Favorable winds and frantic clean-up efforts have largely stopped a huge seaborne oil slick from spreading, workers battling South Korea's worst oil spill said yesterday.
Foreign help began arriving to disperse the seaborne slick and to clean up tourist beaches and scores of marine farms already fouled by the crude oil.
A week after a holed supertanker spilt some 9,500 tonnes into the Yellow Sea, the Coast Guard said the slick is static about 10km from scenic Anmyeon Island.
Crews fear it could be pushed onto the island, which is part of a national marine park, if winds pick up. They have set up "oil fences" in three layers along the coast.
Coast Guard officials said some smaller slicks containing clumps of oil were breaking off but were not yet a major concern.
A Coast Guard spokesman in hard-hit Taean county, 110km southwest of Seoul, said efforts to disperse the main slick were starting to pay off.
Some 16 aircraft and 254 vessels were combating the spillage yesterday, along with 25,000 people, including 10,100 volunteers.
Four decontamination experts from the US Coast Guard arrived in Seoul on Thursday night to help.
Singapore's decontamination agency pledged one airplane and other equipment, while China and Japan promised to send 59 tonnes and 9 tonnes of oil absorbents respectively. China said two ships carrying the material left Qingdao port on Thursday night.
Earlier, the Northwest Pacific Action Plan, part of a UN program, said it would provide 90 tonnes of absorbents.
The accident happened when a drifting barge carrying a construction crane smashed into the anchored 133,000-ton Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit and holed it in three places on Dec. 7.
The government, accused of a slow response to the disaster, has offered up to 300 billion won (US$325 million) in emergency funds to support small businesses and marine farmers.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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