[Al Jazeera] Japan will send nearly 25,000 soldiers backed by boats and aircraft into its disaster zone Monday on an intensive land-and-sea mission to recover the bodies of those killed by last month's earthquake and tsunami, the military said.
Agriculture officials also plan to send a team of veterinarians into the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant to check on hundreds of thousands of abandoned cows, pigs and chickens, many of which are believed to have died of starvation and neglect.
The government is considering euthanising some of the dying animals, officials said.
About 14,300 people have been confirmed dead so far in the catastrophic March 11 tsunami and earthquake. Another 12,000 remain missing and are presumed killed. Some of their bodies were likely swept out to sea, while others were buried under the mass of rubble.
Clean-up crews have already discovered some remains as they removed rotting debris to clear the area for rebuilding.
But the two-day military search operation will be far more extensive, Ippo Maeyama, a spokesperson for the defense ministry, said on Sunday.
"We will do our utmost to recover bodies for bereaved families," he said.
A total of 24,800 soldiers will scour the rubble, backed by 90 helicopters and planes, he said. Another 50 boats, along with 100 navy divers, will search the waters up to 20km off the coast, he said. Police, coasties and US troops will also take part.
"It's been very difficult and challenging to find bodies because the areas hit by tsunami are so widespread," he said. "Many bodies also have been swept away by the tsunami."
The operation will be the third intensive military search for bodies since the disaster last month. With the waters receding, Maeyama hopes the teams will have more success.
The search was complicated by the decomposition of some of the corpses, he said. Some had already turned into skeletons.
"You have to be very careful in touching the bodies because they quickly disintegrate. We cannot tell the bodies' gender anymore, let alone their age," he said.
The searches will continue, however, "as long as families want us to look for their loved ones," Maeyama said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... the government in the Fukushima prefecture will send a team of six veterinarians into the 20km evacuation zone around the radiation-leaking Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to survey the livestock there.
Farmers in the area were estimated to have left 3,000 cows, 130,000 pigs and 680,000 chickens behind when they hurriedly decamped the area last month when the nuclear crisis started.
With no time for burials, veterinarians who find dead livestock will spray lime over them to prevent them from spreading disease, agricultural officials said.
Officials said they would seek permission from the owners of animals still alive before euthanising them.
"Killing animals is the very last resort," said Yutaka Kashimura, an agricultural official in Fukushima.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
FREEREPUBLIC > JAPAN: WORKERS LOCKED IN BATTLE AT FUKUSHIMA, EXPOSURE TO RADIATION RISING.
Calling all Samurai + Japanese, battle is being joined at Fukushima for the Safety + Future of the Japanese Nation.
[MONGOL INVASION + "DIVINE WINDS" here].
Your Emperor Akihito, however, is not certain on how to fight the SUN + GWCC = UNDERSEA QUAKE ZONES.
#2
RENSE > [Fukushima]JAPANESE SCIENTIST - NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT |{UPI] HEALTH RISKS NUMEROUS NEAR NUCLEAR PLANT.
* SAME > TEMPERATURE IN #4 SPENT FUEL POOL CONTINUES TO RISE |NHK.jp] RADIOACTIVE WATER [Levels] IN NO.3 AND NO.4 REACTORS RISES, despite injection of new cooling water.
* TOPIX > ANALYSTS: FUKUSHIMA EXPLOSIONS STILL POSSIBLE, as due to on-going TEPCO efforts to rebuild + re-energize the Fukushima plant.
Looks like TEPCO + TOKYO haven't made a final decision on either energizing Reax #5, 6 or Other, nor to permanently close down Fukushima in its entirety???
[Al Jazeera] More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Mohammedan north, a Nigerian human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... group has said on Sunday, warning of further unrest during upcoming state elections.
The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) said that more than 500 people were killed on Monday and Tuesday in three towns alone - Zonkwa, Kafanchan and Zangon Kataf - in the southern part of Kaduna state, one of the worst-hit areas.
Youths launched protests in northern towns and cities after Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... , a Christian from the south, was declared the victor of an presidential April 16 election, defeating Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler and northern Mohammedan.
Observers and many Nigerians say the vote was the most credible in Africa's most populous nation for decades and world leaders have congratulated Jonathan.
But Buhari says the count was rigged and his supporters have refused to accept defeat.
"The victims were encircled, raided and hacked to death and their homes burned," Shehu Sani, the CRC president, said in a report on Sunday based on testimony from the group's members in the communities.
Churches, mosques, homes and shops were set ablaze in the violence, which has left more than 40,000 people displaced.
Although a military-enforced curfew brought the violence under control in major cities after little more than a day, soldiers took longer to deploy to more remote towns.
Sani said the CRC, which is based in Kaduna, confirmed 316 dead in Zonkwa, 147 in Zangon Kataf and 83 in Kafanchan.
