Oil spill threatens Corsica

A 40 km long oil spill threatens the island of Corsica and in particular the Natural Reserve of Scandola, World Heritage (UNESCO). The source of the spill is unknown but probably originate in some oiler ship which decided to clean up its tanks, illegally, at the sea. 

It is estimated that only 10-20% of the sheen are hydrocarbons, what may somewhat limit the impact. Whatever the case if the NE winds continue the spill will hit Corsica in few days. 

Sources: News 24, Gara[es].

USA: natural gas and oil disaster in Gulf of Mexico

A gas platform property of ERT declared "loss of well control" and is leaking natural gas and oil to the sea.

According to ERT’s site assessment, natural gas is flowing from the well and there is a rainbow sheen visible on the surface estimated to be more than four miles wide by three quarters of a mile long.

The rainbow sheen is caused by oil, not gas. 

The loss of control happened as workers tried to temporarily plug the well.

The platform has a history of many irregularities: 

According to federal data, the platform where the blow-out took place has been cited for 12 incidents of non-compliance since 2008.

Source: EneNews.


Update: photos and some more details at On Wings of Care.

Quebec oil train catastrophe: five confirmed dead, "many" missing, town destroyed

Yesterday's oil train catastrophe in Lac-Megantin, Quebec, has left a whole town destroyed and burning, with an unknown but extremely high death toll.

Some news excerpts collected by Energy News:

NBC News, July 8, 2013: Fires were still burning more than 24 hours after a driverless train carrying petroleum products derailed and exploded in a Quebec town, setting off a massive blaze [...] Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet refused to say how high the death toll could eventually go, but said authorities have been told “many” people have been reported missing. [...] Burning crude spilled into the storm sewers and rose up through street manholes, setting buildings on fire, the head of the rail company that ran the train told Reuters. [...] Police officials said they believe at least 50 tanks caught fire [...] 

NPR, July 8, 2013: [...] According to the Montreal Gazette, “the city’s downtown core was almost completely destroyed by the blast. It housed a mix of commercial and residential units in historic buildings.”

USA: oil flowing to Arkansas river

The spill that destroyed a neighborhood and polluted Lake Conway in Arkansas is flowing downstream to the Arkansas River, which goes through the homonym state and feeds the Mississippi, according to an expert consulted by ABC-7.

Evidence of intentional massive fires at BP oil disaster 2010

Al Jazeera published photo evidence provided of what is dubbed the biggest fire in the World by one of the fire ignition workers, who denounces the company and their government protectors for not providing any sort of safety protection, which has caused him (as to many others) serious health problems. 

Watch the video HERE.

Via: EneNews.

USA: Arkansas oil spill diverted to lake to hide it from the media - many health problems arising

Lake Conway before the spill
(antycopyright by Kfasimpaur)

From The Raw Story (via EneNews):

Activists with the group Tar Sands Blockade published new videos on Sunday showing oil from the Arkansas pipeline rupture purportedly diverted from a residential neighborhood into a wetland area to keep it out sight and, most importantly, out of the media.

While it’s not clear if the oil was intentionally moved into the wetland, the company says it is cleaning pavement with power washing devices, which could cause some of the oil to be pushed off neighborhood streets and into other areas. 

Activists also interviewed a local resident who claimed the oil has continued “flowing” into Lake Conway since the spill happened.

A letter sent by ExxonMobil to residents of Mayflower on March 31 claims the oil did not reach Lake Conway.

“I don’t have allergies,” a man who lives on Lake Conway told tar sands activists. “But now my sinuses are bothering me. My throat’s bothering me. My eyes water constantly. But they [Exxon] act like nothing’s wrong. They don’t have to live here, we do. And we’re not moving just because of them.” 

The activists noted that they were turned away from the area several times before by police and Exxon spill cleanup workers, but they returned on Saturday just before sundown and managed to sneak in to capture footage of the oiled wetlands. In two separate videos, nearby residents say they’ve been made sick my the spill, which has tremendously affected their air quality. 

... continue reading at The Raw Story.

