SINGAPORE: Two large oil tankers were on fire in waters near Singapore, the authorities said on Friday, raising concerns about the environment as well as the impact on operations at the world’s biggest refueling port.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it was alerted to a fire on Friday at 6:15 a.m. (2215 GMT) onboard both a Singapore-flagged tanker, Hafnia Nile, and a Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker, Ceres I.
A helicopter had evacuated two crew members to Singapore General Hospital, it said, without elaborating.
In a statement on social media, Singapore Navy said the frigate RSS Supreme had rescued the crews from the vessels and was providing medical assistance. It did not immediately give details.
The vessels were about 55km (34 miles) northeast of the Singaporean island of Pedra Branca on the eastern approach to the Singapore Straits. Photographs released by the Navy showed thick black smoke billowing from one tanker.
The cause of the fires was not immediately clear.
The 74,000 deadweight-tons capacity Panamax tanker Hafnia Nile (IMO 9766217) was carrying about 300,000 barrels of naphtha, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.
It was not immediately clear what fuel Ceres I (IMO 9229439) was carrying. The tanker is a very-large-crude-carrier (VLCC) of 300,000 deadweight-tons capacity and was last marked as carrying Iranian crude between March to April, ship-tracking data showed.
Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil trading hub and the world’s largest bunkering port and surrounding waters are vital trade waterways between Asia and Europe and the Middle East.
Oil tankers on fire off Singapore, crew members rescued
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Oil tankers on fire off Singapore, crew members rescued
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- Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil trading hub and the world’s largest bunkering port
Six killed, 13 wounded in Kabul suicide bombing
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- Afghan Taliban declared security their highest priority since surging back to power three years ago
- Violence has waned in Afghanistan, though several militant groups remain active including Daesh
KABUL: A suicide bomber triggered explosives in the Afghan capital on Monday, police said, killing six people and wounding 13 more.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover. However, several militant groups remain active including the regional chapter of Daesh.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday afternoon’s attack, which took place in the Qala-e-Bakhtiar area of Kabul’s southern outskirts.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said “a person wearing explosives on his body detonated,” and one woman was among the fatalities.
“The injured were transferred to hospitals on time and investigations are ongoing,” he posted on social media platform X.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have declared security their highest priority since surging back to power following the chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces three years ago.
While their sweeping security operations have led to a decline in militants challenging their rule, according to analysts, they also downplay or delay confirmation of attacks.
The last suicide attack in Afghanistan claimed by the regional chapter of Daesh was in the southern city of Kandahar — the Taliban’s historic stronghold — in March.
Taliban authorities said only three people were killed while a hospital source put the toll far higher at 20.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP last month that Daesh “existed here before but we suppressed them very hard.”
“No such groups exist here that can pose a threat to anyone,” he said.
Pope heads to Indonesia, first stop in four-nation tour
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- Catholics currently represent fewer than three percent of the population of Indonesia, compared to the 87 percent who are Muslim
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, 87, embarked Monday on an ambitious four-nation tour that begins with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, for a visit dominated by inter-faith ties.
The pontiff left Rome on Monday afternoon and is due to land in Jakarta on Tuesday morning (around 0430 GMT), the first stop in a 12-day voyage that will also take in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
Covering some 32,000 kilometers (almost 20,000 miles), the tour — the longest and farthest of his 11 years leading the worldwide Catholic Church — will test Francis’ increasingly fragile health.
But in recent weeks the pontiff has appeared in good spirits, and he is often energised by being among his flock.
Catholics currently represent fewer than three percent of the population of Indonesia — some eight million people, compared to the 87 percent, or 242 million, who are Muslim.
But they are one of six officially recognized religions or denominations in the secular nation, also including Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
On Thursday Francis will meet representatives of all six at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia and a symbol of religious co-existence.
It is linked via a “tunnel of friendship” to the cathedral across the road, where Christians in recent days have been taking selfies with a life-sized cutout of the pope.
At the mosque, Pope Francis will sign a joint declaration with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar.
The statement will focus on “dehumanization,” notably the spread of violence and conflict, particularly to women and children, as well as environmental degradation, according to the Indonesian bishops’ conference.
