Severe Nordic storms sink Swedish ship

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times and Global Warming

Severe Nordic storms sink Swedish ship*

A Swedish cargo ship has capsized and sunk in the Baltic Sea, as storms
continue to batter Scandinavia.

Helicopters lifted 13 crew members from the ship despite heavy winds,
snow and 5m (16ft) waves, officials say. One crew member is still missing.

The 155m (500ft) vessel sank between the islands of Oland and Gotland.

An oil platform carrying 75 people is still drifting off the coast of
Norway. Land, sea and air transport was widely disrupted on Wednesday.

The roll-on, roll-off Finnbirch was on its way from Helsinki in Finland
to Aarhus in Denmark when it capsized and sank, with a crew of 10
Filipinos and four Swedes on board.

Ship owner, Lindholm Shipping, told the Associated Press news agency
that the cause of the sinking was still unclear.

"We don't have enough information about what could have happened," he said.

Widespread chaos

The crew members were flown to a hospital in Kalmar on the Swedish
mainland, suffering from hypothermia.

Earlier, officials reported the ship was on its side and the crew were
sitting on the hull.

It was not clear if any of the 260 tons of oil aboard the ship had
leaked out, Swedish news agency TT said.

Northern Europe experienced heavy snowfalls, high winds and freezing
temperatures on Wednesday.

Land, air and sea transport services were disrupted across Scandinavia.

In southern and central Sweden, power cuts affected some 50,000 people.

On Tuesday, an oil rig broke away from a tow ship in the North sea
during stormy weather.

Norwegian rescue services had been planning to tie the rig to a tug
boat, but were foiled by rough seas.