Six In The Morning

Nuclear agency is criticized as too close to its industry

Many experts say lax oversight played a key role in Japan’s crisis

By TOM ZELLER Jr.

In the fall of 2007, workers at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois were using a wire brush to clean a badly corroded steel pipe – one in a series that circulate cooling water to essential emergency equipment – when something unexpected happened: the brush poked through.

The resulting leak caused a 12-day shutdown of the two reactors for repairs.The resulting leak caused a 12-day shutdown of the two reactors for repairs.

The plant’s owner, the Exelon Corporation, had long known that corrosion was thinning most of these pipes.

European Court to rule on tighter UK privacy laws

Judges decide if Max Mosley should have been warned before being ‘ambushed’ by the press

By David Connett Sunday, 8 May 2011

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights will this week rule on whether the former world motor sports boss Max Mosley’s right to privacy was invaded when he wasn’t told about a story containing colourful claims about his sex life before it was published in the News of the World.

Victory for Mr Mosley would be landmark ruling that could, in effect, introduce a celebrity privacy law and could spell the death of so-called “kiss and tell” stories, according to some commentators. Critics claim any such ruling will lead to an explosion of controversial pre-emptive legal injunctions and have a “chilling” effect on freedom of expression.

A Forced Marriage Plagued by Ever-Deepening Distrust

US-Pakistani Relations

By Susanne Koelbl

It is a relationship” that has required a great deal of time and patience from both sides. On the one hand, there is US Admiral Michael Mullen, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran who is currently the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking soldier in the US military. On the other, there is General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of Pakistan’s military, who is six years Mullen’s junior and the country’s most influential person.

The two have met more than two dozen times. Behind closed doors, Mullen has consistently defended this time-consuming and energy-intensive fostering of mutual trust. “If everything goes wrong,” he would say, “at least we’ll have this one stable relationship.”

Eight dead, 100 injured in Cairo clashes



May 8, 2011 – 1:10PM

Clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Saturday left eight dead and more than 100 others injured and a church was set on fire, officials said.

The two groups clashed in the northwestern district of Imbaba after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.

A parish priest, Father Hermina, told AFP the dead were Copts who died when “thugs and (Muslim fundamentalist) Salafis fired at them” in the late afternoon attack.

Migrant ship runs aground near Italian port

Incident comes a day after another such boat with 600 men, women and children sunk off the coast of Tripoli.

Last Modified: 08 May 2011  

A boat carrying 300 African migrants ran aground near an Italian port, forcing many of those on board including women and children to jump into the sea, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The coastguard launched a rescue operation on Sunday and have already plucked dozens of people from the water after the boat hit rocks on the approach to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy, the report said, citing officials.

The boat had apparently been headed for Malta but was escorted by the Maltese coastguard towards Lampedusa, the officials were quoted as saying.

The incident comes a day after a migrant boat laden with 600 men, women and children – mostly African refugees – sunk off the coast of Tripoli.

Robert Johnson: fans mark the centenary of the great bluesman’s birth

Robert Johnson was the most influential blues player of all time. Now the last of his musical collaborators will play for his devotees in a centennial celebration

 Alasdair Fotheringham

The Observer, Sunday 8 May 2011

David “Honeyboy” Edwards’s voice all but creaks as he talks, but even at 95 the closest living musical link to blues legend Robert Johnson remains as potent a force as ever.

“I met Robert when I was 20 years old and he was 24,” Edwards recalls. “He was playing the harp [harmonica] with Son House and Willy Brown near a Mississippi lake called Lake Cormorant.”

On Sunday, fans worldwide will celebrate the centenary of Johnson’s birth. Concerts are being held in Greenwood in Mississippi’s Delta region, where Johnson died in 1938 aged just 27, as well as a memorial service in nearby Little Zion, believed to be his final resting place. His grandson, Steven, a church minister, will lead the prayers.