COLOMBO: Experts on Wednesday warned that a stricken container ship that caught fire 13 days ago off Sri Lanka causing one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history could now create an oil spill crisis.
Rescue teams have been working around the clock to tackle the blaze on the cargo vessel which was carrying hundreds of tons of chemicals and microplastic.
Locals living along the coastal belt have been advised not to eat fish from the waters until further notice, with a temporary ban in place since last week.
Douglas Devananda, Sri Lanka’s minister of fisheries and aquatic resources development, told Arab News: “We have advised fishermen in these areas not to go fishing as the people cannot eat the fish in the affected areas.”
A massive cleanup operation involving thousands of troops and Sri Lankan navy personnel continued on Wednesday as workers removed debris from beaches near the capital Colombo, including in the popular tourist spot of Negombo.
Other areas worst affected included Panadura, Moratuwa, Mt. Lavinia, and Hendala along 80 kilometers of coastline. The region is home to more than 1 million people and famous for its jumbo prawns, crabs, lobsters, seer fish, salmon, and sprats which the local fishing community relies on for a livelihood.
“There are some 5,000 fishermen who have been asked to refrain from fishing until further notice. They are being paid around $30 allowance with other relief measures, such as the distribution of dry rations, also being considered by the ministry,” Devananda added.
The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl burst into flames on May 20 when it was nearly 9.5 nautical miles northwest of Colombo after setting sail from Gujarat, in India.
Since then, the Sri Lanka Navy and Indian Coast Guard have been trying to extinguish the fire, which destroyed most of the nearly 1,500 containers on board, 81 of which had “dangerous goods” inside.
The three-month-old, 186-meter-long ship also had 25 metric tons of nitric acid and other chemicals onboard along with 28 containers of plastic raw material which dispersed into the sea.
While the cause of the fire has not yet been established, Sri Lankan authorities suspect an acid leak could have been the trigger.
“The fire in the vessel has been completely doused,” Navy spokesman Indika De Silva told Arab News on Wednesday, adding that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered rescue workers to “try and move the ship into deeper seas.”
De Silva said: “They are encountering some difficulties since the vessel is stuck. If that is the case, there will be a possible oil spill from the vessel.”
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fisheries Kanchana Wijesekera recently warned that hundreds of metric tons of oil leaking into the ocean would cause “widespread ecological damage” to marine life and coastal communities.
On Wednesday, a team of navy divers was sent to inspect the vessel’s hull. De Silva said there were concerns over the ship’s stern resting low on the waterline due to a suspected leak.
However, one of the biggest worries was the prospect of fish and other wildlife swallowing the millions of plastic pellets that had fallen into the sea.
Dharshani Lahandapura, chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), told Arab News: “This is the worst maritime environmental disaster ... ever since the island has not faced such a situation of this magnitude.”
“Every day we are deploying around 1,000 workers to clean the affected areas with the assistance of the tri-forces and other environmental agencies of the country.”
She noted that her department had been collecting tons of waste materials that were being stored in a safe place and said that the MEPA would be concentrating on “delicate areas in the seas to protect mangroves, corals, and marine wildlife.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has launched a criminal probe into the fire and the resulting marine pollution.
On Tuesday, a Colombo court issued an order preventing the ship’s captain, chief engineer, and deputy engineer from leaving the island while its 25-member crew have been evacuated and quarantined at local hotels.
The court also ordered the vessel to be examined by a government-appointed analyst and for its documents, charts, and recordings to be confiscated.
Police spokesman, Ajith Rohana, told media that the country’s criminal investigations department had taken statements from the vessels’ crew, the harbor master, the ship’s local agents, officials from the wildlife department, and the MEPA, as part of the investigation.
Oil spill fears grow over stricken cargo ship off Sri Lankan coast
https://arab.news/j2tzu
Oil spill fears grow over stricken cargo ship off Sri Lankan coast
- Experts warn of ‘worst environmental disaster’ in country’s history
Rival protests in Seoul over South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol
- Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidential powers are suspended but he remains in office
- He has not complied with various summonses by authorities investigating whether martial law
Yoon’s presidential powers are suspended but he remains in office. He has not complied with various summonses by authorities investigating whether martial law, which he declared late on Dec. 3 and rescinded hours later, constituted insurrection.
He has also not responded to attempts to contact him by the Constitutional Court, which decides whether to remove him from office or restore his presidential powers. The court plans to hold its first preparatory hearing on Friday.
Saturday’s pro- and anti-Yoon protests were held in Gwanghwamun in the heart of the capital. There were no clashes as of 4 p.m. (0700 GMT).
Tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters, dominated by people in their 20s and 30s, gathered around 3 p.m., waving K-Pop light sticks and signs with sayings such as “Arrest! Imprison! Insurrection chief Yoon Suk Yeol” to catchy K-pop tunes.
“I wanted to ask Yoon how he could do this to a democracy in the 21st century, and I think if he really has a conscience, he should step down,” said 27-year-old Cho Sung-hyo.
Several thousand pro-Yoon protesters, chiefly older and more conservative people opposing Yoon’s removal and supporting the restoration of his powers, had gathered since around midday.
“These rigged (parliamentary) elections eat away at this country, and at the core are socialist communist powers, so about 10 of us came together and said the same thing — we absolutely oppose impeachment,” said Lee Young-su, a 62-year-old businessman.
Yoon had cited claims of election hacking and “anti-state” pro-North Korean sympathizers as justification for imposing the martial law, which the National Election Commission has denied.
Pakistan militant raid kills 16 soldiers: intelligence officials
- Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement it was staged ‘in retaliation for the martyrdom of our senior commanders’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan militants launched a brazen overnight raid on an army post near the Afghan border, two intelligence officials said Saturday, killing 16 soldiers and critically wounding five more.
“Over 30 militants attacked an army post” in the Makeen area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. “Sixteen soldiers were martyred and five were critically injured in the assault.”
“The militants set fire to the wireless communication equipment, documents and other items present at the checkpoint,” he said, before retreating from the two-hour assault which took place 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the Afghan border.
A second intelligence official also anonymously confirmed the same toll of dead and wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement it was staged “in retaliation for the martyrdom of our senior commanders.”
Myanmar ethnic rebels say captured junta western command
- Ann would be the second regional military command to fall to ethnic rebels in five months
- Fighting has rocked Rakhine state since the Arakan Army attacked security forces in November last year
BANGKOK: A Myanmar ethnic rebel group has captured a military regional command in Rakhine state, it said, in what would be a major blow to the junta.
The Arakan Army (AA) had “completely captured” the western regional command at Ann on Friday after weeks of fighting, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Ann would be the second regional military command to fall to ethnic rebels in five months, and a huge blow to the military.
Myanmar’s military has 14 regional commands across the country with many of them currently fighting established ethnic rebel groups or newer “People’s Defense Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military’s 2021 coup.
Fighting has rocked Rakhine state since the AA attacked security forces in November last year, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the putsch.
AA fighters have seized swathes of territory in the state that is home to China and India-backed port projects and all but cut off state capital Sittwe.
The AA posted photos of a man whom it said was the Ann deputy regional commander, in the custody of its fighters.
AFP was unable to confirm that information and has contacted the AA’s spokesman for comment.
AFP was unable to reach people on the ground around Ann where Internet and phone services are patchy.
In decades of on-off fighting since independence from Britain in 1948 the military had never lost a regional military command until last August, when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) captured the northeastern command in Lashio in Shan state.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Last month the UN warned Rakhine state was heading toward famine, as ongoing clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.
“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” the report from the UN Development Programme said, projecting “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity were left unaddressed.
Joe Biden approves $571 million in defense support for Taiwan
- The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei
- Taiwan went on alert last week in response to what it said was China’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide $571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the State Department approved the potential sale to the island of $265 million worth of military equipment.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei, to the constant anger of Beijing.
Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China’s claims of sovereignty.
China has stepped up military pressure against Taiwan, including daily military activities near the island and two rounds of war games this year.
Taiwan went on alert last week in response to what it said was China’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas.
Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to $571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement without providing details.
Taiwan’s defense ministry thanked the United States for its “firm security guarantee,” saying in a statement the two sides would continue to work closely on security issues to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The Pentagon said the State Department had approved the potential sale to Taiwan of about $265 million worth of command, control, communications, and computer modernization equipment.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the equipment sale would help upgrade its command-and-control systems.
Taiwan’s defense ministry also said on Saturday that the US government had approved $30 million of parts for 76 mm autocannon, which it said would boost the island’s capacity to counter China’s “grey-zone” warfare.
US Senate approves Social Security change despite fiscal concerns
- The Senate in a 76-20 bipartisan vote shortly after midnight approved the Social Security Fairness Act
- The House of Representatives last month approved the bill in a 327-75 vote
WASHINGTON: The US Congress early on Saturday passed a measure to boost Social Security retirement payments to some retirees who draw public pensions — such as former police and firefighters — which critics warned will further weaken the program’s finances.
The Senate in a 76-20 bipartisan vote shortly after midnight approved the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal two-decades-old provisions that can reduce benefits for people who also receive a pension.
The House of Representatives last month approved the bill in a 327-75 vote, which means that Senate approval sends it to Democratic President Joe Biden to sign into law. The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether Biden intended to do so.
The bill will overturn a decades-old change to the program that had been made to limit federal benefits to some higher-earning workers with pensions. Over time, growing numbers of municipal employees such as firefighters and postal workers also saw their payments capped.
Most Americans do not participate in pension plans, which pay a defined benefit, and instead are dependent on what money they can save and Social Security. Just one in ten US private sector workers have pension plans, according to Labor Department data.
The new provisions impact about 3 percent of Social Security beneficiaries — totaling a little more than 2.5 million Americans — and the workers and retirees affected by these provisions are key constituencies for lawmakers and their powerful advocacy groups have pushed for a legislative fix.
Some of them could receive hundreds of dollars more a month in federal benefits as a result of the bill, retirement experts said.
Some federal budget experts warned the change could hurt the program’s already shaky finances as the bill’s price tag is approximately $196 billion over the next decade, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Emerson Sprick, associate director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in an interview, “the fact that there is such overwhelming support in Congress for exactly the opposite of what policy researchers agree on is pretty frustrating.”
Instead of scrapping the current formulas for determining retirement benefits for these workers, revisions have been floated, as well as more accurate communication from the Social Security Administration on how much money these public sector employees should expect.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal think tank, is also warning the extra cost will affect the program’s future.
“We are racing to our own fiscal demise,” the group’s president, Maya MacGuineas, said in a statement.
“It is truly astonishing that at a time when we are just nine years away from the trust fund for the nation’s largest program being completely exhausted, lawmakers are about to consider speeding that up by six months.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz on the Senate floor on Wednesday said the bill as written will “throw granny over the cliff.”
“Every senator who votes to impose $200 billion dollars of cost on the Social Security Trust Fund, you are choosing to sacrifice the interest of seniors who paid into Social Security and who earned those benefits,” he said.
Bill supporters said Social Security’s future can be addressed at a later time.
Asked about the solvency implications pf this legislation, Senator Michael Bennet, a supporter of the bill, said: “Those are much longer term issues that we have to find a way to address together.”
