Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Kim Il-Sung Was Declared North Korea's Eternal President. World On Edge With Nuclear Threat.

"The government follows the Juche ideology of self-reliance, initiated by the country's first President, Kim Il-sung. After his death, Kim Il-sung was declared the country's Eternal President. Juche became the official state ideology, replacing Marxism–Leninism, when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972...

...North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il adopted Songun, or "military-first" policy in order to strengthen the country and its government.^[18] North Korea is the world's most militarized country, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the 4th largest in the world, after China, the U.S., and India." -- Wikipedia (highlight added)

World on edge as nuclear North Korea celebrates long-dead leader’s birthday

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, April 14, 2013 21:31 EDT

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at a Workers' Party of Korea meeting in Pyongyang, March 31, 2013 (KCNA via KNS_AFP_File)

Topics: north korea

AFP - All eyes are on North Korea on Monday to see if it marks the birthday of late founder Kim Il-Sung with an expected missile launch, despite tension-reducing noises from Seoul and Washington.

North Korea has a habit of linking high-profile military tests with key dates in its annual calendar. The centenary of Kim’s birth last year was preceded by a long-range rocket test that ended in failure.

South Korean intelligence says the North has had two medium-range missiles primed and ready to fire for nearly a week, with many observers tapping Monday’s anniversary as a likely launch date.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, currently in Japan on the last leg of a whirlwind Northeast Asia tour, warned North Korea when he was in Seoul on Friday that a launch in the current climate would be a “huge mistake”.

The Korean peninsula has been in a state of heightened military tension since the North carried out its third nuclear test in February.

Incensed by fresh UN sanctions and joint South Korea-US military exercises, Pyongyang has spent weeks issuing blistering threats of missile strikes and nuclear war.

During his visits in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, Kerry talked tough on the North’s “unacceptable” rhetoric, but also sought to lower the temperature slightly by supporting a dialogue with Pyongyang and saying he would be prepared to reach out to North Korea.

He also urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to lead his country back to negotiations.

“We’re prepared to reach out, but we need the appropriate moment, appropriate circumstances,” Kerry said Sunday.

Kerry: North Korea must stop 'bucking history and common sense'

y Melissa Gray, CNN

updated 10:17 PM EDT, Sun April 14, 2013

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that North Korea must stop "bucking the trend of history and common sense" in continuing with its nuclear program and that any unilateral action by the North "carries too great a cost" for the world to allow it.

Kerry spoke at the end of a three-day trip that focused on securing fresh commitments from South Korea, China and Japan for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and getting Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

"The United States remains open to authentic and credible negotiations on denuclearization, but the burden is on Pyongyang," Kerry said in Tokyo. "Korea must take meaningful steps to show it will honor commitments it has already made" and the norms of international law.

Last month, North Korea scrapped the 1953 truce that effectively ended the Korean war and said it was nullifying the joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

It also recently pledged to restart its Yongbyon nuclear complex, including a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor that was shut down under an agreement reached in October 2007 during talks with North Korea, the United States, and four other countries.

"The world does not need more potential for war, so we will stand together. And we welcome China's strong commitment ... to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Kerry said.

Monday, September 17, 2012

China Versus Japan. More Violence. More War.

Photograph by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Chinese demonstrators burn a Japanese flag during an anti-Japanese protest over the disputed Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, outside the Japanese Embassy on September 15, 2012 in Beijing, China

China

Anti-Japanese Protests Flare in China Over Disputed Islands

By Dexter Roberts on September 17, 2012
“
Never forget the national humiliation,” and “Protect China’s inseparable territory,” read some. More disturbing: “Let’s kill all Japanese,” and “Nuclear extermination for wild Japanese dogs.”

Those are some of the sentiments irate Chinese are displaying on protest banners across the country, as demonstrators in more than a dozen cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Nanjing take to the streets, angry about Japanese control of the disputed Senkaku islands—known as Diaoyu in China—an uninhabited but possibly resource-rich atoll in the East China Sea.

