Thousands of far-right nationalists gathered in the Serbian capital Tuesday for a rally to protest the arrest and likely extradition of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader. The far-right Radical Party bused in supporters from across Serbia and Bosnia to show solidarity with Mr. Karadzic, a man charged with engineering Europe's worst massacre since World War II but who is celebrated by his supporters as a hero. "Karadzic is a hero because he defended Serb lives during the terrible wars of the 1990s," said Elena Pavovski, 24, a supporter of the far-right Radical Party. "Everyone knows that the war crimes tribunal in The Hague was designed to try Serbs while the war criminals who killed Serbs are set free." More than 3,000 riot police were deployed in Belgrade as anti-government protesters wearing T-shirts embossed with Mr. Karadzic's image waved Serbian flags and sang patriotic songs next to a banner on Republic Square threatening Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic. "Tadic Prepare To Be Eliminated", the banner said.
The far-right Radical Party bused in supporters from across Serbia and Bosnia to show solidarity with Mr. Karadzic, a man charged with engineering Europe's worst massacre since World War II but who is celebrated by his supporters as a hero.
"Karadzic is a hero because he defended Serb lives during the terrible wars of the 1990s," said Elena Pavovski, 24, a supporter of the far-right Radical Party. "Everyone knows that the war crimes tribunal in The Hague was designed to try Serbs while the war criminals who killed Serbs are set free."
More than 3,000 riot police were deployed in Belgrade as anti-government protesters wearing T-shirts embossed with Mr. Karadzic's image waved Serbian flags and sang patriotic songs next to a banner on Republic Square threatening Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic.
"Tadic Prepare To Be Eliminated", the banner said.
'Maintenance Is Lufthansa's Achilles Heel': Strike Takes Hold at German Airline - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
This week's strike against Germany's national airline was almost invisible when it began Monday. But a day-and-a-half into the dispute, Lufthansa is beginning to feel the effects. Though passengers will be only marginally affected on Tuesday, the financial costs to the airline could be high.
The think tank disease is creeping into European MSM:
Ver.di's tough line is a bid to assert its influence and regain members, said Hagen Lesch of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW), a German economic think tank.
...but they at least asked a union rep, too. However, you find a different spin on the German frontpage of SPIEGEL:
A fire on Monday devoured a historic seaside pier that stretched nearly a quarter of a mile into the sea and was an iconic destination for English holidaymakers for more than a century. The pier, the Grand at Weston-super-Mare in western England -- Britain's "pier of the year" in 2001 -- was already on its second life, having been destroyed by fire in 1930. It reopened in 1933. The pier, one of the town's chief tourist attractions, was a celebrated part of English seaside tradition of promenades, amusement rides and fish and chips. "It is a tragedy," said Nigel Heath a spokesman for the pier company. "It epitomized the English seaside resort." No one was injured in the fire, the authorities said. According to the British media, suspicion for the cause of the blaze centered on a deep fat-fryer in kitchens at the sea end of the pier, although the police said their investigations were ongoing. A local fire officer, Kevin Pearson told the Daily Mail newspaper, "We believe the fire to have started in a kitchen area and it could have been a chip pan."
The pier, the Grand at Weston-super-Mare in western England -- Britain's "pier of the year" in 2001 -- was already on its second life, having been destroyed by fire in 1930. It reopened in 1933.
The pier, one of the town's chief tourist attractions, was a celebrated part of English seaside tradition of promenades, amusement rides and fish and chips.
"It is a tragedy," said Nigel Heath a spokesman for the pier company. "It epitomized the English seaside resort."
No one was injured in the fire, the authorities said. According to the British media, suspicion for the cause of the blaze centered on a deep fat-fryer in kitchens at the sea end of the pier, although the police said their investigations were ongoing. A local fire officer, Kevin Pearson told the Daily Mail newspaper, "We believe the fire to have started in a kitchen area and it could have been a chip pan."
Tue 29/07/08 15:54 (UPDATE video) - More and more asylum seekers are climbing into cranes at building sites as their protest is spreading over our capital. The so-called sans-papiers, people without a legal permit to stay in Belgium, demand their regularisation.
If Barack Obama accomplished one thing in Berlin, it was to make it painfully obvious just how uninspiring German politicians are.
I better refrain from commenting... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
As I understand it Hitler was quite inspiring as well.