USA: major oil spill and "minor" nuclear accident in Arkansas

Both happened on March 31st, not far from the capital Little Rock. There the controversial Mobile Exxon pipeline broke up and spilled "a river" of crude oil. Meanwhile the Arkansas Nuclear One power station is under "minor" emergency because an unclear accident that killed one worker, injured eight others and forced shutdown and venting of steam. 

Source: Energy News (link 1, link 2, link 3).

Update: catastrophic consequences for wildlife, health risk for all → EneNews again.

Louisiana oil disaster: dispersants made the situation 52x worse

That's the figure that researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have concluded upon. The obsession of BP for reducing damage costs by means of hiding the oil and the permissiveness of the US authorities with this destructive behavior made the resulting product (Corexit dispersed oil) to be 52 times more toxic than would have been oil only. 

Dispersants were certainly never used near the coast in European oil disasters, instead heading towards the oil with rudimentary means and capturing it in open sea, before it could reach the coasts worked reasonably well in the case of Galicia - being of course a popular idea and initiative and not the design of any authority, much less greedy heartless corporation.

Source: Science Daily. 

Ref. Roberto Rico-Martínez, Terry W. Snell, Tonya L. Shearer. Synergistic toxicity of Macondo crude oil and dispersant Corexit 9500A® to the Brachionus plicatilis species complex (Rotifera). Environmental Pollution, 2013; 173: 5 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2012.09.024

Explosion at Louisiana oil rig could be new Deepwater Horizon

An oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana (USA) yesterday killing maybe 17 workers (2 already acknowledged as dead, 15 others missing, at least three others at hospital).

The incident is way too similar to what happened to the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) platform in 2010 and the consequences shall be also similar... but raining over wet ground, with the US Gulf Coast still not recovered from the DWH disaster, which destroyed fisheries, tourism and hope, the results can be terrible. 

The causes of the incident are unclear but the owner company, Black Elk Energy Co., claims it may have been caused by the improper use of a wielding torch by workers not following the procedure (meaning that the company did not train/select them properly - no excuses when you play with fire and the ecology of a whole sea, Capitalist pig!) Witnesses have reported two successive explosions.

Sources: Energt News (links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) - other original sources via these links.


Update (Nov 18): Several media now say that initial claims of using a wielding torch are totally inaccurate (i.e. the company lied to shrug off responsibility) and that the cause of the explosion is not yet known. Source: EneNews.

_______________________________ .  _______________________________

A humble speculation: 

I am beginning to think that all these deep drilling accidents, as well as the mysterious oil-leaking Louisiana sinkhole are related to the anomalous geology of the lower Mississippi basin (the Mississippi Embayment), which seems to be an incomplete rift caused in the "recent" geological past by the now "cold" Bermuda hotspot.

The peculiarities of the geological province, dramatically demonstrated by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12, are not fully well understood and still debated but what is clear is that the Lower Mississippi, including the underwater extension of the continental platform, is very peculiar and this may be a cause behind all these incidents with marked geological connections.

USA: oil sheen over Macondo well could be from cracks

The petroleum sheen over the Macondo parcel, exploited by ill-fated BP's Deepwater Horizon platform, which I mentioned a week ago, has been confirmed and is miles long, as it can be seen in this video:

The oil characteristics match that from Macondo and therefore there are serious concerns that the cause may be that the DWH well sealing operation caused cracks in the seafloor, through which the oil is escaping. 

The possible consequences are not yet well understood but the cracks would be difficult to locate and seal, probably keeping the nearby coasts from Louisiana to Florida threatened for long. 

Source: EneNews (link 1, link 2, link 3).


Update: another theory suggests that it may be the oil dispersed with corexit what is now  surfacing (source). However I find strange that after dispersing it all around the wider area of the NE of the Gulf of Mexico it is only surfacing at the Macondo parcel. Occam's Razor rather suggest that it is cracks in or around the well instead.

Louisiana: Deepwater Horizon catastrophe hits again? "Four mile" oil sheen at Macondo zone

Four miles is a pretty big oil spill. There were always many uncertainties on how solidly was the Macondo well sealed and it may well be the case that it was wrong sealed in fact.