The buzz of government helicopters circling over China’s capital disrupted already tangled traffic on Sept. 15, with drivers stopping to look up at the rare sight as hundreds of riot police blocked streets around the Japanese Embassy in northeastern Beijing. Some 2,500 demonstrators marched, some carrying pictures of Mao, while others pelted the consulate with eggs and plastic water bottles and rushed at police barricades.

The protests have been sparked by the Japanese government’s announcement that it intends to nationalize the privately owned islands. China has sent six patrols boats to the waters near the islands in recent days.

Fires broke out in a Panasonic (PC) electronics parts plant and a Toyota Motor (TM) dealership in the coastal city of Qingdao after protests there, the companies said on Sept. 16. To date, there has been no confirmation as to who set the blaze. Both have shut operations temporarily.

As a protective gesture, Japanese restaurants and offices have responded by prominently displaying the Chinese national flag outside their doors. “I intend to strongly demand that the Chinese government ensure security” of Japanese citizens, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Sept. 16. On a trip to Tokyo on Sept. 17, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was “very concerned” about the protests.

Equally alarming has been the bellicose rhetoric in China’s state-controlled press. After China carried out combined land, air, and naval exercises involving jet fighters, ships, and amphibious tanks, Chinese media pointedly wrote that they should serve as a warning to Japan.

“These kinds of assault and defense exercises give a clear warning message to Japan that China is prepared for and confident about protecting the Diaoyu Islands,” said Hu Siyuan, a Beijing-based strategy, according to government website China.org on Sept. 12. “China is not worried about a potential showdown over the disputed islands,” Hu continued, despite the fact that exercises on this scale must have been planned months in advance.

Given the curious timing of the latest explosion of anti-Japan feeling, some are wondering whether there is any connection to the ongoing once-in-a-decade leadership transition, with a key Communist Party Congress expected to open as early as next month. A still-unexplained two-week-long disappearance by Vice President Xi Jinping, presumed to be the country’s next leader, sparked concern over his health and set off speculation. (A smiling Xi resurfaced on Sept. 15 at the China Agricultural University in Beijing, where he was shown examining ears of corn.)

The top theory is that China’s leadership may be encouraging the nationalist outpouring to distract attention from continuing dissension at home, including debates over who will ultimately be named to China’s nine-member reigning body, the Politburo Standing Committee. Many expect the final cut to include only seven people, with the Committee reduced in size.

Also key is how the leadership deals with the still unresolved case of popular “princeling” and former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, whose wife was given a suspended death sentence for murdering a British businessmen. Bo’s former police chief, Wang Lijun, goes on trial on Sept. 18 over corruption and allegations that he was involved in the murder case.

Meanwhile, calls for a boycott of Japanese goods are rising across China. Sales of Japanese-branded cars fell last month in China, even as German, Korean, and American vehicle sales grew by more than 10 percent. Earlier efforts to sanction Japanese goods in China—particularly following similar anti-Japan protests in 2005 and 2010—have not proved long-lasting, however.

“The intensifying tension between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands is not a farce being played out by Japanese right-wing politicians but a well-orchestrated plan of the Japanese government,” wrote Jin Baisong, a deputy director in the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is affiliated with China’s commerce ministry, in the China Daily on Sept. 17. “China should take strong countermeasures, especially economic sanctions, to respond to Japan’s provocations. Military consideration, however, should be the last choice.”

Meanwhile, there are signs that Beijing is keen to ensure things don’t get out of control. State media has warned against violence and at least one city, Xian, in western China, has banned some “illegal” protests. “Violence cannot be tolerated simply because the protests are aimed at Japan,” the state-run Global Times newspaper wrote on Sept. 17. “Violence can only weaken the current campaign against Japan.”

