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The sinking of a tanker carrying 2,200 tons of fuel oil and 370 tons of marine gas oil has coated some of Greece's most popular beaches in thick, black sludge, leading to health authorities to ban swimming along shorelines in Athens.
The Agia Zoni II tanker sank Sunday off the coast of Salamina island and left behind "a huge environmental and financial disaster," Salamina mayor Isidora Papathanasiou told local news, adding that the "smell is intense and our eyes are stinging."
The mayors of Salamina, Piraeus and Glyfada warned they might take legal action over the pollution "against whoever is responsible."
Greece's government has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent the oil slick from spreading to the Saronic Gulf in Athens, a region home to a wide variety of marine life including dolphins, turtles, fish and sea birds.
"If a small relative leak causes such a disaster next to the country's largest port and the operational center of the Ministry of Mercantile Marine, what exactly is the country's ability to cope with spills and accidents from large-scale oil activities in the Ionian Sea and the Cretan Sea?" said Takis Gregoriou, the head of the campaign for climate change and energy at Greenpeace Greece, in a statement.
World Wildlife Federation Greece also called the spill an "environmental crime."
After touring affected areas, shipping minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis insisted that the situation is improving. He said that cleanup is underway and also suggested Thursday he would resign if asked by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, according to Greek Reporter.
The Associated Press reports that Greece has requested help from the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism and deployed a specialized cleanup vessel.
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The world has reached a grim milestone with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by the Johns Hopkins University tracker passing one million.
India is home to 21 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, but recently air pollution levels have started to drop dramatically as the second-most populated nation endures the second week of a 21-day lockdown amidst coronavirus fears, according to The Weather Channel.
By Eddie Ndopu
- South Africa is ground zero for the coronavirus pandemic in Africa.
- Its townships are typical of high-density neighbourhoods across the continent where self-isolation will be extremely challenging.
- The failure to eradicate extreme poverty is a threat beyond the countries in question.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of two malarial drugs to treat and prevent COVID-19, the respiratory infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, despite only anecdotal evidence that either is proven effective in treating or slowing the progression of the disease in seriously ill patients.
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A team of scientists drilled into the ground near the South Pole to discover forest and fossils from the Cretaceous nearly 90 million years ago, which is the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, as the BBC reported.