The navy detained an Indonesian-registered ship off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka to investigate any possible ties with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels as fighting in the north killed 15 guerrillas, the military said yesterday.
The ship was drifting when it was detected about 160km off the island's eastern coast on Tuesday morning and navy troops boarded the ship for an investigation, a defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The navy is questioning the 12-member Indonesian crew, the official said, adding that it would conduct a full investigation to check if the ship had any links with the Tamil Tigers.
The official said the ship's captain told the navy that his vessel was sailing from the Indian city of Mumbai to Thailand and that the vessel started drifting when it ran out of fuel.
The Tamil Tigers have been known to smuggle arms aboard ships during their more than two-decade conflict against government forces.
In September, the navy claimed it sank three rebel ships packed with weapons and light aircraft, nearly destroying what remained of the separatists' smuggling fleet.
Fighting across northern Sri Lanka -- where the separatist rebels control a de facto state -- has intensified in recent months.
In the latest violence, soldiers clashed with Tamil guerrillas in several villages along the front lines in the Vavuniya District on Tuesday, just south of rebel-held territory, the official said.
The fighting killed 15 insurgents, he said.
There was no immediate comment from the rebels, and verification of the military's claims was impossible because the region is off limits to the media.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS