Japan, damaged oil tanker..[ 1547 ]

Mitsui releases photos of damaged oil tanker

(Mainichi Japan) July 30, 2010

Shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. has released photographs of its M. Star oil tanker, which was damaged in what is believed to be an explosion near the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman.
The pictures suggest that there was a powerful blast outside the ship. A lifeboat mounted on its starboard deck was apparently blown away by the force of the blast, while the door of the ship's bridge on its rear starboard side was damaged, exposing insulation materials in the walls and the ceiling inside the room. Another photo shows the window frames of the dining room scattered on tables.

In this photo taken on July 29, 2010, a lifeboat mounted on the starboard side of the M. Star oil supertanker is missing. (Photo courtesy of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.)

"The area around the door was not wet, and it is unlikely that a wave caused the damage," said a company official, denying a media report that a tsunami from an earthquake in Iran caused the accident.

In this photo taken inside the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines' M. Star oil supertanker on July 29, 2010, the door leading to the upper deck is seen damaged by the blast and the walls of the room have collapsed. (Photo courtesy of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.)

According to the shipping company, however, no burning odor was reported nor has it detected any possible cause of the explosion around the damaged area of the vessel. After the blast a crew member saw a flash of light on the horizon, but no one heard a discharge sound, the official added.

In this photo taken inside the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines' M. Star oil supertanker on July 29, 2010, the window frames of the dining room on the starboard upper deck are scattered on the tables. (Photo courtesy of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.)

The shipping company has dispatched a fact-finding team to the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, where the supertanker is docked, and is investigating the cause of the incident in collaboration with the Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (Japan Maritime Association) and U.S. and British navel forces.

Click here for the original Japanese story

Forest fires in central Russia..[ 1546 ]

	Forest fires in central Russia
	MOSCOW, July 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Forest fires resulting from record-high and long heatwave and drought quickly spread in central Russia because of strong wind on Thursday and destroyed nearly 500 wooden houses forcing rescuers to launch mass evacuation of people. The emergency department of Nizhni Novgorod region said fires swept away the village of Upper Vereya in less than an hour destroying all the 341 wooden buildings. All the 580 residents of Upper Vereya were evacuated. “There are no victims and all the people have been accommodated in two school buildings in the town of Vyksha,” a spokesman of the emergency service said. Houses were also on fire in the village of Tamboles with 308 residents and 205 buildings. Evacuation is underway. Twelve out of 34 houses were also on fire in the village of Borkovka and residents were evacuated. The emergency service said additional firefighting teams from neighboring regions have been dispatched. In Voronezh region raging fires killed a fireman raising the death toll to two, spokeswoman of the Russian Emergency ministry Irina Andiranova said. Authorities had to bloc traffic on a 100-kilometer section of the Don highway in Voronezh region as surrounding forests were on fire and the smoke reduced visibility to 50 meters. Fires have surrounded Voronezh outskirts from the north, west and south. Rescuers evacuated over 600 children from summer camps and patients of a hospital. Twenty wooden residential houses were burnt down. Local emergency service said over 600 hectares of forests were on fire in the past week and close to 50 houses were destroyed. In Volgograd region forest fires rage on a territory of 200 hectares, however the threat to four residential settlements with 500 residents was eliminated, local emergency service spokeswoman Yelena Rodionova said. Strong wind aggravated the situation with peat fires in three eastern/southeast districts around Moscow – Yegoryevsk, Kolomna and Shatura, Viktor Klimkin, deputy chief of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s Moscow branch said on Thursday night. “Because of the wind these blazes are moving to the category of crown fires from ground fires,” he said. Klimkin said the fires do not pose an immediate threat for Moscow. In the meantime, the Russian Railways Company (RZD) warned raging forest fires may bloc rail traffic to the southeast. RZD said it may find it necessary to introduce changes in the schedules “to ensure the security of traffic and safety of passengers.”

Armenians killed and driven out of Turkey in 1915,,[ 1545 ]

Armenian-Americans sue Turkey, banks over losses

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Armenian-Americans have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against the Turkish government and two major Turkish banks for alleged damages dating back nearly a century.

Genocide:

972000 Armenians disappeared from the population lists in 1915 in Turkey

Attorneys say heirs of Armenians killed and driven out of Turkey in 1915 are entitled to billions of dollars for property seized from their ancestors. They are seeking class-action status for the case filed Thursday.