Francis has repeatedly urged the world to do more to combat climate change and mitigate its effects — including rising sea levels, which threaten the heavily polluted megalopolis of Jakarta.
Security is tight for the three-day visit, with the military, police and members of the president’s own detail among more than 4,000 law enforcement officers deployed.
A new billboard advert declaring “Welcome Pope Francis” has been put up in central Jakarta, while the government has ordered a special stamp in his honor.
It is the third papal visit to Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands, after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989.
The independent Jakarta Post newspaper hailed the visit in an editorial Monday as “highly significant for the advancement of interreligious relations” both in Indonesia and abroad.
Despite Indonesia’s official recognition of different faiths, there are concerns about growing discrimination, including against Christians, with local Catholics hoping the pope will speak out.
The Jakarta-based Journalists’ Union for Diversity (SEJUK) told AFP it had recorded eight violations of religious freedom in August alone, including the banning of church construction, attacks on temples and assaults.
But Michel Chambon, a theologian and anthropologist at the National University of Singapore, said the pope would be pressing a wider message he has already delivered in other Muslim-majority countries, from Iraq to Bahrain, Turkiye and Morocco.
The visit “is not really aimed at Catholics in Indonesia” but is intended to highlight the global importance of Islamic-Christian dialogue, he told AFP.
“There are divisions even within the Catholic Church. Some leaders think that good interreligious dialogue is all well and good, but that it will not go further than peaceful coexistence,” he added.
Francis will meet outgoing President Joko Widodo during his visit, and hold meetings with young people, diplomats and local clergy.
He will also preside over a mass in a 80,000-seat stadium, one of several such events during the tour, the 45th overseas trip of his papacy.
Originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the Covid pandemic, the visit takes place just three months before his 88th birthday.
The Argentine now routinely uses a wheelchair to move around, underwent hernia surgery last year and has been plagued by respiratory issues.
He has not traveled abroad since visiting Marseille in France in September 2023, having canceled a planned address at United Nations climate talks in Dubai two months later.
He will be traveling to Indonesia with his personal doctor and two nurses, but Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said this is normal, saying no extra precautions were in place.
Pakistanis tried for incitement to kill Dutch far-right leader Wilders
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- Dutch prosecutors have charged 56-year-old religious leader Muhammed Ashraf Jalali for calling on his followers to kill Wilders
- Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the TLP party, is suspected of urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands: Two Pakistani men stood trial in absentia Monday at a high-security court in the Netherlands over alleged attempts to incite the murder of far-right and anti-Islam Dutch leader Geert Wilders.
Dutch prosecutors have charged 56-year-old religious leader Muhammed Ashraf Jalali for calling on his followers to kill Wilders and promising they would be “rewarded in the afterlife.”
Another man, Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, is suspected of urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder him.
“This case has had a huge impact on me and my family,” said Wilders, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and maroon tie.
“I’m asking this court to send a strong signal... that calling a fatwa in this country is unacceptable,” he added.
The trial took place at a highly secure courthouse near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Dutch authorities asked Islamabad for legal assistance to question the suspects and demand they appear in court.
However, no treaty exists with Pakistan for mutual legal assistance and the two men did not appear in the dock. Neither man had legal representation present.
In September last year, judges sentenced Latif to 12 years behind bars for incitement to murder Wilders after the firebrand lawmaker sought to arrange a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Wilders canceled the cartoon contest after protests broke out in Pakistan and he was inundated with death threats. He has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.
The planned competition “caused a lot of unrest within the Muslim community. He (Wilders) received hundreds, if not thousands of death threats,” said the judge, who asked not to be identified.
In the Netherlands, the plan to stage the contest was widely criticized as needlessly antagonizing Muslims.
But the call to kill Wilders appeared to resonate, as a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting his assassination in the wake of the canceled contest.
Wilders said in court he had planned the contest because “it’s unacceptable that you are not allowed freedom of speech... in countries where it is permitted by law.”
“For the past 20 years I have been robbed of my freedom because of what I think, say, write and do,” said Wilders.
“Fatwas are the worst of all. They never go away. I still receive death threats on a daily basis,” added the politician.
