$100 mn settlement reached with owner of ship that destroyed US bridge
$100 mn settlement reached with owner of ship that destroyed US bridge/node/2576694/world
$100 mn settlement reached with owner of ship that destroyed US bridge
The cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, as seen from Pasadena, Md. (AP)
$100 mn settlement reached with owner of ship that destroyed US bridge
Updated 24 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department said Thursday that it has reached a $100 million settlement with the Singaporean owner and operator of a cargo ship that destroyed a Baltimore bridge.
The 1,000-foot (300-meter) M/V Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning of March 26, killing six road workers and blocking the busy shipping channel.
Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Private Ltd. have agreed to pay $101.1 million to settle a civil suit aimed at recovering costs incurred in responding to the disaster and for removing tons of bridge debris from the channel leading to the port of Baltimore, the Justice Department said.
“Nearly seven months after one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory, which claimed six lives and caused untold damage, we have reached an important milestone with today’s settlement,” Benjamin Mizer, a senior Justice Department official, said in a statement.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Mizer said.
The Justice Department said the settlement does not include any damages for eventual rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. That is the subject of a separate claim from the state of Maryland.
The families of the six road workers who lost their lives are also pursuing legal claims of their own.
The Fort McHenry channel leading to the port of Baltimore, a key hub for the auto industry, reopened to commercial navigation on June 10.
UN chief told Putin invasion of Ukraine violates int’l law: spokesperson
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP
UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Antonio Guterres told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that his invasion of neighboring Ukraine violated the United Nations charter and international law, according to a readout of their meeting.
“The Secretary-General reiterated his position that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law,” a readout from the UN chief’s spokesperson said after his meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
In Ghana, Sahel militants find refuge and supplies, sources say
Updated 13 min 48 sec ago
Reuters
NAIROBI/ACCRA: Militants fighting in Burkina Faso are discreetly using Ghana’s north as a logistical and medical rear base to sustain their insurgency, seven sources told Reuters, a move that could help them expand their footprint in West Africa.
The sources, who include Ghanaian security officials and regional diplomats, said Ghanaian authorities appeared to be mostly turning a blind eye to the insurgents crossing over from neighboring Burkina Faso to stock up on food, fuel and even explosives, as well as getting injured fighters treated in hospital.
But they said that approach, while so far sparing Ghana from the kind of deadly attacks that have plagued its neighbors, risks allowing militants to put down roots in the country and recruit in some marginalized local communities.
Ghana shares a 600 km (372 mile) border with Burkina Faso, the country at the heart of an insurgency that has killed thousands, displaced millions and, according to some experts, turned the Sahel region into the epicenter of global terrorism as factions loyal to Al-Qaeda and Daesh expand their presence.
Burkina Faso has lost control of over half its territory as a pro-Al-Qaeda group known as JNIM gained ground. A JNIM leader this week told French broadcaster RFI that it was aiming to push into Ghana, Togo and Benin.
Unlike Benin and Togo, Ghana has not suffered a major attack.
Thailand apologizes for 2004 massacre of 85 Muslims; UN rights experts fear justice fading
UN rights experts "extremely alarmed that without further action” the cases “will end prematurely when a statute of limitations expires”
The "Tak Bai Massacre" took place under the administration of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin Shinawatra, a key figure behind her ruling Pheu Thai Party
Updated 8 min 56 sec ago
Arab News
RIYADH: Thailand’s prime minister apologized on Thursday for the massacre of 85 Muslim protesters 20 years ago for which no one has ever been held responsible.
“I am deeply saddened for what happened and apologize on behalf of the government,” Paetongtarn Shinawatra said. The massacre took place under the administration of her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, a key figure in the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
The security crackdown in the southern town of Tak Bai in 2004 was one of the most high-profile events of a separatist insurgency that re-ignited that same year and has since killed more than 7,600 people.
The "Tak Bi massacre" in predominantly Buddhist Thailand captured international attention and drew widespread condemnation.
It started when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting outside a police station in Narathiwat, one of the Muslim-majority southern provinces Thailand colonized more than a century ago.
Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. (REUTERS/File Photo)
Seven people were killed by gunfire. Subsequently 78 people suffocated after they were arrested and stacked on top of each other in the back of Thai military trucks, face down and with their hands tied behind their backs.
It remains one of the deadliest days in the decades-long rebellion by Malay Muslims against rule by the Thai state, which rumbles on to this day.
Attempts to prosecute security personnel have failed, including two in the past two months.
In August, a court accepted a criminal lawsuit by victims’ families against seven senior officials, among them a retired general and ruling party lawmaker, but all of those failed to show up at a hearing. A separate case against eight other personnel filed by the attorney-general last month has made no progress.
The defendants last week missed their final scheduled court date before the deadline to try them, heightening the chance they will never face justice.
In their absence the court said that it was scheduling the next hearing for October 28, at which point the proceedings are expected to be dismissed.
Paetongtarn said the incident should not be politicized, adding the statue of limitations could not be extended because it would be a breach of the constitution.
Thai police have said they were actively tracking all 14 suspects and had issued Interpol red notices.
“Although the case is expiring, history and memories do not,” Ratsada Manooratsada a lawyer for the victims’ families told Reuters.
