YES, it's been a long occupation on local scenes and funny goings-on with Desi, so to breakaway, here's looking at international events past and unfolding...
LIFTED From Star Online...wit' some apologies, and I also buy the RM1.20 a copy somedimes:) Yes!
ACT1:)
Wednesday April 20, 2011
With an eye to Japan, world pledges cash for Chernobyl
By Richard Balmforth
KIEV (Reuters) - World powers, spurred by the nuclear crisis in Japan, pledged 550 million euros ($780 million) on Tuesday to help build a new containment shell at the site of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
A participant of the International partner conference "25 years after Chernobyl" lights a candle in Minsk April 18, 2011. (REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Ukraine had hoped for 740 million euros from governments and international organisations at a conference in Kiev, marking 25 years since the world's worst nuclear accident.
Officials at the conference were optimistic more funds would still be found to make the Chernobyl site safe.
"This is what we have been able to raise through joint efforts -- and we consider this figure preliminary -- 550 million euros," Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said at the end of the pledging conference.
The world community has already put up a portion of the 1.39 bln euros for the total cost of building a new containment cover and facilities for storing radioactive waste from the reactor.
Though the sums pledged fell short of the 740 million euros still outstanding, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that when all the pledges were in, it was possible the conference's "very ambitious goal" would be achieved.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced $123 million in new funding to help make Chernobyl environmentally safe, on top of $240 million already committed by Washington.
"The completion of two nuclear safety projects, construction of a new safe confinement shelter and a storage facility for spent fuel will help finally close this difficult chapter for the people of Ukraine and the region," she said.
NEW ENCASEMENT AT CHERNOBYL
Ministers and officials from the Group of Eight industrial nations and the European Union took the lead at the conference, saying they were ready to fund a new giant encasement over the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986, billowing radiation across Europe.
The plan is to build a 110-metre-high (360-foot) shell over Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor, which blew up after a safety experiment went wrong.
Delegates also expressed solidarity with Tokyo's efforts to control the crisis at Fukushima.
Japan's ambassador told the gathering that "under the challenging circumstances" Tokyo would not be able to pledge additional funds to the Chernobyl effort.
Both Chernobyl and the Fukushima crises showed that "nuclear accidents respect no borders," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Yanukovich said the Soviet-era disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 had left Ukraine with a "deep wound which it will have to cope with for many years.
"Neither Ukraine nor the world community has the right to turn back from seeking answers to the questions which Chernobyl has presented us with," he added.
Barroso, describing the pledges as a "very good result", said the European Commission had committed itself to putting up 110 million euros. In all, the EU bloc was providing half the funds required for Chernobyl "shelter and safety" projects.
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development said it would commit 120 million euros and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country would provide 47 million euros.
The new structure will cover the present makeshift shelter that is now beginning to leak radioactivity from hundreds of tonnes of radioactive material inside.
WEEK OF COMMEMORATIONS
The donors' conference launches a week of commemorations in Ukraine marking the Soviet-era explosion and fire.
A prevailing southeast wind carried a cloud of radioactivity over Belarus and Russia and into parts of northern Europe.
The official immediate death toll from Chernobyl was 31, but many more died of radiation-related sicknesses such as cancer, many of them in neighbouring Belarus.
Chernobyl has remained the benchmark for nuclear accidents. On April 12 Japan raised the severity rating at its Fukushima plant to seven, the same level as that of Chernobyl.
Chernobyl's total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate. Yanukovich said on Tuesday: "As a consequence of the accident, millions of people suffered, thousands of them died."
Prypyat, the town closest to the site, is now an eerie ghost town at the centre of a largely uninhabited exclusion zone within a radius of 30 km (19 miles).
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters
ACT1 SIDE STORY...See I Desi pampers his lazy, hazy mazy and Esteemed:) OR SteamedTEADERS!:(:(
Wednesday April 20, 2011
Man inside Chernobyl praises Japan crisis response
By Sylvia Westall
VIENNA (Reuters) - Japan's reaction to its nuclear crisis has been swift and responsible, the only survivor of a four-man group that entered the Chernobyl site after it was covered with a concrete hood said on Tuesday.
A helicopter sprays a decontaminating substance over the region surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power station June 13, 1986. Reuters/Tass/Files
It would be wrong to blame Japan for not offering enough information directly after the Fukushima accident, said Anatoly Tkachuk, a senior official at Chernobyl when its No. 4 reactor blew up in 1986, causing the world's worst nuclear accident.
"Think about it this way, a nuclear object emitting radiation after an explosion or accident -- you can't even get close to this object. Every man would die from the intense radiation," he told a news conference in Vienna.
