Three die in South Korean ship explosion

A South Korean cargo ship has sunk after an explosion on board, killing at least three crew members, the coast guard says.

Eight people are still missing and five others have been rescued in the incident north of Jawol island, near the port of Incheon.

The blast happened in the morning after the ship had unloaded oil products.

The cause is being investigated, but officials say it is unlikely to be the result of an attack by North Korea.

"The explosion took place far below the sea border with North Korea. We see very little possibility (of attacks by the North)," a coastguard spokesman told the AFP news agency.

The ship's owners said that the explosion could have been caused by gases leaking from the ship's oil tanks.

"We believe that something went wrong during the process to take out remaining gas in the oil tank," an official of Doora Shipping told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"The vessel usually transports diesel, but this time it carried gasoline. We are now examining whether it had any relation to the explosion," the official said.

The dead crew members included two Burmese nationals and one South Korean.

The search for the missing is continuing.

The 4,191-tonne freight ship had 16 crew members on board - 11 South Koreans and five Burmese

Luxury cruise ship runs aground off Italy | VIDEO

Luxury cruise ship runs aground off Italian coast

   photo gallery   VIDEO

At least three people were reported dead after a cruise liner ran aground off the coast of Italy on Saturday. Thousands of passengers and crew were evacuated by lifeboats while others had to be airlifted to safety the Italian Coast Guard reported.

AFP - Three people died and about 70 were missing Saturday after an Italian cruise ship with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground and keeled over, sparking scenes of panic.
The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it apparently hit a reef near the island of Giglio on Friday, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner.
Local officials also said at least 14 people were injured. Other sources spoke of about 40 injured, two of them seriously suffering from concussion and spinal injuries.
Around 20 people were rescued by helicopters, which scoured the sea with searchlights during the nighttime rescue operation.
Some of the passengers jumped into the icy waters.
"There are three certified dead," Giuseppe Linardi, the top public security official in Grosseto near the Tuscany coast, told Italian media, explaining that difficulties in the rescue had led to confusion over the death toll which was put at six earlier.
"There were scenes of panic like on the Titanic. We ran aground on rocks near Giglio island. I don't know how this could happen. The captain is crazy," Mara Parmegiani, a passenger, was quoted by Italian media as saying.
"We were very scared and freezing because it happened while we were at dinner so everyone was in evening wear. We definitely didn't have time to get anything else. They gave us blankets but there weren't enough," she said.
Linardi quoted Costa Crociere, the Costa Concordia's owner, as saying that 70 people out of the total 4,234 passengers and crew were still missing but they could be on the island.
The people on board included some 60 nationalities and about 52 were children up to the age of six.
Cruise ship worker Fabio Costa was quoted by the BBC as saying: "Everything just started to fall and everybody started to panic and run."
"We had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water coming closer and closer. Everything happened really really fast," he said.
"Everybody tried to get on the boats but people started to panic so they were pushing each other and the crew was trying to help. A lot of people were falling down the stairs," he added.
"It took hours for people to be able to get off the ship."
Indian Mondal Mithun, 26-year-old restaurant manager on the Costa Concordia, who was on his first cruise, said: "We heard the ship hit the rocks but the alert only came after one hour."
"There was only one lifeboat for 150 passengers" in his area, he added.
Shocked passengers crammed into the island's few hotel rooms and a local church overnight. Hundreds were being transferred by ferry to the Tuscan resort town of Porto Santo Stefano, which is linked to the Italian mainland.
Luciano Castro, another passenger, was quoted as saying: "We heard a loud noise while we were at dinner as if the keel of the ship hit something."
"The ship started taking in water through the hole and began tilting."
One unnamed passenger quoted by the ANSA news agency said: "It was hell."
"They told us to stay calm but you could see the fear on everyone's faces, including the crew," he said.
Silvana Caddeo said: "They told us over the loudspeakers that it was an electrical fault to keep us calm.
"But people were shouting, children were crying and all the lights went off. It was a nightmare," she said.
Passengers had been initially told the ship had shuddered to a halt for electrical reasons, before being instructed to put on their life-jackets and head for lifeboats.
Francesco Paolillo, a local coast guard official, said there was a 30-metre hole in the ship but that it was too early to say what exactly had happened.
"We think this happened as a result of sailing too close to an obstacle like a reef," he said.
One of the victims was a man in his 70s who died of a heart attack caused by the shock to his system when he jumped into the sea, reports said.
The Costa Crociere company said it was "shocked" by the news and expressed its condolences to the families of the victims.
The company said it was not yet possible to say what caused the problem, but that the evacuation had been fast, although made more difficult as the ship took on more and more water and keeled over.
The ship left the port of Civitavecchia near Rome on Friday at the beginning of the cruise and was headed for the port of Savona in northwest Italy. It was then scheduled to visit the French port of Marseille and Barcelona in Spain.
The cruise ship boasts 58 suites with balconies, five restaurants, 13 bars, five Jacuzzis and four swimming pools.
The company said nearly a third of the passengers were Italian, followed by Germans and French. There were also Americans, Russians and Japanese on board.

