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An oil spill caused by a dredger boat hitting a stationary cargo tanker has blackened part of Singapore's southern coastline, including the popular resort island of Sentosa, and sparked concerns it may threaten marine wildlife as a clean-up operation was underway Sunday. The Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima struck the Singaporean fuel supply ship Marine Honor on Friday. It damaged the cargo tank on Marine Honor, which leaked oil into the sea. Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement late Saturday the oil leak from the vessel had been contained, and that the oil that escaped from the damaged tanker had been treated with dispersants. But due to the tidal current, it said the treated oil had landed along shorelines including at Sentosa and other southern islands, a nature reserve and a public beach park. Sentosa, which attracts millions of visitors annually, houses one of Singapore's two casinos, golf courses and Southeast Asia's only Universal Studios theme ..
In a major relief for inflation-hit masses in cash-strapped Pakistan, the government has slashed the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs 10.20 and Rs 2.33 per litre respectively ahead of the Eid ul Adha festival. The price cut, effective from Saturday, will bring the price of petrol to Rs 258.16 per litre while the price of HSD will be Rs 267.89 per litre, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted a statement from the Prime Minister's Office on Friday. The Finance Division, which usually reviews the fuel prices every 15 days, issued an official notification for the latest price cuts and said the new prices would be applicable for the next fortnight. The notification said that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had worked out the consumer prices, based on the price variations in the international market. The move to slash the prices of petroleum would benefit the Pakistani people who have been hit by double-digit inflation. Pakistan has been hit by inflation of ab
The addition of six new members to the BRICS grouping will see it controlling 46 per cent of the world's population and 30 per cent of its economic output, according to a research paper. At the latest BRICS summit in Johannesburg last week, the present members -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- decided to add Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as new members of the grouping. The new members will become part of BRICS effective January 1, 2024. The acronym BRICS was originally coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economists led by Jim O'Neill. Later in December 2010, South Africa was added as the fifth member. Currently, the five-member grouping is home to 40 per cent of the world's population which controls 26 per cent of the global GDP. But with the six new members (BRICS+6), their GDP share will jump to 30 per cent and share of population will go up to 46 per cent, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, the Chief Economic Adviser to State Bank of
The leader of the coalition of gas-exporting countries said on Tuesday the group expects demand for the fuel to far outstrip supply until 2025 amid a global energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine. Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum Mohamed Hamel, of Algeria, said at the group's meeting in Cairo that although investment was increasing in natural gas production the countries didn't expect to have new sources of supply online for another three years. We believe that this market tightness to be with us until probably 2025 or 2026 when the new projects that are being developed will come on-stream, he said in a press conference on Tuesday attended by energy ministers from some of the coalition's members. Natural gas prices have skyrocketed worldwide following the Russian invasion of Ukraine early this year. Amid sanctions imposed on Russia's energy sector, much of European Union, which formerly depended on Russia for 40 per cent of its supply, has struggled find .