7 missing in US Osprey crash off Japan
TOKYO—Rescuers scoured waters off Japan on Thursday for seven missing US Air Force personnel whose Osprey crashed during a training exercise, in the latest incident involving the tilt-rotor military aircraft. Japan’s defense minister said he had requested that US forces in the country suspend Osprey flights in the wake of the deadly incident. One unconscious person was found in the sea and later declared dead after the aircraft crashed off the island of Yakushima on Wednesday. US Air Force Special Operations Command said eight crew had been aboard the CV-22B Osprey in the “routine training mission” out of Yokota Air Base. “The cause of the mishap is currently unknown,” it said. An emergency management official in the Kagoshima region where the crash took place said police had received information that the aircraft had been “spewing fire from a left engine.” The Osprey, developed by Bell Helicopters and Boeing and which can operate like a helicopter or a fixed-wing plane, has suffered a string of fatal crashes. —AFP
Nepal registers first LGBTQ marriage
KATHMANDU—An LGBTQ couple has acquired a marriage certificate in Nepal, officials said Thursday, a first in South Asia and hailed by the pair as a win “for all.” Transgender woman Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey obtained a marriage certificate from a local ward in Nepal’s Lamjung district on Wednesday. “We are very happy and proud. This has finally happened,” Gurung told AFP. The couple held a Hindu marriage ceremony in 2017, and live together with their dog and cat. “This is a win not just for us but for all couples like us,” she said. In June, the Supreme Court issued an interim order allowing all same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriages, directing the government to establish a separate temporary register until laws are formulated. Nepal already has some of South Asia’s most progressive laws on homosexuality and transgender rights, with reforms passed in 2007 against discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation. A third gender category for citizenship was introduced in 2013 and Nepal began issuing passports with the “others” category two years later. —AFP
