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An environmental disaster is threatening the Maharashtra coast after Saturday’s ship collision off the Mumbai harbour. Oil and natural-gas rigs operating in the U.S. rose for a ninth consecutive week, as drilling in Texas jumped, according to data published by Baker Hughes Inc. Crude oil rose for the first time in four days amid optimism fuel demand will increase because of improved prospects for an economic recovery in the U.S., the world’s biggest energy user.

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New Delhi, India – It was on August 7, when two Panamanian cargo ships collided off the Mumbai coast causing an oil spill from one of the two vessels that is threatening the Mumbai coast.

Indian Coast Guard officials said no casualties were reported to the 33 crew members who were rescued after the incident.

According to Coast Guard officials, the outbound merchant vessel from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), collided with MV Khalijia-III, five nautical miles from the shores at 9:50 am when the latter was sailing towards Mumbai Port Trust (MPT), off Mumbai harbour, for berthing.

A senior Coast Guard official said on condition of that the spill was “significant” but claimed the situation was “under control”. However, shipping lanes off India’s commercial hub Mumbai may be closed for another two days because of the oil spill.

The collision left the Panamanian vessel tilting in the water, although it has now been stabilized with no more oil leaking from containers on its deck, according to S.S. Dasila, an Indian coast guard commandant.

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Continue reading »]]> Hundreds of people were feared dead on Tuesday after high winds and heavy seas capsized boats carrying African migrants heading for Europe off the coast of Libya.

“A tragedy has happened off the Libyan coast with at least two boats going down … with obviously hundreds of people going down at sea,” Jean-Philippe Chauzy with the International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland, said Tuesday, citing diplomatic officials in Tripoli and Libyan officials.

The U.N. refugee agency, aware of the reports, said they came at the “beginning of the smuggling season in the Mediterranean.”

The vessels departed Sunday and were heading to southern Europe, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported Monday. Official casualty figures were not immediately available from Libyan authorities, but Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said only 20 people had been rescued including six Egyptians.

Reports of the incident varied widely. Egyptian state television said two fishing vessels carrying more than 600 people sank, while the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said one fishing boat went down with 257 people on board. Up to three boats sank, according to Chauzy.

Italian coast guards said an Italian tugboat working for an offshore oil companies in the Libyan seas picked up 350 people on Sunday and carried them to Libya with the help of the Italian military.

The migrants were believed to be headed for the Italian island of Lampedusa, where 37,000 landed last year, according to Chauzy, who said many African migrants converge on Libya en route to Europe.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said details remain sketchy about what happened, but at least one boat among several vessels leaving Libya for Italy went down and hundreds are reported missing.

It said the incident occurred around 18 miles off the Libyan coast. It said some Egyptian nationals were rescued and bodies were recovered. Those aboard included Africans from the northern and the sub-Saharan regions.

High Commissioner Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said that the tragedy reflects the desperation of people to escape poverty and persecution.

“This tragic incident illustrates, once again, the dangers faced by people caught in mixed irregular movements of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean and elsewhere which every year cost thousands of lives,” the U.N. agency said.

Hundreds feared dead off coast of Libya

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Continue reading »]]> Former Washington Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel, now in his second year as UCLA’s head coach, doesn’t remember Marquis Cooper’s hobby: Fishing.

What he remembers is hard-working kid with a loving family.

Today, Neuheisel is wishing his former linebacker had been with his family in Arizona this weekend instead of on board a 21-foot fishing vessel in Tampa Bay. Cooper and two other passengers remain missing this afternoon after Coast Guard found the boat — overturned — with Nick Schuyler clinging to the hull this morning.

Schuyler, a former South Florida player, was conscious and taken to nearby Tampa General.

Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close says Schuyler told rescuers that the boat, owned by Cooper, was anchored when it flipped Saturday evening in rough seas. Schuyler told rescuers the others got separated from the boat and that he had been clinging to it since.

Close is hoping to get more information as the rescue effort has zeroed in on the area where the boat was found — about 30 miles off shore.

Neuheisel said he has been following the story and is “keeping his fingers crossed.”

“I don’t remember him enjoying fishing. I just know he was a great kid with a great family. They’re from Glendale, Ariz. and he was just the kind of kid you loved to recruit because his family was so involved,” Neheisel said.

“He was just a natural fit to be a Husky. He fell in love with Saeattle and the campus. I know the water was an allure, but I didn’t know it was because he was a fisherman. I got my fingers crossed that this is going to have a happy ending. I’m very, very hopeful this has a happy ending.”

Cooper, 26, played for the Huskies from 2000-’03 and was the team’s defensive MVP his senior year. He is most remembered by fans for intercepting Josh Swogger in the last minutes of the 2003 Apple Cup. He returned the interception for a touchdown to clinch the win.

Tampa Bay then selected Cooper in the third round (79th overall) in the 2004 draft.

