Survivor: Livestock ship with 42 crew sank off Japan coast
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese rescuers were searching Thursday for a livestock ship with 42 crew members on board that a survivor said sank during rough weather a day earlier off a southern Japanese island, the coast guard said. The Filipino crew member was rescued late Wednesday after Japanese navy P-3C surveillance aircraft spotted him wearing a life vest and waving while bobbing in the water. The man, who is in good health, told rescuers the ship capsized before sinking, said spokesman Yuichiro Higashi at the Japanese coast guard's regional headquarters conducting the search. The 11,947-ton Gulf Livestock 1 ship was carrying 5,800 cows west of the western coast of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea when it sent a distress call early Wednesday.
Typhoon pummels South Korea, ship missing in rough waters
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A powerful typhoon ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains Thursday, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead. Typhoon Maysak had weakened to a tropical storm that was east of North Korea around midday, South Korea’s weather agency said. North Korean state TV showed flooding along the eastern coast but didn’t immediately report any casualties. Japan’s coast guard was searching for a livestock ship carrying 42 crew members and 5,800 cows that made a distress call off a southern Japanese island in seas roughened by the typhoon early Wednesday.
Man sentenced to life for Sydney violence targeting judges
SYDNEY (AP) — A former firefighter was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for a series of murders and bombings in Sydney during the 1980s that terrorized Australia’s legal fraternity. The targets included judges who handled proceedings between Leonard Warwick and his former wife and a church connected to her. Although Warwick was considered a suspect early in the investigation, he wasn’t arrested until 2015, two years after a blood sample from a crime scene was matched to his DNA. New South Wales state Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling sentenced Warwick to a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of three murders.
Friends bring businesses to aid needy Bangladeshi people
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — When Bangladeshi authorities prepared to enforce a nationwide lockdown in late March, three friends fretted: How would rickshaw drivers, factory workers and other working poor people survive? With only 20,000 takas ($236) in hand, their challenge was to channel resources from the generous haves to the desperate have-nots. They started making appeals for money. The first response came from Bangladeshi cricket star Shakib Al Hasan who donated 2 million takas ($24,000). With that, they began distributing food packs in the impoverished neighborhoods in Dhaka. Eventually, they succeeded in bringing about 120 organizations and business houses under one umbrella for their aid campaign, Mission Save Bangladesh.
Students in Inner Mongolia protest Chinese language policy
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Ethnic Mongolians, including students and parents, in China’s Inner Mongolia region are demonstrating their anger in rare public protests against a new bilingual education policy that they say is endangering the Mongolian language. A high school student in the city of Hulunbuir said students rushed out of their school on Tuesday and destroyed a fence before paramilitary police swarmed in and tried to return them to class. “We senior students were talking and we thought we had to do something,” said the student, Narsu, who like most Mongolians has only one name. “Although this doesn’t directly affect us now, this will have a huge impact on us in the future.” The policy, announced on Monday ahead of the start of the new school year, requires schools to use new national textbooks in Chinese, replacing Mongolian-language textbooks.
UN atomic watchdog: N Korea still enriching uranium
BERLIN (AP) — There are no signs that North Korea has been reprocessing fuel from its main nuclear reactor into plutonium over the past year, but Pyongyang appears to still be enriching uranium, which could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog said Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency has not had inspectors in North Korea since they were expelled in 2009, but said in a report dated Sept. 1 that it continues to prepare them to return, should leader Kim Jong Un decide to re-admit them. Meanwhile, it said it has intensified its open source information collection and expanded its collection and analysis of satellite imagery to monitor the country's nuclear program.
US further restricts Chinese diplomats travel, meetings
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday stepped up its battle with China by further restricting the ability of Chinese diplomats to travel, hold meetings with academics and host cultural events in the United States. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that senior U.S.-based Chinese diplomats will now be required to get permission to visit American universities or meet with local government officials. Previously, under rules announced last fall, Chinese officials had been required only to notify the State Department of plans for such meetings. Pompeo also said that Chinese diplomats will have now to get permission to host cultural events of more than 50 people outside of their diplomatic missions.
China commemorates 75th anniversary of end of Pacific War
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday commemorated the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific, during which it endured a brutal invasion and occupation of much of its territory by Japan. Communist Party leader and head of state Xi Jinping led government officials in a minute of silence and presentation of floral wreaths at a memorial hall dedicated to soldiers and civilians who participated in the struggle. Japan launched a full-on invasion of China in 1937, marked by urban warfare and atrocities such as the notorious Rape of Nanking. While armies under Nationalist Party leader Chiang Kai-shek fought most of the major battles, Communist Party guerrillas under Mao Zedong forced Japan to divert soldiers and resources from battlefields elsewhere with low-level engagements.
Asia Today: Beijing receiving 1st int'l flights since March
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing’s main international airport on Thursday began receiving international flights again from a limited number of countries considered at low risk of coronavirus infection. Passengers flying in from Cambodia, Greece, Denmark, Thailand, Pakistan, Austria, Canada and Sweden, must have first shown a negative coronavirus test before boarding, city government spokesperson Xu Hejian told reporters. Passenger arrivals will be limited to roughly 500 per day during a trial period and all will need to undergo additional testing for the virus on arrival, followed by two weeks of quarantine. The first flight under the arrangement, Air China Flight 746, arrived from Pnom Penh, Cambodia, just before 7 a.m.
Abe's assistant and spokesman seen as favorite successor
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a longtime loyal assistant and the public face of outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in daily media briefings, has emerged as a favorite to succeed him in an upcoming internal party vote. Suga formally announced his candidacy Wednesday, pledging “to succeed policies that Prime Minister Abe has devoted his body and soul and to push them forward.” Suga said that he, as a politician who worked with Abe, decided to run to take over the prime minister's unfinished work. Abe, who has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager, last week announced he would resign after setting a record of 2,799 consecutive days in office.
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News