Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Building fall downs in Morrilton, killing 1, injuring 6
MORRILTON, Ark. AP Report’s - Authorities say a building in a central Arkansas city has misshapen, killing a young girl and injuring at least six other people.
Investigators have not resolute what caused the building in downtown Morrilton to collapse Monday.
Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith says saver teams are searching the ruins for possible survivors but that he thinks the majority of people runaway. The building housed a beauty parlor.
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EGYPT: Wife of Hosni Mubarak turns over $3 million to Egypt, claiming that’s all she possesses
Former First Lady Suzanne Thabet Mubarak while talking to prosecutors on Monday that she would turn over all her assets to Egypt. She expressed that she obsessed only $3 million.
A variety of estimates have her and her husband, former President Hosni Mubarak, in ownership of several billion dollars. There was rumor Monday evening that the state would not put on trial Mrs. Mubarak in vision of her offer. There was also assumption that some prosecutors did not consider her arithmetic, and that an examination into her assets would carry on.
Earlier, doctors unsuccessful to complete an angioplasty on Mrs. Mubarak, potentially prolonging a stay in hospital after anti-corruption authorities ordered her custody.
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Police were called to Scottish club Cowdenbeath after a suspicious package was delivered.
Officers gone to Cowdenbeath's Central Park ground but were later stood down.
A Fife Constabulary spokesperson told that the parcel had been addressed to club chairman Donald Findlay QC - one of Scotland's top lawyers.
The spokesperson told that the item did not hold a bomb but was designed to apprehension Mr Findlay - a former Rangers vice-chairman.
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A Fife Constabulary spokesperson told that the parcel had been addressed to club chairman Donald Findlay QC - one of Scotland's top lawyers.
The spokesperson told that the item did not hold a bomb but was designed to apprehension Mr Findlay - a former Rangers vice-chairman.
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Mob boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano found culpable of kill, gangster faces death penalty
A federal jury convicted former Bonanno crime boss Vincent Basciano of capital kill Monday - only the second time in 30 years that a Mafioso has faced the death penalty for underworld rubout.
Basciano, 51, should now stay as the jury decides whether he should die by deadly inoculation for ordering the murder of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo or get life in prison without the option of parole.
Basciano is by now serving a life verdict for the shotgun murder of Bronx junkie Frank Santoro in 2001.
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Saturday, May 14, 2011
Earthquake 6.0 scale hit in northern Afghanistan - Reuters
Reuters Report’s - A earthquake of scale 6.0 hit the north of Afghanistan early Sunday, the U.S. Geological survey said.
It said the epicenter of the shake, about 128 miles deep, was around the settlement of Feyzabad, near the boundaries with Tajikistan and Pakistan. The area, comparatively thinly occupied, often experiences tremors.
There were no instant reports of destruction or fatalities.
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It said the epicenter of the shake, about 128 miles deep, was around the settlement of Feyzabad, near the boundaries with Tajikistan and Pakistan. The area, comparatively thinly occupied, often experiences tremors.
There were no instant reports of destruction or fatalities.
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UPDATE Manitoba floods farms to avoid 'catastrophic' break
* Dike breach to flood large swath of farmland
* 3,300 people flee homes in Canadian Prairie province
* U.S. also moves to marsh crops due flooded Mississippi (Adds update from premier)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, May 14 Reuters Report’s - Manitoba unlocks its dam on the swollen Assiniboine River on Saturday, preliminary a slow creep of water across rich farmland to avert a potentially disastrous, unplanned break in the Canadian province.
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* 3,300 people flee homes in Canadian Prairie province
* U.S. also moves to marsh crops due flooded Mississippi (Adds update from premier)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, May 14 Reuters Report’s - Manitoba unlocks its dam on the swollen Assiniboine River on Saturday, preliminary a slow creep of water across rich farmland to avert a potentially disastrous, unplanned break in the Canadian province.
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Louisiana spillway unlocks to ease flooding-witness
MORGANZA, Louisiana: Reuters Report’s - U.S. army engineers on Saturday opened a key spillway in Louisiana to ease heaviness on the swelling Mississippi River, a Reuters eyewitness said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened one of the 125 floodgates at the Morganza Spillway 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital.
