Sunken WW2 German warships resurface in Danube River

Water levels of one of Europe's largest waterways drop to lowest levels in almost a century, exposing more than 20 hulks on a stretch near Prahovo town in eastern Serbia.

Many of the exposed warships pose a danger to shipping as many of them still contain ammunition and explosives. (Reuters)

Europe's worst drought in years has pushed the mighty river Danube to one of its lowest levels in almost a century, exposing the hulks of dozens of explosives-laden German warships sunk during WW2 near Serbia's river port town of Prahovo.

The vessels were among hundreds scuttled along the Danube by Nazi Germany's Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they retreated from advancing Soviet forces, and still hamper river traffic during low water levels.

However, this year's drought –– viewed by scientists as a consequence of global heating –– has exposed more than 20 hulks on a stretch of the Danube near Prahovo in eastern Serbia, many of which still contain tonnes of ammunition and explosives and pose a danger to shipping.

"The German flotilla has left behind a big ecological disaster that threatens us, people of Prahovo," said Velimir Trajilovic, 74, a pensioner from Prahovo who wrote a book about the German ships.

Workers in the local fishing industry are also at risk, including those from Romania which lies just across the river.

Extracting ammunition, explosives

Months of drought and record-high temperatures have snarled river traffic on vital arteries in other parts of Europe, including Germany, Italy and France. 

In Serbia, the authorities have resorted to dredging to keep navigation lanes on the Danube open.

By Prahovo, some of the hulks have narrowed the navigable section on this stretch of the Danube to just 100 metres from 180 metres.

Strewn across the riverbed, some of the ships still boast turrets, command bridges, broken masts and twisted hulls, while others lie mostly submerged under sand banks.

In March, the Serbian government invited a tender for the salvage of the hulks and removal of ammunition and explosives.

The cost of the operation was estimated at $30 million.

Source: Reuters

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Chinese jets, warships detected around Taiwan

Fast News

China concluded its more than a week-long massive military exercises surrounding Taiwan after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island, bucking Beijing’s warnings.

China views Taiwan as a “breakaway province” despite Taipei having governed itself since 1949. (AP)

Taiwan has reported detecting 24 Chinese aircraft and 6 warships around the island.

Of the 24 planes, 10 – four Sukhoi Su-30 fighters, four Shenyang J-16 jets and two Chengdu J-10s – “had flown on the east part of the median line of the Taiwan Strait,” the Defence Ministry tweeted on Friday.

Taiwanese forces “monitored the situation and responded to these activities with aircraft … naval vessels, and land-based missile systems,” the ministry added.

China on Wednesday concluded its more than a week-long massive military exercises surrounding Taiwan after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island on August 2, bucking Beijing’s warnings.

Provocative and destabilising

US Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said on Friday that China overreacted to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan and used it as a pretext to try to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Campbell told reporters in a call that the American response would be patient and effective, and that its presence and posture would "account for China's more provocative and destabilising behaviour." 

READ MORE: Taiwan continues military drills amid tensions with China

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfIDo1LWUg[/embed]

'Breakaway province'

China views Taiwan as a “breakaway province” despite Taipei having governed itself since 1949.

Beijing has vowed to reunify the island, including by force if necessary.

Apart from the show of military might, Beijing has downgraded military dialogue with the US and suspended cooperation on climate change issues, along with six other countermeasures.

READ MORE: China 'will not renounce the use of force' to unify Taiwan with mainland

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2a4yR4P_Vk[/embed]

Source: AA

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Taiwan says it detected 66 Chinese aircraft, 14 warships in strait

BEJING

Taiwan said it had detected 66 Chinese aircraft and 14 warships conducting exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

“14 PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy) vessels and 66 PLA (People's Liberation Army) aircraft around our surrounding region were detected today until 1700 (GMT+8). #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded to these activities with aircraft in CAP, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry tweeted.

It added that “22 of the detected aircraft had flown on the east part of the median line of the Taiwan Strait and our SW ADIZ (Air Defense Information Zone).”

Taiwan, however, rejected allegations that a Chinese destroyer entered its territorial waters.

Taiwan’s CNA news agency, citing the Defense Ministry, said it is not true that the Chinese ship cruised off the coast of eastern Hualien County.

It is merely part of China’s psychological operations campaign, it argued.

Earlier Sunday, China announced that it would conduct live-fire military exercises in the Yellow and Bohai seas.

The drill in the Bohai Sea will be held from Aug. 8 to Sept. 8, while the one in the Yellow Sea will be conducted from Aug. 7-15, the Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement.

China launched massive military exercises surrounding Taiwan last week after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island, bucking Beijing’s warnings.

China views Taiwan as a "breakaway province" despite Taipei having governed itself since 1949. Beijing has vowed to reunify the island, including by force if necessary.

As part of its major military exercises near Taiwan and eight countermeasures to respond to the situation, China on Friday dispatched the largest number of military aircraft across the Taiwan Strait this year, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry.

*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.

