MUMBAI: Indian coastguards on Monday battled choppy seas, monsoon rain and strong winds to contain oil from a badly listing container ship that collided with another vessel off the city of Mumbai. The Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra has been leaking fuel into the sea off India’’s financial capital since the collision on Saturday, raising environmental fears about its impact on the coastline. The ship was lying at a sharp 60-degree angle to its port side about five nautical miles off shore, with containers and other cargo falling into the murky water. Oil had spread around the ship and was drifting towards the shore. Defence ministry spokesman Captain M. Nambiar told AFP that the vessel’’s position was “precarious”, adding: “It’’s difficult to get on board to locate the point of leakage.” Broken patches of oil have already been cleared around Elephanta Island, a World Heritage Site and tourist attraction in Mumbai Harbour, the defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday. But environmental emergency teams put on alert since the collision said on Monday that oil had been discovered on beaches on the mainland across the Arabian Sea from the landmark Gateway of India monument. Deepak Apte, a senior scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society, said some oil patches were up to 15 centimetres (six inches) in length. “We are taking samples for analysis,” he was quoted as saying by the domestic Press Trust of India news agency. “This may be only a beginning of finding the on-shore oil spill.” Locals, however, said that tar balls from oil rigs and refineries located in the stretch of water approaching Mumbai’’s port were often found on beaches during the annual monsoon rains. Six coastguard ships were working to minimise the impact of the spill from the MSC Chitra, while a coastguard helicopter dropped oil-dispersal spray on the slick. Hundreds of containers have fallen from the ship and are being collected. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a report from the shipping ministry into the spill, while environment minister Jairam Ramesh told parliament that legal action had been launched against the owners of the two cargo ships. The announcements came as opposition lawmakers in parliament demanded that any fishermen suffering loss of income from the oil spill be compensated. The MSC Chitra was leaving Mumbai when it was in a collision with the MV Khalijia-III, another Panamanian-registered ship, which was manoeuvring into port. Both ships developed cracks following the collision and 33 crew members were rescued. But police said one of its officers drowned after he fell off a four-man speedboat patrolling the area around the stricken ship. “The other three constables also could not rescue him as none of them, including the victim, knew swimming,” a police spokesman said.
Written on August 9, 2010 | Posted in
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UNITED NATIONS: Efforts are underway for the release of a United Nations-contracted cargo ship, which was detained by India last week as it sailed towards Pakistan with decommissioned weaponry from a UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia, a UN official said on Monday. The MV Aegean Glory, a 500-foot-long Panama-registered ship, was seized by the Indian customs authorities, claiming suspicion of “military cargo” on Friday, 50 kilometers south of Kolkata. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) “is working closely with Indian authorities to ensure the release of the cargo and to review the procedures that caused the confusion”, the official said. “All cargo on board has UN markings and is being shipped under the authority of the United Nations,” he added.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly reacted on seizing of a ship by India carrying United Nations cargo for Pakistan and Bangladesh, which was being used by UN Peacekeeping missions. Commenting on the incident, Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said that so far Pakistan has not been conveyed anything officially about the stopping of the cargo ship. He however said, “The ship coming from Liberia carrying cargo was in the use of United Nations Peacekeeping Missions which has been stopped by India without any justification.” The spokesman added that the UN cargo includes APCs destined for many countries including Bangladesh and Pakistan. He said, “The ship left Bangladesh after offloading their stuff and was also to anchor at Pakistan to offload our consignment.” The spokesman said there was nothing out of the ordinary in this ship and added that unnecessary hype has been created around a perfectly legitimate UN cargo. He further said the APCs were in use of Pakistani troops who are part of UN Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia. Earlier, there were reporters that India detained a Pakistan-bound ship carrying undeclared military hardware, including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns on Saturday. According to reports, the Panama-registered vessel “MV Agean Glory” sailed from Monrovia, Liberia, to Bangladesh via Mauritius. It then travelled to Calcutta. The Indian authorities detained the ship on Friday after finding that the clearing agent did not specify that it was carrying weapons.
