TOKYO (AP) – Two passenger planes bumped into each other on a runway at a Tokyo airport yesterday but no injuries were reported, a government official said.

A Thai Airways International jet headed to Bangkok accidentally hit a parked Eva Airways plane headed to Taipei at Haneda airport, Transport Ministry Deputy Administrator Isamu Yamane said.

The runway was temporarily closed but re-opened about two hours later after it was cleared, Yamane said. Some flights were delayed and the cause of the accident was still under investigation.

Footage broadcast by TBS TV News showed two commercial jets stopped on the same runway. NHK TV showed an official picking up what appeared to be part of an airplane wing and removing it from the runway. The airlines were not immediately available for comment and did not answer repeated calls.

A winglet on the Thai Airways plane appeared to be damaged, according to photographs and media reports. Winglets are the vertical projections on the tip of the wing that reduce drag.

CHAVES, BRAZIL (AP) – Surfers from all over Brazil gathered this week at the Amazon River’s mouth to ride some of the world’s longest-lasting waves, when the incoming tide roars upriver in a broad band that can keep surfboards afloat for kilometres.

“You have to throw yourself in that vibe and integrate yourself with nature. Never try to conquer it, because that’s impossible,” president of Brazilian Pororoca Surfing Association Noélio Sobrinho said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The annual festival to ride these tidal bore waves, known locally as the “Pororoca”, rotates through towns where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean and this year took place for five days through Wednesday in Brazil’s Para state town of Chaves.

The waves happen twice a day when the ocean waters flow into the river, rather than the other way around. But it is especially powerful – and surfable – during days surrounding full and new moons, when the ocean’s tide is at its highest, creating a wide and long-lasting wave that surfers can ride for up to 40 minutes.

“It’s something of a different dimension,” said first timer Carlos Carneiro Jr, who travelled to Chaves from the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, some 1,500 kilometres away. “You have to feel it. Surfers have to come and see what it is.”

The phrase Pororoca is believed to derive from a indigenous word either for “big roar” or “destructor”. The phenomenon has done its share of destruction in remote riverside communities in the states of Para, Amapa and Maranhao, but also provides them with revenue from sports tourism.

In Chaves, locals have named the area where surfers go the Dangerous Canal, an area more than eight kilometres wide. Surfing there is especially perilous because the forceful waves carry abundant debris. Some surfers describe it like a tsunami.

It is also a risky expedition for boat and jet ski drivers who ferry surfers and who must avoid getting stuck in sandbanks or caught by the oncoming wave.

Sobrinho, of the Brazilian Pororoca Surfing Association, has surfed more than 200 Pororocas over the decades. His passion started when his father told him he had to ride a Pororoca to prove he’s a good surfer.

“Pororoca has always been synonymous with tragedy and destruction,” Sobrinho said. “After we started surfing the wave, Pororoca went from villain to artist. Today it is one of the main sources of tourism here in Chaves.”

UPI – A turtle found loitering in the parking lot of a Kentucky bank in the United States was apprehended and loaded into the back of a squad car, but ultimately released.

The Glasgow Police Department said an officer responded to Edmonton State Bank on a report of a turtle occupying the parking lot and refusing to leave.

The department shared a photo of the shelled suspect riding in the back of a police cruiser.

The turtle was given a warning and released at a nearby body of water.

HONG KONG (AP) – One of the two giant inflatable ducks floating in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour deflated yesterday, just a day after they were unveiled to revellers.

Crowds of residents and tourists flocked in the scorching heat to the promenade near the government headquarters in Admiralty to snap photos of the ducks by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. But many who arrived in the afternoon only found one duck intact, with the other reduced to a puddle of yellow plastic. Organisers said their staff found one of the ducks was overstretched due to the hot weather and rising air pressure.

“It was decided that the air needed to be immediately released by loosening the seams to avoid any potential risk,” they wrote in a post on social media.

They said the duck would be transferred back to the shipyard for repair. The two 18-metre – tall yellow ducks resemble the bath toys. In 2013, one of Hofman’s ducks was displayed in the city and sparked a frenzy.

But that duck was also deflated during its exhibition period.

Hofman said he hoped the return of his pop-art icons would bring some joy to the city.

“Double duck, double luck,” he said.

Hong Kong office worker Snow Wong said it was “even more interesting” to see the duck deflated.

