Janet Lawrence News

Idris, 22, was convinced he was going to die when the small boat he and dozens of other migrants were on began to sink in the Channel as he tried to reach England from France.It was only thinking of his parents back home, and the fact that he had embarked on this perilous journey to help his family, that gave him the strength to stay afloat, he told Reuters.Six people died when the boat sank on Saturday. More than 60 people, mostly Afghans, were saved by French and British rescue teams, including Idris and 15-year-old Fawad.

Rescuers searching for a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic on Wednesday concentrated their efforts on a remote area of the North Atlantic where a series of undersea noises have been detected, though officials cautioned the sounds may not have originated from the vessel.With estimates suggesting the air supply on board the submersible could run out by Thursday morning, an international coalition of rescue teams has swept a vast expanse of the ocean for signs of the Titan…

Rescuers were in a race against time to find a missing submersible on Tuesday, two days after it lost communication while taking wealthy tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic in deep waters off Canada's coast.One pilot and four passengers were on board the submersible that disappeared on Sunday. The operating company said it had the capacity to stay underwater for up to 96 hours - giving those aboard until early on Thursday before air ran out.U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral…

Life-saving water supplies from a New Zealand navy ship were distributed across Tonga's main island on Friday, as other countries battled the logistics of delivering aid to one of the world's remotest communities.Six days after the South Pacific archipelago was devastated by a volcanic eruption and tsunami that deposited a blanket of ash and polluted its water sources, the HMNZS Aotearoa docked in the capital, Nuku’alofa.The ship carried 250,000 liters of water and desalination equipment able to produce 70,000 litres more per day, New Zealand's High Commission said."Trucks ...

Thai navy sailors braved choppy waters to launch a dramatic rescue this week after discovering four cats had been abandoned on a sinking ship that caught fire off a paradise island.After the crew had been taken to safety on Tuesday, the navy was sent to the site of the capsized vessel to check for an oil spill, but discovered a few crew members had been forgotten.“I used my camera to zoom in to the boat, and I saw one or two cats popping their heads out,” said First-Class Petty Officer Wichit Pukdeelon of the navy’s air and coastal defense division.A sailor in a life vest swam out to the capsi

A set of 10 hand-drawn, 16th century maps showing the progress of the Spanish Armada that attacked England in 1588, an event that shaped national identity, will remain in the country after a museum raised 600,000 pounds ($824,000) to buy them.The ink and watercolor maps, thought to be the earliest surviving images of the battles between the fleets of Queen Elizabeth I of England and of Philip II of Spain, had been at risk of export after a private sale last year.The government placed an export bar on the maps in July…

British navigator Jimmy Cornell set sail from Seville in Spain on Thursday to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first voyage around the world—this time on an electric boat.Cornell plans to follow the route taken by explorers Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano.The trip "has two dimensions, a historical dimension, because I want to travel the original and historic route," Cornell told reporters."But it has another very important dimension for me, which is to protect the environment.

The ship-to-shore crane paused above the cargo ship just arrived from Dubai, then set its load down on the pier in Israel.One after another, eight containers filled with electronics, cleaning supplies, iron, and firefighting equipment were unloaded off the MSC Paris, one of the first cargo ships to make the voyage between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.Just a few months ago, such a journey from Dubai's Jebel Ali port to the northern Israeli port city of Haifa would have been unthinkable.The countries announced a normalization deal in August which laid the ground for a potentially profitable new trade route.The diplomatic breakthrough stemmed from a strategic realignment of Middle East nations…

A Lithuanian-flagged ferry carrying 335 people is powerless in the Baltic Sea but no one is reported injured, a spokesman for Danish ferry company DFDS told Reuters."There was vibration and there was smoke, but no fire was noticed," the spokesman said, contradicting earlier reports from the Lithuanian military of a fire on board the vessel.He could not say whether the passengers and crew were in any danger and said the ferry would have to be towed to port.The company said the ferry would be towed to the Lithuanian port town of Klaipeda, where it was heading from Kiel in Germany when it experienced technical problems.Lithuania's Defence Ministry said "the fire has been extinguished" and that four Lithuanian military ships were heading towards the ferry and will reach it by 1500 GMT.The ferr

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it has resumed all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb.Saudi Arabia halted temporarily oil shipments through the lane on July 25 after attacks on two oil tankers by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement.A statement by the Energy Ministry said shipments had resumed on Saturday."The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab al-Mandeb was made after the leadership of the coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the coalition states' ships…

Freight is being delivered despite shallow water on the Rhine and other rivers in Germany due to drought, a shipping industry group said on Tuesday, although many vessels are being forced to carry lighter loads."On the Rhine, by far Germany’s most important inland waterway, river vessels can, depending on area, often only transport half of their normal loads, sometimes even less," said the association of German inland waterways shipping companies BDB.The Rhine is too shallow for normal sailings from Duisburg to south Germany, traders said on Monday.

