India's Kerala state on high alert as vessel with chemical cargo sinks
The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 was sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi when it sank about 38 nautical miles (70 kilometres) off Kerala early on Sunday morning due to flooding in one of its compartments.
All 24 crew members were rescued, India's defence ministry said.
The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with an unspecified "hazardous cargo" and 12 containing calcium carbide.
"As the oil slick can reach anywhere along the Kerala coast, an alert has been sounded across the coastal belt," the chief minister's office said in a statement.
It also had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks.
Authorities fear that some of the harmful substances the ship was carrying may have leaked into the sea, posing a risk to local residents and marine life.
The Kerala chief minister's office on Monday urged people to stay away from some of the containers that began washing ashore.
It also advised fishermen not to venture too close to the sunken ship.
The Indian Coast Guard said it had sent an aircraft with an oil spill detection system to survey the area.
It also deployed a ship carrying pollution control equipment to the site of the accident.
Following the latest violent stabbing attack at Hamburg central station on Friday, two of Germany's largest police trade unions are advocating for enhanced video surveillance, increased staffing, and additional controls to bolster law enforcement efforts.
At least 18 people were injured after a 39-year-old German woman with a mental health condition attacked a group of people with a knife at the station during rush hour.
The attack occurred despite the station being subject to a knife ban since December 2024, which fines anyone found carrying a bladed object with a €10,000 penalty.
Police forces and experts are calling for different measures on top of a knife ban in response to the incident, which follows a spate of similar attacks, including one in Bielefeld the week prior in which five were injured.
DPoIG national chairman Rainer Wendt argued on Monday that "modern video technology" must be used in areas with high crime rates.
In addition, Germany's law enforcement would need "considerably more police forces and relief from non-prison tasks" to implement such technology, Wendt told Euronews. The problem is one of "capacity", according to Wendt.
His comments echo those of GdP chairman Andreas Roßkopf, who advocated for placing surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology in so-called "crime hotspots" in the aftermath of the attack.
Such cameras could "detect behavioural problems in advance," Roßkopf told the domestic press. In another interview, Roßkopf also called for police to be able to carry out increased checks without cause to tackle knife crime.
A spokesperson for the German interior ministry said that after the latest incident, security would once again take a front seat. "Video surveillance is part of the concept. We are already testing AI-based video surveillance at Hansaplatz that detects conspicuous movement patterns," spokesperson Daniel Schaefer said.
Experts agree that knife bans by themselves are not always impactful in combating crime — partly due to the difficulty in enforcing them in places such as busy train stations like Hamburg's, through which thousands pass daily.
"Weapons ban zones in my view are not a sustainable approach to crime prevention," criminologist at the University of Zurich Dirk Baier told Euronews. "They rely too heavily on controlling and searching passersby."
However, according to Baier, neither artificial intelligence nor increased police powers is a single solution to preventing more knife crime.
"Knives can be inconspicuously carried in pants or jacket pockets, AI cannot detect that. And knife attackers only behave conspicuously at the moment of the attack, not beforehand," Baier said.
Preventative work in schools and early detection are more effective, Baier believes. "Often, individuals who commit knife crimes have previously exhibited aggressive behaviour. The risk posed by such individuals must be identified earlier."
DPoIG's Wendt said the family also plays a vital role in the prevention of violent knife attacks.
"For young people, it is above all their families who are responsible. If education teaches that it is okay to carry knives, schools, playgrounds and all other public spaces become dangerous places," he said.
"Parental responsibility must be emphasised more than before. They are responsible for ensuring that their children go to school unarmed. If necessary, sanctions must be used to make it clear to them that this is not a trivial matter," Wendt concluded.
Knife crime has steeply risen in Germany over the past few years, with police statistics showing an almost 10% year-on-year increase in bodily assaults involving knives since 2023.
Restrictions, such as those in place at Hamburg train station, were put in place after a mass fatal stabbing in the western city of Solingen in 2024, in which three people were killed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
14 hours ago
- Euronews
Domestic violence in Germany has never been so high, new report shows
The number of victims of domestic violence in Germany reached a new high in 2024, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reports, citing the latest data from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Around 256,942 cases were registered—more than ever before, the report shows. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of around 3.7 per cent, although experts warn that the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, as many offences in private settings are often not reported. In 2023, official statistics showed the number of femicides in Germany was already almost three times as high as in the previous year— on average, a woman is killed almost every day, and in most cases, the perpetrator is the (ex-)partner. Going by the rising numbers, the use of ankle bracelets for offenders is being proposed in Germany based on the Spanish model. They are already in use in Hesse and Saxony, and the federal government says it is planning a nationwide regulation. Germany to offer nationwide counselling service According to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, possible reasons for the rise in domestic violence are seen in a growing willingness to use violence "in the light of social crises and personal challenges." However, the ministry also emphasised that a greater willingness to report violence could play a role. Back in February, the Bundesrat - after the Bundestag - approved a law aimed at significantly improving the protection of victims of violence. In the future, the federal states will be obliged to provide nationwide protection and counselling services. The federal government will provide a total of 2.6 billion euros for this between 2027 and 2036. A legal entitlement to free protection and counselling is to apply from 1 January 2032. Until now, victims of domestic or gender-based violence have had to rely on existing capacities—for example, among women's refuges. Another interesting fact: in 2023, the proportion of women who were not born in Germany and sought refuge in a women's shelter was 69 per cent, as in the previous year. So, what is the situation like in other European countries? Italy In Italy, the anti-violence hotline 1522 received 48,000 calls and text messages in the first nine months of last year - an increase of 57 per cent compared to the same period in 2023. The figures published by the Italian Ministry for Equal Opportunities show that many women sought help after the brutal murder of university student Giulia Cecchettin in November 2023, which sparked a major debate about feminicide in Italy. Cecchettin had been killed by her ex-boyfriend Filippo Turetta, who was arrested near Leipzig after fleeing to Germany. Turetta confessed the crime to the public prosecutor's office and said that Giulia "could not have belonged to anyone else." In Italy, there is no official data on the number of victims of intimate partner violence or domestic violence recorded by the police each year. Portugal In Portugal, the police (PSP) said they arrested 1,281 people on suspicion of domestic violence in 2024, an increase of 310 (or 32%) more arrests and 282 (1.8%) more reports compared to the previous year. The Metropolitan Police also registered 15,781 complaints relating to domestic violence. Of the 1,281 arrests registered, 625 were "in flagrante delicto," police said. Spain According to the Nacional de Estadística (INE), Spain recorded 8,860 victims of domestic violence against whom protection orders or restraining orders were issued in 2024, a decrease of 2.9% compared to the previous year. 60.6% of these victims were women, while the proportion of men was 39.4%, official data showed. Overall, the number of murders of women in Spain has fallen by around a third since 2003. The sharp drop comes after several dastardly acts of violence against women around the turn of the millennium triggered far-reaching changes. At that time, women took to the streets across the country—with success: stricter laws and more comprehensive support services for those affected followed. At the same time, however, the number of reported sexual offences has been rising continuously for years. Whether this is due to an actual increase in sexual violence or a growing willingness to report offences remains unclear. The Spanish Ministry of the Interior attributes the increase at least in part to the fact that such offences are less tolerated by society today - and the willingness to report offenders has increased. Romania The Romanian police announced that more than 61,000 cases of domestic violence were reported in the first six months of 2025, in almost equal proportions in urban and rural areas. Police officers there intervened in 61,431 cases of domestic violence in the first half of 2025. However, figures show that the number of domestic violence-related offences fell by 19% in the first six months of the year compared to the previous year: from 28,117 to 22,742. At 56% (12,807), "beatings and other violence" accounted for the largest proportion of offences in Romania. Poland Recent figures are not available in Poland, but in 2023, a law was introduced for additional measures that can be taken against perpetrators of domestic violence, including psychological and therapeutic programmes aimed at "preventing the perpetrator from continuing to use violence and developing self-control and non-violent conflict management skills". Authorities say offenders who refuse to participate in these programmes face fines or even imprisonment. The law also allows for the confiscation of firearms, ammunition and gun licences from perpetrators of domestic violence. According to a study commissioned by the government but never officially published, 60% of Polish women have experienced domestic violence, and 10% of men do not believe that marital rape is an offence. England Figures in England and Wales from last year to March 2024 estimate that around 2.3 million people aged 16 have experienced some form of domestic violence. Of this number, 1.6 million were women and 712,000 were men. According to Women's Aid's Domestic Abuse Report 2024, social services reported that survivors often did not have enough money to pay for the things they and/or their children needed (79.8%) and that they relied on food banks (78.8%). A disturbing 62.5% of services also reported that victims were economically unable to leave the perpetrator. Even today, the way femicides are reported remains problematic, especially in the German media, where femicides are defined as "relationship drama" where perpetrators "lose control" of themselves.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
