Drilling ship leaves oil block after China row
HANOI • The drilling ship at the centre of a row between Vietnam and China over oil prospecting in the South China Sea has arrived in the waters off the Malaysian port of Labuan, shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon showed yesterday.
Drilling by the Deepsea Metro I ship was suspended in Vietnam's Block 136/3 last month after pressure from China, which says the concession operated by Spain's Repsol overlaps the vast majority of the waterway that it claims as its own.
REUTERS
2 killed in light aircraft crash in Japan
TOKYO • A light aircraft crashed in a mountainous region of Nara prefecture in western Japan yesterday, killing its two occupants, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said, quoting local firefighters.
The aircraft took off from Yao Airport in Osaka prefecture just before noon and was headed to Fukushima prefecture, a source said, adding that the plane had returned to Osaka for an unknown reason.
XINHUA
Abu Sayyaf kidnap leader killed
MANILA • An Abu Sayyaf leader from Sulu who was linked to kidnappings in Sabah, Malaysia, has been killed, the military said on Sunday.
Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana identified the dead Abu Sayyaf leader as Badong Muktadil who, together with his brothers, was linked to cross-border kidnappings in Sabah since 2013.
He was killed at around midnight last Saturday in waters off Barangay Silangkan in Parang, Sulu.
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Oxygen sent to Indian hospital after deaths
GORAKHPUR • The Indian health authorities yesterday delivered oxygen to a public hospital where 63 people, nearly half of them children, have died of encephalitis in recent days as it ran out of medical supplies because of unpaid bills, triggering public outrage.
The deaths of the children have again exposed India's underfunded and poorly managed public healthcare.
Hundreds of people die each year in India of encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease common during the monsoon season. Complaints that the hospital in Gorakhpur did not have enough supplies has stoked anger against the government.
REUTERS
