Public Broadcaster News

Greenpeace activists painted slogans on an Estonian-owned tanker in the middle of the Baltic Sea on Friday, and said the ship supplied bunker fuel to vessels transporting Russian oil that posed a danger to the environment and would fuel conflict."Oil fuels war," the campaigners, who arrived in small boats, scrawled in large white letters on the side of the Zircone tanker, pictures provided by Greenpeace showed.The vessel, sitting in international waters off the Swedish island of Gotland, has supplied fuel to more than 50 oil tankers travelling to or from Russian ports in the last two months, S

At least nine people were killed when a South Korean-flagged vessel capsized off Japan, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday.Two South Korean nationals were among the dead, it said, adding that the Japanese coastguard had rescued an Indonesian crew member and that another member of the crew of 11 was missing.The ministry did not provide the name of the vessel.Public broadcaster NHK, citing the coastguard, reported on Wednesday that a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker had capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan…

A South Korean-flagged chemical tanker has capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, with seven deaths confirmed, public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing the coastguard.The tanker, Keoyoung Sun, was anchored due to bad weather and requested assistance after 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday (2200 GMT on Tuesday), reporting the vessel was tilting over, NHK reported.The vessel had 11 crew aboard.

A South Korean-flagged chemical tanker has capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, with operations to rescue the crew underway, public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing the Coast Guard.The tanker, Keoyoung Sun, requested assistance after 0700 local time (2200 GMT), reporting the vessel was tilting over, and had 11 crew onboard with four people rescued so far, NHK reported.(Reuters - Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Ukraine said on Wednesday Russian warplanes had dropped "explosive objects" into the likely paths of civilian vessels in the Black Sea three times in the last 24 hours, but that its fledgling shipping corridor was still operating.Ukraine is trying to build up a new shipping lane without Russian approval to revive its vital seaborne exports. Russia said it would consider any vessel a potential military target after it quit a U.N.-brokered deal in July that allowed some food exports…

A fire broke out on Wednesday aboard oil major Equinor's Johan Castberg floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is under construction at a shipyard in Norway, public broadcaster NRK reported.Workers were evacuated and there were no reports of injuries, according to the report.The Arctic Johan Castberg oilfield is scheduled to come onstream in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Norwegian government said last year.Equinor was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.(Reuters - Reporting by Terje Solsvik, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Russian missiles hit Ukraine's southern port of Odesa on Saturday, the Ukrainian military said, threatening a deal signed just a day earlier to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease global food shortages caused by the war.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the strike blatant "barbarism" showing Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal. However, public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying the missiles had not caused significant…

Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the western Pacific Ocean over the past week, Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday, a move Japan said it was monitoring.Moscow and Beijing, which staged naval cooperation drills in the Sea of Japan earlier in October, have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured.The naval maneuvers, which Russia said ran from Sunday through Saturday…

A crew member of a Japanese cargo ship was feared dead on Sunday after he was recovered near a vessel that had capsized and sunk following a collision in domestic waters, local media reported.Japanese coast guard ships and aircraft have been searching since Friday for three missing crew members of the cargo ship after the collision with a Marshall Islands-registered tanker in the Seto Inland Sea.Public broadcaster NHK said the coast guard found the crew member in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest on Sunday morning near the sunk vessel.The Japanese coast guard was not immediately reachable by phone on Sunday.Japan's Transport Safety Board is conducting an investigation on board the chemical tanker…

The Dutch government has granted a consortium that includes oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil around 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in subsidies for what is set to become one of the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the world, the Port of Rotterdam said on Sunday.Shell and Exxon requested the subsidies in January together with industrial gas suppliers Air Liquide and Air Products for a project which aims to capture CO2 emitted by factories and refineries…

The crew of a Dutch cargo ship was evacuated in stormy weather off the coast of Norway late on Monday, leaving the abandoned vessel adrift and in danger of sinking and causing an oil spill, local authorities said on Tuesday.Footage released by the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Centre showed some of the 12 crew members jumping into the ocean from the badly listing Eemslift Hendrika before being rescued by helicopter. Others were hoisted directly from the deck.All were brought to safety…

Estonia, Sweden and Finland will look into fresh evidence on the sinking of the ferry Estonia, which went down 26 years ago on Monday with the loss of 852 lives in Europe’s worst peacetime maritime disaster since World War Two.The roll-on roll-off ferry, carrying 803 passengers and 186 crew, sank on a stormy Baltic Sea shortly after midnight on Sept. 28, 1994. The official investigation in 1997 concluded that the bow shield had failed, damaging the bow ramp and flooding the car deck.However…

The wreckage of a major German warship has been discovered off the coast of Norway some 80 years after it was sunk in a World War Two battle, Norwegian power grid operator Statnett and a maritime archaeologist said.Identified this year from images and sonar scans of its hull and of details such as the position of gun turrets, the cruiser Karlsruhe was first detected in 2017 just 15 meters (50 feet) from a subsea power cable that has been operating since 1977.Built in the 1920s…

As many as 91 crew of an Italian cruise ship docked in the Japanese port of Nagasaki are infected with coronavirus, officials said on Friday, as questions persist over how they might return to their home countries.Authorities have tested about half the vessel’s crew of 623 and are racing to screen the rest. Those who test negative will be repatriated, the government said.The vessel, the Costa Atlantica, was taken into a shipyard in Nagasaki in February for repairs and maintenance after the pandemic prevented its scheduled repairs in China.Earlier this year, more than 700 of its passengers and crew tested positive for the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise liner as it was docked in Yokohama.Nagasaki authorities quarantined the Costa Atlantica on arrival in Japan…

A man who had been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship and was infected with coronavirus has died, bringing the death toll from the ship to seven, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Saturday.The man was not Japanese, NHK said, without giving details of his nationality or age.