“When the sovereign territory of the Mother Country is subjected to provocation, our anger is irrepressible, and the enthusiasm of the youth of China must have release. These patriotic feelings are precious, and they must be cherished and protected,” wrote the People’s Daily in an editorial on Sept. 17. “But a civilized attitude abiding by rule of law should be the basic conduct of the citizenry. Doing damage to the legal property of one’s countrymen and venting one’s anger on the heads of Japanese citizens in China is extremely inappropriate.”

source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-17/anti-japanese-protests-flare-in-china-over-disputed-islands

DFA: China invokes UN law vs Japan but not against Philippines

By Gil C. Cabacungan, Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

A group of paramilitary policemen are surrounded by anti-Japan protesters outside Shenzhen city’s Communist Party headquarters, in southern China’s Guangdong province, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. Protesters in China continued another day of demonstrations against Japan Sunday, after protests over disputed islands spread across numerous cities and at times turned violent. AP

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is closely watching developments in the dispute between China and Japan over islands in the East China Sea, as it continues to push for a peaceful resolution to its own territorial row with China.

“We need to know the facts, after which we need to fully understand the issue. We are requesting our UN mission to obtain the necessary information,” Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Monday, when asked about China’s move to submit its competing claim with Japan using the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

The Philippines has been trying to get China to submit its claims over disputed territories within the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) with Unclos, but China has refused, pushing its claims instead by citing old maps and historical papers.

Within economic zone

The Philippines has maintained that the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal is within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) based on Unclos.

Tensions between China and Japan recently escalated after Japan announced its purchase of the fiercely contested islands (Senkaku Islands to the Japanese, Diaoyu to the Chinese) from a private owner.

Violent protests targeting Japanese establishments have erupted in China in the wake of the territorial dispute, prompting firms like electronics giants Canon and Panasonic to halt operations in Chinese cities.

Besides Japan, China also has conflicting claims with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan over territories in the West Philippine Sea.

Bolster our position

Meanwhile, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said China’s move to use Unclos in its dispute with Japan should bolster the Philippines’ position to settle its own territorial conflict with China with the international body.

“This Chinese-differentiated approach surely fortifies the moral posture of the Philippines in bringing the Spratlys and Panatag to Unclos,” said Salceda.

The economic adviser of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also lamented China’s refusal to abide by the UN law when dealing with the Philippines.

Panasonic suspends some operations in China after protests

US-CHINA-JAPAN-PANASONIC:Panasonic suspends some operations in China after protests

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp has suspended production at two electronics components factories in China and closed another, telling workers to stay at home after the facilities were attacked by anti-Japan protesters.

The factories where production was suspended will be reopened after assessing the damage.

source: http://panasonic.broadcastnewsroom.com

Activist Chinese Group Plans More Anti-Japan Protests

August 20, 2012 1:04 pm

By KEITH BRADSHER / The New York Times

HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong-based group that triggered heightened tensions between China and Japan by sailing to a disputed island last Wednesday plans to try to keep the issue in the news by seeking to organize protests outside Japanese embassies and consulates around the world on Sept. 18, a representative of the group said on Monday.

A boatload of 14 activists from the group, the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, reached the largest of the islands, Uotsuri, last Wednesday, and were quickly detained and then deported on Friday by the Japanese authorities. The Japanese action led to protests in Chinese cities over the weekend, and a second landing by Japanese activists on the same island on Sunday morning may cause further frictions.

Japan rejected China's protests on Monday but sought to sound a conciliatory note, emphasizing the high priority it places on the relationship between the two countries. Osamu Fujimura, the chief cabinet secretary, was quoted by news agencies as telling reporters in Tokyo that "the Japan-China relationship is one of the most important bilateral ties for Japan."

The Chinese government was largely silent on Monday about the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan. But the Foreign Ministry had criticized Japan on Sunday for allowing the Japanese activists on the island, and state-controlled media in China took strongly nationalistic positions regarding the islands on Monday.

David Ko, a fund-raiser and spokesman for the Action Committee, said that the group had chosen Sept. 18 for further protests because it is the 81st anniversary of the Manchurian Incident. The incident, a staged bombing of a train track, was used by the Japanese government as a pretext for invading northeast China the following day in 1931, triggering 14 years of warfare that caused enormous numbers of Chinese military and civilian deaths and other suffering.

Mr. Ko said that the committee's goal was to urge ethnic Chinese all over the world -- not just in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong -- to join protests. The island dispute has been mostly an issue in east Asia, however, and it is unclear how much overseas Chinese care about it.