"Soldiers did not get there until afterwards," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2011 00:00 ||
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Spot silver surged more than 5 percent to above $49 ounce on Monday, buoyed by a weak dollar and strong physical demand in Asia that also propelled gold to a record high for a seventh consecutive session.
Spot silver hit a 31-year high of $49.31 an ounce, before easing to $49.16 by 0854 GMT. The level was 17 cents off a 1980 record high, according to Reuters data. It was heading for its biggest daily gain in five months. "Everyone is buying," said a Hong Kong-based dealer. "There is stop-loss buying, as well as a good buying interest from China."
The dollar index languished around a three-year low on Monday, with investors expecting further weakness on concerns about the size of the U.S. budget deficit and the expectation that interest rates in the world's largest economy would remain low.
Spot gold hit a record high of $1,518.10 an ounce, before easing to $1,517.80, up nearly 1 percent. U.S. silver futures jumped 8.2 percent to $49.82 an ounce in unusually large trading volume, just about 50 cents off its all-time peak of $50.35 hit on January 18, 1980. When those evil (per 60 Minutes) Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market.
The contract eased to $49.17 an ounce on Monday.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
04/25/2011 13:41 ||
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Exxon got scerwed. Still doesn;t solve the NIMBY problem of no refineries since 1972. 152 blends of gasoline, unbelieveble. USA is being very, very stoopid,
[Al Jazeera] United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon has called on Cambodia and Thailand to halt fighting along their disputed jungle border as troops exchanged fire for a third day.
At least 10 soldiers have been killed and thousands of civilians forced to flee the area since fighting broke out on Friday, shattering a tense two-month ceasefire.
Suos Sothea, a Cambodian field commander, said the fighting on Sunday started at about 10:00am local time (0300 GMT) and both sides were firing mortars.
"What we can confirm is it involves artillery shell fire," he said.
A Thai official at the border also confirmed the resumption of hostilities and said "Cambodia opened fire first".
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, called on the neighbours to "exercise maximum restraint" and urged them to resolve the issue through "serious dialogue" rather than military means, according to a spokesperson on Saturday.
He urged the two neighbours to take immediate measures for an effective and verifiable ceasefire.
Six Cambodian troops and four Thai soldiers have been killed since festivities restarted on Friday.
Thai villagers sheltering in makeshift tents in Prasat district, Surin province, told how they raced from their homes in fear when festivities began in the neighbouring border district of Phanom Dong Rak on Friday.
"When a shell fell next to my house, I knew I had to run away," Somjai Lengtamdee, from Baan Khaotoh village, said.
"I was so worried about my three children. We were separated and it took me all day to locate them all. I can only hope that the war ends soon. I'm so scared," the 37-year-old told the AFP news agency.
Somdee Suebnisai, a local official for Phanom Dong Rak said there were 16 camps in the area providing refuge to more than 18,000 people and the number was expected to rise to 20,000 by Sunday evening.
On the Cambodian side, the National Committee for Disaster Management told AFP that 12,000 people had been evacuated.
Cambodian villager Neb Oeuth and her six children were among those seeking shelter in a pagoda in Samrong, some 40km east of the unrest.
"Many bombs landed nearby my village and we were afraid. I have no idea when we will be able to return," she said.
Heavy shelling was clearly audible 20km away from the scene of the fighting on the Cambodian side, according to a photographer for the AFP news agency, as those evacuated from their homes took refuge in schools and temples away from the clash.
Both countries have accused each other of sparking the violence, which is the first serious outbreak of fighting since February, when 10 people were killed in festivities near the 900-year-old Hindu temple Preah Vihear.
Al Jizz's Wayne Hay reported from Bangkok that it is extremely difficult to determine who fired first.
"Both sides traditionally blame each other for starting the fighting when it erupts on the disputed border," he said.
The latest festivities, which saw several hours of fighting on both Friday and Saturday, have taken place near a different group of temples more than 100km away from Preah Vihear.
Thailand has denied claims by its neighbour that it used "heavy guns loaded with poisonous gas" and flew aircraft "deep into Cambodia's airspace".
The country recently admitted using controversial Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions during the February fighting but insisted it did not classify them as cluster munitions.
"When there is firing into Thailand, we need to fire back to protect over illusory sovereignty," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Sunday in his weekly television programme.
He said Thailand was willing to hold bilateral talks and accused Cambodia of trying to "internationalise" the conflict.
Phnom Penh has asked for outside mediation to help end the standoff, but Thailand opposes third-party intervention.
The two countries agreed in late February to allow Indonesian observers in the area near Preah Vihear, but the Thai military has since said they are not welcome and they have yet to be deployed.
Members of the UN Security Council called for a lasting ceasefire after the last outbreak of violence.
Indonesia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc, has called for an immediate end to the violence. Vietnam urged "maximum restraint".
Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear -- the most celebrated example of ancient Khmer architecture outside Cambodia's Angkor -- was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6 square km surrounding area.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Goodluck Jonathan
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