Today it has been reported in several media that a four mile sheen was spotted on September 17th and that US coastguard (NOAA) is investigating.

The relevant NOAA report #8510 is available (after some reports of not being able to access it). It reads:

Mystery Sheen in Lease Block MC-252, September 2012

Gulf of Mexico off LA. 2012-Sep-17

This hotline is being started for new reports of sheen of unknown origin in and near lease block Mississippi Canyon 252. This incident is likely related to reports in August 2011 (See incident #8345, Aug2011). Although the source of these sheens may be the wrecked BP Macondo Well, this relationship has not been established at this time. Activities include daily overflights sponsored by BP, with USCG or NOAA observers on board intermitently. BP is sending a vessel to the area with an ROV to investigate the potential source.

Note: Documents are posted chronologically and early reports likely contain factual errors. These errors may be corrected in a later report. 

Incident Details

Spill, potential spill, or other: Oil Spill

Cause of incident: Mystery Spill

Products of concern: Crude Oil Likely (sheen)

Latitude (approximate): 28° 44.50' North

Longitude (approximate): 88° 22.50' West

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) provides science-based solutions to protect and restore the nation’s natural resources from coastal environmental hazards. OR&R serves the nation by providing expertise and a suite of products and services critical for making science-based response decisions that prevent further harm, restore natural resources, and promote effective planning for future incidents.

Sources: EneNews, CNN, Daily Kos, the Examiner, NOLA.

USA: hurricane scatters around all the BP oil

The Deepwater Horizon ecological catastrophe is far from over and each hurricane or tropical storm is going to remember the inhabitants of the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that the oil is still there, that nothing effective was done against it but just hiding it under water with the help of extremely poisonous dispersants. 

Sources and some more info: EneNews (link1, link 2), Washington Post, Houma Today, WWL, NOLA, HuffPost.

Nine BP oil disaster whistleblowers imprisoned or dead in "mysterious circumstances"

From Dead-Missing-Jailed BP Whistleblowers and Wake Up Call:

DEAD in mysterious circumstances

Gregory Stone

February 17, 2011 - LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 - Unknown Illness

JAILED

Anthony Nicholas Tremonte

January 26, 2011 - age 31 - Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge

JAILED and KILLED in assault

Dr. Thomas B. Manton

January 19, 2011 - former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation - imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed

KILLED in assault

John P. Wheeler II

December 31, 2010 - a former Pentagon official and presidential aide and a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons - was beaten to death in an assault, body was discovered in a Wilmington landfill

KILLED in mysterious circumstances

James Patrick Black

November 23, 2010 - an incident commander for BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died Tuesday night near Destin, Florida in a small plane crash'

KILLED in mysterious circumstances

Chitra Chaunhan

November 15, 2010 - age 33, worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research - Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel. She leaves behind a husband and a young child.

MISSING!

Dr. Jeffrey Gardner, Swan Doctor

November, 2010 - MIA Status, of Lakeland, FL - Swan expert who “ran into legal trouble over an expired prescription license has closed his practice” — Was investigating unexplained bird deaths near Sarasota abruptly and immediately closed his practice, and apparently his investigation into the deaths of swans in Sarasota, suspected to have been impacted by the BP Oil Disaster. No one has heard or spoken with him since. Watch this news report covering his investigation before his disappearance: LINK

 

KILLED in mysterious circumstances

Roger Grooters, Cyclist

October 6, 2010 - age 66, was hit by a truck as he passed through Panama City, Florida. Mr. Grooters had been knocked down and killed close to the end of a 3,200-mile trans-America charity ride to raise awareness about the Gulf Coast oil disaster. He began his cross-country bike ride in Oceanside, California, on September 10th. Grooters's family and friends will cycle the final stretch of the journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic in his honour, raising cash to support Gulf Coast families. Read more: here

 

KILLED in mysterious circumstances

Senator Ted Stevens

August 9, 2010 - Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, 86, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, was among nine people on board when the 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter, crashed into a brush- and rock-covered mountainside Monday afternoon about 17 miles north of the southwest Alaska fishing town of Dillingham, federal officials said. Stevens was the recipient of a whistleblower's communication relative to the BP Oil Disaster blow-out preventer, and a conspiracy of secrecy to hide the facts from the public. (see here).

