Migrant boat disaster: Survivors of sinking that killed 1000 reach Italy

Survivors of the weekend’s Mediterranean boat disaster have reached the Italian port of Catania, as the United Nations confirmed that at least 800 1000 people died in the sinking off the coast of Libya. An Italian coastguard ship carrying 27 survivors arrived late on Monday night, with all the migrants on board disembarking by 01.45 local time. One man was seen to leave the boat in a wheelchair.

Officials for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that some of the dead were children between the ages of 10 and 12.

Police at the port also confirmed two men who were among the survivors had been taken into custody over suspicions they were part of a smuggling gang thought to have organised the fatal voyage. Prosecutor Giovanni Salvi told reporters: “Two people are currently held in custody following the testimony of survivors: the captain, of Tunisian origins, and a Syrian male national. “The remaining 25 migrants are free. They will be identified following immediate care and are expected to request asylum.”

Salvi said the boat that sank had three levels and the doomed migrants were locked in the hull and middle deck.

More at The Guardian

Erdoğan Attacked By Mob And Forced To Hide In Shop Over Turkish Mine Disaster

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was forced to take shelter in a supermarket by a furious crowd of protesters in the mining disaster-struck town of Soma. As thousands of anxious relatives continue to wait for news, Erdogan was accused of ignoring warnings over safety at the coal pit. A convoy containing his car was attacked by crowds and he was forced to seek refuge in a supermarket, surrounded by police.

With tensions running high, protesters shouted for him to resign and said he was a "murderer" and a "thief". It has been reported that the PM then engaged in a scuffle with one protester. A video shows people booing and whistling at Erdoğan, who then appears to single out one protester (below). 

Huffington Post

Japan foresaw Fukushima meltdown from day one

Japan's government foresaw the possibility of a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant hours after a huge tsunami smashed into it, according to cabinet minutes released on Friday, although it took officials more than a month to acknowledge it. The earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out cooling systems at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (Tepco) Fukushima Daiichi plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.

"Cooling functions still in service are those run by batteries. They will last eight hours," a summary of the first emergency cabinet meeting, four hours after the quake, quoted an unidentified participant as saying.

"If core temperatures in the reactors remain on the rise for more than eight hours, there is a possibility that meltdown may occur." A Trade Ministry official who acted as a government spokesman after the disaster struck was replaced after he mentioned the possibility of meltdown on March 12.

It was not until May that Tepco acknowledged that a meltdown of fuel rods appeared to have occurred, sparking criticism that the operator and officials were playing down the severity of the accident. Tepco now believes that three of the six reactors at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, suffered fuel meltdown.

WAMC/Reuters

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Remains 'Ticking Time Bomb'

Though global fears about radiation emissions from the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility have calmed in the weeks since Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, famed physicist Michio Kaku insists the situation remains a "ticking time bomb."

A professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and the City College of New York, Kaku discussed some recent revelations about the disaster's impact, and noted that Japanese officials still don't yet have control at the site. "In the last two weeks, everything we knew about that accident has been turned upside down," Kaku says. "Now we know it was 100 percent core melt in all three reactors...now we know it was comparable to the radiation at Chernobyl."

Among Kaku's other distressing notes: Fukushima workers are exposed to a year's dose of radiation within minutes of entering the site, and cleanup will take between 50 to 100 years. "It's like hanging by your fingernails," he says. "It's stable, but you're hanging by your fingernails."

Huffingtonpost.com

Fukushima: Strontium levels up to 240 times over legal limit near plant

Representing the first time the substance has been detected at the crippled plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported on Sunday that seawater and groundwater samples taken near the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan have tested positive for radioactive strontium. And according to a recent report in The Japan Times, levels of strontium detected were up to 240 times over the legal limit, indicating a serious environmental and health threat.

Radioactive strontium, which is known to accumulate in bones and eventually lead to diseases like cancer and leukemia, is one of at least three "hot particles" being continually released by the damaged plant, according to experts. The others include radioactive cesium and plutonium, both of which are implicated in causing birth defects, cancer, and death.
"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," said Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president with 39 years of nuclear engineering experience, to Al Jazeera. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Natural News

Japan nuclear: UN says tsunami risk was underestimated

Roland Buerk said the Japanese government was keen to show its people that nuclear power plants can be operated safely. The UN nuclear energy agency has said Japan underestimated the risk of a tsunami hitting a nuclear power plant.

However, the response to the nuclear crisis that followed the 11 March quake and tsunami was "exemplary", it said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) draft report also said a "hardened" emergency response centre was needed to deal with accidents.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was badly damaged by the tsunami, is still leaking radiation.

Full story BBC News

Dr Helen Caldicott - Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

You won't hear this on the Main Stream News.

Nuclear Facts you'd be more comfortable not knowing from a very clued up professional who will not be bought or intimidated into silence: Dr Helen Caldicott, true to style, tells it as it is/as she sees it/like you wont usually hear it.
To find out more about this Morally Driven Woman.. check out the links below.
HelenCaldicott.com – Wikipedia - YouTube

Japan upgrades nuclear crisis to same level as Chernobyl

Japan has raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to the maximum seven, putting the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on a par with Chernobyl.

Officials from the nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa) confirmed that the crisis level had been raised from five to seven on the international nuclear and radiological event scale. But they said the new rating reflects the initial impact of the nuclear crisis, adding that radiation levels have since dropped dramatically.

The scale, devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by severity from one to seven. Level seven incidents involve a major release of radiation with widespread health and environmental effects, according to the IAEA.

More on guardian.co.uk

SOS from Mayor of Minami Soma City

Also: Radioactive water is leaking into the sea from a 30-centimetre (12-inch) crack in a containment pit at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator Tepco has said. The crack under reactor 2 may be the source of recent radiation in coastal waters, Tepco officials said. They are preparing to pour concrete into the pit to try to stop the leak. BBC