US carrier ‘Ronald Reagan’ in Vietnam to spook Chinese vessels

DANANG, Vietnam—A US aircraft car- rier arrived in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on Sunday, AFP journalists saw, weeks after Hanoi protested against Chinese vessels sailing in its waters.

The USS Ronald Reagan’s port call in Danang comes as the US and Vietnam celebrate the 10th anniversary of their “comprehensive partnership”, with the two countries sharing increasingly close trade links, as well as concerns over China’s growing strength in the region.

A Chinese survey vessel, multiple coast guard ships and fishing boats operated for several weeks in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, prompting a demand that they leave from Vietnam’s foreign ministry. The boats eventually departed in early June.

China claims most of the resource-rich waterway despite competing claims from other Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

“The visit gives that message that Vietnam is continuing to balance against China by improving its security relationship with the US, and with other outside powers,” Nguyen The Phuong, a PhD candidate in maritime security at the University of New South Wales Canberra, told AFP.

The US aircraft carrier’s visit follows the arrival of Indian naval ships in Danang last month, as well as a port call by Japan’s largest warship in Cam

Ranh, a city on the southeastern coast, earlier this week.

Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign ministry, said earlier in the week that port calls were an “ordinary friendship exchange for peace, stability, and cooperation and development in the region and the world”.

Strong bilateral ties between the US and Vietnam are key for Washington if it wants to remain the dominant power in the region, Phuong said. AFP

KHARTOUM, Sudan—Artillery fire, air strikes and gun battles rocked Sudan’s capital on Saturday, witnesses told AFP, as the UN urged a stop to “wanton killings” that have left decomposing bodies in Darfur.

While fighting rages, relief efforts have stalled after more than two months of fighting between rival generals.

Houses in Khartoum shook from the fighting that continued unabated, residents said, with entire families sheltering in place, running low on vital supplies in the baking summer heat.

The United Nations says nearly 1.5 million people have fled the capital since violence erupted in mid-April, pitting the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, and those who remain in the city have had no electricity at all since Thursday, several residents told AFP.

The battle for power between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed more than 2,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The deadliest violence has raged in Darfur, a vast western region on the border with Chad where the UN has warned of possible crimes against humanity and said the conflict has taken an “ethnic dimension”.

In the South Darfur state capital Nyala, residents said they had been caught in the crossfire. They reported battles, shelling and artillery strikes. AFP dropped 114 points to close at 6,393 amid continued selling pressure. Jenniffer B. Austria

NLEX Corp.’s income rose 38% in 3 months

NLEX Corp. said over the weekend its net income rose by 38 percent in the first quarter driven by traffic recovery and an increase in toll rates.

The operator of North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressway posted an income of P2.1 billion in the January to March period, higher than the P1.5 billion income in the same period last year.

The company recorded revenues amounting to P5.1 billion, 31 percent higher than the first quarter of 2022 due to stronger travel demand and higher toll rates implemented in May and June 2022.

The company’s operating revenues are generated mainly from toll fees collected in NLEX and SCTEX, which, on the aggregate, accounted for 99 percent of total revenues for the quarter.

Non-toll revenues, which consist of fees collected from toll service facilities as well as utility companies utilizing NLEX right of way, accounted for 1 percent of the total for the quarter.

All vehicle classes posted double-digit growth in revenues with Class 1 revenues growing by 21 percent, Class 2 by 40 percent, and Class 3 by 31 percent. This is partly due to the base effect of mobility restrictions still enforced during the first quarter of 2022.

As of March, average daily traffic for the NLEX reached 320,863 daily vehicle entries, higher than 2022 figures by 20 percent, while average daily traffic in SCTEX reached 80,261 daily vehicle entries or 23 percent above last year’s figures covering the same three-month period. Darwin G. Amojelar

JUDGE Maria Lina Gonzaga of the Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 42 denied the petition for a temporary restraining order against the joint venture agreement of Primelectric Holdings Inc., an affiliate company of MORE Electric and Power Corp., and Central Negros Electric Cooperative.

The case stemmed from the petition filed by representatives of the Negros Consumers Watch and the CENECO Anti JVA Coalition.

The groups’ petition sought to nullity the JVA with an application for issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction and TRO.

“For non-compliance with the specific provision of the law, the application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order is denied,” Gonzaga said in her order dated June 22. Gonzaga set the hearing for the application for the issuance of the WPI on June 29.

The ratification of the signed JVA by the member-consumers through a plebiscite began on June 24. It will run for three weekends.

The JVA needs to get a majority of yes or affirmative votes for the JVA to push through, as required by the guidelines of the National Electrification Administration. Alena Mae S. Flores

Friday, June 23, 2023 -11.36 PTS.