"You and your fellow Committee members may wish to require BP to explain what action was ultimately instituted to cease the practice of falsifying BOP tests at BP Prudhoe drilling rigs. It was a cost saving but dangerous practice, again endangering the BP workforce, until I exposed it to Senator Ted Stevens, the EPA, and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission." The cause of the crash is still an OPEN investigation by the NTSB (see here)

KILLED in mysterious circumstances

Matthew Simmons

August 13, 2010 - age 67 - Simmons’ body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor - “It was painful as can be” to be only insider willing to speak out against the "officials" during the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

KILLED in assault

Scientist Joseph Morrissey

April 6, 2010 - age 46 - cell biologist and college professor, a near-native Floridian who chose to return to South Florida after studying at elite universities - was fatally shot during what police say was a home invasion robbery.

Serious concern about persistent deformities in Gulf of Mexico fauna

Florida Oil Spill Law mentions today that:

Discovering eyeless shrimp, lesioned fish and other mutated and underdeveloped seafood, fisherman in the Gulf are pointing fingers at the BP spill. Biologist Dr. Darryl Felder told the news agency that Gulf seafood populations are dropping at alarming rates and that species richness is "diminished."

And that:

Open sores. Parasitic infections. Chewed-up-looking fins. Gashes. Mysterious black streaks. Two years after the drilling-rig explosion that touched off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, scientists are beginning to suspect that fish in the Gulf of Mexico are suffering the effects of the petroleum. 

The true impact of the worst peacetime oil catastrophe ever (and the mismanagement by means of massive use of dispersants, mostly illegally, which surely only aggravated the problem) is only now unfolding.

Link 1, link 2.

USA: Two years after the BP oil spill, is the Gulf ecosystem collapsing? (G. Washington at Naked Capitalism)

By Washington's Blog.

The Gulf Ecosystem Is Being Decimated

The BP oil spill started on April 20, 2010. We’ve previously warned that the BP oil spill could severely damage the Gulf ecosystem.

Since then, there are numerous signs that the worst-case scenario may be playing out:

• New York Times: “Gulf Dolphins Exposed to Oil Are Seriously Ill, Agency Says

• MSNBC: Gulf shrimp scarce this season (and see the Herald Tribune‘s report)

• Mother Jones: Eyeless shrimp are being found all over the Gulf

• NYT: Oil Spill Affected Gulf Fish’s Cell Function, Study Finds

• CBS:Expert: BP spill likely cause of sick Gulf fish (and see the Press Register’s report)

• Study confirms oil from Deepwater spill entered food chain

• Pensacola News Journal: “Sick fish” archive

• Agence France Presse: Mystery illnesses plague Louisiana oil spill crews

• MSNBC: Sea turtle deaths up along Gulf, joining dolphin trend

• MSNBC:Exclusive: Submarine Dive Finds Oil, Dead Sea Life at Bottom of Gulf of Mexico

• AP: BP oil spill the culprit for slow death of deep-sea coral, scientists say (and see the Guardian and AFP‘s write ups)

• A recent report also notes that there are flesh-eating bacteria in tar balls of BP oil washing up on Gulf beaches

• And all of that lovely Corexit dispersant sprayed on water, land and air? It inhibits the ability of microbes to break down oil, and allows oil and other chemicals to be speed past the normal barriers of human skin. Background here. NYT: Impact of Gulf Spill’s Underwater Dispersants Is Examined Speaking on the chemical ingredients of the dispersants used, “The report finds that “Of the 57 ingredients: 5 chemicals are associated with cancer; 33 are associated with skin irritation from rashes to burns; 33 are linked to eye irritation; 11 are or are suspected of being potential respiratory toxins or irritants; 10 are suspected kidney toxins; 8 are suspected or known to be toxic to aquatic organisms; and 5 are suspected to have a moderate acute toxicity to fish.”

If you still don’t have a sense of the devastation to the Gulf, American reporter Dahr Jamail lays it out pretty clearly:

“The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. “And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.”

