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Indonesian rescuers recover third body from tour boat sinking

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers recovered a third body Tuesday from a tour boat that sank during a Christmas holiday trip, leaving two sons of a Spanish soccer coach still missing, officials said.

The body was recovered near the coast of Pede beach after fishermen spotted the wreckage, washed away nearly 14 kilometers (8.6 miles) from where the boat sank, said Fathur Rahman, head of the Maumere Search and Rescue Office.

The family holiday turned tragic for Valencia CF Women’s B coach Fernando Martín, 44, when the boat carrying him, his wife, their four children, four crew members and a local guide sank on the evening of Dec. 26 after suffering engine failure in Indonesia’s Komodo National Park area.

Martín’s wife and one child, along with the four crew members and the guide, were rescued in the hours following the incident.

The bodies of Martin and his daughter were cremated in Bali on Monday, according to relatives’ wishes, due to limited space at a mortuary in Labuan Bajo, said East Nusa Tenggara Police spokesperson Ariasandy, who goes by a single name, like many Indonesians.

Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, where boats are a common form of transportation. With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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