Month: March 2024

Dubai (UAE) (TIP): A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on March 6 killed three of its crew members and forced survivors to abandon the vessel, the US military said. It was the first fatal strike in a campaign of assaults by the Iranian-backed group over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The attack on the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence further escalates the conflict on a crucial maritime route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe that has disrupted global shipping. The Houthis have launched attacks since November, and the US began an airstrike campaign in January that so far hasn’t halted their attacks.
Meanwhile, Iran announced Wednesday that it would confiscate a $50 million cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. aboard a tanker it seized nearly a year earlier. It is the latest twist in a yearslong shadow war playing out in the Middle East’s waterways even before the Houthi attacks began.
The US military’s Central Command said an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from a Houthi-controlled area in Yemen struck the True Confidence, causing significant damage to the ship. In addition to the three deaths, at least four crew members were wounded, with three in critical condition.
Two aerial photos released by the US military showed the the ship’s bridge and cargo on board ablaze.
“These reckless attacks by the Houthis have disrupted global trade and taken the lives of international seafarers simply doing their jobs, which are some of the hardest jobs in the world, and the ones relied on by the global public for sustainment of supply chains,” Central Command said.
The attack came after the ship had been hailed over radio by men claiming to be the Yemeni military, officials said. The Houthis have been hailing ships over the radio in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since beginning their attacks, with analysts suspecting the rebels want to seize the vessels.
After the missile hit, the crew abandoned the ship and deployed lifeboats. A US warship and the Indian navy were on the scene, trying to assist in rescue efforts.
The ship’s managers and owners said the ship’s crew of 20 included one Indian, 15 Filipinos and four Vietnamese. Three armed guards, two from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal, also were on board. The ship had been carrying steel from China to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The United Nations called on the Houthis “to cease all attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, expressing serious concern about the continuing attacks, including the latest incident where the status of the crew is unknown.
Dujarric said the attacks are causing risks “to property, to life, to ecology in the area.”
At the State Department in Washington, spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the attack. “We continue to watch these reckless attacks with no regard for the well-being of innocent civilians who are transiting through the Red Sea. And now they have, unfortunately and tragically, killed innocent civilians,” he told reporters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre separately warned: “The US obviously is going to continue to take action.”
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack in a prerecorded message, saying its missile fire set the vessel ablaze. He said the rebels’ attacks would only stop when the “siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza is lifted.”
The rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war, but up to Wednesday hadn’t killed any crew members. The vessels have included at least one with cargo bound for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory.
Despite more than a month and a half of US-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels have remained capable of launching significant attacks. They include the attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which sank on Saturday after drifting for several days, and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
It was unclear why the Houthis targeted the True Confidence. However, it had previously been owned by Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based fund that finances vessels on installments. Oaktree declined to comment.
Meanwhile, a separate Houthi assault Tuesday apparently targeted the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been involved in the American campaign against the rebels. The Carney shot down bomb-carrying drones and one anti-ship ballistic missile, Central Command said. Saree acknowledged that attack as well. (AP)

London (TIP): Sexually transmitted infections surged across Europe in 2022, with reported cases of gonorrhoea jumping by nearly a half, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said as it released its most recent data on March 7. Syphilis cases rose by 34% from the previous year, to more than 35,000, chlamydia cases by 16% to more than 216,000. Gonorrhoea cases jumped by 48% to more than 70,000.
“The numbers paint a stark picture, one that needs our immediate attention and action,” said ECDC director Andrea Ammon in a press conference on the data.
Untreated STIs can lead to a range of health problems including chronic pain, infertility and, for syphilis, neurological and cardiovascular complications.
Cases of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) and congenital syphilis, when the infection is transmitted from mother to foetus, also increased sharply, ECDC said, although from lower levels.
Rates of STIs have been rising for years in many countries, including in Europe, although this was stalled by Covid as most governments imposed social isolation measures, people stayed home and reporting rates fell.
A number of reasons were behind the sustained rise, ECDC said, including better surveillance and a rise in home-testing as well as an increase in riskier sexual behaviour.
A leap in infections among young heterosexual people in the latest data, and particularly young women, could be due to a change in sexual behaviour post-pandemic, the EU agency said.
It said there was no evidence yet that the rise in gonorrhoea infections was due to antimicrobial resistance, but said it would continue to monitor this. Ammon said the numbers were likely the “tip of the iceberg” as many infections go undetected.
European countries need to focus on testing, treating and prevention efforts, she said, and individuals need to take steps to protect themselves, particularly by using condoms, for example. (Reuters)

Beijing (TIP): China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on March 7 took a belligerent stance on the disputed South China Sea, warning of “justified actions” to defend its sovereignty claims and chided the US for not implementing its commitments to improve bilateral ties.
Wang, in his customary annual press conference on the sidelines of the Parliament session, took officially vetted questions from the national and international media on varied topics of global significance.
Wang 70, a veteran diplomat and member of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), abruptly took over as Foreign Minister last year after his junior Qin Gang was dismissed. The fate of Qin is not known yet. There was speculation about Wang being succeeded by Liu Jianchao, the Chinese diplomat currently heading the international department of the CPC, but there was no announcement about it.Wang, in his nationally televised press meet that lasted nearly 90 minutes, spoke sternly on the South China Sea disputes as he warned that, “China will take justified actions to defend its rights in accordance with the law, and respond to unwarranted provocations with prompt and legitimate countermeasures in the South China Sea.” His comments came as the South China Sea dispute returned to haunt Beijing with the Philippines, backed by the US, began asserting its claims confronting the Chinese coast guard ships with its naval assets.
China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims. “The Chinese people have lived and worked in the South China Sea for generations,” Wang said about China’s claims. Wang also announced a visa-free policy for Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg on a trial basis, starting March 14.
Meanwhile, a top American diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific, Daniel Kritenbrink, criticised China for using intimidation tactics against other countries in the region to press its sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea. — PTI