Twenty-two foreigners were among those detained in overnight raids, the Istanbul police headquarters said, without giving details of their nationalities.

Police seized several electronic devices and one gun during the operation.

The 29 detained, many of whom had fought in war zones, were part of an IS cell about to commit a “sensational attack” in Turkey, police said without giving further details.

Turkish police on Wednesday detained six suspected members of IS planning a bomb attack on an opposition protest march led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

He is on the final stage of a 450-kilometre (280-mile) “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul to protest over the legal system under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish border had previously been a key transit point for IS recruits and supplies before Turkey tightened security and launched a military operation to clear the jihadists from its southern border last August.

Turkey suffered a series of terror attacks in 2016 and one in 2017 blamed on IS.

The last attack — claimed by IS — was during New Year’s celebrations at the elite Istanbul nightclub Reina when a gunman killed 39 people.

In his entreaty to the summiteers, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the pontiff said he appreciated efforts by the world’s major economies to target “more inclusive and sustainable global economic growth.”

But in a “heartfelt appeal” Francis focused on conflict.

He urged the G20 nations to help resolve “the tragic situation in South Sudan, the Lake Chad basin, the Horn of Africa and Yemen, where 30 million people are lacking the food and water needed to survive.”

“A commitment to meet these situations with urgency and to provide immediate support to those peoples will be a sign of the seriousness and sincerity of the mid-term commitment to reforming the world economy and a guarantee of its sound development,” the pope insisted.

Francis said world leaders should give “absolute priority to the poor, refugees, the suffering, evacuees and the excluded, without distinction of nation, race, religion or culture.”

War “is never a solution,” he said.

World leaders, he urged, should strive to “substantially reducing levels of conflict, halting the present arms race and renouncing direct or indirect involvement in conflicts.”

Khong Quoc Tuan, the director of tourism in Hai Duong Province once told us that “ Hai Duong has not much, but we have our hearts with which to welcome all of you”. But he was too modest.

The province on the northeastern outskirts of Hanoi has lots to offer those seeking a day trip from the capital or a weekend getaway.

Thanh  Ha District, for example, is one of Vietnam’s most famous regions for growing lychee that ripen around May and early July. In fact, the fruit is considered to have originated from this area.

Several domestic travel companies are planning to offer new tour itineraries to Thanh Ha’s lychee gardens and ancient pagodas. At only about 60 km from Hanoi, the district is easily accessible by motorbike, too.

Ancestral lychees

A must-see on this jaunt is an “ancestral” 19th-century lychee tree, which broke the record last year to become the oldest of its species in Vietnam. The tree was planted in Thuy Lam town of Thanh Son commune by Hoang Van Com (born in 1848), who brought home three lychee seeds from a fest he attended in neighbouring Hai Phong Province hosted by Chinese people. He planted the Chinese seeds in his garden. They all grew well, and one of them, which is now the oldest such tree in the country – produced delicious fruit. Com decided to clone the special tree, taking saplings and spreading them across the village.

Since then, Thanh Ha lychee has gained popularity and become a local staple. The district has more than 1,000 hectares of lychees conforming to the VietGap standard and has exported the fruit to the US, the EU and Japan.

“The ancestral lychee tree is the pride of our family and we do our best to preserve it,”said Hoang Van Luom, a sixth generation direct descendant of Hoang Van Com.

Take you time visiting the lychee gardens of local families, where the fruit can be bought directly after tasting them – and for far less than you would spend at the supermarket. This year, a kilo picked at the gardens goes for VND30,000 (US$1.3), compared to VND50,000 at the market. And more importantly, you know for sure where the fruits are from.

Old pagodas

After the gardens, it’s time to visit several old pagodas nearby.

Dong Ngo Pagoda in Tien Tien Commune is one of the oldest pagodas in Hai Duong Province, built during the Dinh Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago.

