A huge fire was still raging around the stricken ship, which had been carrying 136,000 tonnes of light oil, with fierce heat and thick black smoke billowing from the vessel and the surrounding sea.

Rescuers attempting to reach the crew of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis were being beaten back by toxic clouds, China’s transportation ministry said.

The Panamanian-flagged 274-metre (899-foot) tanker Sanchi is “in danger of exploding or sinking,” the ministry said.

The accident happened on Saturday evening 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai.

The tanker, operated by Iran’s Glory Shipping, was heading to South Korea when it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, the CF Crystal, carrying 64,000 tonnes of grain.

Ten government vessels and “many fishing ships” were helping with the ongoing rescue and clean up effort, the transportation ministry said, adding that a South Korean coast guard ship was also on the scene.

A US Navy aircraft participated in the search on Sunday, scouring a large area before returning to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.

Iran’s Petroleum Ministry said the tanker belongs to the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) and was delivering its cargo to South Korea’s Hanwha Total. The ship and its cargo were insured, a statement said.

It was the second accident in less than two years involving a tanker owned by the NITC. In August 2016 an Iranian supertanker and a container ship collided in the Singapore Strait, causing damage to both vessels but no injuries or pollution.

Saturday’s collision was the latest fatal maritime accident to hit East Asia in recent years.//AFP

Variety reports that the “War Machine” actor was at an annual silent auction in Los Angeles hosted by Sean Penn. Proceeds of the charity gala go to J/P HRO & Disaster Relief Organizations to aid Haiti.

It was announced that the chance to watch an episode of “Game of Thrones” with star Emilia Clarke was up for grabs. She and co-star Kit Harington were in attendance, though in separate tables.

Bids started at $20,000 and immediately shot up. Pitt put in his bid at $80,000 and placed $90,000 to outbid himself.

When the auctioneer shouted, “Is the King of the North here?” Harington was in the restroom. When he returned, he said he was willing to be part of the episode viewing.

Pitt then bid $120,000. Unfortunately, another attendee won with $160,000.

Other personalities in the room were Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Segel, Lena Dunham, producer Mark Burnett and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.

DiCaprio bid $80,000 on a painting by Josh Smith, which Clarke ended up taking home for $90,000. DiCaprio eventually won another Smith painting.

Just halfway through the gala, $3 million was raised.

The decision means the 92-year-old, a hugely divisive figure criticised for ruling with an iron fist during his long reign, could return as premier 15 years after stepping down.

But he also agreed to make way for jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — his former nemesis turned political ally — to become prime minister on his release from prison if Anwar is granted a royal pardon.

Mahathir’s ascent to opposition prime ministerial candidate is the latest sign of how dramatically Malaysia’s political landscape has been shaken up by a massive financial scandal that has rocked Najib’s government.

Mahathir came out of retirement to take on Najib as anger mounted at allegations billions of dollars were looted from a state investment fund, 1MDB, founded by the current premier.

Both Najib, whose United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has led the country in a coalition since independence in 1957, and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The elections must be called by August but speculation is mounting they will be held in the next few months.

The decision to pick Mahathir as candidate for premier was endorsed by senior leaders of four-party coalition Pact of Hope at their convention in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, to rousing cheers by hundreds of supporters.

“Our great focus is to save our beloved country,” Mahathir, who ruled the country for 22 years at the head of the UMNO, said in a speech.

“It wasn’t easy for the parties that were my enemies before to accept me — but they are aware of the importance of bringing down the current government.”

People’s Justice Party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar’s wife, was named as deputy prime minister candidate.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, where furious passengers have been stranded for days as a result of equipment damaged by the storm and a backlog of flights, saw further meltdown with Terminal 4 flooded, CNN footage showed.

Water gushed from the ceiling and the arrivals area was submerged by standing water, through which a few intrepid passengers picked their way gingerly, according to images broadcast by the television network.

JFK confirmed the water main break at Terminal 4 and warned passengers via Twitter of flight delays, advising them to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

Air India, China Airlines, Delta, Egyptair, El Al, Emirates, Etihad, KLM Royal Dutch, Singapore Airlines, Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic are just some of the airlines processed by Terminal 4.

It comes after the airport was forced to close Terminal 1, which serves the likes of Air France, Japan Airlines and Lufthansa, to international arrivals on Saturday to get on top of the backlog.

“I am so angry, words cannot even express how I feel right now,” one stranded female traveler told NBC television before the water leak.

Ninety-four flights were cancelled at JFK on Saturday and 17 diverted, as the extreme cold and storm recovery “created a cascading series of issues for the airlines and terminal operators,” said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that runs the airport.

