Sunday, August 28, 2011

Fukushima caesium leaks 'equal 168 Hiroshimas'


Tokyo company's fukushima nuclear plant
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The Fukushima nuclear plant Photo: AP

Fukushima caesium leaks 'equal 168 Hiroshimas'
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Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima nuclear plant Photo: REUTERS


Government nuclear experts, however, said the World War II bomb blast and the accidental reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, which has seen ongoing radiation leaks but no deaths so far, were beyond comparison.

The amount of caesium-137 released since the three reactors were crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami has been estimated at 15,000 tera becquerels, the Tokyo Shimbun reported, quoting a government calculation.

That compares with the 89 tera becquerels released by "Little Boy", the uranium bomb the United States dropped on the western Japanese city in the final days of World War II, the report said.

The estimate was submitted by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet to a lower house committee on promotion of technology and innovation, the daily said.

The government, however, argued that the comparison was not valid.

While the Hiroshima bomb claimed most of its victims in the intense heatwave of a mid-air nuclear explosion and the highly radioactive fallout from its mushroom cloud, no such nuclear explosions hit Fukushima.

There, the radiation has seeped from molten fuel inside reactors damaged by hydrogen explosions.

"An atomic bomb is designed to enable mass-killing and mass-destruction by causing blast waves and heat rays and releasing neutron radiation," the Tokyo Shimbun daily quoted a government official as saying. "It is not rational to make a simple comparison only based on the amount of isotopes released."

Government officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.

The blinding blast of the Hiroshima bomb and its fallout killed some 140,000 people, either instantly or in the days and weeks that followed as high radiation or horrific burns took their toll.

At Fukushima, Japan declared a 20-kilometre (12 mile) evacuation and no-go zone around the plant after the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

A recent government survey showed that some areas within the 20-kilometre zone are contaminated with radiation equivalent to more than 500 millisieverts per year – 25 times more than the government's annual limit.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8722400/Fukushima-caesium-leaks-equal-168-Hiroshimas.html

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Suspect leads police on chase after shooting

Suspect leads police on chase after shooting

By Andy Paras
Originally published 01:52 p.m., September 22, 2010
Updated 03:25 p.m., September 22, 2010

North Charleston police say a man led authorities on a short police chase this afternoon after he shot a man in the hand during a fight at the Walmart parking lot on Rivers Avenue.

The shooting happened about noon today.

Officers responded to the parking lot at 7400 Rivers Ave. and found the victim, Asante King of Goose Creek, with a gunshot wound to his hand, according to Spencer Pryor, public information officer with the North Charleston police department.

King told police he was arguing with George Sherrod of Goose Creek when Sherrod pulled out a handgun and fired at him. The suspect fled in sport utility vehicle, Pryor said.

He was later arrested after leading Berkeley and Charleston county deputies on a short chase, Pryor said.

Sherrod is charged with attempted murder, Pryor said.

King was treated at Trident Hospital.

Reach Andy Paras at 937-5589 or on twitter at @andyparas.




Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mom: Autopsy Finds Corey Haim Suffered Pulmonary Congestion


Mom: Autopsy Finds Corey Haim Suffered Pulmonary Congestion

Thursday March 11, 2010 05:00 PM EST


The official autopsy results for Corey Haim have not been released publicly, but his mother says the coroner called her to disclose the actor suffered pulmonary congestion.

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Judy Haim says an autopsy conducted Thursday also found he had an enlarged heart along with the water in the lungs.

Shortly before his death Wednesday at age 38, Haim complained of flu-like symptoms and had a high fever. His former fiancée, Tiffany Shepis, also tells PEOPLE the actor had long suffered from heart problems.

"Every time he would go to a doctor they'd tell him he had really bad arrhythmia, probably due to clogged arteries," she says. "They all said he should have it taken care of. But, being from Canada, his insurance was there, so he never went and got it done."

Shepis, who was engaged to Haim briefly between 2008 and 2009, says he also struggled with addiction. "His problem was with prescription drugs – painkillers and Valium," she says. "His addictions are common knowledge. And the longer [you] are addicted to something, the harder it is for you to quit. And that's what he was facing."

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Firefighters pull woman, child from Ladson mobile home fire


Posted: Feb 25, 2010 7:10 AM EST Updated: Feb 25, 2010 11:37 AM EST

By Live 5 News Staff email | Twitter

LADSON, SC (WCSC) - An unconscious woman and child were pulled from a mobile home in Ladson during a fire there Wednesday night.

Firefighters responded to the home at Plantation Acres Mobile Home Park where they saw smoke coming from the structure. Inside, firefighters found the woman and child and rushed them to Trident Medical Center for medical evaluation.

Officials said the fire started in the kitchen about 11 p.m.and firefighters quickly put out the blaze. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

No word has been released on the status of the two victims.

©2010 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Rising Death Toll, Tsunami Watch After 8.8-Magnitude Quake Rocks Chile

Rising Death Toll, Tsunami Watch After 8.8-Magnitude Quake Rocks Chile






The debris of a collapsed wall on a street is shown in central Santiago, early Saturday, Feb. 27,... Expand




Dozens Dead, Buildings Toppled, Officials Say, in Quake Dozens of Times More Intense Than Haiti's
By EMILY FRIEDMAN
Feb. 27, 2010

A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile early this morning, killing at least 78 and prompting tsunami warnings in areas as far away as the western coast of the United States.

The earthquake, which hit just after 3 a.m. local time, was 64 times stronger than the one that devestated Haiti last month but was much deeper, likely making the number of casualities far fewer than those in the Caribbean nation.
The minute-and-a-half-long quake was less than 100 miles north from the southwest coastal city of Concepcion, the second-largest city in Chile, but caused damage as far away as the capital Santiago nearly 200 miles away.
Hospitals in the area have been evacuated and the airport in Santiago has been shut down as the country braces to cope with at least 13 aftershocks measuring 5.0 magnitude or stronger. Phone lines and power also are out of service.

Ronald Scott, an American who was staying at a hostel in Santiago when the earthquake hit, told ABC News that while he was terrified, the damage he has witnessed was far less extensive than what he saw reported from Haiti. "It was very scary," Scott said. "The first thing I did was jump underneath the first table I could find and even that was about to collapse on me."
"Everything just started jumping up and down, the lights went out and everything sounded like a railroad train," he said. "The buildings were shaking, but they're still standing because of the construction."
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The buildings in Chile are constructed to earthquake standards and therefore can sustain more of a jolt than those in other places.
"Everything is still standing," said Scott. "The only things that are not broken were not nailed down in the house."
Elliot Yamin, a former contestant on "American Idol," had just finished performing at a music festival in Vina Del Mar, Chile, when he said the "rumbling started."
"At first, it was more of a kind of swaying back and forth and then it was a really fast kind of shaking," said Yamin.
In a sixth-floor hotel room, Yamin said he quickly moved to a doorway and then the hallway, and eventually got out of the building safely. Still, Yamin said he feared for his life.


"I thought it was a [6.0-magnitude or a 7.0-magnitude]; I had no idea it was an 8.8," he said. "The shaking and rumbling was just so-- I didn't know if I would make it down the stairs."

"It was surreal. People were panicking and a couple of pregnant women in the hospital were crying," Yamin said. "I shed a few tears. I was pretty emotional."

Yamin saidthe chaos has mostly died down now and that the aftershocks became far less frequent.

Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake

Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake

Aerial shots and ground photos show earthquake's devastation.














Friday, February 26, 2010

Artie Lange's suicide attempt was off-limits for Howard 100 News


Howard Stern said that the Artie Lange
suicide attempt was too private for his news team to expose.
www.sirius.com


Examiner Bio

Artie Lange's suicide attempt was off-limits for Howard 100 News


Artie Lange's suicide attempt was never going to be a scoop for Howard 100 News, Howard Stern told Rosie O'Donnell on Thursday's Howard Stern Show-Rosie Radio crossover broadcast.

Stern said that his own personal news team had knowledge of Artie Lange's suicide attempt shortly after it happened, but decided to sit on the story out of respect for Lange's family.

"It was so startling," said Howard Stern. "And I said to the news department, and I rarely--maybe 2 or 3 times since we've been on the air have I ever made a request--for some reason I felt that this was such a private matter...We happened to hear about Artie's suicide attempt and it hadn't hit the paper and the family was trying to keep it quiet. They were desperate for some sort of peace, and I said I don't think we should go on the air with it"

The decision to muzzle Howard 100 News kept the Artie Lange suicide attempt under wraps for four days--unheard of in the age of ruthless internet bloggers and potential pay-offs from big name sources like TMZ. The New York Post's Page Six finally broke the story with graphic details about Lange's 9 self-inflicted abdominal stab wounds on the Thursday after the attempt. The Howard 100 News team began filing reports about the Artie Lange suicide attempt after the story went public.

Howard Stern added the "Howard 100 News Team" to the cast of the Howard Stern Show when the band of gypsies moved to Sirius XM in 2006. The team of reporters covers any and all news related to the Howard Stern Show. Recent Howard 100 News stories have focused on allegations that Jay Leno and his writers are regularly stealing material from the Howard Stern Show and rumors of a new romance for Howard Stern Show co-host Robin Quivers.

Stern, who has made a career out of telling the truth when others were afraid to, couldn't bring himself to shine a light on Artie Lange's wounds."It was so sensitive and Artie is such a good friend and Artie is such a dear sweet guy and I hope he's okay," Stern told Rosie O'Donnell.

Artie Lange is currently receiving treatment at an unnamed 'facility,' and whether he will ever return to the Howard Stern Show remains uncertain.

Listen to a clip from the Artie Lange discussion below