In addition to the Buccaneers, he has played with the Steelers, Vikings, Seahawks, Jaguars and Oakland, where he is now on the roster.

Cooper’s stay with the Seahawks was a short one — the final three games of the 2006 season. But he is remembered as a hard-working, soft-spoken person who was willing to do whatever was asked of him.

“Marquis was a quiet guy. You had to engage him in conversation,” said Maurice Kelly, also a former Seahawk and now the team’s director of player development.

“But I had a number of pretty good talks with him and he just wanted to be around. He wanted to do whatever it took to be part of this team, and he loved this area.”

The news that Cooper is missing hit Kelly hard.

“When I heard that, it was like, ‘You’ve got to kidding me,’ ” Kelly said. “That’s a tough pill to swallow, now.”

Kelly is trying to monitor the situation by watching updates on TV.

“It just doesn’t look good when you see the boat capsized and one guy clinging to it without the other guys being around,” he said. “We’re all hoping for the best.”

The other men missing are along with free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley, remained missing.

Television footage showed Schuyler conscious but weak as he was being taken off a helicopter at Tampa General Hospital and placed on a stretcher. The hospital declined immediate comment.

Schuyler’s mother, Marsha Schuyler, said her son told her that he survived by thinking about how he didn’t want her to go to his funeral.

The family’s joy at him being found alive was tempered by the search for his friends.

“We still have three men missing, and we’re not going to talk too much until we find these guys,” said his father, Stuart Schuyler. “We’re all praying for them. These guys are all very close friends.”

Close said the Coast Guard would search for the men for “quite awhile.”

The four left Clearwater Pass early Saturday in calm weather, but heavy winds picked up through the day and the seas got heavy, with waves of 7 feet and higher, peaking at 15 feet on Sunday. A relative alerted the Coast Guard early Sunday after the men did not return as expected.

Stuart Schuyler said his son was in serious condition but stable.

“He looks OK,” Stuart Schuyler said. “He’s got some cuts and bruises. He’s dehydrated.”

By Monday morning, the Coast Guard had searched about 16,000 square miles of ocean for the Everglades-manufactured boat, which are built with compressed foam encased in Fiberglas, making them difficult to sink.

NFL players’ boat found off the coast of Florida

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Continue reading »]]> SAN DIEGO—A Holland American cruise ship returned to San Diego from Mexico after more than 100 passengers contracted the norovirus and became sick.

Broadcast reports said about 2,600 passengers were on the MS Oosterdam when the crew declared a “code red” after the first night of the cruise. Events were canceled and the boat returned to San Diego on Saturday after some passengers and several crew members got the norovirus, a stomach flu that made them sick with diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms.

It wasn’t immediately known what the source of the virus was.

The ship was sanitized and was expected to head back out to sea.

More than 100 passengers sick on cruise

Continue reading »]]> A Canadian Coast Guard ship rescued all 22 people from a burning Spanish fishing trawler in the North Atlantic on Sunday, just as the fisherman were leaping into the water.

“It was pretty dramatic when you see a ship sinking and people being launched in a life raft, people jumping off the side,” Coast Guard Capt. Derek LeRiche said by telephone.

Some didn’t have life jackets on, and some jumped into the freezing water wearing regular clothes, he said.

The Coast Guard was in the area on a routine fisheries patrol about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Newfoundland when it received a distress call from the Monte Galineiro trawler.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

LeRiche said they arrived about 10 minutes later, just as the Spanish fishermen were jumping into the water or sliding into life rafts.

“We managed to pick them up quite fast, and most didn’t have ill effects of the water temperature,” he said.

One crewman had hypothermia and was treated on board. Another suffering from smoke inhalation was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

It was lucky that the Coast Guard ship had been nearby, LeRiche said.

“We were thinking of doing a boarding on her anyway” with some fisheries inspectors, he said. “All the cards were in line that we were so close.”

Canadian Coast Guard Rescues 22 From Flaming Ship

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Continue reading »]]> A British couple was rescued from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean by an Italian tanker after spending 40 days lost at sea.

Stuart Armstrong, 51, and his partner Andrea Davison, 48, are heading back to Britain on board the supertanker Indian Point.

Although unhurt, they were tired, exhausted and grateful to be returning home after their six-week ordeal in which they “stared death in the face.”

The drama began on Jan. 9, six days after the couple left the Cape Verde Islands off the West Coast of Africa on board their yacht Sara.

They were headed for Antigua where they intended to anchor until April.

But, midway through the 2,550-mile journey disaster struck and the rudder on the yacht jammed to starboard. Attempts to fix it were useless.

At this stage the couple, who live on the yacht in Majorca, were in the middle of the Atlantic, 1,200 miles from Antigua, five days sailing time away and out of range for any rescue attempt.