Now, hydrogen-driven three-wheelers

M&M President (Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors) Pawan Goenka poses alongside the hydrogen-powered three-wheeler HyAlfa at the 11th Auto Expo in New Delhi on Monday Photo: S. Subramanium

The world got its first fleet of hydrogen-fuelled three-wheelers on Monday when seven vehicles were unveiled at the ongoing Auto Expo 2012. Called ‘HyAlfa', the three-wheeler is almost a zero-emission vehicle while its fuel consumption is substantially lower as compared to gasoline with 1 kg of hydrogen giving around 80 km mileage.

The three-wheelers have been developed under a project, DelHy 3W, of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)'s International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (UNIDO-ICHET) in association with Mahindra & Mahindra and IIT-Delhi, besides being supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The project took three years and over $1 million.

Part of a development project dubbed DelHy 3w, a fleet of 15 HyAlfa three-wheelers will run on an experimental basis at Pragati Maidan, where a hydrogen refuelling station has also been set up.

The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), which organises trade fairs at Pragati Maidan, will use the vehicles on an experimental basis.

Mahindra & Mahindra President (Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors) Pawan Goenka said: “The aim is to convert vehicles so that they can carry and use hydrogen, a carbon-free fuel, and remove all pollutants.” Though the vehicle was not yet ready for commercial production as it required more fine-tuning, he said commercial viability of running a hydrogen-powered three-wheeler was an issue as the fuel itself cost around Rs.250 a kg. The price of HyAlfa could be Rs.20,000-25,000 more than a CNG three-wheeler, which costs around Rs.2-lakh, in case of its mass production, he added.

According to UNIDO-ICHET Managing Director Mustafa Hatipoglu, “The DelHy 3W project aims to demonstrate hydrogen technologies developed by Indian partners for the Indian transport sector.”

The project was in line with the organisation's green industry initiative for sustainable industrial development, said UNIDO representative in India and Head of the Regional Office for South Asia Ayumi Fujino.

മഹീന്ദ്രയുടെ ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ മുച്ചക്രവാഹനം....

ന്യൂഡല്‍ഹി: ലോകത്താദ്യമായി ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ ഉപയോഗിച്ച് ഓടുന്ന മുച്ചക്രവാഹനം
ഡല്‍ഹി ഓട്ടോ എക്‌സ്‌പോയില്‍ തിങ്കളാഴ്ച അവതരിപ്പിച്ചു. ഐ.ഐ.ടി ഡല്‍ഹിയും
മഹീന്ദ്ര ആന്‍ഡ് മഹീന്ദ്രയും ചേര്‍ന്നാണ് 'ഹൈആല്‍ഫ' എന്ന വാഹനങ്ങളുടെ നിര
അവതരിപ്പിച്ചത്. ആദ്യഘട്ടത്തില്‍ നിര്‍മ്മിച്ച 15 ഹൈആല്‍ഫ വാഹനങ്ങള്‍
ഇന്ത്യ ട്രേഡ് ഓര്‍ഗനൈസേഷന്‍ പ്രൊമോഷന്‍(ഐ.ടി.പി.ഒ)
പരീക്ഷണാടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍ ഉപയോഗിക്കും. 80 കിലോമീറ്റര്‍ മൈലേജാണ് കമ്പനി
അവകാശപ്പെടുന്നത്. ഓട്ടോ എക്‌സ്‌പോ നടക്കുന്ന പ്രഗതിമൈതാനിയില്‍തന്നെ
വാഹനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ നിറയ്ക്കാനുള്ള സൗകര്യവും ഒരുക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.

