KET, Nigeria (AFP) – Gunmen attacked an oil rig off Nigeria's coast on Monday, taking two Americans, two French and one Canadian hostage while wounding two other people, company and security sources said.
The pre-dawn attack occurred in the country's turbulent Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world's largest oil industries, and it was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been demanded.
"A security breach has occurred on the High Island VII jackup rig, which had recently arrived on location, preparing to commence infill drilling at the Okoro field," said a statement from Afren, the company that oversees the rig.
"Two crew members are stable after receiving wounds to the leg, and have been evacuated by helicopter to a shore-based clinic. It is believed that five crew members have been taken hostage."
It did not provide the nationalities of the victims, but a company source said later that they included two Americans, two French and one Canadian. A security source also provided the same nationalities.
Afren added in its statement that a second "security breach" occurred at a support vessel, but did not provide details. The statement said "the vessel and rig are both under the control of the company."
Preparations for drilling operations on the rig had been temporarily suspended.
The security source said a crew member was shot in the leg after resisting the attackers.
The Okoro field is located some 12 kilometres (eight miles) off the coast off Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state. Afren is headquartered in Britain and works with a local partner, AMNI International, while the rig is owned by Transocean.
Nigerian security officials could not provide precise details on the attack, the latest in the Niger Delta.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Netanyahu presses U.S. for military threat on Iran
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday that only a credible military threat can deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon, Israeli political sources said.
In comments signaling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day U.S. visit, argued that economic sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.
However, Biden said after the talks that the sanctions "have a bite" and were having a "measurable impact," though he expressed frustration that Tehran had brushed aside overtures by President Barack Obama's administration.
Netanyahu and Biden met on the sidelines of an American Jewish conference in New Orleans, and also discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended in a dispute over building in settlements in the West Bank.
"The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon," one of the sources said Netanyahu told Biden.
"The economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatollah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them."
In remarks to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Biden said the door to diplomacy remains open for Iran "but there is a price to walk through that door -- acting rationally."
"We continue to seek a peaceful resolution and to hope Iranian leaders will reconsider their current destructive and debilitating course," he said. "But let me be very clear about this: We are also absolutely committed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
The tough talk from the Israelis swiftly raised speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu, who has rebuffed U.S. and international calls to reimpose a freeze on building in West Bank settlements, was trying to shift the focus of his visit away from stalemate.
The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons, and both Israel and the United States have said all options are on the table in dealing with its nuclear ambitions.
But Netanyahu had made clear that Israel wanted to see if tough economic sanctions could eliminate what it has described as a threat against its existence.
Tehran denies it is out to produce nuclear arms.
In comments signaling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day U.S. visit, argued that economic sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.
However, Biden said after the talks that the sanctions "have a bite" and were having a "measurable impact," though he expressed frustration that Tehran had brushed aside overtures by President Barack Obama's administration.
Netanyahu and Biden met on the sidelines of an American Jewish conference in New Orleans, and also discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended in a dispute over building in settlements in the West Bank.
"The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon," one of the sources said Netanyahu told Biden.
"The economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatollah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them."
In remarks to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Biden said the door to diplomacy remains open for Iran "but there is a price to walk through that door -- acting rationally."
"We continue to seek a peaceful resolution and to hope Iranian leaders will reconsider their current destructive and debilitating course," he said. "But let me be very clear about this: We are also absolutely committed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
The tough talk from the Israelis swiftly raised speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu, who has rebuffed U.S. and international calls to reimpose a freeze on building in West Bank settlements, was trying to shift the focus of his visit away from stalemate.
The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons, and both Israel and the United States have said all options are on the table in dealing with its nuclear ambitions.
But Netanyahu had made clear that Israel wanted to see if tough economic sanctions could eliminate what it has described as a threat against its existence.
Tehran denies it is out to produce nuclear arms.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Indonesia volcano blasts searing gas; 122 now dead
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Searing gas avalanched down an Indonesian volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled Mount Merapi's worst eruption in a century. Scores of bodies found Friday raised the death toll to 122.
The injured — with clothes, blankets and even mattresses fused to their skin by the 1,400 degree Fahrenheit (750 degree Celsius) heat — were carried away on stretchers following the first big explosion just before midnight.
All Friday, Merapi shot towering plumes of ash that dusted the windshields of cars 300 miles (480 kilometers) away. Bursts of hot clouds occasionally interrupted aid efforts, with rescuers screaming "Watch out! Hot cloud!"