“It makes us wonder if double happiness is really possible in Hong Kong. And if you look at the duck, you may find your answer,” the 35-year-old said. Macao resident Annita Lei, who visited Hong Kong to see the ducks, was left disappointed.

“(Having) two ducks is very special. I really hope they can fix it before I leave Hong Kong tomorrow,” Lei said.

Hofman’s rubber ducks have been on a world tour since 2007.

BEIJING (CNA) – Non-stop heavy rain lashed parts of southwest China on Friday, triggering floods in some cities, engulfing roads and partially submerging buildings.

A particularly harsh first bout of summer rains known locally as “dragon boat water” saw the city of Beihai in the Guangxi region log 453millitre of precipitation on Thursday. That was a regional daily record for June, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

Cars were half underwater in flooded Beihai streets, and at one multi-storey building water cascaded down a staircase as firefighters raced to rescue its residents, videos circulating on social media showed.

Ferries from Beihai to nearby Weizhou island was suspended until tomorrow, broadcaster CCTV reported, adding that strong winds and continuous heavy rain will hit the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of South China. The nearby city of Yulin, west of Guangdong province, had 35 hours of rain as of 7am on Friday, CCTV reported.

Villages and towns in the area were inundated by flood waters, the province’s firefighting department reported, adding over 100 people were evacuated.

Rain is forecast to continue in southern China over the coming days while the northeast is expected to be hit by sudden thunderstorms, the weather bureau reported.

China, prone to floods, is increasingly warning of more extreme weather due to climate change.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Federal prosecutors unsealed a wide-ranging indictment of Donald Trump on Friday, accusing the former United States (US) president of endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defence documents after leaving the White House.

The 76-year-old Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, took hundreds of classified government documents in cardboard boxes to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the 49-page charge sheet said.

Trump kept the files – which included records from the Pentagon, CIA and National Security Agency – unsecured at Mar-a-Lago, which regularly hosted large social events, the indictment said.

On at least two occasions, Trump showed classified documents on US military operations and plans to people not cleared to see them at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, it said.

Trump faces 37 separate counts in the indictment including 31 counts of “willful retention of national defence information” relating to specific documents. A conviction on each count carries up to 10 years in prison.

“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the historic indictment against Trump, the first former US president ever to face federal criminal charges.

“Laws that protect national defence information are critical to the safety and security of the US and they must be enforced,” Smith said, adding that he would seek to ensure that Trump receives a “speedy trial”.

Other charges facing the twice-impeached Trump include conspiracy to obstruct justice, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, withholding a document or record, which also carries a potential 20-year sentence, and making false statements.

Trump’s personal aide, Walt Nauta, was named as a co-conspirator, charged with six counts for helping Trump hide documents, which were kept at various locations in Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment, including a ballroom, a bathroom, Trump’s bedroom and a storage room.

“The classified documents Trump stored in the boxes included information regarding defence and weapons capabilities of both the US and foreign countries,” the indictment said.

Other records dealt with US nuclear programmes and potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack along with plans for retaliation, it said.

“The unauthorised disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the US, foreign relations, the safety of the US military, and human sources,” according to the indictment.

According to US media, the case will initially be handled by a Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon who made rulings favourable to the former president during a court review of documents seized in an August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Virginia man who told his wife – and a federal jury – that he had “fun” at the United States (US) Capitol riot was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for attacking police as he stormed the building.

Markus Maly’s prison sentence is significantly lower than the punishment that prosecutors sought for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The Justice Department had recommended a prison sentence of 15 years and eight months for Maly, a flooring installer. A prosecutor described Maly as a “lifelong criminal” with 33 prior convictions on his record, including two for battery of a law enforcement officer. Maly told US District Judge Amit Mehta that he regrets travelling to Washington and following the mob of then-president Donald Trump’s supporters to the Capitol.

But he insisted that he merely “occupied space” in the crowd and denied attacking and pepper-spraying police.

“I went to a rally. That’s what I did,” he told the judge.

The judge said jurors had ample evidence to convict Maly of assaulting police.

“It’s not that you were there and ‘occupying space.’ It’s that you did these things and kept doing them that day,” the judge told him.

Prosecutors said Maly is one of many Capitol rioters who have tried to profit from their notoriety, portraying themselves as patriots, martyrs or political prisoners as they solicit donations from supporters.