The mainland Chinese protest over the weekend that drew the most attention took place in Shenzhen, where demonstrators turned over a Japanese-brand police vehicle, a Honda CR-V. But Huang Yi, the chairman and executive director of the Zhongsheng Group, which is China's fifth-largest car dealership chain and the largest seller of Toyota, Nissan and Lexus vehicles in China, said that there had been no sign yet of a drop in sales of Japanese-brand cars in China following the disputes of the past few days.

Ge Wenda, the head of corporate finance at Zhongsheng, said that previous rounds of tension between China and Japan, which have included particularly acrimonious confrontations in 2005 and 2010, had sometimes hurt sales for a day or two. But the spillover effects on car purchases from anti-Japanese sentiment have not lasted long enough even to affect monthly sales totals, much less quarterly or annual results, he said.

When Japan deported the 14 activists from the Action Committee on Friday, it sent seven back to Hong Kong by plane and had the rest sail back in the fishing boat in which they had come. The fishing boat was supposed to arrive by midday on Tuesday, but has encountered mechanical difficulties and is now not expected back until some time on Wednesday, Mr. Ko said.

Word War II Lives: Japan Vs China

Japan flirts with war, China will not yield on sovereignty issue

The Japanese government confirmed the “nationalization” of the Diaoyu Islands and the three affiliated islets on 11 September.

It disbursed reserve funds of JPY2.05-B, and signed a sales contract with whom the Japanese side called “the private owner” of the islands.

The Japanese government’s illegal buying of the Diaoyu Islands, usurped from China, has further damaged the Sino-Japan relations. The Chinese government and people will not yield on issues concerning sovereignty and territory.

The Japanese government should not misjudge the situation.

China is no longer an old and weak country, and territorial sovereignty concerns national dignity and core national interests.

The Japanese government and Right-Wingers should not underestimate determination of the Chinese people.

The China side is resolutely opposed to Japan’s illegal “islands-buying” and will take all necessary measures to safeguard the territorial sovereignty.

The Japanese should not put much hope on an “edge in Air and Naval power”. China’s national defense capability cannot be underestimated. Japan’s provoking a war can do nothing but to bring disasters to itself again.

Further, the Japanese should not pin hope on the Japan-US Security Treaty.

The Big Q: When did the United States, which prioritizes its own interests above others, sacrifice the interests for other countries?

The Big A: Never.

Further, the United States must consider whether the world peace can be maintained with the expansion of Japanese militarism.

The Japanese government should never expect the Chinese government to make a concession on this issue. The Chinese government has repeatedly expressed hopes of working with Japan to promote the overall development of Sino-Japan relations. But peace must be built on the basis of mutual respect. China will not sacrifice its security and sovereignty for peace.

The Diaoyu Islands issue is in essence not just a territory claim.

Japan usurped China’s Diaoyu Islands in the Sino-Japanese War, after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, the islands were returned to China.

The territorial dispute concerns the feelings of Chinese and other Asian people who suffered Japanese invasion, because whether Japan accepts the result of Unconditional Surrender in the Second World War has to do with defending the fruits of victory of the war.

Japanese militarism may resurge if the International community turns a blind eye to the expansion of the Japanese Right-Wing force and Japan’s “nationalization” of Diaoyu Islands, which poses a hazard to the regional and global peace.

source: http://www.livetradingnews.com/word-war-ii-lives-japan-vs-china-85916.htm#.UFeVjo2PVK0

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Increased Meteor and Meteorite Activity 2012. Fireball February.

The Fireballs of February

Feb. 22, 2012: In the middle of the night on February 13th, something disturbed the animal population of rural Portal, Georgia. Cows started mooing anxiously and local dogs howled at the sky. The cause of the commotion was a rock from space.

"At 1:43 AM Eastern, I witnessed an amazing fireball," reports Portal resident Henry Strickland. "It was very large and lit up half the sky as it fragmented. The event set dogs barking and upset cattle, which began to make excited sounds. I regret I didn't have a camera; it lasted nearly 6 seconds."