Written on June 28, 2010 | Posted in
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WASHINGTON: Residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast braced for more oil from a ruptured BP Plc well to hit their beaches on Sunday as oil washed ashore at Panama City, a popular Florida tourist destination. The city’’s beaches remained open after clean-up crews removed the tar balls from shore, authorities said. Even so, the sight is a worry for a state with an annual tourism industry worth $60 billion. “The vast majority (of tar balls) disappeared with the tide. Our beaches are open and clean,” said Valerie Lovett, spokeswoman for Florida’’s Bay County. The largest spill in U.S. history threatens the coastal economies of four states including hard-hit Louisiana. It has also severely dented the British energy giant’’s finances and reputation and tarnished President Barack Obama’’s popularity. The White House criticized BP CEO Tony Hayward for taking time off from dealing with the leak’’s consequences to watch a yacht race on Saturday off the south coast of Britain. BP said he was taking some much needed downtime. To minimize the leak’’s environmental impact, BP is capturing as much as 24,000 barrels (1.008 million gallons/3.81 million liters) a day of crude using two containment systems but that is a fraction of the 35,000-60,000 barrels the U.S. Coast Guard says is pouring from the well. BP restarted its containment effort on Saturday after one system was shut down for 10 hours to fix a technical issue and to let a storm pass. It was the latest in a series of problems to bedevil attempts to halt the oil flow now in its 62nd day. A second system remained running. BP’’s long-term solution is to drill a relief well that will relieve pressure on the leak, thus stopping its flow, but that is not due for completion until August. Under pressure from the White House, BP has set up a $20 billion damages fund but that figure could be increased if it proves insufficient, said Kenneth Feinberg, the fund’’s federal administrator. After falling 6.8 percent in a volatile week driven by Washington politics, BP’’s shares are down 26 percent so far in June, their worst month since the October 1987 market crash. And in a further complication, Anadarko Petroleum Corp, part owner of the well, accused BP of “reckless” conduct leading up to the accident. BP said it “strongly disagrees” with the accusation of gross negligence but would keep focusing on cleaning up the spill, which has triggered a huge response from federal, state and local authorities to try to protect the Gulf coastline. Hayward was conspicuously absent from a gathering of global oil industry leaders on Saturday in St Petersburg, Russia, where his company’’s woes were a constant topic of discussion. In fact, he was spending time with his teenage son watching a yacht race around the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of Britain, after almost two months away from home and family, according to BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams. So far, Louisiana’’s wetlands and its fishing industry have suffered the worst damage from the spill and downcast fishermen say times are harder than in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which battered the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Written on June 20, 2010 | Posted in
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London/Nairobi – The Pakistani captain of a ship was killed Thursday as coastguards from Somalia's autonomous Puntland region freed his vessel from pirates, a government official said.The boat, Panama…
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London/Nairobi – The Pakistani captain of a ship was killed Thursday as coastguards from Somalia's autonomous Puntland region freed his vessel from pirates, reports said.The boat, a Panama-flagged MV …
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PARIS: The plane carrying Panama’’s former strongman Manuel Noriega landed in Paris early Tuesday after his extradition from the United States to face money-laundering charges. The plane touched down at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris shortly before 8.00 am (0600 GMT), according to the arrivals board.
Written on April 27, 2010 | Posted in
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WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday signed an order extraditing Panama’’s former strongman Manuel Noriega to France, where he is wanted for money laundering, a US official said. “The secretary signed the order of extradition,” a State Department official told media. Various televisions aired video images that they said showed Noriega being led from a van into Miami airport.
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Saleh Bhana A six off the last ball of the match by rookie Asif Dassu has handed Dadabhai a one wicket win over Ahir ‘A’ in the final of the Panamanian cricket league on Sunday. Played before a crowd of around 9,000 of Panama City’s Indian community, the match started with Ahir A winning the toss and electing to bat on a very hot afternoon. Ahir captain Jagdish Ahir smashed a very quick half century and was dismissed by a brilliant stumping by Salim Jasat. Despite this, Ahir A managed…
Written on April 21, 2010 | Posted in
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