No: 17264 Friday, June 23, 2017

15

I n t e r n a t i o n a l

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

NEW ORLEANS: Gulf Coast states were in for a

third day of rough weather as Tropical Storm

Cindy sloshed ashore early yesterday in south-

western Louisiana. Already blamed for one

death in Alabama, Cindy was expected to keep

churning seas and spin off bands of severe

weather from eastern Texas to northwestern

Florida. The storm’s maximum sustained winds

had decreased to near 40 mph yesterday

morning with additional weakening expected,

the US National Hurricane Center said.

A boy on an Alabama beach was struck and

killed Wednesday by a log washed ashore by

the storm. Baldwin County Sheriff’s Capt.

Stephen Arthur said witnesses reported the 10-

year-old boy from Missouri was standing out-

side a condominium in Fort Morgan when the

log, carried in by a large wave, struck him.

Arthur said the youth was vacationing with his

family from the St. Louis area and that relatives

and emergency workers tried to revive him. He

wasn’t immediately identified.

It was the first known fatality from Cindy.

Otherwise, the storm was blamed for wide-

spread coastal highway flooding, rough seas

and scattered reports of power outages and

building damage caused by high winds. There

were numerous reports of waterspouts and

short-lived tornadoes spawned by the storm.

National Weather Service forecasters estimated

the storm had dumped anywhere from 2 to 10

inches of rain on various spots along the Gulf

Coast from southern Louisiana to the Florida

panhandle as of Wednesday. And more rain

was on the way.

Pockets of wind damage 

Alek Krautmann of the National Weather

Service in Slidell, Louisiana, said yesterday’s

pattern would likely be much like

Wednesday’s: Bands of intermittent, some-

times heavy rain spinning onto the coast. In

Gulfport, Mississippi, Kathleen Bertucci said

heavy rainfall Wednesday sent about 10 inches

of water into her business, Top Shop, which

sells and installs granite countertops. “It’s pret-

ty disgusting, but I don’t have flood insurance

because they took me out of the flood zone,”

said Bertucci, whose store is near a bayou.

“We’re just trying to clean everything up and

hope it doesn’t happen again.”

In nearby Biloxi, a waterspout moved

ashore Wednesday morning. Harrison County

Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy

said there were no injuries but fences, trees

and power lines were damaged. Storms also

downed trees in the Florida Panhandle. Fort

Walton Beach spokeswoman Jo Soria said fall-

en trees hit houses and cars in what she called

“pockets of wind damage” in two or three resi-

dential neighborhoods. The White House said

President Donald Trump was briefed on the

storm Wednesday by Homeland Security

Adviser Tom Bossert. Louisiana Gov. John Bel

Edwards declared a state of emergency, like his

Alabama counterpart a day earlier. He was

among authorities stressing that the storm’s

danger wasn’t limited to the coast. In Knoxville,

Tennessee, the power-generating Tennessee

Valley Authority, said it was drawing down

water levels on nine lakes it controls along the

Tennessee River and its tributaries in

Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, anticipat-

ing heavy runoff from Cindy’s rains once the

storm moves inland. The TVA manages 49

dams to regulate water, provide power and

help control downstream flooding.

In Alabama, streets were flooded and

beaches were closed on the barrier island of

Dauphin Island. Some roads were covered with

water in the seafood village of Bayou La Batre,

but Becca Caldemeyer still managed to get to

her bait shop open at the city dock. If only

there were more customers, she said. “It’s pret-

ty quiet,” Caldemeyer said by phone from

Rough Water Bait and Tackle. “Nobody can cast

a shrimp out in this kind of wind.” —AP

Tropical Storm Cindy comes 

ashore in southwest Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS: Sydney Schultz takes photos of waves crashing next to Rollover Pass as Tropical Storm Cindy

approaches the coast on the Bolivar Peninsula. —AP

EU’s Donald Tusk says 

Brexit can be reversed

BRUSSELS:  EU president Donald Tusk yesterday said Brexit

could be reversed as leaders gathered for a Brussels summit

amid growing confidence in a future without Britain.

