When the 1975 blockbuster "Jaws" first terrified moviegoers, not all of the fear came from the special effects or haunting soundtrack. One of the more chilling scenes was fisherman Quint's quiet recounting of bobbing in Pacific waters for days while sharks circled him and his fellow sailors, waiting to see who would be the next victim. Quint described the sharks' black, lifeless eyes, the blood-curdling screams, the ocean turning red.
That grim story, painted from the real-life sinking of the USS Indianapolis near the end of World War II, is part of an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie and a Navy Web page produced ahead of Saturday's 71st anniversary of the tragedy.
The unescorted Indianapolis carried almost 1,200 sailors and had just delivered to Tinian Island components of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Its secret mission over, the cruiser departed Guam and steamed for Leyte, an island in the Philippines, for training.
But torpedoes from a Japanese submarine sent the ship, and up to 300 of its men, to the bottom of the ocean in just 12 minutes in the first hour of July 30, 1945. The frantic crew was unable to get off a successful distress signal.
Of an estimated 800 sailors who went into the water, only 316 survived the nearly five-day ordeal -- the rest succumbing to burns, dehydration, exhaustion, shark attacks and drowning.
While some Americans are familiar with the demise of the Indianapolis -- the highest loss of Navy personnel at sea -- a recent nugget of information sheds new light on where the ship was attacked.
Here are six questions about the USS Indianapolis and lessons learned:
What's the new clue on where the ship went down?
Richard Hulver, a historian for the Naval History and Heritage Command, knew that an LST -- an acronym for a cargo and troop carrier -- came across the USS Indianapolis 11 to 12 hours before the sinking.
Wanting to know more about the location of the encounter, Hulver did a Google search on "USS Indianapolis" and "LST."
Bingo.
In May 2015, the son of a U.S. sailor who was on the LST wrote a blog post on the website of a fudge shop his family operates in Mackinaw City, Michigan. While the post did not give the number of the LST, Hulver found through records that Seaman 1st Class Francis G. Murdick was catching a ride on LST-779.
Hulver perused Murdick's personnel records and the LST's deck logs, gleaning new information that shows the Indianapolis was likely farther west than the Navy had thought to be at the time of the attack. "This brings us closer to discovering the final resting place of the ship and many of her crew," Hulver said in a Navy statement about the discovery
There have been attempts over the years to find the Indianapolis, and another reportedly is planned for 2017, likely to readjust the search zone because of the finding. Navy officials said there are no current plans for the military to launch a new one. The vessel is believed to be in water more than 3 miles deep and possibly on a side of a steep undersea mountain range, providing a small target for sonar.
What do survivors remember about the horror?
Vic Buckett recalled seeing the Indianapolis "standing straight up" before it slipped below the waves during the first hour of July 30, 1945. He was among former Indianapolis crew members who spoke with National Geographic in 2015.
Many of those who spilled into the water were injured from the torpedo explosions. Survivors thought surely help must be on the way.
The Federal Government has promised a better national budget in 2017 to address the issue of abandoned projects across Nigeria.
The government also pledged to bring a rest to the crisis of confidence over the 2016 Budget, which has been fraught with allegation of padding right from the beginning.
The Minister of National Planning and Budget, Mr Udo Udoma, disclosed this on Wednesday at a two-day conference on capital projects, implementation and monitoring organised by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The Minister, who was represented by the Director of Budget Planning, Mrs Olasunbor Ayinde, hinted that the 2017 Budget would attain uniform cost price for all items presented by MDAs to fund the abandoned projects spread across the country.
President of the NIQS, Mercy Iyortyer, expressed worry over the more than 19,000 abandoned projects across Nigeria, including the Benue State Sheraton Hotel which has remained uncompleted after 33 years.
The Benue State Governor, Mr Samuel Ortom, who was represented by his deputy, Benson Abounu, blamed the spate of uncompleted projects on lack of ethical behaviour on the part of professionals.
The Senate Committee Chairman on Public Procurement, Senator Mohammed Abdulsalami, on his part explained the controversy of budget padding while he blamed the legislature and the executive for lack of restraint.
The Nigerian Navy has begun to test its personnel for Hepatitis B at the Eastern Naval Command.
The Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral James Oluwole, said that the exercise was part of activities to mark the World Hepatitis Day.
Rear Admiral Oluwole explained that the Navy is committed to ensuring that infected staff get to know their status on time and begin managing it at an earlier stage before its full blown.
He took the lead to be tested at the Headquarters of the command in Calabar, the Cross River State capital in south-south Nigeria.
