Helicopters and rescue boats rescued 755 fishermen today who were trapped on an ice floe that had broken away from the coast of Sakhalin Island, emergency officials said.

Russian coastal authorities have seized five fishing boats off the country’s eastern coast, at least one of which is thought to be Japanese, a news report said today.

A Russian helicopter crashed into the Sea of Okhotsk during joint rescue exercises with Japan today, killing one of the 13 people on board.

China’s top health official today said the pollution of the Songhua River by a chemical spill was a big problem which has highlighted the country’s need to have contingency plans for emergencies.

Rescuers armed with power saws hacked through the ice near Russia’s far eastern territories today in a desperate bid to save the lives of four killer whales thrashing about in confined holes in the freezing Sea of Okhotsk.

The fate of four contested islands in the fertile fishing waters of the Sea of Okhotsk was expected to dominate talks today between Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.