JAPAN
Rail chaos blamed on slug
A slug has been blamed for a power outage that halted dozens of trains and delayed 12,000 passengers, the railway operator said yesterday. The power failed on a couple of lines serving the country’s south, operated by Kyushu Railway Co, known as JR Kyushu, on May 30. The company was forced to cancel 26 trips and delay other services, causing chaos. Weeks after the power outage, JR Kyushu said it had found the culprit — a slug, which had made its way into an electrical power device installed near rail tracks. “We tracked down the device responsible for the power failure... We initially thought what’s in there was a bug, but it turned out to be a dead slug,” a company spokesman told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Bikers mourn seven killed
Motorcyclists and military veterans were mourning seven members of a motorcycle club that includes marines and their spouses who were killed in a collision with a pickup truck on a rural highway. Authorities said they might begin publicly identifying victims of Friday’s crash in remote northern New Hampshire as early as yesterday. Investigators identified the driver of the pickup truck as Volodoymyr Zhukovskyy, a 23-year-old employee of a Massachusetts transportation company. Authorities said he has not been charged, but have not addressed details on his whereabouts.
INDIA
US freedom report rejected
New Delhi yesterday rejected an annual US Department of State report on religious freedom that raised questions about the government’s inability to curb violent attacks on the country’s minority Muslims. Preparing for a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a stiff rejoinder to the criticism. “India is proud of its secular credentials, it’s status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a long-standing commitment to tolerance and inclusion,” ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a statement.
CAMBODIA
Building collapse kills 17
The death toll in the collapse of a Chinese-owned building under construction at a resort rose to 17 overnight, officials said yesterday, as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors buried under rubble. The building went down before sunrise on Saturday in the casino-resort town of Sihanoukville on the southwest coast, a rapidly developing tourist hotspot awash with Chinese investment. Four people have been detained in connection with the accident, including the Chinese building owner, the head of the construction firm and the contractor. A landowner has also been held at provincial headquarters for questioning.
URUGUAY
Nazi eagle to be sold
A court has ruled that a bronze Nazi eagle from a German battleship that fought in one of the first naval skirmishes of World War II must be sold. Half the proceeds are to go to the government and half to the salvage team that found the insignia in the River Plate off Montevideo in 2006 after a decade of searching, the ruling said. The 50-50 split is stipulated in an agreement the salvagers signed with the navy in 2004. The treasure hunters had filed suit arguing the government reneged on that deal. Since it was found, the sculpture from the ship called the Admiral Graf Spee has been kept in a navy warehouse.
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