The FOC stressed the need for personnel to have checkups done at every given point, in order to be abreast of their health challenges and begin treatment immediately.
He added that management of their health must come first for personnel to be able to function effectively.
In his remarks, the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital in Calabar, Surgeon Rear Admiral Abubakar Yusuf, promised that infected personnel would get free treatment towards managing the infection.
He also enlightened the Naval staff on the effects of Hepatitis B, saying it is a potentially life-threatening liver infection if allowed full blown.
Bayern Munich Defender, Phillip Lahm, has said that he is fully convinced new Coach Carlo Ancelotti is the perfect man to take the club to greater heights.
He disclosed this during an interview with Goal.com on Tuesday.
“Few coaches understand the need for the right balance as well as Carlo Ancelotti. After two weeks of training with him, I fully believe that he is the perfect man to lead Bayern Munich right now, Lahm said.
“He’s an Italian who has coached in Milan, London, Paris and Madrid, winning national and international titles.
“He knows how to speak to the players and it’s obvious that he’s excited to be here – and that makes us feel great.
“I hope that our American friends will pick up on that good feeling while we’re on this tour; it was certainly promising to see so many Bayern shirts at the airport when we arrived. I can’t wait for the game in Chicago and then it’s on to Charlotte and New York!”
Carlo Ancelotti’s team will play AC Milan in Chicago on Wednesday before playing Inter Milan in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday.
They will wrap up the tour with a match against Real Madrid on August 3 in New Jersey.
Bayern’s Executive Board Chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigee, said the tour was important in building the club’s brand.
Chelsea midfielder, Mikel Obi, has described his appointment as the Captain of Team Nigeria to the Rio Olympic Games as overwhelming.
29-year old Mikel said this is highest accolade a sportsman can get.
“First and foremost, I will say I am overwhelmed with this opportunity to be the captain of Team Nigeria to the Rio Olympics.
“I am much pleased and very happy with myself for what I have been able to achieve, and grateful to the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports and the entire country for this opportunity,” he said on the Nigeria Football Federation website.
The Africa Cup of Nations gold medalist promised to carry everyone along and ensure that Team Nigeria’s performance is better than previous Olympic outings.
He also called on Nigerians to support the team and wish the players and officials well.
“My objective is definitely going to be to carry everyone along.
“I think it’s important that we all work together, it’s important that we all set one goal, and that goal is to be successful, to win medals, to make sure we get gold medals.
“Our country has not done very well in recent times at the Olympics, so hopefully we can go to Rio and do well,” he said.
he All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Imo North Senatorial District election, Mr Ben Uwajimogu, has been declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Mr Uwajimogu, having scored 56,076 votes, beat his closest rival the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr Athan Achonu who polled 43,815 votes.
While announcing the results at the Central Collation Centre in Okigwe Local Government headquarters, the returning officer, Professor Arinze Agbaogu said the APC candidate having scored the majority and lawful votes in the election is hereby declared winner of the election.
Similarly, the APC candidate in Oru East, Nkenna Nzeruo and his counterpart in Isiala Mbano, Chiji Collins, were also declared winners of the State House of Assembly rerun elections in their area.
The Kaduna Police command in North West Nigeria has arrested 22 suspects for committing various offences ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping and car snatching.
Parading the suspects at the command Headquarters, the State Commissioner of Police, Sanusi Lemu, said that the suspects were arrested at various locations in the state following a major operation by his men.
Addressing reporters, Lemu who just resumed as Commissioner of Police at the command, explained that five among the suspects were a 5-man kidnap gang that had been terrorizing motorists along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway and another gang that specialized in car snatching.
Items recovered from the suspects, according to the Commissioner include, arms and ammunitions, four stolen vehicles among other exhibits.
On the increasing rate of kidnapping in the state, the Police Commissioner gave the assurance that more of his men have been deployed to all flashpoints in order to arrest perpetrators of such criminal act.
He urged the public to be vigilant and report anyone suspected to be a criminal to the Police or other security agencies.
A quick response team of the Airport Fire and Rescue Services Department has averted a fire incident at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMA) in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) made the incident public in a statement by its General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Yakubu Dati.
FAAN says that the incident, which occurred at the E-Wing did not affect flight operations.
The agency apologised to all travellers and airport users for the inconveniences caused and assured them of their safety and security.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the fire emanated from the electrical control panel.
“Our engineers who have restored power at affected areas are working round the clock to restore normalcy.
“Members of the public are therefore advised to disregard nay-sayers who may want to exploit the situation to create unnecessary panic,” FAAN said.
The statement disclosed that the incident occurred on Thursday, July 28 at about 11:00pm.
