The fertilizer-plant explosion that killed 14 and injured about 200 others in Texas last month highlights the failings of a U.S. federal law intended to save lives during chemical accidents, a Reuters investigation has found.
Known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, the law requires companies to tell emergency responders about the hazardous chemicals stored on their properties. But even when companies do so, the law stops there: After the paperwork is filed, it is up to the companies and local firefighters, paramedics and police to plan and train for potential disasters.
Poor planning left Texas firefighters unprepared
New light shed on US government's extraordinary rendition program
A groundbreaking research project has mapped the US government's global kidnap and secret detention programme, shedding unprecedented light on one of the most controversial secret operations of recent years.
The interactive online project – by two British universities and a legal charity – has uncovered new details of the way in which the so-called extraordinary rendition programme operated for years in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and the techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to avoid detection in the face of growing public concern.
'Corruption Of Blood' Bill Would Convict Family Members Of Iran Sanctions Violators
Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday introduced legislation that would "automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
The provision was introduced as an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, which lays out strong penalties for people who violate human rights, engage in censorship, or commit other abuses associated with the Iranian government.
Moon being pushed away from Earth faster than ever
Earth is pushing the moon away faster now than it has for most of the past 50 million years, mostly a result of tides, a U.S. researcher says.
Matthew Huber of Purdue University says his models of the influence of tides on the moon's orbit help solve a longstanding mystery concerning the moon's age, NewScientists.com reported Wednesday.
Guantánamo’s military defense lawyers cite My Lai massacre in plea to Hagel
Military lawyers for former CIA captives held at Guantánamo are appealing to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to intervene in what they describe as deteriorating conditions and leadership failures on a scale similar to the Vietnam War’s My Lai Massacre. Hagel is a Vietnam combat veteran.
Army Capt. Jason Wright, defense counsel for the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, said Tuesday he delivered the 13-page letter to the Pentagon Monday afternoon in a bid to get Hagel to intervene in what’s going on at the remote prison camps on the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.
Medical company declines to answer Senate questions on Medicare billing
The president and chief executive officer of a medical equipment company invoked the Fifth Amendment at Senate hearing Wednesday, declining to answer questions about aggressive marketing tactics used to sell scooters, sleep apnea machines and other home medical supplies to Medicare recipients who may not need or want them.
Jon Letko of U.S. Healthcare Supply LLC, based in Milford, N.J., exercised his constitutional right not to incriminate himself at the hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight.
Boston bomb investigators kill Florida man
A Chechen immigrant living in Florida was shot and killed during a violent confrontation with Boston bombing investigators, officials have said. The shooting took place early on Wednesday in Orlando as officials questioned Ibragim Todashev, 27.
An FBI agent and two Massachusetts State police officers were present.
US media report Todashev admitted a role in a triple murder near Boston in September 2011 and implicated bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the crime.
U.S. acknowledges killing of four U.S. citizens in counterterrorism operations
The Obama administration Wednesday for the first time acknowledged killing four U.S. citizens in “counterterrorism operations” abroad.
The deaths of three of the Americans — Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abd al-Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan, all of whom were killed in drone strikes in Yemen in 2011 — had been previously reported. The death of the fourth, Jude Kennan Mohammad, a Florida native apparently killed in Pakistan, had not been.
Trillions of Dollars in Oil, Gas and Mining Revenue Still Shrouded in Secrecy
Secrecy still prevails in how natural resources are managed, and this conspires against economic development. The lives of over a billion citizens could be transformed if their governments managed their oil, gas and minerals in a more open, accountable manner. This emerges from the Resource Governance Index, which my organization, Revenue Watch Institute, released earlier this week.
The Index measures the transparency and accountability in the oil, gas and mining sector of 58 countries. Together these nations produce 85 percent of the world's oil, 90 percent of diamonds and 80 percent of copper, generating trillions of dollars annually.
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