Minggu, 31 Maret 2024

Israeli 'spy' nabbed in KL reportedly seeking revenge on countryman after Tel Aviv grenade attack - The Straits Times

The Israeli man caught in Kuala Lumpur on March 27 told police that he came to Malaysia to assassinate a fellow Israeli over a family dispute. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

PETALING JAYA - The assassination target of an Israeli man arrested by Malaysian police on March 27 had been nabbed for murder nearly two decades ago.

According to news portal Times of Israel, Eran Haya came to Malaysia following grenade attacks on the house of the recently detained Israeli man, identified as Shalom Avitan, in Tel Aviv earlier in March.

According to another Israeli news portal, Haaretz, Haya was arrested for a murder in Mexico in 2004 when he was 23.

Haya was suspected of killing a policeman-turned-gangland assassin in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2004, reported The Jerusalem Post.

Haya, who was an American citizen, had been under police surveillance until he went back to Israel two years later.

According to police sources, Haya, who grew up in the United States, returned to Israel at age 16 with his father, at which point he became active in the Israeli criminal underworld.

He was also a suspect in a number of other mob hits and murder attempts, although police sources say they have had trouble finding evidence against him.

He was believed to have ties to the Parinyan and Mulner crime syndicates.

One of these families was said to be in a violent feud with the Musli brothers crime family.

Avitan was caught at a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur on March 27. He allegedly came to Malaysia using a French passport but handed over an Israeli passport following police interrogation.

He told police that he came to Malaysia to assassinate a fellow Israeli over a family dispute.

However, police have not ruled out the possibility that Avitan is a foreign intelligence agent and have heightened security at places of interest and for the Malaysian King, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other dignitaries. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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2024-03-31 10:19:00Z
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Salvage crews to lift first piece of collapsed Baltimore bridge - CNA

"This is a remarkably complex operation," Moore said of the effort to clear bridge debris and open the Port of Baltimore to shipping traffic.

The bodies of two workers who were repairing the bridge deck at the time of the disaster have been recovered, but Moore said efforts to recover four others presumed dead remain suspended because conditions are too dangerous for divers to work amid too much debris.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath told reporters that teams from the Coast Guard, the US Navy's salvage arm and the US Army Corps of Engineers said the debris from the Patapsco River's deep-draft shipping channel would have to be removed before the Dali could be moved.

Saturday's operation involves cutting a piece just north of that channel and lifting it with a 160-ton marine crane onto a barge. A larger, 1,000-ton crane also is at the bridge site.

The piece will be brought to Tradepoint Atlantic, the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Mill which is being developed into a distribution center for companies including Amazon.com, Home Depot and Volkswagen. The facility's port, which sits on the Chesapeake Bay side of the collapsed bridge, is fully operational.

Five days after the tragedy, the jobs of some 15,000 people whose work revolves around daily port operation are on hold. While logistics experts say that other East Coast ports should be able to handle container traffic, Baltimore is the largest US port for "roll-on, roll-off" vehicle imports and exports of farm and construction equipment.

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2024-03-30 20:53:00Z
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Japan, China experts discuss Fukushima water release - CNA

TOKYO: Japanese and Chinese experts held talks on treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan's foreign ministry said late Saturday (Mar 30), the first such talks to be announced since Tokyo began releasing the water into the ocean last year.

Japan and China have been at loggerheads over the discharge of the wastewater, which was used to cool the reactors after the 2011 meltdown.

Japan insists it has been safely treated, but China has criticised the release and banned Japanese seafood imports.

"A dialogue between Japanese and Chinese experts on the discharge of ... treated water into the ocean (by the Fukushima plant) was held in Dalian, China on Mar 30 to exchange views on technical matters," Tokyo's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The announcement comes after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November and said science-based discussions would take place at the expert level.

Japan began gradually discharging some of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater that have accumulated since the disaster into the Pacific in August, sparking a diplomatic row with China and Russia, both of which banned seafood imports.

China has accused Tokyo of treating the sea as a "sewer", but Japan insists the discharge is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency.

Kishida called on China at the November Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco to make an "objective judgment" on the safety of Japan's seafood, which is a major industry in the country.

Japan began releasing the treated wastewater because the nuclear facility was running out of space to build more water tanks, and it needed to make room for the much more hazardous task of removing radioactive fuel and rubble from the three stricken reactors.

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2024-03-31 03:53:00Z
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Sabtu, 30 Maret 2024

Baltimore bridge collapse: Crew in for long haul on S'pore-flagged Dali as cleanup begins - The Straits Times

A drone view of the Dali cargo vessel, which crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26. PHOTO: REUTERS

BALTIMORE – A heavy chunk of a bridge in Baltimore that rests on a ship that knocked down the bridge will have to be hacked into pieces and hauled away by cranes before the vessel can be towed away.

Until then, the 22 all-Indian crew members of the Dali container ship will likely have to stay on board. 

In the early hours of March 26, the Singapore-flagged ship “lost propulsion” and rammed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River.

“The crew will probably move with the ship, so long as nothing goes wrong in the process of removing debris,” Petty Officer Carmen Caver of the United States Coast Guard told The Straits Times on March 29.

“They will most likely go shoreside when the boat itself does,” she said, speaking from the Unified Command and Joint Information Centre set up to coordinate responses and disseminate information about the bridge.

Ms Caver, however, added that she could not specify the timeframe in which the ship will be moved.