'Trump is falling for Putin's flattery'- Russian opposition activist, Kara-Murza
Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison in Siberia for "spreading disinformation" about the Russian military, following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was released in 2024 as part of a prisoner/spy swap negotiated by former US President Biden, former German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin. In an interview with Euronews' The Europe Conversation he laments how Western leaders bought into a "myth" in the early days of Putin's first term in office as president, and before that as Prime Minister. Kara-Murza said Putin was never a modernising force who "believed in reform" of the ways of the Soviet Union. "Nothing could be further from the truth," Kara-Murz told Euronews' Shona Murray. "The myth is that there was some kind of an early Putin, who was supposedly okay, you know, who believed in reform and modernisation and cooperation with the West, and then something went horribly wrong along the way," he said. Kara-Murza said Western governments who talk about the version of an "early" Putin do so for reasons of "self-justification". Kara-Murza said the true nature of Putin's intentions for Russia were clear from the start. He recalled Putin commissioned a statue to celebrate a former KGP operative who was key in the suppression of Hungarians in 1956 who attempted to rise against the Soviet Union's brutal rule in their country. "I remember very well the day I understood exactly who that man was and what direction he would take our country," said Kara-Murza. "On the 20th of December, 1999, this was before he became president, he was still prime minister, he came to Lubyanka Square in Moscow at the former KGB, now FSB headquarters, to officially unveil a memorial plaque to Yuri Andropov, a long time former Soviet KGB chief," Kara-Murza said. Yuri Andropov was also someone instrumental in the 1956 invasion of Hungary, who "prioritised the suppression of domestic dissent when he was chairman of the KGB", claimed Kara-Murza, adding that he was "somebody who embodied everything that was wrong with the communist system". Kara-Murza also warned that Putin is using the same type of flattery with Trump and his administration to dissuade them from acting against his invasion of Ukraine. In March, Putin informed US envoy Steve Witkoff that he personally commissioned a portrait by a Russian a painter as a gift for President Trump. Witkoff described it as a "beautiful painting" and said Putin told him he "prayed' for Trump following the assassination attempt made against him during a campaign rally. "He rightly calculated, Putin did, that the best way to do this with Donald Trump is through personal flattery," said Kara-Murza. "That's exactly what he did with that conversation about praying for him. And also, of course, giving him a painting that Mr. Witkoff brought to Washington," he said. "I mean, look, these are tricks that have been used by Soviet, and not just Soviet security services, for decades," he said, adding: "Incomprehensible to me how serious people can fall for this kind of stuff in the 21st century."
Euronews
4 days ago
- Euronews
Backlash in Germany as Nürnberg Zoo kills 12 healthy baboons
A zoo in the German city of Nürnberg said it killed 12 baboons on Tuesday despite protests, capping a saga rooted in concerns that the zoo had too little space to house a growing group of the animals. The Tiergarten Nürnberg zoo first announced plans to kill baboons it didn't have enough space in February 2024. It has said that it examined offers to take in some of the animals but was unable to make any of them work. The plans drew criticism from animal protection groups. They also drew protests at the zoo, which said on Monday that it would have to start preparing to kill baboons. On Tuesday morning, it announced that it was closing for the day for unspecified "operational reasons." On Tuesday afternoon, police said seven activists climbed over a wall into the zoo and one woman glued her hands to the ground. The group was detained a few metres inside the entrance. Shortly afterward, the zoo said it had killed 12 baboons. The deputy director, Jörg Beckmann, said the zoo had chosen animals that weren't pregnant females or part of studies and that they were shot. Samples were taken for research purposes and the bodies were then to be fed to the zoo's predators. Zoo director Dag Encke told a news conference that the killings followed "yearslong consideration." He argued that they had become necessary to maintain a healthy population because having a group that had outgrown its accommodation and couldn't be reduced by other means was pushing the zoo into conflict with animal protection laws. Animal rights groups said they filed a criminal complaint against the zoo's management, arguing that the killings themselves violated animal protection laws and that the zoo had failed in its breeding management. Laura Zodrow, a spokesperson for the Pro Wildlife group, said in a statement that "this killing was avoidable and, from our point of view, is unlawful." The zoo's population of Guinea baboons had grown to 43 and was too big for a house opened in 2009 for 25 animals plus their young, leading to more conflicts among the animals. The zoo has said it did take steps in the past to address the issue, with 16 baboons moving to zoos in Paris and China since 2011. But those zoos, and another in Spain to which baboons were previously sent, had reached their own capacity. An attempt at contraception was abandoned several years ago after failing to produce the desired results. Animals are regularly euthanised in European zoos for a variety of reasons. Some past cases have caused an outcry. For example, one in 2014 in which Copenhagen Zoo killed a healthy two-year-old giraffe, butchered its carcass in front of a crowd that included children and then fed it to lions.
