International Glance
Japan acknowledged Tuesday that it was unprepared for a severe nuclear accident like the tsunami-generated Fukushima disaster and said damage to the reactors and radiation leakage were worse than it previously thought.
In a report being submitted to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, the government also acknowledged reactor design inadequacies and a need for greater independence for the country's nuclear regulators.
The report says the nuclear fuel in three reactors probably melted through the inner containment vessels, not just the core, after the March 11 earthquake, and the tsunami knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's power and cooling systems. Fuel in the Unit 1 reactor started melting hours earlier than previously estimated.
Secret meetings between Palestinian intermediaries, Egyptian intelligence officials, the Turkish foreign minister, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal – the latter requiring a covert journey to Damascus with a detour round the rebellious city of Deraa – brought about the Palestinian unity which has so disturbed both Israelis and the American government.
Scores of Bahraini doctors and nurses who treated injured anti-government protesters have been charged with attempting to topple the kingdom's monarchy.
Both President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came away from their fracas in Washington last month with wounds that are not soon to heal. For Obama, paradoxically, the lasting fallout will not come primarily from American Jews. They are divided. Significant numbers of them disparage Netanyahu and agree with the president.
As a part of the deal struck that year, Haiti would join the Venezuelan-led oil alliance known as PetroCaribe and it would purchase oil “only 60 percent up front with the remainder payable over twenty-five years at 1 percent interest” — a remarkably good deal for the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.
A U.S. diplomat in Pakistan accused Saudi and Gulf groups of bankrolling Islamic extremists in a cable revealed by WikiLeaks Sunday. Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported Bryan Hunt, then consul in Lahore, sent the message to the State Department in November 2008, citing local officials and his visits to south Punjab.
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from power and forced into exile in 2009, has signed an agreement with his successor, Porfirio Lobo, which will allow him to return to the country.