... full story at Naked Capitalism. 

'Gulf Dolphins exposed to oil are severely ill' (NYT)

Dolphins in Barataria Bay off Louisiana, which was hit hard by the BP oil spill in 2010, are seriously ill, and their ailments are probably related to toxic substances in the petroleum, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggested on Friday.

As part of a continuing assessment of damages caused by the three-month spill, which began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA scientists performed comprehensive physicals last summer on 32 dolphins from the bay. They found problems like drastically low weight, low blood sugar and, in some cases, cancer of the liver and lungs.

... full story at New York Times (found via FOSL). 

'After lengthy analysis, scientists say BP oil spill the culprit for heavy toll on corals' (Washington Post)

NEW ORLEANS — After months of laboratory work, scientists say they can definitively finger oil from BP’s blown-out well as the culprit for the slow death of a once brightly colored deep-sea coral community in the Gulf of Mexico that is now brown and dull. 

In a study published Monday, scientists say meticulous chemical analysis of samples taken in late 2010 proves that oil from BP PLC’s out-of-control Macondo well devastated corals living about 7 miles southwest of the well. The coral community is located over an area roughly the size of half a football field nearly a mile below the Gulf’s surface.

... full story at Washington Post (found via FOSL)

Year and a half later Louisiana children have health devastated by BP (video)

Almost two years have passed but the consequences of such a brutal mismanagement of the ecological catastrophe of the Deepwater Horizon, with all the blessings of the corrupt government at Washington, keep haunting the children of the area. That other even worse catastrophes like Fukushima have taken primacy and that the media has forgotten about the BP spill (never talked much about it anyhow) does not mean that the problem is solved: just brushed under the rug.

Found via FSL.

Echoes of the Class War (Oct 16) - Occupy Earth!

[Note: from now on my news review will have a weekly instead of just irregular format. To compensate, I will probably write more single-topic entries - but don't count on it too much anyhow. My idea is to write this compilation every friday, saturday or sunday - we'll see how it works].

As you can imagine the theme of the day is the World Revolution Day protests. I'll surely write more in the upcoming days in a more reflexive manner but these are the many many news of protests that have been spurting yesterday and the days before:

America:

Times Square - NYC

People arrested when trying to close their accounts at Citybank (NYC) ··> Naked Capitalism (with videos), PO (video). Also at Santa Cruz' Bank of America ··> Corrente (with video).

Police storms also protest in Denver ··> video at PO.

Protests spread to Canada: Toronto, Vancouver.

Large numbers in Times Square, New York (video at PO), at least 70 arrested (video at PO). Earlier in the week, police renounced to evict Zuccotti Park as resistance gathered stronger (WSNS),

Elsewhere in the USA: Reno, Delaware Co., Bellingham, San Francisco, Tallahassee, New York City (at night), Miami (Kaos[es] says they have camped at the Government Center)

Mexico: protests in Mexico City (some 5000 people),  Guadalajara, Tijuana, Querétaro, Puebla, Monterrey and even the much troubled Ciudad Juárez ··> Kaos[es].

Chile:

Some 30,000 people demonstrated in the capital ··> Kaos[es].

Earlier in the week, police charged against student protesters again ··> video at PO.

Elsewhere in Latin America: Buenos Aires ··> Kaos[es], Quito, ··> Kaos[es].

Europe:

Protests all across the continent ··> general videos via PO: Rome, Berlin, London, Brussels, London, Madrid, Rome.

Brussels

Massive protests in Rome turned violent (video at PO, video at BBC), dozens injured. The situation in Italy has been heating up along the week, with more and more protests against social cuts and discredited PM Berlusconi (video at PO) and was already quite violent, with students at Milan earlier in the week assaulting the office of Goldman Sachs (video at PO).

