Nation and world news in brief for December 30

Finland finds drag marks on seabed after cable damage

OSLO (Reuters) — Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor.

The Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was boarded by Finnish police and coast guard officials on Thursday and sailed into Finnish waters where the crew of the impounded tanker is being questioned.

Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region.

A break in the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia occurred at midday on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the two countries, grid operators said. They said Estlink 2 might not be back in service before August.

Finnish police suspect the Eagle S caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.

Azerbaijan blames Russia for plane crash; rebukes Kremlin

BERLIN (NYT) — The leader of Azerbaijan directly blamed Russia on Sunday for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet last week, calling on Moscow to accept responsibility and offer compensation to victims.

President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijan’s national broadcaster that a vague apology issued by President Vladimir Putin of Russia a day earlier would not suffice to preserve friendly relations between the two former Soviet states.

The Embraer 190 airliner was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny in southern Russia on Wednesday, but was diverted from its path after encountering interference with its navigation systems and impact with external objects, according to Azerbaijan’s government. The plane crashed in Kazakhstan soon after, resulting in the deaths of 38 of the 67 people on board, more than half of them Azerbaijani citizens.

Azerbaijani and U.S. officials, as well as international aviation experts, had said they believed that the plane was most likely shot down by a Russian air defense missile.

Moscow, however, has not admitted responsibility.

Gaza captors tortured hostages, including minors, report says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Hostages held in Gaza were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse, starvation, burns and medical neglect, according to a new report by the Israeli Health Ministry that will be submitted to the United Nations this week.

The report is based on interviews with the medical and welfare teams which treated more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages, most of whom were released in late November 2023, in a brief truce between Israel and Hamas. Eight hostages were rescued by the Israeli military.

The hostages include more than 30 children and teenagers, a few of whom were found to have been bound, beaten or branded with a heated object, according to the report addressed to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and published late on Saturday.

Women reported sexual assault by the captors, including at gunpoint. Men were beaten, starved, branded, held bound in isolation and denied access to a bathroom, the report said. Some were denied treatment for injuries and medical conditions.

The report did not identify any of the hostages by name or age, to protect their privacy, but some of the descriptions matched those provided by hostages and staff that treated them in interviews with Reuters and other media and a U.N. report.

Hamas has repeatedly denied abuse of the 251 hostages abducted from Israel during its Oct. 7, 2023 assault. About half of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed by Israeli authorities to still be alive.

Netanyahu is in good condition, fully conscious after successful prostate surgery, his office says

CAIRO (Reuters) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in good condition and fully conscious after his prostate surgery ended “successfully,” his office said on Sunday.

“The Prime Minister has now been transferred to a protected underground recovery unit. He is expected to remain in the hospital for observation in the next few days,” his office said.