"If you want to go in and assess it, it would mean victims that die. So I think that the Japanese showed the best national characteristics. The nation pulled together, reacted quickly and I think this protected the country from panic."
Tkachuk was responsible for the safety of the so-called "liquidators" who battled to stabilise Chernobyl after it blew up 25 years ago. He was in Vienna to present his book 'I was in the Chernobyl Sarcophagus'.
Once authorities finished installing the "sarcophagus" over the wrecked site eight months after the accident, an order came from Moscow to report on the situation inside the shell.
"Robots could not go in because the inside was completely destroyed and pathways were blocked. It had to be people," Tkachuk said. He clambered into the site with three other men dressed in chemical suits, gas masks and thick goggles.
"The chances of coming back were slim. We had already said goodbye to the world," he said in rapid Russian, describing himself as scared but somewhat proud to carry out the mission.
One big worry was that the high level of radiation inside the sarcophagus had already started to destroy the concrete.
"We immediately saw dust had fallen onto the floor. The walls were already starting to crumble," Tkachuk said. The site was gloomy and damp, and smoke swirled in the air.
"There were wave-like movements in the air, the air was even moving by itself. It was awful," he said.
"We immediately felt pain in the throat -- the first sign of a high radiation dose -- and headaches, pressure in the head, very painful joints, especially the knees."
A temperature of up to 60 degrees Celsius and high humidity made it hard to breathe. One man in his group died almost at once from the radiation and the two others died days later.
Tkachuk says he must have unwittingly avoided parts of the site containing very high radiation and did not step on deadly reactor fuel which had been scattered by the explosion.
"People knew it was dangerous but didn't really know what they were doing. At the beginning, people were moving radioactive material around with their hands," he said.
The official short-term death toll from the accident was 31, but many more died of radiation-related sicknesses such as cancer. The total death toll and long-term health effects are a subject of intense debate.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters
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ACT2:):)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
Cuban communists opt for old guard to lead reforms
By Jeff Franks
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's Communist Party selected President Raul Castro and a hardline ally as its top chiefs on Tuesday, entrusting old guard leaders to steer wide-ranging reforms of the Caribbean island's economy.
Cuban President Raul Castro delivers a speech at the opening session of the sixth congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in Havana April 16, 2011. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)
As expected, Raul Castro, 79, was named to replace his older brother Fidel Castro as first secretary of the ruling party's Central Committee.
But the appointment of First Vice President Jose Machado Ventura, 80, as second secretary signaled that Cuba's aging leadership was not yet ready for new blood at the top of one of the world's last communist states. He is viewed as a hardline communist ideologue.
Castro indicated that while Cuba will reform its economy, he will make sure it stays socialist.
"I assume my last job with the firm conviction and commitment ... to defend, preserve and continue perfecting socialism, and never permit the return of the capitalist regime," he said to great applause from the 1,000 delegates.
The two aging communists will preside over the biggest changes in years to the island's struggling economy, which were approved on Monday at the party's first congress in 14 years.
The package of more than 300 reforms aims to reduce spending by the debt-ridden government, cut subsidies, give more autonomy to state enterprises and encourage more foreign investment as part of a general overhaul of the Soviet-style economy. But central planning will remain.
In two of the bigger issues for average Cubans, the food ration all have received since 1963 will be phased out for those who do not need it and the buying and selling of homes will be permitted for the first time in many years.
Some changes, including the slashing of more than a million government jobs, allowing more self-employment and leasing state land to private farmers, are already in place or under way.
FEW NEW FACES IN POLITBURO
Raul Castro and Machado Ventura fought in Cuba's revolution and head the aging revolutionaries who have run the government and resisted U.S. pressure for political change since they helped topple U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
A number of others in the leadership are in their 70s and 80s. The age issue is a concern because President Castro said they had not groomed young leaders to replace them.
Raul Castro, who served as defense minister for 49 years under his older brother before replacing him as president in 2008, said in a speech on Saturday the party was considering limiting future leaders, including himself, to two five-year terms.
Machado Ventura, a medical doctor who joined the Castro brothers early in their revolutionary campaign from the Sierra Maestra mountains, is first in line to succeed Raul Castro.
Raul Castro said 15 people, including him and Machado Ventura, had been named to the powerful Political Bureau. Only three of them were new members -- reforms czar Marino Murillo, first secretary of the Communist Party in Havana Mercedes Lopez Acea, and Economy Minister Adel Izquierdo Rodriguez.
The Politburo also includes five generals, not counting Raul Castro, reflecting the military's key role in the Cuban government.
