MANILA: The Philippines is investigating a maritime incident to find out what killed three Filipino fishermen in a ramming incident that sank their boat in the South China Sea, its president said on Wednesday.
“We assure the victims, their families, and everyone that we will exert every effort to hold accountable those who are responsible for this unfortunate maritime incident,” Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on the X social media platform.
Three Filipino fishermen died after their fishing boat was rammed by an unidentified foreign commercial vessel while it was moored in the South China Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Monday while the boat was moored 15 nautical kilometers northwest of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, it said in a statement. Eleven crew members survived when the boat sank.
“The incident is still under investigation to ascertain the details and circumstances surrounding the collision between the fishing boat and a still unidentified commercial vessel,” Marcos said.
“Let us allow the PCG to do its job and investigate, and let us refrain from engaging in speculation in the meantime,” he added, referring to the coast guard.
Tensions around those waters have recently flared up after the Philippines said it removed a 300-meter ball-buoy barrier installed by China’s coast guard near the Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot and one of Asia’s most contested maritime features.
The strategic shoal, named after a British cargo vessel that ran aground there in the 18th century, is in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone but was seized in 2012 by China, which has maintained a constant presence of coast guard ships and fishing trawlers there ever since.
China has rejected the Philippines’ version of events over the barrier, while the United States has weighed in with support behind Manila and vowed to honor its treaty commitments to defend its treaty ally if attacked.
The Philippine coast guard did not elaborate on the incident or provide details of the vessel it said had rammed the Filipino crew.
Philippines looking into ramming incident in South China Sea – president
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Philippines looking into ramming incident in South China Sea – president
- Three Filipino fishermen died after their fishing boat was rammed by an unidentified foreign commercial vessel
- Incident occurred on Monday while the boat was moored 15 nautical kilometers northwest of the disputed Scarborough Shoal
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said
PARIS: An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France’s decision to cut government funding to the country’s biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools.
Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes.
At the end of 2023, the government’s local representative known as the ‘prefecture’ said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut.
In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school.
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. “Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely.”
As a result of the ruling, the high school’s contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling.
The Lille prefecture didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday vowed to carry out a planned visit to Turkiye despite regional tension and the recent arrest of Istanbul’s mayor.
The Greek leader was to visit Ankara this month under a schedule agreed in 2023 to smooth over differences between the rival neighbors, who are NATO members.
The trip appeared to have been shelved after the Athens government last month said it was “difficult” to organize after the “worrying” arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Mitsotakis said Wednesday however that he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He did not say when it would happen.
“There is no issue or particular reason why this meeting should be postponed,” he told Proto Thema daily.
Mitsotakis added that he was “not trying to pick a fight with Turkiye” to burnish his domestic standing.
The Aegean boundary between the two, which Greece says is based on 20th century treaties, is a key obstacle in relations.
There are frequent disputes over migration, energy exploration in the Aegean and territorial sovereignty.
Greece last week released a marine spatial planning map which Turkiye said violates its maritime jurisdiction in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkiye has also sought to impede an electricity cable project between Greece, Cyprus and Israel called the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI).
Mitsotakis on Wednesday called the cable “a European project which will proceed in due course.”
Germany says monitoring Russia’s use of ‘disposable’ agents
- European intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plot
- Kock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were “closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to”
BERLIN: Germany said Wednesday it was monitoring changing Russian sabotage tactics, after media reports linked a plan to plant explosive devices on cargo planes to low-level operatives hired by Moscow.
European intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plot, which saw parcels explode at two DHL depots last July, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and public broadcasters WDR and NDR reported.
Several people implicated in the operation were believed to be “disposable” agents with no official position in the Russian intelligence services, according to the report.
Such low-level agents were typically recruited via messaging apps to carry out tasks for money, the report said.
Quizzed about the incidents at a regular press conference, German interior ministry spokeswoman Sonja Kock said investigations were “continuing intensively.”
Kock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were “closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to,” including the use of “so-called low-level agents.”
Kock also told the briefing that Russian intelligence services operating in Germany had been “recently weakened by the expulsion of numerous agents.”
Another interior ministry official later told AFP that she was referring to the April 2022 expulsion of 40 Russian diplomats who were intelligence officers, and further departures of diplomats the following year.
The explosions at DHL depots in Leipzig, Germany and Birmingham in Britain have been described by Germany’s domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang as a “lucky accident” because of the limited impact.
Testifying before a parliamentary committee in October, Haldenwang said “there would have been a crash” if the parcels had exploded mid-flight on planes.
Kock said Wednesday that the “danger of sabotage... has increased significantly in Germany since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.”
German authorities were doing “everything in our power to thwart... Russian espionage, sabotage and cyber-attacks,” she said.
Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense
- Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India
- Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia and India agreed to boost cooperation in supplies of crude and liquefied petroleum gas, according to a joint statement reported by the Saudi state news agency on Wednesday following a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was cut short by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India.
Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit and returning to New Delhi after an attack on India's Jammu and Kashmir territory which killed 26 people, the worst attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings.
The two countries also agreed to deepen their defense ties and improve their cooperation in defence manufacturing, along with agreements in agriculture and food security.
"The two countries welcomed the excellent cooperation between the two sides in counter-terrorism and terror financing," the joint statement said.
Denmark’s King Frederik to visit Greenland, daily Sermitsiaq reports
- The visit to Greenland by Denmark’s head of state comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a takeover
COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s King Frederik will travel to Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, on April 28, Greenlandic daily Sermitsiaq reported on Wednesday, citing the island’s own government.
The visit to Greenland by Denmark’s head of state comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a takeover by the United States of the minerals-rich and strategically important island.
Denmark has rejected Trump’s ambition and says only Greenlanders themselves can decide the territory’s future.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik-Nielsen will travel to Denmark on April 26, where he will meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, according to Sermitsiaq.
The king will travel to Greenland together with Nielsen when the prime minister returns to the island, according to the report.
