Tuesday 30 July 2013

The European Union Times

Japan’s Fukushima operator confirms nuclear reactors ‘leaking to ocean’

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 09:30 AM PDT

An aerial file photo of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has admitted for the first time that the site’s reactors are leaking highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, admitted the leakage to the ocean for the first time since a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami damaged the plant’s reactors in 2011.
The operator made the acknowledgement after steam was seen at one of the plant’s reactors on Tuesday.
TEPCO has come under criticism for its delay in the announcement, since experts had harbored strong suspicions about a possible leak for a long time.
Previously, the company had denied reports suggesting that contaminated water was leaking into the ocean.
TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono said that radioactive water leaking from the wrecked reactors is likely to have run into the underground water system, before joining the ocean, and might therefore be the result of initial leaks to the underground system spotted in 2011.
Ono added that officials believe a leak is possible as underground water levels fluctuate in accordance with tide movements and rainfall.
Meanwhile, the operator said the number of plant workers with thyroid radiation exposures exceeding threshold levels for increased cancer risks was noticeably higher than earlier reports.
On March 11, 2011, a nine-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that inflicted heavy damage on the six-reactor Fukushima plant. The cooling systems of the plant’s reactors were knocked out, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactive material.
Last July, a Japanese parliamentary panel found that the incident at the Fukushima nuclear plant had been a “man-made disaster” and not only a result of the tsunami. The report criticized “governments, regulatory authorities and Tokyo Electric Power” for being devoid of “a sense of responsibility to protect people’s lives and society.”
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Alaska’s controversial HAARP facility closed – will it come back online?

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 09:23 AM PDT

Alaska’s High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) has drawn its fair share of conspiracy theories over the years, as it sits in Gakona, an array of antennas intended to heat the Earth’s ionosphere and study the effects. Fringe thinkers have tenuously linked HAARP to everything from the 2011 Japanese Earthquake to mind control and hurricanes.
But if there are no major earthquakes or bizarre global weather events in the coming weeks or months, the folks at HAARP may have some explaining to do — the facility has apparently been shuttered since June, the power turned off as HAARP waits for a hoped-for change in contractors to operate the facility.
HAARP is a government-owned facility, primarily overseen by the U.S. Air Force, though the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funds a number of grant projects there. The project was previously managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, but is currently overseen by a research unit at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M. after the Hanscom unit was moved in 2011.
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Three Congolese helicopters attack M23 positions in eastern DRC

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 09:18 AM PDT

Congolese army soldiers

Three Congolese helicopters have blasted positions of the March 23 movement (M23) rebels in the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“Our helicopters have just bombarded enemy positions,” an unnamed Congolese officer said on Tuesday, adding, “Until now the enemy has not yet responded,” AFP reported.
The attacks, which were the first ones since Monday, began in the morning and ended in the afternoon.
On Monday, the M23 said it was only four kilometers (2.5 miles) away from Goma, which is the capital of North Kivu province.
Hundreds of people have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began on July 14.
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch said in a report that the M23 rebels “executed at least 44 people and raped at least 61 women and girls since March 2013.”
The United Nations has announced that it is ready to use “lethal force” to protect civilians in Goma if the M23 rebels advance toward the city.
The M23 rebels seized Goma on November 20, 2012 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city, which is home to about one million people. The rebels withdrew from the city on December 1 under a ceasefire accord.
Several armed groups, including the M23 rebels, are active in the eastern Congo and are fighting for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, such as gold, the main tin ore cassiterite, and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used to make many electronic devices, including cell phones.
The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.
Since early May 2012, more than three million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but some 500,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.
Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.
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Asylum-seeker boat sinks off Indonesian coast, 3 dead

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 09:14 AM PDT

At least three people have died after an Australia-bound boat carrying asylum seekers sank off the coast of Indonesia, with up to 157 people rescued.
The boat, carrying 175 people, all of them Iranians and Sri Lankans, encountered harsh sea conditions and simply broke up, Australian media reported. More than a dozen people are still unaccounted for as search and rescue operation continue.
Two children, ages one and five, were among the dead.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has confirmed an official rescue operation, declining to comment further. “Indonesian authorities are coordinating the rescue of that incident. AMSA is not involved at this stage,” the body’s spokeswoman said. Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue (Basarnas) could not be reached for comment at the time. Immigration and refugee policy is a hot topic in Australia, especially with the election coming up in just a few weeks.
The incident comes days after Australia ruled that any refugees arriving by boat would be redirected without exception to neighboring Papua New Guinea for individual assessment before settling there. The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a set of tough new measures on Friday, which he says are aimed at curbing a steep increase in the number of refugees arriving by boat from Indonesia, which is known to be a dangerous journey.
More than 15,000 asylum seekers have crossed over into Australian waters this year alone, sparking a policy debate and a heated exchange between the ruling Labor government and the opposition, who accuse it of being too soft on issues of border protection.
The new anti-illegal aliens policy has aroused fierce criticism from globalist “human rights” advocates – among them Amnesty International – especially given that Australian numbers are far below what is witnessed elsewhere in the world.
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