The Ogun State Police Command says it has rescued a 10-year-old girl, Promise Ude, who was chained by her aunt for stealing 4,000 Naira at Adigbe area of Abeokuta, the state capital.
The acting Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed that a middle aged man has been arrested in connection with the crime while another woman in connection with the incident is on the run.
Mr Oyeyemi promised that those involved in the evil act would be brought to book.
He asked for quality information that could lead to the arrest of the fleeing woman said to have perpetrated the act.
Manchester United midfielder, Bastian Schweinsteiger, has announced that he would like to retire from the German National Team after 12 years of service.
He stated this in an Open letter, posted on the Die Mannshaft website on Friday.
“I have recently asked the coach to not nominate me for the national team anymore because I would like to retire,” he stated.
“I was allowed to collect 120 caps for my country and I lived some moments which have been indescribably beautiful and successful.
“Jogi Low knew how much Euro 2016 in France meant to me because I really wanted to win that title we have not been able to win since 1996.
“It was not meant to be, I have to accept that.
“By winning the World Cup in 2014 we achieved something on a historic and emotional level that I cannot reproduce in my career.
“That’s why it is right and reasonable to finish it and to wish the team all the best for the qualification for the 2018 World Cup.
“With this decision I leave the national team that has always been a precious family for me. I hope that the connection will still remain strong in one way or the other.”
Schweinsteiger, 31, made 120 appearances for the German National Team scoring 24 goals.
The midfielder won the World Cup in 2014 and also won a silver medal in Euro 2008.
Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has recommended intelligence sharing as the best way to tackle the security issues in the Niger Delta region.
Governor Okowa made this observation on Friday at the Government House in Asaba when he received the Commander of Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Joseph Okojie.
He expressed sadness over the activities of militants in the creeks affecting revenues accruable to the government at both federal and state levels.
On his part, Rear Admiral Okojie said that they had the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari to secure the waters in the Niger Delta region against security and economic threats.
He explained further that the directive covers some parts of Ondo, Edo and Akwa Ibom states, as well as the entire Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states.
The Naval officer assured the Governor that the Operation Delta Safe is prepared to tackle any criminal action within the Nigerian maritime area.
He also urged the militants within the region to shun acts of economic sabotage and dialogue with the Federal Government.
Given the grim protestations of the IMF prior to Brexit some might be surprised to see the forecaster’s view on the UK economy post the referendum.
Back then the IMF boss Christine Lagarde had Chancellor George Osborne at her side. His “Remain” message was very clear and Mrs Lagarde duly warned an exit would be “pretty bad to very, very bad.”
But today the tone seems to have changed.
Here’s the bad news. The IMF has downgraded its growth forecasts for the UK economy by nearly a percentage point for 2017 as well as shaving off a less severe 0.2 per cent for this year. The downgrade was the largest for any advanced economy and the organisation cut its forecast for global growth too, this year and next, but not by much. Brexit, it said, had thrown a “spanner in the works” for plans to slightly upgrade the global forecast thanks to a pick up in activity in China, Brazil and Russia.
But crucially, rather than the doom and gloom scenario some had been predicting, there was a hint of good news.
The IMF now says it’s working on a “benign” assumption for the UK economy which sees a “gradual reduction in uncertainty going forward”. The main reason for this seems to be that the financial markets — while shocked at first by Brexit — have since calmed down and any panic has been contained.
So, the IMF now believes the UK will manage to reach an agreement with Europe and the political fallout will be limited.
Of course, as with all economic predictions, the IMF adds a healthy dollop of caveats.
Notably, its “benign” outlook “may fail to materialise and….more negative outcomes are a distinct possibility.”
But the most extreme of those negative outcomes — the IMF’s so-called “severe” forecast where the UK ends up in recession, has become “less likely”.
The IMF is covering its bases because, as it points out, with Brexit still unfolding, it’s very difficult to quantify its potential repercussions. But for now, at least, it has concluded the outlook may not be so bad for the UK as its own boss had claimed.
From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
Clinton was officially nominated as the first female candidate from a major political part at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The state of South Dakota officially put the former secretary of state over the 2,382 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
"10 for the senator, Bernie Sanders who inspired us all, and 15 for the 45th president of the United States, and the first one who will be called Madam President, Hillary Rodham Clinton."
The final count was 2,842 delegates for Clinton and 1,865 for her chief rival Bernie Sanders, who reaffirmed his support for Clinton when the Vermont delegation cast its votes.
"Madame Chair, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules. I move that all votes, all votes cast by delegates, be reflected in the official record. And I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States."