The intensifying eruptions have baffled scientists who have monitored the mountain for years and left them uncertain what to expect. Dozens of explosions that followed Merapi's initial blast Oct. 26 had been predicted to ease pressure behind a magma dome.
The danger zone where residents have been ordered to flee has now been expanded to 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the crater.
Friday's explosion — said by volcanologists to be the biggest since the 1870s — hit hardest in Bronggang, a village nine miles (15 kilometers) from the crater. Soldiers joined the rescue operations, pulling at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to one foot (30 centimeters) deep.
Crumpled roofs, charred carcasses of cattle and broken chairs — all layered in white soot — dotted the smoldering landscape.
The volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, has erupted scores of times in the past, killing more than 1,500 people in the last century alone. But tens of thousands of people live on its rolling slopes, drawn to soil made fertile by lava and volcanic debris.
China quarantine bureau rejects U.S. corn cargo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's quarantine bureau confirmed on Tuesday it had discovered traces of an unapproved genetically modified organism (GMO) in a U.S. corn cargo and had refused it entry into China.
"A genetically-modified element which is not approved by the Agriculture Ministry has been identified in the cargo and according to the relevant State Council regulation, the cargo will be returned," an official with the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau told Reuters, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The official declined to identify the buyer of the cargo, but said the unapproved GMO strain was MON89034.
One trading manager at a feed mill in Guangdong said the cargo belonged to COFCO Co. Ltd, which bought on behalf of several feed mills in the province.
The cargo arrived at the port of Chiwan in September and was discharged into silos at ports, but feed mills were not allowed to take the goods, said the manager, who is one of the end-users.
"We have paid COFCO for delivery at port in Guangdong, but now we are not allowed to take the goods," said the manager, who declined to be identified.
China, the world's second largest consumer, has booked the largest volume of U.S. corn in a decade after tight supply drove up domestic prices higher than U.S. prices in the first half of the year.
The official said the cargo was most likely resold to the overseas market. COFCO bought the cargo from a Japanese trading house, Mitsubishi Corp, three trading sources said.
Traders from both companies could not be immediately reached for comment, and both companies have earlier declined to comment on the Reuters story.
"A genetically-modified element which is not approved by the Agriculture Ministry has been identified in the cargo and according to the relevant State Council regulation, the cargo will be returned," an official with the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau told Reuters, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The official declined to identify the buyer of the cargo, but said the unapproved GMO strain was MON89034.
One trading manager at a feed mill in Guangdong said the cargo belonged to COFCO Co. Ltd, which bought on behalf of several feed mills in the province.
The cargo arrived at the port of Chiwan in September and was discharged into silos at ports, but feed mills were not allowed to take the goods, said the manager, who is one of the end-users.
"We have paid COFCO for delivery at port in Guangdong, but now we are not allowed to take the goods," said the manager, who declined to be identified.
China, the world's second largest consumer, has booked the largest volume of U.S. corn in a decade after tight supply drove up domestic prices higher than U.S. prices in the first half of the year.
The official said the cargo was most likely resold to the overseas market. COFCO bought the cargo from a Japanese trading house, Mitsubishi Corp, three trading sources said.
Traders from both companies could not be immediately reached for comment, and both companies have earlier declined to comment on the Reuters story.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Iranian woman to be hanged Wednesday: rights group
BERLIN (Reuters) – An Iranian woman whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry will instead be hanged for murder on Wednesday, a human rights group said.
"The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," the International Committee against Stoning, a German-based campaign group, said on its website.
"It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November."
Officials in Iran were not available to confirm or deny the report.
British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt spoke to Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Safar Ali Eslamian Koupaei, by phone on Tuesday to press for an update on Ashtiani's case.
But the Iranian diplomat was unable to confirm whether reports about her imminent execution were accurate, the Foreign Office said.
"I ... took the opportunity to remind him that the UK government would regard the execution of Ms Ashtiani as utterly unacceptable," Burt said in a statement.
The White House said the case showed a fundamental disregard for human rights. "We condemn in the strongest terms the government of Iran's apparent plans to move forward in executing Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," it said Tuesday.
Ashtiani's stoning sentence was suspended after prominent political and religious figures called it medieval, barbaric and brutal. Brazil, a close ally of Iran, offered to give the 43-year-old mother of two asylum.
