IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Japan

Abe to meet Khamenei to mediate with US

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his tour to Iran from June 12 to 14 in Teheran, as Tokyo hopes to mediate between Washington and Teheran, a report said on Sunday. As tensions intensify between Iran and the United States, Japan's key ally, Abe has reportedly proposed serving as a go-between and to be weighing a state visit to Iran. According to the Mainichi Shimbun report, Abe's planned meeting with Khamenei will be the first such talks between a Japanese premier and the powerful head of state. Abe will also meet Iran's president Hassan Rouhani before meeting Khamenei during his tour, the newspaper said, citing unnamed government sources.

Russia

Explosion at TNT plant injures 79, officials say

The Health Ministry said 79 people have been injured in an explosion in a plant manufacturing the explosive TNT. The blast took place on Saturday in Dzerzhinsk, 400 kilometers east of Moscow. An investigation is underway but the cause of the blast has not been determined. The ministry said 38 employees at the plant and 41 local residents sought treatment after the blast. It said 15 were hospitalized, one in serious condition. The blast broke windows in about 180 residential buildings near the plant, the state news agency Tass reported, citing city authorities. Dmitry Krasnov, deputy governor of the region that includes Dzerzhinsk, said earlier on state TV that two people were missing in the blast, but later said that information had not been confirmed.

Australia

More than 40 sawfish dead in hot spot

High temperatures and lack of rainfall helped kill a record number of critically endangered sawfish in a parched creek in Western Australia state, according to the latest research. More than 40 of the fish, with their distinctive flat nose extension and sharp traverse teeth, died on a dried-out area in the Kimberley region late last year, local media reported on Saturday. A team of researchers, who have just confirmed the latest deaths, tried to save the fish but only two of the victims survived, according to the ABC news channel. Murdoch University researcher David Morgan, who led the team, was quoted as saying that the fish kill was the largest he had seen in nearly two decades of studying the fish in the Fitzroy River system, which is considered "the world's last stronghold for the species".

AFP - AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 06/03/2019 page12)