06/12/2025

SATURDAY | DEC 6, 2025

9

Powerful storm batters Greece

ATHENS: Severe flooding, landslides and infrastructure damage were reported across Greece on Thursday as powerful Storm Byron swept through the country, bringing heavy rain, thunderstorms and gale-force winds, reported Xinhua. The Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece was among the hardest-hit regions, with extensive flooding in Laconia, where homes and farmland were submerged, and key roads leading to the regional centre of Sparta were cut off, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported. Authorities deployed heavy machinery to keep major routes open, but continuous rainfall triggered landslides and raised concerns over potential river overflows. On Crete, Greece’s largest island, intense rainfall caused road closures, landslides and infrastructure damage, particularly in southern districts. In Heraklion, the island’s main city, ground erosion caused part of a street to collapse, sending a vehicle into a construction pit. No injuries were reported and local authorities opened temporary shelters for homeless residents. The government convened an emergency meeting, chaired by Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Yiannis Kefalogiannis, as the storm system advanced across the country. Officials warned of rapidly deteriorating conditions and urged residents to limit movement and follow official safety instructions. Meteorologists said the storm is expected to intensify overnight, especially in Attica and other parts of central Greece. Winds are forecast to reach force eight or nine on the Beaufort scale, potentially generating storm surges along the Aegean coastline, including the Dodecanese islands in the southeast, where initial flooding has been reported. – Bernama-Xinhua TRUMP EXPANDING TRAVEL BAN TO OVER 30 COUNTRIES MOSCOW: US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the US government is expanding the travel ban from 19 to over 30 countries following a shooting near the White House, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported. “The president is continuing to evaluate countries.“ The Trump administration began tightening immigration policies after an incident on Nov 26, when an Afghan national, who reportedly was granted asylum in the United States earlier this year, wounded two National Guard officers near the White House in Washington, DC. Last Thursday, US Attorney-General Pam Bondi vowed that US prosecutors would seek the death penalty for the shooter if the victims die. Later that day, US President Donald Trump announced that the female officer, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, had died in the hospital. – Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti WELLINGTON: New Zealand police have recovered a diamond-encrusted green Faberge egg after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it. The 32-year-old allegedly gulped down the egg late last week from a store in the country’s largest city, Auckland, but was arrested before he could flee. “Police can confirm the pendant was recovered. It is now in police custody,“ they said yesterday. Police had assigned an officer to watch over the man while waiting for nature to deliver the trinket valued at around US$20,000 (RM82,280). The special edition locket was inspired by the James Bond film “Octopussy”, which revolves around a plot to steal a rare Faberge egg. “The exterior of the egg closely follows the design of the Faberge egg featured in the film ‘Octopussy’, with a beautiful 18k gold lattice framework, which is delicately set with blue sapphires and white diamonds in a floral-like design,“ reads an online description. – AFP POLICE RECOVER FABERGE EGG SWALLOWED BY THIEF

DIPLOMATIC VISIT ... French President Emmanuel Macron, his wife Brigitte Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan touring the Dujiangyan site, a designated Unesco World Heritage site in southwestern China’s Sichuan province yesterday. – AFPPIC

Washington strike on alleged drug boat kills four

“The rules are they have to pose an imminent threat. And I think we could say they did not pose an imminent threat to our country.” Republican Senator Tom Cotton, another attendee of the briefing, defended the military action, saying “the first strike, the second strike and the third and the fourth strike on Sept 2 were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do”. “I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so that they could stay in the fight.” The White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from the decision to strike the survivors, instead pinning the blame on Admiral Frank Bradley, who directly oversaw the operation. Himes said Bradley told lawmakers during the briefing that Hegseth did not order for all the boat’s crew to be killed, but Bacon said the Pentagon chief is ultimately responsible because “he is the Defence secretary”. Trump’s administration insists that it is effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists” while Trump has deployed the world’s biggest aircraft carrier and an array of other military assets to the Caribbean, insisting that they are there for counter-narcotics operations. – AFP

o Footage shows US military attacking shipwrecked sailors, says top Democrat

WASHINGTON: A strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed four people on Thursday, the US military said, amid growing controversy over a campaign that has taken more than 87 lives. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s administration have especially come under fire over an incident in early September in which US forces targeted the wreckage of a vessel that had already been hit, killing two survivors. A senior Democratic lawmaker who saw footage of that incident on Thursday said it shows a US attack on “shipwrecked sailors”, while others have described it as a possible war crime. The latest strike targeted a “vessel in international waters operated by a designated terrorist organisation. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific,” US Southern Command said in a post on X. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the

vessel were killed,” said the post, which included a video showing a multi-engine boat speeding across the water before being hit by a blast that left the vessel engulfed in flames. Earlier in the day, lawmakers attended a classified briefing in Capitol Hill during which they were shown extended video footage of the strike, only a brief part of which has been publicly released. The footage showed “the US military attacking shipwrecked sailors. Bad guys, but attacking shipwrecked sailors,” said Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He described it as “one of the most troubling things I have seen in my time in public service”. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States.” Republican Representative Don Bacon said: “These two people were trying to survive and our rules of war would not allow us to kill survivors.

BR I E F S

EU to use satellites, drones to address narcotics BRUSSELS: The European Commission unveiled a new European Union (EU) Drugs Strategy and Action Plan on Thursday aimed at cracking down on rapidly expanding drug trafficking networks, with Brussels set to deploy state-of-the-art satellites, drones and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to monitor traffickers from the skies and beyond EU borders, Anadolu Ajansi reported. Around 7,500 Europeans die annually due to drug-related causes, he added. “This is why today, we are taking urgent actions. We sent the drug lords and their organisations a very, very clear message – Europe is fighting back.“ smugglers reach European borders. The EU also plans to reinforce maritime surveillance, expand the European Ports Alliance and strengthen partnerships with Latin American ports to intercept illicit shipments. The strategy foresees expanded use of AI-powered detection tools, advanced X-ray systems and enhanced monitoring of postal and parcel delivery services, in which traffickers increasingly hide synthetic drugs.

Under the new plan, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex, would be equipped with “state-of-the-art resources“, including aerial assets, high-resolution satellite imagery and drones, enabling EU authorities to track drug shipments, monitor evolving trafficking routes and detect suspicious activities long before

EU Internal Affairs and Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said Europe is “reaching a crisis point” as cocaine seizures increased sixfold and meth seizures more than tripled between 2013 and 2023.

“Drug traffickers use the latest technologies and that is why we also have to put the focus on innovation to beat them,“ said Brunner. – Bernama-Anadolu