Day: April 9, 2022

A Dutch teenager died when a group he was diving with off Malaysia’s coast went missing, officials said Saturday following the dramatic rescue of his father and two others.

The three Europeans and their instructor got into trouble Wednesday after they surfaced from a dive near a southern island but could not find their boat.

A British man, 46-year-old Adrian Chesters, and a French girl, Alexia Molina, 18, were discovered by fishermen in the waters of neighboring Indonesia, picked up by marine police and taken back to Malaysia.

But Chesters told officials that his son, 14-year-old Nathen, who holds Dutch citizenship, had died.

The teen, “as a result of being too weak… was unable to survive,” a coast guard statement said, citing the father.

Police earlier said the search for the boy had been called off after they concluded he had floated into Indonesian waters, and they had informed their counterparts in the archipelago nation.

In recent days, Malaysia had deployed helicopters, a plane, boats, divers and jet skiers to hunt over a large area.

The instructor, a Norwegian woman, Kristine Grodem, had already been rescued Thursday in waters off southern Malaysia.

The other two survivors were found about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Indonesia’s Bintan Island — having drifted some 130 kilometers from where they had been diving.

The pair were admitted to a Malaysian hospital in stable condition, said local police chief Cyril Edward Nuing in the coastal town of Mersing, the base for search operations.

‘Strong girl’

Authorities did not give details on how the rescued trio survived a long period drifting at sea and said they had not yet been questioned in detail about their ordeal.

Previously, officials had expressed hope the divers would be found alive as they had substantial experience and were well equipped, including with a diving buoy.

They also said light rains in recent days might have helped the divers survive by providing drinking water.

On Thursday, the French teen’s mother Esther Molina told AFP from Mersing that the family were “hoping for the best. She’s a strong girl, she’ll kick ass.”

Grodem had been instructing the divers close to a small island, Tokong Sanggol, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) off Malaysia’s southeast coast, when the accident happened.

After a dive lasting about 40 minutes, they surfaced but could not find their boat. They drifted together in strong currents but ended up getting separated.

The captain of the boat who took them to the dive site has been arrested after testing positive for drugs.

The area where the accident happened is popular with foreign and domestic visitors — resorts dot the coast and the islands.

Diving accidents, while rare, do occasionally happen in Malaysia.

In 2013, a British tourist died when she was struck by a passing boat’s propeller while diving off resort islands in the South China Sea.

The tropical Southeast Asian nation’s borders reopened to foreign tourists April 1 after a two-year coronavirus closure, and thousands of visitors have arrived.

Source: Voice of America

Independent civil society organizations in Vietnam are condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, a stance at odds with Hanoi’s abstention vote at the United Nations.

Cultural researcher Nguyen Khac Mai and Professor Nguyen Dinh Cong, representing six independent civil society organizations in Vietnam and more than 150 individuals, presented a letter expressing their “support for the Ukrainian people” to Ukrainian Charge d’Affaires Nataliya Zhynkina at the Ukrainian Embassy in Hanoi on March 3.

“We have great sympathy and compassion for the people of Ukraine who were invaded by Russia,” said Nguyen Cong, 86, who taught at the National University of Civil Engineering in Hanoi. He gave up his Vietnam Communist Party membership in 2016 and now is a dissident and political observer.

“The reason we expressed our support was the Vietnamese government did not support Ukraine and abstained in the U.N. General Assembly’s vote on Ukraine. It’s the government’s move, they abstained,” Nguyen Cong said.

“As for us, the people, we have the right to voice our support … on behalf of some civil society organizations and individuals, we also want to speak out that we support, sympathize with the Ukrainian people and against Russian aggression,” he added.

In the meeting with the Ukrainian diplomat, Nguyen Mai, the 90-year-old researcher, expressed his concerns about the sacrifice and lost lives of the people in Ukraine under the firestorms of the past two weeks, according to Boxite Vietnam, a forum for Vietnamese intellectuals to discuss Vietnamese politics.

