U.S. warship collision exposes sea dispute

KUALA LUMPUR - A collision between a U.S. warship and an oil tanker near the Straits of Malacca yesterday has shone a light on a territorial dispute that has simmered between neighbors Singapore and Malaysia for nearly 40 years.

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with merchant vessel Alnic MC to the east of Singapore, while heading to the city-state for a routine port call.

Ten U.S. sailors are missing and five were injured in the collision, which resulted in significant damage to the hull of the U.S. vessel and the flooding of some of its compartments. Singapore and Malaysia both said the incident took place in their territorial waters, as the warship and oil tanker collided near the rocky outcrop of Pedra Branca, an area that has long been contested by both countries.

Both countries said they were leading the search and rescue operation for the missing sailors.

Singapore was once part of Malaysia but they separated acrimoniously in 1965, clouding diplomatic and economic dealings for years.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2008 that Pedra Branca, which means “white rock” in Portuguese, belonged to Singapore and a nearby feature called Middle Rocks belonged to Malaysia.

Malaysia sought a review of the ruling this year, reopening the dispute. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it was notified just before dawn of the collision in “Singapore territorial waters” in the Singapore Strait, and Singapore was leading the search and rescue operations.

Malaysia insisted that the incident happened in its waters, just kilometress off its southern state of Johor.

The U.S. Navy said Singapore and U.S. assets were involved in search and rescue, but made no reference to Malaysian or Indonesian assets. MOSCOW - The United States said yesterday it was scaling back its visa services in Russia after Moscow ordered it to sharply cut its diplomatic staff in retaliation over new U.S. sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin, reacting to new sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress which President Donald Trump signed into law, last month ordered Washington to cut diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by 755 people, or by about 60 percent, by September 1. The U.S. embassy in Russia said yesterday the move had forced it to rethink its visa operations and that it was suspending all non-immigrant visa operations across Russia on August 23.

It said services would be resumed on September 1, but would be offered “on a greatly reduced scale.” It would be cancelling an unspecified number of scheduled appointments and asking applicants to reschedule, it said in a statement.

“Capacity for interviews in the future will be greatly reduced because we have had to greatly reduce our staffing levels to comply with the Russian government’s requirement,” the embassy told applicants in a note on its web site.