Seoul: South Korea is investigating the problem that caused a nuclear reactor, located 330 kilometres southeast of Seoul in Uljin, to abruptly halt early yesterday morning.
Yonhap news agency report, quoting Korean officials, said the reactor stopped working due to an unusual signal, but there was no immediate danger of a radiation leak.
The Reactor Unit 5 at the Hanul Nuclear Power Plant halted operation at 4.17am after a warning signal came on, according to officials from the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company.
An investigation is currently under way to identify the exact problem. Four reactors, including Hanul, are currently out of operation.
Pilots unhurt after jets crash
TOKYO: Three pilots escaped unharmed yesterday after their jet planes collided in midair off the Japanese coast, a military spokesman said.
Two T-4 trainers belonging to the Blue Impulse aerobatic display team of the Japanese airforce made contact as they practised flying in formation, with one plane damaging part of its nose and the other losing a bit of a stabiliser.
The jets landed safely at Matsushima Air Base in northern Japan after the incident over the Pacific Ocean some 45 kilometres southeast of the base, the spokesman said.
It was the first midair collision involving the T-4, the said, adding the air force was looking into its cause.
Singapore hits social media
SINGAPORE: Internet rules are necessary to restrain “pack behaviour” in social media and ensure civility between users, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in remarks released yesterday.
Speaking at a university forum late Tuesday, Lee said social media raised the risk of an overreaction from the public when contentious incidents occur in the ethnically diverse city-state, with “unrestrained, anonymous viciousness.”
Lee, who has nearly 260,000 Facebook followers, referred to several local incidents that have sparked off unbridled web outrage, including derogatory comments against Singaporeans posted on social media by British expatriate Anton Casey last week.
“Each one issue can cause a spark. Because of social media it becomes harder to settle such problems quietly and we risk having an overreaction,” Lee told students at the Nanyang Technological University.
A video of his speech was posted on his Facebook page yesterday.
HK reports third H7N9 death
HONG KONG: Hong Kong yesterday reported its third death from H7N9 bird flu — an elderly man who had visited mainland China — a day after authorities culled 22,000 birds to curb the disease.
The 75-year-old man had previously travelled to the neighbouring Chinese city of Shenzhen and died yesterday morning, a Department of Health spokesman confirmed to AFP without elaborating.
Fears over avian flu have grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain of the virus in Hong Kong since December.
A 65-year-old man with H7N9 died on January 14 and an 80-year old man died on Boxing Day last year. Both had recently returned from mainland China.
Agencies