A government spokesman said in September Ashtiani's adultery conviction was under review but the charge of being complicit in the murder of her husband was still pending.
Under the Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, murder is punishable by hanging, adultery by stoning.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fended off questions about the case from reporters when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in September, saying it had been fabricated by hostile Western media and called the United States hypocritical for its record on executions.
The case has worsened relations between Iran and the West, which are locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, and was further complicated last month when two Germans were arrested in Iran while conducting an interview with Ashtiani's son.
The men entered Iran with tourist visas and were not authorized to act as journalists, judicial officials said. The German government is trying to secure their release.
In August, Iranian television aired an interview with a woman it said was Ashtiani admitting a relationship with a man who then murdered her husband. The International Committee Against Stoning, called the TV show "toxic propaganda."
The United States has imposed sanctions on eight senior Iranian officials, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and several cabinet ministers, for human rights abuses.
That is in addition to the sanctions over Iran's nuclear activities, which it fears is aimed at making an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
According to Amnesty International, Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out. It put to death at least 346 people in 2008.
"The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," the International Committee against Stoning, a German-based campaign group, said on its website.
"It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November."
Officials in Iran were not available to confirm or deny the report.
British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt spoke to Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Safar Ali Eslamian Koupaei, by phone on Tuesday to press for an update on Ashtiani's case.
But the Iranian diplomat was unable to confirm whether reports about her imminent execution were accurate, the Foreign Office said.
"I ... took the opportunity to remind him that the UK government would regard the execution of Ms Ashtiani as utterly unacceptable," Burt said in a statement.
The White House said the case showed a fundamental disregard for human rights. "We condemn in the strongest terms the government of Iran's apparent plans to move forward in executing Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," it said Tuesday.
Ashtiani's stoning sentence was suspended after prominent political and religious figures called it medieval, barbaric and brutal. Brazil, a close ally of Iran, offered to give the 43-year-old mother of two asylum.
A government spokesman said in September Ashtiani's adultery conviction was under review but the charge of being complicit in the murder of her husband was still pending.
Under the Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, murder is punishable by hanging, adultery by stoning.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fended off questions about the case from reporters when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in September, saying it had been fabricated by hostile Western media and called the United States hypocritical for its record on executions.
The case has worsened relations between Iran and the West, which are locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, and was further complicated last month when two Germans were arrested in Iran while conducting an interview with Ashtiani's son.
The men entered Iran with tourist visas and were not authorized to act as journalists, judicial officials said. The German government is trying to secure their release.
In August, Iranian television aired an interview with a woman it said was Ashtiani admitting a relationship with a man who then murdered her husband. The International Committee Against Stoning, called the TV show "toxic propaganda."
The United States has imposed sanctions on eight senior Iranian officials, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and several cabinet ministers, for human rights abuses.
That is in addition to the sanctions over Iran's nuclear activities, which it fears is aimed at making an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
According to Amnesty International, Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out. It put to death at least 346 people in 2008.
South Korea fires warning shots, second incident in days
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's navy fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean fishing boat at a maritime border on Wednesday, the second incident in six days, jangling nerves in Seoul ahead of next week's G20 summit.
The South Korean capital, about 100 km (60 miles) south of the demilitarized zone, is on heightened alert ahead of the summit over concerns Pyongyang may try to create an incident to embarrass its rival.
Washington has pressed Beijing to use its influence over the North not to create an incident in the run up to the meeting.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told a news conference in Seoul that he was not expecting any trouble from across the border.
"I don't think the North will try to do anything when leaders of the international community are meeting to discuss the world economy," he said. "I trust the North won't do anything but still we are fully prepared."
The North this week dismissed reports it would be a "provocateur," but in the past it has staged incidents around big international events in the South.
A military officer said South Korea fired 10 warning shots to force the North Korean vessel to retreat early on Wednesday after crossing into its waters off the west coast near where one of the South's navy vessels was sunk earlier this year.
The officer said the shots were fired after repeated loudspeaker broadcasts were ignored. It was not clear why the vessel crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and why it remained in southern waters for nearly two hours.
It was the first time in seven years that the South has fired warning shots to force a fishing boat to retreat.
SEOUL ON HIGH ALERT
South Korean authorities have ramped up security for next week's G20 summit with 10,000 participants, including 32 heads of government and leaders of international organizations, expected.
Security forces have been put on high alert, anti-aircraft missiles are at the ready, shipping and air routes are under heightened surveillance and airport screening increased.
But Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute of Defence Analyses said North Korea as unlikely to want to escalate tensions.
"It is one thing to try to inflict damage on the South. Ahead of an international event like this, the North is not going to want to take the chance of further isolating itself from the international community," he said.
The North has in the past used high-profile international events in the South to bolster its standing, and analysts have said the North's young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, may seek to burnish his credentials with a hostile act.
Ties between the rival Koreas sank to their lowest level in decades after the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, was torpedoed off the west coast in March, killing 46 sailors. Seoul accuses the North for the attack but Pyongyang denies it.
The waters off the west coast have been the scene of deadly skirmishes in the past that have killed sailors on both sides.
North Korea disputes the sea border which was drawn by the United Nations Command at the end of 1950-53 Korean War.
On Friday an exchange of fire occurred across the Demilitarised Zone, the first such incident in years, but officials have played down the incident, saying it was likely an accident. The United Nations is investigating the skirmish.
The two incidents have occurred despite signs of a thaw in frosty relations on the divided peninsula.
The North has said it wants to resume nuclear talks, but the South has said it will not return to the negotiating table until Pyongyang shows sincerity by acknowledging its role in sinking of the South Korean vessel this year and on denuclearization.
Six-party talks, which offer the North aid for disabling its nuclear arms program, have been stalled for two years.
The South Korean capital, about 100 km (60 miles) south of the demilitarized zone, is on heightened alert ahead of the summit over concerns Pyongyang may try to create an incident to embarrass its rival.
Washington has pressed Beijing to use its influence over the North not to create an incident in the run up to the meeting.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told a news conference in Seoul that he was not expecting any trouble from across the border.
"I don't think the North will try to do anything when leaders of the international community are meeting to discuss the world economy," he said. "I trust the North won't do anything but still we are fully prepared."
The North this week dismissed reports it would be a "provocateur," but in the past it has staged incidents around big international events in the South.
A military officer said South Korea fired 10 warning shots to force the North Korean vessel to retreat early on Wednesday after crossing into its waters off the west coast near where one of the South's navy vessels was sunk earlier this year.
The officer said the shots were fired after repeated loudspeaker broadcasts were ignored. It was not clear why the vessel crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and why it remained in southern waters for nearly two hours.
It was the first time in seven years that the South has fired warning shots to force a fishing boat to retreat.
SEOUL ON HIGH ALERT
South Korean authorities have ramped up security for next week's G20 summit with 10,000 participants, including 32 heads of government and leaders of international organizations, expected.
Security forces have been put on high alert, anti-aircraft missiles are at the ready, shipping and air routes are under heightened surveillance and airport screening increased.
But Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute of Defence Analyses said North Korea as unlikely to want to escalate tensions.
"It is one thing to try to inflict damage on the South. Ahead of an international event like this, the North is not going to want to take the chance of further isolating itself from the international community," he said.
The North has in the past used high-profile international events in the South to bolster its standing, and analysts have said the North's young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, may seek to burnish his credentials with a hostile act.
Ties between the rival Koreas sank to their lowest level in decades after the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, was torpedoed off the west coast in March, killing 46 sailors. Seoul accuses the North for the attack but Pyongyang denies it.
The waters off the west coast have been the scene of deadly skirmishes in the past that have killed sailors on both sides.
North Korea disputes the sea border which was drawn by the United Nations Command at the end of 1950-53 Korean War.
On Friday an exchange of fire occurred across the Demilitarised Zone, the first such incident in years, but officials have played down the incident, saying it was likely an accident. The United Nations is investigating the skirmish.
The two incidents have occurred despite signs of a thaw in frosty relations on the divided peninsula.
The North has said it wants to resume nuclear talks, but the South has said it will not return to the negotiating table until Pyongyang shows sincerity by acknowledging its role in sinking of the South Korean vessel this year and on denuclearization.
Six-party talks, which offer the North aid for disabling its nuclear arms program, have been stalled for two years.
Jubilant GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
WASHINGTON – Resurgent Republicans won control of the House and cut deeply into the Democrats' majority in the Senate in momentous midterm elections shadowed by recession, ushering in a new era of divided government certain to complicate the final two years of President Barack Obama's term.
House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, voice breaking with emotion, declared shortly before midnight Tuesday that the results were "a repudiation of Washington, a repudiation of big government and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the people."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)