2nd fire in week at Beirut port is put out
BEIRUT — White smoke rose Friday from the smoldering wreckage of Beirut’s port hours after firefighters extinguished a fire that terrified the city’s residents five weeks after a huge blast killed nearly 200 people and destroyed parts of Lebanon’s capital.
It wasn’t clear what caused the raging fire that broke out Thursday afternoon and covered the city with dark smoke and toxic fumes for hours as firefighters and army helicopters struggled to bring it under control. No one was hurt by the fire, the second at the port this week.
Michel Najjar, the public works minister, whose department is in charge of the port, told a TV station that the fire appears to have been caused by sparks from a power tool during work at the port. The claim has been dismissed by an angry and deeply skeptical public, with some accusing authorities of starting the fire to destroy evidence that may be found in the port wreckage.
The fire led authorities to say that they have ordered the removal of dangerous materials from the country’s ports and airport to avoid more such incidents that have traumatized the nation of 5 million. Military police opened an investigation into the fire.
The head of Lebanon’s Civil Defense said Friday that the fire was extinguished and firefighters were working to cool down the area.
Crew faulted in beaching at Mauritius
A shipping accident offshore of Mauritius that polluted its beaches with fuel was partly caused by a lack of crew awareness, according to the Japanese company that chartered the vessel.
Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. also said the ship was using the wrong type of nautical charts as it veered toward the island nation and ran aground July 25, President Junichiro Ikeda said at a news briefing Friday.
The ship, MV Wakashio, leaked about 1,000 tons of fuel when it began breaking apart last month, causing ecological damage as it fouled beaches and mangroves. The spill is expected to affect the marine and tourism industry that employs at least a fifth of the workforce in the Indian Ocean nation.
“The crew lacked awareness of the danger of the ship getting closer to the shore,” Ikeda said, adding that the nautical charts the ship was using at the time didn’t show detailed water depths and that waves from the south were pushing the ship ashore.
The shipping ministry of Mauritius has completed an interim report that will serve as a basis for further investigations, though it hasn’t been released publicly. A report this month by the Panama Maritime Authority said the ship had moved closer to the island in order to connect to Wi-Fi, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported.
Mitsui OSK also said Friday that it’s committing $9.4 million partly to help with the cleanup in Mauritius.
Germans to aid Russia poisoning inquiry
BERLIN — Berlin’s Justice Ministry has approved a request from Moscow for legal assistance in the investigation of the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and has assigned state prosecutors to work with Russian authorities, officials said Friday.
Berlin state prosecutors said in a tweet that their office had been commissioned to provide legal assistance to Russia and information on Navalny’s state of health, “subject to his consent.”
Navalny, the most visible opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany two days after falling ill Aug. 20 on a domestic flight in Russia. German chemical-weapons experts have determined that the 44-year-old was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, prompting Berlin to demand that Russia investigate the case.
He was kept in an induced coma for more than a week as he was treated with an antidote, before hospital officials said Monday that his condition had improved enough for him to be awakened.
The hospital had no comment Friday on his condition, but doctors have not ruled out long-term effects of the poisoning.
Salvadoran gets 133 years for 5 killings
MADRID — A court in Spain on Friday sentenced a former Salvadoran colonel to 133 years in prison for the slayings of five Spanish priests in El Salvador more than three decades ago.
Spain’s National Court ruled that Inocente Orlando Montano, a former colonel who served as El Salvador’s vice minister for public security during the country’s 1979-92 civil war, was responsible for the 1989 “terrorist assassinations.”
Montano, 77, listened from a wheelchair as judges sentenced him to 26 years, eight months and one day for each of the deaths. The verdict can be appealed.
The U.S. extradited Montano to Spain in 2017. During his trial earlier this year, he denied having taken part or ordered the massacre that led to the deaths of eight people on the campus of Central American University.
Five of the victims were Spanish Jesuit priests, including one of the leading minds behind so-called liberation theology, the Rev. Ignacio Ellacuría.
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The world in brief - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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