Search expands for ‘missing’ US sailors
‘Lead drug war’
TOKYO, Nov 23, (Agencies): Eight warships joined a US aircraft carrier and scores of helicopters and planes Thursday to search for three American sailors who went missing after their plane crashed in the Philippine Sea.
The families of the missing sailors were notified after a C-2A “Greyhound” aircraft with 11 people on board went down Wednesday afternoon around 930 kilometres (500 nautical miles) southeast of Okinawa, the US Navy said in a statement.
Eight sailors were rescued shortly after the accident and taken for medical evaluation to USS Reagan, an aircraft carrier that was in the Philippine Sea for an exercise with Japanese forces.
“All are in good condition at this time,” the statement added.
The plane was on a routine transport flight, carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan.
The American destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin have been combing the area, along with maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters.
They were joined by the Japanese “helicopter carriers” JS Kaga and JS Ise, as well as the Japanese destroyers JS Teruzuki, JS Samidare and JS Shimakaze.
On Wednesday US President Donald Trump tweeted: “The @ USNavy is conducting search and rescue following aircraft crash. We are monitoring the situation. Prayers for all involved.”
‘Strong US engagement’:
Australia called on Thursday on the United States to build a strong presence in Asia and bolster ties with “like-minded” partners while warning against China’s rising influence.
A more insular United States would be detrimental to the liberal nature of the world’s “rules-based order”, the government said in a 115page foreign policy white paper.
“Australia believes that international challenges can only be tackled effectively when the world’s wealthiest, most innovative and most powerful country is engaged in solving them,” the government said.
The white paper is a guide for Australian diplomacy and provides a roadmap for advancing its interests.
‘Return to drug war’:
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has called on police to once again take the lead role in his deadly drug war, having twice demoted them in response to criticism of the crackdown.
The fiery leader, who rights groups say may be orchestrating a crime against humanity with his bloody anti-drugs campaign, said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) with 2,000 officers was incapable of doing the job.
“Whether I like it or not, I have to return that power to the police,” he said in a speech on Wednesday night.
Duterte, 72, was elected last year on a promise to eradicate drugs from Philippine society by launching an unprecedented campaign in which up to 100,000 people would die.
Tornado injures 35:
A tornado ripped through a densely populated area in Indonesia’s East Java province on Wednesday, injuring 35 people and damaging more than 600 homes, the head of the local disaster mitigation official said.
The tornado, with wind speeds of 70 kms per hour (45 miles per hour), carved a path of destruction in the Sidoarjo area, lasting about five minutes, Dwidjo Prawito of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said by telephone.
Wanted Thai woman held:
Police in Thailand on Wednesday arrested a woman wanted in connection with a 2015 bombing in Bangkok that killed 20 people, 14 of them foreign tourists.
The blast at a central Bangkok shrine popular with visitors from China and elsewhere in Asia raised fears of a spillover of violence from China’s western Xinjiang region, where some members of the Uighur Muslim minority oppose Beijing’s rule.
PNG removes
Trump
refugees:
Papua New Guinea police raided a shuttered Australian detention camp Thursday, removing dozens of refugees in an effort to end a stand-off that has drawn global attention to Canberra’s tough asylum-seeker policies.
Hundreds of men sent to the remote camp on PNG’s Manus Island have refused to leave the site for new, PNG-run centres since Australia closed it on October 31.