With her nomination secured, Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, will take center stage to make the case for why Americans should vote for her in November.
Meanwhile, Republican nominee Donald Trump told the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Charlotte, North Carolina, that Clinton has been, in his words, a disaster. He told the audience of veterans they will no longer have to face delays or, in his words, die waiting for medical care.
This is VOA news.
The so-called Islamic State has claimed that two of its "soldiers" carried out Tuesday's attack on a Catholic Church in Normandy, France, where they killed an 84-year-old priest after taking him hostage at knife-point.
French President François Hollande visited the scene of the attack Tuesday and said the attackers had claimed allegiance to Islamic State before being shot dead by police.
He called on all French people to join in the fight [for] against terrorism.
He said the anti-terrorist section of the prosecutor's office has been assigned this inquiry and will give every information so the prosecutor can relay what he knows. But today we must be aware that the terrorists will stop at nothing unless we stop them.
French security officials said the two attackers slit Father Jacques Hamel's throat before police were able to intervene.
Hollande denounced the killing as a vile terrorist attack.
The United States condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms.
The U.N. Syria envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, says that he hopes to restart talks on ending the Syrian civil war by late next month.
Speaking in Geneva Tuesday, Mr. de Mistura said more work is needed from the United States and Russia in the coming days.
"We hope that concrete progress on the Kerry-Lavrov understanding will take physically place. This will indeed create the right atmosphere, both on the ground and for the Intra-Syrian talks."
Until June, there had been an August 1 deadline for having reached substantial agreement on the political transition in Syria.
The United States has condemned "in strongest terms" a double bombing that took place at the main entrance of Mogadishu's airport during morning rush hour Tuesday. At least 13 people died in the blast.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday the United States "stands squarely with Somalia and with our partners in the fight against despicable acts of terrorism."
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on its radio station.
And, extremely hot temperatures and low humidity are making it difficult for firefighters battling two major wildfires burning in drought-stricken California.
About 3,000 firefighters are having a hard time bringing a blaze under control just outside the Angeles National Forest.
Thermometers hit a steamy 39 degrees Celsius Tuesday in and around Los Angeles.
One fire-related death has been reported.
Another fire has destroyed homes near the scenic Pacific coastal town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, south of San Francisco.
For more on these stories, visit our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd in Washington.
On 22 June 2015, Xavier Justo, a 48-year-old retired Swiss banker, walked towards the front door of his brand new boutique hotel on Koh Samui, a tropical Thai island. He had spent the past three years building the luxurious white-stone complex of chalets and apartments overlooking the shimmering sea and was almost ready to open for business. All he needed was a licence.
Justo had arrived in Thailand four years earlier, having fled the drab world of finance in London. In 2011, he and his girlfriend Laura toured the country on a motorbike and, two years later, they got married on a secluded beach. The couple eventually settled down in Koh Samui, a tourist hotspot, just an hour’s flight south of Bangkok. After trying out a couple of entrepreneurial ventures, Justo eventually decided that he would go into the hotel business. He bought a plot with an imposing house and began building: adding a gym, villas and a tennis court.
That June afternoon, he was expecting a visit from the tourism authorities to sign off on the paperwork. Instead, a squad of armed Thai police burst through the unlocked door, bundling Justo to the ground. The officers tied their plastic cuffs so tightly around Justo’s wrists that he bled on the dark tiled floor. The police quickly moved into his office, ripping out the computers and emptying the filing cabinets.
After two days in a ramshackle local jail, Justo was flown to Bangkok and paraded before the media, in a press conference befitting a mafia kingpin. Still wearing shorts and flip-flops, he was flanked by four commandos holding machine guns, while a quartet of senior Royal Thai Police officers briefed the assembled reporters on the charges against him.
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Justo was charged with an attempt to blackmail his former employer, a little-known London-based oil-services company named PetroSaudi. But behind this seemingly mundane charge lay a much bigger story.
Six months earlier, Justo had handed a British journalist named Clare Rewcastle Brown thousands of documents, including 227,000 emails, from the servers of his former employer, PetroSaudi, which appeared to shed light on the alleged theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from a state-owned Malaysian investment fund known as 1MDB.
The documents that Justo leaked have set off a chain reaction of investigations in at least half a dozen countries, and led to what Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general, described last week as “the largest kleptocracy case” in US history.
