‘ SUDDEN TURN’ BY US WARSHIP LED TO COLLISION OFF SINGAPORE – REPORT

SINGAPORE: A “sudden turn” by the American warship USS John S. McCain led to a collision with a tanker last year off Singapore that left 10 sailors dead, a report by the city- state’s government said on Thursday. Singapore’s transport ministry, releasing the results of its investigation into the incident, said a “series of missteps” by the destroyer’s crew and insufficient action by those of the tanker, the Alnic MC, contributed to the accident. The vessels smashed into each other in the predawn hours of August 21, 2017 in the busy shipping lanes around the Strait of Malacca. There were no casualties among the tanker’s crew. The commander of the John S. McCain is facing charges including negligent homicide and dereliction of duty, the US Navy said in January, after its own investigation into the incident found “multiple failures” by the ship’s crew. Singapore said its 35- page report did not blame any organization or

IRAQI, 17, HELD FOR ‘ BOMB ATTACK PLOT’ IN GERMANY OR BRITAIN

BERLIN: Germany has remanded in custody a 17- year- old Iraqi suspected of having planned an explosives attack for the Islamic State jihadist group in Germany or Britain, prosecutors said Thursday. The teenager, identified only as Deday A., hoarded a large amount of pyrotechnics at his home and allegedly planned to use the black powder to make an explosive device, said federal prosecutors. The suspect, who was first arrested on February 13 in the state of Hesse, faced a judge Wednesday who ordered him remanded in pre- trial custody on charges of having planned an attack. “The accused is alleged to have procured explosives to commit an Islamist attack in Germany or Britain,” the prosecutors said in a statement, adding that he was a suspected member of IS. German authorities have been on heightened alert since IS claimed a lorry assault on a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 which killed 12 people. Dozens of suspects have been arrested or charged over alleged terror plots.