Search For Boy Left In Forest 'As Punishment'

A seven-year-old boy is missing in a forest after his parents made him get out of the car as punishment, police in Japan have said.

More than 150 police and rescue workers have been searching for Yamato Tanooka in a wooded area on Mt Komagatake in Nanae, Hokkaido, the northern-most of Japan's four main islands, since he went missing on Saturday.

Yamato's parents initially told police that their son had disappeared while they were picking wild vegetables in the area, which is said to be populated by brown bears.

More than 150 police and rescue workers are involved in the search

However, they later admitted they had made him get out of the car to punish him for throwing rocks while playing at a river earlier in the day.

"The parents left the boy in the mountains as a punishment," a police spokesman said.

"They said they went back to the site immediately but the boy was no longer there."

Yamato's father told a journalist from Asahi TV that he had been too afraid to tell the truth when he contacted police to launch the search.

As yet, it is unclear if the parents will face charges.

Depp Film Flops As Daughter Defends 'Loving Dad'

Johnny Depp's Alice Through The Looking Glass has flopped on its debut weekend, following domestic violence claims by the actor's wife.

The big-budget movie, directed by James Bobin, has taken just $28.1m in North American cinemas, after critics panned it as "uninspired", "hollow" and "lacklustre".

With a production cost of around $170m, the Alice in Wonderland sequel - in which Depp plays the Mad Hatter - had been expected to open with takings of around $60m.

X-Men: Apocalypse opened top of the Memorial Day weekend with an estimated $65m.

Johnny Depp performs with his band Hollywood Vampires in Portugal on Friday

The latest X-Men instalment from 20th Century Fox is on track for takings of about $80m by Monday.

Alice's disappointing debut came as 52-year-old Depp's estranged wife was granted a restraining order against him.

Amber Heard, 30, appeared in court on Friday with a bruise on her cheek, saying Depp had thrown her mobile phone at her during a fight.

Meanwhile, Depp's teenage daughter has written of her support for her father following the domestic violence claims.

Model Lily-Rose Depp, 17, did not directly address the allegations, instead posting a childhood picture on Instagram.

She wrote: "My dad is the sweetest most loving person I know, he's been nothing but a wonderful father to my little brother and I, and everyone who knows him would say the same."

Depp has two children with singer Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose and her younger brother Jack.

Con Artist Steals £20,000 From 91-Year-Old Man

A 91-year-old man had £20,000 stolen after a fraudster tricked him into letting him into his house by pretending to be from a water company.

The elderly victim had been been distracted by the man, who claimed the mains supply was contaminated, while an accomplice entered the house and snatched the cash.

An e-fit of the suspected conman who targeted the pensioner at his Hampshire home last month, has been released by police.

He is described as white, aged in his 30s, with dark hair, about 5ft 10ins tall and of slim build.

He spoke with what could have been an Irish accent.

A Hampshire Police spokesman said: "The 91-year-old victim answered his door to a man who claimed to be from a water company and said the water supply was contaminated.

"The victim let the man into the address and accompanied him to the bathroom to test the water.

"While the victim was distracted, another man entered the property and stole up to £20,000 in cash."

Seven Feared Dead After Texas, Kansas Floods

At least three people are missing in Texas and Kansas after flash flooding that has already killed four others.

Hundreds of families - and thousands of prison inmates - were evacuated because of rising rivers.

In Kansas, the search for a missing 11-year-old boy, Devon Cooley, resumed on Sunday morning two days after he fell into a swollen creek as he was crossing a footbridge.

Wichita Fire Department battalion chief Scott Brown said: "We are more in body recovery mode than rescue.”

One victim posted this Facebook image from his car before it was swept away

In Travis County, Texas, near Austin, officials resumed aerial searches on Sunday for two people whose vehicle was swept off a flooded road.

Just south of Houston, Texas authorities announced the evacuation of about 2,600 inmates from two prisons because of flooding alerts along the Brazos River.

