JAPAN
Quake injures four people
An earthquake shook Tokyo and surrounding areas yesterday, injuring several people and causing minor damage, officials and media said. The epicenter of the magnitude 5.4 quake was in Chiba Prefecture, southeast of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued. Four people were injured, including a man who was hit by a falling ceiling light, and some rail services were canceled or delayed, Kyodo news agency said. The country is in one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions, and a massive 2011 quake and subsequent tsunami killed thousands and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
SOUTH KOREA
Cattle culled over disease
Authorities have ordered the culling of several hundred cattle and put in place biosecurity measures after confirming cases of foot-and-mouth disease in farms in a central province, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said. The cases mark the first confirmed outbreak since January 2019, media reports said. The contagion occurred in three farms in North Chungcheong Province, the ministry said. “Related agencies and local governments are asked to make all-out efforts on preventive measures ... to stop further spread of foot-and-mouth disease,” Vice Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Kim In-joong said. The disease is highly transmissible and causes lesions and lameness in cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, but does not affect humans. A team has been sent to the area to investigate the outbreak, disinfect farms and enforce a 48-hour halt on the movement of people and livestock, the ministry said.
ASEAN
Myanmar progress stalls
Myanmar’s ruling military has made no meaningful progress on implementing a peace plan agreed two years ago and the bloc must show unity in deciding how to address the escalating crisis, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said yesterday. Widodo, who chairs the bloc this year, was speaking on the second day of a summit in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, where the “five-point consensus” peace plan is in the spotlight. “I must speak candidly. On implementation of the peace plan, there has not been significant progress,” he said. “Therefore, ASEAN unity is required to decide on the next steps.” The president called on the 10-member grouping, of which Myanmar is a member, to chart a way forward to de-escalate violence in Myanmar since a coup in 2021.
UNITED STATES
Modi invited for state dinner
President Joe Biden is to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner on June 22, the White House said on Wednesday. It would be the third such formal event hosted by Biden after dinners for the leaders of France and South Korea. “The upcoming visit will affirm the deep and close partnership between the United States and India, and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement. The two leaders are to focus on a secure Indo-Pacific region and technology partnerships on defense, clean energy and space, Jean-Pierre said. The state visit comes as the Biden administration is working to deepen its relationship with key countries to counter what it sees as a growing threat posed by China. The two leaders would “explore ways to strengthen India-US collaboration in plurilateral and multilateral fora, including in the G20,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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