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CRIME

Somali pirates capture another German ship

Pirates attacked a German-owned cargo ship flying under a Maltese flag and captured its 17-strong crew overnight in the Gulf of Aden, officials said Saturday.

Published: 25 April 2009 13:22 CEST
Somali pirates capture another German ship
Photo: DPA

“A cereal carrier has been seized overnight (Friday to Saturday) in the eastern part of the Gulf of Aden,” said Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, “It seems that its 17 crew members are unhurt.”

The Maltese-flagged vessel, Patriot, was owned by a Germany company and was attacked 150 nautical miles from the Yemeni port of Al-Mukalla, a spokesman for Ve Flotte, Nathan Christensen said.

The nationality of the crew was not known.

Mwangura added that a Philippine-flagged chemical tanker recently freed by Somali pirates had been refuelled and was on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa or Djibouti.

The MT Stolt Strength and its 23-man Filipino crew had been stranded after its release on Tuesday, low on fuel and supplies.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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