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Warships of China, Taiwan eye each other as drills due to end

Rival ships circle in high seas "cat and mouse" as Beijing is set to end its unprecedented four days of military exercises that could lower tensions in the region.

Chinese soldier watches Taiwan's frigate Lan Yang unprecedented Chinese military exercises. (AP)

Chinese and Taiwanese warships have played high-seas "cat and mouse", hours before the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to a visit to Taiwan by the US house speaker.

Some 10 warships each from China and Taiwan sailed at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday morning, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

As Chinese forces "pressed" the line, as they did on Saturday, the Taiwan side stayed close to monitor and, where possible, deny the Chinese the ability to cross.

"The two sides are showing restraint, the person said, describing the manoeuvres as high seas "cat and mouse".

"One side tries to cross, and the other stands in the way and forces them to a more disadvantaged position and eventually return to the other side."

Taiwan said its shore-based anti-ship missiles and its Patriot surface -to-air-missiles were on stand-by.

Taiwan's Premier Su Tseng-chang said that China had "arrogantly" used military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Sunday, Su also called on Beijing to not flex its military muscles, and condemned "foreign enemies" he said were attempting to sap the morale of the Taiwanese people through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.

Pelosi's visit triggers crisis

The Chinese exercises, centred on six locations around the island, began on Thursday and are scheduled to last until midday on Sunday. 

China's military said on Saturday it was conducting sea and air joint exercises north, southwest and east of Taiwan with a focus on testing land-strike and sea-assault capabilities.

Nancy Pelosi's visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over the island's capital for the first time and the cutting of communication links with the United States.

The United States called the exercises an escalation.

China halted communication through various channels with the United States as part of its response to Pelosi's visit, including between military theatre commands and on climate change.

Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong's communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang nationalists in a civil war, prompting their retreat to the island.

China says Taiwan is its province and its relations with the island are an internal matter and it reserves the right to bring the it under its control, by force if necessary. 

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Fighter Jets and Warships: Russians Get a Taste of Crimea Summer vacation

Russian tourist Alexandra Rumyantseva is tanning on a beach in Moscow-annexed Crimea, not far away from the front lines of Ukraine's eastern and southern territories.

Sitting on a rock in a white bikini by clear Black Sea waters on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Rumyantseva looks up as a Russian fighter jet whizzes through the perfectly blue sky.

"Of course, I cannot say that we are in a fully relaxed state," she told AFP.

The front is around 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Sevastopol —Crimea's largest city and home to the Russian Black Sea fleet.

Despite the fighting nearby, the St. Petersburg charity worker chose to have her beach break with her husband and two sons on the peninsula.

Moscow's intervention in Ukraine, the onset of Western sanctions, severed air links with Europe and mounting economic troubles at home have made a lot of popular tourist destinations in Europe and elsewhere off limits to Russian tourists.

But even getting to Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 and a popular beach destination, is difficult.

Russia's balmy Black Sea coast and Crimea have become hard to reach due to the closure of airspace in the south over the fighting in Ukraine.

Rumyantseva's family drove 2,500 kilometers. They used a land bridge Moscow built to connect the peninsula to mainland Russia. 

Rumyantseva said there were rumors the bridge could be blown up and that "many were worried," but the family decided to risk it anyway.

On their way, they saw a military convoy, seemingly on its way to the front. 

'People are scared'

When AFP visited Sevastopol on a hot July day, Russian warships were visible in the distance as beachgoers cooled off in the sea. 

Aside from the ships and occasional jet sounds, few signs pointed to the full-scale military campaign next door.

Teenagers jumped off rocks and bare-chested men drank beer and made shashliki (grilled meat), a Russian summer favorite. 

In the city center, Russian patriotic music rang out and souvenirs featuring the letter Z — a symbol of Moscow's forces fighting in Ukraine — were offered to visitors.

Fewer tourists than usual have showed up in Crimea this summer.

"It seems like it is mainly locals here," said 28-year-old Anna Zaluzhnaya, who works in the food industry, as she lounged in the sun.

Local businesspeople, who rely on tourism as the peninsula is largely cut off from the world due to sanctions, are feeling the effects. 

Albert Agagulyan, 69, runs a small kebab joint on a beach outside Sevastopol.

The retired fighter pilot said he could not afford to send his child to summer camp this year.

"People are not coming here because they are scared," he added.

'Worried by these events'

Crimea borders the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson — now controlled by Moscow — and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia — partially occupied by the Russian army — is also nearby.

Kyiv has pledged to retake lost southern territories captured by Russian troops, and some believe that the possibility of Ukrainian strikes on Crimea cannot be ruled out.

While some prefer not to discuss politics, locals like Viktor Borodulin say they have been closely following Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.

"I am very worried by these events," said the 77-year-old engineer. He said he was particularly saddened by the sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva in April. 

Borodulin waxed nostalgic for the Soviet past and lit up when he spoke of the possibility of buying fruit and vegetables from Moscow-occupied southern Ukraine. 

"Today I even bought some products from Kherson," he said. 

"For me, it is a great joy."

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