ഐക്യരാഷ്ട്രസഭയുടെ വ്യവസായ വികസന സംഘടന(യു.എന്‍.ഐ.ഡി.ഒ)യുടെ ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍
ഊര്‍ജ സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യാ അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര കേന്ദ്ര(ഐ.സി.എച്ച്.ഇ.ടി)ത്തിന്റ
സഹായത്തോടെയുള്ള 'ഡെല്‍ഹൈ 3ഡബ്ല്യു' പദ്ധതിയില്‍ മൂന്നു വര്‍ഷംകൊണ്ടാണ്
വാഹനങ്ങള്‍ വികസിപ്പിച്ചത്. ഇതിനായി അമ്പതു കോടിയോളം രൂപ ചെലവായി. പദ്ധതി
ചെലവിന്റെ പകുതി വഹിച്ചത് യു.എന്‍ ആണ്. കാര്‍ബണ്‍ രഹിത ഇന്ധനമായ
ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ ഉപയോഗിക്കുക വഴി അന്തരീക്ഷ മലിനീകരണം കുറയ്ക്കുകയാണ്
പദ്ധതിയുടെ ലക്ഷ്യമെന്ന് മഹീന്ദ്ര ആന്‍ഡ് മഹീന്ദ്ര
പ്രസിഡന്റ്(ഓട്ടോമോട്ടീവ് ആന്‍ഡ് ഫാം എക്യുപ്‌മെന്റ്) പവന്‍ ഗോയെങ്ക
പറഞ്ഞു. ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ വാഹനങ്ങള്‍ വാണിജ്യാടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍ നല്‍കണമെങ്കില്‍
കുറേക്കൂടി മാറ്റങ്ങള്‍ വരുത്തേണ്ടതുണ്ട്.

ഒരു കിലോ ഹൈഡ്രജന് 250 രൂപയോളം വിലവരുമെന്നതിനാല്‍ ഇത്തരം വാഹനങ്ങളുടെ
സാധ്യതയെക്കുറിച്ച് കൂടുതല്‍ പഠനം നടത്തേണ്ടതുണ്ടെന്നും ഗോയെങ്ക പറഞ്ഞു.
സി.എന്‍.ജി മുച്ചക്രവാഹനങ്ങളേക്കാള്‍ 20,000 മുതല്‍ 25,000 രൂപ വരെ അധികം
വില ഹൈആല്‍ഫയ്ക്ക് വരുമെന്ന് ഗോയെങ്ക പറഞ്ഞു. സി.എന്‍.ജി
മുച്ചക്രവാഹനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് ഏതാണ്ട് രണ്ടുലക്ഷത്തോളമാണ് വില. ഇന്ത്യന്‍
പങ്കാളികള്‍ രാജ്യത്തെ ഗതാഗത മേഖലയ്ക്കുവേണ്ടി വികസിപ്പിച്ചെടുത്ത
ഹൈഡ്രജന്‍ സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യ പ്രദര്‍ശിപ്പിക്കുക എന്നതാണ് ഡെല്‍ഹൈ 3ഡബ്ല്യു
പ്രോജക്ടിന്റെ ലക്ഷ്യമെന്ന് യു.എന്‍.ഐ.ഡി.ഒ- ഐ.സി.എച്ച്.ഇ.ടി എം.ഡി
മുസ്തഫ ഹാതിപോഗ്ലു പറഞ്ഞു.

റേഡിയേഷനെ പ്രതിരോധിക്കാനും തുളസി

ചുമയും ജലദോഷവുമായി വല്ലാതെ കഷ്ടപ്പെടുമ്പോ മുത്തശ്ശിമാര്‍ക്കൊരു വരവുണ്ടായിരുന്നു . മുറ്റത്തെ തുളസിയില്‍ നിന്ന് നാല് ഇലപറിച്ച് വാട്ടി നീരെടുത്ത് ഇത്തിരി തേനില്‍ ചേര്‍ത്ത് തരും. അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ തുളസിയിലയും ചുക്കും ശര്‍ക്കരയും കുരുമുളകുമൊക്കെ ചേര്‍ത്ത് ഉഗ്രനൊരു കാപ്പി. അസുഖം പമ്പ കടക്കും.

