Archive | March, 2011

  • Fukushima 1: Evacuation Incomplete

    12 March 2011, 13:26 According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy and Industry (MITI), regarding the evacuation of residents within the 10 km radius of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant, as of 11:30 AM, about 30% of 2,000-2,100 residents of Okuma-machi in Fukushima Province, which is located […]

  • Explosion at Fukushima 1: Several Workers Injured

    12 March 2011, 16:52 According to the Fukushima office of Tokyo Electric Power, a sound of explosion was heard at Unit 1 of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant around 3:30 PM.  A plume of smoke was seen ten minutes later.  Several workers have been reportedly injured. The Fukushima office says that the smoke appeared […]

  • 米科学者:子供たちに被曝防止のヨウ素剤を今すぐに

    日本はこの原子力事故の重大さに直面して今すぐ最弱者を放射線被爆の被害から保護せねばならない。特に子供を放射性ヨウ素から守るべきだ。そう米国のトップ科学者が言っている。 「これが最悪のケースではないと言い張る見せかけは無謀です」と科学者団体UCSの上級研究員エドウィン・ライマン氏は摘発する。 米国とフランスには、致命的な放射線放出の際には原発の近くに住んでいる子供たちにヨウ素酸カリウムを配布し投与するプランがある。 もし炉心が融解し鋼製格納容器が破壊されると、日本が直面するリスクは、何十キロも何百キロにも分散する放射性雲だとライマン氏は説明する。「 救済策を必要とする領域は大規模になりかねます。多くの被曝者の中では、癌になる可能性が増加します。」 チェルノブイリ原発事故の後、ライマン氏によると、6000例以上の小児甲状腺癌が発見された。放射線にさらされる数時間前にヨウ素剤を子供に与えると放射性物質の甲状腺摂取量をブロックできることが後に判明した。「投与によって大幅にリスクを軽減できることは確かだ」とライマン氏は言う。 この記事は 抜粋翻訳。原文:<abcnews.go.com/International/japan-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-explosion-workers-injured-radiation/story?id=13120888>.  翻訳:古橋芳恵。

  • Two Earthquakes

    A strong 8.9 on the scale earthquake shook Japan today. The most worrying is that early news reports were talking about thousands dead and missing, figures really unheard of in a developed country where all constructions are quake-proof. They were even talking about a nuclear reactor that was out of control. Hours later, it was […]

  • Nuclear Crisis in Japan: What We Know

    The massive earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan has caused a potentially catastrophic situation at one of Japan’s nuclear power plants.  The situation is still evolving, but below is a preliminary assessment based on the facts as experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists currently understand them. The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company […]

  • Fact Sheet on Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

      Excerpt: Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, a Japanese environmental group, has documented previous safety problems and cover-ups by Tepco at the Fukushima reactor complex: cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit92/nit92articles/ nit92coverupdata.html Full Text: * * * MRZine Editor’s Notes Update 1 The evacuation area around the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant has now been expanded to a 10 km radius […]

  • Fukushima 1: Fuel Rods Exposed

    12 March 2011, 12:03 According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), the level of water to cool the nuclear reactor at Unit 1 of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant has declined.  As of 11:20 AM, a part of the “fuel assembly” of fuel rods is now exposed above water.  The maximum exposure […]

  • President of Madison Firefighters after Senate Vote in Wisconsin

      Joe Conway, Madison Fire Fighters Local 311: This is a game changer for everybody here. . . .  They took people’s rights away in a matter of minutes, . . . not playing by any rules at all. The UpTake: We’re hearing people talk about a call for a general strike.  What do you […]

  • The Fight Continues in Ohio

    Letter to the members of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, AFSCME Local 11. Dear OCSEA Member: You are making history!  Four weeks ago, Senate Bill 5 was introduced in the Ohio legislature to take away the rights of public employees to collectively bargain.  And, four weeks ago, we started a campaign like no other. […]

  • A System Turned Upside Down

    The Tunisian revolution has wiped out the Ben Ali system, and the Egyptian revolution is about to eliminate the Mubarak system after the fall of the president.  No doubt, the epoch of unlimited domination in the Arab world is coming to its end.  After decades of despotic, patronage-based regimes, the Arab peoples seem determined to […]

  • The Libyan Opposition on Foreign Intervention

      Is the “Provisional Transitional National Council of Libya” the kind of leadership for whom self-respecting Libyans would want to carry assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, Manpads, and so on?  IMHO, a resounding NO, but, dear reader, draw your own conclusion. — Ed. * * * Excerpt from Eric Ruder, “No U.S. intervention in […]

  • Obama’s Intervention in Libya

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

  • For the Establishment of a Democratic Republic in Bahrain

      Position Statement of the Coalition for a Republic In the name of our glorious religion and international conventions on human rights and on the principle of the right of nations to decide their destiny, and based on our long struggle and sacrifices against the oppressive and corrupt Al-Khalifa regime, we hereby declare a tripartite […]

  • NATO, War, Lies and Business

    As some may be aware, in September of 1969, Muammar al-Gaddafi, an Arab Bedouin soldier of a peculiar character and inspired by the ideas of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, promoted in the heart of the armed forces a movement overthrowing King Idris I of Libya, a country almost completely covered by desert and […]

  • Women Take to Streets in Bahrain on International Women’s Day

    In Bahrain, hundreds of women took to the streets this Tuesday, marching for their rights in the main streets of the capital.  They also demanded the end of the monarchy.  The women in their traditional dress were the protagonists of this peaceful protest, forming a human chain in the streets of Manama.  With their signs […]

  • The Struggles of a Muslim Communist

      Partai Komunis Indonesia, or the Indonesian Communist Party, was at one point the largest communist party outside the Soviet Bloc.  In 1965, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of its members were systematically murdered under the watch and approval of General Suharto’s CIA-backed military.  Historians estimate that between 500,000 and 2,000,000 communists were killed, […]

  • Vultures Ready to Pounce on Libya

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. ” A NATO spokesman confirmed that Libya had been added to the agenda of an informal NATO defense ministers’ meeting March 10-11″ (“MEPs Call for No Fly Zone Over Libya,” DefenseNews, 9 March 2011); Arnold Schölzel, “Kriegstreiberei: Libyen-Resolution im EU-Parlament” (junge Welt, 10 March 2011); Arnold Schölzel, “Linke […]

  • The Cash Option

    When I was growing up, several decades ago, middle-class society in India was always a little delayed in catching on to Western fashions whether in music or dress or in other aspects.  The past decades of globalisation seemed to have changed all that.  Modern communications technology has ensured that at least the upper income deciles […]

  • The Lousy Leader of the Libyan Opposition

    One of the problems of the Libyan opposition today is that lousy leader they have.  He is none other than the former Minister of Justice of Qadhdhafi’s regime.  He has been on Aljazeera and is everything you don’t want to have in a leader.  I mean, if Libyans watch him, they won’t be inspired.  They […]

  • Former Palestinian Prisoners Mark International Women’s Day

      Former Palestinian female prisoners as well as wives and daughters of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails held a sit-in in front of the office of the international committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on the occasion of international women’s day. . . . Families of prisoners seized the occasion and called on all […]