Kip's News Blog

CNN reported that a collision between an oil tanker and a barged caused thousands of tons of oil to spill into the Yellow Sea just off the coast of South Korea Thursday.

The barge was carrying a crane that punctured a hole in the side of the Hebei Spirit releasing around 10,000 tons of oil into the sea at about 7:15 a.m. local time.

The BBC reported that around 30 Coast Gaurd boats along with four helicopters were trying to contain the oil following the spill.

The spill has been contained, CNN reported.

The effects on the environment are expected to be limited due to the current weather conditions.

"Because of the current wind and wave movements the maritime ministry is not expecting to see much environmental damage on the west coast of Korea," the Maritime Ministry of Korea told CNN.

The BBC reported that the spill is the worst in South Korea's history. The most oil previously spilled was 5,000 tons back in 1995.

Oil does not mix with water, instead it just sits at the surface. The clean-up teams may try to contain the oil by surrounding the spill with booms to keep it contained to one area, the BBC reported.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that an Iranian air force plane crashed into the Oman Sea Monday.

The F-4 Phantom crashed just off the southeastern coast of Iran, the IRNA, an official news agency in Iran, said.

VOA News reported that the jet crashed at 12:45 p.m. local time. Neither the status of the pilot nor the cause of the crash have been released.

The crash brings light to the degraded state of the Iranian air force, one that used be very strong before the U.S. placed an embargo on goods sent to Iran in 1979, CNN reported. The embargo still remains in place today.

"U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran after the revolution have made it hard for Tehran to buy spare parts for its military and civilian aircraft," VOA News reported.

Since then, Iran has made little progress in their flight technology. They still use F-14s, F-4 Phantoms and F-5s that were used around the time of the Vietnam War.

Recently Iran has turned to Russia and China in search of warplanes to help revive their air forces, CNN reported.

Iran has been working to release their own fighter jet. A plane similar to the U.S.'s F-5 was recently introduced for testing.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that a lawmaker and driver were killed by a blast outside of the Philippine parliament Tuesday, Chief Geary Barias of the National Regional Capital Police said.

Police believe that Rep. Wahab Akbar of Basilan province was killed by a bomb planted in a motorcycle near Akbar's car.

The other person that was killed was a driver for one of the lawmakers, police said.

"At least eight others were injured in the explosion, according to the state-run Philippines News Agency," CNN reported.

The Taipei Times reported that Akbar had been the subject of previous threats. He is the representative of the Basilan island where police have been hunting down members of the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-linked extremist group.

The government has been working to disband the group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2004 bombing of a superferry that killed 130 people.

The explosion occured around 8 p.m. when parliament had just gotten out of session, Barias said.

The Taipei Times reported that Barias sent a team to investigate the site of the explosion immediately. The site is still under investigation, although they have received texts from the Abu Sayyaf that have taken credit for the blast, CNN reported.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported that thousands of residents of the Mexican state of Tabasco are fleeing by car, boat, and planes to escape dangerous flood waters.

Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco is completely flooded. As many as 39,000 people have been rescued and another 75,000 have been provided shelter, officials said. As many as 1 million people have been affected by the flooding.

The Associated Press reported that the heavy rains that fell over the state last week accounted for the current flooding problem, as rivers overflowed. Nearly 80 percent of the state has been flooded.

Waters have reached rooftops and have left residents waiting for rescue. Volunteers have joined police in efforts to rescue those trapped on rooftops.

Only one death has been repoted, the Associated Press reported.

Services such as public transportation and drinking water have been shut down.

"This is not just the worst natural catastrophe in the state's history but, I would venture to say, one of the worst in the recent history of the country," the Associated Press reported that President Felipe Calderon said Friday during an emergency meeting with state officials in Villahermosa.

Up to 500,000 people will have to return to the sight of damaged or distroyed homes when water levels drop.

"Gov. Andres Granier said Sunday that his first priority was opening more roads for truckloads of food, water and medicine heading into this southeastern Gulf state," the Los Angeles Times reported.

Support has already been received support from the Red Cross. Close to 520 tons of supplies have have been delivered to the flooded state, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that Myanmar's government is recruiting children to enter their military, a U.S. rights group charged in a report Wednesday.

CNN reported that Children are recruited because of "continued army expansion, high desertion rates and a lack of willing volunteers," the New York-based Human Rights Watch report said.

"Military recruiters are literally buying and selling children to fill the ranks of the Burmese armed forces," Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch, told the Washington Post.

Recruiters are paid cash for each recruit they sign and because of this age is often overlooked. CNN reported that children as young as 11-years-old have been recruited to the Myanmar armed forces.

The ages of the children are often augmented to 18, the legal age for service.

"They filled the forms and asked my age, and when I said I was 16, I was slapped and he said, 'You are 18. Answer 18,' " another Burmese, Maung Zaw Oo, told Human Rights Watch, recounting a 2005 incident, which the Washington Post reported.

The Washington Post reported that children are approached at train stations and other public places and told they will be arrested if they don't join, Human Rights Watch said.

Some children are sent to the front lines after only 18 weeks of trainging, the report said.

"In the coming weeks, the Security Council's working group on children and armed conflict will take up the issue concerning Burma," the Washington Post reported.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that a U.S. sailor shot and killed two female sailors, then shot himself in an U.S. military camp in Bahrain, navy officials said.

The man survived the self-inflicted shot and is in a military hospital in Bahrain, the Navy said.

The New York Times reported that it appears the shooting was the result of a "love triangle," a State Department official said about initial reports. Investigations are still being conducted, however.

The Navy confirmed the shootings were not terror related.

