Radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has been detected at an increased number of sites off U.S. shores, including the highest level in the area detected to date, scientists announced Thursday.

Published on

Friday, December 04, 2015

 

by

Common Dreams

'Fukushima Fingerprint': Highest-Yet Radiation Levels Found Off US Coast

'The changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific.'

by

Nadia Prupis, staff writer

 

 

 

Scientists test seawater samples off the coast of Japan near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. (Photo: IAEA Imagebank/flickr/cc)

Radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has been detected at an increased number of sites off U.S. shores, including the highest level in the area detected to date, scientists announced Thursday.

While the levels are still too low to be considered a threat to human or marine life by the government's standards, tests of hundreds of samples of Pacific Ocean water reveal that the Fukushima Daiichi plant has continued to leak radioactive isotopes more than four years after the meltdown—and must not be dismissed, according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine radiochemist Ken Buesseler.

"Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific," Buesseler said Thursday. "[F]inding values that are still elevated off Fukushima confirms that there is continued release from the plant."
Scientists from the WHOI and Buesseler's citizen-science project Our Radioactive Ocean discovered trace amounts of cesium-134, the "fingerprint" of Fukushima, in 110 new Pacific samples off U.S. shores in 2015 alone.

The isotope is unique to Fukushima and has a relatively short two-year half life, which means "the only source of this cesium-134 in the Pacific today is from Fukushima," Buesseler said.


Map shows the location of seawater samples taken by scientists and citizen scientists that were analyzed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for radioactive cesium as part of Our Radioactive Ocean. Cesium-137 is found throughout the Pacific Ocean and was detectable in all samples collected, while cesium-134 (yellow/orange dots), an indicator of contamination from Fukushima, has been observed offshore and in select coastal areas. (Figure by Jessica Drysdale, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

One sample collected roughly 1,600 miles west of San Francisco revealed the highest radiation level detected to date off the West Coast, the researchers said in a post on the project's website. "[In] one cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), 11 radioactive decay events per second can be attributed to cesium atoms of both isotopes. That is 50 percent higher than we've seen before."

"[T]hese long-lived radioisotopes will serve as markers for years to come for scientists studying ocean currents and mixing in coastal and offshore waters," Buesseler continued.

The 2011 accident, prompted by an earthquake and tsunami off Japan's east coast, was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 and resulted in the near-total meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant and a mass evacuation of the prefecture. Despite ongoing warnings about long-term health and environmental impacts and widespread opposition to nuclear power in the wake of the meltdown, Japan in August restarted a reactor at the Sendai power plant, about 620 miles southwest of Tokyo.

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A new report from Fairewinds Energy Education (FEE), reveals that the incident in Fukushima could result in as many as one million more cancers in Japan's future

'Million Cancer Deaths From Fukushima Expected in Japan,’ New Report Reveals

Posted on:

Sunday, November 8th 2015 at 5:15 am

Written By:

Sayer Ji, Founder

 

 

A shocking new report defies the chronically underestimated impacts of the Fukushima's triple meltdown on the risk of cancer in exposed populations, which does not just include Japan, but arguably the entire world. 

A new report from Fairewinds Energy Education (FEE), "Cancer on the Rise in Post-Fukushima Japan," reveals that the ongoing multi-core nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that started in March 2011 has produced approximately 230 times higher than normal thyroid cancers in Fukushima Prefecture, and could result in as many as one million more cancers in Japan's future as a result of the meltdown.

According to the new report, data provided by a group of esteemed Japanese medical professionals and TEPCO, confirm a direct link of numerous cancers in Japan to the triple meltdown. As transcribed by Enenews.com, Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds stated, Nov. 4, 2015:

"It's been almost 5 years from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, and the news from Japan is still not good. Two reports recently released in Japan, one by Japanese medical professionals and the second from Tokyo Power Corporation – TEPCO – acknowledged that there will be numerous cancers in Japan, much greater than normal, due to the radioactive discharges from the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi... I believe, as do many of my colleagues, that there will be at least 100,000 and as many as one million more cancers in Japan's future as a result of this meltdown... [T]he second report received from Japan proves that the incidence of thyroid cancer is approximately 230 times higher than normal in Fukushima Prefecture... So what's the bottom line? The cancers already occurring in Japan are just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sorry to say that the worst is yet to come."