The action might overwhelm some 3,000 square miles (7,770 sq km) of low-lying marsh and cropland in the Atchafalaya River basin in up to 20 feet (6 meters) of water for quite a few weeks, but spare Louisiana's two major cities from flooding.
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Florida imams under arrest for aiding Pakistani Taliban
Miami: Reuters Report’s - The imam of a Florida mosque and his two sons, one also a Muslim religious leader, were under arrest on Saturday on charges of financial assistance and supporting the Pakistani Taliban, U.S. officials said.
The three Pakistan-born U.S. citizens were among six charged in a U.S. condemnation that accused them of "supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere" carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, which Washington calls a terrorist group.
The condemnation, announced by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo Ferrer and the FBI, charged the six with generating a network that transferred finances from the United States to Pakistani Taliban groups and fighters in Pakistan, as well as for the principle of buying arms.
Libyan government claims NATO airstrike kills 11 clerics in eastern oil town of Brega
TRIPOLI, Libya: Associated Press Report’s— Mourners vowed vengeance and upset off heavy shooting in a Tripoli cemetery on Saturday as they buried nine men they said were Muslim clerics and medics killed in a NATO airstrike in mostly rebel-held eastern Libya.
The Libyan government gave one account of why the men had traveled from the capital to the eastern front; a cleric at the interment who said he witnessed the attack in the oil town of Brega gave a dissimilar version.
And the government, apparently hoping to turn the interment into an expression of support for Moammar Gadhafi, announced the time and place on state TV and over text messages. Only a few hundred men showed up, however, and few exposed to be family or friends of the dead. At least a dozen were soldiers.
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Thursday, May 12, 2011
2 Men Arrested in New York City Terror query
Arrest came in a police operation late Wednesday as men were annoying to buy guns, hand grenades
U.S. law enforcement officer say they have under arrest two men annoying to buy arms as part of a supposed terrorist plot in New York City.News reports quoted establishment as expressing, the men were in detention in a police operation late Wednesday. Officials said the two suspects are predictably to be charged under New York state terrorism laws.
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Cellular Users in Pakistan Cross 105 Million Mark
Cellular users in the Pakistan have crossed 105 million mark in February 2011 to attain a total of 105,151,871 mobile contribution, according to the statistics released by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
PTA said that cellular teledensity in February 2011 reached 63.2 percent viewing 0.8 percent growth rate in February 2011 alone.
Stats said that all five cellular institutes showed steadiness in adding 1,145,103 mobile phone users in February 2011, as compared to 1,229,381 cell users in January 2011.
During January and February 2011 Mobilink remained at top in conditions of new sales with 705,203 new subscriptions, followed by Zong, which administrated to add 703,322 mobile phone users to its network to surpass 9 million subscribers mark.
Telenor added 696,060 users in reported two months. Warid could add 176,150 new users while Ufone added only 93,750 users due to clean-up of records.
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Mississippi River at Flood Stage in New Orleans
Tunica, Mississippi, CNN Report’s -- With the spilling over Mississippi River bearing down on New Orleans, where the water level was by now at flood stage, the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it is opening more bays along a main spillway.
By the end of the day, a total of 160 bays will be unlock at the Bonnet Carre Spillway, establishment said. "The Corps will go on to monitor the Mississippi River flow, and will open supplementary bays as needed," the Corps said on its website. The spillway just north of New Orleans diverts water into Lake Pontchartrain.
The National Weather Service said that as of Thursday morning the river was at 17 feet in New Orleans, right at overflow stage. It is predictable to crest on May 23 at more than 19 feet.
"Nobody can enfold their heads around what's going to happen," said Caroline George of Baton Rouge. In a CNN iReport from her hometown, where the 19-year-old is on summer break from college, she said, "I've never seen the river anywhere near where it is now."
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China raises bank reserves to cool inflation
BEIJING -- China ordered the majority of its banks on Thursday to raise the amount of money they hold in reserves in a new move to restrain inflation after higher-than-expected price rises in April.
The central bank's order was the fifth reserve boost this year and came a day after the government reported April price increases was 5.3 percent.
Obstinately high inflation has aggravated communist leaders who have affirmed humanizing rolling living costs their main concern this year. They have raised interest rates four times since October and ordered companies to restrain price rises.
The People's Bank of China ordered most banks to augment reserves by 0.5 percent of their deposits as of next Wednesday. That will increase reserves for the biggest institutions to 21 percent of deposits.
Economists blame China's price rises spike on strong customer demand that is outstripping food provisions and a flood of bank lending that was part of Beijing's incentive following the 2008 global disaster.
China's investments are rising so fast that economists regard increases in reserve levels and interest charges as only a signal to institutions to cut back lending.
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NATO air strikes smack Gaddafi compound in Tripoli
TRIPOLI, Reuters Report’s – NATO air strikes smack Muammar Gaddafi's compound Thursday, hours after the Libyan leader was exposed on television for the first time since one more aerial assault killed his son almost two weeks ago.
Libyan officials who showed reporters around the scene of the air smack, at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound, said three people had been killed and 25 injured.
The spot of a two-storey building was blustered away, leaving fragments of concrete on the street underneath. Deep craters were left in two other locations around the compound, which has been under attacked several times since NATO began its movement.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Pakistan welcomes forthcoming US Senator John Kerry visit
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan welcomed Wednesday a imminent visit by US Senator John Kerry, saying it would facilitate ease distrust after an American attack killed Osama bin Laden not far from Islamabad.
Kerry, who seats the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed that he would tour to Pakistan early on next week to put ties with Islamabad back “on the right track”.
Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told AFP that the visit would help in efforts “to minimise the trust shortage”.
“There are apprehensions from our part and there are anxieties from their part also. We be supposed to address these concerns,” the minister said.
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Zardari reached Moscow for talks with Russian leaders
MOSCOW: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has reached Moscow on his first foreign tour since Osama bin Laden’s assassination earlier this month.
Zardari’s four-day visit to Russia will comprise talks with his matching part, Dmitry Medvedev, focusing on counterterrorism and avoidance of drug-trafficking in Central and Southern Asia.
The Kremlin says they as well are expected to talk about energy collaboration, as well as Russia’s contribution in a planned natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India that would cross Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After bin Laden’s assassination, Zardari’s detested government faced censuring from the US, where some politicians blamed Pakistani establishment of helping the world’s most wanted radical.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
No bail for man who attempted to access plane cockpit
SAN FRANCISCO – A federal judge has denied bail for a Yemen native blamed of annoying to barge into the cockpit of a San Francisco-bound American Airlines flight.
Prosecutors quarreled in court Tuesday that Rageh Al-Murisi shouldn't obtain bail for the reason that he's a risk to society.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elise Becker says Al-Murisi yelled "God is great" in Arabic earlier than approaching in the direction of the cockpit. She remarks the same expression was uttered by the hijackers of Flight 93 as they took over the plane that finally went down in Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.
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Mitch Daniels says he can beat Obama in 2012
Reuters Reports - Republican Mitch Daniels, who is bearing in mind, a run for the White House in 2012, said on Tuesday he believes he can defeat U.S. President Barack Obama but that is not issue in his discussions.
"I believe the odds would in fact be rather good," Daniels told the media in Indiana. "That's really not a cause; I don't desire to exaggerate this."
The Indiana governor, seen as a Republican hardwearing, has assured to make a verdict soon about making a presidential run and said the support he is picking up is "quite overwhelming."
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WikiLeaks: Julian Assange given peace prize
Julian Assange, the founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, has been awarded an award “for exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights”.
Mr Assange was given the Sydney Peace Medal at a ceremony at the Frontline Club in central London today.The Sydney Peace Foundation said that it was making the award to recognise Mr in recognition of the need “for greater transparency and accountability of governments”.
Professor Stuart Rees, director of the foundation, said: “By challenging centuries old practices of government secrecy and by championing people’s right to know, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have created the potential for a new order in journalism and in the free flow of information.”
Speaking at the event, Mr Assange referred to whistleblowers as "heroes" and said it appeared the website had played a "significant role" in the recent Arab uprisings in north Africa by releasing US diplomatic cables in December that were later translated into Arabic and French.
He said WikiLeaks was part of England's historic "free speech traditions, these go back in the UK to the time of the English Civil War of the 1640s". He said: “The real value of this award, and the Sydney Peace Foundation is that it makes explicit the link between peace and justice.
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5.3 earthquake, Loyalty Islands. May 11 1:07am at epicenter (20m ago, 141km NNE of Tadine, depth 41km).
Magnitude 5.3 - LOYALTY ISLANDS
2011 May 10 14:07:49 UTC
Earthquake Details
- This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
| Magnitude | 5.3 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 20.280°S, 168.163°E |
| Depth | 41.2 km (25.6 miles) |
| Region | LOYALTY ISLANDS |
| Distances | 141 km (87 miles) SW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu 143 km (88 miles) NNE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia 282 km (175 miles) S of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu 1735 km (1078 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 17.8 km (11.1 miles); depth +/- 9.5 km (5.9 miles) |
| Parameters | NST=113, Nph=145, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.74 sec, Gp= 83°, M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=7 |
| Source |
|
NATO strikes target Gaddafi compound: witnesses
(Reuters) - NATO carried out missile strikes on targets in the Tripoli area on Tuesday that appeared to include Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound, witnesses said.
Gaddafi has not appeared publicly since April 30 when a NATO air strike on a house in the capital killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren, raising questions among some Arab diplomats anxious to know why he has remained out of sight.
Libyan officials said NATO airstrikes in the Tripoli area overnight wounded four children and two of them were seriously hurt by flying glass caused by blasts.
Officials showed foreign journalists a hospital in the capital where some windows were shattered apparently by blast waves from a NATO strike that toppled a nearby telecommunications tower.
The journalists were also taken to a government building housing the high commission for children that had been completely destroyed. The old colonial building was damaged before in what officials said was a NATO bombing on April 30.
"The direction of at least one blast suggests Gaddafi's compound has been targeted," said one witness.
No other information was immediately available. But the Tripoli blasts occurred against a backdrop of deadlock in an insurgency that aims to end Gaddafi's 41 years in power and a resulting dilemma for Western powers over whether to offer covert aid to the rebels.
Allies including the United States, Britain and France face a choice over whether to exploit loopholes in the sanctions regime they engineered in February and March to help the rebels, analysts and U.N. diplomats said.
Another option would be to circumvent the sanctions secretly but both courses risk angering Russia and China. They wield U.N. Security Council vetoes and are increasingly critical of NATO's operations under a resolution aimed at protecting civilians.
REBELS BESIEGED
The government says most Libyans support Gaddafi. It calls the rebels armed criminals and al Qaeda militants and says NATO's intervention is an act of colonial aggression by Western powers intent on stealing the country's oil.
After two months of conflict linked to this year's uprisings in other Arab countries, rebels hold Benghazi and other towns in the east while the government controls the capital and almost all of the west of the North African state.
Fighting is escalating in the Western Mountains region near Tunisia and rebels on Monday said NATO struck government arms depots southeast of the battleground town of Zintan.
The town was quiet on Tuesday with no government shelling or NATO air strikes, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman said by telephone.
"The revolutionaries (rebels) are combing the area of Awiniyah where the brigades are believed to be positioned," he said. The town is 25 km (16 miles) east of Zintan.
NATO forces have also struck repeatedly at Misrata, the western city where besieged rebels have clung on for weeks in the face of a ferocious government assault. Hundreds have died in the fighting.
The rebels face a government with superior firepower and resources but a rebel military commander told Al Jazeera television his fighters killed 57 troops and destroyed 17 military vehicles during a major battle west of the insurgent-held city of Ajdabiyah on Monday.
The commander also said two rebels were killed in the fighting halfway between Ajdabiyah and the oil port of Brega, where Gaddafi forces are entrenched. His statement could not immediately be verified.
The war has killed thousands and caused misery for tens of thousands of migrants forced to flee overland or by boat. Hundreds have drowned on unseaworthy vessels trying to cross the Mediterranean.
Aid agencies say witnesses reported a vessel carrying between 500 and 600 people foundered late last week near Tripoli and many bodies were seen in the water.
"The tragic truth is we will probably never know how many people drowned in this latest tragedy," said Jean-Philippe Chauzy, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.
Even before that, around 800 people have gone missing since March 25 after trying to escape Libya, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Most were from sub-Saharan Africa.
(Reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Louis Charbonneau in New York, Barbara Lewis in Geneva and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; writing by Matthew Bigg, editing by Giles Elgood)
Marshal: Flight suspect tried to open cockpit door
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal air marshal says a man who was arrested after causing a disturbance on a San Francisco-bound American Airlines flight twice tried to open the cockpit door, the second time after a crew member told him that the restroom was to his left.
