• Merchant ships urged to avoid using private armed teams in Mideast Gulf - Reuters
    https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN1U722W-OCATP


    FILE PHOTO: A British Royal Navy patrol vessel guards the oil supertanker Grace 1, that’s on suspicion of carrying Iranian crude oil to Syria, as it sits anchored in waters of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, historically claimed by Spain, July 4, 2019.
    REUTERS/Jon Nazca

    Shipping companies sailing through the Middle East Gulf are being urged to avoid having private armed security guards onboard as the risk of escalation in the region rises, industry associations say.

    Relations between Iran and the West have become increasingly strained after Britain seized an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar last week and London said its warship HMS Montrose had to fend off Iranian vessels seeking to block a British-owned tanker from passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Caught in Russia-Ukraine storm: a cargo ship and tonnes of grain | Reuters
    https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN1O4128-OCATP


    Cranes and ships are seen in the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk, Ukraine November 30, 2018. Picture taken November 30, 2018.
    REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

    When the Island Bay cargo ship arrived from Beirut at the Kerch Strait, gateway to the Azov Sea, it sailed into a perfect storm of geopolitics and bad weather.

    The following day, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian naval ships, impounded them and detained their sailors, some of them wounded. It then blocked the strait by putting a tanker underneath a new bridge it has built linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

    While the world digested the implications of the Nov. 25 incident, the most explosive clash in recent years, Russia said it had reopened the channel to the Azov Sea, which is shared by Russia and Ukraine.

    But Island Bay remained at anchor outside the strait, lashed by gale force winds and sleet, its hull icing over while cargo ships amassed on either side.

    On Monday, a week on, the captain reported seeing 20 vessels awaiting clearance to cross. Refinitiv data that day also showed 20 Ukraine-bound vessels held up at the strait since Nov. 25, with two others allowed through.

    Meanwhile, Island Bay’s cargo of 5,500 tonnes of wheat, destined for flour mills in Libya, waited in the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk.
    […]
    In Berdyansk’s port, where icy winds had recently ripped off the roof of a nearby shed, staff of stevedore company Ascet Shipping were reading the daily reports from the Island Bay with growing concern.

    Ascet loads almost a million tonnes of Ukrainian grain a year onto cargo ships in Berdyansk and was waiting to load the Island Bay; its size means each day of waiting time costs around $2,000-$2,500, Ascet’s chief executive, Denis Rusin, said.

    This has made Berdyansk an unpopular port in recent months.

    Ship owners do not want to go to Berdyansk,” said Rusin, whose clients include U.S. firm Cargill [CARG.UL], one of the world’s largest dry bulk and tank shipping companies. “Buyers are refusing to bet on passage.

  • U.S. carrier leads warships in biggest ever Japan defense war game | Reuters
    https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN1N80AL-OCATP

    Japan and the United States have mobilized 57,000 sailors, marines and airmen for the biennial Keen Sword exercise, 11,000 more than in 2016, with simulated air combat, amphibious landings and ballistic missile defense drills. Japan’s contingent of 47,000 personnel represents a fifth of the nation’s armed forces.

    We are here to stabilize, and preserve our capability should it be needed. Exercises like Keen Sword are exactly the kind of thing we need to do,” Rear Admiral Karl Thomas, the commander of the carrier strike group, said during a press briefing in the Reagan’s focsle as F-18 fighter jets catapulted off the flight deck above him.

  • Malaysians make record bust of crystal meth, shipped from Myanmar | Top News | Reuters
    https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN1IT0FH-OCATP


    Malaysian Customs display 1187kg of Methamphetamine worth 71 million ringgit ($17.8 million) seized during a news conference in Nilai, Malaysia May 28, 2018.
    REUTERS/Angie Teo

    Malaysia has made its largest ever seizure of crystal methamphetamine, officials said on Monday, finding nearly 1.2 tonnes of the drug disguised as tea in a shipment from Myanmar, and arrested six suspected traffickers.

    The bust comes as Southeast Asia reports a flood of the stimulant throughout the region. Indonesia and Thailand have also made record seizures of the drug this year.

    A total of 1,187 kg of the drug, worth 71 million ringgit ($18 million), was shipped in a container from Yangon, Myanmar, to Port Klang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Customs Director-General Subromaniam Tholasy told reporters.

  • Canada orders ships to reduce speed to prevent whale deaths
    https://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKBN1AR20O-OCADN

    Certain ships are being ordered to reduce speed because of the deaths of at least 10 North Atlantic right whales in Canada’s Gulf of St Lawrence during the past two months, the government said on Friday.

    The deaths have made 2017 the deadliest year for the endangered marine mammal since scientists began tracking their numbers in the 1980s, researchers said.

    The ministries of transport and fisheries issued a temporary order for vessels 20 meters or longer to slow to a maximum of 10 knots in the western portion of the Gulf, which stretches from Quebec to north of Prince Edward Island.