CHINA
Flood sweeps away tourists
A flash flood has struck a scenic area outside Xian, sweeping away nine Chinese tourists. Eight bodies have been recovered. State media reports say the flood struck Xiaoyuhecun Valley on Monday afternoon amid the heaviest rains recorded in the area in 30 years. Xinhua news agency said a team of about 200 police officers, firefighters and paramilitary troops searched the area overnight, recovering eight bodies by yesterday morning. A former imperial Chinese capital, Xian lies in a greenbelt along the ancient Silk Road surrounded by the mountainous, mostly arid, province of Shaanxi. Many Chinese scenic sites suffer from chronic mismanagement, poor crowd control and other safety issues. Emergency services in Xian either did not answer calls or said they had no updated information.
CHINA
Minister to visit west Africa
Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) is to visit three of the African nations hardest hit by an outbreak of the Ebola virus, the ministry said yesterday. Wang plans to travel on Saturday on a three-day visit to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the ministry said in a brief statement, without giving further details. Wang is now in Southeast Asia, where he is attending a regional security summit. Ebola has killed more than 11,200 people in west Africa since it broke out in December 2013. China, Africa’s biggest trading partner, has sent hundreds of medical workers to Africa and contributed more than US$120 million to the anti-Ebola effort, after initially facing criticism for not doing enough.
SOUTH KOREA
Ferry salvage deal agreed
The government said that it has reached an agreement with a Chinese-led consortium on a 85.1 billion won (US$73 million) deal to salvage a ferry that sunk in an accident that killed more than 300 people in April last year. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said yesterday that the consortium, led by Chinese state-run firm Shanghai Salvage Co, plans to raise the Sewol by July next year. The formal contract could be signed as early as today. The government approved plans to salvage the Sewol in April, accepting demands from the victims’ families, who staged fierce protests in Seoul for months.
SOUTH KOREA
Health minister replaced
President Park Geun-hye has decided to replace her health minister in the wake of criticism over the government’s handling of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak that killed 36 people. Last week, it was announced that the nation was virtually free of MERS, which had rattled the nation since an outbreak was declared in May. Media have criticized the government for failing to swiftly cope with MERS in the initial stages. The president’s office said in a statement yesterday that Park has nominated medical professor Chung Chin Youb to replace Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo.
PHILIPPINES
Five killed in ambush
About 20 communist rebels fired on a platoon of troops and police on two trucks, triggering a 15-minute clash that killed four rebels and a soldier in northeastern Masbate province, officials said yesterday. Colonel Cesar Idio said the troops killed four rebels in the ambush in Cawayan on Monday. A soldier was killed and three others were slightly wounded. The troops were ambushed while on their way back to headquarters after arresting two rebels earlier in the day.
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