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The impending anthropogenic mass extinction could very well make the elite depopulation agenda a moot point according to Rosemary Mason.

Global Research

Poisoned Agriculture: Depopulation and Human Extinction

By Colin Todhunter

Global Research, November 06, 2015

There is a global depopulation agenda. The plan is to remove the ‘undesirables’, ‘the poor’ and others deemed to be ‘unworthy’ and a drain on finite resources. However, according to Rosemary Mason, the plan isn’t going to work because an anthropogenic mass extinction is already underway that will affect all life on the planet and both rich and poor alike. Humans will struggle to survive the phenomenon.

A new paper by Rosemary A Mason in the ‘Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry’, indicates that a ‘sixth extinction’ is under way (the Holocene extinction, sometimes called the Sixth Extinction, is a name describing the ongoing extinction of species during the present Holocene epoch - since around 10,000 BCE). In her paper, ‘The sixth mass extinction and chemicals in the environment: our environmental deficit is now beyond nature’s ability to regenerate’, she argues that loss of biodiversity is the most urgent of the environmental problems, as biodiversity is critical to ecosystem services and human health. And the main culprit is the modern chemical-intensive industrialised system of food and agriculture.

Mason asserts there is a growing threat from the release of hormone-disrupting chemicals that could even be shifting the human sex ratio and reducing sperm counts. An industrial agricultural revolution has created a technology-dependent global food system, but it has also created serious long-run vulnerabilities, especially in its dependence on stable climates, crop monocultures and industrially produced chemical inputs. In effect, farming is a principal source of global toxification and soil degradation.

Without significant pressure from the public demanding action, Mason argues there could little chance of changing course fast enough to forestall disaster. The ‘free’ market is driving the impending disaster and blind faith in corporate-backed technology will not save us. Indeed, such faith in this technology is actually killing us.

Since the late 1990s, US scientists have written in increasingly desperate tones regarding an unprecedented number of fungal and fungal-like diseases, which have recently caused some of the most severe die-offs and extinctions ever witnessed in wild species and which are jeopardizing food security. Only one paper dared to mention pesticides as being a primary cause, however.

Mason cites a good deal of evidence to show how the widespread use on agricultural crops of the systemic neonicotinoid insecticides and the herbicide glyphosate, both of which cause immune suppression, make species vulnerable to emerging infectious pathogens, driving large-scale wildlife extinctions, including essential pollinators.

Providing evidence to show how human disease patterns correlate remarkably well with the rate of glyphosate usage on corn, soy and wheat crops, which has increased due to ‘Roundup Ready’ crops, Mason goes on to present more sources to show how our over-reliance on chemicals in agriculture is causing irreparable harm to all beings on this planet. Most of these chemicals are known to cause illness, and they have likely been causing illnesses for many years. But until recently, the herbicides have never been sprayed directly on food crops and never in this massive quantity.

The depopulation agenda

Mason discusses how agriculture and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) fit into a wider agenda for depopulating the planet. She notes that on the initiative of Gates, in May 2009 some of the richest people in the US met at the home of Nurse, a British Nobel prize-winning biochemist and President (2003–10) of Rockefeller University in Manhattan, to discuss ways of tackling a ‘disastrous’ environmental, social and industrial threat of overpopulation. The meeting was hosted by David Rockefeller Jr. These same individuals have met several times since to develop a strategy in which population growth would be tackled.

The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) was involved in extensive financing of eugenics research  in league with some of the US’s most respected scientists from such prestigious universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. The explicit aim of the eugenics lobby funded by wealthy élite families, such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman and others since the 1920s, has embodied what they termed ‘negative eugenics’, the systematic killing off of ‘undesired bloodlines’.

RF funded the earliest research on GMOs, which Mason regards as part of the depopulation agenda. The RF funded the earliest research on GMOs in the 1940s and effectively founded the science of molecular biology.

Mason cites Steven Druker to show the fraud behind GMOs and how governments and leading scientific institutions have systematically misrepresented the facts about GMOs and the scientific research that casts doubt on their safety. Druker has shown that GMOs can have severe health impacts, which have been covered up.

The Royal Society is the preeminent scientific body within the UK that advises the government. It has misrepresented the facts about GMOs and has engaged in various highly dubious and deceptive tactics to promote the technology.

