UK government spokesman says three Iranian boats were warned off by HMS Montrose, but Tehran denies involvement
Three Iranian boats tried to intercept a British oil tanker in the Gulf before being driven off by a Royal Navy warship, the UK said, in a major escalation of tensions in the vital shipping channel off Iran.
The incident took place in the strait of Hormuz through which the commercial vessel British Heritage was attempting to pass on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Family’s lawyer claims window was left open in children’s play area on 11th storey of Freedom of the Seas in Puerto Rico
An 18-month-old Indiana girl who fell to her death from the 11th storey of a cruise ship in Puerto Rico plunged from a window inexplicably left open in a children’s play area, the family’s attorney has claimed.
Police in Puerto Rico had said on Monday that Chloe Wiegand apparently slipped from her grandfather’s hands on Sunday while he was holding her out of an 11th-floor window on the Freedom of the Seas.
Continue reading...Ada Colau will also oppose airport expansion to curb tourism and pollution
Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, has pledged to restrict the number of cruise ships allowed to dock in the city and to oppose the expansion of the city’s airport, saying: “We don’t have infinite capacity.”
Colau said the limits would reduce pollution in the city, where air quality regularly exceeds World Health Organization limits for nitrogen oxide and PM10 particulates.
Continue reading...Iran summons UK ambassador over incident off Gibraltar as tensions escalate over nuclear deal
Royal Marines have helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar, escalating tensions between the UK and Tehran as the agreement aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear programme unravels.
A detachment of nearly 30 British troops working with the Gibraltarian police intercepted the vessel, believed to be carrying 2m barrels of oil, in a dramatic manoeuvre Spain said had been conducted at the request of the US.
Continue reading...Russia refuses to release details about vessel or its mission ‘to protect national security’
The Kremlin has said it will not reveal the vessel type or mission of the 14 sailors who died onboard a top-secret submersible on Monday because the information is a closely guarded state secret.
The remarks came as information has trickled out about the vessel, reported to be an advanced “spy submersible”, and its highly decorated crew, which served in a secretive unit under Russia’s main directorate of deep-sea research and represented some of the navy’s best and brightest.
Continue reading...More than 100 rivers and canals flow beneath Tokyo, but from the ground it’s hard to notice them. Why has the city turned its back on water?
Of the near-endless flow of people over the busy Shibuya scramble crossing every day, few realise that beneath their feet is something else flowing, unseen and unnoticed: the crossing of two ancient rivers, the Uda and the Onden.
Beneath all the concrete and neon, Tokyo is a city built on water. It is the reason the Japanese capital’s 37 million citizens are here at all. From fishing village to seat of political power, canny water management was a key driver of the city’s extraordinary growth.
Continue reading...Captain of larger vessel that collided with tourist boat is detained after sinking in which seven have been confirmed dead
The captain of a vessel that collided with a tourist boat on which seven people died has been arrested by police as the search continued for 21 people still unaccounted for after the disaster on the Danube in Budapest.
The 64-year-old captain of the larger ship, the 135-metre four-storey Viking Sigyn, is suspected of endangering water transport leading to a deadly mass accident. In line with Hungarian laws, the suspect, a resident of Odessa, was identified only as Yuriy C.
Continue reading...Sightseeing boat was by the Hungarian parliament building when it collided with another vessel
Seven South Koreans have died after a sightseeing boat sank in the Danube, close to the Hungarian parliament building in central Budapest, Hungarian and South Korean officials have said.
Thirty-three South Koreans were onboard the boat when it collided with another vessel, South Korea’s foreign ministry said. The 26-metre tourist boat was also carrying two Hungarian crew members.
Continue reading...Russia is overhauling ports as it readies for more traffic via Northern Sea Route due to warmer climate cycles
Russia launched a nuclear-powered icebreaker on Saturday, part of an ambitious programme to renew and expand its fleet of the vessels in order to improve its ability to tap the Arctic’s commercial potential.
The ship, dubbed the Ural and which was floated out from a dockyard in St Petersburg, is one of a trio that when completed will be the largest and most powerful icebreakers in the world.
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