McTay Marine Services Ltd.

Cruise passengers are to set sail from Belfast on Monday on a three-and-a-half-year world voyage after being stranded in the city for months as the ship underwent unexpected repair works. Some plan to make it their forever home.Passengers of the Villa Vie Residences' Odyssey, described as the world's first continual cruise, can either buy their cabins for the entire operational life of the ship or rent them to travel segments of the journey.The ship, with capacity for 650 passengers, was originally due to depart from the Northern Irish capital in May but was held up for repairs due to issues with its rudders and gearbox.

At least four people have been reported dead following the sinking of an oil barge operated by a contractor of Venezuela's state-run energy company PDVSA at the country's Lake Maracaibo, according to a report of the accident on Thursday and sources.Another 19 people had been successfully rescued by Thursday morning at the accident site, the report added.Incidents involving barges that carry Venezuelan oil and fuel between domestic ports and to the Caribbean have become frequent. A large fuel oil spill near Tobago from a capsized barge navigating from Venezuela hit several Caribbean nations in March.PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran's allies in the region two days after killing the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an escalating conflict in Lebanon.The airstrikes on Yemen's port of Hodeidah were in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said, amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and Israel's main ally the United States.The Houthi-run health ministry said at least four people were killed and 29 wounded.

At least two people died and four were declared missing following the sinking of an oil barge operated by a contractor of Venezuelan state-run energy company PDVSA at Lake Maracaibo, PDVSA said on Thursday.Sources and an internal report from the company had indicated four fatalities from the accident earlier on Thursday. But PDVSA said rescue work to find the four missing people has not finished."PDVSA reports the unfortunate sinking of barge Chantase G of company SOSCA, provider of oil well maintenance services, in Lake Maracaibo due to the poor weather conditions affecting the area," the company said in a release.

Maritime security and industry groups raised the risk level for ships calling at Israeli ports on Friday, with terminals facing possible missile strikes from Lebanese group Hezbollah in the Mediterranean and Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea.Earlier this week, the Israeli government's port authority issued a letter stating that terminals ranging from the southern port of Eilat on the Red Sea to the major Mediterranean ports in Haifa in northern Israel were operating at normal capacity.But sirens sounded for the first time in months this week in the city of Haifa after missiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon, and a drone launched by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq militia hit Eilat port