Italy on Friday urged Malta to go to the aid of an overcrowded boat carrying hundreds of migrants, only hours after the Italian president intervened to end a dispute within the ruling coalition over rescued immigrants.There have been two similar stand-offs with Malta since Italy's new populist government, which pairs the far-right League party with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, took power on June 1.Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is also leader of the League, said Italy would not take in the migrants because they were Malta's responsibility. Malta, a small island nation, has generally refused to take in large numbers of boat migrants.Italy has seen more than 650…

East Libyan forces said on Thursday they had retaken the shuttered oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, though clashes resumed south of Ras Lanuf in the afternoon after a counter-attack by rival factions.Staff were evacuated from terminals in Libya's eastern oil crescent and exports were suspended last Thursday when armed opponents of eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar stormed the ports and occupied them.The closure has led to production losses of up to 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) and two oil storage tanks were destroyed or badly damaged by fires during the fighting.For the past week, Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) has pounded the area with air strikes as it mobilised to retake the ports…

Danish inventor Peter Madsen tied up and abused Swedish journalist Kim Wall before murdering her on board his home-built submarine, according to the indictment published on Tuesday. Madsen planned the murder by bringing items, including a saw and screwdrivers, which were used to hit, cut and stab Wall while she was alive, the prosecutors said. Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist who was researching a story on the entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, went missing after Madsen took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August last year.

More than 5,000 migrants were saved on Tuesday and Wednesday off the Libyan coast and 28 bodies recovered, bringing the total number of people rescued this week to more than 11,000, Italy's coast guard said. More than 20 people were reported to have suffocated in the hold of one overloaded fishing boat, bringing the total death toll for Monday and Tuesday to 50. Italian officials said three women saved on Monday had given birth over the past 24 hours on a coast guard vessel that was bringing some 1,000 refugees to Sicily. The women and their three children were all reported to be in good health. The coast guard said the 4,655 migrants rescued on Tuesday were taken from 33 overcrowded boats…

Egypt has finished building its New Suez Canal, its overseer said on Wednesday, a project President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sees as a symbol of national pride and a major chance to stimulate an economy suffering double-digit unemployment. The army led work 11 months ago on the $8-billion canal, flanking the existing, 145-year-old waterway and part of a larger undertaking to expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal is a vital source of hard currency for Egypt, particularly since the 2011 uprising that scared off tourists and foreign investment.

U.S. Navy ships started accompanying U.S.-flagged commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, seeking to ensure freedom of navigation two days after Iran seized a cargo ship, U.S. defense officials said. The officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described the decision as incremental, saying it was a precautionary move expected to be for a limited time involving Navy ships already deployed to the area. They also stressed that the Navy would not be "escorting" ships, which would involve moving in much closer proximity. One noted the Navy ships would be in communication with the U.S.-flagged vessels and somewhat nearby but not necessarily closely trailing them.

Greece's government is considering selling stakes in its two largest ports as a concession to reach an agreement with its lenders and unlock bailout funds, a government official said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's new leftist government had sought to cancel significant terms of Athens' bailout programme, calling it a "crime" to sell off strategic national assets. But hard-pressed for cash and with its euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund demanding policy concessions before they agree to release remaining bailout aid, the government has softened its stance. "The negotiating team wants a deal with lenders and we are willing to sell Piraeus and Thessaloniki ports, 51 percent stakes," a government official told reporters.

Maersk said on Wednesday Iranian authorities had told it the Maersk Tigris vessel had been seized over an unresolved claim, but as it had not received any documents it could not confirm this had been the reason for Iran's actions. Iranian patrol boats on Tuesday fired warning shots as they intercepted the vessel in one of the world's busiest oil shipping lanes, spurring the United States to send military vessels to monitor the situation. "They (Iranian authorities) informed us that the seizure of Maersk Tigris is related to an allegedly unresolved cargo claim," Maersk said in a statement. "We have however not received any written notification or similar pertaining to the claim or the seizure of the vessel.

A cargo ship seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards forces is being escorted to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas after it was approached in international waters, the shipping line which is hiring the vessel said on Tuesday.   "According to our information the vessel is currently being escorted towards Bandar Abbas in Iran by Iranian patrol boats," Maersk Line spokesman Michael Christian Storgaard said. He said the shipping line was exploring options to resolve the situation.   Reuters tracking data showed the ship, the Maersk Tigris, still at anchor some 12 km (8 miles) off Bandar Abbas at 2026 GMT.     (Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Naval units from Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seized a cargo ship in the Gulf on Tuesday for legal reasons, an IRGC source was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. The report, which described the ship as "an American cargo vessel with a Marshall Islands flag", said there were 34 crew members on board who were mostly Europeans. The source told IRNA the incident was a civil matter with no military or political dimension. The IRGC is Iran's elite military force and operates its own land, naval and air forces under a separate command chain from the regular armed forces. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency earlier said the ship was seized after a court order was issued for its confiscation…

Rickmers Shipmanagement, the Singapore-based company that has chartered the Maersk Tigris, said Iranian officials fired warning shots at the container ship and boarded it on Tuesday.   Spokesman Cor Radings told Danish TV2 news channel the company was concerned for the 24 crew members on board, most of whom come from Eastern Europe and Asia.   He said the vessel was running along a normal commercial route between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and that the company did not yet know why Iran had stopped it.     (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

The Iranian navy seized a ship on Tuesday at the request of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, the English-language service of Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported.   "The ship is a trade vessel and has been seized by the Iranian navy," said Fars, citing what it called an informed source.   "The ship was seized after a relevant court order was issued for its confiscation," the source was quoted as saying, referring to differences between the ports organisation and the vessel's owner. It did not identify the owner.   (Reporting by Yara Bayoumy, Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Janet Lawrence)