The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site, news agencies reported. The shooting was rare in a country where handguns are strictly banned and only four politicians are known to have been killed since World War II.\nU.S. forces recently intercepted Iranian-made weapons intended for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s top general said Tuesday, suggesting wider Iranian war involvement in the region. It appeared to be the first publicly disclosed instance of Iranian arms entering Afghanistan, although it was not immediately clear whether the weapons came directly from Iran or were shipped through a third party.
A fertilizer plant in southwest China discharged a “huge amount” of sulfur dioxide, sickening about 140 children and teachers, state media reported Tuesday. The plant, which produces chemical fertilizers in the county of Xifeng in Guizhou province, emitted the colorless gas into the atmosphere Monday, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing a local official.
A bird flu vaccine won federal approval for the first time Tuesday as a stopgap measure against a potential pandemic until more effective vaccines can be developed. The vaccine is the first to win Food and Drug Administration approval for use in protecting humans against the H5N1 influenza virus. It would be used if the strain mutated into a form that spread easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic.