Attorneys say the case is the first Armenian lawsuit directly naming the Turkish government as a defendant. Also named are the Central Bank of Turkey and T.C., Ziraat Bankasi. E-mails to both banks were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit says the property taken includes businesses, bank deposits and vast amounts of land. Lawyers say some priceless artifacts seized are now on display in Turkish museums.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Greece, the truckers strike..[ 1544 ]

Greek truckers told to end strike

irishtimes.com - 

Last Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 06:34

The Greek government ordered striking truck drivers to go back to work yesterday, the third day of their nationwide stoppage, as fuel shortages started to hurt the country.

"[The strike] has caused serious disruption of public and economic life and endangers public health with a lack of sufficient supply of fuel, food and medicine," government spokesman George Petalotis said in a statement.

Thousands of striking truck drivers have been lining the highways since Monday to protest against plans to open the sector to competition, a key reform in a multi-billion euro EU/IMF package aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis.

The truck drivers now have 24 hours to return to work or face arrest and the risk of losing their licences.

Union members said they would ignore the order. "We will not obey. They can come and get our trucks if they want," said unionist Spyros Kapetanios.

A team of EU, IMF and ECB officials is visiting Athens to monitor progress in implementing the bailout plan and decide whether to release a 9 billion euro tranche of aid in September.

The EU/IMF plan requires Greece to open up road freight to increased competition by September and to adopt legislation to liberalise other closed professions such as lawyers and architects by June 2011.

The socialist government's first attempt to open up closed professions - lifting restrictions on cruise ship crews - was met with heated protests last month that affected tourism, a key pillar of the €240 billion economy.

Road freight is one of the most closed professions in Greece and no new licences have been issued for decades. Some economists say opening up the sector could lower business costs and boost GDP by 1 percentage point per year.

The truckers' strike has affected fuel supplies, and worried holiday-makers have been queueing to fill their tanks.

The economic crisis has pushed Greece into its first recession in 16 years, lifting unemployment to a 10-year high.

Reuters

Military cargo plane crashed in flames..[ 1543 ]

Military cargo plane crashes in Alaska

'It's likely there are fatalities involved in this mishap,' official says

Roger Herrera / AP

A plume of smoke rises Wednesday after a plane crashed near Elmendorf Air Force in Anchorage, Alaska.-

ANCHORAGE, Alaska 29 / 7 / 2010— 

A military cargo plane on a training run crashed in flames Wednesday at an Air Force base near downtown Anchorage, officials said. Witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire rising hundreds of feet high.

Four people were onboard the C-17 Globemaster, Air Force Capt. Uriah Orland said.

After the 6:14 p.m. crash at Elmendorf Air Force Base, access routes to the site, which was not on a runway, were closed.

Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins said the plane had been training for an upcoming weekend air show.

Atkins noted the plane was not an ejection aircraft, and said no one was expected to have survived. "It's likely there are fatalities involved in this mishap," Atkins said.

The plane was from the 3rd Wing, based at Elmendorf.

'I saw a fireball' Anchorage Fire Dept. Captain Bryan Grella said his crew was eating dinner at about 6:30 p.m. at the downtown fire station when something caught his eye.

"It was a big, gray plume of smoke, and I saw a fireball go up in it," he said.

The fireball extended about 750 feet in the air. He estimated the plume to be about two miles from downtown.

A board of officers will investigate the crash, which occurred in a wooded area.

The 3rd Wing at Elmendorf is a unit consisting of 6,000 Air Force personnel who fly fighter jets and other military aircraft.

The Boeing C-17 is a high-wing, four-engine aircraft that Boeing touts on its website as capable of carrying "large equipment, supplies and troops directly to small airfields in harsh terrain anywhere in the world day or night."

"The massive, sturdy, long-haul aircraft tackles distance, destination and heavy, oversized payloads in unpredictable conditions."

It's the third airplane incident in Anchorage this summer. In June, one child was killed and four others burned when a small plane crashed after taking off from the city's small-airplane airport in downtown Anchorage.

Days later, a small plane landed on the busy Glenn Highway, the only highway leading north out of Anchorage. There were no injuries in the latter mishap.

Gov. Sean Parnell and Sen. Mark Begich issued statements late Wednesday expressing sadness over the crash and sending well-wishes to members of the military.

"Alaskans are very connected to the military, and our thoughts and prayers are with Alaska's Air Force family," Parnell said.

Elmendorf's worst air crash was in September 1995, when several geese were sucked into the engine of an AWACS plane just after takeoff. That plane was on a training mission as well. All 24 crew members perished.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.