Strickland witnessed one of the unusual "Fireballs of February."

A fireball over north Georgia recorded on Feb. 13th by a NASA all-sky camera in Walker Co., GA. [video]

"This month, some big space rocks have been hitting Earth's atmosphere," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "There have been five or six notable fireballs that might have dropped meteorites around the United States."

It’s not the number of fireballs that has researchers puzzled. So far, fireball counts in February 2012 are about normal. Instead, it's the appearance and trajectory of the fireballs that sets them apart.

"These fireballs are particularly slow and penetrating," explains meteor expert Peter Brown, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario. "They hit the top of the atmosphere moving slower than 15 km/s, decelerate rapidly, and make it to within 50 km of Earth’s surface."

The action began on the evening of February 1st when a fireball over central Texas wowed thousands of onlookers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"It was brighter and long-lasting than anything I've seen before," reports eye-witness Daryn Morran. "The fireball took about 8 seconds to cross the sky. I could see the fireball start to slow down; then it exploded like a firecracker artillery shell into several pieces, flickered a few more times and then slowly burned out."

Another observer in Coppell, Texas, reported a loud double boom as "the object broke into two major chunks with many smaller pieces."

The fireball was bright enough to be seen on NASA cameras located in New Mexico more than 500 miles away. "It was about as bright as the full Moon," says Cooke. Based on the NASA imagery and other observations, Cooke estimates that the object was 1 to 2 meters in diameter.

So far in February, NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network has photographed about a half a dozen bright meteors that belong to this oddball category. They range in size from basketballs to buses, and all share the same slow entry speed and deep atmospheric penetration. Cooke has analyzed their orbits and come to a surprising conclusion:

This camera is part of NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network. [more]

"They all hail from the asteroid belt—but not from a single location in the asteroid belt," he says. "There is no common source for these fireballs, which is puzzling."

This isn't the first time sky watchers have noticed odd fireballs in February. In fact, the "Fireballs of February" are a bit of a legend in meteor circles.

Brown explains: "Back in the 1960s and 70s, amateur astronomers noticed an increase in the number of bright, sound-producing deep-penetrating fireballs during the month of February. The numbers seemed significant, especially when you consider that there are few people outside at night in winter. Follow-up studies in the late 1980s suggested no big increase in the rate of February fireballs. Nevertheless, we've always wondered if something was going on."

Indeed, a 1990 study by astronomer Ian Holliday suggests that the 'February Fireballs' are real. He analyzed photographic records of about a thousand fireballs from the 1970s and 80s and found evidence for a fireball stream intersecting Earth's orbit in February. He also found signs of fireball streams in late summer and fall. The results are controversial, however. Even Halliday recognized some big statistical uncertainties in his results.

NASA's growing All-Sky Fireball Network could end up solving the mystery. Cooke and colleagues are adding cameras all the time, spreading the network's coverage across North America for a dense, uninterrupted sampling of the night sky.

"The beauty of our smart multi-camera system," notes Cooke, "is that it measures orbits almost instantly. We know right away when a fireball flurry is underway—and we can tell where the meteoroids came from." This kind of instant data is almost unprecedented in meteor science, and promises new insights into the origin of February’s fireballs.

Meanwhile, the month isn't over yet. "If the cows and dogs start raising a ruckus tonight," advises Cooke, "go out and take a look."

source: NASA

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

International. North Korea Blasts US-S. Korean Military Exercises. U.S. To Move 4,700 Marines To Guam. U.S. Consider Arming Syrian Rebels.

N. Korea blasts ‘aggressive’ US-S. Korean military exercises

Pyongyang has warned the US-South Korean military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle will “increase tensions on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia.” The maneuvers are scheduled for February and March. Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party’s newspaper, recalled on Tuesday the US demanded North Korea “to refrain from provocative actions.” But the scheduled large-scale exercises on the peninsula “clearly testify to an aggressive nature,” the paper said, as cited by Itar-Tass. Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also stressed that the drills “are held to achieve military superiority.”
Source: RT.COM

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U.S. to move 4,700 Marines from Japan to Guam: reports

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, February 5, 2012 13:10 EST

Topics: japan ♦ marines ♦ Okinawa

TOKYO — Tokyo and Washington have agreed to move 4,700 Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam in a bid to revive a stalled plan for the realignment of US forces in Japan, according to reports.

