A Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates after thwarting an attack on a Norwegian-owned oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, a NATO spokesman said yesterday.
It was the first time NATO forces found pirates armed with raw explosives, Lieutenant-Commander Alexandre Santos Fernandes said from the Portuguese frigate the Corte-Real.
The four sticks of P4A dynamite — which could be used in demolition, blasting through walls or potentially breaching a the hull of a ship — were destroyed along with four automatic rifles and nine rocket-propelled grenades that were confiscated.
It was unclear how exactly the pirates planned to use the dynamite, Fernandes said.
The Corte-Real had sent a helicopter to investigate a distress call from the crude oil tanker MV Kition late on Friday about 160km north from the Somali coast.
The suspects fled to a larger pirate vessel, but were intercepted by the warship an hour later.
“The skiff had returned to the mothership,” Fernandes said, referring to the vessels pirates commonly use to tow their small, fast speed boats hundreds of kilometers out to sea.
“Portuguese special forces performed the boarding with no exchange of fire.” he said.
The Bahamian-flagged tanker also was unscathed, he said.
The 19 pirate suspects were released, however, after consultation with Portuguese authorities because they had not attacked Portuguese property or citizens. Decisions on detaining piracy suspects fall under national law.
Fernandes said Portugal was working on updating its laws to allow for pirate suspects to be detained in such situations.
CRACKED SCREEN: The problem is an embarrassing setback for Apple, which spent more than a decade developing the device and touted its durability The iPhone Duo, one of Apple’s biggest new products in years, is drawing a growing number of complaints from customers who say the foldable display cracked after just hours or days of use. In these cases, customers reported hearing a crunching sound when unfolding the phone, followed by a large crack forming along the center crease. Some users also experienced a white patch or other display malfunction on the right side of the screen. Reports of the problem first surfaced on Reddit and other social media platforms. Bloomberg News has since independently verified the issue with more than half a
Long dubbed an “air-conditioned nation,” Singapore is experimenting with cooling alternatives from chilled beams to “passive displacement” to curb its thirst for energy-guzzling air-conditioning. The city-state has the highest per-capita air-conditioner ownership rate in Southeast Asia, with about 99 percent of private residences equipped with cooling units. Singapore’s local building sector accounts for one-fifth of its emissions, while cooling itself accounts for 40 to 60 percent of a building’s energy consumption, according to studies. A stroll down Orchard Road highlights that dependence. Shoppers are greeted by blasts of cool air that waft into the street as doors swing open — a major draw
Ethiopian online influencers are pushing for their government to invade neighboring Eritrea and seize access to the sea, following its success against rebel and Eritrean forces in the past few weeks. The Ethiopian army has advanced right up to the border after repelling an offensive by rebels in the northern Tigray State who were supported by Eritrean troops. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has repeatedly said that securing a base on the Red Sea is a vital national objective for Ethiopia, which lost its coastline when Eritrea gained independence in 1993. Some online influencers say that the opportunity to invade has arrived. “The time
Beijing yesterday dismissed as “groundless speculation” a report that said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) was the target of a Chinese spy plot. The article by the New York Times, published on Thursday, said that US intelligence officials concluded that a Chinese executive linked to a Singapore-based data center company had been funneling information to Beijing. “The report in question is based on groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) told a regular briefing. China is in a race for tech dominance with the US, which restricts the export
RSS