Damage to Baltic Sea telecoms cable may have occurred in January, Finland's operator says
Finland's telecoms operator said on Monday that the damage reported last week to its C-Lion1 telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea may have occurred as early as Jan. 26, the same day a cargo ship broke another undersea cable in the area.
Swedish and Finnish police said on Friday they were investigating a suspected case of sabotage of the C-Lion1 cable running along the seabed from Finland to Germany, while adding it was not immediately clear when the damage had occurred.
The Baltic Sea region is on alert and the NATO alliance has boosted its presence after a series of power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Most have been caused by civilian ships dragging their anchors.
Operator Cinia said in an emailed statement on Monday that it believed the damage of the C-Lion1 had occurred on January 26 at 0237 a.m. Finnish time (0037 GMT) and that the cause was still unknown.
The time closely coincides with that of an outage of a nearby subsea fibre optic cable linking Sweden and Latvia, which was reported at the time.
A Swedish prosecutor said on February 3 he had concluded that a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, the Vezhen, had ruptured the cable linking Sweden and Latvia with its anchor, but that it had been an accident and not sabotage.
The Vezhen passed the Sweden-Latvia cable at 0045 GMT on Jan. 26, MarineTraffic data analyzed by Reuters showed.
Swedish police did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters on Monday.
Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which lists the Vezhen among its fleet, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Ukraine rescue workers check for survivors under rubble as at least 8 killed in Russian strikes
Waves of Russian drones and missiles in and around Kyiv overnight killed eight people, lit up the night sky with fires in residential areas and damaged the entrance to a metro station bomb shelter, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. Rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble of an apartment block in Kyiv's busy Shevchenkivskyi district, less than a kilometre from the U.S. embassy. Valeriy Mankuta, 33, described clambering from his window to the third floor below to escape after his building was hit by what authorities said was a missile. Reuters photos showed several explosions above apartment buildings in the area. "There were bricks on me, there was something in my mouth. It was total hell. I woke up in the rubble," said Mankuta, a construction worker. At least 34 people, including four children, were wounded in the attacks on Kyiv, the emergencies service said. Ukraine's air force said it downed 339 of 352 drones and 15 of 16 missiles launched by Russia in the attack on four Ukrainian regions. Moscow has stepped up drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in recent weeks as talks to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, yielded few results. The strikes come a day before NATO's annual summit is held in The Hague and as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Britain to discuss defence. Zelenskyy will meet on Monday with King Charles, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the speakers of both houses of Parliament, his presidential spokesperson said. He added that the president would talk to Ukrainian military personnel who are being trained in Britain and representatives of think-tanks. "The main purpose of the visit is to deepen defence co-operation," the spokesperson said. Most sections of Kyiv suffer damage In Kyiv, firefighters battled a blaze at the swimming pool of the National Technical University, Reuters photos showed. The large campus has a department working on aerospace technology. Several academic buildings and four dormitories were also hit, the polytechnic said. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said people could still be under the rubble of buildings after the overnight attacks caused damage in six of the city's 10 districts. WATCH l Canada pledges more support for Ukraine at Alberta-hosted G7 summit: Carney pledges support for Ukraine to wrap G7 5 days ago Duration 3:18 Canada pledged $4.3 billion in support for Ukraine and added sanctions to Russia, as the G7 summit wrapped in Alberta. Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the summit's final day. An entrance to the metro station in Kyiv's Sviatoshynskyi district was also damaged, officials said. Kyiv's deep metro stations have been used throughout the war as some of the city's safest bomb shelters. In the broader Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital, a 68-year-old woman was killed and at least eight people were injured, officials said. Russia launched one of its deadliest attacks on Kyiv last week, when hundreds of drones killed 28 people and injured more than 150.