“Airlines remain in recovery mode, rebooking passengers from canceled flights and reuniting passengers with their luggage,” it said.

“Frigid temperatures continue to cause equipment failures and slower than normal operations. Customers may experience residual delays, particularly for international flights,” it added in a statement.

Record lows

“Frigid temperatures continue to cause equipment failures and slower than normal operations. Customers may experience residual delays, particularly for international flights,” it added in a statement.

JFK was one the parts of New York that saw record lows for January 7, including four degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15.5 degrees Celsius).

The big freeze follows a storm Thursday dubbed a “bomb cyclone,” which has been blamed for at least 22 reported deaths in the United States.

Boston, which saw some of the heaviest snow from the storm, froze with a Sunday morning low of minus two degrees Fahrenheit (minus 19 degrees Celsius) — matching the previous January 7 record in 1896.

Massachusetts marked three record lows on Sunday, with Providence and Worcester frozen at minus two and minus seven respectively, breaking records last set in 1912 and 1942, the National Weather Service said.

The bitter cold is forecast to remain on the East Coast Sunday with highs below freezing as far south as parts of North Carolina.

Forecasters predicted ice accumulations from a band of freezing rain from Missouri through Ohio and Tennessee into the Mid-Atlantic, warning of hazardous road conditions.

But in New York, at least, a wind chill warning was lifted. Temperatures are expected to rise as the US financial capital embarks on a new working week from Monday.

Extreme cold advisories were also lifted in parts of eastern Canada, albeit with midday temperatures still at minus four degrees in Quebec and heavy snowfall due in South Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Sea crossings, such as the ferry service linking Prince Edward Island to the Magdalen Islands were still largely suspended.

Hindu refugees are prepared to return to Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine State even as a Rohingya Muslim militant group claimed responsibility for a new round of violence over the weekend.

A militant attack on a military engineering regiment in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township injured five soldiers, including one in serious condition.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) said via Twitter yesterday that it had ambushed the army vehicle in retaliation for the mistreatment of, and atrocities against, the Rohingya community in Myanmar.

The ARSA statement said the Myanmar army “continues to commit heinous crimes”, besieging Rohingya villages, starving the population and denying it access to medical care.

The insurgent ARSA launched a series of attacks last August, prompting a tough reaction and a “clearance operation” from the Myanmar military.

The operation, which the United Nations said contained elements of ethnic cleansing, forced more than 650,000 people from Rakhine to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh wanted the refugees to start returning to Myanmar by the end of this month under a controversial agreement between the two nations.

The vast majority are Rohingya Muslims who have faced decades of persecution in Myanmar, which sees them as illegal immigrants, even though many have lived there for generations. They say they would rather stay in squalid camps in Bangladesh than return to the scene of the violence they had fled.

But a small community of Hindus who lived alongside the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and were caught up in the turmoil say they do want to return.

Hindu farmer Surodhon Pal has packed his bags, eager to return to Myanmar after fleeing for Bangladesh during a wave of violence last year, but he is in a tiny minority. Most of the refugees are terrified of going home.

“We want security and we want food. If the authorities can give us those assurances we’ll happily go back,” Pal, 55, told AFP.

“The Bangladeshi government and the UN looked after us well but now we have prepared our bags and are ready to return to our country.”

Last month Dhaka sent a list of 100,000 refugees to Myanmar authorities for repatriation after the two governments signed an agreement in November for the process to begin on January 23.

But rights groups and the United Nations say no one should be repatriated against their will and, so far, only about 500 Hindu refugees have expressed a willingness to go.

Massacre by masked men

Modhuram Pal, a 35-year-old community leader, said about 50 Hindus had already returned to Rakhine, where they were welcomed by Myanmar security forces.

Hindus who fled the area have told AFP that masked men stormed their community and hacked victims to death with machetes before dumping them into freshly-dug pits.

Myanmar’s military alleges the ARSA carried out the massacre on August 25, the same day the rebel group staged deadly raids on police posts that sparked a military backlash. At least 45 bodies have been found in mass graves. The ARSA has denied the allegations, saying it does not target civilians. But Pal and his fellow Hindu refugees say they will only go back if they are rehoused away from their former villages in Rakhine.

Monubala, a Hindu woman who like many of the refugees goes by one name, told AFP that masked men dressed in black had attacked her village near Kha Maung Seik, where the massacre occurred.

“I left my home, including my chickens, ducks, goats and all my property, and came to Bangladesh to save my life,” she said.

Doctors without Borders estimates that thousands were killed in the violence that hit Rakhine in late August.

People around the world have been shocked by consistent accounts by Rohingya refugees of security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs driving them out of their homes with bullets, rape and arson.