Druker wrote an open letter to RS as it has an obligation to the British public to provide a public response and ‘put the record straight’ on GMOs. Although Sir Paul Nurse’s presidency of Rockefeller University terminated in 2010, after he assumed the Royal Society presidency, Mason notes that Nurse is said to have maintained a laboratory on the Rockefeller campus and has an ongoing relationship with the university.

She asks: is that why Sir Paul was unable (or unwilling) even to discuss GMOs with Steven Druker? Was he sent to London by the Rockefeller Foundation to support the UK Government in their attempt to bring in GM crops? The UK Government and the GM industry have after all been shown to be working together to promote GM crops and foods, undermine consumer choice and ignore environmental harm.

Mason then goes on to discuss the impact of glyphosate residues (herbicide-tolerant GM crops are designed to work with glyphosate), which are found in the organs of animals, human urine and human breast milk as well as in the air and rivers. She documents its widespread use and contamination of soil and water and notes that the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer’s assessment of glyphosate being a 2A carcinogen (probably carcinogenic in humans) is unwelcome news for the agrochemical industry. She also notes that Roundup usage has led to a depletion of biodiversity and that loss of biodiversity is also correlated with neonicotinoids. However, despite the evidence, the blatant disregard concerning the use of these substances by regulatory agencies around the world is apparent.

To provide some insight into the impact on health of the chemical-intensive model of agriculture, Mason shows that in the US increases in Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, breast cancer, oesophageal cancer, congenital anomalies and a growing burden of disability, particularly from mental disorders are all acknowledged.

She claims that plans are under way to depopulate the planet’s seven million plus people to a more manageable level of between 500–2000 million by a combination of means, including the poisoning and contamination of the planet’s food and water supplies via chemical-intensive industrialised agriculture. Mason also notes that health-damaging GMOs are being made available to the masses (under the guise of ‘feeding the poor’), while elites are more prone to eat organic food.
We may be gone before planned depopulation takes hold

Although Mason cites evidence to show that a section of the US elite has a depopulation agenda, given the amount of poisons being pumped into the environment and into humans, the thrust of her argument is that we could all be extinct before this comes to fruition – both rich and poor alike.

In concluding, she states that the global pesticides industry has been allowed to dominate the regulatory agencies and have created chemicals of mass destruction that can no longer be controlled. She has some faith in systems biology coming to the fore and being able to understand the complexity of the whole organism as a system, rather than just studying its parts in a reductionist manner. But Mason believes that ultimately the public must place pressure on governments and hold agribusiness to account.

However, that in itself may not be enough.

It is correct to highlight the poisonous impacts of the Rockefeller-sponsored petrochemical ‘green revolution’. It has uprooted indigenous/traditional agriculture and local economies and has recast them in a model that suits global agribusiness. It is poisoning life and the environment, threatening food security across the globe and is unsustainable. The ‘green revolution’ was ultimately a tool of US foreign policy that has been used in conjunction with various institutions like the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation. GMOs represent more of the same.

In this respect, Mason follows the line of argument in William F Engdahl’s book ‘Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation’, which locates the GM issue and the ‘green revolution’ firmly within the context of empire. Engdahl also sees the Rockefeller-Gates hand behind the great GMO project to a sinister eugenicist strategy of depopulation.

Mason’s concerns about depopulation therefore should not be dismissed, particularly given the record of the likes of the Gates and Rockefeller clans, the various covert sterility programmes that have been instituted by the US over the decades and the way agriculture has and continues to be used as a geopolitical tool to further the agendas of rich interests in the US.

To understand the processes that have led to modern farming and the role of entities like Monsanto, we must appreciate the geopolitics of food and agriculture, which benefits an increasingly integrated global cartel of finance, oil, military and agribusiness concerns. This cartel seeks to gain from war, debt bondage and the control of resources, regardless of any notions relating to food security, good health and nutrition, biodiversity, food democracy, etc.
Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma notes the impacts in India:

“India is on fast track to bring agriculture under corporate control… Amending the existing laws on land acquisition, water resources, seed, fertilizer, pesticides and food processing, the government is in overdrive to usher in contract farming and encourage organized retail. This is exactly as per the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as the international financial institutes.”

In Punjab, India, pesticides have turned the state into a ‘cancer epicentre‘. Moreover, Indian soils are being depleted as a result of the application of ‘green revolution’ ideology and chemical inputs. India is losing 5,334 million tonnes of soil every year due to soil erosion because of the indiscreet and excessive use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research reports that soil is become deficient in nutrients and fertility.