“In effect we were sailing round and round in circles as the rudder was stuck all the way over,” Armstrong said, speaking from the Indian Point. “We tried to counteract this by putting droves over the side to try and help point the boat towards land but we didn’t really have any great success.”

“At first we were not too bothered as we had a good supply of dry provisions, the usual things you have on a boat – pasta, kidney beans, biscuits, rice and soya. There was also plenty of water to keep us going, the radio was still working and we had power so there was no need to be too worried.”

He continued, “I have crossed the Atlantic seven times and this was Andrea’s fourth so we are pretty experienced and for the first few days it was a challenge and a bit of an adventure.”

“We alerted the coastguards in Britain and America and we also let our families know. I spent a good few days trying to fix the rudder as well but I just didn’t have any luck.”

Their first problem was around 10 days or so later when the alternator broke which meant they had no power.

“All that we had was a small solar panel which gave us enough to fire up the satellite phone but we had to ration it,” he said. “The loss of the alternator also meant that we could not use the desalination unit which turns sea water into drinking water so we also had to start rationing that as well.”

The American Coast Guard monitored their position but because of their remote location a rescue attempt was impossible and the couple simply carried on drifting with the current pushing them slowly towards the Caribbean.

During their weeks at sea the couple’s yacht was battered by storms but they managed to escape unscathed. However, as they neared the Bermuda triangle after more than a month at sea conditions began to worsen.

The reduced electrical power meant that Armstrong could only talk to his daughter once or twice a week and it was the same for Davison and her two children.

“At first they were OK with our situation because they know Stuart is a good sailor but I think as time moved on they started to get more concerned and so did I,” said Davison. “We kept getting hit by storms but we managed to get out of them with no real problems. But I knew we were riding our luck and we wouldn’t be able to go on for much longer.”

Click here to read more on this story from Sky News.

British Couple Saved After 40 Days Stranded At Sea

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HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant are understood to have both been severely damaged in the underwater accident earlier this month.

Both are fitted with state-of-the-art technology aimed at detecting other submarines, but it apparently failed completely.

Although both France and Britain insist that security was not compromised during the collision and there was no danger of a nuclear incident, inquiries are now under way in both countries.

Each boat is a key part of their respective county’s nuclear deterrent, ready to unleash their destructive weapons at a moment’s notice.

French Navy sources confirm that Le Triomphant, one of four strategic nuclear submarines of the so-called “Force de Frappe”, was returning from a 70 day tour of duty when the incident occurred.

It happened in heavy seas, and in the middle of the night between February 3 and 4, and left Le Triomphant’s sonar dome all but destroyed.

The sonar dome should have detected the Vanguard but Le Triomphant’s crew of 101 claimed to have “neither saw nor heard anything”.

The French tried to play down the collision, with a Navy spokesman saying: “The collision did not result in injuries among the crew and did not jeopardise nuclear security at any moment.”

The Ministry of Defence would not even confirm it had taken place. A spokesman said: “It is MoD policy not to comment on submarine operational matters, but we can confirm that the UK’s deterrent capability has remained unaffected at all times and there has been no compromise to nuclear safety.”

Le Triomphant took at least three days to limp back to her home port, while HMS Vanguard returned to her home base in Faslane, in Scotland.

With a complement of 135 crew, she is the lead boat of the Vanguard class of submarines which carry Trident ballistic missiles around the world.

Le Triomphant is also the lead ship in her own class of Triomphant nuclear submarines.

Each carries 16 M45 ballistic missiles, weighs 35 tons each, carries six warheads and has a range of around 5,000 miles.

France’s Atlantic coast is notorious for being a “submarine graveyard” because of the number of underwater craft, mainly German U-boats, sunk in the area during the Second World War.

British and French nuclear submarines collide in Atlantic

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Continue reading »]]> Some 150 fishermen were rescued from an ice floe in wind-whipped Lake Erie on Saturday after it broke loose from the shore due to warmer weather, officials said.

One fisherman fell through the ice during the four-hour rescue effort and died on the way to a hospital, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Another man who fell through the ice was not injured.

The Coast Guard, which used boats and helicopters to rescue the men, said it was surveying the area to see if there were other people on floes.

The ice broke shortly after 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), an official for the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department said.

The fishermen were near Crane Creek State Park on the western shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio when the floe drifted into the lake.

The temperature in the area was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) on Saturday morning, up from a low of 7 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 degrees Celsius) on Friday morning.

Early reports had the number of fisherman stranded on the ice as high as 500.

U.S. fishermen on ice floe rescued, one dead | Reuters

Continue reading »]]> Police say a small ferry sank in central Vietnam Sunday, killing at least 39 people, and leaving about five missing.

Most of the victims are women and children.

Officials said the boat sank on the Gianh river in central Quang Binh province.

Authorities say the ferry was carrying 80 people, although it was rated for far fewer passengers.

VOA News – 39 Dead, 5 Missing in Vietnam Ferry Sinking