മുറ്റത്തൊരു തുളസിത്തറ വീടിന് ഐശ്വര്യമാണെന്നാണ് വിശ്വാസം. മുമ്പ്  തുളസി, പനിക്കൂര്‍ക്ക, ആടലോടകം , മുഞ്ഞ തുടങ്ങി  ഒരങ്കത്തിനുള്ള ചൊട്ടു വിദ്യകളൊക്കെ വീട്ടു മുറ്റത്ത് തന്നെ ഉണ്ടാകുമായിരുന്നു.  എന്നാല്‍ ഇന്ന് കാലം മാറി കഥ മാറി. മുറ്റമലങ്കരിക്കാന്‍ മുന്തിയ വിദേശികളൊക്കെ എത്തിയതോടെ  നാടന്‍മാരൊക്കെ പുറത്തായി.

എന്നാല്‍ പുറത്താക്കിയ നാടന്‍മാരെ തിരിച്ച് വിളിക്കാനാണ് ഗവേഷകര്‍ പറയുന്നത്. ഇത്തരം ചെടികള്‍ ഒരുപാട് ഉപകാരപ്രദമാണ്. തുളസീടെ കാര്യം തന്നെയെടുക്കാം. ജലദോഷത്തിനും മറ്റും ഉപയോഗിച്ചിരുന്ന തുളസി റേഡിയേഷന്റെ പ്രത്യാഘാതങ്ങളെ പ്രതിരോധിക്കാന്‍ അസ്സലാണത്രെ. ഡിഫന്‍സ് റിസേര്‍ച്ച് ആന്റ് ഡവലപ്മെന്റ് ഓര്‍ഗനൈസേഷന്റെ ഗവേഷകരുടേതാണ് പുതിയ കണ്ടെത്തല്‍.

തുളസിയുടെ ആന്റി ഓക്സിഡന്റ് സവിശേഷത റേഡിയേഷന്‍ മൂലം ക്ഷതം സംഭവിക്കുന്ന കോശങ്ങളെ പൂര്‍വ്വാവസ്ഥയിലെത്താന്‍ സഹായിക്കുന്നു. ഇതിനായി തുളസി മുഖ്യഘടകമായ മരുന്നും  ഇവര്‍ ഉണ്ടാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. രണ്ടാം ഘട്ട പരീക്ഷണത്തിലാണ് മരുന്നെന്നും ഒന്നാം ഘട്ട പരീക്ഷണം വിജയമായിരുന്നുവെന്നും ഗവേഷകര്‍ പറയുന്നു.  ഏഴ് കോടിയോളം ചെലവ് വരുന്ന പ്രൊജക്ടാണിത്. പൂര്‍ണമായും വിജയിച്ചാല്‍ വൈദ്യ ശാസ്ത്രത്തിന് വമ്പന്‍ നേട്ടമായിരിക്കുമിത്. കാത്തിരിക്കാം തുളസിയെന്ന അതിശയച്ചെടിയുടെ  അത്ഭുത മരുന്നിനായി.   

Meet the twins born five years apart

Mother gives birth to twins 5 years apart with the help of fertility treatment - AP

It may seem quite unreal but a mother has given birth to twins 5 years apart with the help of fertility treatment.

Reuben and Floren Blake were conceived from the same batch of embryos, but born five years apart.

Their parents Simon and Jody Blake began fertility treatment at a Bristol clinic in 2005 after trying to start a family without success.

Five embryos were created and two implanted in Jody, which led to the birth of 9lb 5oz Reuben on December 9, 2006.

The remaining three embryos were frozen until the couple decided to try for another child on last March.

Only one of these three embryos survived the defrosting process and was successfully implanted.

Floren was born on November 16 last year – five years after Reuben – weighing 8lb 12oz.

"It does feel quite surreal," the Daily Express quoted Jody, 38, a charity worker from Cheltenham, Gloucs, as saying.

"We obviously had nine months to get it straight and to think 'Gosh, we're having Reuben's twin' but it's incredibly special.

"It feels like an absolute miracle really, and I think we're incredibly lucky," she added.