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China to send navy’s hospital ship on South Pacific voyage
Beijing says ship’s planned tour of five countries is to show that China is a ‘responsible’ country.
China is sending the navy’s “Peace Ark” hospital ship on a tour of the South Pacific at a time of growing competition with the United States and its allies for influence in the region.
The 14,300-metric-tonne ship will call at Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and East Timor, providing medical assistance to Chinese citizens as well as residents, the defence ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.
“It is to present our image as a responsible big country,” said navy spokesperson Liu Wensheng.
The ship, painted white with red crosses on its sides, employs more than 100 medical staff in 16 different clinical and auxiliary departments, and can handle as many as 1,000 patients at any one time.
There are multiple operating rooms and nursing stations, as well as a blood bank, according to the state-run China Daily.
Beijing has been building closer ties with countries in the Pacific in recent years, some of which once had formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, causing concern in the US, Australia and New Zealand, but also within some of the countries themselves.
China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year and hopes to build similar ties with other Pacific countries. Its foreign minister has said relations with the Solomon Islands can serve as a model.
China’s overtures have led the US to step up its activities with the region.
Last year, US President Joe Biden invited Pacific leaders to an unprecedented summit at the White House, pledging to triple funding for the region. It also reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands in February after a 30-year absence. In May, it opened an embassy in Tonga and is also planning one in Vanuatu.
The Peace Ark, the largest hospital ship of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, has previously toured countries in the Pacific and joined relief efforts following natural disasters, including Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013.
Commissioned in 2008, Peace Ark has provided medical services for roughly 250,000 people from 43 countries, according to state media.
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3 bodies found in search for US and Australian surfers who mysteriously vanished in Mexico
Three bodies have been discovered in a popular Mexican tourist area where an American and two Australians suddenly vanished last week having been on an apparent camping and surfing trip, the local prosecutor’s office said in a statement late on Friday.
American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, as well as Australian brothers Callum Robinson, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, were last seen on April 27, the Baja California state prosecutor’s office previously announced. They did not show up at their planned accommodation last weekend.
Investigators discovered three bodies dumped in a pit while searching for the trio on Friday, although officials have not confirmed if the bodies are those of the missing men.
2 AMERICANS FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL ROOM IN MEXICO’S BAJA CALIFORNIA
Forensic tests on the remains will be conducted by a state laboratory, which will allow for positive identification of the bodies, the prosecutor’s office said in its statement.
Investigators continue to search the rugged area where the bodies were found for additional evidence, the statement added.
The bodies were found in a rugged hillside area in Baja California near the popular tourist town of Ensenada, about 90 minutes south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Video from the scene shows rescuers installing ropes to enter the pit where the bodies were discovered. The site is seen cordoned off by police while a navy boat was also visible in the sea nearby.
The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomás was near the remote seaside area where the missing men’s tents and the burned-out Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck were found Thursday on a remote stretch of coast.
It is unclear what types of injuries the victims suffered or how they died.
“There is a lot of important information that we can’t make public,” María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the chief state prosecutor said.
Baja California prosecutors said Friday that three people had been arrested and charged with a crime equivalent to kidnapping. It was unclear if they might face more charges.
Ensenada Mayor Carlos Ibarra Aguiar said in a news release that a 23-year-old woman had been detained with drugs and a cellphone that had a wallpaper photo of one of the missing men, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Officials didn’t specify how the three people were connected to the investigation, saying only that some were directly involved and others indirectly.
LUXURY RESORT SHUTTERS IN MEXICO’S BAJA CALIFORNIA AFTER MYSTERIOUS DEATHS OF 2 AMERICANS
Investigators said that a missing persons report was filed 48 hours after the men were last seen, although the prosecutor’s office began investigating as soon as posts began circulating on social media.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the chief state prosecutor, said that while drug cartels are active in the area, she said, “all lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.”
The Baja California Attorney General’s Office has said that it has maintained contact with the FBI and relatives of the victims, through consular agencies.
On Wednesday, the missing Australians’ mother, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for help in finding her sons and noted that Callum is diabetic.
The Australian media reports that Jake is a doctor, while Callum lives in San Diego and is a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team.
The State Department’s travel advisory lists Baja California under its “reconsider travel” category due to crime and kidnapping.
In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez— from the Baja peninsula. Authorities say they were victims of highway bandits.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
German social democrats promise not to join forces with the right
German social democrats spoke out against far right violence amid declining support after an attack on Friday night that hospitalised Saxony top candidate for the EU elections Matthias Ecke.
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Europe held a democracy congress in Berlin as a show of force against the far right that is gaining traction across Europe.
SPD has been polling at a historical low following an economically rocky few years, but the party is now ramping up efforts to win back support after violent far-right attacks continue to increase.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged voters not to vote for far-right parties.
“Democracy is threatened by such things, and therefore, accepting them with a shrug of the shoulders is never an option. We must stand together against it,” he said.
Scholz also warned against further right wing attacks, and added, “that this is directed against local politicians and mayors in small towns and cities. Democracy is threatened by such things,” pointing to an attack on a 28-year-old campaigner for the Greens, that appears to be by the same group.
Ecke is currently in hospital awaiting surgery for his injuries.
Speeches, lead by European social democratic leader Stefan Loefven and the centre-left candidate to head the European Commission, Nicolas Schmit, saw politicians vow not to collaborate with far-right parties if coalitions needed to be built.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party condemned the attack on Ecke.
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