The two countries in 2006 agreed to the transfer of around 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam and the relocation of an air base on Okinawa but the move has been delayed as Tokyo struggles to convince Okinawans to accept the deal.

The US Defense Department is now considering shifting the remaining 3,300 Marines to elsewhere in the Pacific, such as Hawaii, Australia and the Philippines, Kyodo News reported on Sunday, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

Senior Japanese and US foreign and defence officials will meet in Washington on Monday, with the two governments expected to announce details of the transfer on February 13, Kyodo and the Asahi Shimbun daily said.

Tokyo has struggled to convince Okinawans to accept the plan to relocate the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, part of the realignment package.

Many Okinawans, angry at having for decades shouldered the burden of hosting more than half of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan, oppose the plan which would relocate the US base to another part of the island.

They say another part of Japan should take the base, instead of Henoko on the east coast of Okinawa, where Tokyo and Washington have agreed to build a giant runway-on-stilts in the sea.

The move to transfer Marines to Guam may compromise Tokyo’s position because Japanese government officials had used it as leverage to convince Okinawa to accept the base relocation, the Asahi said.

read more: RawStory

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Lawmakers suggest US consider arming Syrian rebels, as graphic videos emerge

Published February 07, 2012

| FoxNews.com

John McCain and other lawmakers called Tuesday for the U.S. to consider arming the Syrian opposition, as new videos emerged purporting to show the bloody aftermath of the weekend's massacre in the Syrian city of Homs.

"The bloodletting has got to stop," McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, said.

The Obama administration, though, pushed back on the idea -- stressing instead the options of humanitarian assistance and increased international pressure.

"We don't think more arms into Syria is the answer," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "We think the answer is to get to a national democratic dialogue, for the violence to stop, for the regime's tanks to come out of the cities and then for monitors to be able to go back in."

The debate in Washington comes in the wake of two major clashes over the weekend -- one at the United Nations Security Council, the other in Homs. At the Security Council, Russia and China blocked an Arab League proposal calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. The Obama administration condemned the veto.

In Homs, Assad's forces were blamed for an assault that activists say killed more than 200 people. Startling and graphic YouTube videos began to surface by Tuesday claiming to show on-the-scene footage from the aftermath of the attack.

Some videos showed the fighting from a distance, with smoke billowing from the burning buildings of the Homs skyline.

Others showed what appeared to be makeshift medical quarters, where victims were spread out on the floors for treatment or attempted resuscitation.

One video, which was aired on Al Jazeera, appeared to show bloodied children, one of them crying out. Another panned to show several wounded victims, though it was not always clear whether the individuals shown were alive.

McCain, who supported U.S. intervention in Libya, told Fox News that "all options must be on the table" with regard to Syria -- even when Fox News inquired about the use of drones.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also suggested arming the Syrian opposition. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., reportedly has done the same.

McCain, though, said U.S. troops should not be sent into Syria.

The Obama administration has pushed back against the prospect of outright military intervention. And without a U.N. resolution, the U.S. may be further deterred from any deep coordination with the Syrian rebels. The administration on Monday announced that it was closing its embassy in Syria.

Nuland said Tuesday that the administration would "never take anything off the table" but stressed that arming the rebels is not the "right answer" at this point.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney also said "we are not considering that step right now."

He said the administration is "exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians" and continues to try to work with other nations to "ratchet up the pressure, ratchet up the isolation on Assad and his regime."

Carney said the Assad regime is "not going to last."

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Are Japan's Two Latest Earthquakes Leading Up To Something Much Bigger?!

2nd earthquake of day shakes northern Japan

TOKYO (AP) – Two strong earthquakes rattled northern Japan on Thursday, but neither caused any apparent damage or a tsunami.

