TAIPEI – Japan has released a Taiwanese fishing boat whose seizure prompted a protest from Taipei after its owner paid more than $50,000 Tuesday, the government said.

The 50-tonne “Tung Sheng Chi 16” was chased for hours by a Japanese boat and finally seized Monday 150 nautical miles off Okinotori-shima, an atoll administered by Japan.

The seizure led to a protest from Taipei, which said Japan had no authority in the area and demanded the release of the ship and 10 crew.

But they were freed only after the ship’s owner paid a “lawsuit deposit” of 6.0 million yen ($54,000) as required by the Japanese authorities, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We respect the family’s decision intended to have the people and ship released as soon as possible,” it said.

But the ministry said “this by no means indicates Taiwan recognises the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) Japan has claimed across the water surrounding the atoll”.

Okinotori-shima is an uninhabited atoll in the Philippine Sea which is mostly submerged at low tide.

The Japanese EEZ claim has also been rejected by China and South Korea, although neither country has made its own claim.

The Taiwanese fishing boat and the crew – the Taiwanese skipper, one Chinese and eight Indonesian sailors – are scheduled to sail back to Taiwan early Wednesday, the ministry said.

Two Taiwanese fishing vessels that were allegedly chased and fired at by an Indonesian patrol vessel arrived in Singapore

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The Straits Times

DHAKA – Suspected Islamists have hacked to death two gay rights activists in the Bangladeshi capital, the latest in a series of chilling murders in the Muslim-majority country.

With the list of victims growing fast and rights groups warning that the attackers appear to be expanding their range of targets, pressure is mounting on the Bangladesh government to act.

Since early last year, at least six secular bloggers, liberal activists and writers have also been killed in Bangladesh – including Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy who was hacked to death on a crowded Dhaka street last February.

Many more bloggers and activists, who have also openly criticised Islam, have received death threats, forcing some to flee the country or go into hiding.

A number of Christians, Hindus and Sufi, Ahmadi and Shiite Muslims have also been killed since last year, heightening fears for religious minorities in the officially secular country that comprises mainly Sunni Muslims.

Two foreigners, a Japanese farmer and a faith-based Italian aid worker, were also shot dead last year.

An English professor was hacked to death on Saturday as he walked to a bus stop. Although he had never knowingly criticised Islam, police suspect he was targeted for leading music and literature groups at his university.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for murdering the two foreigners, warning in September that “citizens of the crusader coalition” would not be safe in Muslim nations.

IS later also later claimed to have carried out a bombing at a packed Shiite shrine, and other attacks on minorities. The professor, it said, was killed for “calling to the creed of atheism”.

A Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaeda said Tuesday it carried out the latest murders, because the two men had worked to “promote homosexuality”. It has also said it was behind the murders of the secular bloggers and writers.

27 radicalised Bangladeshis arrested under ISA

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Ministry of Home Affairs

But Bangladesh’s government rejects both groups’ claims and says homegrown Islamist groups are instead responsible for all the attacks.

Bangladesh’s top police officers have also repeatedly rejected the claims, saying there is no evidence that either group has any presence in the country. They have echoed the government in blaming local banned Islamist outfits.

Independent security analysts are more cautious, saying it is possible that some homegrown militant groups have established contact with IS or Al-Qaeda or have been inspired by their operations in the Middle East and north Africa.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also points the finger at the main opposition and its Islamist ally, accusing them of trying to destabilise the country – claims rejected by both groups.

Bangladesh has been plagued by political unrest in the last three years, a period which has seen the largest Islamist party banned, while the mainstream opposition boycotted the last elections in January 2014 over vote rigging fears.

Death sentences handed down to several leading Islamists for war crimes over their roles in the 1971 conflict to secede from Pakistan have exacerbated tensions between the secular government and its opponents.

Scores of opposition activists including Islamists have gone missing or been detained since last year’s major crackdown by the government on deadly opposition-led street protests.

Experts fear this crackdown has radicalised some of Hasina’s opponents.

Last year a court sentenced two students to death for the 2013 murder of Ahmed Rajib Haider, the first of the attacks targeting secular writers.

Another six people were convicted on lesser charges related to Haider’s death.

But no one has been convicted over any of the deaths that have occurred since, although police have made numerous arrests.

Secular activists across the country have demanded greater police protection and justice, fearing a culture of impunity for the attackers.

Their fears have been bolstered by comments of top officials, including Prime Minister Hasina who has criticised the secular bloggers’ “dirty” writings on religion.

As some mothers will have you know, when the baby decides to come, there’s no stopping it.

That’s precisely the case on Friday (April 22), when an expectant mother experienced cramps just before the Jetstar Asia flight that she was on was to land in Yangon, Myanmar.

The crew on board called for medical assistance as soon as they were notified, and three doctors on the flight came forward to help.

Jetstar Asia said that the doctors were from one family. It identified them on Facebook as Dr Saw Myat Thitsar, Dr Aung Ko, and Dr Thida San.

Just as the crew and doctors were getting ready to move the mother after the flight landed, the baby boy was delivered, the airline said in a statement to AsiaOne.

Both mother and baby were then sent to hospital.

The airline said that other passengers on the flight, mostly Myanmar nationals, “received the news with applause”.

It is understood that both mother and baby are in good health and have been discharged from hospital.

The 6-pounds-7-ounces (about 2.9kg) baby boy is the first to be delivered on a Jetstar Asia flight.

Jetstar Asia said that it will be offering S$1,000 worth of baby supplies to the family.

It also said that the mother decided to name her baby Saw Jet Star, because of “the care she received from the airline”.

sinsh@sph.com.sg

PHNOM PENH – A Cambodian tour operator said Tuesday it would reduce work hours for elephants during high temperatures following the collapse and death of an animal which had been ferrying tourists in 40C heat.

The female elephant, aged between 40-45, died by the roadside on Friday after carrying tourists around Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex outside Siem Reap.

Photos were widely shared on social media, prompting calls for Cambodia to reform the already controversial elephant ride industry.

Oan Kiri, manager of Angkor Elephant Company, told AFP Tuesday that vets believed heatstroke was the cause of death.

“Veterinarians concluded that the elephant’s death was caused by the hot temperatures which caused stress, shock, high blood pressure and a heart attack,” he said.

The elephant had been working around 45 minutes, walking 2.1 kilometres carrying tourists, before she collapsed on her way to an enclosure.

He added that the company was “regretful and felt pity” and would now let the 13 remaining elephants work fewer hours until temperatures drop.

The Greater Mekong region is experiencing its hot and dry season where temperatures of 40C (104 Fahrenheit) are not unusual. This year has seen particularly hot spells.

Animal rights groups have long complained that elephants which give rides to tourists across the region are routinely overworked and brutally broken in during training.

Thailand has seen multiple cases in recent months where elephants have killed their handlers or attacked tourists.

A petition on Change.org calling on Cambodian authorities to end elephant rides at Angkor had garnered 24,500 signatures by Tuesday afternoon.

“There is no such thing as cruelty-free elephant rides,” it stated.

Handlers and tour operators have long argued that tourism provides much needed income and employment for people – and for domesticated elephants that would otherwise risk abandonment and starvation.

But Jack Highwood, from the Elephant Valley Project, a Cambodian eco-tourism group, said the country only boasted about 70 domesticated elephants – “too small a number not to regulate their use to protect their health and welfare.”