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14 bodies Found by Sri Lanka Navy As Chinese Boat Capsizes

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At least 14 bodies have been recovered by Sri Lanka’s navy inside a Chinese fishing boat that had capsized last week with 39 crew on board.

The discovery came a day after a preliminary Chinese government probe concluded there were no survivors.

The Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 overturned on May 16, with 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesians and five Filipinos on board within Australia’s vast search-and-rescue region, 5,000 kilometres (2,700 nautical miles) west of Perth.

The Sri Lankan navy said its divers had recovered two bodies and spotted 12 more on Tuesday, releasing photos showing the upturned red hull of the vessel and bodies being hauled out of the water.

“Due to decomposition and the potential health hazards posed by operating in contaminated waters with limited protective gear, it was determined that retrieving those bodies would be exceedingly dangerous,” the navy said in a statement.

It said the locations of the 12 bodies inside the boat were mapped and handed to Chinese authorities. The nationalities of the located bodies were not immediately known.

The Sri Lankan navy statement came a day after a preliminary probe by the Chinese transport ministry concluded that all those on board had died.

Australia had sent three aeroplanes and four ships to help in the international search-and-rescue efforts.

Rescuers had trawled an area of around 64,000 square kilometres (18,700 square nautical miles), and “did not find any sign of survivors”, according to the Chinese transport ministry.

The fishing vessel’s distress beacon was first detected last week as Cyclone Fabian drove waves as high as seven metres (23 feet) and winds as strong as 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour) through the area.

Rough weather held back rescue efforts, with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Canberra warning of “challenging” survival conditions.

The vessel was owned by the Penglai Jinglu Fishery Company, one of China’s major state-run fishing firms.

It was authorised to fish for neon flying squid and Pacific saury, according to the North Pacific Fisheries Commission.

It left Cape Town in South Africa on May 5 for Busan in South Korea, according to the Marine Traffic tracking website, which last located the vessel on May 10 southeast of Reunion, a tiny French island in the Indian Ocean.

Penglai Jinglu Fishery also runs squid and tuna fishing operations in international waters, including the Indian Ocean and seas surrounding Latin America.

AFP

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International

30 injured as train derails in Iran

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A train derailed in the southern Iranian province of Kerman on Friday, injuring more than two dozen people though no deaths were reported, according to local media.

“Thirty people were injured when a train derailed on the Kerman-Zarand railway path,” Babak Mahmoudi, head of the Red Crescent Society’s Relief and Rescue Organisation, told the Mehr news agency.

A statement from the public relations office of the national railway body carried by the Tasnim news agency reported that after “the timely arrival of railway technical personnel and rescue forces, all passengers safely exited the train”.

Train derailments are not uncommon in Iran, and while they do not generally result in deaths, there have been fatal disasters in the past.

In June 2022, 21 people were killed and dozens were injured when a train derailed near the central Iranian city of Tabas after hitting an excavator beside the track.

In 2016, two trains collided and caught fire in northern Iran, killing 44 people and injuring scores.

AFP

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U.K.–India set to boost bilateral trade by over $34 billion a year

The FTA, which slashes duties on goods including textiles, alcohol and automobiles, was signed Thursday in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer.

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•Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer.

U.K. and India’s bilateral trade is set to get a more than $34 billion annual boost over the long term following their free trade agreement, with the countries’ leaders calling it a “historic” deal.

CNBC reported that the FTA, which slashes duties on goods including textiles, alcohol and automobiles, was signed on Thursday in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer.

Both sides had finalized the trade pact in May after three years of intense negotiations — marked by thorny issues such as visas, tariff reduction and tax breaks.

Talks gained momentum and both governments accelerated to seal the deal as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats sent the world in disarray.

The agreement between the world’s fifth and sixth largest economies is expected to boost their bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds per year by 2040.

Trade in goods and services stood at over 40 billion pounds in 2024.

The deal offers “huge benefits to both of our countries,” boosting wages, raising living standards and bringing down prices for consumers, Starmer said.

India’s Modi lauded the agreement as “a blueprint for our shared prosperity,” highlighting how Indian goods including textiles, jewelry, agricultural products and engineering items would benefit from a better access to the U.K. market.

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Russian missing plane found in Forest – No Survivors

Amur’s regional governor Vasily Orlov said five children were among those on board and declared three days of mourning.

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Russian officials say 48 people were killed when an Angara Airlines plane went down in a dense forest in the far-eastern Amur region.

The Antonov An-24 plane, carrying 42 passengers and six crew, had left Blagoveshchensk close to the Chinese border and vanished from radar screens as it approached Tynda airport, officials said.

A Russian civil aviation helicopter then spotted burning fuselage from the plane on a remote hillside about 16km (10 miles) from Tynda.

Amur’s regional governor Vasily Orlov said five children were among those on board and declared three days of mourning.

Orlov said that according to preliminary data, there were 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members on board the plane operated by a Siberian airline.

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