London’s Heathrow Airport canceled some flights yesterday after at least 12 activists cut through a perimeter fence and chained themselves together on a runway to protest against the possible expansion of Britain’s biggest airport.
In a stunt which raised questions about the security of Europe’s busiest airport, the campaigners said it took scant minutes to cut through an apparently unguarded wire fence at about 3:30am, granting them access to the northern runway.
“Both runways are open, although there will still be delays and a few cancelations — we are sorry for the disruption to passengers,” Heathrow said via e-mail.
The activists, from a group called Plane Stupid, which opposes the growth of aviation, said a £23 billion (US$35.82 billion) plan to build a third runway at Heathrow would increase carbon emissions and be blocked by further protests.
Pictures demonstrators posted on Twitter showed them chained together, with some smiling under blankets at dawn and lying beside dark tracks left by jet tires.
Later pictures showed some being led away by British police, who said that six had been arrested and about seven remained on the runway about six hours later.
“Officers remain on [the] scene, continuing to work to remove the remaining protesters,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.
The protesters were far enough away to allow most planes to take off, officials said.
The runway incursion underscored the challenge in guarding a 1,227-hectare airport that has kilometers of fences and a maze of hangars.
The disruption indicates the potential challenge Heathrow would face if British Prime Minister David Cameron decides to grant the airport a third runway, a decision he is due to take by the end of the year.
The runway “was accessed through the fence. It took a matter of minutes,” Joshua Virasami, an activist who said he was involved in the planning of the protest, told reporters. “No if, no buts, airport expansion will not happen, and we will ensure that.”
Previous plans to build a new runway at Heathrow were scrapped in 2010, in part due to environmental concerns.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not