WorldJapan Ups Nuke Crisis Severity To Match Chernobyl
Posted: Apr 12th, 2011 10:07 AM
TOKYO - Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 — the highest ... Read More
WorldGaddafi Forces Shell Town After He Accepts Peace Plan
Updated: Apr 11th, 2011 9:10 AM
LIBYA - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi shelled the besieged town of Misrata on Monday after the African Union said he had accepted a plan to end Libya's civil war.
Al Jazeera television quoted a rebel spokesman as saying five people died and 20 were wounded in Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya, which has ... Read More
WorldFederal Shutdown Avoided
Posted: Apr 9th, 2011 9:24 PM
WASHINGTON - A last-minute budget deal forged with tough bargaining averted an embarrassing U.S. government shutdown, cut billions in spending and provided the first major test of the divided government that voters ushered in five months ago.
Working late into Friday night, congressional and White House negotiators ... Read More
WorldEU: Estimates Show Portugal Needs $114 Billion
Updated: Apr 8th, 2011 9:37 AM
GODOLLO, Hungary - Europe's top financial officials said Friday that debt-ridden Portugal will need around euro80 billion ($114 billion) in rescue loans and that negotiations over a full, multiyear bailout program will begin immediately.
A final deal should be in place by mid-May, allowing the debt-ridden country to ... Read More
WorldFormer US Rep In Libya To seek Gadhafi's Exit
Posted: Apr 6th, 2011 1:53 PM
TRIPOLI, Libya- A former U.S. congressman invited by Moammar Gadhafi arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday on a self-described private mission to urge the Libyan leader to step down as rebels and pro-government forces waged near stalemate battles.
Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who has visited Libya twice before, ... Read More
WorldJapan To Release Radioactive Water Into Sea
Posted: Apr 4th, 2011 10:20 AM
JAPAN - Japanese engineers on Monday were forced to release radioactive water into the sea while resorting to desperate measures such as using bath salts to try to find the source of the leaks at a crippled nuclear power complex.
Engineers also planned to build a giant silt curtain in the ocean to stop the spread of more ... Read More
WorldJapan Nuclear Plant Owner Confirms First Deaths
Updated: Apr 3rd, 2011 10:29 AM
The owner of Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant confirmed the first deaths at the facility Sunday -- two workers who went missing after the March 11 tsunami, whose bodies were found earlier this week.
A Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman said the bodies were found Wednesday. The announcement was ... Read More
WorldLibyan Rebels Receive Foreign Training
Posted: Apr 2nd, 2011 9:37 PM
LIBYA - US and Egyptian special forces have reportedly been offering covert armed training to rebel fighters in the battle for Libya, Al Jazeera has been told.
An unnamed rebel source related how he had undergone training in military techniques at a "secret facility" in eastern Libya.
He told our correspondent Laurence ... Read More
WorldAfghan Mob Tore Open Bunker To Kill Foreign UN Stafff
Updated: Apr 2nd, 2011 9:59 PM
KABUL — An angry mob that killed seven foreign UN staff in north Afghanistan ripped out the door of a bunker where several had taken shelter, and slit the throat of one man who survived a bullet, the top UN envoy in the country said on Saturday.
Staffan de Mistura promised that the United Nations would stay in ... Read More
WorldLibyan Opposition Sets Conditions For Cease Fire
Posted: Apr 1st, 2011 10:43 AM
BENGHAZI, Libya - Libya's rebels will agree to a cease-fire if Moammar Gadhafi pulls his military forces out of cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime, an opposition leader said Friday as rebels showed signs that their front-line organization is improving.
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the opposition's ... Read More
World, US NewsOpinion MICHAEL GOODWIN: There Is No NATO Without the U.S. and America Doesn't Have a Clue or a Plan In Libya.
Posted: Mar 31st, 2011 8:38 AM
If you watched President Obama's speech on Libya and are still confused, you are not crazy or alone.
The speech wandered around the globe and through history before ending in a maddening contradiction. Consider the opposing reactions of two very smart conservatives.
Robert Kagan, writing in The Washington Post, hailed ... Read More
WorldLibyan Rebels Close On Key Gadhafi Stronghold
Posted: Mar 28th, 2011 9:16 AM
BIN JAWWAD, Libya - Rebel forces on Monday fought their way to the doorstep of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, a key government stronghold guarding the road to the capital Tripoli.
The lightning rebel advance of the past few days, backed by powerful international airstrikes, has restored to the opposition all the ... Read More
WorldYemen General Is Feared Player: WikiLeaks
Posted: Mar 27th, 2011 8:56 AM
YEMEN - The top Yemeni general backing pro-democracy protesters is, like Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a crafty survivor who has wielded power for his own benefit, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.
General Ali Mohsen, a powerful figure close to Saleh, threw his support behind the ... Read More
WorldAir Raids Force Gadhafi Retreat, Rebels Seize East
Posted: Mar 26th, 2011 10:04 PM
AJDABIYA, Libya - Libyan rebels clinched their hold on the east and seized back a key city on Saturday after decisive international airstrikes sent Moammar Gadhafi's forces into retreat, shedding their uniforms and ammunition as they fled.