And now, there is an attempt to push GM food crops into India in a secretive, non-transparent manner that smacks of regulatory delinquency underpinned by corrupt practices, which suggests officials are working hand in glove with US agribusiness.

As smallholders the world over are being driven from their land and the GMO/chemical-industrial farming model takes over, the problems continue to mount.

The environment, the quality of our food and our health are being sacrificed on the altar of corporate profit and a type of looting based on something we can loosely regard as ‘capitalism’. The solution involves a shift to organic farming and investment in and reaffirmation of indigenous models of agriculture. But ultimately it entails what Daniel Maingi of Growth Partners for Africa says what we must do: “… take capitalism and business out of farming.”

It must also entail, according to Maingi, investing in  “… indigenous knowledge and agroecology, education and infrastructure and stand(ing) in solidarity with the food sovereignty movement.”
In other words, both farmers and consumers must organise to challenge governments, corrupt regulatory bodies and big agribusiness at every available opportunity. If we don’t do this, what Mason outlines may come to pass.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Colin Todhunter, Global Research, 2015

Asia earthquake death toll reaches 350... forcing the Taliban to call a truce to allow aid workers to treat the injured

By Simon Tomlinson for MailOnline

 

Published: 07:37 EST, 27 October 2015 | Updated: 14:39 EST, 27 October 2015 

 

Agony: A boy who was injured in the 7.5 magnitude earthquake receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan

The Taliban today called a truce to allow aid agencies to push ahead with emergency relief after a massive quake hit Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing more than 350 people.

The toll was expected to rise as search teams reach remote areas that were cut off by yesterday's 7.5-magnitude quake, which triggered landslides and stampedes as it toppled buildings and severed communication lines.

Relief operations to assess the damage have been hindered by an unstable security situation that has left much of the affected areas unsafe for international aid workers and government troops.

But the Taliban, which have stepped up their Islamist insurgency against the Western-backed government in Kabul this year, indicated they would not stand in the way of aid efforts.

 

A man and his son clear rubble from their house after it was damaged by an earthquake in Behsud district of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan

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Environment Pollution - Iraq, Province of Missan, [Karima village area] : discovery of dangerous radioactive contamination that is attributed to the 2003 US-led war on Iraq.

Earth Watch Report  -  Environmental Pollution

• nuclear-news

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Environment Pollution

Iraq

Province of Missan, [Karima village area]

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RSOE EDIS

Environment Pollution in Iraq on Tuesday, 13 May, 2014 at 03:07 (03:07 AM) UTC.

Description The official environmental authority in the Iraqi governorate of Missan, which is located 390 kilometres away from Baghdad, has announced the discovery of dangerous radioactive contamination that is attributed to the 2003 US-led war on Iraq. The director of the general authority for the environment in Missan, Samir Kadim, told the New Arab news website that the authority's specialised staff found radioactive material, mainly in military equipment and the skeletons of cars, in a small village south of Missan known as Karima. Kadim explained that the ministry's authority is cautiously entering the three areas where radioactive material was discovered and is taking strict procedures to remove it. The village witnessed one of the fiercest battles between the former Iraqi army and the US-led coalition forces in 2003. "Unfortunately, we have discovered it late, after a number of the village's residents have been diagnosed with various diseases," Kadim said.One of the village's residents told the New Arab in a phone interview that: "Cancer has spread among us, in addition to birth defects among new-born babies and other diseases that doctors cannot explain." "But it is only now that we have discovered the cause �" it is the US," said 45-year-old Abboud Moussa. Moussa described how a number of Karima's villagers, including children and his own mother, died as a result of this radioactive material. Doctors diagnosed his mother with skin cancer and bone disease, and they told him that she needed to receive medical treatment abroad, but she died very fast before she could travel. The village's mayor Mahmoud Abtan told the New Arab that a routine visit to the village by officials from the Ministry of Environment encouraged the villagers to ask them to examine a number of areas that had a bad smell. "A number of animals grazing near those areas have died ... people even thought that those areas were possessed. Then it turned out that they are not possessed at all, and our murderer is the US," he said.According to Missan's environment authority, Karima is the third place in the governorate where radioactive material has been discovered amid primitive treatment and an American refusal to take responsibility. Any US assistance in handling the radiation would be an acknowledgement of its use of internationally banned weapons in Iraq. Abdel Khalek Mahmoud, an environmental expert, told the New Arab that "radioactive contamination in Iraq is divided into two types: The first, which is rarely found in Iraq, is high-level radioactivity that can be discovered by electronic devices. The second is low-level radioactivity, which is more difficult to discover. It was caused by the waste of depleted uranium that was used by the US in its 2003 war on Iraq. This is abundantly found and it has caused a lot of lethal damage in the country." "We have often said that the reason why thousands of Iraqi soldiers went missing is that their bodies burnt as a result of uranium-saturated bombs. But the country's new leaders, who were empowered by the US, were not willing to bother the Americans," Mahmoud added.

