24/09/2025

WEDNESDAY | SEPT 24, 2025

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S’pore firm rejects US$1b pollution damages

Hong Kong braces for super typhoon HONG KONG: The city shut down ahead of Super Typhoon Ragasa yesterday, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, with authorities urging people to stay at home and most passenger flights suspended. People piled into supermarkets as panic buying set in and residents stocked up on necessities. Windows in homes and businesses across the city were taped up to help reduce the impact of any shattered glass. Ragasa , packing hurricane-force winds of up to 220kph, is posing a “severe threat to the coast of Guangdong”, the Hong Kong Observatory said. It will maintain super typhoon intensity as it edges closer to Guangdong and as it impacts Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan, after sweeping through the northern Philippines on Monday. Hong Kong issued the typhoon signal 8, its third highest at 2.20pm, which urges most businesses and transport services to shut down. It warned water levels will rise about 2m along coastal areas and maximum water levels could reach four to 5m in some places. Local authorities handed out sandbags for residents to bolster their homes in low-lying areas. Chinese authorities have activated flood control measures in several southern provinces. More than 10 cities in Guangdong, including technology hub Shenzhen and coastal city Zhuhai had suspended work, transport services and schools due to warnings of storm surges and high waves. Residents in the world’s largest gambling hub of Macau also braced for significant impact. All its casinos will be forced to shut in the evening. Taiwan logged almost 60cm of rainfall in its mountainous east and reported 25 people injured, while transport disruptions continued with 273 flights cancelled yesterday. – Reuters

liability. This judgment undermines this limitation of liability,” he said. “Any payment towards the judgment could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in the future.” Yoskovitz said the absence of limitations could lead to higher insurance premiums, which would be ultimately passed on to consumers. The chief executive again apologised for the incident, saying the company recognised the disaster and was trying to make amends. He said X-Press Feeders had already spent US$170 million to remove the wreck, clean up the seabed and beaches, and compensate affected fishermen. “We are not trying to hide ... We are willing to pay more, but it has to be under certain marine conventions and an amount that is full and final and then it can be settled, and we can move on. “But to live under this hanging guillotine – it is simply impossible to operate like this.” In Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing tomorrow on the implementation of its decision. One of the petitioners who sought compensation has called for further research to determine the full extent of the damage to the island’s marine ecosystems. “If you visit the coastlines today, there is nothing visible in terms of plastic pollution. A major clean-up took place soon after the X-Press Pearl incident, but the effects will be felt for a long time,” said Hemantha Withanage from the Centre for Environmental Justice. It remains unclear how Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court could enforce its decision. However, in its 361-page decision in July, the court ordered the police and the state prosecutor to initiate criminal proceedings for

SINGAPORE: A shipping company told AFP yesterday it will refuse to pay Sri Lankan court ordered damages of US$1 billion (RM4.19 billion) for causing that country’s worst case of environmental pollution. X-Press Feeders chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz said he believed paying would have wide-ranging implications on global shipping and “set a dangerous precedent”. The company operated the MV X-Press Pearl that sank off Colombo Port in June 2021 after a fire, believed caused by a nitric acid leak, that raged for nearly two weeks. Its cargo included 81 containers of hazardous goods, including acids and lead ingots, and hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets. The ship was refused permission by ports in Qatar and India to offload the leaking nitric acid before it arrived in Sri Lankan waters. Tonnes of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80km stretch of beach along Sri Lanka’s western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court in July ordered the company to pay Colombo an “initial” US$1 billion in damages within a year, with the first tranche of US$250 million to be paid yesterday. It also ordered the company “to make such other and further payments” in the future as the court may direct. Yoskovitz rejected the open-ended nature of the penalty. “We are not paying because the whole base of maritime trade is based on the limitation of o J‘ udgment undermines limitation of liability’ committed during “clearance” operations of lower-level alleged drug users or pushers. These took place across the Philippines between 2016 and 2018, the prosecution alleged. “The actual scale of victimisation during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack,” said the ICC prosecutors. “The attack included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period,” they alleged. The charges against Duterte stem from his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands. The arrest warrant issued for Duterte on March 7 contained one charge of crimes against humanity relating to 43 alleged murders. The prosecutors’ charges came on the eve of what was scheduled to be Duterte’s appearance at the ICC to hear the accusations against him. However, that sitting was postponed as the court weighs whether Duterte is fit to hear the charges. His lawyer Nicholas Kaufman has said his client is not able to stand trial “as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains”. Kaufman has urged the ICC to postpone proceedings against Duterte indefinitely. Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC’s detention unit at Scheveningen Prison since. At his initial hearing, he followed by video link, appearing dazed and frail, barely speaking. – AFP

Yoskovitz ... ‘We are willing to pay more, but it has to be under certain marine conventions and an amount that is full and final and then it can be settled, and we can move on’. – AFPPIC non-compliance if the parties were present in Sri Lanka. Yoskovitz expressed concern over the ship’s Russian captain, Vitaly Tyutkalo, who has been banned from leaving Sri Lanka, as well as the company’s third-party agents. The firm had offered to pay a fine for the skipper’s release but this was refused. X-Press Feeders obtained an order from London’s Admiralty Court in July 2023, limiting its liability to a maximum of US$25 million, but Sri Lanka has challenged that. The government also filed a lawsuit against the ship’s owners in the Singapore International Commercial Court. But that has been stayed pending the result of the case in London, with a pre-trial hearing expected next May. – AFP

ICC prosecutors charge Duterte THE HAGUE: International Criminal Court prosecutors have charged former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs”.

A heavily redacted charge sheet dated July 4 but only made public on Monday lays out the accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, sitting in ICC detention in The Hague. The first count concerns his alleged involvement as a co-perpetrator in 19 murders carried out between 2013 and 2016 while Duterte was mayor of Davao City. The second count relates to 14 murders of so-called “High Value Targets” in 2016 and 2017 when Duterte was president. And the third charge is about 43 murders

BULL RUN ... Buffaloes racing down a road on Monday in Sithor village, Kandal province, Cambodia on the second day of the Pchum Ben festival, which honours ancestors. – REUTERSPIC

Duterte at a senate probe last year. – AFPPIC