Finnish investigators on Tuesday said that they believed an anchor of a Chinese container ship was dislodged and caused the damage to the undersea Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia in the Baltic Sea earlier this month.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation said that it had evidence and data pointing to the Hong Kong-flagged cargo vessel Newnew Polar Bear as the culprit in damaging the pipeline running across the Gulf of Finland.
Bureau Detective Superintendent Risto Lohi, who heads the investigation, told a news conference that a 1.5m-to-4m-wide dragging trail on the seabed leads to the point of damage in the gas pipeline.
Photo: Reuters
That trail is believed to have been caused by a 6-tonne anchor that the Finnish Navy retrieved late on Monday.
“There are traces in the [anchor] which indicate that it has been in contact with the gas pipeline,” Lohi said, citing data from an expert analysis.
Whether the pipeline damage was intentional, unintentional or caused by “bad seafaring” is subject of the next phase in the probe, officials said.
On Oct. 8, Finnish and Estonian gas system operators said they noted an unusual drop in pressure in the pipeline after which they shut down the gas flow.
The 77km pipeline that runs between the Finnish coastal town of Inkoo and the Estonian port of Paldiski had been mechanically damaged in the Finnish economic zone and had shifted from its original position where it was buried in the seabed.
Last week, Finnish officials named the Newnew Polar Bear the prime suspect, as the course and positioning of the 169m ship in the Baltic Sea coincided with the time and place of the gas pipeline damage.
Recent photographs published on social media of the Chinese vessel, which called at the port of St Petersburg in Russia during its Baltic Sea voyage, show the vessel is missing one of its anchors.
The Marine Traffic Web site showed that the ship was sailing on Russian northern waters and is presumably heading back to China via the Northern Sea Route.
Finnish investigators said they have tried several times to contact the ship’s captain, but without success and are now cooperating with Chinese officials on the case.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said at a regular government media briefing on Monday that Beijing has called for an “objective, fair and professional” investigation into the damage to the Balticconnector, and added that the Chinese vessel was sailing normally at the time.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
From post offices and parks to stations and even the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan’s vending machines are ubiquitous, but with the rapid pace of inflation cooling demand for their drinks, operators are being forced to rethink the business. Last month beverage giant DyDo Group Holdings announced it would remove about 20,000 vending machines — about 7 percent of their stock nationwide — by January next year, to “reconstruct a profitable network.” Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, based in Nagoya, also said last month it would sell its 40,000-machine operation to Osaka-based Lifedrink Co. “The strength of the vending machine
A highway bomb attack in a restive region of southwestern Colombia on Saturday killed 14 people and injured at least 38, the latest spate of violence ahead of next month’s presidential election. Authorities blamed the attack in the Cauca department — a conflict-ridden, coca-growing region — on dissidents of the now-disbanded FARC guerrilla army, who have been sowing violence across the country. “Those who carried out this attack ... are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on social media. “I want our very best soldiers to confront them,” he added. The leftist leader blamed the bombing
RSS