Top Asian News 3:51 a.m. GMT

Tourists received no safety warnings before New Zealand volcano eruption killed 22, prosecutor says

Tourists received no health and safety warnings before they landed on New Zealand’s most active volcano ahead of a 2019 eruption that killed 22 people, a prosecutor said Tuesday. There were 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name Whakaari, when superheated steam erupted on Dec. 9. Most of the 25 people who survived were severely burned. The island’s owners, brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, their company Whakaari Management Ltd. and tour operators I.D. Tours NZ Ltd. and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd. went on trial Tuesday in Auckland District Court for allegedly failing to adequately protect tourists and staff.