Politician shot in broad daylight suspects his work is behind the murder attempt

MADRID (AP) — Veteran Spanish right-wing politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras was recovering in hospital Thursday after being shot in the face in broad daylight on a central Madrid street. Police were ruling out no hypotheses, including a possible link to the former European lawmaker’s ties with the Iranian opposition. A police source close to the investigation told The Associated Press there was no evidence backing the Iranian link, but confirmed that Vidal-Quadras himself had raised that suspicion from his hospital bed and that investigators were looking into it as one of several possible motives.

Russian missile hits a Liberia-flagged ship in Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa hit a Liberian-flagged freighter, killing a port worker and wounding another, as well as three citizens of the Philippines, crew members on the ship, Ukraine’s armed forces said Thursday. The report did not give the name of the ship or the country of its owners, but Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the ship was to carry iron ore to China. The extent of the damage was not immediately reported. The Odesa port and others in the region are economically vital to Ukraine as its outlets to the Black Sea, from which ships can head for world markets.

Industrial robot crushes worker to death at a vegetable packing plant in South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An industrial robot grabbed and crushed a worker to death at a vegetable packaging plant in South Korea, police said Thursday, as they investigated whether the machine was defective or improperly designed. Police said early evidence suggests that human error was more likely to blame rather than problems with the machine itself. But the incident still triggered public concern about the safety of industrial robots and the false sense of security they may give to humans working nearby in a country that increasingly relies on such machines to automate its industries.

New island emerges after undersea volcano erupts off Japan

TOKYO (AP) — An undersea volcano erupted off Japan three weeks ago, providing a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last very long. The unnamed undersea volcano, located about half a mile off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, which Japan calls Ioto, started its latest series of eruptions on Oct. 21. Within 10 days, volcanic ash and rocks piled up on the shallow seabed, its tip rising above the sea surface. By early November, it became a new island about 100 328 feet in diameter and as high as 66 feet above the sea, according to Yuji Usui, an analyst in the Japan Meteorological Agency’s volcanic division.