Former President Fidel Castro, 84, who had already said he relinquished the first secretary position five years ago, made his first appearance at the congress on Tuesday.
Wearing a blue gym suit, he had to be helped to his seat at the front of the congress.
Fidel Castro has said he resigned from his party leader post, without publicly disclosing it, when he fell seriously ill in 2006.
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Mohammad Zargham)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters
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ACT3:):):): TO COME!...
Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:12am BST
* Marine Well Containment Co may want to work with Helix
* Both containment systems developed after BP oil spill
* Both systems "bring something to the table"-Interior
By Ayesha Rascoe
WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Two competing oil spill
response systems developed for the Gulf of Mexico in the
aftermath of the massive BP (BP.L) oil spill may eventually
join forces, a BP executive said on Monday.
Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and other oil majors formed the
non-profit Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) to develop a
system to rapidly respond to major spills after BP's oil spill
exposed the lack of equipment available to contain a deepwater
spill.
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc (HLX.N) also developed a
separate response and containment system for Gulf producers
after the BP drilling disaster.
At the first meeting of a new government advisory panel on
offshore drilling issues, the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory
Committee panel questioned whether having two separate safety
systems was practical when there was limited design expertise
in that area.
The 15-member panel made up of industry, government and
academic experts was set up by the U.S. Interior Department to
provide guidance on offshore drilling research and practices
after last year's explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed
11 workers and unleashed nearly 5 million barrels of oil from
the Macondo well.
"I think at some point and time in the future...these
things will hopefully come together,"James Dupree, Gulf of
Mexico regional president for BP, told the panel.
BP joined MWCC after it capped its ruptured Macondo well
last year.
At the advisory committee meeting, held two days before the
one-year anniversary of the Gulf spill, Dupree discussed some
of the lessons BP learned after being involved in the largest
offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Dupree said the two containment systems were designed to
address different needs, with Helix an option for smaller firms
who may not want to make a large commitment up front.
"One of the goals potentially of the MWCC group is to see
how we can work together with the Helix group to try to
accommodate solutions for all of the Gulf of Mexico," Dupree
said.
The MWCC system includes a huge "capping stack" of valves
and pipes, controlled by underwater robots, that can be placed
atop a spewing well in 8,000 feet of water to stop the oil
flow.
The Helix system involves placing a subsea shut-off device,
valves and pipes atop a blowout preventer or well production
equipment at the seabed. It would contain and channel oil and
gas to production and storage vessels at the surface.
"They both bring something to the table at this point,"
said Lars Herbst, of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management.
(Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)
ACT3 SIDE STORY:
From NST Online, World News:)
Mitsui's Moex Blames Partner BP for Gulf of Mexico Rig Blow-Out, Oil Spill
By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Apr 20, 2011 12:09 PM GMT+0800
BP Plc (BP/) was sued by Mitsui & Co.’s Moex Offshore LLC unit and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), both minority partners in the blown-out Macondo well, over economic losses from the project’s failure and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that followed.
Moex and Anadarko, claiming BP broke its partnership agreement, asked a federal judge in New Orleans to declare they aren’t responsible for damages and cleanup costs resulting from the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history. Both companies said London-based BP was responsible for the blow-out and the spill.
“BP’s conduct was the proximate cause of foreseeable damage suffered by Moex Offshore, including claims made against it for liability for death, personal injury, cleanup costs, economic loss, loss of investment, lost profits and any damages or fines assessed in pending or future proceedings involving the spill,” Moex said in a court filing yesterday.
Moex and Anadarko, saying they had no fault in the blow-out and spill, also accused Transocean Ltd. (RIG), the owner of the rig that drilled the Macondo well, of gross negligence. Switzerland- based Transocean was responsible along with BP for the damages, according to the unit of Tokyo-based Mitsui.
BP has said it expects its minority partners in the damaged well to pay their share of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, oil-spill damages and pollution fines. Moex, which had a 10 percent stake in the well, and The Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko, with a 25 percent stake, deny having any decision- making role or prior knowledge of the way BP operated the drilling project.
‘No Evidence’
“No evidence exists to support a claim of gross negligence against Transocean,” Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the drilling company, said in an e-mail.
“Moex’s filing contains a number of specific allegations against BP that are not supported by fact or by law,” Daren Beaudo, a BP spokesman, said in an e-mail before Anadarko made its filing. “BP will respond to the complaint in a timely manner.”
Moex said in its filing yesterday that it “suffered economic losses as a result of BP’s negligence, including the loss to the reservoir, the loss of its investments, lost profits and defense costs, including attorneys’ fees.”
The case is part of In Re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL-2179, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
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