MANILA: Four foreign hikers who had been missing for days in a mountainous area of the central Philippines were rescued Saturday, local authorities said, a day after their two companions were found safe.
The six-man group, which included German, British, Russian and Canadian nationals, had set out on Wednesday for what was to be a four-hour excursion in an area of Negros Oriental province officials said was hit by a downpour.
“The army rescuers found them in the vicinity of the Silab hydropower plant,” said Jose Lawrence Silorio, a rescue official in the municipality of Amlan, near the province’s Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park.
Police identified the men as Germans Aldwin Fink, 60, and Wolfgang Schlenker, 67; Russian Anton Chernov, 38; and 50-year-old Canadian Terry De Gunten.
Philippine Army personnel found the hikers in a mountainous area thick with vegetation, said investigator Leo Gil Villafranca.
“They told the army they got lost due to the fog,” he said, adding all the hikers were residents of the province.
The four were discovered at 9:44 am (0144 GMT), according to local authorities.
“Overall, they are OK, but they had minor abrasions. We wrapped one of them in a blanket because he was feeling cold. But he was eventually able to stand up on his own,” Silorio said.
“They told us they survived by eating edible plants in the forest,” he added.
Silorio said the group was found about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from where fellow hikers Torsten Martin Groschupp, 58, and Alexander Radvanyi, 63, were discovered Friday morning.
An image posted to a police Facebook page showed De Gunten, his legs bloodied, talking to rescuers inside an ambulance while Chernov lay on a stretcher wrapped in a blanket.
Police said Friday that the weather had likely played a role in the group’s becoming lost on what they said was a “difficult” trail in a mountainous area the men were tackling without a guide.
“It was rainy at the time and that led to zero visibility,” said Valencia police officer Henry Japay, adding there was no cell phone reception in the area.
“There’s a big possibility that they stopped and took shelter when it started raining.”
Last of six foreign hikers missing in Philippines rescued
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Last of six foreign hikers missing in Philippines rescued
- Four foreign hikers who had been missing for days in a mountainous area of the central Philippines were rescued Saturday, local authorities said, a day after their two companions were found safe
Poland to adopt decree suspending right to seek asylum
The Polish senate voted through the bill earlier this month
WARSAW: Poland’s government will on Wednesday suspend the right to seek asylum, the prime minister said, as the European Union member faces irregular migrant arrivals from neighboring Belarus.
Poland and other EU states along the bloc’s eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of orchestrating a campaign of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years.
“This evening the government will adopt a decree suspending the right to apply for asylum. Just as I announced — without delay,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on social media platform X.
The announcement came after Poland’s President Andrzej Duda — allied with the right-wing opposition — announced he signed into law a bill allowing the government to temporarily limit asylum rights.
The Polish senate voted through the bill earlier this month.
The legislation also provided for the possibility of extending the restriction with parliament’s approval.
The European Union last year said member states bordering Russia and Belarus were allowed to limit the right of asylum for migrants in the event of their “weaponization” by Moscow and Minsk.
In December, Tusk called the bill a move to take back “control of Poland’s borders.”
But the measures were met with outrage from human rights groups.
Last month, Human Rights Watch urged the Polish parliament to reject the bill that it said “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations.”
US conducts strikes against Daesh group: Somali govt
- US targeted hideouts of Daesh group in the Golis mountains in Puntland region
MOGADISHU: The United States and Somalia have conducted air strikes on Daesh group targets in northern Somalia, the Somali federal government said Wednesday.
The extremist group has a relatively small presence in the east African country compared to the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, but experts have warned of growing activity.
A coordinated operation led by the United States African Command (AFRICOM) with the federal government had targeted “known hideouts of Daesh terrorists” based in the Golis mountains in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, Mogadishu said.
The strikes were carried out Tuesday night, a short statement said, adding initial reports “suggest that multiple Daesh fighters were killed, with no civilian casualties reported.” No further details were given.
Puntland authorities have not commented on the strikes.
The statement said the strikes complemented a “larger counter-terrorism initiative” currently being undertaken by local forces in the Al-Miskeed mountain range.
The Puntland Defense Forces have been carrying out operations in the region against Daesh since December, with the extremist group said to have established a presence in the Golis mountains.
It follows US strikes in February, which Puntland authorities said had killed “key figures” in Daesh, without giving further details.
Four US soldiers died in Lithuania, NATO’s Rutte says
- The soldiers had been training near Pabrade in eastern Lithuania
STOCKHOLM: Four United States Army soldiers have died in Lithuania during training, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said while visiting Warsaw on Wednesday.
“Whilst I was speaking the news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania,” Rutte told reporters, adding that he did not know any details.
Lithuania’s military earlier on Wednesday said they were searching for four US soldiers and a tracked vehicle which had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon.
The soldiers had been training near Pabrade in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus, the US Army said in a statement.
“The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident,” the statement read.
Spain arrests suspect over murder of US priest
- Father Richard Gross, who was from the US city of Boston, was found dead in January inside a holiday apartment
- Officers arrested a 40-year-old French national on Tuesday in the southern city of Seville, Spain’s national police said
MADRID: Spanish police said on Wednesday they had arrested a man suspected of strangling an 80-year-old US Catholic priest during a robbery in the southern city of Malaga.
Father Richard Gross, who was from the US city of Boston, was found dead in January inside a holiday apartment he had rented in the center of the city, where he was preparing to embark on a cruise.
Officers arrested a 40-year-old French national on Tuesday in the southern city of Seville, Spain’s national police said in a statement. They said he was detained on suspicion of murder.