The public prosecutor called for Jalali to receive 14 years in prison. The hearing against Rizvi was due to begin later Monday with a verdict expected on September 9.
“The aim of the suspect (Jalali) was to kill Wilders. He (Jalali) had great influence in Pakistan,” alleged the prosecutor, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Unfortunately we see politicians being more and more threatened because of what they say and think.”
The hard-line TLP religious group is known for its massive street protests over blasphemy allegations that can paralyze cities for days.
It brought tens of thousands of people to the streets after Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2020.
Six killed, 13 wounded in Kabul suicide bombing: police
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- Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said “a person wearing explosives on his body detonated,” and one woman was among the fatalities
KABUL: A suicide bomber triggered explosives in the Afghan capital on Monday, police said, killing six people and wounding 13 more.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover, however, several militant groups remain active including the regional chapter of Daesh.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday afternoon’s attack, which took place in the Qala-e-Bakhtiar area of Kabul’s southern outskirts.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said “a person wearing explosives on his body detonated,” and one woman was among the fatalities.
“The injured were transferred to hospitals on time and investigations are ongoing,” he posted on social media platform X.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have declared security their highest priority since surging back to power following the chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces three years ago.
While their sweeping security operations have led to a decline in militants challenging their rule, according to analysts, they also downplay or delay confirmation of attacks.
The last suicide attack in Afghanistan claimed by the regional chapter of Daesh was in the southern city of Kandahar — the Taliban’s historic stronghold — in March.
Taliban authorities said only three people were killed while a hospital source put the toll far higher at 20.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP last month that Daesh “existed here before but we suppressed them very hard.”
“No such groups exist here that can pose a threat to anyone,” he said.
Philippines’ Muslim south welcomes Marcos’ peace commitment
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- Bangsamoro is undergoing a peace process that will conclude next year
- Results of peace process ‘remain to be seen,’ says a civil society leader
MANILA: Authorities in the Philippines’ southern Muslim region welcomed on Monday a vow of commitment from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to implement signed peace agreements in the country, as one of Southeast Asia’s most conflict-torn regions moves closer to the conclusion of its decade-long peace process.
Bangsamoro, a region covering predominantly Muslim areas of Mindanao, has been undergoing a peace process that began in 2014, when the government struck a permanent ceasefire deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front after almost four decades of conflict.
MILF is an armed breakaway group of the Moro National Liberation Front — the oldest Muslim separatist movement in Mindanao — which continued to fight when its parent organization reached a peace agreement with Manila in the 1990s.
Bangsamoro residents voted for its greater autonomy in a 2019 referendum held as part of the peace process, the transition period of which will culminate after the region elects its legislature and executive in 2025.
In a ceremony held at the presidential palace on Monday, Marcos said his administration was committed to “(implementing) all signed peace agreements” for the security, inclusive progress and stability of Mindanao and the rest of the country, adding that ongoing peace processes were in the “advanced stages” of implementation.
Marcos’s pledge on Monday was welcomed by authorities in Bangsamoro.
“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s commitment to implementing all signed peace agreements is a testament to his sincerity in bringing sustainable peace and development in Mindanao,” Mohd. Asnin Pendatun, spokesperson for the autonomous Muslim region BARMM, told Arab News.
“We are hopeful that we will witness the fitting conclusion to the peace accords … during his administration.”
Yet results from the peace process “remain to be seen,” according to Drieza Liningding, leader of the Moro Consensus Group from BARMM’s Marawi City.
“Most of what was promised has not yet been implemented,” he told Arab News.
Though he welcomed Marcos’ pledge to implement all the signed peace agreements, he said that Marawi residents felt “sidelined” by the current administration.
Years after pro-Daesh militants took over Marawi in 2017 in a five-month battle that resulted in its widespread destruction, many residents were still unable to access promised government support from the Marawi Siege Victim's Compensation Act, Liningding said.
“We in Marawi are frustrated with how his administration is handling the Marawi compensation law; we feel that our protest and letters addressed to him only fall on deaf ears,” he said.
“Injustice is the root of all revolutions … But we are still hoping that (Marcos) will listen to our pleas. We don’t want Marawi to be used by lawless elements or used as justification to rebel against the government. We want peace.”