Madrid - Puerta del Sol

 

Uni occupation at Barcelona

Massive protests also in the State of Spain (Kaos[es], includes video of Madrid):

• Puerta del Sol (Madrid) occupied again by 500,000 people
• 250,000 marched through Barcelona, where they camp again as well, and have occupied faculties and hospitals ··> Kaos[es].
• 50,000 protested in Seville
• 35,000 in Valencia
• 20,000 in Vigo
• 20,000 in Málaga
• 15,000 in Mieres (Asturias)
• 15,000 in Santander
• 11,000 in Bilbao
• 10,000 in Granada
• 10,000 in Palma de Majorca
• c. 4000 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Valladolid, Almería, Huelva, Zaragoza, Salamanca
• 'thousands' in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Murcia, Logroño
• less important numbers in Cádiz, Jaén

In Barcelona as well, a building was squatted to give housing to evicted families ··> Kaos[es].

A home is not any luxury but a right

Update: in Pamplona a large demo also took to the streets ··> Ateak Ireki[es] (includes video of the many with very nice percussion show).

Update: photo gallery of the Bilbao protest ··> Fickr (via Branka[eu]).

They say shit, we say amen (80s punk song) before the Pirate-Basque banner

Thousands took Lisbon as well (Kaos[es]). The Army announces that they will not repress any popular revolt (Kaos[es]).

Police attacks students in Dublin, who had occupied the Finance Ministry (video at PO), Irish Central Bank besieged by demonstrators (Kaos[es]).

Thousands of protesters in London (left) before St. Paul Cathedral ··> video at PO, The Guardian.

London

In Greece also (Kaos[es]) but the whole week has been one of struggles, with a general strike earlier, etc. Municipal workers (severely affected by budget cuts) are on strike since  yesterday 15th to the 20th in protest, the last two days are also general (national) strike ··> Contra Info, Occupy London, WSWS.

Elsewhere in Europe (partly from Kaos[es]): Iceland, Brussels, Warsaw, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, Zürich, Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris...

Asia, Africa, Oceania:

Morocco: Police charged against thousands of demonstrators in Rabat (Kaos[es]).

Palestine: demos reported in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Kiryat Shmona (Kaos[es]).

Philippines: Protests in Manila against inequality ··> video at PO.

Indonesia (just a mention: Kaos[es]).

Singapore: demos forbidden by the fascist regime (Kaos[es]).

China: Hong-Kong: 200 people (Kaos[es]).

Taiwan: Taipei: 100 people (Kaos[es]).

Seoul: 50 people (Kaos[es]).

Tokyo: several thousands (Kaos[es], includes video). 

Australia: 300 people demonstrate in Sydney (Kaos[es]).

New Zealand: some 500 people gathered in Wellington and Auckland, plus some others at Dunedin and New Plymouth (Kaos[es]).

See also: Al Jazeera 15-Oct blog,  The Guardian live blog, Gara[es], editorial opinion at WSWS.

________________ . ________________

In other developments:

Basque Country:

Tens of thousands demonstrated for independence at Bilbao on Wednesday ··> Branka[eu],

132 people denounced tortures in the Southern Basque Country in 2010, half of them in Navarre ··> Gara[es]: news article, report (PDF).

Police attack against Herriko Taberna (People's Tavern) in the Old Quarter of Bilbao. Dead activists' photos decomissed, a worker threatened, and two workers set to appear before the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional, political tribunal of fascist heritage) next Wednesday ··> Branka[es].

'Zombies' take Caja Navarra (CAN, regional savings bank) ··> Ateak Ireki[es].

Catalonia:

Antifascists attack Nazi club at Poble Nou (Barcelona). Two arrested ··> Sare Antifaxista[es].

Farce trial against communists ··> SA[es].

France: Lille: thousands of antifascists respond to Nazi rally ··> La Haine (photos and video).

NATO:

Protest in Brussels against NATO's war crimes in Libya ··> video at PO.

Bomb attacks (not exploded) in Germany against railroads in protest of Afghan War. A group named 'Hekla, Reception Committee' claimed the placing of several home-made petrol bombs in several railroads in the Central European country ··> SA[es].

Ireland: nurses march in Dublin against emergency services overcrowding ··> video at PO.

