Effort to stop fuel leak from New Diamond

COLOMBO/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A salvage team is still trying to plug a fuel leak from the fire-stricken New Diamond oil supertanker, Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Indika de Silva said yesterday. The Greek-owned tanker, which is carrying about 2 million barrels of oil, caught fire on September 3 and is currently 45 nautical miles (83 km), off Sri Lanka’s east coast. The fire has been extinguished but the New Diamond has left two long trails of fuel oil after the Sri Lankan Navy towed it out to sea. Authorities want to avoid damage to the coastline like that suffered by Mauritius after the Japanese bulk carrier MV Wakashio struck a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on July 25 and began spilling oil on August 6. “Salvage operations are continuing. The engine room has been de-smoked. They have identified the bunker oil tank that is leaking. The next step is to empty it and then to repair the leak,” de Silva said. He confirmed that the cargo of crude oil remains intact. The stricken vessel has raised fears of an environmental disaster.

Lira slips. The Turkish lira slipped yesterday after the EU threatened sanctions, while emerging market stocks steadied after recent losses but rising trade tensions and worries about a shaky global economic rebound still weighed. The European Union will draw up a list of sanctions to be imposed on Turkey if Ankara refuses to come to the negotiating table to resolve a territorial dispute with Greece and Cyprus, the EU’s Mediterranean states said on Thursday. The lira was 0.2% weaker, after strengthening on Thursday for the first time in two weeks. The Turkish currency has lost about 20% of its value this year, and recently hit all-time lows, with worries about depleting foreign exchange reserves and surging inflation also weighing as Turkey’s economy struggles with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (Reuters)

Bulgarian tourism. Bulgarian hotels and motels saw a year-on-year decline of over 60 percent in overnight stays and revenue in July due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, official figures showed yesterday. The total number of nights spent in accommodation establishments in July 2020 was 2.266 million, down 61.9 percent compared with the same month of the previous year, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said. (Xinhua)

Vucic-Kosovo.

Serbia will never agree to recognize its southern province of Kosovo as a separate country, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday. Vucic made the remarks in a TV interview with Serbia’s national broadcaster RTS while commenting on the agreement signed on September 4 in presence of the US President Donald Trump by representatives of Serbia and its southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, which unilaterally seceded in 2008.