Japan rescued about 60 North Korean crew members from a fishing boat that sank after it collided with a Japanese patrol boat that was chasing it out of Japanese waters, the Japan Coast Guard said on Monday.All the crew members that abandoned the fishing boat were rescued and handed over to another North Korean ship, the Coast Guard said.The collision between the North Korean vessel and a patrol ship from Japan's Fisheries Agency took place 350 km (220 miles) northwest of Noto peninsula in central Japan.Following the collision shortly after 9:00 a.m. (0000 GMT), the Fisheries Agency and Coast Guard mobilised seven ships and aircraft to search for North Korean crew members.The Coast Guard did not give details about how the two vessels crashed in the Sea of Japan…

A luxury cruise ship that had set sail with almost 1,400 passengers and crew aboard arrived at a port in Norway on Sunday after narrowly escaping disaster when its engines failed during a storm.The Viking Sky sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted in rough waters in the Norwegian Sea to within 100 metres of land.Rescue services airlifted 479 people, hoisting them one-by- one on to helicopters, before the weather subsided on Sunday and a tow could begin. Many of them were senior citizens.A total of 1,373 people had started the voyage and about 900 people were still on board as the ship arrived at the port of Molde on Norway's west coast."It was very nearly a disaster.

Rescue services had airlifted 479 people to safety from a luxury cruise liner with engine trouble off the coast of Norway by Sunday morning and began towing the vessel to a nearby port.The Viking Sky, with 1,373 passengers and crew on board, sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted towards land in the Norwegian Sea.The airlift of passengers, many of them elderly, from the Viking Cruises ship by helicopter was halted on Sunday morning as two tugboats started steering the vessel towards the nearest port.Founder and chairman of Viking Cruises, Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen, said he hoped the vessel would arrive at the port of Molde on Norway's west coast by Sunday afternoon."They've had a bit of a shocking experience…

Japan is considering tariffs on U.S. exports worth $409 million in retaliation against steel and aluminium import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, media reported on Thursday.Such a move would signal Tokyo is ready to go beyond backdoor talks and pleas for exemptions from the U.S. duties.It would also add to a growing rift that Trump's "America First" trade policies is creating among major economies, which threatens to slow global trade and business activity.Japan is the only major U.S. ally that did not receive exemptions from Trump's tariff decision.

Poland will receive its first liquefied natural gas supplies (LNG) from the United States in mid-June as a result of a deal Polish gas firm PGNiG signed with Cheniere Energy, state-run PGNiG said on Thursday. Cheniere Energy will make the spot delivery at the Swinoujscie terminal on the Baltic Sea. Poland, which consumes around 15-16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually, built its first LNG terminal in Swinoujscie as part of a bigger plan to reduce reliance on gas it imports from Russia's Gazprom. The terminal, which started commercial operations in 2016, has a capacity of 5 bcm per year. Since then it has been receiving LNG from Qatargas, which in March agreed to double deliveries to 2 million tonnes (3 bcm) per year. It also took one delivery on the spot market from Norway.

Sweden's government has dropped its objections to a plan by Russia's Gazprom to use the port of Karlshamn in southern Sweden as a base for the construction of its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Swedish public radio reported on Monday. Officials in Karlshamn, on the Baltic sea, will take the formal decision on Tuesday, but are likely to vote yes to an agreement after the government tempered its previous objections to a deal. Late last year, the island of Gotland rejected a similar deal to support the construction of the pipeline after the government expressed worries about national security. Public broadcaster Swedish Radio reported assurances had been given that authorities would be able to keep tabs on activities at the port and that Karlshamn already handles a large number of Russian ships.

German banks are still struggling with bad loans from exposure to the shipping industry, reports DW. The banks are struggling to recoup tens of billions of dollars of loans as a global shipping industry slump hits them hard. A report published on Sunday by German public broadcaster ARD has suggested that the northern German states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein may have to offer up to 20 billion euros ($21.4 billion) in credit guarantees to prop up banks with bad investments in container shipping. "Many competitors here have hardly any chance against the new mega-shipping companies in Asia," reporter Heinz-Roger Dohms wrote. That's bad news for the banks that underwrite German shipping companies - and German banks maintain around $100 billion in shipping loans…

A Chinese military ship entered the waters of south-western Japan on Wednesday, EFE news reported quoting government officials. This is the first such incident in over a decade and comes a week after a Chinese navy ship sailed near the disputed Senkaku islands. Ap reported Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko as saying that a Maritime Self-Defense Force plane spotted the ship in Japanese waters west of Kuchinoerabu island in southern Japan before dawn. The ship sailed out of Japan's waters about 90 minutes later. “The government will continue to take all possible measures for warning and surveillance activity for our territorial waters and airspace,” Seko said.