BEIJING/SEOUL: Rescue crews wrestled to bring a blaze on an Iranian oil tanker off China’s east coast under control on Monday as fire raged for a second day following a collision with a grain ship, while the body of one of the 32 missing crew members was found on aboard.
Concerns were growing that the tanker, which hit a freight ship on Saturday night in the East China Sea and burst into flames, may explode and sink, the official China Central Television (CCTV) said on Monday, citing experts on the rescue team.
Poor weather continued to hamper the rescue work, Lu Kang, a spokesman at China’s foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing.
The size of the oil spill from the ship and the extent of the environmental harm were not known, but the disaster has the potential to be the worst since 1991 when 260,000 tons of oil leaked off the Angolan coast.
The remains of one of the 32 mariners on board was found on Monday afternoon, Iranian and Chinese officials confirmed.
Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that the body had been sent to Shanghai for identification. The fate of the remaining 31 sailors is not known.
The Sanchi tanker (IMO:9356608) run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, National Iranian Tanker Co, collided with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) on Saturday evening about 160 nautical miles off China's coast near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta.
Chinese state media CCTV showed footage on Monday of a flotilla of boats dousing the flames with water as plumes of thick dark smoke continued to billow from the tanker.
One portion appeared to show the fire had been extinguished, although this could not be independently confirmed. China’s Ministry of Transport and Maritime Safety would not comment when asked if the fire was out.
“The Chinese government takes maritime accidents like this very seriously, and has already dispatched many search and rescue teams to the scene to carry out search and rescue,” said the foreign ministry’s Lu said.
China sent four rescue ships and three cleaning boats to the site, South Korea dispatched a ship and a helicopter, while a US Navy military aircraft searched an area of about 3,600 square nautical miles (12,350 sq km) for crew members.
The Panama-registered tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light and highly volatile crude. That is equivalent to just under 1 million barrels, worth about $60 million, based on global crude oil prices.
Ship tracking data shows the collision occurred in waters not frequently used by large vessels like tankers, dry-bulk carriers or container ships. Most ships travel either closer to the Chinese coast in the west or more nearby to Japan in the east.
The freight ship, which was carrying US grain, suffered limited damage and the 21 crew members, all Chinese nationals, were rescued.
China's Transport Ministry said the CF Crystal were being taken to the port of Luhuashan, just south of Shanghai, where authorities will start an investigation into the cause of the incident.
Lu said it was too soon to discuss how victims of the disaster may be compensated, and that compensation and other questions would be addressed after an investigation into the accident is complete.
Bad weather made it hard for the rescue crews to get access to the tanker, but toxic gas from the burning oil posed a major risk.
When condensate meets water, it evaporates quickly and can cause a large-scale explosion as it reacts with air and turns into a flammable gas, the transportation ministry said on Monday.
Rescue crews wrestle to contain China oil tanker fire; body of mariner found
Rescue crews wrestle to contain China oil tanker fire; body of mariner found
Ukraine mourns dead from major Russian strike, vows response with underground weapons production
Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags
POLTAVA, Ukraine: Funeral services were held Saturday for victims of one of the deadliest Russian airstrikes since the war in Ukraine began, as Ukraine’s president vowed to increase domestic military production by creating underground weapons factories.
The funerals took place in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava for the victims of a Russian missile attack on a military training facility that left over 50 dead and more than 300 injured.
Hundreds of mourners, including grieving families, local residents, and officials, gathered at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the city, some 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, for the solemn ceremony. Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags. An air raid siren sounded during the service.
Local residents knelt in silent tribute as hearses carrying the victims passed by on their way to a military cemetery outside the city for burial.
Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure across the country and causing deadly strikes in residential areas.
The attacks have underscored Moscow’s long-range capabilities as Ukraine braces for what will likely be another difficult winter as Russia continues to smash Ukraine’s power grid, knocking out some 70 percent of generation capacity and rupturing heat and water supplies.
The sound of explosions thundered over the Ukrainian capital overnight as multiple Russian attack drones were intercepted by the city’s air defenses. No injuries or serious damage were reported.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that 67 drones were launched over the country overnight, with air defenses active in 11 regions. Fifty-eight drones were shot down, with three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems, it said.
Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine’s parliamentary press service confirmed that drone fragments had been found but said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.
Elsewhere, a Russian artillery attack Saturday on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka killed three men and injured three other people, said Donetsk region Gov. Vadym Filashkin. He said the attack damaged a high-rise building and local power lines.
Late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the death toll from the Sept. 3 strike at the Military Institute of Communications in Poltava had risen to 55, with 328 people injured.
“That includes people with severe injuries, such as amputations and internal organ damage,” Zelensky said, speaking at a conference outside the Italian city of Milan.