Germany: the Nazi past of BMW owner clan comes to light. Other infamous pro-Nazi companies and personalities were Hugo Boss, Bertelsmann, Standard Oil (now Exxon and Chevron), Henry Ford, IBM, Rockefeller Foundation, Joe Kennedy, Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Deutsche Bank, IG-Farben (now Bayer, Basf and Hoest), Krupp, Siemens, Varta, Bosch, Daimler Benz, Volkswagen, all major Swiss banks, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Westinghouse, General Electric, ITT... ··> SA[es], El País[es].

Greece: opinion: Michael Hudson denies that the Greek people ever gave consent the debt or the cuts ··> The Real News video at Naked Capitalism.

Ukraine, Russia: Nazi terrorist killed by his own grenade. Aleksey Korshunov, a well known Russian Nazi murderer, died in yesterday at Zaporozhe (Ukraine) when an explosive device he carried exploded. He is accused of the murders of Stanislav Markelov, Ivan Khutorskoy and judge Eduard Chuvashov ··> Sare Antifaxista[es].

Syria:  

Death toll hits 3000 since protests began ··> BBC. 

Army murders mourners at Damasucs ··> Al Jazeera.

Exiles in Jordan protest against Assad

Yemen: Army attacks demonstrators at Sanaa, murdering at least 16. NATO and UN accused of double standards ··> Al Jazeera (incl. video).

USA, Iran: opinion: Operation Fast and Furious or how to marry Al Qaeda and Teheran ··> Pepe Escobar at Al Jazeera.

USA: BP accused of terrorizing activist citizens:

Steven Aguinaga (left), who filed a lawsuit against BP and Washington's handling of the oil disaster, saw himself charged with drunk driving without any test performed. After paying the fines, he saw that his iPhone had been replaced by a brand new one. 

Cherry Frotlin, who marched on foot to Washington D.C. to bring the plea of Gulf Residents to Obama, saw her car damaged and her husband, who works for the oil corporation, transferred to another rig.

In the recent past, pipeline inspectors used to suffer death threats and even broken arms, that's how things work in the Gulf of Mexico, USA.

··> Al Jazeera.

Haiti: earthquake victims forcibly evicted from camps after Christian NGO Oxfam left the country (not profitable?) ··>  AlterNet.

Honduras: Canal 10 journalists form union and are fired ··> LINYM[es].

Nepal: struggle within the Maoist Party ··> MyRepublica, Revolution in South Asia.

Japan nuclear crisis:

Japan's Nuclear Agency calculated 'China Syndrome' two weeks after the accident... and kept it secret ··> Fukushima Diary.

Infrared photos of Fukushima Dai Ichi reactors ··> Ex-SKF.

Reactor 1

Leak of actual contamination official report in Fukushima at Fukushima Diary:

Soil from Hayasaka,Namie machi 7/2/2011> 564,215Bq/Kg
Mushroom from Teshichiro Namie machi 9/23/2011> 404,814Bq/kg (5,000Bq per mushroom)
Soil in a rice field from Tsushima Namie machi 8/22/2011> 254,110Bq/kg

Fukushima rice, radioactive or not, cleared for consumption by the government ··> Ex-SKF.

Japanese consumer: We rely now on Moroccan octopus and Chilean salmon ··> The Globe and Mail.

Strontium-90, posing huge health danger and with a half-life of 29 years, widespread in parts of Japan, including Tokyo ··> CNN, The Australian, EneNews.

Citizen who broke the news on Strontium-90 in Tokyo suffers death threats and closes down his blog. He said:

The whole purpose of my studying the radiation and radiation contamination and sharing information has been to protect my family, especially our young daughter. There is no point in doing so if my family's safety is threatened because of it. Please understand.

··> Ex-SKF.

Japan tolerates radiation levels in tap water 20 times greater than around Chernobyl ··> The Mainichi Daily News, EneNews.

Tokyo amusement park and other locations with greater radioactivity than Fukushima ··> PhilStar, AFP, EneNews. But in at least one case it was caused by radium residues (of medical origin) dumped under a house near a kindergarten ··> The Guardian.

Song of the day: Meltdown! by Kiyoshiro Imawano (via Ex-SKF):

This Japanese musician (unknown to me until yesterday) saw some of his songs unpublished by Toshiba in 1988 because of the anti-nuclear and anti-war content. He died of cancer in 2009.