Vancouver Sun
an hour ago
- Vancouver Sun
Israel's Foreign Minister 'horrified' by Damascus terror attack on Christian community
Israeli Defense Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Sunday condemned the suicide bombing in a church in the Dweila neighborhood of Syria's capital that killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more earlier in the day. 'Horrified by the cowardly terrorist attack in the Mar Elias Church in Damascus today, in which at least 20 innocent worshippers were murdered,' he tweeted. 'My condolences to the families of the victims and to the Christian community in Syria,' Sa'ar added. A Syrian security source told Reuters that two men were involved in the attack, one of whom had blown himself up. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Earlier, the country's interior ministry said that a suicide bomber entered the church, opened fire then detonated his explosive vest, according to Reuters. He was linked to Islamic State, the ministry added. Apparently this was not the first attack attempted by ISIS since Bashar Assad's regime fell in December, but it was the first one to claim victims, another security source told Reuters. Greece's foreign ministry issued a statement 'unequivocally' condemning 'the abhorrent terrorist suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, Syria.' The ministry added, 'Religious sites must never be targets for terror. Everyone has the right to practice their faith in complete peace and safety.' It went on to demand that the Syrian transitional government 'take immediate action' in holding those responsible accountable and ensuring the security of Christian communities and all religious groups. A mass was being held at the church at the time of the attack, according to Syria's state news agency SANA. Footage from inside the church that surfaced on Syrian social media showed gory scenes of the deceased and significant destruction of the building, according to CNN. U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack said the attack was an act of 'cowardice' and has 'no place in the new tapestry of integrated tolerance and inclusion that Syrians are weaving,' per CNN.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Carney talks de-escalation with Trump, as Belgian's PM offers no sympathy for Iran
Social Sharing There was little sympathy for Iran and reluctant backing for regime change among some European leaders, following the weekend airstrikes by the United States on Iran's nuclear facilities. On Monday, newly minted conservative Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever described Iran as an "evil regime" and a sponsor terrorism throughout the Middle East and Europe. He spoke to Canadian journalists following a Second World War commemoration event at the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery, where he and Prime Minister Mark Carney laid wreaths to remember the fallen. Carney, in a social media post early Monday, said he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump overnight about "de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East." The two leaders talked about the weekend's events and also the upcoming NATO Summit. De Wever, however, took a harder line and spoke about a foiled Iranian-sponsored terrorism plot, where the suspect was headed to Paris, but arrested on Belgian soil — something that prompted retaliation from the regime in Tehran. "Iran is the big sponsor of terrorism," De Wever said. "Without Iran, there would have been no Hamas. Without a Hamas, not a 7th of October. Without the 7th of October, [not] another war in Gaza," he said. "Without Iran, there wouldn't be Hezbollah, there wouldn't be Houthis. So it's a hard regime to feel sorry for." Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media platform, suggested he might welcome the toppling of the Iranian government, but insisted the weekend attacks — which saw the three Iranian nuclear sites hit with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs — were not intended to bring about "regime change." For his part, De Wever said, as a believer in the rule of law, it's unfortunate that the situation has come to a point where military action was required to stop Iran's nuclear program. "It would be best if there would be a regime change in Iran, but … you would prefer that it would be a democratic process or another process" that doesn't start with bombing, De Wever said. 'Within striking distance of Europe' One defence expert said that kind of reaction shouldn't be surprising, because of the long history of tension with the hard-line regime in Iran. "I think you might have European leaders publicly calling for restraint, but privately, very at ease that an extremist-led regime that was within striking distance of Europe wasn't able to develop up to 10 nuclear weapons that they could mate with ballistic missiles and hold Europe hostage," said Benjamin Jensen, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in remarks made ahead of the U.S. strikes. The Breakdown | U.S. attack on Iran nuclear sites 4 hours ago Duration 20:42 Jensen cautioned, however, there might be a limit to the support of Trump's actions. "If those attacks, though, spread to targeting leaders and a wider rollback of Iranian military capability, it creates the risk of second- and third-order effects that would really cause concern in Europe," he said. Indeed, while Russia's reaction to its ally and important weapons supplier being bombed has been limited to rhetoric, the Kremlin drew a line at the notion of regime change in Tehran. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the notion of toppling the Iranian government as "unimaginable" and "unacceptable."