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US allegedly poisoned Iraqi village with lethal radioactive material - local official

© Photo: Voice of Russia/Michael Shepetkov
The official environmental authority in the Iraqi governorate of Missan, located 390 kilometers away from Baghdad, has discovered radioactive material attributed to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Global Research reports. The director of the general authority for the environment, Samir Kadim, explained that dangerous contamination was found in military equipment left at a small village south of Karima that saw severe fighting between the Iraqi army and the US-led coalition forces in 2003.

Kadim laments that the contamination was not discovered soon after the military operation ended. Since then several people have been diagnosed with various serious diseases, from cancer to birth defects. "Unfortunately, we have discovered it late, after a number of the village’s residents have been diagnosed with various diseases."

Many need professional medical help only available abroad. Some succumbed to the disease without receiving any treatment.

Abboud Moussa told the New Arab: "Cancer has spread among us, in addition to birth defects among new-born babies and other diseases that doctors cannot explain."

"But it is only now that we have discovered the cause – it is the US."

Reportedly, this is the third case that radioactive material has been discovered in that area.

The village's mayor Mahmoud Abtan told the New Arab that a routine visit to the village by officials from the Ministry of Environment encouraged the villagers to ask them to examine a number of areas that had a bad smell. "A number of animals grazing near those areas have died … people even thought that those areas were possessed. Then it turned out that they are not possessed at all, and our murderer is the US," he said, as quoted by the Global Research.

Abdel Khalek Mahmoud, an environmental expert, told the New Arab that allegedly depleted uranium was used in Iraq by the US in 2003. "This is abundantly found and it has caused a lot of lethal damage in the country."

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 nuclear-news

USA, UK, France will not admit the growing radioactive pollution of Iraq, due to depleted uranium weapons

The health effects are disputed by the US and UK governments, who joined with France and Israel to vote against a resolution calling for “a precautionary approach” to the use of DU weapons at the United Nations general assembly in December; 155 countries voted in favour of the resolution.
Iraq’s depleted uranium clean-up to cost $30m as contamination spreads Rob Edwards guardian.co.uk,  6 March 2013 Report says toxic waste is being spread by scrap metal dealers, and describes its ‘alarming’ use in civilian areas during Iraq wars Cleaning up more than 300 sites in Iraq still contaminated by depleted uranium (DU) weapons will cost at least $30m, according to a report by a Dutch peace group to be published on Thursday.
The report, which was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warns that the contamination is being spread by poorly regulated scrap metal dealers, including children. It also documents evidence that DU munitions were fired at light vehicles, buildings and other civilian infrastructure including the Iraqi Ministry of Planning in Baghdad – casting doubt on official assurances that only armoured vehicles were targeted. “The use of DU in populated areas is alarming,” it says, adding that many more contaminated sites are likely to be discovered.
More than 400 tonnes of DU ammunition are estimated to have been fired by jets and tanks in the two Iraq wars in 1991 and 2003, the vast majority by US forces. The UK government says that British forces fired less than three tonnes.
DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as wasteby the nuclear power industry. It is used in weapons because it is an extremely hard material capable of piercing armour.

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Related articles

• US allegedly poisoned Iraqi village with lethal radioactive material - local official
• Environment Pollution - Middle-East - Iraq
• USA, UK, France will not admit the growing radioactive pollution of Iraq, due to depleted uranium weapons

Afghanistan Landslide Updates : Trucks full of food aid have arrived but no one has distributed the bags of rice, oil and other necessities, survivors say

Hunger and desperation as Afghan mudslide survivors wait for food

• Emma Graham-Harrison in Aab Barik
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Sunday 4 May 2014 14.46 EDT

Mudslide survivors in Argu village, Afghanistan. Photograph: Nasir Waqif/EPA

Lailema's soft wailing filters through the canvas of her tent, a 12-year-old's hopeless lament for her mother and a life that is gone forever. Her three younger siblings play on the dusty floor as her grandmother cries silently nearby and her uncle wonders how to feed his new dependents.
None of them have eaten since the landslide in the village of Aab Barik – in the north-eastern province of Badakshan – that took away their home and six relatives two days earlier, despite trucks full of food aid parked just a few metres away. No one has distributed the bags of rice, oil and other necessities, they say.
"They promised that they would hand them out after the government officials leave today," said Khan Baay, the uncle, who was heading out to hear the vice-president, Yunus Qanuni, lead prayers for the dead and promise survivors whatever help they need, backed by a delegation of ministers, members of parliament and European ambassadors.
But many on the ground were less interested in pledges from dignitaries helicoptered in to survey the damage than getting their hands on something edible. "I am so hungry I could scratch your eyes out," said Bibi Jaahan, a grandmother in her early 60s who lost her home and several relatives to the mud. "I haven't eaten for over two days."
Sharing her tent is Zaina, breastfeeding her 11-month-old son but worried that her milk is drying up, as he grumbles then starts crying. She has only scavenged a few biscuits to feed him, and knows he needs more solid food.
The Afghan Red Crescent was quick to hand out tents to those who lost their homes in last Friday's devastating mudslide, and in the corner of newly motherless Lailema's cramped new home, barely two metres wide and perhaps three times as long, there are new plates and tea cups but nothing to eat off them.
They were part of their package of "non-food items", explains Ahmad, an official from the charity who stops by to check on the family. "We started handing out tents on Friday, but other organisations are responsible for food. We cannot provide everything ourselves."

Read More Here

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May 02 2014 03:32 PM

Landslide

Afghanistan

Province of Badakhshan, [Argu district]

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Description Around 250 people were feared dead following a landslide in northeastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. According to local government officials, the incident took place in Argu district and dozens of others have been trapped under the rocks. A local official in Badakhshan province said around around 250 people have been killed following the landslide while 200 houses and dozens of more people were trapped following the rockslide. Provincial police chief, Fazluddin Ayar confirmed that over 250 people were trapped following a landslide in Aab Khoshk village. Mr. Ayar further added that the incident took place around 12:00 pm local time and Afghan secuirty forces and rescue teams have been deployed to the area to assist the local residents. This comes as deputy Afghan interior minister Gen. Ayub Salangi earlier said around 200 houses were affected following the rockslide. Gen. Salangi had said preliminary reports suggest that the casualties due to the rockslide is around 200 people.

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Back Updated: Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 16:13 UTC Description A landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village Friday in northeastern Afghanistan, leaving as many as 2,000 people missing, a top official said. Badakshan province Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after a hill collapsed on the village of Hobo Barik. Adeeb said the landslide buried some 300 homes in the area - about a third of all houses there. The governor said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment, appealing for shovels. "It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery." He said authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides. Faziluddin Hayar, the police chief in Badakshan province, said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday. Badakshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Back Updated: Saturday, 03 May, 2014 at 04:09 UTC Description A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a northeastern Afghan village Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving up to 2,500 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path. The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik at midday, burying it under up to 60 feet of mud and rocks, officials said. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest. It was one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory in Afghanistan, where spring rainfall and snowmelt make the mountainous northeast susceptible to flash floods and mudslides. U.N. officials said more Afghans had been killed in natural disasters in the past seven days than in all of 2013. Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said up to 2,500 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes, about one-third of all the houses in the area. At least 350 people were confirmed dead, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. He said the U.N. was working with authorities to rescue trapped people. The governor said rescue crews were working, but didn't have enough equipment. "It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery." The Badakhshan provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Faziluddin Hayar, said rescue workers had pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth, but held out little hope that more survivors would be found. "Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything for them," Hayar said. Video footage showed that a large section of the mountain collapsed, sending mud and earth tumbling onto the village below. The landslide was likely caused by heavy rain, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the province's director for the National Disaster Department. He said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday, a day of worship in Afghanistan when many families would have been at home instead of at work. President Obama said the United States was ready to assist. "I want to say on behalf of the American people that our thoughts are with the people of Afghanistan, who have experienced an awful tragedy," he said at the White House during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. U.N. humanitarian officials said some areas remained difficult to reach, making the scale of the damage unclear. Officials fear more landslides are possible because of more rain and melting snow. About 700 families living on a hillside near Aab Barik were told to move to higher ground and wait for emergency aid to reach them, Adeeb said.

