A Chinese fishing boat capsized in a maritime scuffle with a South Korean coast guard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities yesterday, leaving two fishermen missing, officials said.
About 50 Chinese fishing boats were illegally fishing in western South Korean waters off Gunsan city, about 275 km south of Seoul, when the South Korean ship approached them, coast guard spokesman Ji Kwan-tae said.
One of the boats intentionally hit the larger coast guard ship to allow fellow Chinese vessels to sail back to their waters, and then capsized, he said.
Eight people from the capsized boat were plucked from the waters, and one is unconscious, Mr Ji said. Coast guard rescue boats and helicopters were dispatched to the area to locate the two missing Chinese sailors, he said.
Taliban blow
Nato said it has killed a senior Taliban leader in an air strike in Badghis province in northern Afghanistan.
The military coalition said the Taliban leader, Mullah Tor Jan, had been appointed by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban command council based in Pakistan, and was responsible for planting mines along routes used by Afghan and international forces.
The air strike that killed him followed a firefight that broke out as Afghan and international forces pursued “an armed individual” to a cave complex, the coalition said.
CIA escape
A US official confirmed that four Americans who narrowly escaped an attack on their vehicle in Yemen’s capital worked for the CIA.
None of the agency employees were hurt in the bombing last Wednesday outside a restaurant in Hadda, a commercial district in the capital Sanaa. The bomb went off under a pickup truck carrying the US personnel.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details about the incident remain secret. He added there was “no indication that the perpetrators knew specifically who they were targeting”.
Shuttle tests
Nasa fuelled space shuttle Discovery at the launch pad, not for a flight but for tests to help understand mysterious cracks that appeared in the fuel tank during a launch attempt last month.
Discovery is grounded until at least the beginning of February because, while the cracks have been fixed, engineers still do not know what caused them.
In a countdown test that began at sunrise and lasted well into the afternoon, the launch team pumped more than 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen into Discovery’s external fuel tank. The tank was rigged with sensors and other equipment.
Dubai debt deal
An investment firm owned by Dubai’s ruler says it has reached a deal with leading creditors to extend the terms on $2.5 billion of debt.
Dubai International Capital said the deal will give it six more years to pay back $2 billion of the debt and four more years for another $500 million.
The deal was reached “in principle” with lenders representing the bulk of the debt and must still be approved by smaller creditors.
Hotel agreement
Administrators of France’s Versailles Palace said they have agreed to lease an adjacent building to King Louis XIV’s 17th-century chateau for use as a hotel.
The Hotel du Grand Controle, which was the home for financial advisers to French kings for decades, will be getting a €5.5 million, year-long facelift by Belgian company Ivy International as part of a deal concluded in recent weeks.
The 23-room hotel, with views of the palace’s Orangerie garden, will open in late 2011. The building previously belonged to the Defence Ministry – which used it as an officers’ mess hall – and it later fell into disrepair.
Dead baby in donation box
Authorities say it will be very difficult to determine who placed a dead baby girl inside a donation box that was shipped from Arizona to a Texas warehouse.
Texas authorities told the Arizona Republic that a truck carrying used clothing from Phoenix arrived at a warehouse in McAllen on Wednesday evening.
The truck’s trailer was unloaded the next day by employees at the warehouse. As they were sorting through boxes of used clothes, employees say they found the remains of the baby inside a cardboard box, stuffed between garments. The girl hasn’t been identified.