Man survives two days under the sea in a shipwrecked boat Trapped under the sea, praying to be found On May 26, a tugboat capsized 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Of the 12 people on board, divers recovered 10 dead. After two days trapped in freezing cold water and breathing from an air bubble in an upturned tugboat under the ocean, the ship’s cook, Harrison Okene, was sure he was going to die. Okene survived by discovering a four foot high bubble of air near the ceiling of the bathroom and bedroom. He stayed there until two South African divers rescued him two days later. A remaining crew member was never found. “I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it’s the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not,” Okene said, parts of his skin peeling away after days soaking in the salt water. “I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue,” he said. Seawater got into his mouth but he had nothing to eat or drink. At 4:50 a.m. on May 26, Okene was in the bathroom when the tugboat was beginning to flip over. As water rushed in and the boat flipped, he opened the bathroom (“toilet”) door. “As I was coming out of the toilet it was pitch black so we were trying to link our way out to the water tidal (exit hatch),” Okene told Reuters in his home town of Warri, a city in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta. “Three guys were in front of me and suddenly water rushed in full force. I saw the first one, the second one, the third one just washed away. I knew these guys were dead.” Okene was swept along a passageway by water into another bathroom adjoining an officer’s cabin. The boat crashed to the ocean floor. Wearing only underpants, he survived around a day in the four foot square bathroom, holding onto the overturned sink. He eventually built up the courage to swim into the bedroom and began pulling off the wall paneling to use as a tiny raft to lift himself out of the water. But he was not alone in the darkness. Continue reading: THE FISH FEASTED ON THE DEAD Photo: Reuters/David Loh
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Man survives two days under the sea in a shipwrecked boat

Trapped under the sea, praying to be found

On May 26, a tugboat capsized 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Of the 12 people on board, divers recovered 10 dead.

After two days trapped in freezing cold water and breathing from an air bubble in an upturned tugboat under the ocean, the ship’s cook, Harrison Okene, was sure he was going to die.

Okene survived by discovering a four foot high bubble of air near the ceiling of the bathroom and bedroom. He stayed there until two South African divers rescued him two days later. A remaining crew member was never found.

“I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it’s the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not,” Okene said, parts of his skin peeling away after days soaking in the salt water.

“I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue,” he said. Seawater got into his mouth but he had nothing to eat or drink.

At 4:50 a.m. on May 26, Okene was in the bathroom when the tugboat was beginning to flip over. As water rushed in and the boat flipped, he opened the bathroom (“toilet”) door.

“As I was coming out of the toilet it was pitch black so we were trying to link our way out to the water tidal (exit hatch),” Okene told Reuters in his home town of Warri, a city in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta.

“Three guys were in front of me and suddenly water rushed in full force. I saw the first one, the second one, the third one just washed away. I knew these guys were dead.”

Okene was swept along a passageway by water into another bathroom adjoining an officer’s cabin. The boat crashed to the ocean floor.

Wearing only underpants, he survived around a day in the four foot square bathroom, holding onto the overturned sink. He eventually built up the courage to swim into the bedroom and began pulling off the wall paneling to use as a tiny raft to lift himself out of the water.

But he was not alone in the darkness.

Continue reading: THE FISH FEASTED ON THE DEAD

Photo: Reuters/David Loh

U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes. A three-member U.N. panel said private companies should stop working in the settlements if their work adversely affected the human rights of Palestinians, and urged member states to ensure companies respected human rights.READ ON: U.N. rights inquiry says Israel must remove settlers
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U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes.

A three-member U.N. panel said private companies should stop working in the settlements if their work adversely affected the human rights of Palestinians, and urged member states to ensure companies respected human rights.

READ ON: U.N. rights inquiry says Israel must remove settlers

North Korea’s much hyped long-range rocket launch on Friday ended in apparent failure, South Korean officials said, dealing a blow to the prestige of the reclusive and impoverished state that defied international pressure to push ahead with the plan. North Korea said it wanted the Unha-3 rocket to put a weather satellite into orbit, although critics believed it was designed to enhance the capacity of North Korea to design a ballistic missile deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States. North Korea’s rocket launch ends in failure: South Korea
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North Korea’s much hyped long-range rocket launch on Friday ended in apparent failure, South Korean officials said, dealing a blow to the prestige of the reclusive and impoverished state that defied international pressure to push ahead with the plan.

North Korea said it wanted the Unha-3 rocket to put a weather satellite into orbit, although critics believed it was designed to enhance the capacity of North Korea to design a ballistic missile deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States.

North Korea’s rocket launch ends in failure: South Korea

North Korea on Friday launched its controversial rocket carrying a weather satellite, South Korea’s Defense Ministry and U.S. officials said. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Seoul told reporters at a briefing that the launch at taken place at 0739 local time (2239 GMT) and that South Korea and the United States were checking whether it had been a success. North Korea launches rocket amid international condemnation
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North Korea on Friday launched its controversial rocket carrying a weather satellite, South Korea’s Defense Ministry and U.S. officials said.

A spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Seoul told reporters at a briefing that the launch at taken place at 0739 local time (2239 GMT) and that South Korea and the United States were checking whether it had been a success.

North Korea launches rocket amid international condemnation

nickturse: An Iranian girl carries an anti-U.S. placard bearing an image of U.S. President Barack Obama during a funeral for Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, who was killed in a bomb blast in Tehran on January 11, in Tehran January 13, 2012. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
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nickturse:

An Iranian girl carries an anti-U.S. placard bearing an image of U.S. President Barack Obama during a funeral for Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, who was killed in a bomb blast in Tehran on January 11, in Tehran January 13, 2012. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

Standard & Poor’s warned it may downgrade “a number of highly rated” group of 20 countries as of 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising health-care spending and other costs related to ageing populations. Today’s graphic shows a number of graphs indicating an older population.
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Standard & Poor’s warned it may downgrade “a number of highly rated” group of 20 countries as of 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising health-care spending and other costs related to ageing populations. Today’s graphic shows a number of graphs indicating an older population.

A demonstrator takes part in a protest demanding the army hand power to civilians, in front of the state television building in Cairo January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Suhaib Salem] Read more: U.S. Embassy shelters Americans amid Egypt NGO crackdown
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A demonstrator takes part in a protest demanding the army hand power to civilians, in front of the state television building in Cairo January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Suhaib Salem]

Read more: U.S. Embassy shelters Americans amid Egypt NGO crackdown