“Our people are under constant threat of Russian missile and drone strikes — every night and every day.”
Zelensky renewed his call for the removal of restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, adding that Ukraine was ramping up its own weapons production.
“We are setting up underground weapons production facilities so Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves, even if supplies from our partners are delayed,” he said.
“We have developed new drones and missiles, and we are gradually bringing this war back to Russia. Eventually, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will feel the pressure to seek only one thing: peace.”
Kyiv has continued to launch its own strikes against Russia. In the Russian border region of Voronezh Saturday, Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said that a drone strike had sparked a fire and the detonation of “explosive objects.”
Writing on social media, he said that a state of emergency had been declared for the region’s Ostrogozhsky district and that several villages had been evacuated.
He did not provide the names of the villages affected and urged followers not to share photos or videos of the fire that could be geolocated. ___
Davies reported from Manchester, England. Evgeniy Maloletka and Alex Babenko in Poltava, Ukraine, and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
Ukraine concerned at reports of Iranian ballistic missiles being sent to Russia
- CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia
KYIV: Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.
In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia.
CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources.
Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, the United States, a key ally of Ukraine, also voiced concern about the potential transfer of missiles.
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.
“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict — which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations — to be inhumane,” it said.
“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict.”
Kosovo closes two border crossings with Serbia
- The Kosovo government shut the border at Brnjak and the larger Merdare crossing overnight from Friday to Saturday
- On Friday, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blockaded the two border crossings to prevent traffic entering Serbia from Kosovo
PRISTINA: Kosovo has closed two of its four border crossings with Serbia following protests on the Serbian side that have blocked cross-border traffic, the interior minister said on Saturday.
The Kosovo government shut the border at Brnjak and the larger Merdare crossing overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Both are in the troubled north of Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs are the majority in several districts, outnumbering the ethnic Albanians who overwhelmingly populate the rest of the Balkan country.
Justifying the move, Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on Facebook “masked extremists” on the Serbian side of the border were “selectively stopping... citizens who want to transit through Serbia” to third countries.
“And all this in plain sight of the Serbian authorities,” he complained.
On Friday, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blockaded the two border crossings to prevent traffic entering Serbia from Kosovo.
They said they were protesting against the closure of parallel administrations that ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo had set up to rival the official ones.
The Serbian government in Belgrade — which has never recognized the independence of Kosovo, its former southern province — finances a parallel health, education and social security system in Kosovo for the latter’s ethnic Serb population.
The Serbian demonstrators told the media their border blockade would last until Kosovo police were “withdrawn from the north of Kosovo and the usurped institutions are returned to the Serbs.”
They also demanded that the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) “take over control in the north of Kosovo.”
The border blockade began a few days after police in northern Kosovo raided and then closed five administrative offices linked to the Belgrade government.
On Saturday, Kosovo’s foreign ministry urged people to avoid trying to transit through Serbia because of the protests on the Serbian side.
Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla told reporters on Friday the Serbian protests were “yet more proof” that Belgrade was trying to provoke and destabilize its southern neighbor.
Animosity has persisted between Serbia and Kosovo since a war in the 1990s between Serbian armed forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian separatists.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008. But Serbia has refused to recognize the move and has encouraged ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo to remain loyal to Belgrade.
Tensions ratcheted up a notch earlier this year, when Kosovo made the euro the only legal currency, effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar.
US confirms first bird flu case without animal contact
- The CDC said it had not identified any transmission to the patient’s close contacts or any other person
- Scientists have voiced concern about the growing number of mammals becoming infected by bird flu, even if cases in humans remain rare
WASHINGTON: A person in the state of Missouri has become the first in the United States to test positive for bird flu without a known exposure to infected animals, authorities said on Friday.
The adult patient, who has underlying conditions, was admitted to hospital on August 22, received antiviral medications against influenza, then recovered and was discharged, according to statements from the Centers for Control and Disease Prevention (CDC) and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
As the patient’s flu type appeared suspicious on an initial test, it was sent for additional testing in state and federal laboratories, which revealed it was H5, also known as avian flu or bird flu.
The CDC said it had not identified any transmission to the patient’s close contacts or any other person.
Scientists have voiced concern about the growing number of mammals becoming infected by bird flu, even if cases in humans remain rare.
They fear a high rate of transmission could facilitate a mutation of the virus, which could enable it to be passed from one human to another.
Contacted by AFP, the World Health Organization said on Saturday it was “encouraging that the national disease surveillance system has identified this case, that the patient received antiviral treatment, and that no further cases have been detected among close contacts.”
“It is critical that investigations into the patient’s exposure are continued, as indicated by national and state authorities, to inform further prevention and response activities,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention.