Its most significant feature is the nine-storey lotus tower (cuu pham lien hoa, in Vietnamese), a unique Buddhist artwork dating to 1692. Currently, there are only three such rotary wooden works in Vietnam, in three old pagodas.

This artwork originates from a ritual of praying and rotating an object – a pendulum or a bell or this lotus tower – at the same time. This ritual is believed to allow prayers and wishes to be delivered to heaven. The tower symbolises the spiritual levels that Buddhists have to practice from the first storey to the ninth.

On each storey of this 5m high lotus-shaped tower there are 18 wooden Buddhist statues sitting on lotus. Besides its artistic values, the tower conveys a message of compassion, altruism and charity and shows the development of the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen Sect in Viet Nam during the 17th-18th centuries.

A quick visit to the pagoda also reveals newly-built architectural works in stone. You’ll see two round wells decorated with various stone blocs, as well as stone mortars in the yard of the pagoda. You can also cross a 3m-long stone bridge at a corner of the pagoda. Stop and gaze in awe at the 30m-long map of Viet Nam made of 300 stone mortars. The Most Venerable Thich Thanh Thang travelled near and far to look for stone mortar and stone blocks to create those original architectural works.

Do not miss the opportunity to visit the ancient and romantic Bach Hao Pagoda in Thach Xa commune, overlooking the Cua Chua River. The 11th century Ly Dynasty edifice is known as one of the most poetic pagodas in the Red River Delta.

And if you happen to be there on the 6th day of the Lunar New year, drop by one of the pagoda festivals featuring such events as duck catching,  rice cooking, and traditional farmer boat race.

Swang Suksri, CPF’s senior vice president for human resources, said that the company is committed to following the new migrant labour decree. This is in line with CPF’s policy to treat foreign workers fairly and equitably.

“CPF has employed migrant workers who adhere to new migrant labour laws, so foreign workers confidently work with the company,” Suksri said in a press statement.

CPF now employs about 8,800 migrant workers or 18 per cent of its workforce of 50,000 workers. Of the total, approximately 6,300 are from Cambodia and 2,500 from Myanmar. They work at both feed mills and food processing plants.

The company says its recruitment policy has aligned with Thailand’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with neighbouring countries. CPF also shoulders recruitment-related expenses including application fees charged by authorised agents in their respective countries, training fees, medical checkup fees and work licensing fees.

All the company’s migrant workers hold employee status, entitled to equal pay and benefits enjoyed by Thai workers. These include medical expenses, insurance and annual pay hikes. They are accommodated in the company’s dormitories and transported to work premises by company buses. The company uses translators on the grounds to provide assistance and advice to migrant workers. CPF was recently bestowed a certificate from Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, lauded as a model for best practices in the protection of migrant workers.

CPF also upholds the policy to have all in the supply chain adopt the Good Labour Practices (GLP), aiming to lift the work conditions of workers at animal farms to international standards. This serves as assurance that migrant workers throughout CPF’s supply chain enjoy equal and fair treatment, in line with international human rights standards.

An 18-year-old woman died after being hit by falling debris in Ormoc City on Leyte island, near the epicentre of the quake, police said.

Elsewhere, rescuers pulled out eight survivors and one body from a collapsed three-storey structure in the town of Kananga, also on Leyte island, Kananga Vice Mayor Elmer Codilla told AFP.

“Eight have been rescued. All are in the hospital,” he said, declining to say if their injuries were serious.

Among those rescued were two people who previously sent SMS messages under the rubble, calling for help, he said.

“There are six or seven still inside. Definitely more than five but less than ten,” he added.

Among those still trapped are two children who have been reached by rescuers but who still cannot be extricated from the rubble, the vice-mayor said.

“We have given them water,” he added.

Dominico Petilla, the governor of Leyte province, said rescue personnel, ambulances and heavy equipment have been sent to the mountainous town of about 50,000 people.

“They’re still trying to pull out the injured,” Petilla told local television.

