BANGLADESH
Train crash kills four
A train yesterday plunged into a canal when the bridge it was traveling across gave way, killing four people and injuring about 100. Officials said part of the bridge collapsed as the express train went over, sending five cars crashing to the ground, with one of them landing in the water. Scores of people were trapped in the accident at Kalaura, 300km from Dhaka. Local resident joined fire and police teams in pulling the dead and injured out of the wreckage, police superintendent Rashidul Hasan said. Regional government administrator Tofael Islam said part of the bridge gave way as the train was crossing. Twenty-one of the injured were taken to a hospital in Sylhet, the nearest city, in serious condition. Train services from Dhaka to the northeast were stopped because of the accident.
CANADA
Woman left alone on plane
A woman boarded an Air Canada flight earlier this month, fell asleep after takeoff and woke up alone in a dark, parked plane, apparently forgotten by ground staff. Tiffani Adams’ story was posted by a friend on Air Canada’s Facebook page, drawing incredulous reactions from readers and a request for details from the airline. According to the post, Adams was flying from Quebec to Toronto Pearson International Airport when she fell asleep. She woke up in “pitch black,” with the plane having landed and apparently been towed away from the airport, after passengers and crew had disembarked. “I think I’m having a bad dream [because] like seriously how is this happening,” she wrote. She briefly called a friend, but was cut short when her phone’s battery died. After finally finding a torch in the cockpit, she used it to draw the attention of a luggage cart driver, who arrived to find Adams with her legs hanging out of the plane’s open doorway. Air Canada told broadcaster CTV News that it was reviewing the episode, but declined to offer further details.
AUSTRALIA
New port plans for US troops
The government is planning to build a new deep-water port on its northern coast able to accommodate US Marine deployments as part of efforts to counter China’s growing presence in the region, Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported yesterday. The national broadcaster quoted multiple defence and government officials as saying the facility would be about 40km Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, which controversially leased its own port to a Chinese operator in 2015. The Darwin port already includes military facilities and hosts visiting US ships, but the ABC said the new port would offer large amphibious warships a more discreet and less busy base of operations. US Marine units of more than 2,000 troops regularly rotate through Darwin as part of the close military cooperation between the two allies.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban to target reporters
The Taliban yesterday issued a threat, saying journalists would be targeted unless news outlets stop broadcasting what they describe as government propaganda against the insurgents. The statement gives Afghan radio stations, TV channels and others a week to cease transmitting anti-Taliban announcements paid for by the government. The Taliban said that media that refuse to do this would be considered enemy intelligence nests, and their journalists and other staffers would not be safe. The government pays media outlets to regularly air pleas to the public to inform authorities if they see any suspicious Taliban activities.
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