Gamiaw Bulletin

Monday, January 8, 2018

WORLD | Burning tanker off Chinese coast 'in danger of exploding'

Oil tanker on fire — Image caption The Sanchi has a crew complement of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis

There are fears of an environmental disaster in the East China Sea as a tanker continues to leak oil two days after colliding with a cargo ship.

Chinese officials have told state media the Sanchi is in danger of exploding and sinking.

Rescuers attempting to reach the site were being beaten back by toxic clouds, the transportation ministry has said.

The body of one crewman, among the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on board, has been found. The rest are missing.

Where, how and when did the accident happen?

The Panama-flagged Sanchi was bringing its cargo of oil from Iran to South Korea when it collided with the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal, carrying grain from the US, in the East China Sea. The incident occurred about 260km (160 miles) off the coast of Shanghai.

The collision, in the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta, occurred on Saturday evening.

The exact cause of the collision is not yet known.

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What exactly is the Sanchi carrying?

The tanker, run by Iran's leading oil shipping operator, has on board 136,000 tonnes of condensate, which is an ultra light version of crude oil.

That's about one million barrels and at current prices is worth roughly $60m (£44m).

The Sanchi will also be carrying a certain amount of heavy - and toxic - shipping fuel.

Condensate is very different from the black crude that is often seen in oil spills.

It exists in gas form within high-pressure oil reservoirs and liquefies once extracted.

It is highly toxic, low in density and considerably more explosive than regular crude oil.

Condensate, which does not need the heavy refining process of denser crude, creates products such as jet fuel, petrol, diesel and heating fuel.

So is it bad for the environment?

Condensate is certainly very toxic. It remains liquid only under certain conditions.

John Driscoll of JTD Energy Services told the BBC: "Condensate is more likely to evaporate or mix in with the water.

"It also can be colour- and odour-less, so it is a lot harder to detect, contain and clean up."

The environmental impact of the spill may be mitigated by the distance of the collision from the nearest coastline and the fact lighter crudes can disperse more quickly.

But environmental expert Wei Xianghua told Agence France-Presse: "It's very possible this will kill off marine life across a wide area."

How is the rescue going?

The Sanchi was still ablaze on Monday morning.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that weather conditions were "not that favourable for search and rescue work".

Image caption A Chinese fire-fighting vessel tackles the blaze on the Sanchi

There are no signs of survivors among the 32-strong crew, although the 21 Chinese nationals on the grain freighter were rescued.

China has sent several ships to carry out search-and-rescue operations, while South Korea helped with a coast guard ship and a helicopter.

The US Navy also sent a military aircraft to help with the rescue efforts.

How does this compare with other oil spills?

It's impossible to say at this point, because it's unknown how much oil has been, or will be, spilled.

The Sanchi's one million barrels is about 35 million gallons. Even if all of it spilled, it would be less than the major ship disasters listed below, but more than three times the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, which is considered one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

So, how much the spill affects the environment depends on the location where it occurred. The Atlantic Empress incident listed below - the record spill from ships - saw little oil reach coastlines.

Image caption Cleaning up after the Torrey Canyon disaster

There's also a lot of different types. Arguably the worst was the deliberate release of up to 500 million gallons by the Iraqis in January 1991 during the Gulf War. The resultant slick covered some 10,300 sq km (4,000 sq miles).

As far as ships are concerned:

The Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain collided off Trinidad and Tobago in 1979. The Atlantic Empress exploded and 26 crew members died. The 90 million gallon oil spill is a record from ships
The ABT Summer exploded off Angola in 1991, spilling about 80 million gallons over 200 sq km
The Castillo de Bellver caught fire and broke apart off Cape Town, spilling 78 million gallons
The Amoco Cadiz spilled almost 69 million gallons after running aground off Brittany in France in 1978
The Torrey Canyon hit a reef off Cornwall, England, in 1967, spilling 36 million gallons of crude and affecting almost 200 miles of coastline
The Exxon Valdez only spilled 11 million gallons in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989 but was a major environmental disaster

NATION | Dela Rosa: 67 rogue cops to be axed this month

The erring policemen committed various offenses such as involvement in illegal drugs, grave misconduct and neglect of duty. STAR/Emmanuel Tupas, File © Philstar

MANILA, Philippines — Sixty-seven policemen involved in various offenses would be dismissed from service in January, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said Monday.

