GADDANI, Pakistan — Gaddani is a three-dimensional maze of hazards, as chaotic as a major industrial site can get. Steel, in all its forms, assaults the senses. The shrieking of metal saws is punctuated by the ferocious, unnerving thump of massive slabs falling to the sand. And the whole place smells of a four-car pileup. Which is essentially what it is.No, this massive beach here in Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province is not your typical sandy shoreline.It’s one of a handful of “shipbreaking” sites across South Asia.Looming above the flat sand are beached ocean liners, cargo ships and oil tankers that once brought goods to markets in the US and elsewhere around the world. They once bore the flags of the world’s great shipping hubs: Greece, Norway and the UK, but when they arrive at this ignoble resting ground they fly flags of convenience — Panama, Liberia and Bahamas — to launder them from what is about to happen.Continue Reading… … Read More
Liberia likely to revise logging contracts over graft: president
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Contracts to exploit Liberia’s natural resources are likely to be revised or renegotiated once a probe into mismanaged agreements with logging firms is completed, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Thursday.
Ivory Coast, Liberia plan joint military operation on border
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – West African neighbors Ivory Coast and Liberia will launch a joint military operation by the end of the year along their volatile and porous border, the two nations’ presidents announced on Thursday.