Maly has raised more than USD16,500 through a GiveSendGo donation page, referring to himself as a “January 6 prisoner of war (POW)”. Prosecutors asked the judge to fine him an amount commensurate with his fundraising haul, noting that he had a public defender and didn’t owe any legal fees. The judge declined to impose a fine. He said Maly’s fundraising activities may have been “unseemly”, but he questioned whether there was a legal basis for clawing back the money.

Maly testified at his trial that participating in the Capitol riot was “fun” for him. He also described the events of January 6 as “fun” and “awesome” in messages sent to his wife and others.

“Maly admitted to being proud of what he had done at the Capitol and that he had bragged about it,” prosecutor Stephen Rancourt wrote in a court filing.

“Despite seeing police officers assaulted, injured, and distressed on January 6, and knowing that it was a bad day for members of Congress and the police officers who had to live through the riot, Maly reiterated that his experience that day was ‘fun’.”

The judge at Maly’s trial previously handed down the longest sentence for a Capitol riot case: 18 years for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

Maly has been jailed since a jury convicted him in December of all eight charges against him, including felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police using a dangerous weapon.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Multiple victims were struck by bullets during a mass shooting in San Francisco’s Mission district on Friday night, but authorities said there were no fatalities.

“We can confirm there are 9 shooting victims – all are expected to survive their injuries,” the San Francisco Police Department said in a tweet.

Police said there was no ongoing threat and the shooting “appears to be targetted and isolated”.

The city’s Department of Emergency Management issued an earlier tweet asking people to avoid the area of 24th Street and Treat Avenue.

Police said officers responded to the shooting shortly after 9pm, KPIX-TV reported.

The victims were transported to a hospital but their conditions were not immediately known, KPIX-TV reported.

The police did not immediately report making any arrests.

ROME (AFP) – Italian special forces boarded a cargo ship sailing from Turkiye to France on Friday, after the crew were threatened by “pirates” off the Italian coast, the Defence Ministry said.

Marines dropped onto the vessel from helicopters after a number of “stowaways” used knives to threaten the crew, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told reporters.

The ministry told AFP the aggressors appeared to be migrants, though their nationalities were unknown. The ship was the Galata Seaways, a roll-on roll-off cargo ship – designed to carry vehicles – sailing under a Turkish flag with reportedly 22 crew members.

It set off from Topcular in Turkiye on June 7 and was headed for Sete in southern France.

Some 15 stowaways had boarded the ship in Turkiye, in the hope of reaching Europe, but were discovered by the crew, the Repubblica daily said. “The migrants tried to take some of the crew hostage inside the bridge,” ANSA news agency said.

The drama unfolded as the ship – some 200 metres long and 20 metres wide – was sailing in Italian waters, near the island of Ischia.

The captain managed to radio for help, sending an urgent request to Ankara, which then alerted the Italian authorities, according to reports.

After special forces stormed the ship, some of the stowaways were arrested but others “barricaded themselves in the depths of the hold,” the Repubblica said.

“The ship is very big and it is not difficult to hide,” minister Crosetto told a television show.

“When they heard the helicopter, (some of the stowaways) ran, then probably tried to escape by sea in the dark,” he said.

“However, the ship is surrounded. We will see in the next few hours… who the pirates are and what they wanted to do,” he said.

PARIS (AP) – French judges yesterday handed preliminary charges of attempted murder to a man suspected of stabbing four young children and two adults in a French Alps park, an attack that reverberated across France and beyond.

The suspect, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee with permanent Swedish residency, has a three year-old daughter living in Sweden, regional prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said.

Witnesses told investigators that the suspect mentioned his daughter, his wife during the attack on Thursday targetting a playground in the lakeside town of Annecy.

The victims, who came from multiple countries, are no longer in life-threatening condition, the prosecutor said. The children, between 22 months and three years old, remain hospitalised.

Police detained the suspect in the lakeside park in the town of Annecy after bystanders – who repeatedly swung at the attacker with his backpack – sought to deter him.

The suspected attacker, whose name was not released, was presented to investigating judges in Annecy yesterday and given charges of attempted murder and armed resistance,  Bonnet-Mathis said.

He is in custody pending further investigation.

The suspect refused to talk to investigators, and was examined by a psychiatrist and other doctors who deemed him fit to face charges, the prosecutor said.

She said that the motive remained unclear, but it didn’t appear to be terrorism-related.