Argentine navy loses contact with submarine carrying 44

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Argentine navy loses contact with submarine carrying 44

2017-11-18 12:51 Last Updated At：12:51

Argentina's Navy said Friday it has lost contact with a submarine carrying 44 crew members off the country's southern coast and has mounted an extensive search.

The Navy said that ships and aircraft were searching near the last known location of the ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric vessel, which had not been heard from since Wednesday.

The Navy said it was scanning all possible radio transmission frequencies for a sign of the San Juan.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told The Associated Press that it is possible that the submarine had an electrical issue and said it could not yet be termed lost.

"The last position (registered) was two days ago. Without wanting to be alarmist or overdramatic, the facts are that there no form of communications could be established between the vessel and its command, even with the alternative methods that the submarine has," Balbi said.

"What we interpret is that there must have been a serious problem with the communications (infrastructure) or with the electrical supply, cables, antennae or other (onboard) equipment."
Adm. Gabriel Gonzalez, chief of the Mar del Plata base that was the submarine's destination, said the vessel had sufficient food and oxygen.

"We have a loss of communications; we are not talking of an emergency," he said.

Still, relatives of some of the crewmembers were at the base awaiting word of the search.

"We are praying to God and asking that all Argentines help us to pray that they keep navigating and that they can be found," Claudio Rodriguez, the brother of one of the crewmembers, told the local Todo Noticias TV channel.

"We have faith that it's only a loss of communications," he added.

Balbi said the sub was headed from the naval base at Ushuaia in Argentina's extreme south to Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Buenos Aires. He asked for patience while the search is carried out and said that the sub must surface so visual or radar contact can be made.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the governments of Britain, Chile and the United States had offered "logistical help and an exchange of information for this humanitarian search." The statement also said that Argentina is also working with authorities in neighboring countries in case it needs support to locate the submarine.

The San Juan was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refit in 2014.

Apple CEO says company is 'looking at' manufacturing in Indonesia

2024-04-17 13:16 Last Updated At：13:30

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is “looking at” manufacturing in Indonesia as he met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday.

“We talked about the president’s desire to see manufacturing in the country, and it’s something that we will look out,” Cook told reporters after the meeting.

Widodo’s administration has worked for years to bring manufacturing to the country to power economic development, while Apple is seeking to diversify its supply chains away from China, where most of its smartphones and tablets are assembled.

The company began moving some production to countries like Vietnam, and more recently India, after shutdowns to fight COVID-19 in China repeatedly disrupted the company’s shipments.

“I think the investment ability in Indonesia is endless. I think that, there is a lot of great places to invest, and we’re investing. We believe in the country,” Cook said.

The previous day, Cook met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi, where he said Apple plans to invest more in Vietnam and increase spending on suppliers in the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub.

“Given the slowing Chinese economy as well as the Chinese government’s ongoing efforts to squeeze out foreign companies and replace them with domestic brands, Apple wants alternatives for manufacturing,” said Chris Miller, an associate professor at Tufts University whose work focuses on technology and geopolitics.

“It has already invested more in India and Vietnam, but it is likely looking at other partners in South East Asia to additional manufacturing and assembly operations,” Miller said.

Cook's visit to Indonesia came after Apple announced its fourth Apple Developer Academy in the country, to be located in Bali. The company first launched the program to train app developers in Indonesia in 2018, in the capital Jakarta.

Widodo's government has sought to leverage the country's reserves of nickel and other raw materials to bring in manufacturing, banning export of raw commodities such as nickel and bauxite to oblige companies to build refineries domestically.

Associated Press writers Victoria Milko in Jakarta and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.