International FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2017

Germany holds 'agent' over Cold War-style abduction

BERLIN: Germany yesterday remanded in custody a suspected Vietnamese agent accused in the brazen kidnapping of a fugitive state company official in Berlin last month, a case that has badly strained bilateral ties. The target-Trinh Xuan Thanh, 51, who was in Germany seeking asylum-was spirited back to Vietnam last month, where he faces corruption charges that carry the death penalty. One of the alleged agents involved in snatching him from Berlin's Tiergarten park was arrested by Czech authorities soon after the kidnapping. On Wednesday, he was extradited to Germany, where a judge a day later ordered him to be held in custody. He was identified only as 46-year-old Long NH, in keep- ing with German privacy rules in judicial cases. He is accused of working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduc- tion, which each carry sentences of up to 10 years' prison. German prosecutors say the suspect rented a Volkswagen van in Prague and drove it to Berlin, where several armed men on July 23 dragged Thanh into the vehicle before he was "taken against his will to Vietnam, where he is in state custody". Thanh's lawyer has told a Berlin newspaper that he may have been taken in an ambulance to an eastern European country and flown out from there. The unprecedented case angered Germany, which summoned the Vietnamese ambassador, kicked out the repre- sentative of the Vietnamese secret service, and decried the "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned of further steps over the kidnapping, which he : A fireman (C) is seen next to a fire truck in a cordoned off residential area in Macau yesterday, a day after Typhoon said evoked "thriller movies about the Cold War". Hato hit the city. — AFP The one-party state of Vietnam has waged an aggressive anti-corruption purge but analysts say it is often driven by infighting within the wealthy business-political elite as much as a true commitment to ending graft. Thanh, the former head of Typhoon Hato leaves 16 dead PetroVietnam Construction Corporation, has been accused of mismanagement that caused losses worth $150 million (127 mil- lion euros), and vilified in state-controlled media for flaunting his after lashing southern wealth by driving a Lexus. Also facing an embezzlement charge related to real estate deals which carries the death penalty, he had quietly slipped out of Vietnam in July last year. Days after his Storm leaves a trail of destruction abduction, a stone-faced Thanh reappeared on Vietnamese state television, which reported he had turned himself in. — AFP MACAU: The death toll from Severe Typhoon Hato rose to scattered on roads and a shipping container was washed up at least 16 yesterday after the storm left a trail of destruc- on its side in front of a temple. tion across southern China, blacking out Macau's mega- casinos and battering 's skyscrapers. Eight died Thousands evacuated 'Needle in a in the gambling hub of Macau, where images showed cars Streets were lined with trash and shattered glass and res- underwater and people swimming along streets. The idents holding plastic buckets queued for water from fire enclave's famed mega-casinos were running on backup hydrants. "We've been going without water and electricity haystack' to find generators. for more than 24 hours. It's so hot," May Lee, in her 40s, A man was killed by a wall that was blown down, who was in line for water, told AFP, adding that there was missing US sailors another fell from a fourth-floor terrace and one was hit by not even water for flushing the toilet. Ferry services a truck. The Macau government said two bodies were between Macau and Hong Kong resumed yesterday morn- ABOARD A COASTGUARD BOAT OFF JOHOR: Off the coast of found in a flooded car park early yesterday, and that two ing but passengers said they experienced delays. southern Malaysia, rescuers peered through binoculars at vast more died when they were trapped in the basement of In Hong Kong, Hato-whose name is Japanese for expanses of ocean yesterday as they zipped along in a speed- their shop. Details of the remaining death was not imme- "pigeon"-sparked the most severe Typhoon 10 warning, boat, in a desperate search for US sailors missing after a warship diately available. only the third time a storm of this power has pounded the accident. The coastguard vessel Petir 12, part of a multinational Footage published yesterday on the website of Apple financial hub in the past 20 years. The city could have suf- search effort scouring hundreds of square miles, crashed through Daily showed water gushing into an underground car park, fered losses of HK$8 billion ($1.02 billion), Chinese large waves in the Sea, as planes and helicopters with people wading through neck-deep water littered with University of Hong Kong economics professor Terence buzzed overhead. debris as one man shouted in panic. It was not clear if it was Chong told AFP, referring to the value of its daily GDP. More Four days after the USS John S McCain collided into a tanker the same car park where the bodies had been found. "I have than 120 were injured as the city was lashed with hurricane off Singapore tearing a huge hole in the destroyer's side in the never seen Macau like this since I came here in the 70s," a winds and pounding rain. latest accident involving a US warship-hopes are fading that any taxi driver aged in his 50s who gave his name as Lao told In the neighboring southern Chinese province of of the 10 sailors who went missing will be found alive. The US AFP. "It's like they were trying to gamble with their luck," , at least eight people have died, state broad- Navy has already confirmed that remains of some of the sailors Lao said adding that authorities had reacted too slowly and caster CCTV reported, while around 27,000 were evacuated have been discovered in flooded compartments on the guided- did too little to alert residents of the coming storm. to temporary shelters, the official Xinhua news agency said. missile destroyer, but have not said how many were found or Blacked-out slot machines were seen at the largely emp- Nearly two million households were briefly without power. remain unaccounted for. The Malaysian coastguard-which along with the Malaysian ty Wynn Macau casino where there was no air conditioning CCTV said four of the mainland deaths had occurred in navy is involved in the search-have basic equipment, relying only and a musty atmosphere. However, a few dozen gamblers , three in Zhongshan and one in Jiangmen. In Zhuhai on binoculars and keen eyesight. "We don't have any special sen- ignored the heat and tried their luck at four baccarat tables. which borders Macau, some 275 homes had collapsed, with sors to detect bodies in the sea, we have to do everything by A staff member at the enclave's sprawling Venetian resort the typhoon causing an estimated 5.5 billion yuan ($826 sight," Captain Amran Daud, a Malaysian coastguard official, told said yesterday its casino and shops were open, but there million) in damage, according to state-run Beijing News. AFP. The Malaysian navy did discover a body Tuesday a consider- was no air conditioning. A source had said on Wednesday Hato was downgraded to a tropical depression yester- able distance from the accident site but the US Navy has conclud- that the complex was running on back-up power. day afternoon as it travelled further into China Hong ed that it was not one of the missing sailors. Before setting out But at the Grand Lisboa Hotel in central Macau, an Kong and the surrounding region is regularly battered by from a jetty in Tanjung Pengelih, Johor state, coastguard officials employee told AFP it was still without electricity and water typhoons between July and October. The city saw its huddled together by a map showing the sea around the accident and that its casino and restaurants were closed. The city's strongest storm in 1962 when the of Typhoon Wanda site, with the search area measuring some 900 square nautical gambling industry generated over 220 billion patacas passed over and gusts of 284 kilometers per hour were miles. As well as Malaysia, ships, aircraft and divers from the US, ($27.29 billion) in revenue in 2016, over half of its annual recorded. It killed 130 and left 72,000 people homeless in Singapore, Indonesia and Australia have joined the hunt. —AFP GDP, as it hosted more than 30 million visitors. Debris was Hong Kong alone. — AFP