TOKYO: A Japanese court yesterday ordered a kindergarten to pay $1.8m to parents of four children who died after being put on a bus that drove towards an incoming tsunami. Minutes after the giant undersea earthquake of March 2011, staff at Hiyori Kindergarten, which sits on a hill in the badly-hit city of Ishinomaki, sent children home on a route that took them towards the sea. Sendai District Court ordered the kindergarten and its then-headteacher to pay a combined 170m yen in damages to bereaved families.
Lanka, China close to deal
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka and China will finalise a free-trade agreement ahead of a Commonwealth summit in Colombo in November, a government minister said yesterday. Both have been hammering out details of the duty-free goods under the deal, Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told reporters in Colombo. China has been investing heavily in Sri Lanka, with loans and expertise instrumental in building ports, highways, railways and power plants in the Indian Ocean nation. Abeywardena said a Chinese delegation had been in the Sri Lankan capital to discuss the deal.
Appeal against drug pusher
KUALA LUMPUR: An Australian man who was acquitted in Malaysia on the capital charge of drug trafficking was ordered yesterday to surrender his passport and remain in the country pending a government appeal. Dominic Bird, 33, was acquitted on September 4, apparently ending an 18-month legal ordeal. But he was arrested five days later as he sought to leave the country for his home in Western Australia, as authorities said they would appeal the acquittal. His lawyers have called his re-arrest unconstitutional but a three-judge appeals panel rejected that argument yesterday. “An appeal is a continuation of a trial. Consequently, criminal proceedings against the respondent are revived,” said Justice Azhar Mohamed, head of the panel.
Fukushima water dumped
TOKYO: The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said yesterday it dumped more than 1,000 tonnes of polluted water into the sea after a typhoon raked the facility. Typhoon Man-yi smashed into Japan on Monday, bringing with it heavy rain that caused flooding in some parts of the country. The rain also lashed near the broken plant run by Tokyo Electric Power, swamping enclosure walls around clusters of water tanks containing toxic water that was used to cool broken reactors. Some of the tanks were earlier found to be leaking contaminated water.
Nepal to hold November polls
KATHMANDU: Nepal will push ahead with national elections in November, Health Minister Bidhyadhar Mallik said yesterday, despite an opposition threat to disrupt the polls after a breakdown in cross-party talks. The four major parties have held meetings to bring all factions on board, in what would be the second polls since the end of a civil war in 2006. Mallik said talks had broken down, and the parties that support the government will seek changes to electoral laws to allow the polls. AGENCIES
