Russia fines fishing firm running ‘whale jail’

MOSCOW: A Russian court on Friday fined a fishing firm for illegally capturing killer whales and keeping them in an overcrowded “jail” in the country’s far east. The company that supplies sea mammals to aquariums is one of four firms keeping 10 killer whales and 87 Beluga whales in a controversial facility near the port town of Nakhodka. Media have nicknamed it a “whale jail” due to its crammed pens and the company’s controversial plans to sell the animals to aquariums in nearby China.  AFP

Bloomberg to plunge $500 mn into clean energy effort

Washington: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is plunging $500 million into an effort to close all of the nation’s remaining coal plants by 2030 and put the United States on track toward a 100% clean energy economy. The billionaire Bloomberg’s investment in the Beyond Carbon initiative marks the largest ever philanthropic effort to combat climate change, according to the mayor’s foundation.  The organisation will bypass the federal government and instead seek to pass climate and clean energy policies. AFP

Official mosque in Athens

Athens: Muslims pray at a new mosque in Athens on Friday, the first official place of worship for Athens Muslims in over a century. Leftist government of Greece said an official mosque in Athens, over a decade in the making, would open by September to satisfy a longstanding demand by tens of thousands of Muslims in the capital. Athens is the only European capital without an official mosque. AFP