Sweden warns terror threat has grown after Koran burnings

By Kati Pohjanpalo

SWEDEN warned of a deteriorating security situation after disinformation campaigns and Koran burnings fueled hatred against the Nordic country across the Muslim world.

The country’s Security Service said it’s “now dealing with ongoing threats of attacks directed at Sweden and Swedish interests,” according to a statement on Wednesday in which it kept the terror threat assessment at an “elevated” level of three on a five-point scale.

After being seen as a tolerant country, disinformation campaigns have changed Sweden’s image, incorrectly portraying it as “a country hostile to Islam and Muslims, where attacks on Muslims are sanctioned by the state and where Muslim children can be kidnapped by social services,” the officials said.

Burnings of Islam’s holy book, Koran, have occurred since January in Sweden, intended to derail its application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That’s sparked protests in Muslim countries, and just last week the Nordic country’s embassy in Baghdad was raided and Iraq has severed ties with the Nordic country.

Sweden’s government has criticized burnings of the Koran. Police have repeatedly denied permits for demonstrations involving the desecration of the book in recent months, citing national security concerns. But their decisions have been overturned by courts ruling that freedom of speech must be prioritized unless there is an immediate threat to public safety. Bloomberg News

By Mike Corder The Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands—

A fire on a freight ship carrying nearly 3,000 cars was burning out of control Wednesday in the North Sea, and the Dutch coast guard said one crew member had died, others were hurt and it was working to save the vessel from sinking.

Boats and helicopters were used to get the 23 crew members off the ship after they tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze, the coast guard said in a statement.

“Currently there are a lot of vessels on scene to monitor the situation and to see how to get the fire under control,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Lea Versteeg told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

“But it’s all depending on weather and the damage to the vessel. So we’re currently working out to see how we can make sure that ... the least bad situation is going to happen.”

Asked if it was possible the ship could sink, Versteeg said: “It’s a scenario we’re taking into account and we’re preparing for all scenarios.”

The Fremantle Highway was sailing from the German port of Bremen to Port Said in Egypt when it caught fire some 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of the

Dutch island of Ameland. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known, and it wasn’t clear how the crew member’s death occurred.

“It’s carrying cars, 2,857, of which 25 are electrical cars, which made the fire even more difficult. It’s not easy to keep that kind of fire under control and even in such a vessel it’s not easy,” Versteeg said.

Images taken from shore showed a long plume of gray smoke drifting over the sea from the stricken ship. One towing ship managed to establish a connection with the freighter to hold it in place.

“We hope that the fire will be under control or will die out and that we can get the vessel in a safe location,” Versteeg said. “But it’s all uncertain what’s going to happen now.”

Authorities in Germany were also on alert, German news agency dpa reported.

“We are monitoring the situation,” a spokesman for the German sea disaster command in the northern city of Cuxhaven said adding that they had offered support to the Dutch authorities. He said rescue ships and task forces were ready to help if needed, but that no decision had been made on whether to send them.

The Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

SENATORS CLASH ON RESOLUTION VS CHINA BULLYING IN W. PHL SEA

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

SENATORS clashed on Wednesday over a proposed resolution prodding the Executive to raise before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) the “continued harassment” by Chinese forces of Philippine security units and fishermen in the West Philippine Sea, amid concern by one senator that doing so, without prior discussions with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), might backfire.

A fter long floor debates between the resolution proponent, Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros— backed by coauthor, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri— and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the senators agreed to Cayetano’s request to call a closed-door caucus on Monday (July 31) to discuss strategies.

S enators will invite DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo, the National Intelligence Coordination Agency (Nica), and the Task Force on the West Philippine Sea for the closeddoor briefing before their caucus.

B esides Zubiri, Defense Committee chair Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Raffy Tulfo are coauthors of the Hontiveros resolution.

C ayetano explained he simply wanted his peers to draw from his experience in dealing with China when he was DFA secretary in the first half of the Duterte administration.

C ayetano warned that in unilaterally adopting a resolution without ensuring it aligned smoothly with the Executive – given that the President is architect of for - eign policy under the Constitution – senators might unwittingly weaken the country’s position despite having won the 2016 arbitral ruling in The Hague.

Zubiri said the intent of the resolution was primarily to express “the outrage” over Beijing’s continued bullying in waters covered by the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ), because from all indications, its naval forces were poised to take over as much of the Philippine-claimed islands and maritime features as they can.

C ayetano, in turn, said that when they tackle the matter behind closed doors on Monday, it must be clear that, “We agree on the outrage, but we don’t [necessarily] agree on [raising it with] the UNGA” as the sole or best strategy to stop China in its tracks.

Hontiveros had insisted that the UNGA card was logical, since recent months have seen a “growing number” of countries supporting the call to enforce the UN arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea. This was seen in last week’s seventh anniversary of the ruling at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

S enate President Pro Tempore

Loren Legarda agreed with Cayetano “that there are indeed various strategies” in securing enforcement of the ruling, but stressed the urgent need for the Philippine government to mount an intensive education-information-communication campaigns on the arbitral ruling, such as teaching it in all schools’ history courses.