SOUTH KOREA

Ban to remain on Fukushima seafood

South Korea's presidential office said it will not lift a ban on Japanese fishery imports from areas around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant amid contamination concerns, Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday. Japan's push to discharge nuclear wastewater from the crippled plant into the ocean has drawn criticism from neighboring countries and Pacific islands, and questions over the safety of the disposal remain.

THE PHILIPPINES

Death toll in ferry blaze rises to 31

A ferry carrying about 250 passengers and crew members caught fire in the southern Philippines and 31 people drowned or died in the blaze, a provincial governor said on Thursday. Many of those rescued had jumped off the MV Lady Mary Joy 3 in panic at the height of the fire and were plucked from the sea by the coast guard, navy, another ferry and local fishermen, said Governor Jim Hataman of the southern island province Basilan. The search and rescue effort continued on Thursday for at least seven missing passengers.

UNITED STATES

Several feared dead in helicopter crash

The governor of Kentucky said on Thursday fatalities were expected after two US Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a routine training mission over the state late on Wednesday. The status of the crew members was not immediately known, the US Army's Fort Campbell said in a statement to Reuters, without providing the number of people who were on board. Crew members were flying two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters operated by the 101st Airborne Division, which crashed in Kentucky's Trigg County, Fort Campbell's public affairs office said. The HH-60 is a variant of the Black Hawk designed to provide support for various military operations, including air assaults and medical evacuations, the Army said.