The 10-year-old building housed a small hotel upstairs and shops on the ground floor, officials said.

– Quake brings darkness –

=========================

The quake hit at a depth of around six kilometres (four miles), the US Geological Survey said.

There was no warning of a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Large parts of Leyte were devastated by super typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. Huge tsunami-like waves smashed the city of Tacloban and nearby areas, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.

Tacloban and Ormoc, the island’s other main city, largely escaped damage this time, residents contacted by telephone told AFP.

However the entire island of Leyte as well as neighbouring islands were still without power after the quake caused geothermal plants on the island to shut down, an energy department statement said.

While the plants were soon back online, inspectors were still searching for damage to power lines, the department said, adding that it could take “one or two weeks” to fully restore power.

Roy Ribo, an official with a farmers’ organisation who was visiting Kananga, said he watched schoolchildren panic as their teachers herded them out of their classrooms for safety after the quake.

“Many children were hysterical. They were frantic, crying,” he added.

Father Romy Salazar, the Catholic parish priest of the Leyte town of Jaro at the quake’s epicentre, told AFP residents rushed out of their homes as the town shook.

“I was inside the church. I was forced to hold on to the main door,” Salazar said, but added he had not seen any major damage in the town.

In February, a 6.5-magnitude quake killed eight people and left more than 250 injured outside the southern city of Surigao.

The following month a 5.9-magnitude tremor killed one person there in March.

Before the Surigao quakes, the last fatal earthquake to hit the country was a 7.1-magnitude tremor that left more than 220 people dead and destroyed historic churches when it struck the central islands in October 2013.

The Philippines lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many quakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

The tightly-controlled city-state has been captivated by the row over the future of the family bungalow, which has played out in a bitter back and forth across social media since it erupted last month.

“For now, we will cease presenting further evidence on social media, provided that we and our father’s wish are not attacked or misrepresented,” said Lee Hsien Yang, 60, and Lee Wei Ling, 62, in a joint statement.

The patriarch, who ruled Singapore for three decades, wanted the house destroyed after he passed away to prevent the creation of a personality cult.

But prime minister Lee Hsien Loong’s siblings say their brother is attempting to block the house’s demolition to capitalise on their father’s legacy for his own political agenda, including grooming his own son as a future leader.

The unprecedented row has shocked a tightlycontrolled nation unused to divisions among the elite, with the 65yearold prime minister telling parliament this week it was “not a soap opera” and calling for private resolution.

“We look forward to talking without the involvement of lawyers or government agencies,” the siblings said in their statement.

The elder Lee was widely revered for having transformed Singapore into one of the world’s wealthiest societies, but has also been criticised for authoritarian tendencies.

In his speech to parliament Monday  part of a twoday debate over the dispute  the prime minister said the allegations against him were “entirely baseless” and denied abuse of power and nepotism.

On Thursday, his brother and sister also released a document summing up what they say is the evidence against the leader, and repeated their central claim he was trying to block the destruction of the centuryold bungalow.

“(Lee Kuan Yew) wanted to demolish the house because he knew it was the right thing for Singapore. He did not want Singaporeans to create a cult around him,” they said.//AFP

The Pilatus Porter PC-6 aircraft lost contact around mid-day Wednesday just eight minutes after it took off from Wamena city, located in the eastern province’s mountainous region. It had been flying southwest toward neighbouring Nduga province.

The plane wreckage was spotted in a mountainous area nine miles (14km) from Wamena airport late on Wednesday.

There were no survivors from the crash.

The plane, owned by missionary firm Associated Mission Aviation (AMA), was carrying three passengers and two crew, including the Dutch pilot. The other four victims were Indonesian.

Rescue crew began work early Thursday and all five bodies were recovered from the crash site, officials said.

“The main challenge was the plane wreckage lies on a cliff, so the evacuation team used a helicopter and hoisted the bodies up,” Rasburhani, the head of Wamena airport, who uses one name, told AFP.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years.

Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach, and has experienced a number of accidents.

In December last year, a military transport plane crashed in Papua, killing 13 people on board.

In August 2015, a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana also crashed in Papua due to bad weather, killing all 54 people on board.//AFP

The remains of the two hostages, who were kidnapped along with four other crew members of a Vietnamese cargo ship in November last year, were recovered off the southern region of Mindanao by Philippine troops on Wednesday.

The military blamed the killings on the notorious kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group with a stronghold in the area, and which is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.

“I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you,” Duterte said in a speech before local officials late Wednesday.

“I eat everything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed.”

Holding up a mobile phone with a photo of the slain Vietnamese sailors, Duterte angrily cursed the militants.

“Will we allow ourselves to be enslaved by these people? Son of a whore.”

Duterte, 72, ordered a military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and other militants in the southern Philippines last year.

Abu Sayyaf, originally a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, has splintered into factions, with some continuing to engage in banditry and kidnappings.

One faction has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, and joined militants battling security forces since late May in Marawi, the largely Catholic nation’s most important Islamic city.

The militants continue to occupy parts of the southern city despite a US-backed military offensive there that has claimed more than 460 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people.

Duterte often uses extreme language, particularly when talking about Islamist militants.

Last year, the leader said he would eat Abu Sayyaf militants alive in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge following a bombing in Davao, his southern home city that claimed 15 lives.

Duterte said Vietnam had raised concern about a series of high-seas kidnappings blamed on the Abu Sayyaf when he visited Hanoi last year.

On Wednesday, Vietnam’s foreign ministry condemned the killing of the two sailors as it called for heavy punishment.

One of the six crewmen was rescued last month and three remain in captivity according to the Philippine military.

It says Abu Sayyaf militants are holding a total of 22 hostages, including eight other Vietnamese.

Typhoon Nanmadol made landfall in Nagasaki on the southwestern main island of Kyushu, packing winds of up to 144 kilometres (89 miles) per hour, Japan’s meteorological agency said.

At least 47 domestic flights were cancelled, affecting around 3,000 passengers, airline companies said, as transport across Kyushu temporarily came to a standstill Tuesday.

Public broadcaster NHK said at least three people were injured in storm-related accidents.

The storm was moving east at a speed of 55 kph and was expected to cut across eastern Japan, including areas surrounding Tokyo, late Tuesday or early Wednesday while losing strength, the agency said.

Television footage from NHK and a report in the Asahi newspaper showed a downed power pole, collapsed scaffolding and an overturned truck.

Local officials issued evacuation advisories that affected more than 20,000 people, news reports said.

Big storms regularly strike Japan, with 22 people killed when Typhoon Lionrock pounded the country last September.

“Most of the teachers only have identification cards issued by the Thai Education Ministry. The police can arrest them if they don’t have residency documents,” he said.

“Some of the teachers are too afraid to come to school so we have to temporarily close the schools down.”

It was not immediately clear how many of the 69 Myanmar migrant schools at the Thai-Myanmar border have been closed, according to Karen News.

The Thai police launched the crackdown on June 22 after a new foreign labour law concerning migrant workers in Thailand was enacted on June 20.

Over 1,400 undocumented foreign workers – including over 1,000 Myanmar workers – have been arrested [as of June 29] so far, according to the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs (JACBA)’s chairman U Moe Gyo.

“They started the crackdown two days after it was enacted [so] the Thai government has shamelessly violated human rights [principles],” Karen News quoted him as saying.

Although the police have not made any arrests at migrant schools, they are arresting migrant workers on the streets and in markets, according to officials from the BMTA.

BMTA officials said this also means that some undocumented Myanmar migrant parents are also not allowing their children to attend school.

But vice chair of the BMTA Mann Shwe Hnin remained optimistic, saying “I believe the situation won’t deteriorate since we have always [been able to negotiate].”