China lodges tariff case at WTO against US
BEIJING • China has lodged a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over US import duties, the Commerce Ministry said yesterday.
The US began imposing 15 per cent tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday and China began imposing new duties on US crude oil, the latest escalation in their trade war.
Beijing did not release details of its legal case but said the US tariffs hit US$300 billion (S$417 billion) of Chinese exports.
The latest tariff actions violated the consensus reached by leaders of China and the US in a meeting in Osaka, the ministry said in a statement.
China will defend its legal rights in accordance with WTO rules, it said.
Hurricane Dorian pounds Bahamas, kills one
TITUSVILLE (Florida) • Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas yesterday, peeling off roofs and snapping power lines as rising floodwaters threatened to engulf houses, and was expected to edge closer to the US coast, where more than a million people were ordered to evacuate.
There were no estimates of casualties as Dorian, a life-threatening Category 5 storm, pounded the islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama.
The Bahama Press reported that a seven-year-old boy had drowned, the storm's first recorded fatality.
The hurricane was expected to move dangerously close to Florida's east coast yesterday night and likely to remain till tomorrow, the National Hurricane Centre said.
Student lands plane after instructor blacks out
SYDNEY • An Australian man venturing into the skies for his first flying lesson was forced to make an "amazing" solo landing after his instructor blacked out mid-flight.
Mr Max Sylvester's wife and three kids watched from the ground as air traffic control talked him through safely landing the Cessna two-seater at Perth's Jandakot airport last Saturday.
The 30-something had issued a panicked mayday call from an altitude of 1,900m, after his instructor slumped onto his shoulder and could not be woken.
The plane made a heart-stoppingly bumpy landing some 20 minutes later, after Mr Sylvester was guided by the control tower, according to a recording of his exchange with the tower.