According to lawsuits filed last week by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), at least $3.5bn has been stolen from 1MDB. The purpose of the fund, which was set up by Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, in 2009, was to promote economic development in a country where the median income stands at approximately £300 per month. Instead, the DoJ alleged that stolen money from 1MDB found its way to numerous associates of Prime Minister Najib, who subsequently went on a lavish spending spree across the world. It also accused Najib of receiving $681m of cash from 1MDB – a claim he denied. Money from 1MDB, the US also claimed, helped to purchase luxury apartments in Manhattan, mansions in Los Angeles, paintings by Monet, a corporate jet, and even financed a major Hollywood movie.
The US justice department breaks the alleged theft down into three distinct phases: the first $1bn defrauded under the “pretence of investing in a joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi”; another $1.4bn, raised by Goldman Sachs in a bond issue, misappropriated and fraudulently diverted to a Swiss offshore company; and $1.3bn, also from money Goldman Sachs raised on the market, which was diverted to a Singapore account.
“A number of corrupt 1MDB officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account,” Lynch told the press last week. “The co-conspirators laundered their stolen funds through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies, with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States.” PetroSaudi, which is not a party to the lawsuit, denied the US allegations and said that the DoJ’s asset-forfeiture claims are “no more than untested allegations”.
Najib, who has used every ounce of his power to obstruct investigations into the scandal – a charge he denies – is not mentioned by name in the US lawsuits, which refer to him as “Malaysian Official 1”. But the man at the centre of the intricate swindle depicted in the US lawsuits is an adviser to Najib: Jho Low, a Harrow-educated 29-year-old friend of the prime minister’s stepson. Low, a babyfaced young man who likes to party with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton – and calls his Goldman Sachs banker “bro”, according to the DoJ – is accused by the US of masterminding the theft of $2bn from 1MDB, which was sent to bank accounts in Switzerland, Singapore and the Virgin Islands. Low has said that he has not broken any laws and was not being investigated.
Low’s sidekick is Riza Aziz, Najib’s stepson. Riza producedThe Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese’s tale of corruption, decadence and greed – and both he and Low were thanked by name in Leonardo DiCaprio’s Golden Globes acceptance speech for best actor. In 2011, Low took a 20% stake in EMI, the world’s largest music-publishing company, for $106m – in the same year, he bought a $30m penthouse for his father at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, overlooking Central Park. Riza’s Hollywood production company has said: “There has never been anything inappropriate about any of Red Granite Pictures or Riza Aziz’s business activities.”
All this and more is laid out in the US filing, which details claims of an amazing heist, carried out by conspirators who rinsed billions from the people of Malaysiathrough offshore accounts and shell companies in tax havens such as the Seychelles and British Virgin Islands. The scale of the enterprise echoes Balzac’s maxim that behind every great fortune lies a great crime.
Jho Low with Paris Hilton at an event in Paris. Photograph: GoffPhotos.com
The global effort to uncover Malaysia’s missing billions began with Xavier Justo. He leaked 90GB of data, including 227,000 emails, from his former employer PetroSaudi, an oil services company that had signed the first major deal with 1MDB. (PetroSaudi denies any wrongdoing.)Without these files, there would have been no reckoning.
Justo’s connection to PetroSaudi was his long friendship with one of the company’s two founders, a Saudi national named Tarek Obaid. The two men had met back in the late 1990s, when they both partied regularly in the nightclubs of Geneva. By 2006, the two men were inseparable: Justo had become an established businessman, running a large financial services firm, Fininfor, and the owner of a Geneva nightspot named the Platinum Club. Justo regarded Obaid as a “younger brother”, and in 2008, lent him $30,000 and a desk in the Fininfor offices to help start up PetroSaudi.
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Obaid and Justo were an unlikely pair, brought together by a love of the high life. Justo, the son of Spanish immigrants to Switzerland, did not go to university. Obaid is a graduate of Georgetown University’s prestigious School of Foreign Service. His brother, Nawaf, served as a special adviser to the Saudi ambassador to the UK. Obaid’s PetroSaudi co-founder, Prince Turki bin Abdullah, is the seventh son of the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who ruled Saudi Arabia from 2005 until his death in 2015.
When Justo left Geneva in 2009, PetroSaudi was little more than a name on a calling card, formally incorporated in London with an address at an anonymous business unit near Victoria. Two years later, it had taken in $1.83bn.
PetroSaudi’s business was access capitalism: opening doors with the help of friends in high places. The basic idea was to capture a piece of the huge oil revenues being generated by state-owned firms in developing countries – treasure chests waiting to be unlocked by a firm that was a “vehicle of the Saudi royal family”, which could count on the “full support from the kingdom’s diplomatic corps”. PetroSaudi told potential partners that it controlled oil fields in central Asia, which it would put up as collateral to secure cash from state investors.
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