Now he was a psychopathic SOB that killed 11 million people, but damn it. He was inspiring. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
Russia has reached second place in the world in terms of the level of safety of its nuclear power industry, the prime minister said on Tuesday. "There have been no radiation incidents at Russian nuclear power plants in recent years. The number of emergency shutdowns and stoppages is decreasing," Vladimir Putin said at a conference on the nuclear industry development. He said Russia's nuclear sector was behind only Japan, and had surpassed the United States, Britain, Germany and France - countries with highly developed nuclear power industries.
"There have been no radiation incidents at Russian nuclear power plants in recent years. The number of emergency shutdowns and stoppages is decreasing," Vladimir Putin said at a conference on the nuclear industry development.
He said Russia's nuclear sector was behind only Japan, and had surpassed the United States, Britain, Germany and France - countries with highly developed nuclear power industries.
There have been no radiation incidents... that you know about.
But given the record of all countries with nuclear power about honest disclosure, I think the idea of a league table of safe or less safe is laughable. They all lie, even the french tried to cover up the leaks at their plant. Now a large number of people are drinking bottled water cos the groundwater is so contaminated it's messing with the water supply.
Never trust a government with nuclear power, they're only marginally more trustworthy than a bond villain when it comes to the priority between public safety vs making a bomb or two. keep to the Fen Causeway
They all lie, even the french tried to cover up the leaks at their plant.
So how do you know about it? Because the info is public! And suddenly journalists realised that the info was public, and that minor incidents happened once in a while, and could be turned into a hysterical media circus at a time when news are rare. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
50 years ago we didn't know about a major release of radiation from Windscale errr Seascale oh bugger it Sellafield, {we changed the name so's it happened somewhere else} for 30 years. The scale of the Harrisburg explosion was downplayed for about 3 years, we knew about chernobyl in 2 days. So now that we discover that Areva, working for the French Govt, aren't quite so secure with their toxins as some might like, french journos finally discover the same skepticism the rest of us have. This isn't just a case of Summer silly season, this is a case of journalists losing religion. Nuclear power, even French nuclear power, isn't as safe as they wanted it to be.
After all, I fail to understand what is "minor" about releasing contaminants that render groundwater unusable for geologically significant periods of time. This stuff accumulates. A bit here, a bit there, maybe not so bad over a couple of politicians careers, but it's gonna be embarrassing trying to explain to people 1000 or 2000 years from now why half of France glows at night. Or maybe, as JMK said we're all dead anyway, but I'm less sanguine about pissing over my distant successors, even when I personally won't have any. keep to the Fen Causeway
The scale of the Harrisburg explosion was downplayed for about 3 years
The Three Mile Island accident was the most significant accident in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry. It resulted in the release of a significant amount of radioactivity, an estimated 43,000 curies of radioactive krypton [1] (1.59 PBq), but under 20 curies (740 GBq) of the particularly hazardous iodine-131, to the environment.[2]
So yes, there was a tiny release of noble gases, but it was in no way a health hazard. Flying from Harrisburg to the other side of the country would have given you a larger radiation dosage than if you had stayed put, even if the plant was your closest neighbour.
It reminds me of when we got the fallout from Chernobyl and the media was in a frenzy over the fact that radiation levels were double the usual in the affected areas. They didn't mention that levels were three times the normal background in our second largest city and along our western coast because of the composition of the bedrock. Or that we had gotten far more fallout during the 60's because of Soviet nuclear testing in the Arctic than we got from Chernobyl. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
A less-than-neighbourly dispute ensued, and ended with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) culling 180 pigeons. Coincidentally, at about the same time the comedian Mark Thomas appeared on Channel Four taking Sellafield to task for contaminating seagulls. Every time a seagull flew over the nearby town of Whitehaven he sounded an air-raid siren to warn people to take cover from radioactive droppings. Concerned at the possibility that pigeons might be similarly afflicted, the RSPCA asked BNFL to check some of the culled birds. The results were shocking. An analysis by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food revealed that the pigeons' breast meat contained up to 50 000 becquerels of caesium-137 per kilogram--forty times the European Union's food safety limit in the event of a nuclear accident. In February last year, the ministry warned people within a 16-kilometre radius of Sellafield not to handle, slaughter or eat pigeons.
A less-than-neighbourly dispute ensued, and ended with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) culling 180 pigeons. Coincidentally, at about the same time the comedian Mark Thomas appeared on Channel Four taking Sellafield to task for contaminating seagulls. Every time a seagull flew over the nearby town of Whitehaven he sounded an air-raid siren to warn people to take cover from radioactive droppings.
