Sini News

The environmental activist group Greenpeace managed to board and get a coal-carrying freighter on its way from St. Petersburg to change its course before arriving to Helsinki harbour. A Greenpeace activist has scaled the 155m long bulk carrier, Alppila, transporting coal to one of Finland’s most polluting power plants in central Helsinki. The coal ship and its climate-damaging cargo have now aborted its entry to the Port of Helsinki and now steam away from Helsinki accompanied by a Finnish coast guard vessel. One activist made the climb up the side of the Alppila and was immediately detained by the crew onboard. Later, however, the activist managed to climb a crane onboard the coal ship and get to the grab.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for a protected area around the North Pole which could ban oil companies and industrial fishing fleets from the region, informs Greenpeace. The move represents a clear break from the current positions of ‘Arctic Council’ members such as Norway, Denmark, Canada and Russia who have resisted calls for permanent protection of the Arctic region. In contrast, Finland, another Arctic state, recently adopted the sanctuary proposal as official policy. “What happens in the Arctic matters to us all.

The European Parliament today passed a resolution calling for a protected area around the North Pole which could ban oil companies and industrial fishing fleets from the region. The text echoes the demands of an international campaign which has attracted the support of over five million people including Sir Paul McCartney and U.S. oceanographer, Sylvia Earle. The move represents a clear break from the current positions of ‘Arctic Council’ members such as Norway, Denmark, Canada and Russia who have resisted calls for permanent protection of the Arctic region.

Two Greenpeace activists were today granted bail in St Petersburg, becoming the fourth and fifth of the so-called Arctic 30 to be told they will soon be released. Brazilian Ana Paula Maciels, 31, and David Haussmann from New Zealand, 49, from New Zealand were told they will be released from jail if they can provide financial surety within four days. The development came the day after three Russian activists were told on Monday, November 18 they would be released from prison and, on the same day, an Australian activist was refused bail and ordered to return to jail until February 24.

Greenpeace International activist Frank Hewetson (U.K.) has been refused bail by the Regional Court of Murmansk in Russia, bringing the number of rejected bail appeals to 10. Activist Marco Weber (Switzerland) also appeared in court today, but his appeal hearing was postponed until October 21 due to the lack of a German language translator. Italian crew member Cristian D'Alessandro will appear in court later  for his bail hearing and more appeals will be held later this week.

Greenpeace in a 'Tweet' report their ship, 'Arctic Sunrise', boarded in the Pechora Sea by the Russian Coast Guard, and the 25 crew arrested and locked in a room, following a protest against Gazprom's Arctic drilling operations. The Greenpeace website carried information that by means of a helicopter and ropes, armed Coast Guard officials boarded the vessel and started rounding up the activists, assembling them on the helideck. Greenpeace International activists locked inside the radio room said they saw other activists detained on their knees with guns pointed at them.