Terri Irwin to launch whale research

The widow of TV wildlife entertainer "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said she would launch a non-lethal whale research programme in Antarctic waters next year in an effort to show that Japan's scientific whaling cull is a sham.

Terri Irwin announced that the whale-watching programme she started to honor her late husband, who died in a freak stingray attack off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, would expand into scientific research. Tokyo has staunchly defended its annual cull of more than 1,000 whales as crucial for research purposes, and says killing whales is necessary to gather information about their breeding and migratory habits. Environmentalists and anti-whaling nations say the slaughter is commercial whaling in disguise. Japan had planned to kill up to 50 endangered humpback whales this season, but backed away from the plan in the face of strong international condemnation. Irwin says that they can actually learn everything the Japanese are learning with lethal research by using non-lethal research.
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Leading yachts surge into Bass Strait, Slade still hopeful of record

The three maxis leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet entered Bass Strait around 4am this morning with Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI still in the lead.

At 0500hrs the Sydney maxi, which is aiming for a hat trick of line honors wins, held a 9-mile break on Mike Slade’s British maxi City Index Leopard, with Skandia another 6 miles astern. Nevertheless, with the wind now on the nose, Slade is hopeful he may yet wind the local race favorite in. Slade believes that, with the amount of ground the maxis covered in the first 10 hours of the race the record is still a possibility even though the front has slowed them down. At their present speed, City Index Leopard would expect to arrive in Hobart about an hour and a half too late to break the record, but if the breeze freshens during the day “we could easily gain that hour and a half.” Roger Sturgeon’s Farr STP 65 Rosebud is hanging onto fourth as the American boat prepares to enter Bass Strait, narrowly ahead of Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban in fifth.
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Costa Cruises makes Dubai its regional cruise hub.

For the second consecutive year, Europe’s leading cruise operator Costa Cruises has made Dubai its regional cruise hub.

It has also deployed two ships offering six weekly packages to destinations in the UAE, Arabian Gulf and the Middle East regions. For the 2007-2008 cruise season, the Italian group has drafted two huge cruise ships – Costa Romantica and Costa Europa- with a combined passenger and crew capacity of 4756. Last year, the company had deployed only one cruise ship. The regional package covers Dubai, Muscat, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. There is complete passenger exchange programme at each ship during the current season. Costa is one of the world’s leading cruise operators with 11 ships under deployment. A grand reception was organized on board the Costa Romantica at the Dubai Cruise Terminal in Port Rashid Complex on December 22 to celebrate the inaugural cruises for the 2007-2008 seasons in the Gulf region.

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South Korea's Daewoo wins $3 bln in ship orders

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., the world's third-largest shipbuilder, has won a combined $3 billion order to build four ships for three different companies.

Daewoo said in a filing with the Korea Exchange that it would build one floating production, storage and offloading unit for a company in Europe, two bulk carriers for a company in Asia and a drillship for company from the Oceania region. None of the companies was named. It would deliver all the ships by July 2011.
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S.Korea Finds Cargo Ship Wreckage

The apparent wreckage of a cargo ship that disappeared along with 14 sailors has been found, but lay too deep in the water to raise immediately.

The search continued for the missing. The ship, carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid, was feared sunk after it sent out a distress signal off Yeosu, 280 miles south of Seoul. One sailor was rescued. Dozens of Coast Guard and navy boats joined by helicopters continued search and rescue work to find survivors but have so far found only 18 metal drums and several life jackets and boats presumed to be from the ship. The survivor, a 28-year-old Burmese told investigators that he watched the vessel sink before he and the other crew members - 12 South Koreans and two Burmese were swept away.
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Fire shuts Beharra Springs plant

A fire has shut down the gas plant at Origin Energy's Beharra Springs field onshore Western Australia.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which happened in the condensate/gas separation part of the plant. The fire was successfully extinguished. The cause of the fire is unknown; however, a full investigation has been initiated. Origin, as the operator of the gas plant, will comply with all regulatory requirements to investigate and remediate the incident. It is not known how long it will take to repair the plant but it is anticipated it will be operational again before the end of January.

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Vietnam starts large scale container manufacturing

Vietnam has kick-started its export business with the opening of its first container manufacturing plant - the second biggest of its kind in southeast Asia, according to the official Vietnam News Service.

The plant in the northern province of Hai Duong is expected to provide a yearly capacity of 45,000 TEU and is a joint venture between Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) and Toong Goen Enterprise (TGC).

Vietnam's ministry of transport says containers business shows a marked dominance of foreign shipping companies, which weakens the competitiveness of the country's exports.

Growth of container business has increased 50 per cent a year with the transportation business reaching US$1 billion.

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