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Somali Pirates Seize U.S.-Bound Tanker JEFFREY GETTLEMAN November 30, 2009 NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates have struck again, seizing an oil tanker loaded with $20 million in crude that was headed from Saudi Arabia to the United States, naval authorities said Monday. According to European naval reports, nine pirates hijacked the tanker and its crew of about 30 about 800 miles offshore and headed back toward pirate havens along the coast of central Somalia. The Somali pirate business appears to be back in full swing after a brief lull this summer that some attributed to increased naval patrols but which...

Crewmen fired high pressure water jets Friday to fight off heavily armed Somali pirates trying to board a Greek oil tanker in the dangerous Gulf of Aden, officials said. It was the fourth pirate attack of the new year. Armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, pirates in three speedboats twice tried to board the Greek-flagged Kriti Episkopi but were driven away when the crew turned fire hoses on them and EU aircraft scrambled from a nearby European Union naval flotilla to help, shipping company and Greek government officials said.

Discussion of a Serious Oil Tanker Accident, must see ... Video

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Oil prices have spiked to a record of $117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked in the Middle East, off the east coast of Yemen.

A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador. One man was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer and seven received 10 year prison terms. Six of the defendants plus the one man tried in absentia, who received the longest prison terms, 10 years, were found guilty of participating in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker, which killed one Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden. The conviction of one of...

MOSCOW – A Russian oil tanker split in two during a fierce storm early Sunday, spilling some 560,000 gallons of fuel into a strait leading to the Black Sea in one of the worst environmental disasters in the region in years, authorities said. Two freighters carrying sulfur also sank nearby in the Strait of Kerch, a narrow strait linking the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast, said Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry. Operations to rescue the crews of all three ships were under way, officials said. The...

By KATU Web Staff BEAVERTON, Ore. - A transformer caught fire at a PGE substation in Beaverton, causing more than 50,000 customers to lose power Saturday night. The fire started at a substation at Southwest 158th Avenue and Southwest Jenkins Road about 7:45 p.m., PGE officials said. The blaze caused PGE to "de-energize" the substation, which serves more than 50,000 customers in Hillsboro, Aloha, Beaverton, Banks and Gaston. Fire officials said several explosions accompanied the fire. About 25 firefighters were pulled back from the blaze due to safety concerns on the scene, said Karen Eubanks, a spokeswoman for Tualatin Valley...

Saudi Wealth Fuels Global Jihadism Posted Oct. 27, 2003 By Kenneth R. Timmerman Generations of Muslims in the Middle East have been raised on the anti-Western, anti-Semitic theologies of Ayatollah Khomeini and in the Saudi Wahhabi system of madrassas (religious schools). This foundation set the stage for the rise of Osama bin Laden. Doaa 'Amer is a professional TV anchor who hosts Muslim Woman Magazine on IQRAA TV, a satellite channel broadcasting throughout the Arab world. As she tells it, her job is to educate the next generation of children to be "true Muslims." Readers accustomed to hearing Islam described...

An oil tanker moored in Providence harbor was apparently struck by lightning, and is burning in towering flames. I posted this in breaking because there is an LPG tanker moored nearby, and officials are worried the mooring lines on the burning tanker will burn through, and it will drift toward the LPG.

The owners of a French oil tanker on fire off the coast of Yemen say they believe it was rammed by a smaller boat, before exploding into flames. A junior officer saw a craft approaching the Limburg. He was of the opinion that we touched that craft and then there was an explosion Tanker company MD Peter Raes A junior officer on board the Limburg reported seeing a small craft "fast approaching" the tanker in the port of Ash Shihr, at Mukallah, 570 kilometres (353 miles) east of Aden, and believes the two vessels touched before an explosion occurred. Yemeni...

HONOLULU – An almost comically ineffectual effort to rescue a dog stranded aboard a tanker adrift in the Pacific has people in Hawaii and beyond asking: What is a dog's life really worth? The extraordinary operation to save 2-year-old Forgea has cost $48,000 in private funds, and the Coast Guard is prepared to spend taxpayer dollars on what has become one of the most expensive animal rescues ever. "I think it's ridiculous," said Cyndi Damo, a dog owner from Huntington Beach, who is visiting Honolulu. "There's many ways the money could've been better spent – there's still children that go...