GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rescuers were reporting 219 saved at 08:00 Swiss time but another 350 are missing after a boat disaster in Papua New Guinea. The MV Rabaul Queen, operated by Star Ships, which is one of the country’s largest ferry operators, sank between Lae and Kimbe West after being reported missing at about 08:30 local time Thursday 2 February, but the reason for the boat going down is not yet known. Australian News.com reports that six merchant vessels are in the area, helping search for survivors and that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has “arranged ships in the area to conduct rescues and for aircraft to fly over the area”.
The owners issued a statement, according to Reuters, that the boat sank quickly, without sending a distress signal.
New Britain Island is a hugely popular diving area that pulls in international tourists.
Links to other sites: Herald Sun, Australia, Reuters
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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, could have a lifespan of only 40 years if measures are not taken soon: the city is being invaded by the sea, at a rate of 25 metres a year. Local homes and businesses are collapsing as water seeps in from the ocean, undermining their foundations and creating a marshland, reports allAfrica. A recent government study shows that 80 percent of the capital could be submerged in less than 20 years.
The fault appears to be due to several factors, including the city’s port changing the shoreline, water being pumped from the Senegal River, lack of proper drainage, leaks in the old pipes used for the city’s drinking water and sand taken from the beaches for construction. The latter has opened breaches in the seawall, according to one local authority.
Mauritania has one of the least secure water supplies in Africa and is extremely dry, inland from the capital, with the Senegal as its only major river.
Links to other sources: “Surfing from a sinking ship”, EcoWarrior, Reuters
S Korea and US will have joint sea missions
Late Tuesday North Korea announced that it is severing all communication and relations with the South, and South Korea said that it is cutting trade and it will not allow ships from the North to pass through its waters.
South Korea and the US will carry out military exercises at sea together as part of their response to the South’s claims that North Korea torpedoed one of its submarines 26 March. Forty-six sailors died in the incident.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came out with a firm statement Monday backing South Korea and demanding that the North stop its “belligerant behaviour.” For the first time in several years the South Korean government intervened to support its currency, which fell sharply as fears grew over escalating tensions between the two Koreas.
A commercial ship carrying 83 passengers and crew, plus livestock, has sunk off the coast of Lebanon in stormy seas. Rescue operations have been hampered by bad weather and choppy water, but 34 survivors have been rescued, four people are known to be dead,and the search for others from the Panamanian-registered Dany F II continues. Authorites believe the ship was traveling from Uruguay to Syria. The animals are believed to have all died.
A week earlier, an Israeli ship in need of repair was rescued in waters off Lebanon when it sank.
Links to other sites: AP, Arutz Sheva, Israel
(AP video) A ferry with more than 242 people aboard sank in heavy seas off the island of Sumatra Sunday. A dramatic rescue operation brought some 240 people to safety, but at least 29 people died, and it was clear that the ferry’s manifest did not list all the people aboard, not uncommon in a region where ferries are often over-crowded. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but its passengers are safe.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo, Reuters
[CNN video] Millvina Dean of Hampshire, England, died Sunday at the age of 97. The last living survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, she had to sell some of her mementoes, report CNN and the BBC, to pay for the cost of her nursing home care, but she remained upbeat to the end. Her mother and brother were saved along with the nine week old girl in 1912, but her father died when the luxury ship sank aftering hitting an iceberg. BBC
