CHINA
Tornado kills six, hurts 190
A tornado blew through a northeast city, damaging factories and buildings, killing six people and injuring another 190, state media reported yesterday. The tornado hit Kaiyuan, a county-level city in Liaoning Province, late on Wednesday afternoon, local authorities said in a brief online statement. Footage from state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed a stretch of collapsed low-rise buildings where firefighters were working through the debris. The tornado damaged factories and equipment in an industrial park, CCTV said, adding that more than 210 people have been rescued and another 1,600 were evacuated. Power was to be restored to homes sometime yesterday, while businesses would regain power in the next three days, CCTV said.
HONDURAS
Dozens dead after boat sinks
At least 27 people died and nine were missing on Wednesday when their fishing boat sank off the Caribbean coast, the military said. Armed forces spokesman Jose Meza said that 55 people survived when the vessel sank off the remote coastal La Mosquitia region. Ninety-one people were aboard the boat, the 70-tonne Wallie, when it set sail from Cabo Gracias a Dios — on the easternmost point bordering Nicaragua — after a seasonal ban on lobster fishing was lifted. The boat sank near Cayo Gorda, a tiny island just northeast of their point of departure. The cause of the disaster was not immediately clear. The bodies and the survivors would be taken to Puerto Lempira, Meza said. Hours before the Wallie sank, an overloaded fishing boat in the same area went under. Meza said that 49 people were rescued from that boat, the Miss Francely, which had a capacity to carry 31 people. The captain of the Wallie sent out a distress call just before dying, local media reported.
JAPAN
Whale meat prices skyrocket
Chunks of meat from the first whales caught since the resumption of commercial whaling this week have fetched “celebration prices” at auction. The meat yesterday sold for up to ¥15,000 (US$139) per kilogram, several times higher than the prices paid for Antarctic minkes. The meat came from two minkes caught off the northern city of Kushiro on Monday, when commercial whaling resumed after 31 years. During those years, research hunts were conducted in the Antarctic that conservations criticized as a cover for banned commercial hunts. Tokyo on Sunday left the International Whaling Commission and has promised that whalers would stay within its 200 nautical mile (370.4km) exclusive economic zone. Whale meat sellers celebrated the good start, but expressed uncertainty about the future of their business amid slim demand.
UNITED KINGDOM
Authorities detain oil tanker
Royal Marines and officials in Gibraltar have detained a supertanker suspected of carrying crude oil to Syria, in breach of EU sanctions, Gibraltar’s government said. In a statement, the government said that it had reasonable grounds to believe that the Grace 1 was carrying its shipment of crude oil to a refinery in Baniyas, Syria. “That refinery is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria,” Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said. “With my consent, our port and law enforcement agencies sought the assistance of the Royal Marines in carrying out this operation.” The government on Wednesday published regulations to enforce the sanctions against the vessel and its cargo.
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