Although the influx has slowed, hundreds of Rohingya are still crossing into Bangladesh, now home to around a million refugees.

Rights groups say the crackdown was the culmination of years of persecution and discrimination against the Muslim group in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, where they are effectively stateless and denigrated as outsiders.

The painting, measuring 166.5 by 72.5 meters and nearly finished, is done by Zen master and painter Hung Chi-sung to promote world peace. Only a third of the painting is on display at the Taoyuan Arena and the completed painting will be displayed in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, in May.

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

Billed as the most raucous event in the showbiz calendar, the champagne-drenched Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual prize-giving is a draw for filmmakers and actors looking to create some buzz ahead of March’s Academy Awards.

But this year’s ceremony, seen as the first big opportunity for the industry to unite against a pervasive culture of sexual misconduct brought to light by the downfall of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, may strike a more somber tone.

“The deluge of sexual misconduct revelations has been the story of the year, so it’s safe to predict that it will be the story of the night at the Golden Globes,” Debra Birnbaum, executive editor for television at industry weekly Variety, told AFP.

“It will influence everything from Seth Meyers’ monologue to impassioned acceptance speeches to the fashion.”

The ceremony at the Beverly Hilton — the first for late night NBC funnyman Meyers as host — is not as reliable at predicting Oscars glory as the galas held by Hollywood’s acting, producing and directing unions.

But it remains one of the most high-profile and glamorous events of the awards calendar and tends to generate more headlines for tipsy tributes, daring gowns and wacky tuxedos.

– Solidarity –

Actors and actresses are however expected to turn out in black this year, in solidarity with victims of Weinstein and numerous other figures exposed by the harassment and abuse scandal, including Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner and Dustin Hoffman.

The directors of the best foreign film entries were asked at a Q&A in Hollywood on Saturday if even attending the Globes could be taken as a sign of tolerance for the film industry’s misogynistic culture.

“We have many things that have to be dealt with in the world,” said Angelina Jolie, who made the Cambodian entry, “First They Killed my Father.”

“The issues are very big and very serious. We have a lot of work to do.”

Leading the pack this year is Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy romance “The Shape of Water” with seven nominations, while “The Post” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” are tied for second, with six each.

Overall, 25 awards are given out — 14 for movies and 11 for TV — and, as usual, the 90-member HFPA has sprung more than a few surprises in the nominations, placing horror satire “Get Out” in the best comedy-musical category.

– Wide open –

While many fields are wide open, James Franco (“The Disaster Artist”) is almost certain to win best actor in a musical/comedy movie, according to awards prediction website Gold Derby, ahead of Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”).

The site expects Saoirse Ronan (“Lady Bird”) to pip Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) in the parallel race for best actresses for her acclaimed performance as a troubled teen.

On the small-screen, HBO’s “Big Little Lies” leads with six nominations, followed by FX’s “Feud: Bette and Joan,” with four, and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Fargo,” and “This Is Us” all picking up three nods apiece.

Gold Derby’s Amanda Spears speculated that the harassment scandal could boost “Big Little Lies” star Shailene Woodley in the race for best supporting TV actress for her Emmy-nominated performance as a single mother raising a child conceived by rape.

The star-studded roll call of presenters this year includes “Game of Thrones” duo Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, as well as Penelope Cruz, Gal Gadot, Hugh Grant and Chris Hemsworth.

Baby Tizio was undergoing emergency treatment for an undisclosed illness and was attached to gastric and intravenous tubes when he was snatched on Friday evening from a children’s hospital in the southern city of Toulouse, triggering an abduction alert.

He was later found at Belcaire, some two hours’ drive south of Toulouse, an informed source said, after an off-duty policeman recognised the number plate of the father’s car, which had been included in an appeal for the man’s whereabouts.

“The child is fine,” said the source.

The child’s 33-year-old unemployed father and his elder brother were arrested at a family home, the Toulouse prosecutor’s office said.

Authorities had warned the baby’s life was at risk if he did not receive immediate medical care.

“I want to talk to Brendan, Tizio’s father, to remind him of the gravity of his son’s condition, that his life is in danger, and he needs to take his boy to the nearest emergency department urgently,” the CHU Purpan hospital’s director Anne Ferrer told reporters earlier.

– Abduction ‘incomprehensible’ –

The father is separated from Tizio’s mother, but they appear to have been on cordial terms and he visited the baby in hospital every day.

A source close to the case said Tizio’s abducition was “incomprehensible”.

“He is a loving father who took care of his child,” said prosecutor Pierre-Yves Couilleau.

CCTV cameras showed the father leaving hospital at around 7:30 pm, about an hour after medical staff last saw the baby.