The 300m-long ship, about the length of three football fields, was headed for a four-week voyage to Sri Lanka.

Among the 4,700 containers on board are 56 that carry 764 tonnes of hazardous materials, like corrosive and flammable liquids and lithium-ion batteries.

Describing the complex operations to clear the wreckage, Maryland Governor Wes Moore said giant floating crane Chesapeake 1000 had reached the scene, but it could lift only up to 1,000 tonnes of debris. 

“One of the challenges is that the Key Bridge, which sits on top of the vessel right now, that portion weighs somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes,” he added at a press conference on March 29.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, which is leading the cleanup, said the top priority is to allow traffic to begin flowing again by clearing the shipping channel of the chunks of the bridge. 

Next, the pieces that fell on the ship will be cut into pieces to be lifted before the vessel is towed away. Lastly, concrete and steel from the bridge that litter the river bed will be dredged up.

While that happens, the crew is required to stay on board and help with the investigations. 

Investigators from Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore have travelled to Baltimore to join the efforts led by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). 

The ship’s captain, his mate and chief engineer have spoken to investigators, NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.

Remote video URL

President Joe Biden is expected to visit the site of the accident – which has crippled the Baltimore port – next week.

Ms Caver said: “The crew show us around, they make sure that we are completely in the know with everything that’s going on with the boat. They are making sure it stays okay and in good standing where it’s at.

“Other than that, they’re just doing their day-to-day normal routines, relaxing and taking some time off while the investigation is ongoing.”

India’s Foreign Ministry said on March 28 that the crew are “in good shape”. A helpline set up by the Indian embassy in Washington, DC to provide consular service has not been tapped, ST has learnt. 

“For the foreseeable future, there is absolutely nothing that they are in need of,” Ms Caver said, adding that she could not speak about their morale.

“I couldn’t speculate on exactly how they’re doing, but I do know if they need anything or request anything, we immediately try to get it for them, whether it be a chaplain to talk to, or just general day-to-day things.

“They have cell service, they’re able to talk to other people outside the boat. They’re close enough to land where they have all the services they need.”

Many volunteers from the local community have offered to render help if extra provisions or supplies are needed, she noted. 

Mr Darren Wilson, spokesman for Synergy Marine, which manages the Dali, said: “The crew is being well looked after.”

“They’re still on board the ship because they still have jobs and duties onboard,” he added, noting that there is close contact between the authorities and the crew.

“They are a top priority. Synergy has been in touch with their families and keeps them updated on what’s going on.”

The moment the ship collided with the bridge. STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS

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2024-03-30 11:54:56Z
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Are Muslim youths in Malaysia and Indonesia becoming more conservative? | Video - CNA

Are Muslim youths in Malaysia and Indonesia getting more conservative? “I’m not interested in concerts. I'm more interested in religious lectures and celebrations of the Prophet's birthday," one Malay Muslim youth told CNA. But while the religious conservatism wave is on the rise in Malaysia, it's ebbing in neighbouring Indonesia.

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2024-03-29 22:00:00Z
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'Daunting task': Cranes arrive to clear Baltimore bridge debris - CNA

BALTIMORE: Three heavy lift floating cranes arrived in Baltimore harbour on Friday (Mar 29) to begin what Maryland's governor described as a "remarkably complex operation" to clear crumpled girders from a collapsed bridge taken down by an errant container ship.

"To see it up close, you realise just how daunting a task this is," Maryland Governor Wes Moore told a news conference after touring the disaster scene in a boat.

Migrant groups meantime honoured the six Latino construction workers who lost their lives when the Dali container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge long before dawn Tuesday, toppling it with stunning speed. The six were part of a pothole repair team.

"I am here to say that we immigrants are essential," said Erika Aleman, a construction worker from Honduras who lives in Baltimore.

Vessel traffic through the busy Port of Baltimore has been suspended indefinitely, causing disruptions to trade spanning the globe, and Moore warned that recovery would be lengthy.

"We cannot rebuild the bridge until we have cleared the wreckage," Moore said. "This is going to be a long road."

The complexity of the recovery dismayed those involved.

"We have to figure out the right plan to be able to break that bridge up into the right-sized pieces that we can lift," US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said.

Twisted bridge trusses weighing thousands of tons still entrap the damaged container ship.

The Chesapeake, a 1,000-ton lift capacity derrick barge, and two smaller crane barges arrived in Baltimore harbor, the Navy said, and a fourth crane barge will arrive next week.

The work of clearing tons of steel debris from the deep waters of the Patapsco River is made more delicate by the fact that the bodies of four workers have yet to be recovered.

The four missing workers are believed to have been killed when the Singapore-flagged, 300m Dali lost power and careened into a bridge support column.

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2024-03-30 03:56:15Z
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Second KK Mart hit with molotov cocktail attack - New Straits Times

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  1. Second KK Mart hit with molotov cocktail attack  New Straits Times
  2. PKR MP urges Anwar, Saifuddin to act following latest petrol bomb attack  Malaysiakini
  3. Those calling for boycott must take responsibility for firebombings, says Saifuddin  Free Malaysia Today
  4. Malaysia mini-mart outlet attacked after 'Allah socks' outcry  Reuters
  5. Molotov cocktail hurled at Malaysia store as anger over 'Allah socks' spreads  South China Morning Post

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2024-03-30 05:28:56Z
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