By Erik De Castro and by Manny Mogato17 December 2011 CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) – More than 400 people were killed and an unknown number were missing after a typhoon struck the southern Philippines, causing flash floods and landslides and driving tens of thousands from their homes. In a text message to Reuters, Gwendolyn […]
[Longtime readers will recognize this as another artifact of China’s development bubble, which has produced ghost cities and dead malls.] By David Gray, Reuters 14 December 2011 Along the road to one of China’s most famous tourist landmarks – the Great Wall of China – sits what could potentially have been another such tourist destination, […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera16 December 2011 Declaring a cold shutdown, even with “state”, is a joke, but Noda went further and declared the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident to be over. Why did he do that? Asahi Shinbun (12/16/2011) reports that: 「事故の収束」という、より強い表現に置き換えることで、風評被害など国内外に根強い原発事故への不安を払拭（ふっしょく）したいという狙いがある。政権は今後、放射性物質の除染を進めていく方針。避難区域の縮小も行い、住民の帰還へとつなげたい考えだ。 By using the word “the accident is over”, the government wants to dispel […]
By Arwyn Rice, Peninsula Daily News14 December 2011 PORT ANGELES – The first piece of debris that could be identified as washing up on the West Coast from the March 11 tsunami in Japan — a large black float — was found on a Neah Bay beach two weeks ago, Seattle oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and […]
By Steve Connor14 December 2011 Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region. The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera 12 December 2011 There are foreign nuclear experts who have said the explosion in Reactor 3 on March 14 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was a nuclear explosion. But this Japanese engineer and whistleblower at JNES (Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization) Setsuo Fujiwara says there were two explosions at Reactor 3: a […]
Bangkok, December 11 (DPA) – Thailand’s flood disaster has been made worse by government corruption, business leaders have complained, a news report said Sunday. Thai Chamber of Commerce chairman Pongsak Assakul was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying the flooding was one of the worst crises ever to hit the kingdom. ‘And state corruption […]
By MARTIN FACKLER6 December 2011 FUTABA, Japan – Futaba is a modern-day ghost town — not a boomtown gone bust, not even entirely a victim of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that leveled other parts of Japan’s northeast coast. Its traditional wooden homes have begun to sag and collapse since they were abandoned in March […]
It’s time for the yearly retrospectives on 2011, and we’re kicking them off with 2011’s most-viewed stories on Desdemona. It won’t surprise anyone to see that the triple meltdown at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was the most popular event, with 9 of the top 20 stories. Most surprising is the continued popularity of a 2009 […]
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MARTIN FACKLER4 December 2011 TOKYO — At least 45 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from a purification facility at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, and some of it may have reached the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said Sunday. Nearly nine months after Fukushima Daiichi was ravaged by […]
