Fatal blast hits oil tanker off Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- One person was killed and seven others injured Saturday in an explosion aboard an oil tanker in waters off Hong Kong, authorities reported.
The Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordination Center said the tanker was 186 miles east of Hong Kong when it caught fire as a result of an explosion. The fire was extinguished, according to state-run Radio Television Hong Kong.
The Government Flying Service sent a fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters with doctors aboard to the Panama-registered Chuang Yi vessel to transport the injured to a hospital in the city. One crew member was reported to have died and four others were in serious condition, Radio Television Hong Kong reported.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
According to ship tracking apps, the 5,500-ton oil and chemical tanker was on its way to Taiwan. The 393-foot-long tanker is 22 years old.
Migrants' Easter march in Mexico ends
TAPACHULA, Mexico -- An Easter weekend march of migrants from southernmost Mexico appeared to end quickly on Saturday when officials sent buses to take them a few miles up the road and promised to expedite documents for them.
About 800 migrants, largely Venezuelans, Cubans and Central Americans, set off carrying crosses from Tapachula, where thousands of migrants have been waiting for permits or documents that might allow them to move north toward the U.S. border or to remain in Mexico.
Officials sent buses to pick them up and give them a ride to the town of Huixtla, roughly 25 miles up the road, saying they would process documents for them Monday.
"We are going to help them be regularized," said Hugo Cuellar, representative of the National Institute of Migration.
For several years, migrants have staged Holy Week marches that combine a religious demonstration, a protest and an effort to resume a northward trek that had been interrupted by Mexican officials' attempts to delay them in Tapachula in the country's far south rather than closer to the politically sensitive U.S. border. Most of the marches have been broken up by authorities soon after setting out.
With discontent growing among the migrants stalled in Tapachula, leading to an increase in attempted marches north, officials since the end of last year have began to move some by bus to other states and process their requests for immigration documents there.
Fuel tanker wrecks off Tunisian coast
TUNIS, Tunisia -- A commercial oil tanker carrying more than 750 tons of diesel ran aground Friday night in the Gulf of Gabes in southeastern Tunisia.
According to the Environment Ministry, the ship sank late Saturday morning due to water seeping into the engine room. Only the bow of the boat was still visible. It's unclear if it is leaking fuel.
As soon as the accident was announced Friday night, the Environment Ministry announced the activation of the national emergency response plan, put in place over the potential threat of maritime pollution.
That consists of experts, marine guard and civil protection agents being deployed to the danger zone, and buffers such as tarpaulin put around the perimeter to contain any leak.
The Xelo, which was flying the flag of Equatorial Guinea, had left the port of Damietta in Egypt heading for Malta, but was diverted from its route due to bad weather conditions.
The crew was saved by teams from the Maritime Guard and Civil Protection.
Turmoil persists in southern Sweden
HELSINKI -- Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Koran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.
Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish right-wing Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, some 27 miles south.
Up to 100 mostly young people threw stones, set cars, tires and trash bins on fire, and put up a barrier fence that obstructed traffic, Swedish police said. The situation had calmed down in Landskrona by late Saturday but remains tense, police said, adding no injuries were reported in the action.
Kim Hild, spokeswoman for police in southern Sweden, said earlier that police would not revoke permission for the demonstration because the threshold for doing that is very high in Sweden, which values free speech.
The demonstration took place Saturday evening in a central park in Malmo where Stram Kurs' leader Rasmus Paludan addressed a few dozen people. A small number of counterprotesters threw stones at demonstrators, and police were forced to use pepper spray to disperse them.
Paludan was reportedly hit in his leg by a stone, Swedish media said. No serious injuries were reported, according to police.
Two days of riots in various Swedish cities and towns culminated in the violent clashes in Orebro late Friday that left 12 police officers injured and four police vehicles set on fire.