The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Thirty-seven missing after Russian psychiatric hospital fire
- Sweet, sticky molasses spill blights Honolulu waters
- U.S. public-relations firm helps Putin make his case to America
| Thirty-seven missing after Russian psychiatric hospital fire Posted: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thirty-seven people were missing after a fire raged through a psychiatric hospital in northwestern Russia early on Friday, an Emergency Situations Ministry official said. The official, Oleg Voronov, said on Ekho Moskvy radio that some of the missing may have escaped the hospital in the Novgorod region and survived but Itar-Tass news agency cited a regional official as saying at least 14 people were killed. Investigators say the pre-dawn blaze may have been caused by a patient setting a bed on fire, the Interfax news agency reported. The fire destroyed a building housing male patients at the hospital in the village of Luka, state-run RIA reported. Voronov said there were about 60 people in the building, most of them patients, when it broke out. It was the second deadly fire at a Russian psychiatric hospital this year. In April, a fire at a facility outside Moscow killed 38 people and prompted criticism of the state over care of mentally ill patients. There have been many fires with high death tolls at state institutions such as hospitals, schools, drug treatment centres and homes for the disabled in the past decade, raising questions about safety measures, conditions and escape routes. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Bill Trott) |
| Sweet, sticky molasses spill blights Honolulu waters Posted: HONOLULU (Reuters) - Health officials warned swimmers, surfers and snorkelers in Hawaii to stay out of the waters near Honolulu after a leak of 1,400 tons of molasses killed hundreds of fish, potentially attracting sharks. So many fish had died by Thursday that the Hawaii Department of Health tripled cleanup crews to three boats, which removed hundreds of fish and were expected to remove thousands more in the coming weeks, said department spokeswoman Janice Okubo. A brown plume of sweet, sticky liquid was spotted seeping into Honolulu Harbor and Keehi Lagoon on Monday after a ship hauling molasses to the U.S. West Coast pulled out to sea. By Tuesday, a leak was discovered in a molasses pipeline used to load the molasses onto ships operated by Matson Navigation Co, the international ocean transport company, the health department said. Matson Navigation Company is a subsidiary of Matson Inc. Roger Smith, a dive shop owner who went underwater on Wednesday to survey the damage, said it was unlike anything he had seen in 37 years of diving, with brown-tinted water and a layer of molasses coating the sea floor. "Everything that was underwater suffocated," Smith said. "Everything climbed out of its hole and the whole bottom was covered with fish, crabs, lobsters, worms, sea fans - anything that was down there was dead." The health department said in a statement that while molasses was not directly harmful to people, it was "polluting the water, causing fish to die and could lead to an increase in predator species such as sharks, barracuda and eels." Okubo said crews were monitoring molasses levels in the waters to help predict the spread and overall impact of the 223,000-gallon spill, which is roughly equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Matson acknowledged in a statement that the spill was caused by a faulty molasses-loading pipe, which it said had now been fixed. It said molasses was a sugar product "that will dissipate on its own." Matson said it regretted the incident and was working with authorities to take steps to ensure it did not happen again. "We take our role as an environmental steward very seriously," the statement said. "We have a long history in Honolulu Harbor and can assure all involved that this is a rare incident." The health department said that "an unusual growth in marine algae" and harmful bacteria was another environmental danger posed by the spill. Molasses is a byproduct of the refining of sugar cane. The department posted signs on beaches warning people to stay out of the water and not to consume any dead fish found in the area. The brown plume was expected to remain visible for weeks while natural tides and currents slowly flush the area, the health department said. Tourism officials said they were monitoring the situation but did not believe it would hurt Hawaii's primary source of income. "At this time, we do not foresee any immediate impact on our visitor industry," said Mike McCartney, president and chief executive of the Hawaii Tourism Authority in a statement. (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Jonathan Kaminsky in Washington state and Malia Mattoch-McManus in Honolulu; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Grant McCool and Peter Cooney) |
| U.S. public-relations firm helps Putin make his case to America Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In April 2011, then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was asked an unusually flattering question by an American journalist: "Are you the coolest man in politics?" The interview, which ran on the website of Outdoor Life magazine, was set up by Ketchum Inc., the U.S. public-relations firm that has worked to burnish Russia's image since 2006. On Thursday, Ketchum scored another public-relations coup: It helped place a Putin commentary in opinion pages of The New York Times, just as representatives from Russia and the United States were beginning to meet in Geneva to negotiate a plan for Syria to give up its chemical weapons. The article made quite a splash in Washington. Putin painted himself as a peacemaker and lectured the United States for what he said was a tendency to use "brute force" in world disputes. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he was "insulted" by the article, while the White House noted that Putin was taking advantage of press freedoms unavailable in Russia. Ketchum, a division of the Omnicom Group Inc., has earned more than $25 million working for Russia, according to documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. It also has been paid more than $26 million since 2007 to promote Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company. In 2007, Ketchum successfully lobbied Time magazine to name Putin its "Person of the Year," according to U.S. Justice Department lobbying disclosure filings that show repeated meetings between Ketchum representatives and Time staffers. "He expanded his outsize - if not always benign - influence on global affairs," Time wrote of Putin. Meanwhile, Ketchum staffers urged the State Department to soften its assessment of Russia's human-rights record that year, according to lobbying records. The company has also reached out to reporters who have written articles chronicling Russian human-rights abuses. Russia's efforts to boost its image in U.S. media outlets have come as the country has cracked down on human rights at home. Ketchum also has encouraged reporters, including those at Reuters, to write about Russian trade summits, technology companies, golf and wrestling, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In response to questions from Reuters, Ketchum replied with a general statement, saying that its work with the Russian government has focused on "facilitating the relationship between representatives of the Russian Federation and the Western media and creating a broader dialogue." 'QUITE APPALLING' Putin, who started his career in the KGB, was Russia's president from 2000 to 2008, returning to the office last year after four years as prime minister. Since then, Russia has passed laws that, to many in the United States, have seemed to echo policies from the Soviet era of rigid government control of citizens' daily lives - and that have created public-relations challenges for Ketchum, Russia's promoter in America. Putin's return has brought laws that restrict public protests, limit nongovernmental groups and make it easier for authorities to censor the Internet in Russia. Russian media outlets have been pressured to fire editors and reporters who criticize the government, according to the U.S. State Department. Anna Neistat, an associate director at Human Rights Watch, questioned whether it was appropriate for a U.S. company to advance the interests of a client that restricts human rights at home. "An American company that does operate in a fairly free democratic society should probably think twice before supporting something like that," Neistat said. "From a personal perspective, I of course find it quite appalling." Ketchum has done substantial work for the U.S. government, and came under some criticism in 2004 for producing prepackaged news stories that did not disclose that they were government-funded. Ketchum also has faced criticism for placing pro-Russian opinion pieces by seemingly independent writers in a range of U.S. media outlets, according to ProPublica, an investigative news organisation. Other Ketchum clients have included FedEx, Absolut, Mattel and Sony. AN 'APPROPRIATE ACTIVITY' Foreign governments are a substantial business for U.S. lobbying and public-relations companies, industry analysts say, and there's nothing illegal about representing countries that have less-than-stellar human-rights records as long as the companies provide detailed reports of their activities to the U.S. government. "This is a very appropriate activity, and one that helps advance peace and justice," said Roger Bolton, president of the Arthur W. Page Society, an association of public-relations executives. "When public relations firms advise clients, they invariably advocate for the importance of listening to and accommodating others' views," he added. That appeared to be part of the goal of Putin's opinion piece in The New York Times. Putin said the Syria crisis had prompted him to "speak directly to the American people and their personal leaders," but the article seemed to anger key parts of his audience. Putin said the United States should work through the United Nations to respond to a chemical attack in Syria last month that the United States said had killed more than 1,400 people. Putin's article did not mention that Russia has blocked the United Nations from taking action against Syria, an ally of Russia. Putin suggested that Syrian rebels, rather than the government of President Bashar al-Assad, were responsible for the chemical attack. Putin challenged President Barack Obama's assertion that the United States, as an "exceptional" nation, had a responsibility to take action against Assad for using chemical weapons. "It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional," Putin wrote. That drew a sharp response from the White House. "Russia offers a stark contrast that demonstrates why America is exceptional. Unlike Russia, the United States stands up for democratic values and human rights in our own country and around the world," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. While, Boehner, the top Republican in Washington, said he was "insulted" by Putin's article, other U.S. lawmakers also weighed in with biting criticism. Several foreign-policy analysts questioned whether Russia's efforts through Ketchum were worth the money. "Russia pours lots of money into these arrangements, all aimed at dealing with an image problem in the West. But it's unclear to me if there's much return on investment," said Andrew Weiss, a Russia specialist who served under presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. (Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti, David Lawder, Roberta Rampton and Caren Bohan; Editing by David Lindsey and Ken Wills) |
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