The shootings took place around 5 a.m., a Navy release said. The base was closed down for an hour following the shootings.

Names of the victims have not yet been released because families have yet to be notified, officials said.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The LA Times reported that a car bomb exploded Sunday near a popular shrine in Baghdad taking 10 lives while injuring 18 more.

With many people present celebrating the end of the religious holiday Ramadan, a car bomb exploded at the shrine of Musa al Kadhim, an 8th century Shiite Muslim imam, Iraqi police said. The bomb tore through passing vehicles, including a minibus that was carrying passengers going to worship at the shrine. The blast killed 10 people and another 18 were injured, police said.

Of the 10 dead, at least two were women and two were children younger than 14, hospital officials said.

Karim Sami, a day laborer, that had brought his wife and child to the shrine Sunday witnessed the carbomb.

"It is very sad that the criminals responsible for such attacks would choose such a holy day and place," Sami said. "It is as if they don't want any happiness for the Iraqi people, they just want us to suffer."

The northern Kadhimiya neighborhood, the site of the shrine, has been a hotbed for violent acts by Sunni militants.

Vehicular traffic will no longer be able to pass through the area until further notice, police said following the blast.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that a man accused of killing over 60 people and keeping track of his kills on a chessboard went on trial Tuesday in Moscow.

Alexander Pichushkin, 33, claims to have killed 62 people over the last 15 years. After each kill he made a mark on a chessboard. He planned on filling all 64 squares on the board.

Pichushkin has been charged for 49 murders, most of which have been commited over 5 years.

His first victim, a classmate of Pichushkin, was killed in 1992 when Pichushkin was 18-years-old.

"This first murder, it's like first love, it's unforgettable," he was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

Pichushkin has requested that he be charged for all of his murders. He said anything else would be unfair, RIA-Novosti and Interfax reported.

The Gaurdian reported that Pichushkin allegedly killed 40 of his victims by luring them into a park and then throwing them into a sewage pit, chief investigator Andrei Suprunenko said. He killed others by hitting them in the head with a hammer.

Pichushkin was caught in June 2006 when police found his name and number on a piece of paper that one of his victim's left behind for their child.

Police found his chessboard with 62 marks on it, investigators said. Pichushkin confessed to killing all 62 people.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that the death toll from a recent cholera outbreak in Iraq hit 12 with the death of a 40-year-old woman in southern Baghdad, an Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The spread of cholera has been blamed on poor water quality and sewage treatment, The World Health Organization said. They are in desparate need of chlorination and water treatment, the agency said.

Cholera is usually spread through contaminated water. It is a bacterial disease that infects the intestinal tract. It causes diarrhea and sometimes death due to severe dehydration and kidney failure.

AHN news reported that there have been 2,116 confirmed cases of cholera in Iraq according to the World Health Organization report.

The first reported case of cholera was last month in northern Iraq Kirkuk. Since that time it has spread to other parts of Iraq, the organization said.

"Provision of safe water is the highest priority in controlling an outbreak of cholera," according to the World Heath Organization.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that a suicide bomber killed 24 Sunni and Shiite members at a supper Monday in Iraq as they ended their Ramadan fast.

The bomber wore a suicide belt into the Shifta Shiite mosque during a ritual fast-ending meal denoting the end of Ramadan.

The U.S. Military counted 24 dead and an additional 37 injured from the blast.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the attack supposedly targeted Diyala provincial and tribal leaders who were apart of the United States efforts to create an alliance with Sunni extremists.

The blast disrupted the attempted push for peace between the two groups who have been at war with each other for years.

The U.S. Military released a statement about the event on Tuesday.

"Once again, al Qaeda demonstrated the hatred they have for the citizens of Iraq by conducting a despicable attack against its people during one of their most revered celebrations -- Ramadan," said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division commander, whose remarks were quoted in the military statement.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported that a bus carrying tourists crashed in western Mexico Saturday, leaving at least 17 dead, authorities said.

The bus was traveling from the resort city of Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara when it ran off the road and into a ravine in the vacinity of Compostela the Nayarit's state prosecutor's office said in a release. Thirty-five passengers were aboard the bus.

CBS News reported that the release stated that 17 people died, and another 14 were injured. The Red Cross spokesman Miguel Langarica said 18 died and another 13 were injured. The reason for discrepency between the two was unknown.

Among the injured was driver Magdiel Coronad, 28.

Up to half the passengers on the bus were from a flight from Phoenix to Guadalajara when a fire at the Guadalajara airport forced the plane to land in Puerto Vallarta said Daniel Rios, Vallarta Plus spokesman.

Four of the passengers live in Los Angeles and Riverside, California, officials said.

The names of the passengers have yet to be released.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN reported Friday that an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck off the coast of Sumatra. This was the second earthquake within the last three days to strike that area. The other was a strong 8.4-magnitude quake that killed 13 people Wednesday and triggered tsunami warnings that were lifted later.

Earlier Friday, four other smaller earthquakes were recorded in Sumatra ranging from 5.0 to 5.5 in magnitude. The cause of all this activity is a subduction zone, said David Applegate, senior science advisor at the U.S. Geological Survey. "One of earth's plates is moving down beneith another, " he said.

The Star Tribune reported that Sumatra might not have seen the worst of it yet. "There is strong indication this forshadows the big one, " said Danny Hillman, an earthquake specialist at the Indonesian Institute of Science.

This is a concern for the residents of Sumatra's western coast. The same residents that were devistated by a 2004 tsumani. "I am very afraid of another tsunami, " said Dasima, a 50-year-old rice farmer from Sumatra.

Posted by Kip Reynolds at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)