Japan's Meteorological Agency said a magnitude-6.1 quake struck Thursday evening south of the northern island of Hokkaido.

It hit about 465 miles northeast of Tokyo and 19 miles below the sea surface. The agency did not issue a tsunami warning.

The shaking was not felt in Tokyo, though the morning quake was.

That magnitude-6.0 temblor struck just off the coast near the nuclear power plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The two shakings are believed unrelated and did not affect the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant or other nuclear plants in the region.

The March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami wiped out large parts of Japan's northeastern coast and left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. The twin disasters also triggered a nuclear crisis, forcing about 100,000 people to flee their homes due to leaking radiation.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90% of the world's quakes occur in the area.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-11-24/japan-earthquake/51380094/1

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Mormon Network Of Aid In Japan

In Japan, the Mormon network gathers the flock

By Kari Huus, msnbc.com senior reporter

The only thing that rivals the Mormon church’s ability to spread the word is its ability to cope with emergencies.

Within 36 hours of the earthquake striking off the coast of Sendai on March 11, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that all 638 of its missionaries in the country -- 342 Americans, 216 Japanese and 80 from other nations – were safe.

Within a few days, the church also had accounted for all but about 1,000 of its 125,000 members in Japan....“This is how it works everywhere.”

...Worldwide, some 14 million members of the church are divided into thousands of units, most of them made up of 300 to 400 people. A bishop presides over each member unit, which keeps detailed records—address, phone, work address and other information on each member.

“When you break it down to that small a group, it’s not as if anyone has to contact thousands of people,” said Richard Hinckley, executive director of the church’s missionary operations. “With four or five calls from a bishop — using phone trees — we can locate any one of 14 million church members in the world in a matter of minutes.”

In emergencies, if communication systems are out of order -- as they were in large swathes of Japan after the quake and tsunami — an intricate church network kicks in....That means when a disaster hits, church members know exactly where to look for the folks that are normally part of their rounds.

The missionaries — young men and women who work in pairs – all have cell phones, but with cell networks down in most cases, they instead followed disaster plans that directed them to predetermined locations. Most of the young evangelists were accounted for within 18 hours. The last four, who had to walk out of one of the most devastated areas of Sendai to reach their assigned site, were contacted within 36 hours of the quake, church officials said.

As the threat of radiation emerged, the church network swung into motion again, quickly shifting 72 young evangelists out of harm’s way to missions in Hokkaido in the north and Nagoya in the south of Japan.

Now the church has shifted into the next phase: relief operations.“We’re very confident that we have moved everybody far, far away,” from the radiation leaking from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, said Steve Allen, a public affairs officer with the church. Not only did they do so for safety reasons, he said, but for practical reasons — to get them out of the way of relief efforts.

Under a separate organizational system, the Mormons have dispatched a team to Tokyo to determine how they can actually deliver aid — not only to followers but the devastated region at large.

They quickly inspected 50 LDS church buildings in the disaster-stricken coastal areas — all but the one in Sendai, because the earthquake damage made it impossible to reach — to determine whether they could be used for relief efforts....

The church has made substantial contributions to the Japanese Red Cross and is coordinating with other aid organizations to assess the need for food, housing and fuel in the disaster zone.

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook

“We strive to help people whenever there is a disaster,” said Allen. “Our desire to help is not based on religious affiliation or any other affiliation.”

The elders say that none of the missionaries has asked to leave Japan, and if anything the evangelists—most between 19 and 21 – are itching to return to the areas where they have been working to help. But the relief effort doesn’t really require evangelists, whose job it to share the Gospel.

“We would love to have missionaries be involved in any way they can be helpful,” said Allen. “But they are not equipped to be particularly helpful. They are better deployed elsewhere until they can come back in and not be a burden on the relief effort.”

To read the full story, please click here: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/18/6292170-in-japan-the-mormon-network-gathers-the-flock

Friday, March 18, 2011

Radiation Monitors Have Been Deployed To Multiple Cities In The U.S. By The EPA.

