The Kokuka Courageous, one of two ships involved in the security incident in the Gulf of Oman, was "attacked" twice with "some sort of shell," an official from the Japanese owner of the ship told CNN.
The first shot hit the tanker above sea level and the vessel caught fire briefly before the blaze was extinguished, according to Michio Yuube, the co-manager of the Japanese firm Kokuka Sangyo.
All 21 Philippine crew members on board the tanker were evacuated in life boats after the second shot and rescued by another ship now heading towards the UAE.
Yuube said that the attack happened off Fujaira, and that the Kokuka Courageous is now drifting with a shipment of chemical products onboard.
Red Sox great David Ortiz was the victim of a botched hit job carried out by a crew of would-be assassins paid about $8,000 to gun him down, authorities in the Dominican Republic revealed Wednesday
“At this moment, [the suspects] are being interrogated and we will continue deepening the investigation to get to the truth about what happened,” Chief Prosecutor Jean Alain Rodríguez announced.
“Nobody involved in this lamentable episode will remain in impunity, not even the material or intellectual author [of the crime].”
Authorities said Rolfi Ferreira Cruz — a 25-year-old also known as “Sandy” — confessed to being the trigger man who shot the perennial All-Star in the back, the bullet slicing through Ortiz’s organs and exiting through his abdomen before striking the slugger’s pal in the leg.
Ortiz, 43, known to adoring baseball fans as “Big Papi,” survived the hit attempt, underwent surgery in the Dominican Republic and was later flown to Boston by the Red Sox for treatment at Massachusetts General.
Dominican National Police Director Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte said one of the other men in custody was the purported ringleader who was paid to arrange the hit but didn’t explain why anybody wanted the retired star dead.
“We don’t have a motive yet, but we are going to work without rest until the investigation is complete,” said Almonte.
The hit men were offered 400,000 Dominican pesos to kill the baseball legend — or roughly $7,832 US, he said.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that hiring a killer to off a celebrity like Ortiz could cost up to $100,000 in the Big Apple — but noted that $8,000 goes a lot farther in the poor Caribbean nation.
Also in custody are Joel Rodríguez de la Cruz — nicknamed “Squidward” after the “SpongeBob” character — Porfirio Ayendi Dechamps Vásquez, Eddy Vladimir Feliz García, Reynaldo Rodríguez Valenzuela and Oliver Moisés Mirabal Acosta, authorities said.
At the press conference, Almonte brandished the handgun Ferreira Cruz allegedly used in the attack — which saw the shooter roar up on the back of a motorbike and then ambush Ortiz in the bar.
Police said the gun — a Browning Hi-Power 9mm — was then passed on to Mirabel Acosta, and then to Dechamps Vásquez, who buried the weapon under his house.
Almonte shows the gun allegedly used in the shooting of Ortiz.EPA
On the night of the shooting, they say Mirabal Acosta was seen driving a silver Hyundai owned by his wife, while Dechamps Vásquez was behind the wheel of a different Hyundai alongside a woman identified only as “The Venezuelan.”
In court documents, prosecutors said Feliz García was spotted on security-camera footage speaking with people in two cars on a street near the Dial Bar and Lounge before the shooting.
“In one of the videos it was possible to observe both the accused and the shooter planning the commission of the incident right on Octavio Mejía Ricard Street, which is parallel to the place where the event took place,” the prosecutors said.
Witnesses say Feliz Garcia then drove off on a motorcycle with another guy — and moments later, a man was spotted getting off a bike at the club, walking over to Ortiz and opening fire, according to The Boston Globe. The gunman tried to get back on the bike but ran off when an angry crowd surrounded it. Feliz García “accelerated, lost control of the motorcycle and tumbled, leading people in the area to detain him and beat him,” prosecutors wrote. “The person who fired kept running with the gun in his hand and managed to escape.”
Feliz García was beaten by the crowd before being handed over to police. He was charged as an accomplice to attempted murder — although his lawyer insists he is just an innocent motorcycle taxi driver who had no idea what his passenger was up to. “He didn’t know what they were going to do. He’s a fan of David’s,” attorney Deivi Solano said.
Authorities say they’re still looking for four more suspects in the shooting — including Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase, who is also known as “The Surgeon.”
At least one of the men, Mirabal Acosta, has a criminal past. In 2017, he got five years in prison on firearms charges connected with the 2013 execution of four men in a case tied to a drug trafficking gang, newspaper Linstin Diario reported.
Meanwhile, Ortiz was still recovering at a hospital in Boston on Wednesday, where he was flown after the shooting. “Yesterday and this morning, David was able to sit up as well as take some steps. His condition is guarded and he will remain in the ICU for the coming days, but he is making good progress towards recovery,” his wife, Tiffany, said in a statement.
Eighteen people were treated at Abha International Airport for minor injuries and another eight were taken to hospital, Turki al-Malki, spokesman of the US-backed Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen, said in a statement published on Saudi state media.
