JAPAN
One killed in ship collision
One Chinese crewmember was killed and eight others were missing after two cargo ships collided at the mouth of Tokyo Bay yesterday, authorities said. The Panamanian-flagged Beagle III, a 12,630-tonne vessel carrying steel coil, sank after colliding with the South Korean-registered Pegasus Prime in the Uraga waterway. Twelve of the 20 Chinese crew aboard Beagle III were rescued, but one of them was later confirmed to be dead, an official said. The crew of the 7,406-tonne Pegasus Prime — six South Koreans and eight people from Myanmar — were mostly unhurt, but two Koreans sustained minor injuries when they tried to lower a lifeboat, the official said.
AUSTRALIA
‘Secret baby graves’ probed
Police began digging up a rural property yesterday searching for what reports said were “multiple babies” in secret graves. Officers swooped on a house near Gin Gin, 370km northwest of Brisbane, after a tip-off that children were born in secret and their bodies hidden on the property by the same family in the 1990s and early 2000s. “I can confirm we are conducting investigations into information received regarding allegations a number of child births have been concealed on the property,” cold case homicide Detective Inspector Mick Dowie said. He would not say how many children might have been born and buried there, although the Brisbane Courier-Mail newspaper referred to “multiple babies in secret graves.” “There’s one family involved,” Dowie added, without saying whether they were cooperating with police.
INDONESIA
Body found, possibly diver
A body believed to be that of a Japanese diver who went missing with six others off Bali a month ago has been found far from where she disappeared, police said on Monday. The body, thought to be that of diving instructor Shoko Takahashi, was found at the weekend on Sempu Island, East Java Province, about 400km from where the divers went missing. Five of the other female Japanese divers in the group were rescued days after they went missing on Feb. 14, while the body of a sixth washed up on the Indonesian resort island. The body found at the weekend was barely recognizable — the head was missing — but Takahashi’s husband believes it is her due to the clothes inside the diving suit, police said. “The husband, who came to the hospital last night, said he is 98 percent sure that the body belongs to his missing Japanese wife,” Malang marine police chief Slamet Prayitno said. The captain of the boat that took the divers out has been arrested and faces a charge of “negligence which caused the loss of life” after leaving the divers alone in the open seas during the trip.
TUNISIA
Suspected militants killed
Police shot and killed three suspected Islamist militants in a raid near the Algerian border, a security official said on Monday, days after Algerian troops reportedly killed seven militants on the other side of the frontier. Clashes broke out on Monday morning when security forces raided a house in northwest Jendouba, the official said. Gunmen disguised as police had killed three officers and a civilian in an attack there last month. Authorities have been battling militants from the hardline Islamist movement Ansar al-Sharia, which the US earlier this year listed as a foreign terrorist organization. Algerian state news agency APS reported on Friday that Algerian troops had killed seven armed militants who crossed the border from Tunisia.
CANADA
Trapped dolphin pod dies
About 30 white-beaked dolphins have died after being trapped in ice off the coast of Newfoundland Province, and the three remaining alive are not faring well, officials said on Monday. Fisheries officials twice visited the area around Cape Ray, where the animals were reported to have been trapped on Sunday and again on Monday morning. “All but three animals have died,” ministry spokesman Larry Vaters said. “The remaining dolphins appear to be in extremely poor condition and current weather conditions of high winds and whiteouts in the area are not helping matters.” The dolphins would have struggled for air as the ice floes crushed in around them, becoming exhausted and eventually drowning. It is not uncommon to see dolphins as well as porpoises and beluga whales swimming in the ice off Newfoundland waters during the spring thaw, officials said. The area’s “unique geography and currents” tend to form so-called “whale traps” whenever the ice is heavy, Vaters said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jagger’s girlfriend dead
Fashion designer L’Wren Scott, the girlfriend of Rolling Stone frontman Mick Jagger, was found dead at her apartment in New York, the rocker’s spokesman said on Monday. The spokesman said Jagger was “completely shocked and devastated” by the death of 49-year-old Scott. US media reported that she was found hanged. Jagger, 70, is currently in Perth, Australia, where he is touring with the Stones, according to his official Twitter account. Scott, a former US model, had been dating the Rolling Stones frontman since 2001 following his split from wife Jerry Hall. “He is completely shocked and devastated by the news,” Jagger’s spokesman said.
MEXICO
‘Organ trafficker’ detained
Police in the western state of Michoacan detained an alleged member of the Knights Templar cartel, saying he is suspected of trafficking organs. Michoacan Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos Becerra alleged that Manuel Plancarte Gaspar was part of a cartel ring that targets people with certain characteristics, especially children, for kidnapping and harvesting organs. He did not give any specifics or present cases. He said at a news conference on Monday that investigators were looking into alleged cases that occurred in previous years. Plancarte Gaspar, 34, was detained last week along with another suspect in a stolen car. The men were carrying cash and crystal meth, Castellanos Becerra said.
GERMANY
Refugee, family reunited
A 107-year-old woman who fled the conflict in Syria has arrived in Germany to be reunited with her family, including her newborn great-great-granddaughter, officials said on Monday. Sabria Khalaf arrived from Greece, where she had applied for asylum after leaving Syria seven months ago with her son, Kenan. She was greeted by about 20 members of her family, including her 33-day-old great-great-granddaughter, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported. A spokesman for the Office for Migrants and Refugees, Christoph Sander, said a decision was made to expedite Khalaf’s transfer to Germany on humanitarian grounds. The move followed an article about Khalaf, a member of Syria’s Kurdish minority, in Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this month. The report caught the attention of a lawmaker who urged German President Joachim Gauck to intervene on her behalf and expedite the bureaucratic process, DPA reported.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion