Saturday, April 30, 2011

Obama keeps up push to end gas, oil tax breaks

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says oil companies are profiting from rising pump prices and he wants Congress to end $4 billion in annual tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.
"These tax giveaways aren't right," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "They aren't smart. And we need to end them."
Drivers in 22 states are paying more than the national average of $3.91 per gallon. In Alaska, California and Connecticut, it's $4.20 or more.
The price jump has slowed economic growth and hurt Obama's public approval ratings.
Exxon Mobil Corp. this week reported nearly $11 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. Competitors also had huge gains.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he plans to consider Obama's proposal as early as this coming week.
The president said money recouped from ending the oil and gas tax subsidies should go to new energy resources and research. He said he refuses to cut spending on clean energy initiatives.
"An investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow," he said. "And I think that's an investment worth making."
Obama's critics say ending the subsidies would mean tax increases that would end up costing jobs.
"The president may think he's punishing CEOs of big companies, but his plan will hurt the everyday consumer of energy and imperil the jobs of millions of hardworking people in American-based companies," Rep. James Lankford, a first-term congressman from Oklahoma, said in the Republicans' weekly address.
In his address, Obama said the economy was growing again and took note of nearly 2 million new private sector jobs in the last 13 months. But the president did not mention that the pace of the recovery slowed significantly in the first three months of this year. The nation's economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate during that quarter, compared with 3.1 percent in the previous three months.
High gasoline prices, bad winter weather and steep government spending cuts were responsible for the slowdown.
Eager to show action on gas costs, Obama has pushed to stop the subsidies while also conceding that would not have an immediate effect on prices. He has also called for the Justice Department to investigate possible price fixing and said this week that he was also prodding oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia to increase production.
Lankford also said that Republicans would not vote to raise the nation's borrowing limit, now at $14.3 trillion, in the coming weeks unless the measure also includes steps to cut government spending.
Presidents have agreed to such deals in the past, and Obama told The Associated Press in a recent interview that some spending restrictions might be necessary to win an increase in the debt ceiling. Without raising that limit, the government would default on its debts.

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Volunteers pitch in to help storm's survivors

PRATT CITY, Ala. – The beat-up pickup truck patrolled beat-up Pratt City, stopping at taped-off intersections as volunteers jumped out of the back to hand out water and groceries to residents of this Birmingham suburb ravaged by the second-deadliest day for a twister outbreak in U.S. history.
Down the road, dozens more volunteers transformed the local elementary school into a community pit stop. One room was devoted to storing bread, another to sorting donated clothing. A doctor set up shop in one part of the building, and volunteers staffed the grill in front while college students formed an assembly line to unload trucks stuffed with fresh supplies.
"I'm from the community but my house wasn't damaged, so I had to help," said Elsie Bailey, who was working in a room doling out men's clothing. "We were so amazed at the destruction that I just wanted to help. People are really stepping up, coming through."
Across the South, volunteers have been pitching in as the death toll from Wednesday's storms keeps rising. At least 339 people were killed across seven states, including at least 248 in Alabama, as the storm system spawned tornadoes through several states. There were 34 deaths in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia, two in Louisiana and one in Kentucky.
It was the largest death toll since March 18, 1925, when 747 people were killed in storms that raged through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. That was long before the days when Doppler radar could warn communities of severe weather. Forecasters have said residents were told these tornadoes were coming. But they were just too wide and powerful and in populated areas to avoid the horrifying body count.
Storms can still defeat technology. This week's tornadoes devastated the infrastructure of emergency safety workers. Emergency buildings were wiped out, bodies were being stored in refrigerated trucks, and authorities were left to beg for such basics as flashlights. In one neighborhood, the storms even left firefighters to work without a truck.
Volunteers stepped in to help almost as soon as the storms passed through. They ditched their jobs, shelled out their paychecks, donated blood and even sneaked past police blockades to get aid to some of the hardest-hit communities.
"We're part of the community, and we're called to reach out and help people," said Ken Osvath of the Church of the Highlands, one of an untold number of volunteers who handed out supplies to victims in Alabama.
Thousands of people were injured — 990 in Tuscaloosa alone — and thousands of properties were destroyed. As many as 1 million Alabama homes and businesses remained without power.
The scale of the disaster astonished President Barack Obama when he arrived in the state Friday.
"I've never seen devastation like this," he said, standing in sunshine amid the wreckage in Tuscaloosa, where entire neighborhoods were flattened.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded to all affected areas and has officials on the ground in Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee, Director Craig Fugate said.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox called it "a humanitarian crisis" for his city of more than 83,000, but he said the situation would have spiraled out of control if not for the volunteers who worked to quickly get supplies for people.
Thomas Brown, who lives in Pratt City with his wife, Shirley, said volunteers have been the ones to step up with groceries and other supplies. But what folks really need are trucks and other heavy equipment to start hauling out debris. He also said he was frustrated that police had put up roadblocks that kept residents out.
"They let the governor ride on through, but you can't get to your house," he said. "Why are they still blocking the streets?"
Others were more desperate for officials to step up the response. Eighty-two-year-old Eugene Starks was working with a tow truck driver to pull a blown-out car from what remained of his garage on Saturday morning. His house was wrecked by the storm — and he wishes there was more help, he said.
"I'm trying to do what I can myself," he said. "I hope the government steps in, but I'm not holding my breath."
Shamiya Clancy is one of those in desperate need of shelter after the homes where she and her family lived in the Alberta City neighborhood were wiped out. They're now pooling their resources — clothes, money, food, whatever they can scrounge — but none of them have anywhere else to go.
A stuffed bear that her husband gave her on Valentine's Day this year was the sole belonging she recovered when she sifted through the rubble. She was hoping to find family photos.
"If I could have found one picture, I'd be OK. I'd feel a little better," she said.
In Rainsville, a northeast Alabama town devastated by the storms, people in cars stopped to offer bread, water and crackers to residents picking through what was left of their belongings. A radio station broadcast offers of help, a store gave away air mattresses and an Italian restaurant served free hot meals. A glass shop offered to replace shattered windows for free.
Emergency services were stretched particularly thin in the demolished town of Hackleburg, Ala., where officials had kept the dead in a refrigerated truck because of a shortage of body bags. At least 27 people were killed there and the search for missing people continued, with FBI agents fanning out to local hospitals to help.
Tuscaloosa's emergency management center was destroyed, so officials used space in one of the city's most prominent buildings — the University of Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium — as a substitute before moving operations to the Alabama Fire College.
City employee Gene Hopkins was delivering loads of supplies to different parts of Tuscaloosa when he took a break to help Barbara Deerman, a restaurant owner at the strip mall, board up her shattered front door.
"I appreciate this," Deerman said. "I'll give you a free meal when we get this back up."
Other volunteers set up a makeshift relief station at a parking lot in Alberta City neighborhood, where scores of homes and businesses have been reduced to twisted piles of metal, glass and wood. It was staffed by a mix of city employees, church members, National Guard troops and supermarket workers, and residents lined up for water, food and other basic supplies.
"We've got people who wanted to get in here and help, but they couldn't get in earlier," said relief station volunteer Doug Milligan, a Tuscaloosa native who is principal of a high school in nearby Woodstock, Ala.
Milligan had to sneak past the police blockades cordoning off the neighborhood. He figures he got by because he wore a T-shirt that read: "Bibb County Red Cross."
"I didn't tell them it's only because I ran a 5K," he said.

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Friday, April 29, 2011

Twister toll at 337; 2nd-deadliest outbreak in US











TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Southerners found their emergency safety net shredded Friday as they tried to emerge from the second-deadliest day for a twister outbreak in U.S. history.
Emergency buildings are wiped out. Bodies are stored in refrigerated trucks. Authorities are begging for such basics as flashlights. In one neighborhood, the storms even left firefighters to work without a truck.
The death toll from Wednesday's storms reached 337 across seven states, including at least 246 in Alabama.
The largest death toll ever was on March 18, 1925, when 747 people were killed in storms that raged through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. The second deadliest day had been in March 1932, when 332 people died, all in Alabama.
The 1925 outbreak was long before the days when Doppler radar could warn communities of severe weather. Forecasters have said residents were told these tornadoes were coming. But they were just too wide and powerful and in populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count.
Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured Wednesday — 990 in Tuscaloosa alone — and as many as 1 million Alabama homes and businesses remained without power.
The scale of the disaster astonished President Barack Obama when he arrived in the state Friday.
"I've never seen devastation like this," he said, standing in bright sunshine amid the wreckage in Tuscaloosa, where at least 45 people were killed and entire neighborhoods were flattened. Hours later, Obama signed disaster declarations for Mississippi and Georgia, in addition to one he had authorized for Alabama.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox called the devastation "a humanitarian crisis" for his city of more than 83,000.
Maddox said up to 446 people were unaccounted for in the city, though he added that many of those reports probably were from people who have since found their loved ones but have not notified authorities. Cadaver-detecting dogs were deployed in the city Friday but they had not found any remains, Maddox said.
During the mayor's news conference, a man asked him for help getting into his home, and broke down as he told his story.
"You have the right to cry," Maddox told him. "And I can tell you, the people of Tuscaloosa are crying with you."
Friday night, Tuscaloosa officials reduced downward the death toll for the city and its police jurisdiction by six to 39, still the most in Alabama. With that change factored in, the state's death toll stood at 246 early Saturday.
At least one tornado — a 205 mph monster that left at least 13 people dead in Smithville, Miss. — ranked in the National Weather Service's most devastating category, EF-5. Meteorologist Jim LaDue said he expects "many more" of Wednesday's tornadoes to receive that same rating, with winds topping 200 mph.
Tornadoes struck with unexpected speed in several states, and the difference between life and death was hard to fathom. Four people died in Bledsoe County, Tenn., but a family survived being tossed across a road in their modular home, which was destroyed, Mayor Bobby Collier said.
By Friday, residents whose homes were blown to pieces were seeing their losses worsen — not by nature, but by man. In Tuscaloosa and other cities, looters have been picking through the wreckage to steal what little the victims have left.
"The first night they took my jewelry, my watch, my guns," Shirley Long said Friday. "They were out here again last night doing it again."
Overwhelmed Tuscaloosa police imposed a curfew and got help from National Guard troops to try to stop the scavenging.
Along their flattened paths, the twisters blew down police and fire stations and other emergency buildings along with homes, businesses, churches and power infrastructure. The number of buildings lost and people left homeless remained unclear two days later, in part because the storm also ravaged communications systems.
Tuscaloosa's emergency management center was destroyed, so officials used space in one of the city's most prominent buildings — the University of Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium — as a substitute before moving operations to the Alabama Fire College. Less than two weeks ago, the stadium hosted more than 90,000 fans for the football team's spring intra-squad Red-White Game.
A fire station was destroyed in nearby Alberta City, one of the city's worst-hit neighborhoods. The firefighters survived, but damage to their equipment forced them to begin rescue operations without a fire truck, city Fire Chief Alan Martin said.
Martin said the department is running normally and has since deployed a backup vehicle to serve the neighborhood. "In reality, it's just an extension of what we do every day," he said.
Also wiped out was a Salvation Army building, costing Tuscaloosa much-needed shelter space. And that's just part of the problem in providing emergency aid, said Sister Carol Ann Gray of the local Catholic Social Services office.
"It has been extremely difficult to coordinate because so many people have been affected — some of the very same people you'd look to for assistance," Gray said.
Emergency services were stretched particularly thin about 90 miles to the north in the demolished town of Hackleburg, Ala., where officials were keeping the dead in a refrigerated truck amid a body bag shortage. At least 27 people were killed there and the search for missing people continued, with FBI agents fanning out to local hospitals to help.
Damage in Hackleburg was catastrophic, said Stanley Webb, chief agent in the county's drug task force.
"When we talk about these homes, they are not damaged. They are gone," he said.
Gail Enlow was in town looking for her aunt, Eunice Cooper, who is in her 70s. She wiped away tears as she pointed to the twisted mess that's left of the housing project where Cooper lived.
"Nobody's seen her," she said, trying to hold back the sobs. "She can just barely get around and she would need help."
But in Hackleburg as in Tuscaloosa, emergency workers had more to do than aid suffering victims. People looted a demolished Wrangler jeans distribution center, and authorities locked up drugs from a destroyed pharmacy in a bank.
Fire Chief Steve Hood said he desperately wanted flashlights for the town's 1,500 residents because he doesn't want them using candles that could ignite their homes.
In Cullman, a town about 50 miles north of Birmingham, workers have been putting in long hours to clean up debris and exhausted police officers face the same problems as the people they are sworn to protect. Emergency responders have waiting in hours-long lines with other drivers to get gas at stations without power.
False rumors, meanwhile, were sweeping the town. People were pushing debris from their yards into streets because they heard they were supposed to and filling up their bathtubs with water because they heard the city would cut off the supply.
Kathy McDonald glanced around her damaged town and quietly wept. Her family's furniture store, which sold tables and couches for decades, was torn apart.
"I just can't understand this. Are people coming to help us?" she said. "We feel all alone."
Other states were reeling as well. There were 34 deaths in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia, two in Louisiana and one in Kentucky.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded to all affected areas and has officials on the ground in Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee, Director Craig Fugate said. State and local authorities remain in charge of response and recovery efforts, Fugate said.
In the Birmingham suburb of Pleasant Grove, where 10 people died, building contractors used heavy equipment Friday to help clear debris from impassable streets.
Volunteers arrived from as far as Mobile — some 250 miles away — to deliver food, water and fuel and help with search and rescue. The National Guard closed the town to outsiders, trying to keep out gawkers and looters.
Police Chief Robert Knight said perhaps a quarter of the town of 10,000 is wiped out.
"We're having a hard time recovering," he said. But he vowed that residents will rebuild.
"We'll do it. We'll do it," he said. "We just will. People out here are resilient. It's a good city."
___
Bluestein reported from Cullman. Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Hackleburg, Jeffrey Collins and Chris Hawley in Rainsville, Michael Rubinkam in Pleasant Grove, Michael Kunzelman in Tuscaloosa, John Christoffersen in Birmingham, Phillip Rawls in Montgomery, Kristi Eaton in Norman, Okla., and Maryann Mrowca in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Pakistan urges rethinking of U.S. drone attacks


(Reuters) - Pakistan wants the United States to rethink its use of drones to attack militant targets and has asked Washington to transfer the pilotless aircraft to Islamabad, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, visiting Washington to take part in the Obama administration's review of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he told U.S. officials that "they have to review the strategy vis-a-vis drones."
Pakistan's civilian government, elected a year ago, believes the U.S. missile strikes are counterproductive and have fanned an Islamist insurgency across northwest Pakistan, he said.
"They have carried out some successful strikes and taken out some high-value targets," Qureshi told the PBS network's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
"At the same time, there is a collateral damage that is linked to the drones and that has alienated people there," he added.
Qureshi told PBS he had asked the United States to share drone technology.
"If they are a necessity, then ... we are suggesting that the technology be transferred to Pakistan and that will resolve quite a few issues with the people of Pakistan," he said, adding he had not received a reply to the request.
Qureshi and Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta are among delegations visiting Washington this week to take part in the review of U.S. policy on the region.
The meetings in Washington follow President Barack Obama's decision last week to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to battle Taliban insurgents, bringing U.S. forces there to 55,000 by this summer.

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Four British Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Britain's Defense Ministry says an explosion Wednesday in southern Afghanistan killed three British soldiers, while another Briton died of injuries suffered in an earlier incident.
The ministry said the three died after being wounded during a routine escort operation in southern Helmand province.
The fourth casualty, a Royal Marine, died at a military hospital in Birmingham of wounds sustained Monday while on patrol near Sangin, also in Helmand province.
Their deaths bring the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 to 149.
On Tuesday, 28 insurgents and two Afghan soldiers were killed in two separate operations in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces.
Government officials say the two soldiers and 18 militants were killed during a poppy eradication effort in Helmand province.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
The rest of the militants were killed by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops in an airstrike in central Uruzgan province.
Military officials say Afghan and coalition troops were on routine patrol when militants attacked them with small-arms fire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades.

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Obama to seek $537 billion defense budget: Murtha

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will sketch out a robust U.S. military budget for next year totaling $537 billion, a senior Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday.
Obama is scheduled to release on Thursday an outline of his budget proposal for fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.
Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who oversees defense spending in the House, told Reuters that "$537 billion will be the base budget" for the Pentagon.
But he added that he was not sure whether the $537 billion would include any money the Pentagon is expected to need to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year.
The Pentagon's base budget -- not counting most war funding -- totaled $515 billion for the current year.
Former President George W. Bush asked Congress for "emergency" funds for most of the money for the wars, leaving the bulk of the cost out of his regular budgets.
That arrangement has been criticized by Democrats, who accused the Bush administration of being less than transparent about the price of the Iraq war.
During his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Obama said, "For seven years we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price."
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the White House Office of Management and Budget will announce a supplemental war request -- on top of the regular military budget -- on Thursday when it unveils the Obama spending plan for fiscal year 2010.
"There will be a war supplemental for FY'10," he told reporters at a briefing, without disclosing budget numbers.
Pentagon officials have estimated they will need an additional $140 billion to pay for ongoing war operations and a major build-up of extra forces in Afghanistan.
Morrell said the budget package will also begin to shift war costs from supplemental spending to the Pentagon's base budget. The Pentagon's base budget includes equipment for soldiers, medical care and major weapons purchases.
Obama wants to bring an end to the Iraq war over the next 19 months or so.

Japan Quake Takes Bigger-Than-Estimated Economic Toll as BOJ Cuts Forecast

Japan’s economy had a greater hit from last month’s disaster than anticipated, with factory output declining the most since at least the end of the U.S. occupation and the central bank slashing its growth forecast.
Factory output fell 15.3 percent from February, the biggest drop since data began in 1953, and household spending slid 8.5 percent from a year earlier, the government said today. The Bank of Japan cut its growth estimate for the year ending March 2012 to 0.6 percent from a January prediction of 1.6 percent.
The deterioration makes harder Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s task of sustaining confidence in Japan’s government debt after Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded its outlook for the nation’s rating. Deputy Governor Kiyohiko Nishimura’s proposal to expand the BOJ’s asset-purchase fund was rejected by the policy board, who voted to keep policy unchanged.
“Plunges in output and exports will weaken consumer spending and that may prompt discussions for more stimulus,” said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief economist at Bank of America- Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. “The Bank of Japan will be compelled to consider adding more stimulus around the middle of the year as we get a clearer picture of how weak demand is.”
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.6 percent to 9,811.66 at 1:02 p.m. in Tokyo after the U.S. Federal Reserve renewed its pledge to stimulate growth. The yen traded at 81.82 per dollar.
All Nippon Airways Co., Panasonic Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. today announced plans to postpone releasing profit forecasts to give them more time to assess damage from the earthquake.

Higher Inflation

The central bank raised its inflation forecast for fiscal 2011 to 0.7 percent from an earlier estimate of 0.3 percent, a report released after the policy decision showed. Growth will accelerate to 2.9 percent next year, while consumer prices will expand by the same amount projected for this year, the bank said.
“I’m confident supply chains will recover earlier than we all expected” even though today’s output number was “devastating,” Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters in Tokyo today. He said it was too early to consider economic stimulus measures and that the state of the economy needs to be observed for now.
The Bank of Japan today kept its asset-purchase program at 10 trillion yen ($122 billion), the benchmark interest rate at a range of zero to 0.1 percent and a bank-credit facility at 30 trillion yen. Deputy Governor Kiyohiko Nishimura voted to boost the asset fund by 5 trillion yen, matching the expansion that the central bank implemented after the March 11 earthquake.
Policy makers also detailed an emergency-lending program for banks in devastated northeastern areas, saying they will accept BBB rated securities as collateral.

More Purchases

BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has repeatedly signaled opposition to more-aggressive stimulus, such as direct financing of government debt, citing the risk of stoking inflation. A group of lawmakers and former Cabinet ministers yesterday pressed for more purchases of government bonds.
Household spending, output and retail sales all slid by more than the median estimates in Bloomberg News surveys of economists.
Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food and are the central bank’s preferred measure, fell 0.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today, the smallest drop in two years.
The nation’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.6 percent, beating economists’ forecasts for a 4.8 percent reading. Payroll data may have been skewed by the fact that the government couldn’t collect responses from Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures, areas in northern Japan most devastated by last month’s temblor.

Disaster Relief

Kan last week proposed a 4-trillion yen extra budget likely to be the first of several packages to rebuild. Since the disaster, the central bank has doubled the size of its asset- purchase fund, injected record amounts of cash into money markets and unveiled the one-year lending program.
A cross-party group of senior Japanese lawmakers said the government shouldn’t raise taxes to pay for rebuilding and called on the central bank to buy more government debt instead. The central bank currently purchases 1.8 trillion yen in bonds every month and has rejected the idea of underwriting debt because the move could spur inflation.
Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s three biggest carmakers, say domestic output plunged in March. Japan’s exports dropped in March for the first time since November 2009 and consumer confidence fell the most on record, reports showed last week. Toyota said April 22 it would be able to “normalize” its production in Japan from July.

Production Slides

Japan’s domestic vehicle production fell 57.3 percent to 404,039 units in March, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. Exports dropped 26 percent to 312,478 units.
“There’s high chance that the BOJ will lean toward to an additional easing” this quarter, said Yuichi Kodama, an economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co.
Radiation readings at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant rose this week to the highest since the earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
“Instability in the power supply has a direct impact on corporate production plans, potentially shrinking production by more than might be expected merely as a result of a series of power cuts,” said Takehiro Sato, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Output Plunges

Toyota Motor’s output in Japan plunged 63 percent to 129,491 vehicles in March from a year earlier and the company has estimated it may lose production of 300,000 autos in Japan and 100,000 abroad through the end of April because of quake- related shutdowns.
Companies said they plan to increase output 3.9 percent this month and 2.7 percent in May, according to today’s report, an indication that factory production will resume as supply constraints ease.
S&P cutting the outlook on Japan’s AA- local-currency credit rating to “negative” from “stable” highlights the challenge for the government of financing rebuilding and supporting a recovery without adding to the world’s biggest public debt burden.
Rating companies are concerned that politicians may fail to forge a consensus for tackling a debt equivalent to about 200 percent of gross domestic product. The Finance Ministry projects a 997.7 trillion yen total for the year started April 1.
Increasing taxes, as advocated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, may damp demand just when the economy is at its weakest. The OECD says a sales tax should be at least doubled to 10 percent.
The government last month estimated that damage from the disaster, which left some 26,000 people dead or missing, at as high as 25 trillion yen ($306 billion). The economy may contract 3 percent in April-to-June, according to the median of 18 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey this month.

Sri Lankan Envoy Says Conflict Is Over Terrorism Not Ethnicity

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is to defeat terrorism and isn’t about Tamil ethnicity, the country’s ambassador to the U.S. said.
“It is a struggle to rid Sri Lanka of a globally recognized terrorist organization -- the LTTE,” Jaliya Wickramasuriya said in a statement in Washington to coincide with a Senate hearing on the conflict. Most of the Tamil population lives in harmony with Sinhalese, Muslim and other ethnic groups, he said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is giving the “utmost priority” to protecting civilians caught in the fighting, the ambassador said in an e-mailed statement.
The United Nations says thousands of civilians are facing a humanitarian catastrophe in Sri Lanka’s north where they are caught in the army’s drive to defeat the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka’s government accuses the LTTE of holding about 70,000 people against their will, while the Tamil Tigers say the military is shelling and bombing civilian areas.
The LTTE, which is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland, is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and India. Tamils made up 11.9 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 20 million and the Sinhalese almost 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.
“We realize that once terrorism has ended, the only way forward is to bring all the parties together,” Wickramasuriya said. Rajapaksa has “called upon all Tamil political parties in the parliament to begin planning for a post-conflict society.”
The Senate foreign relations committee began a hearing on the Sri Lankan conflict earlier this week.
Human Rights
The State Department criticized the government and the LTTE in its report on human rights worldwide in 2008 that was issued yesterday in Washington.
“The government’s respect for human rights declined as the armed conflict escalated,” the department said. “The overwhelming majority of victims of human rights violations, such as killings and disappearances, were young male Tamils.”
The LTTE attacked and killed a “large number of civilians,” and was responsible for torture, detention and forced recruitment, including children, it said.
The U.S. and UN earlier this week called on Sri Lanka and the LTTE to begin talks to end the fighting. The LTTE said Feb. 23 it is ready for a cease-fire that leads to discussions on a political settlement. Sri Lanka has rejected any negotiations, saying it wants the group’s unconditional surrender.
Mortal Threat
No one denies that there is a terrorist problem in Sri Lanka that “poses a mortal threat to Sri Lankans in all communities,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told lawmakers two days ago, according to the U.K. Foreign Office Web site.
“The resolution to that terrorist problem cannot be achieved at the expense of the rights of minority communities in Sri Lanka,” he said.
The government in Colombo earlier this month rejected the U.K.’s appointment of a special envoy for Sri Lanka, saying it wasn’t properly consulted and the move was “intrusive and disrespectful” to the country.
“It is deeply to be regretted that the appointment of an envoy has not yet been met with a welcome in Colombo,” Miliband said. “But that is what we are working for.”
The military said Feb. 24 that soldiers reached the outskirts of Puthukkudiyirippu, the last rebel-held town in the northeast near the port of Mullaitivu.
The army says it has driven the Tamil Tigers into an 87 square-kilometer (34 square-mile) pocket of land since capturing their main bases in January.
As many as 250,000 civilians are caught in conflict zones, facing shortages of food and medicines, according to the UN and international aid groups.

Water for Elephants
21
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Violent storms smack the South, kill at least 85 (AP)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Fierce storms obliterated large swaths of land from Mississippi to Georgia, wiping out homes and businesses, causing a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and even forcing the evacuation of a National Weather Service office.
The death toll was staggering — at least 85 people killed in five states, including 61 in Alabama alone, a number that was likely to increase.
One of the hardest-hit areas was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama. The city's police and other emergency services were devastated, the mayor said, and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 were in a single hospital.
A massive tornado, caught on video by a news camera on a tower, barreled through the city late Wednesday afternoon, leveling it.
By nightfall, the city was dark. Roads were impassable. Signs were blown down in front of restaurants, businesses were unrecognizable and sirens wailed off and on. Debris littered the streets and sidewalks.
College students in a commercial district near campus used flashlights to check out the damage.
At Stephanie's Flowers, owner Bronson Englebert used the headlights from two delivery vans to see what valuables he could remove. He had closed early, which was a good thing. The storm blew out the front of his store, pulled down the ceiling and shattered the windows, leaving only the curtains flapping in the breeze.
"It even blew out the back wall, and I've got bricks on top of two delivery vans now," Englebert said.
A group of students stopped to help Englebert, carrying out items like computers and printers and putting them in his van.
"They've been awfully good to me so far," Englebert said.
Elsewhere, 11 people were killed in Mississippi, another 11 people were reported dead in Georgia and one person died each in Tennessee and Virginia.
The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.
President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance, including search and rescue assets. About 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.
"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement.
Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians.
"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox said.
University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens of students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center.
Volunteers and staff were providing food and water to people like 29-year-old civil engineering graduate student Kenyona Pierce.
"I really don't know if I have a home to go to," she said.
Storms also struck Birmingham, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas. Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths; another hard-hit area was Walker County in the far northwest part of the state with at least eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around northern Alabama.
The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant about 30 miles west of Huntsville lost offsite power. The Tennessee Valley Authority-owned plant had to use seven diesel generators to power the plant's three units. The safety systems operated as needed and the emergency event was classified as the lowest of four levels, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of severe storms and had to take shelter in a reinforced steel room, turning over monitoring duties to a sister office in Jackson, Miss. Meteorologists saw multiple wall clouds, which sometimes spawn tornadoes, and decided to take cover, but the building wasn't damaged.
"We have to take shelter just like the rest of the people," said meteorologist Chelly Amin, who wasn't at the office at the time but spoke with colleagues about the situation.
She said the extent of the damage statewide is still unknown.
"I really think with the rising of the sun, we'll see the full extent of this," she said.
In Kemper County, Miss., in the east-central part of the state, sisters Florrie Green and Maxine McDonald, and their sister-in-law Johnnie Green, all died in a mobile home that was destroyed by a storm.
Johnnie Green's daughter-in-law said Florrie Green and McDonald owned mobile homes side-by-side, and Johnnie Green lived nearby. Johnnie Green was at one of the woman's homes at the time the storm hit.
"It's hard. It's been very difficult," Mary Green said. "They were thrown into those pines over there," she said, pointing to a wooded area. "They had to go look for their bodies."
In Choctaw County, Miss., a Louisiana police officer was killed Wednesday morning when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisory ranger with the National Park Service. The girl wasn't hurt.
The 9-year-old girl was brought to a motorhome about 100 feet away where campsite volunteer Greg Maier was staying with his wife, Maier said. He went back to check on the father and found him dead.
"She wasn't hurt, just scared and soaking wet," Maier said.
Her father, Lt. Wade Sharp, had been with the Covington Police Department for 19 years.
"He was a hell of an investigator," said Capt. Jack West, his colleague in Louisiana.
In a neighborhood south of Birmingham, Austin Ransdell and a friend had to hike out after the house where he was living was crushed by four trees. No one was hurt.
As he walked away from the wreckage, trees and power lines crisscrossed residential streets, and police cars and utility trucks blocked a main highway.
"The house was destroyed. We couldn't stay in it. Water pipes broke; it was flooding the basement," he said. "We had people coming in telling us another storm was coming in about four or five hours, so we just packed up."
Not far away, Craig Branch was stunned by the damage.
"Every street to get into our general subdivision was blocked off. Power lines are down; trees are all over the road. I've never seen anything like that before," he said.
In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain.
Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside.
Mary Ann Bowman, 42, stood watching from her driveway as huge tractors moved downed trees in the street. She had rushed home from work to find windows shattered at her house, and her grandmother's house next door shredded. The 91-year-old woman wasn't home at the time.
"When I pulled up I just started crying," Bowman said.
___
Mohr reported from Choctaw County, Miss. Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Edom, Texas, Andrew DeMillo and Nomaan Merchant in Vilonia, Ark., Jack Elliott Jr. in Jackson, Miss., Anna McFall and John Zenor in Montgomery; Bill Fuller and Alan Sayre in New Orleans, Dorie Turner in Atlanta, Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

About 50 dead in Bangladesh mutiny

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The death toll from the failed mutiny by Bangladeshi border guards Wednesday appears to be about 50, a state minister said.
"It seems that more or less 50 people were killed due to the incident," said Quamrul Islam, the country's state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs.
The minister provided the estimated death toll to reporters Thursday morning outside the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka, Xinhua reported.
Islam visited the headquarters complex along with Home Minister Sahara Khatun to observe the disarmament process of the rebel soldiers, the state-run Chinese news agency said.
"We have arranged safe exit of those who were trapped inside the BDR headquarters," Islam said.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had offered a general amnesty to the mutinous border guards in a bid to end their rebellion.
Hasina met with 14 of the renegade troops at her office in Dhaka after they were escorted there from their headquarters. During the meeting she offered an amnesty and urged the mutineers to set officers taken hostage free, the BBC reported.
Earlier Wednesday, the Bangladeshi army was mobilized to help quell the mutiny as witnesses reported heavy gunfire and mortar rounds reverberating throughout the densely populated Dhaka, Voice of America reported. Smoke was seen rising from the BDR headquarters, where more than 300 soldiers rebelled against senior officers.
Some civilians were feared among the dead and some of the mutineers reportedly had seized a shopping center in the upscale Philkhana neighborhood, Voice of America reported.
The Bangladesh Rifles force is primarily charged with protecting the South Asian nation's borders.
Since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh has had a history of coups and counter-coups.

At Least 10 Dead in Central U.S. Storms

















Severe storms through the Midwest and Southern U.S. left at least 10 people dead on Tuesday and the region is bracing for a second set of storms. Faced with a desperate situation and more rain expected soon, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a controversial plan, used only once before in 1920, that would flood more than 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland to save towns near the intersection of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The weather pattern varied throughout the region—with heavy rainfall in Missouri, tornadoes in Arkansas, and a severe drought in Texas. If the rains continue, meteorologists predict the Mississippi River will crest at more than 60 feet next month, surpassing the record 56.6 inches in 1927. Nine people were killed in Arkansas when a severe tornado burst through the town of Vilonia in the central part of the state, just north of Little Rock.

Eight foreign troops killed in Kabul airport shooting

















KABUL (Reuters) - Eight troops from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were killed in a shooting involving an Afghan Air Force pilot at Kabul's airport on Wednesday, NATO said, in one of the deadliest incidents of "rogue" Afghans turning their weapons on foreign soldiers.
A contractor, whose identity was not known, was also killed in the shooting, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
The shooting follows a string of attacks by Afghan forces against their NATO-led mentors carried out either by "rogue" soldiers or by insurgents in uniform who have managed to infiltrate their ranks.
Such incidents highlight the challenge for U.S. and NATO forces as they try to prepare for a gradual handover of security responsibilities that is scheduled to begin in July and end with the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) released a brief statement saying eight troops and the contractor had been killed in the airport shooting. It gave no further details about the incident or about the nationality of those killed. The death toll had earlier been put at six.
An ISAF spokesman said: "We can confirm an incident took place in the Afghan Air Force compound within the airport involving small-arms fire. We do not know what started the incident."
The Afghan Defence Ministry issued a statement shortly after the incident saying several people had been killed and wounded after a shooting involving one of its Air Force pilots.
It gave no further details except that the shooting had followed a dispute. Afghan media said a veteran Air Force pilot had opened fire on the ISAF troops.
The Taliban however released a statement saying one of its fighters, named Azizullah, was dressed in military uniform and carried out the attack after gaining access to the compound.
"(He) shot his weapon at many foreign and Afghan forces who were in a hangar, killing nine foreign troops and five Afghan soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
INFILTRATION
The Taliban often claim responsibility for attacks carried out by others and exaggerate casualty numbers, although their fighters have managed to gain access to foreign and Afghan bases to launch raids in the past.
On Monday, almost 500 prisoners escaped from a jail in Afghanistan's south through a tunnel dug by the Taliban under the noses of Afghan and ISAF forces, a worrying incident before the start of the traditional fighting season.
On April 18, an insurgent dressed in Afghan army uniform opened fire inside the Afghan Defence Ministry in central Kabul, killing two employees and wounding seven.
Earlier this month, an Afghan border policeman shot dead two foreign soldiers on a training mission in the northern province of Faryab.
Rapid recruitment into the Afghan security forces, which will
be boosted to at least 305,000, has raised fears the Taliban have infiltrated sympathisers into the Afghan police and army.
Afghan authorities began tighter vetting of recruits after a renegade soldier killed five British troops in 2009, but there have still been at least 20 people killed in such incidents.
In February, at least two German soldiers were killed by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform in northern Baghlan province, and last November a border policeman shot and killed six U.S. troops while they were on a training mission.
Earlier that month, three troops from the NATO-led coalition were shot by an Afghan soldier in the south, and in August two Spanish police and an interpreter were killed by an Afghan policeman they were training in the northwest.
(Additional reporting and writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Paul Tait and Andrew Marshall)

India to tighten nuclear safeguards at Jaitapur plant













India has pledged to put in extra safeguards at a proposed nuclear power plant in western India after recent violent protests against the plan.
Activists say the $10bn (£6bn) plant in Maharashtra is located in a region prone to earthquakes and fear a repeat of Japan's Fukushima disaster.
Local villagers also fear the plant will ruin their traditional fisheries.
India has also decided to set up an independent nuclear watchdog to oversee its existing nuclear reactors.
Earlier this month, one person died and at least 20 people were injured in violent protests following a strike called by the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena opposition party against the plant in Jaitapur.
Construction of the 9,900 megawatt, six-reactor facility, which is being built with technical help from the French energy giant Areva, is due to begin this year.
The government held a meeting attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and decided to go ahead with the nuclear power plant.
"The government is satisfied with the safety aspects of the Jaitapur nuclear plant," V Narayanswamy, a minister in the prime minister's office, said.
The government also decided to increase the compensation already paid to villagers whose land has been acquired for the plant, and step up talks with them to assure them of the safety of the plant.
"We have made detailed presentations on Jaitapur to all political parties. The political dialogue will continue and special efforts will be made to convince people that safety will not be compromised," Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, said.
Mr Chavan said that the protests at Jaitapur were "politically motivated" and accused "outsiders" for instigating the locals against the plant.
Environmental experts say that Konkan, the region in which Jaitapur lies, is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth. They claim it will be destroyed by the plant.
Others have expressed concern that the facility is being built in a seismically-active area.

Sony to launch Android tablets













Sony has announced that it plans to launch two tablet computers running Google's Android operating system.
The devices, codenamed S1 and S2, will go on sale towards the end of the year.
Android is currently the fastest growing mobile platform and is expected to claim a 38% market share by 2015.
Sony's entry into the tablet market was much anticipated, but comes relatively late in the day compared to other manufacturers.
Apple launched its first version of the industry-leading iPad in April 2010.
Its iOS system is expected to remain dominant for several years to come, albeit with a diminished share of sales.
Sony said that its first tablets would come in two form factors: one will have a conventional 9.4 inch touchscreen, while the other will feature dual 5.5 inch displays that fold closed.
In addition to the base Android Honeycomb operating system, Sony will add several of its own features, including the ability to transmit video and music to TVs and stereos using the DLNA wireless streaming standard.
The company suggested that there would also be some form of integration with its PlayStation network and the possibility of gaming functions.

Libya: UK should prepare for the long hauls














The UK "must prepare for the long haul" in Libya, Downing Street has said.
But Foreign Secretary William Hague said the conflict had "not settled into a stalemate", and "time was not on the side" of Muammar Gaddafi.
He added that the UK had so far given £13m of aid to Libya, including food for 10,000 people in the besieged city of Misrata.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox cited new momentum in the campaign, and said Col Gaddafi was "on the back foot".
The Ministry of Defence reported that RAF fighter aircraft had "successfully attacked" three armoured personnel carriers near Misrata over the weekend.
And a Nato air strike has badly damaged buildings in Col Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli.
'Static' Mr Hague has briefed the cabinet about the situation in Libya and Dr Fox held talks on Libya at the Pentagon with his US counterpart Robert Gates.
Also, UK Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards met his counterpart Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Asked about a Nato air strike on Monday on Col Gaddafi's compound in Libya, Mr Gates and Dr Fox told reporters command and control centres were "legitimate" targets, though Mr Gates said Nato was not targeting Col Gaddafi specifically.


“Start Quote

Time is not on the side of Gaddafi and the members of his regime need to know that”
End Quote William Hague
Last week, Adm Mullen said the war in Libya was "moving towards stalemate" despite the destruction of 30-40% of Col Gaddafi's ground forces.
Asked about those comments by shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander, Mr Hague told the House of Commons that, while the situation in eastern Libya was somewhat "static", the overall situation was not a stalemate.
He said: "We are often asked in international conflicts whether time is on our side.
"We should be confident that in this situation, given this coalition, this range of sanctions, these intensifying efforts, time is not on the side of Gaddafi and the members of his regime need to know that."
Mr Hague was asked whether he would agree to another Commons debate and vote on Libyan intervention, but he refused.
"I don't think the government's policy on the matter has changed in any material way that requires a fresh vote," he said.

Residents evacuate as volcano spit ashes in Ecuador

 











(CNN) -- Authorities in Ecuador closed schools and evacuated residents in areas near a volcano Tuesday after ashes spewing from its crater fell on homes and farms, state media reported.
Ashes from Tungurahua -- which means "throat of fire" in the native Quechua language -- rose more than 7 kilometers (4 miles) into the air Tuesday, the government news agency said.


Authorities issued an alert as monitors detected six eruptions, ranging from moderate to large, and a significant ash cloud Tuesday, state media said. "According to our observations, damages to crops, pastures and small effects to the health of people are already evident," the country's geophysics institute said.
Officials first detected increased activity in the volcano April 20, with monitors observing regular small eruptions of ash and gas.
The glacier-capped, 16,478-foot volcano has erupted periodically since 1999, when increased activity led to the temporary evacuation of the city of Banos at the foot of the volcano.
Tungurahua erupted in December, sending ash and lava spewing nearly a mile into the sky.
Major eruptions also occurred in August 2006 and February 2008, according to the government's emergency management agency.
Before the recent activity, the last major eruption was between 1916 and 1918. Relatively minor activity continued until 1925, the Smithsonian Institution said on its volcano website.
The volcano is 140 kilometers (86 miles) south of Quito, Ecuador's capital.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Libya: UN team to start probe of human rights abuses


A Libyan boy is treated after being wounded by shelling in Misrata - 25 April 2011  
 
There are many reports Libyan forces have shelled the rebel-held city of Misrata indiscriminately

A UN team is due to arrive in Tripoli to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Libya since the start of the conflict in February.
The team was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council following the Libyan government's crackdown on protesters.
The government has said it will co-operate with the inquiry.
The three investigators say they will look at all alleged abuses, including those the government says have been committed by rebels or Nato forces.
The original mandate - to examine human rights violations allegedly committed by the forces of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi - remains the priority, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, where the UN Human Rights Council is based.
There have been reliable reports of enforced disappearances, torture and even killing of protesters, says our correspondent.
The UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, said in late February that what was happening in Libya "may amount to crimes against humanity".

More recently, there have been reports that Col Gaddafi's forces trying to retake Misrata from rebels are indiscriminately shelling the city.
On Tuesday, three people were reportedly killed as missiles slammed into the city's port, a lifeline for those seeking to escape to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Misrata has been besieged by government forces for two months, leaving parts of the city with neither electricity nor water.
Continued sniper fire, street clashes and shelling have prevented people from venturing outside their homes to get food and medicine.
Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting and many more have been wounded. Ships have been ferrying the injured to hospitals in Benghazi and bringing in humanitarian aid.
Libya's government denies it has been indiscriminately shelling civilian areas.
Misrata is the last major rebel-held city in western Libya and the fighting for it has been fierce.
The UN investigators are to present their findings to the Human Rights Council in June. But their work could be overtaken by other moves, says our Geneva correspondent.
The UN Security Council has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Libya on possible charges of war crimes.

Japan's irradiated waters: How worried should we be?

By Ken Buesseler, Special to CNN
April 26, 2011 -- Updated 1359 GMT (2159 HKT)
  • Tsunami caused the largest accidental release of radiation the oceans have ever seen
  • There is still too much that that is unknown about the effects, says Ken Buesseler
  • We don't yet know where contaminants are going or how fast they are spreading
  • Buesseler: Internationally supported field studies in the Pacific are needed immediately
tzleft.buesseler_ken.fukushima.jpgEditor's note: Ken Buesseler is a marine radiochemist and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

(CNN) -- Twenty-five years ago, I was a Ph.D. student here in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, studying the fate of fallout in the North Atlantic from nuclear weapons testing, when an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant released large quantities of radioactive materials into the surrounding environment. My colleagues and I immediately joined other scientists tracking these radioactive contaminants, which in my case focused on the Black Sea, the closest ocean to the accident site.
A quarter-century later, I can still measure fallout from Chernobyl in the Black Sea, though fortunately at levels that are safe for swimming, consuming seafood and, if you could remove the salt, even drinking. I never thought I'd see another release anywhere near the magnitude of Chernobyl.
As we now know, the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 caused immediate, widespread devastation on land and failure of cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. The resulting partial meltdowns, hydrogen explosions and fires at Fukushima released radioactive contaminants into the air and water. In addition, runoff from the attempts to cool the reactors with seawater and fresh water further contaminated the ocean around Fukushima.
Data released by Japanese scientists show cesium-137 concentrations in the waters immediately adjacent to the reactors at levels more than 1 million times higher than previously existed and 10 to 100 times higher in the waters off Japan than values measured in the Black Sea after Chernobyl. For the oceans, this is the largest accidental release of radiation we have ever seen.
But what do these high values mean for ocean life and human health? What will it mean 25 years from now?
We know the ocean has the ability to mix and dilute even these alarmingly high concentrations of contaminants. Indeed, just 15 miles offshore the levels of some contaminants, including cesium-137, with its relatively long 30-year half-life, are already 100 to 1,000 times lower than waters near the reactors, and thus pose little direct hazard for human exposure. We also know that over the short-term, isotopes such as iodine-131, which has an eight-day half-life and has been found in milk and spinach, will decay to insignificant levels.
But there is still too much that we don't know. We still have not measured the full complement of radionuclides released to the oceans, including the highly toxic plutonium. We have not mapped where contaminants are going and how fast they are spreading, so we can't confirm how well our models are predicting dispersion and dilution of these substances.
The groundwater around Fukushima and sediments in the seafloor nearby will likely remain contaminated for decades to come, yet no radionuclide data exist from these sources. There are also large gaps in our knowledge of how marine life assimilates radioactive contaminants, how the process may vary depending on different life stages, or how contaminants will transfer up the food chain to fish and other marine animals. This information will be essential for short-term assessments of threats to transportation, health, fisheries and ocean ecosystems, and for informing nuclear industry regulatory policies and oceanography for decades to come.
Early observations are key to understanding what has occurred. The Japanese have begun ocean field work to fill in some of these gaps in our knowledge, but this is a bigger job than any single country, agency or lab can take on.
If we are to fully grasp the extent of those effects and help mitigate them, the international community must support efforts to immediately undertake comprehensive field studies in the Pacific Ocean near Japan. Follow-up work will be needed for years and decades to come before we are able to say with any certainty that we understand the fate of these radionuclides in the ocean and the effect they have had on the marine environment.
After 25 years, we are just beginning to grasp Chernobyl's legacy. Now Fukushima presents similar challenges, but with the added complication of leaving its imprint on the ocean, a complex system that is vital to human health and the world economy.
Perhaps somewhere a young scientist's career is being shaped by the events unfolding right now in Japan. I certainly hope there is more than one, because the questions we face are many, and they will not be answered soon. Or easily.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster: Ukraine marks anniversary

Ukraine is marking the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident - at the Chernobyl power plant.
An explosion at one of the plant's reactors sent a plume of radiation across Europe in 1986, harming or killing possibly thousands of people.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, are visiting the site for a memorial ceremony.
The anniversary comes amid renewed global protest over nuclear power.
The debate has been reinvigorated by the threat of radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima plant in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
New shield Early on Tuesday, Mr Yanukovych attended a candle-lighting service led by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
"The world had not known a catastrophe in peaceful times that could compare to what happened in Chernobyl," Patriarch Kirill said.

Start Quote

The world had not known a catastrophe in peaceful times that could compare to what happened in Chernobyl”
End Quote Patriarch Kirill
A bell sounded at 0123 (2223 GMT Monday), the time of the blast, and tolled 25 times.
It was on 26 April 1986 that Number Four reactor at Chernobyl, which was then in the Soviet Union, exploded.
The accident forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.
Soviet officials held off reporting the accident for several days.
There is still a 30km (19-mile) exclusion zone around the plant.
Soviet engineers encased the damaged reactor in a temporary concrete casing to limit the radiation but a new shield is needed.
A donors conference in Kiev, Ukraine, last week raised 550m euros (£486m; $798m) of the 740m euros needed to build a new shelter and a storage facility for spent fuel.
 
'Tell the truth'
 
Anti-nuclear protest on Pont de l'Europe over Rhine between France and Germany - 25 April 2011
The Chernobyl anniversary comes less than two months after the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan was badly damaged by an earthquake and tsunami, renewing concerns about the safety of nuclear power generation.
The operators of the Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, have also come under fire for not quickly disclosing information on radiation leaks from the plant.
Mr Medvedev said there must be greater transparency in nuclear emergencies.
"I think that our modern states must see the main lesson of what happened at Chernobyl and the most recent Japanese tragedy as the necessity to tell people the truth," he told survivors of the clean-up effort at a meeting in the Kremlin.
On Monday, thousands of people in France and Germany staged protests calling for an end to nuclear power.
Marches were held on several river bridges between France and Germany over the Rhine while there were further protests at German nuclear plants.
Meanwhile in India, security has been tightened around Jaitapur, where protesters are planning to march on the site of a planned six-reactor nuclear power plant.

High radiation levels detected at Fukushima grounds a month after explosions

photoThe Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant (Provided by Air Photo Service)
Editor's note: We will update our earthquake news as frequently as possible on AJW's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AJW.Asahi. Please check the latest developments in this disaster. From Toshio Jo, managing editor, International Division, The Asahi Shimbun.

* * *


High levels of radiation were detected on the grounds of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant one month after hydrogen explosions spewed radioactive materials, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The findings were shown in a map depicting radiation levels that TEPCO released for the first time on April 24.
Radiation levels in the air around the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor buildings were especially high, mainly because the hydrogen explosions damaged the buildings and spread radioactive materials.
The air in an area to the northwest of the No. 3 reactor building had radiation levels of up to 70 millisieverts per hour. That building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 14, three days after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.
TEPCO first compiled the radiation level map on March 22 and has periodically updated it. The map is used to monitor radiation exposure of workers at the Fukushima plant and prepare new work plans for the plant grounds.
Workers check radiation levels in the air every seven to 10 days or before any work procedure starts.
If unusually high radiation levels are detected, further testing of rubble in the area is conducted to determine the cause of the high levels.
Radiation levels as high as 130 millisieverts per hour were confirmed around the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor buildings in late March.
Because radiation decreases with the passage of time, subsequent testing found lower levels.
But if the level of 70 millisieverts per hour continues to the northwest of the No. 3 reactor building, a worker who remains in that area for four hours will have been exposed to more than the upper limit of 250 millisieverts established for individuals engaged in work at the Fukushima plant.
Workers exposed to that total level of radiation will not be allowed to work in the area.
On March 20, concrete rubble found west of the No. 3 reactor building had radiation levels of 900 millisieverts per hour. Even after that rubble was removed, radiation levels in the air measured between 10 and 30 millisieverts per hour.
Another pile of rubble emitting radiation levels of 300 millisieverts per hour was found near the No. 3 reactor building.
Almost all of the contaminated rubble was concrete from the No. 1 reactor building that was damaged in a hydrogen explosion on March 12 as well as from the No. 3 reactor building, hit by an explosion there on March 14.
According to calculations by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, the equivalent of 190,000 terabecquerels of radioactive iodine had been spewed from the reactor buildings by March 15. A terabecquerel is equivalent to 1 trillion becquerels.
That high level meant the Fukushima plant accident had already reached the worst level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, matching the assessment given to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
A pipe installed to move radiation-contaminated water from the trench of the No. 2 reactor to a central waste processing facility was found to have radiation levels of 160 millisieverts per hour on its surface.
Areas within the plant ground at a distance from the reactor buildings were also found to have radiation levels that exceeded 1 millisievert per hour.
High radiation levels in the air were found even after rubble in the area was removed.
The rubble, removed by remote-controlled heavy equipment, has been placed in 50 containers and moved to a temporary storage area within the plant grounds. A considerable amount of rubble remains, however.
While TEPCO officials continue to remove the rubble to allow for easier work within the plant, one official said the radiation would not have a major effect on work because the contamination has already been figured into the road map for work procedures.

(This article was written by Keisuke Katori and Hidenori Tsuboya.)

Deadly Turkish plane crash probed

Wreck of Turkish Airlines plane at Schiphol
The plane crashed short of the runway where it had been due to land
Investigations are continuing into what caused a Turkish Airlines plane to crash at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, killing nine people and injuring 86.
The plane, en route from Istanbul with 127 passengers and seven crew, crashed short of the runway on Wednesday.
Three of those killed were members of the crew. Dutch officials said most of the passengers on board were Turkish.
Relatives of some of those killed have arrived in Amsterdam on a special Turkish Airlines flight from Turkey.
On Thursday investigators took detailed photographs of the wreckage in a bid to uncover what happened in the flight's final moments.

That so many people were able to walk out was truly remarkable
Fred Sanders
Dutch Safety Board

The flight data and voice recorders from the aircraft have been sent to Paris, where experts have specialist equipment to analyse them.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft came down at 1031 local time (0931 GMT), several hundred yards short of the runway, about three hours after it left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
It broke into three pieces on impact. Most of those on board survived, although many were hurt.
Fire did not break out and within a minute those capable of walking began staggering out of the ruptured plane.
"It is a real wreck," said Fred Sanders, spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board.
"That so many people were able to walk out was truly remarkable. Some have called it a miracle," he added.
Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim also described the low death toll as a miraculous.

SCHIPHOL ACCIDENTS
27 October 2005: A fire at the airport's detention centre killed 11 people and injured 15
4 April 1994: Three people were killed and 13 seriously injured when a KLM flight carrying 24 people crashed on landing
4 October 1992: An El Al Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment block after takeoff, killing 43 people

"The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low," he said.
Mr Sanders said the investigation at the scene of the crash would take a few days, after which the wreckage would be removed. A preliminary report could be released in weeks, he added.
Dutch health officials said on Thursday that 25 passengers had suffered severe injuries and that another six were in a critical condition. They are being treated at 11 hospitals in the area.
The Turkish transport ministry said 78 Turkish nationals and 56 people of other nationalities had been on board the plane.
Candan Karlitekin, head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, said records showed the plane had been properly maintained. The pilot, a former Turkish air force officer, was highly experienced, he added.
'Suddenly descended'
Survivor Jihad Alariachi said there had been no warning from the cockpit to brace for landing before the ground loomed up through the mist.

Map: schiphol airport

"We braked really hard, but that's normal in a landing. Then the nose went up. And then we bounced... with the nose aloft," she said.
Another passenger aboard the plane, Kerem Uzel, told Turkish news channel NTV that the plane's landing had been announced when they were at an altitude of 600m (2,000ft).
"We suddenly descended a great distance as if the plane fell into turbulence. The plane's tail hit the ground... It slid from the side of the motorway into the field."
Witnesses on the ground described seeing the plane appear to glide through the air, having lost all propulsion, before hitting the ground and breaking into three pieces.
Some passengers were able to climb out of the plane before rescue workers arrived.
The last crash involving a Turkish Airlines plane was in 2003, when at least 65 people died in an accident in eastern Turkey.
Schiphol airport has six runways and one major passenger terminal. In 2007, it handled 47 million passengers, ranking fifth in Europe.