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Back Updated: Saturday, 03 May, 2014 at 05:22 UTC Description About 2,250 people are feared dead after a mudslide Friday buried an Afghan village in the far-north-eastern province of Badakhshan, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. More than 300 houses in Ab-e-Barik were swept away in the mudslide, which occurred after heavy rainfall, Naveed Ferotan said. "Our rescue teams have so far found 150 bodies in the area, and they are working hard to save the villagers," he said. About 2,100 other people are missing and also feared dead, officials said. The mudslide first struck a wedding party, killing 250 people, and then buried nearly all of the village as well as farmland, said Haji Abdul Wadood Saeedi, governor of the Argu district, where Ab-e-Barik is located. About 300 families are missing, he said. The ground is still unstable, and people in nearby villages are scared they could also become victims, Saeedi said. Rescue teams were dispatched to the area and at least 1,500 people have been evacuated from Ab-e-Barik so far, Saeedi said. The United Nations said 700 families lived in Ab-e-Barik and at least 120 houses were destroyed. "Reportedly, 350 people have died and 580 families are at severe risk of further landslides," said Ari Gaitanis, a UN spokesman in Kabul. "The village is flooded, and a drainage channel must be opened to prevent further destruction," he said. The national government and United Nations planned their own rescue and aid response.

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Back Updated: Saturday, 03 May, 2014 at 14:26 UTC Description At least 300 families have been burried under a hill that collapsed in a remote mountain village in northeast Afghanistan on Friday. The confirmed death count at present is 2,100, and is expected to rise in the coming days. "More then 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governorsaid. The United Nations said the focus was now on the more than 4,000 displaced by Friday's disaster. There is a risk of further landslides in the area, officials said.

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Landslide in Afghanistan on Friday, 02 May, 2014 at 15:32 (03:32 PM) UTC.

Back Updated: Sunday, 04 May, 2014 at 15:23 UTC Description The Afghan government officially named the scene hit by a massive landslide in Badakhshan province as a mass grave and started focusing on helping the survivors on Sunday. "The religious scholars and high level officials has convinced the locals to give up looking for dead bodies," Haji Abdul Wadoud, governor of Argo district in Badakhshan told Anadolu Agency. "It is almost impossible to search for dead bodies," he said. "When muslims die, they must be buried, and they are already under a huge hill of mud." The first Vice President Mohammad Younus Qanooni also visited the area on Sunday along with some cabinet members and religious authorities. "All agreed that it would be named as the mass grave of Abe Barik martyrs," Abdul Wadoud said. Early Friday afternoon, a massive landslide triggered by heavy rainfall engulfed the village of Abe Barik in northern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. At least 300 families have been trapped under dirt and mud, whereas only 255 of the dead bodies have been identified so far, but the local authorities estimate that more than 2,100 people are dead. Heavy rains in the last few weeks have also caused flash floods in different parts of the country, taking dozens of lives and damaging hundreds of houses. Turkey's IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation has delivered humanitarian aid to 350 families hit by Friday's landslide disaster in Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan. "Emergency packages were prepared for 350 families in the first stage of the aid campaign," Orhan Sefik, Central Asia regional coordinator of the foundation, told Anadolu Agency. He said the packages contained food, rugs, blankets and kitchen utensils, adding that the foundation would continue to provide aid to the area. Earlier, Noor Mohammad Khawari, head of the Badakhshan central hospital told Anadolu Agency that it would be tragic if the locals agreed to the village becoming a mass grave although he said it would require an extraordinary effort driving by a big number of professionals and machinery to find the buried individuals. "Now they are discussing securing the scene from the threat of floods so that members of the victim families can come here to prayer" Khawari added. In a statement released from his office late Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened after hearing the news of the landslide. The Afghan government has also announced a day of national mourning in the country.

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The search for Flight MH370 may be affected as Tropical Cyclone Jack continued to move south over the ocean.

