The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Chevron says four killed in UK refinery explosion
- Japan ruling party resumes bickering over when PM will quit
- Four killed in Chevron UK refinery fire - police
| Chevron says four killed in UK refinery explosion Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:17 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major Chevron said on Friday that four people were killed and one person was seriously injured in an explosion at its refinery in southwest Wales. The blast occurred at the 220,000 barrel per day Pembroke refinery on Thursday. Chevron did not provide any details on the operational status of the refinery.
Police said a fire broke out after an explosion in a storage tank during maintenance. An adjacent storage tank was also damaged. "We will take every step possible to determine the series of events that led to this tragic incident," Chevron said. Chevron put the refinery up for sale last year to lower its exposure to the refining business. U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp agreed in March to buy the refinery and other assets in a $730 million deal expected to close in the third quarter. Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Japan ruling party resumes bickering over when PM will quit Posted: 02 Jun 2011 07:45 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's fractious ruling party resumed its bickering on Friday after Prime Minister Naoto Kan hinted he wanted to keep his job into the new year, angering rivals who had voted down a no-confidence motion in return for a promise he'd quit.
The squabbling will likely further hamper efforts by Kan, who took office a year ago as Japan's fifth premier in as many years, to tackle steps needed to rein in massive public debt while engineering growth in the fast-aging country. Kan survived the no-confidence motion on Thursday after a last-minute offer to resign persuaded party critics not to defect and drive him from office even as the country struggles with the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. The manoeuvre appeared to buy Kan time to prepare an extra budget to pay for rebuilding from the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daichi plant. But bickering quickly resurfaced after Kan's comments at a late-night news conference suggested he wanted to stay on until damaged reactors at the crippled nuclear atomic plant achieved a stable "cold shutdown", a process expected to take at least until January and probably longer. "If he cannot keep his promise, he is a fraud," Kyodo news agency quoted former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama, who brokered Thursday's last-minute pact with Kan, as telling reporters. "If he doesn't keep his word, I will take decisive action." Hatoyama told reporters on Thursday that Kan had agreed to quit after drafting the extra budget, a process he said could be finished this month. The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has charged that Kan was incapable of dealing with the nuclear accident and of leading the effort to rebuild Japan's tsunami-devastated northeast, also weighed in. "He has broken his promise. It is inappropriate for him to cling to power having expressed his intention to resign," Kyodo quoted LDP president Sadakazu Tanigaki as saying. "We cannot cooperate with a lame-duck government." Opposition parties, which control parliament's upper house and can block bills, have insisted that Kan step down before they will cooperate on implementing policies. Kan's rivals in the DPJ, which swept to power in 2009 for the first time promising change, have been angered by his abrasive style and fear his low voter ratings would hurt them at the next general election, which must be held by 2013. Many are also irked by Kan's shift toward fiscal reform and away from costly campaign promises to spend more on households. (Editing by Nick Macfie) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Four killed in Chevron UK refinery fire - police Posted: 02 Jun 2011 07:15 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Four people have been killed in an explosion and fire at Chevron's oil refinery in southwest Wales, police said Friday. The fire broke out after an explosion in a 730 cubic metres storage tank during maintenance, and damage was also caused to an adjacent storage tank, police said. Chevron said an "incident" had occurred at the 220,000 barrel per day Pembroke refinery at 6:20 p.m. (1720 GMT) on Thursday, and that the fire had been extinguished. (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gary Hill) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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