Concerned at the possibility that pigeons might be similarly afflicted, the RSPCA asked BNFL to check some of the culled birds. The results were shocking. An analysis by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food revealed that the pigeons' breast meat contained up to 50 000 becquerels of caesium-137 per kilogram--forty times the European Union's food safety limit in the event of a nuclear accident. In February last year, the ministry warned people within a 16-kilometre radius of Sellafield not to handle, slaughter or eat pigeons.
Are French and American seagulls and pigeons any safer than British ones? or are the British uniquely incompetent at running these sites? Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
So it has more sites that badly contaminated from the early days, and more equipement that turned out to not be the best choices, and thus are also not easy to deal with.
France had the luxury of learning from UK and US mistakes, and chose the most practical, fully-tested technology for its plants - and used a single design, something that the UK miserably failed to do. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Plus the operators are cash-strapped and skipped on maintenance. Vessels and essential heavy parts are past their intended lifetime.
Sellafield reprocessing plant is a kind of soviet-style eco-disaster akin to the (former) sea of aral. Dunno exactly why they fucked up so badly on this one. Pierre
I don't think this was ever directly stated, rather various experts suggested that there was no design need for the waste pipe that ran out to sea at all and so began speculating on why it was there. then they found evidence of long term collection of cancer records in the NW that weren't conducted elsewhere and added 2 + 2.
Whether they made 4 or 5 I don't think was ever confirmed, but given the cavalier way the UK govt have treated the population as experimental animals on other occasions it wouldn't be remotely surprising. keep to the Fen Causeway
He dosent go sea fishing in the Irish sea anymore. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
The government did not help, by holding frantic press conferences and promising measures to check water around plants (as if it were not done, which it of course was...).
So yes, hysteria. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Oh, that's reassuring. I feel so much better. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
Is that because earthquakes make Japanese nuclear power plants inherently vulnerable?
Or even without earthquakes would you consider Japanese nuclear safety inferior to other countries'? Cynicism is intellectual treason.
This is disastrous from a safety point of view where the pervading culture should be one that is not about blame and shame but one where the primary thing is understanding what went wrong and how to make sure it doesn't happen again. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Blank British passports stolen from a security van would be worth £2.5m on the black market, police said today. The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security when a van carrying the new passports destined for British embassies overseas was hijacked a short distance from the factory that made them. A spokeswoman said 24 parcels containing passports and vignettes - the blank stickers for visa stamps - had been stolen from a van en route from the factory in Oldham to RAF Northolt near London. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, demanded an urgent inquiry into the incident, while security experts warned the passport chip security was vulnerable to a cloning attack. The van was stolen when the driver stopped to buy a newspaper, police said. An offender attacked a second delivery man in the van, before driving a short distance away, parking the van and making off with the passports.
The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security when a van carrying the new passports destined for British embassies overseas was hijacked a short distance from the factory that made them.
A spokeswoman said 24 parcels containing passports and vignettes - the blank stickers for visa stamps - had been stolen from a van en route from the factory in Oldham to RAF Northolt near London.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, demanded an urgent inquiry into the incident, while security experts warned the passport chip security was vulnerable to a cloning attack.
The van was stolen when the driver stopped to buy a newspaper, police said. An offender attacked a second delivery man in the van, before driving a short distance away, parking the van and making off with the passports.
David Milliband, Foreign Secretary and the man most likely to succeed Gordon brown sets out his vision in the Guardian. I'd like to be able to quote from it, but it is just a stream of vacuous phrases entirely devoid of specific meaning. Blair himself would be so proud if he could make a speech so completely free of content.
He seems to be talking of change and vision, but also boasts that every-neo-con-thing done in the last 10 years was wise, just and needs to be built upon rather than reversed or mended. this is change in the McCain sense of being exactly the same as before, only more so, than in an Obama or even an Edwards sense of taking on vested interests and working in the interests of the people.
Take this...
Every member of the Labour party carries with them a simple guiding mission on the membership card: to put power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many, not the few. When debating public service reform, tax policies or constitutional changes, we apply those values to the latest challenges. ................. The economic challenge is new. People want protection from a downturn made in Wall Street. The country needs to prepare for an upturn when new service industries -- insurance, education, care, creative industries -- are growing at home but also among the new Chinese and Indian middle classes.
................. The economic challenge is new. People want protection from a downturn made in Wall Street. The country needs to prepare for an upturn when new service industries -- insurance, education, care, creative industries -- are growing at home but also among the new Chinese and Indian middle classes.
It's not even worth becoming frustrated by such drivel, it's such laugh out loud bollocks that you know you can never take him seriously again. I await the derisive demolitions in the newspapers over the next couple of days. keep to the Fen Causeway