In a court affidavit filed on Monday, Paul Howard says Rageh Al-Murisi (rah-GAY al-moor-EE'-see) then made eye contact with the crew member, lowered his shoulder and rammed the door. He says the crew member got between Al-Murisi and the door, but Al-Murisi kept yelling and pushing forward in an attempt to open it.
The 28-year-old Murisi was subdued and taken into custody after the flight landed safely at San Francisco International Airport.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday on a charge of interfering with flight crew.
Japan Scraps Plan for New Nuclear Plants
TOKYO — Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in creating a new energy policy.
Mr. Kan’s announcement came as Japan allowed residents of evacuated areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to briefly revisit their homes for the first time since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March caused the nuclear accident.
Tuesday’s decision will abandon a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity.
The cancellation of the planned nuclear plants is the second time that Mr. Kan has suddenly announced big changes in Japanese nuclear policy without the usual endless committee meetings and media leaks that characterize the country’s consensus-driven decision making. Mr. Kan appears to be seeking a stronger leadership role after criticism of his government’s sometimes slow and indecisive handling of the Fukushima accident.
Last week, Mr. Kan asked a utility company to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear plant, which sits atop an active earthquake fault line, about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo. After three days of delays, the company, Chubu Electric Power, finally agreed on Monday to shut down the plant until a new wave wall was built and other measures could be taken to strengthen it against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan’s energy policy: renewable energy and conservation. While Japan has been a global leader in energy conservation, it lags behind the United States and Europe in adopting solar and wind power, and other new energy sources.
“We need to start from scratch,” Mr. Kan told reporters. “We need to make nuclear energy safer and do more to promote renewable energy.”
Mr. Kan had also previously called for Japan to sell its nuclear technology to emerging nations as a new source of export income. However, the Fukushima accident has prompted a global rethinking of nuclear energy and may drive customers away from Japanese suppliers to rivals in places like South Korea.
Mr. Kan also appeared to pull back from his earlier vows to remain committed to nuclear power. His apparent about-face may be driven partly by public opinion, which has soured on nuclear power since the Fukushima accident.
On Tuesday, Japan was reminded of the human costs of the disaster, when the first group of 92 people paid two-hour visits to their homes in the town of Kawauchi, within the 12-mile zone around the plant that was evacuated after the nuclear crisis.
The residents wore white anti-radiation clothing and traveled in buses under tight supervision by nuclear officials. They retrieved belongings such as photo albums and the small tablets traditionally used in Japan to honor dead relatives in household Buddhist shrines, according to local media reports.
The Kan government appeared to agonize for weeks over whether to allow even such brief trips. Officials were concerned about whether civilians could be kept safe from exposure to potentially high radiation doses around the plant.
Complicating their decision was the lack of scientific knowledge on the health effects of the radiation doses now seen in many of the evacuated areas. Some scientists say radiation levels even in many evacuated areas are too low to cause immediate illness while others worry that incidence of cancer could rise over the long term.
Last week, the government staged a trial run, in which officials played the role of returning residents, to see if the trips could be made safely, and within the time allotted. Screened for radiation on their return, those participating were found to have been exposed to a dose of up to 25 microsieverts during the two-hour visit.
That is well above the 3.8 microsieverts per hour that Japan has used in some cases as a threshold for deciding such safety issues as whether to allow children to play outside while at school.
Mr. Kan’s announcement came as Japan allowed residents of evacuated areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to briefly revisit their homes for the first time since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March caused the nuclear accident.
Tuesday’s decision will abandon a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity.
The cancellation of the planned nuclear plants is the second time that Mr. Kan has suddenly announced big changes in Japanese nuclear policy without the usual endless committee meetings and media leaks that characterize the country’s consensus-driven decision making. Mr. Kan appears to be seeking a stronger leadership role after criticism of his government’s sometimes slow and indecisive handling of the Fukushima accident.
Last week, Mr. Kan asked a utility company to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear plant, which sits atop an active earthquake fault line, about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo. After three days of delays, the company, Chubu Electric Power, finally agreed on Monday to shut down the plant until a new wave wall was built and other measures could be taken to strengthen it against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan’s energy policy: renewable energy and conservation. While Japan has been a global leader in energy conservation, it lags behind the United States and Europe in adopting solar and wind power, and other new energy sources.
