NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Ferry mishap: A passenger ferry that ran aground in heavy winds in a Baltic Sea archipelago between Finland and Sweden was dragged off the shore and towed early Sunday to port. The M/ S Viking Grace was sailing Saturday from Stockholm to the Finnish city of Turku with a stop at Mariehamn, capital of the Aland Islands, when it hit ground near Mariehamn. No injuries were reported. The Viking Grace’s 331 passengers and crew of 98 spent the night on board the vessel while the Finnish coast guard and rescue units used tug boats to drag the ship off the seabed and towed it to Mariehamn early Sunday. Later, the ship resumed its journey under its own engines to Turku, where it will be put into a local shipyard for a closer inspection and repairs.
2 Mideast violence: Israeli aircraft struck sites in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to a rocket fired earlier from the Palestinian territory, Israel’s military said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. While several militant groups operate out of the Palestinian enclave, Israel holds Gaza’s Hamas rulers responsible for all rocket fire out of the territory and usually strikes Hamas targets in response. The Israeli military said fighter jets and helicopters hit rocket ammunition manufacturing sites and a Hamas training compound. The rocket fired from Gaza late Saturday damaged a factory in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. No one was hurt.
3 Taiwan trade: Thousands of people marched in Taipei on Sunday demanding the reversal of a decision to allow U. S. pork imports into Taiwan, alleging food safety issues. President Tsai Ingwen lifted a ban on U. S. pork and beef imports in August, in a move seen as a step toward negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U. S. That decision has met with fierce opposition, both by the opposition Kuomintang party and individual citizens. The new policy allows imports of pork with acceptable residues of ractopamine, a drug added to animal feed that promotes the growth of lean meat. The drug is banned by the European Union.
4 Militant leader: Al Qaeda’s branch in northern Africa said it has appointed a new leader after confirming the death of its former chief, who was killed in June by French forces, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The group, which monitors jihadist sites, said al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, published a video Saturday showing the dead body of its former leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, for the first time. AQIM announced that Yazid Mubarak, also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf alAnnabi, is the new leader. Droukdel was killed in Mali by French forces who had been hunting for him in the Sahel region for years. AQIM has made millions of dollars abducting foreigners for ransom over the years and has made large swaths of western Africa too dangerous for aid groups to access.
5 Belarus protests: The Belarusian human rights group Viasna reported that more than 300 people were arrested and many of them beaten by police during protests calling for the country’s authoritarian president to resign. The demonstrations that attracted thousands were the 16th consecutive Sunday of large protests against President Alexander Lukashenko. Demonstrations have gripped Belarus since the Aug. 9 election that official results say gave Lukashenko a sixth term, but that the opposition and some poll workers say were manipulated. Throughout the protest wave, more than 19,000 people have been detained and thousands of them beaten, human rights advocates say. The protesters on Sunday were met by police when they tried to converge on the center of Minsk, the capital.