1. Abe asks for probe of US spying

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on August 5 for an investigation into possible spying the on the Japanese Government and Japanese officials following a WikiLeaks release last week.

    “If it is true that these Japanese individuals were targeted, it could shake the relationship of trust in our alliance* and I would have to express serious concerns,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga quoted Abe as telling Biden in a phone conversation.

    WikiLeaks released a list of 35 secret Japanese targets of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency.

    2. 16 killed in Colombia copter crash

    Sixteen Colombian police officers died on August 4 when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed while taking part in a manhunt* for the nation’s most-wanted drug trafficker*.

    Authorities attributed the crash to bad weather. But the location, a dense jungle near the Gulf of Uraba dominated by drug traffickers and also a refuge for leftist rebels, immediately fueled speculation that the helicopter may have been fired upon.

    Colombia’s biggest newspaper, El Tiempo, posted on its website an audio recording that it said was a cockpit* recording from an aircraft that was accompanying the crashed helicopter. In the recording, an unidentified person remarks that the downed aircraft appeared to have been shot at from the ground and was possibly hit by a homemade mortar shell* often used by rebels.

    3. 27 dead after two trains derail in India

    Two passenger trains derailed* after being hit by flash floods on a bridge in central India, killing at least 27 people.

    Rescuers searched through the night for passengers trapped on the trains.

    Roughly 300 people were rescued after about 10 of the trains’ carriages derailed outside the town of Harda at about 11.30 p.m. on August 4.

    At least another 25 people were injured and taken to the hospital, other rescue officials said, adding that carriages were not feared to have sunk in the river.

    4. World’s biggest plane to launch in 2016

    The world’s biggest plane is set to take off early next year in its first test flight.

    The aircraft, named the Stratolaunch Carrier, is currently under construction at Mojave Air and Spaceport in California and will eventually have a wingspan* of 385 feet (117 meters).

    It will be so huge that if the plane sat in the center of a football field, it would be wide enough for its wings to reach 12.5 feet beyond each goalpost*.

    5. IS executes 2,000 in Mosul, Iraq

    The Islamic State (IS) group has executed more than 2,000 people in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul since seizing it last year, officials said on August 7.

    Parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi confirmed “the execution of more than 2,000 innocent citizens at the hands of the terrorist Daesh organization,” his office said.

    The names of 2,070 people were posted on a list compiled by the jihadist* organization, part of which was displayed on a wall of the local health ministry branch, several residents said.

    6. Man sets record for longest birthday

    A German man has received a Guinness World Record for the longest birthday by flying between time zones to extend celebrations for nearly two days.

    Sven Hagemeier kept his 26th birthday going for 46 hours by flying from Auckland in New Zealand, to Brisbane, Australia, before traveling backward in time across the International Date Line to Hawaii.

    The journey won him the Guinness World Record for the “longest birthday” ever, beating a previous time of 35 hours and 25 minutes.(SD-Agencies)