While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 5, 2026
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Healthcare workers in Sri Lanka carrying the bodies of Iranian sailors who died when a US torpedo hit their warship off Sri Lanka's southern coast on March 4.
PHOTO: AFP
US sinks Iran warship off Sri Lanka, as war’s scope widens
The US–Iran war widened sharply on March 4 after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey.
The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran’s slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure, five days after the United States and Israel launched a military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets.
The missile incident is the first time that Turkey - which borders Iran and has NATO’s second-largest military - has been drawn into the conflict, but US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance’s collective-defence clause.
In a sign of the conflict’s expanding reach, Mr Hegseth said the US submarine strike hit an Iranian vessel off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, thousands of kilometres from the Gulf, as fighting paralysed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz for a fifth day, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows.
Russian LNG tanker sinks in Mediterranean
PHOTO: TELEGRAM/STERNENKO
A Russian tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) sank in the Mediterranean on March 4 after what Moscow described as an attack by Ukrainian drones launched from Libya.
The Arctic Metagaz sank in waters between Libya and Malta after catching fire a day earlier, Libya’s maritime rescue agency said in an advisory seen by Reuters.
“Information indicates that the tanker experienced sudden explosions followed by a massive fire, which ultimately led to its complete sinking,” the agency said.
Northern Europe nations drawing up joint evacuation plans
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ten nations across northern Europe have agreed to prepare for possible cross-border evacuations of civilians in the event of a crisis or military conflict in the region, in a bid to draw lessons from the war in Ukraine, Sweden said on March 4.
The 10 will jointly prepare plans covering transport, border controls, travel corridors and other matters.
Germany and Poland, along with fellow NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark, have ramped up their planning in recent years for a possible future armed conflict with Russia.
UK MP’s husband among three accused of spying for China
REUTERS
British police on March 4 arrested three men on suspicion of spying for China, including the husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour party.
Chinese espionage is a politically sensitive subject in Britain and the case could potentially become awkward for Mr Starmer who visited Beijing recently as part of his resetting of relations with the Asian giant.
The trio, aged 39, 43 and 68, were arrested by counter-terrorism officers in London and Wales on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, London’s Metropolitan police said.
Family sues Google after AI chatbot allegedly coached suicide
PHOTOS: ST FILE, JOEL GAVALAS
The family of a Florida man who took his own life filed suit against Google on March 4, alleging the company’s Gemini AI chatbot spent weeks manufacturing an elaborate delusional fantasy before aiding him in his suicide.
Jonathan Gavalas, 36, an executive at his father’s debt relief company in Jupiter, Florida, died on Oct 2, 2025. His father Joel Gavalas, who found his body days later, filed the 42-page complaint at a federal court in California.
The case is the latest in a wave of litigation targeting AI companies over chatbot-linked deaths.
Rahm jet rescues seven LIV Golf players from Dubai
PHOTO: AFP
A midnight flight out of bordering Oman on a jet arranged by Jon Rahm brought seven players out of a war zone and into safety 24 hours before the start of LIV Golf Hong Kong, according to Golf.com.
LIV Golf was set to begin play in the annual event in Hong Kong on Feb 27 and made an attempt to arrange travel from Dubai, which has been struck repeatedly during an escalating conflict involving Iran, Isreal and the United States.
US officials called for American citizens to evacuate 14 Middle East nations, but only after damage had already been done around Dubai International Airport, grounding flights.