“(The families) will never forget because the perpetrators were not brought to justice.”
UN experts weigh in
In Geneva, UN rights experts said they were extremely concerned that no one would be held accountable over the massacre.
In a joint statement, the UN experts said they were “extremely alarmed that without further action,” the cases “will end prematurely when a statute of limitations expires.”
“Failure to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice is itself a violation of Thailand’s human rights obligations,” the UN experts said.
“International law also prohibits statutes of limitations for torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”
The statement was issued by the UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, protecting freedoms while countering terrorism and freedom of opinion, as well as the working group on enforced disappearances.
UN experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
“Families have waited for nearly two decades for justice,” the experts said, urging the Thai government “to prevent further delays in accountability and ensure their rights to truth, justice and reparations are upheld.”
They also called for further investigations into the fate of seven people who disappeared in the incident.
Germany clears over $100m in arms exports to Israel amid legal challenge
Updated 26 min 41 sec ago
Reuters
BERLIN: Germany has authorized over $100 million in military exports to Israel in the last three months, Foreign Ministry data showed on Thursday, coinciding with the latest legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of these weapons in the Gaza war.
Germany has approved €94,052,394 ($101.61 million) in arms exports to Israel since August 2024, according to a government response to a parliamentary inquiry by left-wing lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen.
The new permits followed a significant drop in arms exports to Israel in the first half of the year.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights said on Thursday it had filed an appeal at the Frankfurt Administrative Court on behalf of a Gaza resident, seeking to halt further arms exports.
The appeal says German weapons are contributing to civilian harm in Gaza. The plaintiff, a Gaza resident who lost his wife and daughter in Israeli airstrikes, says ongoing arms shipments place his life and the lives of others in danger, calling on Germany to stop facilitating these transfers.
The action aimed at Germany’s Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, the German government responsible for such approval, focuses on Germany’s approval of military exports that could be used in the conflict, the ECCHR said.
The ECCHR says Germany’s exports violate international law, citing the Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits arms transfers if there is a significant risk they will be used to commit war crimes.
Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties
“How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States,” Putin told reporters in Kazan
“If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine”
Updated 24 October 2024
AFP
KAZAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his relationship with the United States after the presidential elections would depend on what attitude Washington adopts, as he welcomed comments by Donald Trump on his desire to end the Ukraine conflict as “sincere.”
But the Kremlin leader struck a hard-line tone, warning the West it was an “illusion” to think Russia could be defeated on the battlefield and that any peace deal would have to recognize Russia’s control of swathes of Ukrainian territory.
Putin was speaking at the end of the BRICS summit in the city of Kazan, where he had faced calls from some of Russia’s most important allies for the fighting in Ukraine to end.
“How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States. If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine,” Putin told reporters in Kazan.
Relations between the two superpowers have sunk to their lowest since the Cold War amid Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine.
Next month’s US election is set to be critical to the course of future ties and the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism over Washington’s multi-billion dollar aid to Ukraine and claimed that if elected he could end the fighting in a matter of hours.
Putin said Trump “spoke about his desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine. I think he is being sincere. Of course we welcome statements like this, whoever they come from.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among around 20 leaders that gathered for the BRICS summit, the largest diplomatic event in Russia since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin leader said Moscow was open to considering peace initiatives and welcomed BRICS leaders offering to mediate.
But he said any deal must consider the “realities on the ground” — a reference to Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.
“We are ready to look at any proposals for peace negotiations that are based on the realities on the ground. We won’t accept anything else,” he said.
Putin has previously demanded Kyiv effectively capitulate by pulling its troops back as a precondition to ceasefire talks.
And on Thursday he blasted the West for thinking Russia could be defeated on the battlefield.
Moscow’s opponents “do not conceal their aim to deal our country a strategic defeat,” he said.
“I will say directly that these are illusionary calculations, that can be made only by those who do not know Russia’s history.”
Russia has faced fresh accusations of escalating the conflict this week with the United States, South Korea, NATO and Kyiv all saying North Korea had sent troops to Russia.
Kyiv said Thursday it had intelligence that the soldiers had already been deployed to Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a cross-border offensive.
Putin refused to confirm or deny the reports on Thursday, instead accusing Ukraine and the West of aggravating the conflict.
Putin also held talks with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the pair’s first meeting since April 2022.
The Kremlin did not broadcast opening remarks, though both sides had said the talks would cover Ukraine.
The UN chief had pleaded earlier for a “just peace” in Ukraine in a speech delivered in front of Putin.
“We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and (UN) General Assembly resolution,” Guterres told the summit.
Ukraine has strongly criticized Guterres’s decision to meet the “criminal Putin.”
Guterres also demanded an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the release of hostages and an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Lebanon.
Other world leaders at the summit also called for an end to Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying Israel was trying to starve Gazan civilians and drive them from their territory.
Xi warned about “serious challenges” in the world and said he hoped BRICS countries could be a “stabilising force for peace.”
“We need to continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, relaunch the two-state solution and stop the spread of war in Lebanon. There should be no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon,” Xi said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian slammed the UN Security Council’s role in front of Guterres, saying international bodies “lack the necessary efficiency to extinguish the fire of this crisis.”