"Three women, a Yemeni, an Indian and Saudi and two Saudi children were amongst those injured," al-Malki said, adding that "authorities are working on identifying the type of missile that was used in this terrorist attack."
"In light of these terrorist and immoral transgressions by the Houthis, the coalition will take strict measures urgently and carefully to deter them," al-Malki said. "This includes protecting civilians and civilian assets. The terrorist elements responsible for planning and carrying out this attack will be held accountable."
The airport, which services flights within Saudi Arabia, as well as to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, suffered from material damage, al-Malki said.
The war in Yemen began in early 2015 when Houthi rebels -- a minority Shia group from the north of the country -- drove out the internationally-recognized government and forced its president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to flee.
The crisis quickly escalated into a multi-sided war, with neighboring Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of Gulf states against the Houthi rebels. The coalition is advised and supported by the US, among other nations.
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, President Donald Trump went in front of reporters, took a piece of paper out of his front pocket, and said it was his "secret" deal with Mexico concerning stemming the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S. southern border.
"That’s the agreement that everybody says I don’t have," Trump said. "I’m going to let Mexico do the announcement at the right time.”
Once the president started waving around what he called his "secret agreement," an enterprising Washington Post photographer, Jabin Botsford, managed to get a picture of it at just the right angle and lighting to make the text faintly visible.
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The photograph captures what indeed appear to be details of a plan with Mexico. Last Friday, the Trump administration withdrew a tariff threat against Mexico after Trump announced that the two countries had reached a deal that would restrict Central American migration to the United States. Trump said that he had reached other deals with Mexico beyond the one announced on Friday, but did not reveal any specifics at the time.
Here's what the paper seemed to say in the segment Botsford photographed:
If the United States determines, at its discretion and after consultation with Mexico, after 45 calendar days from the date of the issuance of the Joint Declaration, that the measures adopted by the Government of Mexico pursuant to the Joint Declaration have not sufficiently achieved results in addressing the flow of migrants to the southern border of the United States, the Government of Mexico will take all necessary steps under the domestic law to bring the agreement into force with a view to ensuring that the agreement will enter into force within 45 days.
Signed on this 7th of June, 2019 in Washington, D.C. by:
It's unclear what exactly this section means other than establishing a timeframe for the agreement. Trump has said that the Mexican legislature would need to take further actions to establish his secret agreement.
It's harder to make out the top section of the paper in a picture from White House Watch. The Washington Post suggests that this section may contain language alluding to one of the main points of contention between the United States and Mexico — the establishment of a "safe third country agreement." The one section that's visible appears to say:
a commitment under which each party would accept the return, and process refugee status claims, of third-party nationals who have crossed that party’s territory
The Trump administration has been trying to get Mexico to agree to a safe third country agreement, which would mean that asylum-seekers would have to apply for asylum status in the first country they land in. Canada and the United States already have such an agreement. Mexico, on the other hand, publicly opposes such an agreement.
The Washington Post reported that Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard held a news conference Monday on the deal previously reached between the United States and Mexico. According to Ebrard, Mexico had 45 days to reduce migration before the United States might threaten to force Mexico to agree to a safe third country agreement.
“It would be applied if we fail, and if we accept what they tell us," Ebrard said.
FILE PHOTO: Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz follows through as he flies out in the eighth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during their MLB American League East baseball game in Boston, Massachusetts, September 22, 2013. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
June 12, 2019
(Reuters) – Dominican police arrested a second suspect on Tuesday evening in the shooting of David Ortiz, the retired Boston Red Sox baseball star, the Boston Globe reported.
The arrest came as Ortiz, 43, took his first steps in a Boston hospital room following a second round of surgery on Tuesday, news outlets reported.
Ortiz was shot in the torso on Sunday evening at a nightclub in Santo Domingo, the capital of his native Dominican Republic, after a gunman rolled up on a motorcycle. His friend Jhoel López, a television host, was also wounded in the shooting.
Police quickly arrested one suspect, identified as Eddy Féliz García, who was beaten by bystanders at the scene.
Féliz appeared in court on Tuesday evening, charged with being an accomplice to the attempted murder of Ortiz, CNN reported. A judge is due to rule on Wednesday on whether to grant prosecutors’ request to keep Féliz in custody ahead of his trial, CNN reported.
Féliz’s lawyer, Deivi Solano, said his client did not shoot Ortiz, but works as a motorcycle taxi driver and may have unwittingly driven the shooter to the scene, CNN reported.
The second suspect remained in custody on Tuesday evening, the Globe reported, citing an unnamed official. Police have not released the identity of that suspect, the Globe reported.
Ortiz underwent a first round of surgery in Santo Domingo on Sunday night before being flown to Boston. After more surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Ortiz was “stable, awake and resting comfortably,” according to a statement released on Tuesday by his wife, Tiffany Ortiz.
Known as “Big Papi,” Ortiz is still a hero in Boston for his role in three World Series championships and for his uplifting remarks in the days after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Larry King and Jeffrey Benkoe)