Cyclone threatens to disrupt search for missing MH370

April 21, 2014

Australian Navy officer Morgan Macdonald stands in a rigid hull inflatable boat as he observes markers dropped from a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P3K Orion, after an object was sighted in the southern Indian Ocean. – Reuters pic, April 21, 2014.A tropical cyclone was threatening to hamper the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight today, as a submarine drone neared the end of its mission scouring the southern Indian Ocean sea bed with still no sign of wreckage.
The search for flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, has narrowed to a 10 sq km patch of sea floor about 2,000 km west of the Australian city of Perth.
Search authorities and the Australian and Malaysian governments have said a series of sonar signals, or "pings", traced to the area may have emanated from the plane's "black box" and present the most credible lead as to its whereabouts.

However no pings have been detected in almost two weeks and authorities now fear that, with the flight data recorder's battery several weeks past its expected expiry date, the black box may not emit further signals.
A US Navy remote controlled submarine, the Bluefin-21, was on its ninth mission scanning the largely unmapped stretch of sea bed where the pings are believed to have come from, with still no trace found, Australian search officials said today.
"Bluefin-21 has searched approximately two-thirds of the focused underwater search area to date. No contacts of interest have been found to date," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement.

Read More Here

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Fukushima News 10/29/13: Radioactive Forests; Running Out of Fuku Fighters; Uncontrollable Fukushima

MissingSky101  

Published on Oct 29, 2013

Study: cesium from plant staying in forest soil
A team of Japanese researchers says most of the radioactive cesium that was released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and fell on forest soil remains there.
Researchers at the government-affiliated Japan Atomic Energy Agency installed monitoring equipment in woods of northern Ibaraki Prefecture, near Fukushima Prefecture, in May 2011, 2 months after the accident. They hoped to learn how the cesium moved from fallen leaves to soil.
The results of more than 2 years of research show that rain washed cesium off leaves 6 months after the accident, and that as the leaves decomposed, it moved to the surface of underlying soil.

Govt. to study paying part of decontamination cost
A Japanese Cabinet minister has suggested the government should bear part of the costs for clearing radioactive substances from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The central and local governments are currently conducting decontamination work and charging the costs to the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company.
But TEPCO has asked the government to cover some of the massive expenses. Government and governing party officials are discussing the utility's request.

TEPCO likely to post mid-year profit
Tokyo Electric Power Company is likely to post a profit in its midterm earnings report.
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to post about 1.1 billion dollars in profits for the April-September period.
It will be the company's first midterm profit since the nuclear accident in March 2011.
Profits rose due to an increase in electricity sales during this summer's record heat wave, as well as a rise in household rates in September of last year.

Koizumi, Yoshida agree on nuclear-free society:
Former prime minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi and the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party have agreed that the country should stop generating nuclear power.
SDP leader Tadatomo Yoshida, who assumed his post this month, met Koizumi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Koizumi said continuing nuclear power generation would be irresponsible and impossible. He said the public cannot understand the policy of building nuclear waste disposal sites in the earthquake-prone country.

Former Leader of Japan: Fukushima disaster is "most severe accident in the history of mankind" — Top Regulator: Drastic steps needed due to growing problems at precarious plant
http://enenews.com/former-leader-of-j...

Tokyo Mother: "Total media blackout" in Japan of lots and lots of people developing symptoms related to Fukushima disaster (VIDEO) — "Many cases of sickness and death among young generations" not reported
http://enenews.com/tokyo-mother-total...

Cesium near Fukushima reported to be many times higher than claimed by Tepco — Levels rising further away from plant — Professor: After quake as big as last week there's concern about stuff breaking and leakage getting worse
http://enenews.com/cesium-near-fukush...

Tepco considers discharging Tritium to the Pacific after dilution
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/10/te...

Cesium-134/137 detected from seawater near the outlet of plant drain outside of the port
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/10/ce...

Seawater fence of reactor5&6 cut off again
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/10/se...

Tepco "Hope the youth to come to work in Fukushima plant" / "Aspiration" to work for Japan and the world
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/10/te...

Tepco "The Olympics would cause the shortage of Fukushima workers" / No specific measures
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/10/te...

http://enenews.com/tv-journalist-pois...
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/20...

http://enenews.com/physician-high-rad...
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/20...

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