Asia

Japan holds North Korean missile attack drills with PAC-3 interceptors

ASAKA CITY, Japan (Reuters) — Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) held on Wednesday (June 21) a drill operating the anti-ballistic missile PAC-3 and other associated military equipment amid increasing tensions with North Korea which has been increasing the number of its missiles test launches in recent months. The showing of the drill, which involved self-defense personnel setting up and operating a PAC-3 launch pad and associated equipment such as a Radar Set and an Antenna Mast […]

South Korea military conduct joint drill with U.S. B-1B bombers

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korea’s military conducted a joint drill with two United States supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers on Tuesday (June 20) as part of a scheduled exercise. At an earlier briefing, a South Korean air force official told reporters the drill will also involve two South Korean F-15K fighter jets. Photos released by the US Department of Defense on Tuesday shows B-1B lancers flying a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, […]

Top US Navy commander in Japan over destroyer collision

by Hiroshi HIYAMA Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – The US Navy’s top commander visited Japan Tuesday to meet the grieving families of seven sailors killed in a weekend accident, as investigators probe questions over the timing of the collision with a container ship. Admiral John Richardson arrived at the US naval base in Yokosuka on the outskirts of Tokyo to meet bereaved relatives and officers who served on the USS Fitzgerald. “It’s an intimate […]

Warmbier travel agency stops North Korea trips for Americans

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – The tour agency that took US student Otto Warmbier to Pyongyang said Tuesday it would stop taking Americans to the reclusive state after the 22-year-old died following 18 months in North Korean detention. Warmbier was medically evacuated to the United States last week, suffering from severe brain damage. He died six days later in his home town of Cincinnati, Ohio, with US President Donald Trump blaming Pyongyang’s “brutal regime” for […]

Russia warns US after Syrian warplane downed

by Sara Hussein with Maria Antonova in Moscow Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Russia on Monday warned it would track US-led coalition aircraft in Syria as potential “targets” and halted a military hotline with Washington after US forces downed a Syrian jet. The United States moved quickly to contain an escalation, with a top general saying it would work to relaunch the “deconfliction” hotline established in 2015. The downing of the jet and […]

Bomb attack kills policeman in Bahrain: ministry

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  (AFP) — A “terrorist” bomb attack in a Shiite village in Bahrain has killed a policeman and wounded two others, the interior ministry in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom said on Monday. The attack late Sunday occurred in Diraz, west of the capital Manama, the ministry said on its Twitter account. Witnesses said they heard a loud blast near the home of revered Shiite cleric Isa Qassim, where five people were killed […]

US Navy probes destroyer crash that killed seven in Japan

by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – A probe into the crash between a US navy destroyer and a Philippine-flagged cargo ship was under way Monday, as the names of seven American sailors who died were made public. Investigators were looking at how the USS Fitzgerald came to be holed in the smash in a busy shipping lane near its home port. The container ship, the 222-metre Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal, made a 180 […]

Six Thai soldiers killed by bomb in restive south

PATTANI, Thailand (AFP) – Six Thai soldiers were killed and four injured when a roadside bomb ripped their  patrol truck apart in the insurgency-plagued south on Monday, police said. The bomb hit the pick-up as it was carrying ten soldiers along a dirt road in Pattani province, leaving a pile of rubble and twisted car parts. “The roadside bomb exploded before noon, killing six and injuring four,” said Preuk Liengsuk, the police chief of Thung […]

Four foreign inmates escape Bali jail using tunnel

BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) – Four foreign and three local inmates escaped from Kerobokan prison on the Indonesian resort island of Bali using a tunnel, the head of the prison said on Monday (June 19) and a search has been launched to find them. Kerobokan Prison head Tony Nainggolan named the four foreigners as Australian Shaun Edward Davidson, Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov, Indian Sayed Muhammad and Malaysian Tee Kok King and said they escaped through a 12m […]

U.S.-led coalition downs Syrian warplane over Raqqa: Syrian government

RAQQA, Syria (CCTV) — The Syrian government has blamed the U.S.-led coalition for bringing down a Syrian Su-22 warplane from over the country’s northern city of Raqqa on Sunday. The pilot is reported as missing, according to the Syrian state news agency. The Syrian government forces have blamed the downing of its warplane as overt infringement upon the country’s sovereignty. The downed warplane was on a combat mission against the Islamic State (IS) group. The general […]

Japan offers condolences to victims of the deadly USS Fitzgerald collision

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) – Japanese Chief Cabinet Suga Yoshihide on Monday (June 19) offered condolences to seven sailors found dead in flooded compartments of the USS Fitzgerald, which collided with a container ship off Japan on Saturday (June 17). A significant portion of the crew was asleep when the collision occurred, tearing a gash under the warship’s waterline and flooding two berthing compartments, the radio room and the auxiliary machine room. The U.S. Navy on […]

US Navy identifies all seven sailors killed in Japan collision with PHL container ship

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The United States Navy on Monday identified all seven sailors killed after their destroyer was partially flooded following a collision with a container ship off Japan’s coast at the weekend, confirming their deaths for the first time. The crew were reported missing after Saturday’s predawn collision, triggering a major US-Japanese search operation, with divers scouring damaged areas of the destroyer. On Sunday, US authorities tacitly acknowledged there were no survivors as […]