“WHO strongly supports US efforts for surveillance of zoonotic influenza across human, environmental and animal sectors,” Van Kerkhove continued.
“It is important to understand the circulation of avian influenza in poultry, wild birds and other animals in the state,” she said of Missouri.
“Stronger disease surveillance in animals is essential to protect animal and human health.”
The person who tested positive for bird flu was the 14th to do so in the US this year, and the first without known contact with animals.
Indeed, “no H5 infection in dairy cattle has been reported in Missouri,” said the Missouri health department, though “some H5 cases in commercial or backyard flocks and wild birds have been reported.”
All previous bird flu cases in the United States have been among farmworkers, including the very first, in 2022.
Bird flu is most commonly found in wild birds and poultry, but has more recently been detected in mammals, with an outbreak in cattle seen across the country this year.
It can occasionally infect humans through close contact or contaminated environments.
While the CDC continues to assess the risk to the public as low, “circumstances may change quickly as more information is learned,” it said.
In the decades since H5 has been found in humans, there have been rare cases where an animal source cannot be identified.
But there has so far not been evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, which would significantly increase the threat level.
Indian diplomats, intellectuals ask Supreme Court to stop arms sales to Israel
- Petitioners say weapons exports to Israel violate India’s Constitution
- Petition is expected to be read by India’s top court on Monday
NEW DELHI: Indian academics, retired diplomats, and civil servants are seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention to cancel any existing licenses for the export of military equipment to Israel during its war on Gaza.
A 417-page writ petition filed to India’s top court on Wednesday and supplemented on Thursday includes information about public and private sector companies in India “dealing with manufacture and export of arms and munitions (that) have been granted licenses for the export of arms and munitions to Israel, even during this period of the ongoing war in Gaza.”
Petitioners request that the Supreme Court issue an order to the government of India to cancel these licenses and halt the granting of new ones as the sales are in violation of India’s obligations under international law and in breach of its own constitutional provisions of the right to life and equality, and the state’s duty uphold international treaties.
“This act of giving weapons to a state which is engaged — I quote the ICJ (International Court of Justice) — in probable genocidal activities, is a clear violation of India’s domestic law and international law, that is what is argued out in the main text of the petition,” Vijayan Malloothra Joseph, a renowned policy analyst and one of the 11 petitioners, told Arab News.
Indian arms sales to Israel came into the spotlight in May, when two cargo ships were prevented from docking in a Spanish port.
“Spain blocked and stopped all ships from entering their territorial waters and parking in Cartagena port. They outrightly declined. They said the ships were carrying ammunition and they gave a list of ammunition,” Joseph said.
This triggered an uproar among Indian civil society, and a group of lawyers and judges in July called on Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to cancel the licenses of companies supplying military equipment to Israel in the wake of its ongoing genocide case in the International Court of Justice over its deadly onslaught on Gaza.
The Ministry of Defense did not respond to the call, but its spokesperson told Arab News last week that the government “has not authorized the supply of any weapons to Israel during the last several months.” The spokesperson did not comment on canceling existing licenses.
“We have written earlier to the defense minister requesting him to stop the sales of lethal weapons to Israel. In these circumstances we did not get a response, then we went to the Supreme Court,” Deb Mukharji, former ambassador to Bangladesh, Nigeria and Nepal, who also signed the petition, told Arab News.
“Our expectation is that the Supreme Court might take notice because we have said that the permission to sell weapons to Israel is an illegal act. The point is that if something illegal is being done then we have to approach the Supreme Court to stop it from being done.”
At least 40,900 people, most of them children and women, have been killed and more than 94,600 wounded in Israeli military attacks on the enclave since October last year, according to Gaza Health Ministry estimates.
The real toll, however, is believed to be much higher, as the ministry’s data does not include people buried under rubble, those who died of their injuries, or who starved to death while Israeli forces have been blocking international aid.
“It’s a violation of human rights by Israel and we should not be a party to this. This has been the main motivation for the petition,” said Ashok Kumar Sharma, another petitioner, and India’s former ambassador to Finland and Kazakhstan.
“All of us petitioners have no vested interests except humanitarian interests. I have been a diplomat for 36 years and I have seen many such incidents in this history, and we the Indian people and the Indian state have never supported any genocide anywhere in the world.”
Cheryl D’Souza, advocate and member of the legal team that filed the writ petition, told Arab News that the petition is expected to be read in the court on Monday.
“The matter is listed before the chief justice on Monday. Let’s see what happens. We have appealed to the judicial conscience of the court to do something about this matter because it involves the lives of so many people,” she said.
“Let’s hope the Supreme Court steps in.”