Staff found the infant’s room empty at 9:30 pm, only alerting the mother three hours later.

Brendan, who had spent the day with Tizio, was described as tall and slender with a full beard and long black-brown curly hair.

The “abduction alert” in France was inspired by the Amber Alert child abduction system set up in the United States in 1996 after the kidnap and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Texas.

The French system has been used more than 20 times since it was established in 2006, and all the children were found safe and sound, all but two of them very quickly.

The tanker, carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate, caught fire after the collision Saturday night and its crew of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis were missing, China’s transport ministry said in a statement.

The other vessel had been damaged but “without jeopardising the safety of the ship” and all its 21 Chinese crew had been rescued, it added.

The tanker was still ablaze Sunday, with images broadcast by state television channel CCTV showing the ship in the grip of an intense fire, enveloped in clouds of black smoke.

The Panamanian-flagged 274-metre (899-foot) tanker Sanchi was operated by Iran’s Glory Shipping and heading to South Korea with its cargo, the ministry said.

The accident happened about 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai.

The second vessel involved was a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, the CF Crystal, carrying 64,000 tonnes of grain.

“The Sanchi is still floating and continues to burn, there is oil on the sea surface; search and rescue operations are rushing and underway,” the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese maritime authorities have sent eight ships for the search and rescue operation and South Korea has sent a plane and a 3,000-tonne coastguard ship to help.

“Our ship and plane have arrived at the site and are working closely with Chinese maritime authorities,” a coastguard official said.

Iran’s Petroleum Ministry said the tanker belongs to the National Iranian Tanker Company and was delivering its cargo to South Korea’s Hanwha Total. The ship and its cargo were insured, a statement said.

Cannabis growers, sellers and financial institutions supporting them, a roughly $7 billion industry, are particularly under threat by the move, and the lack of clarity on how toughly federal anti-pot laws will be enforced will make it difficult for any to build their young businesses, industry experts said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday rescinded the policies of the former Obama administration that made clear the federal government would not challenge local laws that were contrary to federal anti-pot statutes.

Announcing a “return to the rule of law,” Sessions called on the 94 US attorneys around the country to enforce the federal laws, which classify marijuana as a dangerous narcotic like heroin.

Pot businesses nervous

People in the industry are very concerned, including those in the 29 states and the District of Columbia able to buy marijuana for medical use, and those in the six states that have begun producing and selling pot for recreational use, said Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, the key national lobby for reforming marijuana laws.

“The marijuana business community, in the event of increased federal enforcement, it is going to be the most threatened,” he said.

“But the collateral consequence is to the consumers for those businesses. If their friendly local medical marijuana dispensary is closed down, that means they can’t get the best medicine their doctor recommended for them.”

Vendors in the six Western states which have begun recreational sales — Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska and California — were set on edge, not knowing if the policy shift presages a tough crackdown.

“We’re going crazy right now,” said one marketer at a Las Vegas marijuana shop, declining to be identified.

Policy remains vague

Sessions did not explain how the new stance would be enforced, saying it was up to the US attorneys in the areas.

Some, like Bob Troyer, the US attorney for Colorado, made clear there will be no change in his stance locally.

In Arkansas, which is in the process of launching a medical marijuana industry this year, Scott Hardin, spokesman for the state finance department, said that for them, Sessions’ decision hasn’t changed anything.

“We determined that we’re going to move forward,” he said, expecting that ultimately at least 30,000 people will sign up for medical marijuana.

“What we are looking for is that formal direction.”

But with most of the federal prosecutors being appointed by the Trump administration, and some chosen by longtime cannabis opponent Sessions himself, Strekal said it was easy to imagine some taking a hard line.

“A US attorney who might have the inkling to play cowboy or make a name for themselves” could try to shut down pot farms, stores and dispensaries that local laws consider legal, he said.

Furthermore, federal prosecutors can use “RICO” laws aimed at organized crime to threaten others linked to the industry, whether banks, equipment suppliers or transport firms.

The decision sent the shares of publicly-listed pot industry firms, mostly industrial-sized cannabis farmers, tumbling between 13 and 31 percent Thursday. Most only recovered half of that loss Friday, and industry analysts said they could face more difficulties obtaining financing in the uncertain climate left by the Sessions decision.

The decision sparked fresh pressure on Congress to act to remove marijuana from the official federal list of dangerous drugs, which would ease the threat to pot users and businesses.

Legislators from states where cannabis is legal blasted Sessions for the policy shift.

“Our country is in the midst of an opioid crisis and the AG is going to divert resources to cracking down on medical marijuana? This is either willfully ignorant or cowing to corporate greed on behalf of pharma special interest profits,” said New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.