor as she was holding her 2-month-old son Miles: “I very calmly walked outside saying clutching baby saying ‘I’m naked. I’m naked. I’m naked.’ like a naked zombie.”

KATHMANDU: Nepali judokas Indra Bahadur Shrestha and Manita Shrestha Pradhan won gold medals in the North Bangkok University Judo Championship in Thailand on Sunday.

Indra won the gold medal in men’s below-66kg weight category after winning four bouts against Thailand, UAE and Japanese players, while Manita defeated players from Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand on her way to winning the gold in women’s below-57kg section.

Also, Poonam Shrestha won silver in women’s below-78kg section, whereas Devika Khadka bagged bronze in women’s below-52kg weight category.

Indra and Umesh Magar had win bronze medals in the previous edition of the tournament.

LALITPUR: Dr Nabees Man Singh Pradhan has been nominated by the organising committee of the 18th Asian Games as the Doping Control Officer.

Pradhan, who attended the DCO training in Sri Lanka in 2013 and had previously represented the country in Nanjing Youth Asian Games, is the lone officer to be picked up from South Asia for the Asiad slated for Indonesia from August 18 to September 2, informed the Nepal Olympic Committee in a release.

NOC President Jeevan Ram Shrestha on Sunday bade farewell to Pradhan, who will be leaving for Indonesia on August 9.

KATHMANDU: Rising Cricket for Women Club is organising the Women Supper Indoor Cricket Tournament here at the Ultimate Indoor Cricket on Tuesday.

A total of five teams — RCW, Gautam Group, Thunder Birds, KCTC Girls and Sri Sri Yoddha — will take part in the tournament, informed RCW President Arati Bidari.

Each team will have six players and the matches will be played under indoor cricket rules.

The winners will get Rs 35,000 along with trophy, while the runners-up will bag Rs 15,000.