Six In The Morning

Japan nuclear: Workers evacuated as radiation soars

Radioactivity in water at reactor 2 at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has reached 10 million times the usual level, company officials say.

The BBC  27 March 2011

Workers trying to cool the reactor core to avoid a meltdown have been evacuated.

Earlier, Japan’s nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.

The UN’s nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.

It is believed the radiation at Fukushima is coming from one of the reactors, but a specific leak has not been identified.

Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour – 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally.

In Tunisia, act of one fruit vendor unleashes wave of revolution through Arab world



By Marc Fisher

SIDI BOUZID, TUNISIA – On the evening before Mohammed Bouazizi lit a fire that would burn across the Arab world, the young fruit vendor told his mother that the oranges, dates and apples he had to sell were the best he’d ever seen. “With this fruit,” he said, “I can buy some gifts for you. Tomorrow will be a good day.”

For years, Bouazizi had told his mother stories of corruption at the fruit market, where vendors gathered under a cluster of ficus trees on the main street of this scruffy town, not far from Tunisia’s Mediterranean beaches. Arrogant police officers treated the market as their personal picnic grounds, taking bagfuls of fruit without so much as a nod toward payment. The cops took visible pleasure in subjecting the vendors to one indignity after another – fining them, confiscating their scales, even ordering them to carry their stolen fruit to the cops’ cars.

Chernobyl 25 years on: a poisoned landscape

As Japan struggles with its nuclear plant crisis, the site of the biggest atomic disaster in history remains a grim, radioactive monument

Robin McKie in Chernobyl

The Observer, Sunday 27 March 2011

Yuri Tatarchuk has a disconcerting way of demonstrating Chernobyl’s grim radioactive legacy. An official guide at the wrecked nuclear power plant, he waves his radiation counter at a group of abandoned Soviet army vehicles that were used in the battle to clean up the contamination created by the reactor explosion in 1986.

“Some of these trucks are quite clean, but some of them not,” he announces. A sweep of his counter reveals only a few clicks from their doors and roofs. Then he passes the device over one vehicle’s tracks. A sudden angry chatter reveals significant levels of radiation.

Children pose as IRA terrorists at EU-funded centre

Former Provos show off weapons to youngsters who are then photographed brandishing AK-47s

By Jonathan Owen and Kunal Dutta   Sunday, 27 March 2011

Photographs showing children dressed as IRA terrorists and brandishing weapons provoked fury among victims’ groups in Northern Ireland yesterday and prompted investigations by the police, the Children’s Commissioner and the European Union.

The controversy involves a community centre in South Armagh that has received millions of pounds from the European Union, including funds intended to promote peace and social cohesion.

Describing itself as “the jewel in the crown of South Armagh tourism”, the Ti Chulainn Centre, near Mullaghbawn, hosted a youth event organised by Sinn Fein at which scores of children listened to talks by former IRA terrorists.

Revolving door for Taliban suspects



Tom Hyland and Bette Dam

March 27, 2011  

A SENIOR Taliban leader accused of killing Australian troops has been released from jail and rejoined the insurgents, just two years after the Australian army claimed his capture as a major coup.

Influential Afghan figures are believed to have pressed for the release of Mullah Bari Ghul, who was described as the Taliban’s ”shadow governor” in Oruzgan province when he was captured by Australian special forces in August 2008.

He was accused of organising roadside bombings that killed two Australians – Signaller Sean McCarthy and Trooper David Pearce – and a suicide bombing that killed 21 Afghans.

Stay period for PoK visitors to J&K increased



Mar 27, 2011 – RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN | Age Correspondent | New Delhi



India has unilaterally decided to increase the period of stay for persons visiting Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to six months with multiple entries.

The decision comes the day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan to join him at the Mohali cricket stadium on Wednesday to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan.

India’s overture is in keeping with its belief that people-to-people contacts across the Line of Control should not be allowed to be hostage to Pakistan’s wavering and inconsistent attitude toward pursuing a course of rapprochement and détente with India.