Sandbags have been delivered to the Terrell and Stringfellow Units in Rosharon, where the inmates were transferred on Sunday to other prisons.

Darren Mitchell commented on the photo: 'All I wanted to do was go home'

Inmates in a low-level security camp at a third facility in coastal Brazoria County are being moved to the main prison building, said officials.

Some 750 families were evacuated in Harris County because of rising water in rivers and creeks around the Houston area.

Francisco Sanchez, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management in Harris County, said the area was "not out of the woods yet".

Some people were rescued from the roof of a house by helicopter and aerial footage showed residents wading through waist-deep water or climbing out of windows into rescue boats.

Four people have already died from flooding in rural Washington County, Texas, where more than 16.5in of rain fell in some places Thursday and Friday.

One was 21-year-old National Guardsman Darren Mitchell, who posted a Facebook picture of his flooded car with the caption: "All I wanted to do was go home", moments before he was swept away.

Lela Holland, 64, drowned in her Brenham city mobile home.

Jimmy Wayne Schaeffer, 49, and Pyarali Rajebhi Umatiya, 59, were both killed in their vehicles in separate flooding incidents.

The Memorial Day holiday is forecast to be a washout in the northeast as Tropical Depression Bonnie prowls up the coast.

New York City, Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia will be drenched on Monday, says AccuWeather.

Nineteen Rescued From Inflatable Boat In Channel

Nineteen people rescued in the English Channel after their inflatable boat took on water are being questioned by immigration officials.

A coastguard helicopter took part in the operation, along with lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone.

Coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone were also involved.

A call for help was made off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent

A call for help was made off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent at 11.40pm on Saturday. The inflatable boat, with 19 on board, was found at 2am.

Calais coastguard organisation SNSM assisted in the operation, according to its president Bernard Barron.

He said: "We were called for help... with a boat carrying about 20 people between Calais and Dover.

"The castaways, who were migrants, called their families, who then alerted the authorities and rescue missions were triggered on both sides of the Channel."

Mr Barron added: "This confirms our fears: the smugglers are willing to take extreme measures, but the Channel is a real highway, presenting a great danger for this type of crossing."

Those on board on the boat were later being looked after by the Border Force.

Kent Police said: "The matter has been passed to Home Office immigration enforcement."

Fire Kills 17 At Home For The Elderly In Ukraine

At least 17 people have been killed in a fire at a temporary home for elderly people in a village in Ukraine.

The blaze broke out at the residential property in Litochky, 23 miles northeast of the capital Kiev.

Ukraine's emergency services ministry said the fire had started in the early hours of Sunday morning in a privately-owned two-storey building that was temporarily housing 35 people.

"Emergency services units saved 18 people, five of whom have been hospitalised with burns of varying degrees of severity," it said.

Around 150 firefighters were called to the fire, according to an emergency services Facebook post, but it was brought under control by Sunday morning.

Photos of the aftermath of the fire showed the building completely gutted, with workers sifting through twisted metal in the smouldering interior.


Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's president, has been informed and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has set up a special commission to investigate.

In a statement the government said Mr Groysman had sent his condolences to the families of those who died in the "terrible tragedy".

UN: More than 700 refugees feared drowned off Italy

The UN refugee agency has said over 700 refugees may have drowned in three Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks south of Italy in the last few days.

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, told the Associated Press news agency by phone on Sunday that an estimated 100 people were missing from a smugglers' boat that capsized on Wednesday.

She said about 550 others were missing from a boat that sank on Thursday morning.

Refugees said that boat, which was carrying about 670 people, did not have an engine and was being towed by another smuggling boat before it capsized.

About 25 people survived the incident, 79 others were rescued by patrol boats and 15 dead bodies were recovered.

Sami said 45 more bodies were recovered from a shipwreck on Friday and many more were reported missing.

In a separate development, 19 refugees were rescued from a boat in the English Channel, the AFP news agency reported, citing coastguard officials.