“We need to start from scratch,” Mr. Kan told reporters. “We need to make nuclear energy safer and do more to promote renewable energy.”
Mr. Kan had also previously called for Japan to sell its nuclear technology to emerging nations as a new source of export income. However, the Fukushima accident has prompted a global rethinking of nuclear energy and may drive customers away from Japanese suppliers to rivals in places like South Korea.
Mr. Kan also appeared to pull back from his earlier vows to remain committed to nuclear power. His apparent about-face may be driven partly by public opinion, which has soured on nuclear power since the Fukushima accident.
On Tuesday, Japan was reminded of the human costs of the disaster, when the first group of 92 people paid two-hour visits to their homes in the town of Kawauchi, within the 12-mile zone around the plant that was evacuated after the nuclear crisis.
The residents wore white anti-radiation clothing and traveled in buses under tight supervision by nuclear officials. They retrieved belongings such as photo albums and the small tablets traditionally used in Japan to honor dead relatives in household Buddhist shrines, according to local media reports.
The Kan government appeared to agonize for weeks over whether to allow even such brief trips. Officials were concerned about whether civilians could be kept safe from exposure to potentially high radiation doses around the plant.
Complicating their decision was the lack of scientific knowledge on the health effects of the radiation doses now seen in many of the evacuated areas. Some scientists say radiation levels even in many evacuated areas are too low to cause immediate illness while others worry that incidence of cancer could rise over the long term.
Last week, the government staged a trial run, in which officials played the role of returning residents, to see if the trips could be made safely, and within the time allotted. Screened for radiation on their return, those participating were found to have been exposed to a dose of up to 25 microsieverts during the two-hour visit.
That is well above the 3.8 microsieverts per hour that Japan has used in some cases as a threshold for deciding such safety issues as whether to allow children to play outside while at school.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Are Top U.S. Earners Over Taxed?
Are wealthy Americans paying more than their fare share of income taxes? That's a much harder question to answer than Washington might have you think. Republican lawmakers touted a statistic by the Join Committee on Taxation last week that found 51% of households owed no federal income tax in 2009, a number they're using to push back against President Obama's pitch to pay down deficits by increasing taxes for high-income earners.
The Wall Street Journal also threw together a graphic to illustrate why the wealthiest 20% of Americans have been paying more than their share of the country's income in taxes, especially compared to Europe.
Credit: Wall Street Journal
The stats paint a pretty dreamy picture for the un-rich in America, but they're shoddy math for more than a few reasons. First off, the chart uses income tax rates that don't include the many tax breaks that go to mostly higher income earners.
Numbers crunched by the Tax Policy Center show that when you add up the various tax incentives (like mortgage interest deductions, child credits, and deductions for charitable giving) doled out by the U.S. government, top earners end up with the lion's share of benefits. Howard Gleckman at Forbes parses this out:
Those tax breaks are worth an average of $275,000 to those in the top 1 percent (who make at least $668,000) and $1.5 million to those in the top 0.1 percent (who make more than $3 million). These preferences allow those folks at the very top to boost their after-tax incomes by more than 20 percent—more than twice the benefit of those at the bottom.
To put it another way, the highest-income 20 percent enjoy almost two-thirds of the benefits of tax expenditures. More than one-quarter goes to the top 1 percent alone. The bottom 40 percent? They get about 10 percent. For some, it may be enough to zero out their tax bill, but compared to those at the top, it isn't much of an increase in income.
Factor in the many other peculiarities not reflected in official income tax rates (such as state, local, and consumption taxes), and the difference between Europe and the U.S. turns out to be very little. A July 2010 OECD Observer article calculated that the “all-in” tax rate for top earners in the U.S. is 43.2% of wages, whereas it's 56% in Sweden and 59.4% in Belgium. The “all-in” average for OECD countries is 45.9%, slightly higher than the U.S.
The WSJ graphic also compares tax burdens for the “richest 10%” in Europe and the U.S. to show that Americans are paying a bigger share of the country's income in taxes than Europeans. But just who's included in that top 10%? In Hungary, Ireland, and Luxembourg, the average worker pays the top marginal tax rate, according to the OECD, whereas U.S. taxpayers don't hit the top rate until they've earned nearly ten times the average U.S. wage level. In other words, a much bigger group of income earners is paying top tax rates in Europe than in the U.S. So Americans may not be that progressive after all.