Embattled Prime Minister Theresa May will make EU leaders an

offer on the rights of expats after Britain’s withdrawal as she

tries to convince them she still has a grip after her election

meltdown. But Tusk, who has repeatedly said Brexit benefits

no one, especially not Britain, channeled former Beatle John

Lennon as he became the latest in a series of EU leaders to

suggest it was not too late to change tack. “Some of my British

friends have asked me whether Brexit could be reversed, and

whether I could imagine an outcome where the UK stays part

of the European Union,” Tusk told reporters. “I told them that

in fact the European Union was built on dreams that seemed

impossible to achieve, so who knows?” the former Polish pre-

mier said. “You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only

one,” he added with a broad smile, quoting Lennon’s iconic

song “Imagine.” Newly-elected French President Emmanuel

Macron and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble

both said last week that the “door was open” for Britain to

remain in the EU. 

Tusk insisted the remaining 27 members had a renewed

sense of optimism about the bloc’s future after years of crisis

and mounting anti-EU sentiment culminating in the Brexit vote.

Despite it being his 80th summit as premier or EU head, “never

before have I had such a strong belief that things are going in a

better direction,” he said. “Our optimism should still be

extremely cautious but we have good reason to talk about it,”

Tusk said shortly before the summit opens at 1300 GMT.

Can May deliver? 

In Brussels, security has been stepped up after Tuesday’s

bombing at one of the city’s main rail stations by an Islamic

State sympathizer, following attacks in Britain and France.

Macron won office as a committed European and has joined

forces with German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledging to put

the EU back on track to deliver prosperity and security after

years of austerity and crisis. But talks on issues including post-

Brexit defense plans risk being overshadowed by concerns that

a disastrous election has left May so enfeebled that Brexit nego-

tiations will be hampered. “There is an enormous insecurity

among the Europeans: how long will she last? Has she got the

majority to deliver?” a senior EU official said. Over dinner, May is

expected to fill in some of the blanks for the other EU leaders

on Brexit. It will be their first meeting since her Conservative

party unexpectedly lost its majority in a June 8 election, leaving

her in charge of a so-called “zombie government”. Britain’s

shock referendum vote to leave the EU was a year ago on

Friday, and the country remains in a dark national mood after a

string of terror attacks and a deadly tower block blaze. 

Citizens rights a key issue 

“The PM will give an update to the other member states on

the UK’s Brexit plans following the beginning of the negotia-

tions this week,” a Downing Street spokesman said. During the

dinner May will “outline some principles of the UK’s paper on

citizens rights which will be published at the beginning of next

week,” the spokesman said. —AFP

LONDON: This file photo shows a man waving

both a Union flag and a European flag together

on College Green outside the Houses of

Parliament at an anti-Brexit protest in central

London. —AFP

WASHINGTON:  US Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson on Wednesday urged

C h i n e s e   o f f i c i a l s   t o   a p p l y   g r e a t e r

diplomatic and economic pressure on

North Korea to force Pyongyang to

rein in its nuclear weapons program.

Tillerson’s remarks came after he and

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis met with

t h e   C h i n e s e   v i s i t o r s   a t   t h e   S t a t e

Department, where the former general

said he saw scope for a better defense

relationship.

The extent to which Beijing can

influence Pyongyang is key in trying to

defuse the North Korea crisis, and

Tillerson’s remarks came the day after

President Donald Trump appeared to

suggest China’s President Xi Jinping

had come up short in efforts to lean

o n   K i m   J o n g - U n ’ s   r e g i m e .   C a l l i n g

North Korea the “top security threat”

to the United States, Tillerson said

China has a “diplomatic responsibility

to exert much greater economic and

diplomatic pressure on the regime if

they want to prevent further escala-

tion in the region”.

For their part, the Chinese envoys

v o i c e d   t h e i r   o p p o s i t i o n   t o

W a s h i n g t o n ’ s   d e p l o y m e n t   o f   t h e

THAAD anti-missile defense system in

South Korea and demanded its with-

drawal, China’s foreign ministry said in

a statement. China-represented by top

diplomat Yang Jiechi and General

Fang Fenghui also pressed for negoti-

ations, proposing again a “dual-track

approach” in which North Korea would

suspend its nuclear and missile activi-

ties while the United States and South

Korea would halt large-scale military

exercises. —AFP

Tillerson urges China to put 

more pressure on N Korea

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