German Police News

Major leaks that suddenly erupted in the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea have generated plenty of theories but few clear answers about who or what caused the damage.Here is what we know and what has been said so far:WHO IS BEING BLAMED?As probes by European authorities continue, the Swedish security police said on Thursday that suspicions of gross sabotage on the pipelines had been strengthened following a crime scene investigation.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday it was "unthinkable" that an investigation into ruptures on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines would proceed without Russia's participation.Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West was purposefully creating obstacles to the investigation and said the exclusion of Russia and Gazprom from the probe showed it had something to hide.President Vladimir Putin last week directly accused the United States and its allies of carrying out the attack on the pipelines, which has threatened to put them permanently out of use.

Germany's BKA federal police assumes explosions in the Nord Stream pipelines last week were "a targeted act of sabotage" and said it is probable that state actors were involved, the Spiegel weekly reported, citing a letter to industry representatives. The BKA said in the letter that it did not yet have any findings about who was behind the sabotage but "against the background of the high complexity of the execution of the act and corresponding preparation, the action of state actors seems probable", Spiegel reported.The BKA was not immediately available for comment.

Three passenger boats return migrants from Lesbos, Chios; desperate migrants continue to cross despite deal. The first migrants deported from Greek islands under a disputed EU-Turkey deal were shipped back to Turkey on Monday in a drive to shut down the main route by which a million people fleeing war and poverty crossed the Aegean Sea in the last year. Under the pact criticised by refugee agencies and human rights campaigners, Ankara will take back all migrants and refugees who enter Greece illegally, including Syrians. In return, the European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

German police arrested three men on Wednesday suspected of belonging to an organised criminal group that smuggles people from Africa to the European Union. Around 7,000 migrants, most from Africa, were rescued from boats in the Mediterranean last weekend and around 900 drowned last month on a boat heading to Italy - all victims of people-smuggling operations. Other migrants endure dangers of another kind, smuggled over land routes via the Balkans. Cologne police said they searched properties in the states of North-Rhine Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein in the early hours of Wednesday morning and detained one 22-year-old man and two other males aged 26.

The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) have approved Salama Fikira to operate on German flagged vessels. As an African-based service provider of international services, Salama Fikira said it is very proud to have been granted this approval to support vessels registered in Germany. Conrad Thorpe OBE, CEO of the Salama Fikira Group has welcomed this achievement by saying, "As the maritime security industry matures, the standards and regulations continue to be driven higher every year.

A French tourist ship cruising on the Rhine lost steering control and collided with a Dutch tanker carrying a highly inflammable substance on Sunday, German police said. Nine of the 140 passengers aboard the French cruiser were injured and some were hospitalized, but none were seriously hurt, a police spokesman said. None of the toxic liquid spilled from the tanker, but the collision caused about $93,020 of damage to the 1990-built French cruiser Van Gogh. It had departed from Strasbourg, France, and had earlier lost steering ability. It was unable to move from the path of the approaching tanker carrying 1,200 pounds of paraxyol, the spokesman said. Police were detaining the two ships as they began an investigation on Sunday afternoon.