GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

Quake city in shock

MEXICO CITY: Life for many has moved outdoors in the quakeshocked city of Juchitan, where a third of the homes are reported uninhabitable and repeated aftershocks have scared people away from many structures still standing.

The city on Sunday was littered with rubble from Thursday night’s magnitude 8.1 earthquake, which killed at least 90 people across southern Mexico — at least three dozen of them in Juchitan itself. Many people continued to sleep outside, fearful of more collapses, as strong aftershocks continued to rattle the town.

Floods hit Italy

ROME: Torrential rain in Italy triggered flooding that killed at least six people on Sunday in the Tuscan port of Leghorn, including a family of four who were trapped by rising water in a basement. Two other people were reported missing. Strong winds toppled trees and parked cars were nearly submerged by floodwaters that left the streets clogged with mud. The Italian news agency ANSA said the bodies of a four-year-old boy, his parents and his grandfather were found in the flooded basement of their two-family home. Before dying, the grandfather managed to save the boy’s sister.

N Korea warns US

PYONGYANG: North Korea says it will make the US pay a heavy price if a proposal Washington is backing to impose the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang is approved by the UN Security Council this week.

The rogue state’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement yesterday saying it is watching the US’ moves closely and threatened it is “ready and willing” to respond with measures of its own.

The US has called for a vote on new UN sanctions against North Korea. Last week, the US circulated a draft resolution proposing the toughest-ever UN sanctions on North Korea, including a ban on all oil and natural gas exports to the country and a freeze on all foreign financial assets of the government and its despotic leader Kim Jong-un.

NZ voting begins

WELLINGTON: Advance voting has begun for New Zealand’s general election, which could see a change of government in the South Pacific nation for the first time in nine years. Election officials say just over 3 million voters are enrolled for the September 23 election, in the country of nearly 5 million people. Opinion polls indicate it will be a close race between the conservative National Party, led by Prime Minister Bill English, and the liberal Labour Party, led by Jacinda Ardern.