Britain’s Forgotten Prison Island: Remembering the Thousands of Convicts Who Died Working in Bermuda’s Dockyards
We think of Bermuda as a tiny paradise in the North Atlantic. But long before cruise ships moored up, prison ships carried hundreds of convicts to the island, first docking in 1824 and remaining there for decades.Islands have long been places to deport, exile and banish criminals. Think of Alcatraz, the infamous penitentiary in San Francisco, or Robben Island in South Africa, which held Nelson Mandela. The French penal colony Devil’s Island was immortalised in the Steve McQueen film Papillon…
Two US Navy Sailors Arrested for Sharing Military Secrets with China
Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested on charges of handing over sensitive national security material to China, U.S. officials said Thursday.Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was charged with conspiracy and bribetaking in connection with taking nearly $15,000 in exchange for photographs and videos of sensitive U.S. military information, the officials said. U.S. Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, whose age was not disclosed, was charged with conspiring to send national defense information…
Djibouti, DP World in Legal Spat
Djibouti said it had started legal action against DP World, seeking to rescind the Dubai-owned port operator's concession in Africa's largest container terminal in a row over how the contract was awarded. "The resulting agreement unfairly favoured DP World," the government said in a statement, which questioned payments made in winning the concession in 2000. DP World said it rejected Djibouti's allegations. "We categorically reject the accusations and will vigorously defend our position during arbitration," a company spokesperson told Reuters by email.
Hazardous Waste Ship Sparks Protest
Canada's refusal to accept a hazardous waste shipment from a U.S. military base in Japan left U.S. authorities scrambling to find at least a temporary home for the unwanted cargo now aboard a Chinese-owned ship. Environmentalists planned to picket at the Port of Seattle in an attempt to persuade local longshoremen not to unload 14 containers holding electrical transformers contaminated with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the freighter Wen He. Longshoremen's union officials declined comment, but sources familiar with the situation said the union had agreed to unload the ship's other cargo and leave the PCB-laden containers on board. The U.S. Coast Guard will not allow the containers to be unloaded in Seattle without a special permit from the U.S.
