The South Korean appeal court overturned a lower court ruling and found the super tanker Hebei Spirit and its officers partly to blame for the oil spill in December last year, which polluted miles and miles of beaches. The ship's owner was fined $21,000.
Two Indian sailors, jailed for a year in South Korea after a crane barge collided with their crude carrier leading to a major oil spill in December 2007, were on Thursday acquitted by the Supreme Court in Seoul and are expected to return home soon. Captain Jaspreet Chawla and Chief Officer Shyam Chetan, who had got conditional bail in January, "will be coming to India in two days," General Secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India Abdulgani Y Serang said.