Another suspect was already in custody: a 27-year-old North African man arrested in late January. Police said they believed he acted as a lookout during the attack. Both men have criminal records related to theft.
Police suspect the two men followed Gross as he got out of a taxi the day he arrived in Malaga and followed him to the entrance of his holiday apartment, where the attack took place.
“The priest was approached by surprise and that the assailant used great violence in response to the victim’s resistance, compressing his airways until he died,” the police statement said.
It added that it was believed the suspects targeted Gross because he was “vulnerable.”
The two suspects then fled the scene with the priest’s belongings, including his suitcase.
An autopsy concluded the cause of death was “asphyxia through suffocation,” the statement said.
The US chapter of the Roman Catholic Church’s Jesuit order to which Gross belonged hailed his “independent and adventurous spirit” and “high energy.”
Gross, who had taught at several schools in the United States, was scheduled to serve as a chaplain on the cruise he was preparing to embark upon in Malaga.
Fear of more war haunts Kursk as Russia expels Ukrainian troops
- “We want peace but it is very important that the peace is long term and durable,” town Mayor Sergei Kurnosov told Reuters
- Just like Ukrainians, many Kursk residents crave a return to normality
RYLSK, Russia: In the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine has been fighting for more than seven months, people say they want peace but fear there will be more war.
Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory was launched in August — more than two years into a major war triggered by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor — shocking a border region that hadn’t seen conflict since World War Two.
Now, with Russia close to expelling the last Ukrainian troops, Kursk’s populace is counting the cost.
For some residents like Leonid Boyarintsev, a veteran of the Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969, the surprise enemy offensive served as justification for Russia to double down on its military activities in Ukraine.
“When we are victorious there will be peace because no one will dare to come crawling in again,” the 83-year-old told Reuters in the town of Rylsk, adding that he blamed the West for stoking the conflict in Ukraine. “They will be too afraid to.”
The damage that has been unleashed on towns and cities in the Russian region has brought home the horrors of war long suffered by Ukrainians.
In ancient Rylsk, 26 km (16 miles) from the border, the scars are everywhere — from the smashed merchant buildings from Tsarist Russia to the families still struggling with children living apart in evacuation.
“We want peace but it is very important that the peace is long term and durable,” town Mayor Sergei Kurnosov told Reuters in the ruins of a cultural center that was destroyed in a Dec. 20 Ukrainian attack.
Six people were killed and 12 injured in the attack, Russia said. Russia said the cultural center was destroyed by US-made HIMARS missiles. Abandoned music books lay beside silent pianos and a theater stage showing a shattered scene of rubble and glass.
Reuters is among the first international news outlets to gain access to the Kursk region since Russia began a lightning offensive to expel Ukrainian troops this month. While Russian officials did not check reporting material, the Reuters team was informed in advance that it could not report about the Russian military in the region or gather visuals of Russian forces.
Just like Ukrainians, many Kursk residents crave a return to normality
Here too, air-raid sirens have become the daily soundtrack of life. While Russia has now pushed out almost all Ukrainian forces from Kursk, the area has been heavily mined and drones continue to attack. Many civilian cars speeding along a road near the vast Kurchatov nuclear power plant had drone jamming devices strapped onto their roofs. Residents shopped for food and vapes as artillery boomed in the distance.
“It’s all very scary indeed,” said Rimma Erofeyeva, a music teacher in Rylsk who said people in the town wanted the fighting to stop though believed that God was protecting them. “The really scary thing is that people have got so used to this that they don’t even react to the sirens anymore.”
SWARMS OF DRONES
Ukrainian forces smashed into the Kursk region on August 6, supported by swarms of drones and heavy Western weaponry, and swiftly seize almost 1,400 sq km of territory, according to Russian generals. But within weeks the area under Ukraine’s control shrank as Russia piled in forces.
The latest battlefield map from Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian site that charts the frontlines from open-source data, showed Ukraine controlled less than 81 sq km as of March 23.
By contrast, Russia controls about 113,000 sq km, or about 20 percent, of Ukraine.
The strategic fortunes of the Kursk incursion are disputed.
Ukraine said the incursion was aimed at bringing the war to Russia, diverting Russian troops from advances in eastern Ukraine, embarrassing President Vladimir Putin and gaining a bargaining chip in potential future talks on ending the war. The operation “achieved most of its goals,” the armed forces’ General Staff told Reuters this week.
The chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin, in a televised exchange during a trip by the president to a command post in the Kursk region on March 12, that Ukraine had lost tens of thousands of its best troops in a failed bid to distract Russian forces from the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.
“The Kyiv regime aimed to create a so-called strategic foothold in the Kursk region for later use as a bargaining chip in possible negotiations with Russia,” Gerasimov said. “These plans of the enemy have completely failed.”
Russia’s defense ministry says Ukraine has lost 69,700 troops dead or injured in Kursk, along with 5,700 tanks, armored cars and many Western-supplied vehicles. Russia has not given its own casualty figures. Ukraine has given no casualty figures but dismisses Russian estimates as fake.
New US President Donald Trump has vowed to end the three-year war in Ukraine, yet many people in the Kursk region are skeptical of any lasting peace because of deep-seated geopolitical tensions and distrust between Russia and the West.
“I don’t think that there will be peace in our region in the near future,” said a resident of the city of Kursk who gave her name only as Yekaterina, citing resentment toward Russia from Ukraine and the West. “There will be some hostility toward our people, toward our land for a very long time.”
