[naviga:h3]Ship collision report delay investigated[/naviga:h3]

TOKYO — Japan’s coast guard is investigating why it took nearly an hour for a deadly collision between a U.S. Navy destroyer and a container ship to be reported.

A coast guard official said Monday they are trying to find out what the crew of the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal was doing before reporting the collision off Japan’s coast to authorities 50 minutes later.

The ACX Crystal collided with the USS Fitzgerald off Japan’s coast, killing seven of the destroyer’s crew of nearly 300. The ships collided early Saturday morning, when the Navy said most of the 300 sailors on board would have been sleeping. Authorities have declined to speculate on a cause while the crash remains under investigation.

A track of the much-larger container ship’s route by a vessel-tracking service shows it made a sudden turn at about 1:30 a.m., before continuing eastward. It then made a U-turn and returned around 2:30 a.m. to the area near the collision.

The coast guard initially said the collision occurred at 2:20 a.m. because the Philippine ship had reported it at 2:25 a.m. and said it just happened. After interviewing Filipino crewmembers, the coast guard has changed the collision time to 1:30 a.m.

[naviga:h3]Cuba rejects Trump policy toward island[/naviga:h3]

HAVANA — Cuba’s foreign minister rejected President Donald Trump’s new policy toward the island, saying Monday that “we will never negotiate under pressure or under threat” and refusing to return U.S. fugitives who have received asylum in Cuba.

In a hard-edged response to the policy announced Friday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said from Vienna that Trump’s restrictions on transactions with the Cuban military would not achieve their objective of weakening the government. He said they would instead create unity behind the communist leadership.

Surrounded by Cuban-American exiles and Cuban dissidents, Trump announced in Miami that the U.S. would impose limits on U.S. travelers to the island and ban any payments to the military-linked conglomerate that controls much of the island’s tourism industry. Trump also declared that, “the harboring of criminals and fugitives will end. You have no choice. It will end.”