The United Nations said Monday it has finally reached a pledging goal to raise money to remove 1 million barrels of oil from a long-stranded and rusting oil supertanker off Yemen, moving closer toward averting an explosion or leak that could wreak environmental and economic disaster.
The U.N. still has to persuade all donors to pay up on pledges for the first, $75 million phase of the emergency removal operation to begin, warned Russell Geekie, a spokesman for U.N. operations in Yemen.
