Thursday, December 8, 2011

Six In The Morning


Fukushima Daiichi operator considers plans to dump treated water into sea


Tepco says it is running out of space to store water and may dump it, prompting protests from fishing groups

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has said it is considering dumping water treated for radiation contamination into the ocean as early as March, prompting protests from fishing groups.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the utility operating the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was hit by a powerful tsunami in March that caused the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years, said it was running out of space to store some of the water it had treated at the plant because of an inflow of groundwater.

Italians hail capture of notorious mafia boss as 'the end of an epoch'

Michele Zagaria, head of the Camorra's brutal Casalesi clan, arrested after 16 years on the run
 
MILAN
 
Italian police dragged Italy's most notorious mafia fugitive from a hole in the ground yesterday, thus ending the reign of the man whose blood-thirsty clan inspired the hit film Gomorrah.
Michele Zagaria, head of the Camorra's brutal Casalesi clan, was hiding in an underground bunker beneath his home north of Naples. As authorities dug him out, officers completely surrounded the small town of Casapesenna to prevent his escape.
"The state has won," the 53 year-old Zagaria was said to have told police sarcastically as they handcuffed him. He had been on the run since 1995 and was sentenced in absentia to life for murder and other mafia crimes in 2008.

Drying Up the Source

The West Wants to Hit Tehran with an Oil Embargo

By Dieter Bednarz

The guest from the Middle East doesn't stand out much in the lobby of his Berlin business hotel. He's in his late forties, has gray hair and wears a gray suit, a blue shirt and a gray-blue tie. A gray laptop bag hangs over his right shoulder. Only a handful of people in the German capital know that this apparently unassuming man is a top diplomatic weapon in efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program.
The visitor is on a secret mission that has earned him the nickname "Mr. Sanctions." As an expert on the penalties the international community is imposing on Iran, the globetrotter is in constant demand at the moment, especially with Europe's leaders. He claims he has visited almost two dozen capitals in less than a month. Only last week, he lobbied at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, the Chancellery, and the Foreign Ministry lobbying for imposing stricter sanctions.


South accused of attacking disputed Sudanese region


KHARTOUM, SUDAN - Dec 08 2011 

South Sudan's army, the SPLA, has attacked the region of Jau six times since Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Khartoum said in a statement, adding the region lay within Sudan's South Kordofan state and that its army had repulsed the assault.

"The foreign ministry condemns this blatant attack on Sudan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, by a state that does not respect its neighbours and wants to make itself an element of instability in the region," it added.

SPLA spokesperson Philip Aguer confirmed there has been fighting in Jau since Saturday but insisted the area was south of the disputed border.


Zardari’s condition stable; US says no military coup in Pak



Asif Ali Zardari, who is undergoing treatment in Dubai following heart complications, is in stable condition but would remain in hospital for few more days, authorities said, amid assertion by the US that the embattled Pakistan President’s UAE trip was not political and there was no sign of a "silent military coup".
Downplaying Zardari's sudden departure from home, state department spokesman Mark Toner, said that the US had no reason to believe that his trip to Dubai was political.
"Our belief is that it's completely health-related," Toner said at a regular daily briefing in Washington.




US adds more billion-dollar

 disasters to 2011 list


By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com

Just last August the federal officials who track weather disasters said 2011 would go down as a record year with 9 events topping $1 billion in damages. On Wednesday, those same authorities upped the number to 12 events -- totalling $52 billion in damages --and said there's still a chance for one or two more to be added to the list.
"In my weather career spanning four decades, I've never seen a year quite like 2011 ... record-breaking extremes of nearly every conceivable type of weather," National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes said in a statement accompanying the new figures.

No comments:

Translate