Attorney General vows to close Guantanamo
(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the United States would close the Guantanamo Bay facility holding terrorism suspects in Cuba, despite missing a previous deadline to do so.
On an official visit to Paris, Holder stressed what he called unprecedented intelligence-sharing ties between France and the United States against a united enemy, al Qaeda, that he said still held the two countries and its allies in its sights.
The recent killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was unlikely to affect the timing of the closure of the Guantanamo facility, Holder said.
"Although we have not closed Guantanamo within the time period that we initially indicated ... it is still the intention of the president, and it is still my intention, to close the facility that exists in Guantanamo," Holder told a joint news briefing with French Interior Minister Claude Gueant.
"We think that by closing that facility the national security of the United States will be enhanced," he added.
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the Guantanamo Bay facility in the first year of his presidency and transfer its inmates to prisons in the United States.
Obama has said the center, set up by his predecessor George W. Bush, has helped drive recruitment for anti-American groups and that allegations of mistreatment of prisoners have hurt America's reputation.
Holder said it would take time for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to go through the trove of data collected from bin Laden's compound, adding the information would be shared with allies as soon as possible.
"With the death of bin Laden, the world is safer but the world is not yet safe," said Holder. "In addition to bin Laden and within the al Qaeda network, there are still parts of that organization that want to strike France, that want to strike the U.S. and our allies," he said.
Ariz. governor taking state's appeal on implementation of immigration law to US Supreme Court.
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state's immigration enforcement law on hold.
The appeal comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court's order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit in a bid to invalidate the law.
Brewer's lawyers have argued the federal government hasn't effectively enforced immigration law and that the state's intent in passing the law was to assist federal authorities.
The U.S. Justice Department has argued the law intrudes on its exclusive authority to regulate immigration and burdens legal immigrants.
Ship with hundreds sinks off Libya, witnesses say
Milan— A ship carrying up to 600 migrants trying to flee Libya has sunk just off the coast of the North African country, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday, citing witness accounts.
The agency is trying to confirm what happened to the passengers when the vessel broke apart at sea shortly after leaving a port near Libya's capital Tripoli on Friday, spokeswoman Laura Boldrini said.There was no information on how many people might have died, and the uprising in Libya makes any official accounting unlikely.
Witnesses who departed on another boat shortly after reported seeing the ship broken apart and bodies floating in the sea, Boldrini said. The second boat with witnesses aboard arrived later in Italy, she said.
The number of migrants fleeing North Africa's shores have increased since the region has been engulfed in a series of uprisings.
At least three other boats that departed Libya in late March have disappeared, with hundreds feared dead, Boldrini said.
She said that the UNHCR advised the Italian Coast Guard at the time that boats carrying 120 and 360 migrants respectively had departed Libya in late March but never arrived in Italy.
The Italian Coast guard later told the UNHCR that they were not able to come up with any information, she said.
The fate of those migrants is also not clear, but their relatives fear they are dead since they have lost contact with them. In both cases, the ships had satellite communications before going missing.
Boldrini said the incidence of deaths and disappearances among seafaring migrants fleeing unrest and repressive regimes in Africa is increasing as smugglers begin to use bigger boats that they are not capable of controlling.
Another aid group, the International Organization for Migration, said it is impossible to know how many people have drowned while trying to reach Europe.
"There's been no way of charting for sure how many boats have left, how many people never made it. Some of them we will never know about," said IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya.
In another case, relayed by an Eritrean priest in Rome to Boldrini, a boat with more than 70 people on board ran into trouble in the seas, she said. Only a handful survived, making their way back to Libya, according to the priest.
London's Guardian newspaper reported on Monday that 61 African migrants died of hunger and thirst on that ship after being ignored by a NATO warship and helicopter in March around the time the alliance was readying for military strikes against the Gadhafi regime.
NATO denied the accusation, saying in a statement that the only vessel operating on the specified dates — March 29 or 30 — in that area was the Italian ship Garibaldi, and that it was 100 nautical miles out to sea, while the ship is believed to have floundered closer to shore.