Ajdabiya's initial loss to Gadhafi may have ultimately been what saved the rebels ... Read More
WorldLibyan Airspace Under Control As 2 Sides Meet
Updated: Mar 25th, 2011 9:20 AM
BENGHAZI, Libya - France declared Libya's airspace "under control" on Friday, after NATO agreed to take command of the no-fly zone in a compromise that appeared to set up dual command centers and possibly new confusion. Coalition warplanes struck Moammar Gadhafi's forces outside the strategic eastern gateway city of ... Read More
WorldBlast In Belarus Subway Kills 7, Injures 35
Posted: Apr 11th, 2011 2:11 PM
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — An explosion tore through a key subway station in the Belarusian capital of Minsk during evening rush hour Monday, and the official state news agency said at least seven people were killed and 35 wounded.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw heavily wounded people being carried out of ... Read More
WorldFrance Bans Islamic Face Covering
Updated: Apr 11th, 2011 9:10 AM
PARIS - France's new ban on Islamic face veils was met with a burst of defiance Monday, as several women appeared veiled in front of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral and two were detained for taking part in an unauthorized protest.
France on Monday became the world's first country to ban the veils anywhere in public, from ... Read More
WorldNATO: We Didn't Know Libya Rebels Used Tanks
Posted: Apr 8th, 2011 12:43 PM
BRUSSELS - NATO acknowledged Friday that its airstrikes had hit rebels using tanks to fight government forces in eastern Libya, saying no one told them the rebels used tanks.
British Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO operation, said in the past, only forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar ... Read More
WorldA 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Shook The Northeast Of Japan
Posted: Apr 7th, 2011 12:06 PM
JAPAN - A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.4 shook the northeast of Japan late on Thursday, and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast already devastated by last month's massive quake and the tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.
No damage from Thursday's quake was detected at the plant and NHK said workers had ... Read More
WorldJordan Sends Jets To Support Libya No-Fly Zone
Posted: Apr 6th, 2011 9:48 AM
Jordan has sent fighter aircraft to a European air base to support a no-fly zone over Libya and protect humanitarian flights from the Arab kingdom, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
The Jordan Times newspaper quoted Judeh as saying that Royal Jordanian Air Force fighter aircraft landed at ... Read More
WorldLibyan Rebels Advance On Strategic Oil Town
Posted: Apr 4th, 2011 9:19 AM
BREGA, Libya - Libyan rebels pushed into the strategic oil town of Brega on Monday but came under fire from Moammar Gadhafi's forces, as a government envoy began a diplomatic push in Europe to discuss an end to the fighting.
Brega has been the site of battles during weeks of back-and-forth battling along Libya's ... Read More
World2nd Try At Sealing Japan Nuke Leak Not Working Yet
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2011 9:51 AM
TOKYO - It could take several more months to bring Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant under control, a safety agency spokesman said Sunday as engineers tried to find a way to stop highly radioactive water from pouring into the Pacific.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been spewing radioactivity since the ... Read More
WorldMoammar Khadafy Refuses Cease Fire, Vows To Crush Rebels
Posted: Apr 2nd, 2011 9:15 PM
LIBYA - Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy rejected a cease-fire offer and redoubled his efforts Friday to wipe out the rebels while trying to hold together his splintering power base.
Stung by the defection of foreign minister and long-time confidant Moussa Koussa, Khadafy tightened internal security to keep others from ... Read More
WorldUN Watchdog Inspects Syrian Nuclear Plant
Posted: Apr 1st, 2011 1:22 PM
The U.N. atomic watchdog carried out an agreed inspection of a Syrian plant on Friday as part of a long-stalled probe into suspected covert nuclear activity.
"The inspection is being conducted as planned," an official of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, giving no further details.
The ... Read More
World, US NewsU.S. Pulls Aircraft as Qaddafi Gains
Posted: Apr 1st, 2011 7:48 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can take up the slack.
The announcement Thursday drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress who wondered aloud why the Obama administration would bow out of a key element of the ... Read More
WorldLibyan foreign minister fled to uk
Posted: Mar 31st, 2011 7:12 AM
Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has been questioned in the UK, where he arrived unexpectedly on Wednesday.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr Koussa had left his post, and that the regime of Col Muammar Gaddafi was "crumbling from within".
However a Libyan spokesman denied that Mr Koussa had defected and ... Read More
WorldHighly Radioactive Water Leaks From Japanese Nuclear Plant
Posted: Mar 28th, 2011 8:57 AM
JAPAN - Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled nuclear complex, the plant's operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
Reflecting growing unease about efforts to control the six-reactor Fukushima ... Read More
WorldRadiation Inside Japan Nuclear Plant Rises Sharply
Posted: Mar 27th, 2011 8:52 AM
TOKYO - Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan's stricken nuclear complex fled one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge spike in radioactivity, with levels 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor's cooling system, officials said.
The numbers were so high that the ... Read More
WorldYemen's President Says Willing To Quit Under Conditions
Posted: Mar 25th, 2011 9:20 AM
YEMEN - President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Friday he was ready to cede power to prevent more bloodshed in Yemen but only to what he called "safe hands" as a massive "Day of Departure" street protest against him began.
Western countries are alarmed that al Qaeda militants entrenched in the Arabian Peninsula country could ... Read More
WorldDangerous Breach Suspected At Japanese Nuke Plant
Posted: Mar 25th, 2011 9:04 AM
TOKYO - A suspected breach in the core of a reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday, as the prime minister called the country's ongoing fight to stabalize the plant "very grave and serious."
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan ... Read More
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