Feds sending radiation monitors to Santa Barbara

Michelle Cole

SANTA BARBARA – 11:03 a.m. – Santa Barbara has been selected by the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the cities to locate deployable radiation monitors.

“The is in direct response to the nuclear disaster in Japan,” Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District Director Terry Dressler told THESBNN Friday.

Japan has been in crisis mode since its 9.0 earthquake and tsunami March 11, 2011 events that damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima I plant.

Also as a result of the crisis there and the growing concern on the West Coast over potential radiation exposure, SBCAPCD added a link to its website Thursday calledRadiation and our Health.

(Air pollution monitoring station in Santa Barbara County /PHOTO-SBCAPCD)

The agency has been getting a lot of calls about health threats.

But measuring radiological pollution is not a part of its “charter or mandate,” Dressler said.

Santa Barbara relies on information from the radiation monitoring stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

(IMAGE/website)

Dressler said he was contacted by the EPA this week about its new program RadNet, which will deploy additional radiation

monitors filling in the gaps of cities that don’t have them.

The feds will decide where the monitor will be located in Santa Barbara.

“They want to put them where we already have air quality monitoring stations in Santa Barbara and Goleta,” Dressler went on to say, “and they could choose Vandenburg.”

The monitoring station in Santa Barbara is on Canon Perdido; the one is on Fairview in Goleta.

The EPA’s efforts to get the portable monitors out is on a fast track, with shipment expected within days, something Dressler says is a good thing.

This next story is inconsistent with news that I have seen online and on TV reporting that people that have come to America from Japan have tested positive for radiation, as well as their luggage...

U.S. monitors flights from Japan for radiation

The Customs and Border Protection agency said authorities are monitoring inbound flights from Japan for radiation, but neither cargo nor passengers have tested positive for harmful levels. The agency is "is monitoring developments in Japan carefully and is specifically assessing the potential for radiological contamination."

Source:http://www.smartbrief.com/news/asta/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=4DAEFD29-89AF-4D34-8B8C-C86BC0061752&copyid=ECB4C3F6-21DF-4DA4-A6B1-2B93F3EA4FB5&campaign=twitter&ref=twitterECB4C3F6-21DF-4DA4-A6B1-2B93F3EA4FB5

WHO Warns Against Self-Medication as Antidote to Radiation

Geneva | Lisa Schlein March 18, 2011

Photo: AP

Bottles of potassium iodide sit on the shelf of the Texas Star Pharmacy in Plano, Texas, March 15, 2011

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns against the indiscriminate use of potassium iodide as a precaution against nuclear radiation. WHO is issuing this advisory following reports of people in Japan and elsewhere who are using the substance in response to radiation leaks from nuclear plants in northeastern Japan.

The World Health Organization calls self-medication a bad idea. It says potassium iodide pills are not antidotes for radiation. The United Nations agency says they do not protect against external radiation, or against any other radioactive substance.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says potassium iodide should be taken only when there is a clear public health recommendation to do so.

"Indiscriminate use of the product can cause side effects such as inflammation of the salivary glands, nausea, rashes, intestinal upset and possible severe allergic reactions," said Hartl. "It can also interact with other medications, especially certain types of cardiovascular medications such as ACE inhibitors, receptor blockers and potassium-sparing diuretics."

On another issue, the World Health Organization says it is safe to eat food produced before the nuclear power plant leakage in northeastern Japan occurred. But it says food grown and harvested in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone after the emergency might be contaminated and should be avoided.

WHO says there is no reason to restrict travel to Japan, as there are no dangers of nuclear radiation except in the exclusion zone. The World Meteorological Organization agrees with this assessment.

The Head of WMO's Aeronautical Meteorological Division, Herbert Tuempel, says there is no reason to fear international air travel unless there is a change in the current radiological situation.

"There is a small exclusion zone of a 30-kilometer radius around the plant where there is no traffic allowed - neither marine nor air traffic is allowed into this 30-kilometer radius," noted Tuempel. "But apart from this very small area, there is no restriction to international air travel."

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