BEIJING: China’s southwestern Sichuan province stopped yesterday to mourn the victims of a deadly earthquake that struck exactly a week ago, state media reported.
The public mourning began with the sound of sirens at 8.02 am, the moment the tremor struck, followed by three minutes of silent remembrance, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
CCTV state television showed footage of mourners bowing in remembrance at one ceremony held in front of a black and white banner printed with words of condolence.
China planes near disputed isles
TOKYO: Chinese military planes, mostly fighter jets, made more than 40 flights close to Tokyo-controlled islands at the centre of a territorial dispute on a single day this week, a press report said yesterday.
The flights took place on Tuesday, when eight Chinese marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off the islands in the East China Sea, which Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyus, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported. The daily citing senior government officials, said F-15 fighter planes from an airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa scrambled to intercept the Chinese aircraft.
Japan PM unhurt in five-car pile-up
TOKYO: A limousine carrying Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was involved in a five-car pile-up at a toll gate in Tokyo yesterday but he escaped without any injuries, police said.
Two guards in a police car accompanying Abe’s official vehicle suffered slight injuries to the face, police said.
The police car made a sudden stop at the toll gate, which led to Abe’s vehicle bumping into it. Two other police cars and a saloon carrying reporters, which were trailing Abe’s limousine, were also involved in the collision, official said.
Abe was on his way to a park in Tokyo to attend a rally calling on North Korea to return Japanese nationals kidnapped by the communist state during the Cold War, local media said.
Probe into gang rape of Filipina
MANILA: The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is sending a senior official to Papua New Guinea to investigate reports that a Filipina was gang-raped there and her Australian companion was shot and killed, Secretary Albert del Rosario said.
“We are investigating this. We are sending a senior official to be able to see other forms of assistance that we can provide, and to the others as well who may be in jeopardy,” he told reporters, who were joined by foreign correspondents.
“We are of course trying our best to help. The message is that she should not be left alone, and her privacy should be respected,” Del Rosario said.
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