In a televised press briefing, Dela Rosa said that the National Police Commission would give the resolution of its investigations on scalawag cops to President Rodrigo Duterte within the month.

The erring policemen committed various offenses such as involvement in illegal drugs, grave misconduct and neglect of duty.

Dela Rosa revealed that even ranking officials, including a senior superintendent, would be sacked.

These include the cops involved in the indiscriminate firing incident during the New Year revelries and in the "mistaken identity" shooting incident in Mandaluyong City last month.

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Dela Rosa, whose term was extended until April, said he would be harsher to rogue policemen.

"Maybe we can be harsher this time around. Harsh, harsh, harsh to the harshest level. We will show no mercy to erring cops," Dela Rosa said in a mix of English and Filipino.

The outgoing police chief added that the internal cleansing of the PNP's ranks is his priority in his last months in office.

He is supposed to retire on January 21 when he reaches 56, the mandatory retirement age for the uniformed services. But Duterte extended his term for another three months.

Dela Rosa will be the next head of the Bureau of Corrections.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

WORLD | North Korea accidentally hit one of its own cities with a missile, report says

The Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile is believed to have crashed into the city Tokchon, which has a population of 200,000

A North Korean missile reportedly crashed into one of its own cities after it failed just minutes following its launch.

US officials said the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) was initially thought to have disintegrated mid-flight after it was fired on 28 April last year.

However, new data suggests it landed in the city of Tokchon, around 90 miles north of the secretive communist country’s capital, Pyongyang. Tokchon has a population of around 200,000.

The missile was launched from an airfield just over 40 miles north of North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang.

An unnamed U.S. official explained to The Diplomat that due to an engine malfunction, the projectile made it only a minute into its test flight and traveled about 25 miles northeast before hitting the ground.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Dec. 8, 2014.

The Diplomat cross-referenced the failed missile's approximate landing site with Google Earth and other satellite imaging to find that the suspected landing area did indeed seem to show signs of "considerable damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings."

Several structures appeared damaged in satellite images, reportedly by debris from the failed launch.

While there have been no confirmed reports of deaths in Tokchon as a result of the failed missile test, the images published by The Diplomat seem to show that the missile came perilously close to exploding in more densely inhabited areas, marking the risk of test launches.

The missile likely exploded on impact, causing significant damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings, The Diplomat magazine reported, citing a US intelligence source alongside satellite imagery.

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After its launch from the Pukchang airfield, the missile flew approximately 24 miles to the north-east, the report stated, adding that it flew no higher than around 43 miles.

A US government source said the missile’s first stage engines failed around a minute after it was launched.

Liquid-fuel missiles can cause massive explosions when they fail, and satellite images from Google Earth taken after the test show a cleared area where a building once stood and damage to a greenhouse caused by debris.

However, as the publication pointed out, it is impossible to verify whether the accidental strike caused any deaths due to the secretive nature of the North Korean regime.

The report highlights the danger of another North Korean missile test failing at the wrong time. If the missile fell towards Japan, its trajectory may resemble an attack.

The hermit kingdom, which has launched ballistic missiles over Japan since August 2017, gives no warnings before its tests, leaving nearby countries and the United States little time to determine whether missile launches are a test or a legitimate attack.

The report also warned that the North’s newly constructed tunnels, hangars and storage sites mean its missiles won’t be “sitting ducks” easily targeted on known launch pads.

The Diplomat article comes as Japan’s Prime Minister warned that the security situation facing his country is the most perilous since the Second World War because of North Korea’s “unacceptable provocations”.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the security environment surrounding Japan is at its severest since World War Two,” Shinzo Abe said, as he vowed to bolster the country’s defences and protect the Japanese people.

“By raising pressure on North Korea, together with the international community, I intend to do my utmost to solve North Korea’s nuclear, missiles and abduction issues.”

Earlier this week, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the US was hearing reports North Korea might be preparing to fire another missile.

A ballistic missile launch was “possible, if not likely, in the coming days”, military officials told NBC News. One official said a possible launch could happen mid-week, while another called the timeline “short term”.

Donald Trump also mocked Kim Jong-un by saying he had a “bigger and more powerful” nuclear button than the North Korean dictator.

“North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times’. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” the US President tweeted. CTO