"Therefore, any claims that a NATO aircraft carrier spotted and then ignored the vessel in distress are wrong," the military alliance said.
UNHCR's Boldrini, meanwhile, called for an improvement in communication between coast guards, military and commercial ships.
"We need take heed of a situation that is very much evolving. We have to cooperate much more closely," she said.
In some instances, she said, ships in the heavily trafficked Mediterranean might see the boats but not intervene if there isn't an obvious mechanical problem or emergency.
"Rescue should be automatic, without waiting for the boat to break apart or the engine to stop running," Boldrini said.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Video: Terrorism's Big Dirty Secret Alex Jones exposes
Video: Terrorism's Big Dirty Secret Alex Jones exposes
Alex Jones exposes the biggest hoax of all behind the threat of terrorism and the idea that Americans should give up their freedoms only to live cowering in fear.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
IMRAN KHAN THE MAN OF DIGNITY
Imran Khan: One personality which people memorized as a cricketer, no one knew that this famous cricketer who was only made for the cricket will become a leader of the nation and great politician. I had seen many political leaders did'nt find man like him. He have very impressive and reality base agenda of this party (Tehreek-e-Insaf) which stands on the freedom of judiciary, in these days one news is on hot seat, that Imran Khan had given a week ultimatum to the Government, if done will never stopped targeting Pakistan his party will sit-in against NATO supply lines road.
The common men of Pakistan living in pathetic conditions and they are very embarrass from Government and U.S done attacks, I consider, If U.S want to control the extremist in this region, its not the right way to make more extremist through drone attacks, because AL-QAEDA and other extremist groups are using the victims and families of the victims of drone attacks for their objectives. All over the country it is the main factor of hating America. Imran Khan is not against U.S but he is against some U.S policies. What I see, the future revolutionary leader is uprising in form of Imran Khan and writing his glory on the pages of history. The followers are exceeding day by day, some of International Polls are showing his popularity graff is going up and up gradually.
In these days people of Pakistan are frustrated from the present Government machinery and all other political parties, because in the terms of every ruling party; corruption reach new heights, inflation increased and today it have no boundaries, where it will stop of sustained. Fudge statements of leaders, direct involvement of U.S in each and every matter of the country, destruction merit in every term.
The major reason behind the popularity of Imran Khan is he always give true statements, have all assets in Pakistan and demand one new law to be introduced that no one is allowed to participate in the election, if he/she has assets in Pakistan can participate in elections. Imran Khan have strong hold in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoon Khuwa (Formerly N.W.F.P) in coming elections his party will be strong opponent to every one.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Beijing police detain at least a dozen Christians gathering for illegal Easter service
BEIJING — Chinese police detained at least a dozen Christians belonging to an unregistered Beijing church as the congregants gathered Sunday to hold Easter services.
Police stopped the worshippers from the unregistered Shouwang church at they gathered near a public plaza in the city’s university district, then bussed them to a local police station. It was not immediately clear whether they were arrested.
Shouwang members have been trying to meet at the plaza in Beijing’s Haidian district every Sunday since the congregation was evicted from its usual rented place of worship three weeks ago, but they have been detained or put under house arrest each time.
A church member told The Associated Press by phone Saturday night that he and the church’s pastors and leaders were all under house arrest. The member would give only his English name, Kane, for fear of reprisals by officials.
While China’s Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Christians are required to worship in churches run by state-controlled organizations — the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association for Catholics.
However, more than 60 million Christians are believed to worship in unregistered “house” churches, compared to about 20 million in the state churches, according to scholars and church activists. The growth of house churches has accelerated in recent years, producing larger congregations that are far more conspicuous than the small groups of friends and neighbors that used to worship in private homes that gave the movement its name.
Their expansion and growing influence have unsettled China’s rulers, always suspicious of any independent social group that could challenge Communist authority.
Shouwang members have for years been at odds with Beijing officials over their right to worship. Tensions escalated earlier this month when the congregation was evicted from the Beijing restaurant where it had been holding services. Church leaders decided to temporarily hold services outdoors in a public space, prompting police to tape off the area and detain anyone who showed up to take part.
Shouwang leaders said in a statement last week that they tried to register with the government in 2006 but were rejected.
In December 2009, the church bought property in northwest Beijing for regular Sunday services but government interference prevented the group from occupying the space, the statement said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
