Malaysian tanker found in Cambodian waters

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s navy has located a tanker that disappeared a week ago in the South China Sea and was urging its hijackers to surrender, the country’s naval chief said on Thursday.
The MT Orkim Harmony, which had 6,000 tons of petrol in its hold and 22 crew aboard, has been given fresh touches of paint and had its name altered to “Kim Harmon,” according to photos released by Malaysia’s navy.
A patrol vessel was now shadowing the tanker and communicating with its hijackers in a bid to secure their surrender, Royal Malaysian Navy chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar said on his Twitter feed.
“At least eight perpetrators are onboard. They are armed with pistols and parangs (machetes). They speak with Indonesian accents,” he added.
“All crew are safe and unharmed.”
The vessel was in Vietnamese waters, about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) northeast of the Malaysian city of Kota Bahru, officials said.

‘Committed to MH370 hunt’
despite ship pull-out
Malaysia on Thursday insisted it was committed to completing the hunt for missing flight MH370 despite not renewing its contract with one of three search vessels scanning the Indian Ocean seabed.
The Australian-led operation had said previously that Malaysia would not renew its contract with the high-tech ship GO Phoenix once the search goes into hiatus in coming weeks due to the onset of the southern hemisphere winter, and it would exit the search.
That has spurred speculation online that Malaysia’s commitment to the frustrating effort was flagging.
But Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Thursday his government remained committed to finish scouring an additional 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles) added to the search parameters in April.
“To reiterate, Malaysia remains committed to continuing the search for the additional 60,000 square kilometers,” he said in a statement e-mailed to media.
The statement, however, did not say why the GO Phoenix contract was not being renewed.
But it said Malaysia had committed more than $46 million to search and recovery efforts, “which clearly demonstrates our commitment to finding MH370.”