![Russian spy ship catches fire in Mediterranean, heard on audio issuing warning: "Please hear me"](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2025/02/07/9b5dd9ef-f848-457c-8e00-9884c579be3d/thumbnail/1200x630/af6243d2b2760d90a32cd32dee49cbbf/ap25034752251687.jpg?v=d54d11a41ff0a005a15d3290716e6f92)
Russian spy ship catches fire in Mediterranean, heard on audio issuing warning: "Please hear me"
CBSN
The man is insistent: Our ship is in difficulty, so keep your distance, he instructs another vessel over the radio.
"Warship on your course," he says. "I am drifting. I'm not under command."
The broadcast, according to military officials, came from a Russian spy ship, the Kildin, as the vessel packed with intelligence-gathering equipment drifted temporarily out of control off the Syrian coast on Jan. 23, with flames and black fumes rising from its smokestack.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250207152954.jpg)
Beijing — China on Friday lashed out at what it called U.S. "coercion" after Panama declined to renew a key infrastructure agreement with Beijing following Washington's threat to take back the Panama Canal. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a briefing that China "firmly opposes the U.S. smearing and undermining the Belt and Road cooperation through means of pressure and coercion."
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250205185508.jpg)
London — The Herculaneum scrolls have remained one of the many tantalizing mysteries of the ancient world for almost 2,000 years. Burnt to a crisp by lava from Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the reams of rolled-up papyrus were discovered in a mansion in Herculaneum — an ancient Roman town near Pompeii — in the mid-18th century. Both towns were decimated by the Vesuvius eruption, and most of the scrolls were so badly charred they were impossible to open.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250205154044.jpg)
London — Tourists continued to flee the Greek island of Santorini on Wednesday — a fourth consecutive day of exodus sparked by a series of earthquakes that have rattled the incredibly popular European vacation destination. Around 7,000 people have left the island, which sits southeast of Greece's mainland, since the quakes began last week, according to the AFP news agency.