ATHENS: The body of a missing British scientist has been found in a ravine on the Greek island of Ikaria two days after she disappeared, Greek public television reported on Wednesday.
The cause of death of Nicosia-based astrophysicist Natalie Christopher, who had been on holiday with her partner, was not yet determined, the ERT channel said.
Greek police had been searching for the 35-year-old after she reportedly failed to return from a run on Monday.
A Greek police spokeswoman earlier told AFP that police had late Tuesday joined Ikaria port patrols, firefighters and volunteers already looking for the scientist.
According to Greek and Cypriot media, Christopher and her 38-year-old Cypriot partner had arrived on the Aegean island on Saturday and stayed near the port of Agios Kirykos. She left their hotel for a jog on Monday morning but never returned, her partner told media.
“The couple talked by phone around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and she said she had gone for a run in the neighborhood,” a police spokesman told Cypriot television.
The Cyprus Mail website said Christopher’s companion notified the police that she had not returned at around 12:40 pm, while other press reports said her phone has been traced to the island of Fournoi, about 10 kilometers (six miles) away, without saying how it might have got there.
Greek media reports also said traces of blood had been found in the couple’s hotel room and were being examined.
Christopher, well known in Cyprus as an active sportswoman, was involved in several social media projects, including one — “Cyprus Girls Can” — which aims to break down barriers between Greek and Turkish youngsters on the divided island.
The incident comes three weeks after the murder of US molecular biologist Suzanne Eaton on the Greek island of Crete.
The 59-year-old had been attending a conference near the city of Chania and gone out on July 2 without taking her mobile phone, the police said.
Her body was found six days later in an abandoned World War II bunker near the town of Chania.
A 27-year-old farmer confessed to raping and killing Eaton, who had worked for the Max Planck Institute at Dresden University.
Missing British scientist found dead in Greece
Missing British scientist found dead in Greece
- Body of missing British scientist Natalie Christopher found in ravine on Greek island of Ikaria
- Greek police had been searching for Christopher after she reportedly failed to return from a run on Monday
China says Philippines distorted facts about incident near disputed atoll
- The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained”
BEIJING: China’s defense ministry accused the Philippines on Wednesday of distorting the facts about an incident involving the Chinese coast guard and Filipino fishermen near a South China Sea shoal, a charge Manila strongly rejected.
The Philippine coast guard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Friday, actions the Philippine defense secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane.”
The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained,” and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation,” according to a statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organized and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the ministry said. “Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coast guard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150 km (95 miles) west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.
