Six In The Morning

Japan radiation leaks force 140,000 indoors

‘These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that’

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

SOMA, Japan – Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the 4-day-old crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

Adding to the mounting crisis, the international nuclear agency said a fire in a storage pond for spent nuclear fuel at a tsunami-stricken Japanese power plant had released radioactivity directly into the atmosphere.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world’s third-largest economy .

Libyan rebels arrest ‘Gaddafi death squad’ that killed journalist



By Kim Sengupta in Ajdabiya Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Four men have been arrested for the murder of an Al Jazeera journalist, and rebel officials claim evidence has emerged that Muammar Gaddafi’s regime is sending undercover squads to carry out assassinations.

The Independent was told that four men were caught in the city of Ajdabiya with evidence linking them to the death of Ali Hassan Al Jaber, who was killed near Benghazi on Saturday. Under questioning, the suspects allegedly confessed that they had been ordered to silence opposition figures and drive out international presence from territories of the protest movement.

Mohammed al-Majberi, a commander of militant fighters, the Shabaab, said: “The men had five guns, some of them with silencers and they also had night sights.

How Bavaria became a European silicon valley

The region is home to hundreds of biotech, IT and environmental technology firms that have emerged in the past 20 years

Julia Kollewe in Munich

The Guardian, Tuesday 15 March 2011

The mention of Bavaria may still conjure up images of rowdy beer halls, oompah bands and red-cheeked folk in dirndl and lederhosen, but the state capital, Munich, is revamping itself as Germany’s answer to silicon valley.

The southern German state – the country’s most prosperous together with its neighbour, Baden-Württemberg – has tried hard to shed its buttoned-up image. Historically an agricultural region that lacked natural resources, its transformation into a more hi-tech economy began after the second world war.

Putin’s win marred by charges of ballot fraud



The Irish Times – Tuesday, March 15, 2011  

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin hailed his ruling party’s victory in regional elections as a vote of confidence in his government, but opponents claimed the balloting was marred by fraud.

United Russia, the party Mr Putin has used as an instrument of power since his 2000 to 2008 presidency, outpolled rivals in contests on Sunday for legislatures in 12 regions from the Bering Strait to the Baltic Sea, election officials said.

Mr Putin suggested that United Russia had passed its last big test ahead of December parliamentary elections and a March 2012 vote in which he has hinted he will return to the presidency or endorse incumbent Dmitry Medvedev for a second term.

Pakistan trial court to rule on agent



Ben Doherty, Lahore

March 15, 2011  

RAYMOND Davis, the CIA agent who shot dead two men in a crowded Lahore street, will go before a Pakistani trial judge after the Lahore High Court refused to rule on whether he has diplomatic immunity.

Instead, the district trial court, where he has been charged with two murders, will decide whether Pakistan has the right to prosecute him.

The chances of the US engineering a financial settlement with the slain men’s families appear all but extinguished.

CBI questions Kalmadi



TNN | Mar 15, 2011, 11.11am IST  

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Tuesday questioned Commonwealth Games Organising Committee’s former chief Suresh Kalmadi in connection with massive financial irregularities in the Games.

Kalmadi is at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi.

Forensic evidence linking Suresh Kalmadi to contracts being investigated for alleged corruption, delivery deficits and manipulation of tender terms had come to light recently.

Details of Kalmadi’s links to dubious decisions taken during his tenure as chief organiser are with the V K Shunglu committee probing an array of Games-related irregularities.