PARIS – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will urge Southeast Asian nations in meetings in Laos next week to find diplomatic ways to launch talks on easing tension over the South China Sea following an international court ruling that denies China’s claims in the sea.

“The Secretary will reinforce our hope that … the parties will now turn to constructively engaging in a effort to find diplomatic ways to peacefully interact in the South China Sea,”a senior U.S. official said before a meeting of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos’ capital Vientiane on Sunday.

Heavy rain in China has killed at least 87 people and forced 16 million from their homes, state media reported on Saturday.

Seventy-two people have been killed and 78 are missing in the northern province of Hebei after rain triggered floods and landslides, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing the civil affairs department.

Nearly 50,000 homes have collapsed and about 8.6 million people have been affected, it said.

In the central province of Henan, 15 people were killed and eight were missing after thunderstorms and strong winds forced 7.2 million people from their homes and damaged 18,000 houses.

Hundreds of flights cancelled as heavy rains persist in Beijing

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AFP, Reuters

Large parts of China have been inundated with rain this summer, killing more than 200 people.

More than 1.5 million hectares of crops have been damaged, leading to direct economic losses of more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), the government has said.

The central bank on Friday issued a statement saying it would provide financial support for flooded areas.

MANILA – Finally, law enforcers are starting to net the big fish.

A suspected Chinese drug lord wanted for operating “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) laboratories in the Philippines for the past 13 years was killed in a shootout with narcotics agents in Valenzuela City early yesterday, police said.

Chinese national Meco Tan fought it out with Philippine National Police agents who raided Willex Compound on Pinagbayanan Street in Barangay Lingunan at dawn, a report from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said.

Ignoring warnings, Tan allegedly boarded his car and engaged police in a brief chase. A firefight ensued after his car slammed into a curb, leading to his death, police said.

Found inside the vehicle was a bag loaded with packs of suspected shabu, according to police.

Five Chinese nationals who were inside the building were subsequently “invited for questioning.” Police, however, would not say whether they were considered suspects.

A worker at the compound claimed that the chemical found by police inside the factory was titanium dioxide, which was used in cleaning plastics. The warehouse is owned by a certain Henry Co and has been in operation for the past two years.

Co, who was among those invited for questioning, apparently had just gone to the warehouse to pick up a vehicle, which he uses to take his children to school, police said.

Tan, however, was unknown to the warehouse workers, and it remained unclear what he was doing at the site. Police also confiscated closed-circuit television cameras they found in the warehouse, the worker said.

Wanted since 2003

Tan and a certain Jackson Dy were the suspected operators of a shabu laboratory in Naic, Cavite, where 600 kilograms of the substance were seized in 2003, said National Capital Region Police Office spokesperson Chief Insp. Kimberly Molitas. Dy has been arrested and is now in jail.

Tan is also said to be involved in the operation of a shabu laboratory on Scout Chuatoco, Quezon City, where 70 kg of shabu and 3,500 kg of ephedrine, a key ingredient in the manufacture of the drug, were confiscated.

Drug tally

Tan is believed to be the first high-profile suspect slain since President Duterte took office and launched a bloody war on drugs. As of July 18, the Inquirer’s “Kill List” showed that 312 people have been killed since May 10, a day after the presidential election.

Thousands of small-time drug pushers and addicts have voluntarily given up, with the PNP placing the number at 114,833 since Mr. Duterte took office. Malacañang said yesterday that 2,789 others had been arrested.

Duterte had also publicly named and shamed five police generals as drug protectors, and personally warned a high-profile Chinese businessman whom he had named as a drug lord of death unless he was cleared by the police.

The businessman, Peter Lim, who has denied he is a drug kingpin, voluntarily followed Duterte’s advise and submitted himself to the National Bureau of Investigation for questioning on Thursday.

PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who led the inspection of the compound, issued a warning to other “big-fish” Chinese drug traffickers.

More arrests

“They should start thinking now. More Chinese will be arrested,” Dela Rosa said in a radio interview.

Dela Rosa said that since the “war” on narcotics was launched, only small-time drug dealers have been been arrested because “drug lords are hard to encounter.”

“They hang out in high-end casinos, high-end hotels that they patronise, so you can’t ordinarily see them. Our policemen are barred from hanging out in those places … so they don’t easily encounter them. Now that we’ve encountered them, they’re dead,” Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said the drug lords, too, were “heavily covered” by alleged protectors in the government whom he did not name.

“These drug lords from China can enter the country because there are people who facilitate their entry, either from the government or the community. There are many facilitators, that’s why these drug lords can easily enter.”