04/02/2026

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Captain found guilty in fatal North Sea collision

Xi calls for ‘orderly’ world

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping called yesterday for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying”. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month – a raid that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China in recent months, seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught with intertwined turmoil, and unilateral bullying is intensifying,” Xi told Orsi, according to state broadcaster CCTV. China “is willing to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with Uruguay in the Global South, jointly promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and inclusive economic globalisation,” he said. Beijing “supports Latin American and Caribbean countries in safeguarding their sovereignty, security, and development interests”, Xi said. During the meeting, Orsi warned of risks from the “challenging international and regional scenario”. China is Uruguay’s top trading partner, largest export destination and a key buyer of agricultural products such as soybeans and beef. Chinese electric vehicle (EV) brands have also grown their market share in Uruguay, accounting for almost a third of EV sales last year. Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Latin America as part of its quest for natural resources and through its vast Belt and Road infrastructure project. China and Uruguay will “seek to increase and diversify our bilateral trade”, Orsi said during the meeting, adding that they both supported a “standard-based international trade system”. The two leaders signed agreements on science, technology, environmental cooperation and other areas. – AFP

LONDON: The Russian captain of a cargo ship that hit an anchored oil tanker in the North Sea last year was on Monday found guilty by a UK court of killing a crew member. After eight hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Vladimir Motin of the manslaughter by gross negligence of Filipino sailor Mark Angelo Pernia. The seaman, 38, who was married with a young child, was lost at sea following the crash in which Motin’s cargo ship, the Solong , collided with the oil-laden Stena Immaculate , triggering a fiery blaze off the eastern UK coast. Pernia’s body has never been recovered. Motin, from Saint Petersburg, showed no emotion as he was convicted by a jury at Old Bailey court. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced tomorrow. Speaking after the verdict, investigating officer Craig Nicholson described the crash as a “senseless tragedy”. “It’s a miracle that there weren’t more fatalities or serious injuries,” he said. Prosecutor Tom Little told the court Pernia’s wife, who was seven months pregnant with their second child at the time of his death, lived in a remote area of the Philippines. She would need to make arrangements to travel somewhere with good internet access to watch the sentencing remotely. “This was a tragic, and entirely avoidable death of a member of crew caused by truly, exceptionally bad negligence,” said prosecutor Michael Gregory. “It is with great sadness for his family that his body has never been found.” o Filipino seaman lost at sea following crash

Pernia ... body has never been recovered. – HUMBERSIDE POLICE HANDOUR/AFPPIC

Motin ... to be sentenced today. – AFPPIC

Then a Russian folksong is heard, an apparent phone ringtone which went unanswered. As the Solong approached the anchored oil tanker, no conversation could be heard in the control room. The ensuing sound of the collision’s initial impact was so loud that jurors winced after being warned to decrease the volume on their listening devices. The jury saw phone footage recorded by Joesen Mariposila, third-in-command on the Solong , showing fire at the ship’s other end. He was heard saying “Lord help us” five times as dark smoke began to fill the air. Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, said the case underlined “the gravity of a captain’s duty of care while out at sea”. “If that duty of care is breached, the consequences can be catastrophic.” – AFP

on “an obvious collision course” with the tanker, Little told the trial. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) said the Solong’s black box showed no course or speed adjustments before the collision. It said Motin had disabled the alarm system, “leaving him alone to be on watch as the eyes and ears of the ship”. WhatsApp messages sent to Motin by his wife had “undermined his credibility”, the CPS noted. She had told him to “think of an alibi and advised him to say he had not seen the other vessel on the control devices”. Audio recordings from the Solong’s bridge control room were played to jurors, accompanied by a visual reconstruction of the ship’s trajectory towards the Stena Immaculate . An hour before the collision, men could be heard speaking calmly in Russian about the price of cigarettes.

The collision at speed in March set both vessels ablaze and triggered a massive offshore rescue operation. Motin’s defence lawyer, James Leonard, had previously told the trial that the captain had attempted to take the Portuguese-flagged Solong out of autopilot and change course manually to avoid crashing into the Stena Immaculate , which had been chartered by the US military. “That attempt, however, was not successful and the Solong did not change course at all,” he said. Motin told the court he had made a “mistake” and pressed the wrong button. The jury was told Motin was a “highly trained” seafarer who had captained the Solong for 15 years. But the prosecution insisted that he “did nothing to avoid the collision”. “He could, and should, have acted differently” when his ship was

Doctor Who auction fires up global interest RICKMANSWORTH: From a TARDIS to a Dalek, Doctor Who fans can bid to own a piece of television history as the BBC auctions off props from the cult sci-fi series. “It’s gone absolutely global,” said Sian Taylor, a Propstore manager, of the popularity of Doctor Who , as the firm previewed some of the items going under the hammer online until Feb 19. “It’s possibly one of the best pieces in the auction,”Taylor said. Sitting in a repurposed cattle stable in countryside northwest of London as they await their new owners, the more than 200 lots have all come from the BBC.

The 17-day online auction features items from the modern era of the decades-spanning show, which first appeared on British TV in 1963 and relaunched in 2005 after a 16-year small-screen hiatus. The longest-running science fiction series by episode numbers, according to the Guinness Book of World Records , it has drawn fans globally after airing in scores of countries over the years. Memorabilia auctioneers Propstore, managing the sale, anticipate worldwide interest, boosted by Disney+ streaming episodes outside the UK and Ireland since 2023.

“There will be people buying from Europe, North America, East Asia, Australia, everywhere across the world. It truly is a worldwide phenomenon.” Some buyers will need plenty of space, given several of the series’s heftier staples are among the lots. That includes a TARDIS, the nearly 3m-high police box that is a disguised fictional hybrid time machine and spacecraft used by the Time Lord. Also up for grabs is a bulky Dalek – one of the fictional extraterrestrial mutant enemies of the doctor, mounted on wheels, that have featured in numerous episodes.

On a rainy morning, white-gloved Propstore assistants showed off some other highlights, including costumes, sonic screwdrivers and an anti-cyber gun used by character Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman). Miranda McCabe, Propstore’s director of marketing, noted that one of the sonic screwdrivers – which she described as like an “alien Swiss Army knife” and one of the Doctor’s key tools – was a so-called hero version, used for close-up shots. “That’s why this one lights up and looks so nice ... which is super special.” – AFP

Gallery assistants with sonic screwdrivers up for auction. – AFPPIC