Egypt arrests four crew members of capsized migrant boat
CAIRO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have arrested four crew members of a boat carrying almost 600 migrants which capsized off Egypt's coast, killing at least 43, judicial sources said on Thursday.
The boat sank on Wednesday in the Mediterranean off Burg Rashid, a village in Egypt's northern Beheira province where the sea and the Nile meet. Rescue workers have so far saved 169 people, which means the death toll could hit several hundred.
Prosecutors ordered the crew members jailed for four days while an investigation takes place. The rescued migrants have been released.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail pledged the government's full support for the continuing rescue mission and said those responsible must be brought to justice. The military said in a statement it was conducting the rescue operation.
The boat had been carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali migrants, officials said. It was not immediately clear where the boat had been heading, though officials said they believed it was going to Italy.
More and more people have been trying to cross to Italy from the African coast over the summer months, particularly from Libya, where people-traffickers operate with relative impunity, but also from Egypt.
Migrants who survived a shipwreck off the Greek island of Crete in June said their boat had set sail from Egypt. About 320 migrants and refugees drowned in that incident.
Some 206,400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
More than 2,800 deaths were recorded between January and June, compared with 1,838 during the same period last year.
Some 1.3 million migrants reached Europe's shores last year fleeing war and economic hardship, prompting bitter rows among European countries over how to share responsibility.
If they survive the perilous maritime journey, migrants this year face much tougher European Union border controls. (Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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USS Cole victims can get Sudan assets, over U.S. objection -U.S. court
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Banks must turn over Sudanese funds to victims of al Qaeda's 2000 bombing of the USS Cole who had won a $314.7 million judgment, a U.S. appeals court ruled, as it rejected U.S. arguments that this could interfere with treaties and its dealings with foreign governments.
By a 3-0 vote on Thursday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York refused requests by Sudan and the United States to reconsider its Sept. 23, 2015 ruling ordering the turnover.
Circuit Judge Denny Chin expressed "some reluctance" to reject the U.S. position, but said "the State Department's views are not conclusive."
Christopher Curran, a lawyer representing Sudan, declined to comment. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to provide immediate comment.
The Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole, while the Navy destroyer was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden, killed 17 sailors and injured 39 others.
Fifteen injured sailors and three spouses sued Sudan, saying it had provided support to al Qaeda for the bombing.
After winning the $314.7 million default judgment, the plaintiffs won court orders that BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA and Mashreqbank PSC turn over Sudanese assets to help cover it, court papers show.
Sudan then entered the case, saying the original lawsuit was not properly served on its foreign minister, and the turnover orders were improper.
The U.S. government got involved last November, saying the Sept. 23 ruling ran contrary to federal law and its treaty obligations, and left it vulnerable to being haled improperly into foreign courts.
But Chin said "the requirements of the statute were met" because the plaintiffs had mailed the documents to the Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs via the embassy, which acknowledged receiving them.
Andrew Hall, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview: "The decision will force Sudan to recognize its responsibilities to the victims of terrorism, including victims of the USS Cole bombing."
Despite supporting a rehearing, the U.S. government said it "deeply sympathizes with the extraordinary injuries to the U.S. military personnel and their spouses who brought this suit, and condemns the terrorist acts that caused those injuries."
On Tuesday, the State Department said it welcomed Sudan's "recent efforts to increase counterterrorism cooperation with the United States." The U.S. designated Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.
The case is Harrison et al v. Republic of Sudan, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-121. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
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