A court in South Africa has blocked Shell from using seismic waves for oil and gas exploration in the Indian Ocean. The oil giant was seeking to deploy ‘seismic survey operations’ across more than 6,000 square km of sea. The plan had raised fears of massive disruption for whales off South Africa’s Wild Coast. But a judge, upholding a previous interim ban, said Shell’s consultations with coastal communities had been ‘substantially flawed’, making the application to explore for new reserves ‘unlawful and invalid’.
Colonial-era anti-gay laws have been struck down on the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, which covers nine nations in the region, ruled that the 1873 ‘sodomy law’ impinged ‘upon the claimants’ right to determine the way they, as individuals, choose to express their sexuality in private with another consenting adult’. The case had been pursued by St. Kitts and Nevis Alliance for Equality and Jamal Jeffers, a gay man.
