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Wednesday December 27, 2017

A ROYAL Navy frigate escorted a Russian warship on Christmas Day as it passed close to British territorial waters, British min-istry of defense said yesterday at a time of strained relations between London and Moscow.

The HMS St. Albans monitored the Russian frig-ate Admiral Gorshkov in the North Sea, “keeping track of its activity in areas of national

interest,” it said in a statement.The St. Albans, a Type 23

frigate, was deployed Saturday to track the Russian vessel and would return to its Portsmouth base later.

“I will not hesitate in defend-ing our waters or tolerate any form of aggression,” defense minister Gavin Williamson said in a statement after the incident.

“Britain will never be intimi-dated when it comes to protect-ing our country, our people, and our national interests.”

The defense ministry said there had been a recent “upsurge in Russian units transiting U.K. waters.”

It said the patrol ship HMS Tyne also escorted “a Rus-sian intelligence-gathering ship” through the North Sea

and the Channel on Sunday.A navy helicopter was sent

to monitor two other Russian vessels.

HMS St. Albans was also involved in escorting a Rus-sian aircraft carrier and missile cruiser through the Channel in January this year.

Relations between London and Moscow have been hostile for years, with allegations of

Russian meddling in Britain’s referendum on leaving the European Union and Moscow’s intervention in Syria on the side of the Damascus regime further straining already tense ties.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson clashed with his Rus-sian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last week even as they sought to mend relations.

(SD-Agencies)

British navy frigate escorts Russian warship

THREE people have died in separate avalanche accidents in the Swiss Alps, police said Monday.

A man who was skiing close to the 2,844-meter high Hofath-orn, in the southern canton of Wallis, died after being carried away by an avalanche Monday morning.

The 39-year-old from the Wallis region was quickly found and recovered by his friends but was confi rmed dead at the scene by emergency services.

Police in Graubunden, in the east of Switzerland, said a tourist who went missing Saturday had also been found dead.

The 31-year-old Frenchman had tried to climb the Glattwang mountain alone Saturday after-noon after skiing with his girl-friend.

When he did not return, a search was launched and the man’s body was found in a ravine Sunday morning.

Police said he had triggered an avalanche on his descent, which carried him more than a kilome-ter over rocky terrain.

Separately, one of three walk-ers buried by a snow drift in Wallis on Saturday has died, Swiss broadcaster SRF reported, quoting the police.

The group was hiking at a height of 2,700 meters in the St. Luc region when the acci-dent happened. One of them managed to make an emergency call, which allowed the others to be rescued. (SD-Agencies)

Three people die in avalanchesin Swiss Alps

SOUTH KOREAN police have arrested the owner and the manager of a building where 29 people died in a fi re last week, accusing the pair of multiple safety lapses, including blocked exits and malfunctioning sprin-kler systems.

On Thursday a fi re ripped through an eight-story high rise in the small city of Jecheon. At least 20 of the victims were women who were overcome by toxic fumes in a second-fl oor sauna.

Jecheon police have only iden-tifi ed the owner by his last name of Lee, and the manager by his last name of Kim.

Both men are in custody in

Jecheon after being arrested Sunday, police announced yes-terday.

Lee faces two charges of violating fi re safety regulations and committing involuntary homicide by professional negli-gence, while Kim also faces the involuntary homicide charge.

If convicted of involuntary homicide, Lee and Kim could face up to fi ve years in prison or 20 million won (US$16,000) in fi nes.

“The sprinkler system on the building’s fi rst fl oor did not work properly when the fi re erupted,” a police detective, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak on an ongo-

ing investigation, said. “If the sprinkler system worked, the fi re probably would not have spread as fast as it did.”

Photos released by the Yonhap news agency showed a smoke-stained stairwell and a fi re exit fi lled with shelves and supplies on the second fl oor, where most of the deaths occurred.

“The emergency exit on the building’s second fl oor was blocked by iron shelves and other miscellaneous items,” the detective confi rmed.

Offi cials are still investigating the cause of the confl agration.

According to police, both Kim and Lee had denied reports they were trying to remove ice from

the ceiling of the fi rst fl oor, where the fi re appeared to have originated, but later changed their statements after police confronted them with evidence.

The Korea Joong Ang Daily newspaper reported yesterday that Lee had at one point told police he did not alert the women in the sauna because they were undressed, however, the police detective said he could not con-fi rm that as investigations were ongoing.

Anger mounted over the weekend at reports of shoddy construction, broken doors, blocked roads and other prob-lems that may have contributed to the deaths. (SD-Agencies)

Building owner, manager arrested in S. Korean fire that killed 29

CANADA is moving to expel a Venezuelan diplomat from the country and strip his credentials in retaliation after his Canadian counterpart was kicked out of the South American nation.

The latest developments come after months of sanctions and criticism by Canada against Venezuela, which two days ago declared Canada’s charge d’affaires persona non grata. They stripped him of his diplo-matic credentials and barred him from returning to the country.

Offi cials from Canada and the United States have been increas-ingly critical of President Nicolas Maduro’s government for con-solidating power and isolating the country’s opposition parties ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

Venezuelan national constitu-ent assembly president Delcy Rodriguez accused Canadian diplomat Craig Kowalik of med-dling in the country’s politics and tweeting “rude and vulgar” com-ments about the nation.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday that Venezuela’s ambassador to Canada, who had already been withdrawn by his government to protest Canadian sanctions, was no longer welcome in the country in response.

She also declared the Venezu-elan charge d’affaires persona non grata.

“Canadians will not stand by as the government of Ven-ezuela robs its people of their fundamental democratic and human rights, and denies them access to basic humani-tarian assistance,” Freeland said in a statement released on Christmas Day.

“We will continue to work with our partners in the region ... to apply pressure on the anti-democratic Maduro regime and restore the rights of the Venezu-elan people.”

Venezuela drew international condemnation last week when its pro-government consti-tutional assembly effectively stripped three of the country’s most infl uential opposition parties of the right to partici-pate in next year’s presidential election. (SD-Agencies)

Canada revokes Venezuelan diplomat’s credentials

George Weah, former soccer player and presidential candidate of Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), votes at a polling sta-tion in Monrovia, Liberia, yesterday. SD-Agencies

YOUNG Liberians went straight from all-night Christmas celebra-tions to the polls yesterday for a runoff election between a former international soccer star and the vice president to replace Africa’s fi rst female head of state.

For the fi rst time in more than 70 years, the West African nation founded by freed American slaves will see one democrati-cally elected government hand power to another.

Nearly 2.2 million voters have the choice between 51-year-old former soccer star and senator George Weah and 73-year-old Joseph Boakai, who has been vice president for 12 years.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 79, is stepping down after two terms in offi ce that brought the impoverished country out of back-to-back civil wars and grappled with a deadly Ebola outbreak.

The runoff had been contested twice in court amid claims of irregularities, with its original Nov. 7 date delayed.

The fi rst-round Oct. 10 elec-tion brought high numbers of voters, and offi cials hoped yesterday’s vote would be no different. The National Elections Commission has said voter lists have been cleaned up according to Supreme Court orders. They

have been posted at all 5,390 voting places.

Many people showed up at polling stations before the sun rose. In the New Georgia town-ship west of the capital, Mon-rovia, voters used fl ashlights to check for their names.

“We need a leader who will move the country forward, not backward,” said 32-year-old Samuka Donzo, who sat in line in a classroom chair. “Liberia is too hard now; we need a leader who will make things cheaper so that we don’t have to continue to rely on neighboring countries for basic commodities.”

(SD-Agencies)

Liberia votes as soccer star, VP hope to succeed Sirleaf