“We understand that defending Ukraine at this time is not only about protecting peace, but also about protecting a fledgling democracy that has just escaped from the authoritarian past. As freedom-loving people, we stand by the Ukrainian people to preserve your democracy,” said Nguyen Mai who was director of the Minh Triet Viet Research Center and a former director of the Communist Party Central Committee, according to posts on Boxite Vietnam.

“As a country that went through many wars until the late 1980s, Vietnamese understand the price Ukraine has to pay to maintain its sovereignty and democracy in the face of Putin hegemony,” the letter posted on the Boxite Vietnam reads.

“We resolutely condemn Putin’s blatant aggression against Ukraine and fully support the just resistance war of the Ukrainian people and its government,” it said.

VOA emailed the Russian diplomatic mission in Vietnam and Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry seeking comments. Neither responded.

On March 2, the United Nations General Assembly held an extraordinary emergency session on the situation in Ukraine and issued a resolution that “deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine” and demands that Russia “unconditionally withdraws all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine.”

While 141 of 193 countries voted in favor of the resolution, five countries — North Korea, Belarus, Eritrea and Syria — joined Russia in voting against the motion. The remaining 35 countries that abstained included China, India, Laos and Vietnam.

However, on March 3, Vietnam said it’s deeply concerned about the armed conflict in Ukraine and called on the relevant sides to exercise self-restraint, stop using force and avoid causing casualties and losses to civilians, spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said.

The Vietnam-Russia relationship, which began in 1950, is now one of Hanoi’s three comprehensive partnerships, along with China and India.

The former Soviet Union provided arms to Vietnam’s communists that helped them win their war against the United States, which withdrew in 1975. And now Vietnam buys military hardware and oil from Russia as part of its policy to avoid dependency on any single foreign power such as China.

“Vietnam’s consistent policy of enhancing the solidarity, friendship and comprehensive strategic cooperation with Russia, which is also the top priority in the foreign policy of the Vietnamese (Communist) Party, state and army,” Vietnam’s party website Nhan Dan Online said.

On March 2, right after Vietnam abstained from voting at the U.N. General Assembly, Zhinkyna wrote on Facebook: “Among all ASEAN members, only Vietnam and Laos abstained. My Vietnam, my second homeland, I am very disappointed.”

Source: Voice of America

PASAY CITY, After a year of being held as a digital event, the Manila International Auto Show (MIAS), makes its ACTUAL return as an on-ground spectacle from Apr 7 until tomorrow, at the World Trade Centre in Pasay City. Visitors are offered new and different car models that participating manufacturers and exhibitors put on display.

Some of the most awaited activities in this year’s MIAS is the return of the jaw-dropping stunt show that features three-time Guinness World Record holder, Mr. Russ Swift, as well as, the MIAS Classic & Custom Car Competition, wherein the general public is given the power to choose the cars they want to succeed in certain competition categories.

What’s also great about going back on-ground is that visitors are allowed to feel and give each car of their choice a test drive.

Lastly, the MIAS again serve as a stage for each manufacturer to unveil their latest car model launches, as the Philippine automobile market should serve as witnesses to the transcending innovations the industry continues to offer.

Source: Nam News Network

PHNOM PENH, Restoration work on the Takav Gate, in the western part of Angkor Thom temple, has been 70 percent completed, the Apsara National Authority (ANA) said, in a news release yesterday.

Started in Dec, 2019, the project in the famed Angkor Archaeological Park, in north-west Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, has been undertaken by experts from the ANA’s Department of Conservation of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology, the news release said.

Meng Sovanlylin, architect in charge of the restoration work said, the team restored many parts of Takav Gate, such as the four elephant sculptures and the Brahma faces.

“So far, about 70 percent of the restoration work has been completed,” she said. “The experts are rushing to restore the Brahma faces of the Takav Gate, and the work is currently in the final step.”

She said that due to age, weather and human factors, the Takav Gate had been severely damaged, and most of the structures of the gate, such as the sculptures of the four elephants and the Brahma faces had collapsed.

The Takav Gate is one of the five gates of the Angkor Thom, which was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. The gate was built by using sandstones and laterites, with smiling four-faced tower, up to 23 metres high.

Angkor Thom is one of the key temples in the 401-square km Angkor Archaeological Park, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in 1992.

Source: Nam News Network