News 360°

 
Published: Saturday 31 July 2010

imageRussia floats a nuclear plant, literally


Nearly a quarter-century after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Soviet Ukraine, Russia launched the world’s first floating nuclear power plant in St Petersburg. The plant, built on a 144 metre-long barge, is capable of producing enough energy for a city of 200,000 people. Environmentalists say the government’s plan to dot Russia’s northern coastline with floating nuclear power plants is risky.

image An illegal gold mine collapsed on June 27 after heavy rains, burying about 100 miners in central Ghana. Search is hampered by flooding. Ghana is one of Africa’s largest gold exporters. Illegal gold mines dot the country.

image South African fishers in Durban blamed the football World Cup for missing out on this year’s sardine migration, which lures whales and sharks to the country’s waters. The Durban council banned fishing to upgrade the seafront for tourists.

image A Chinese court sentenced a US geologist, Xue Feng, to eight years in prison on charges of disclosing “state secrets”, probably the locations of oil wells, to a US energy firm. In March, China jailed four executives of mining giant Rio Tinto for bribing its steel firms and stealing state secrets.

image Iran said the UK, UAE and Germany refused to provide fuel to its planes, following unilateral sanctions imposed by USA. The West fears Iran is building nuclear bombs. Iran says it is developing civilian nuclear energy.

image Under international pressure, Israel is easing blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza and allowing consumer goods and timber. It continues to restrict the import of other construction material, which hampers rebuilding all that was destroyed in last year’s war.

 imageimageThe European Commission proposed to raise the retirement age to prevent the collapse of its pension system. With the increase of life expectancy and weak birth rates, people are living longer. This strains a system where retirees get pensions paid by workers, it said.

image The Swiss government launched a green tourism project, Alpmobil, to promote the use of electric vehicles by tourists in the Alpine. The authorities have set up 20 battery charge-points.

image Spain enforced a new abortion law that allows women to terminate pregnancies during the first 14 weeks or anytime during the pregnancy if the foetus is deformed. It enables girls of 16 and 17 to abort without parental consent. The Catholic Church is angry.

image In a six-year-old trade dispute between USA’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus, the WTO ruled that the A380 super-jumbo project of Airbus benefited from illegal European subsidies.

image San Francisco became the first US city to require mobile phone makers to mention radiation levels on the handsets. It would show the amount of radio waves people can safely absorb into their bodies when using a mobile phone. Some studies link it to cancer, though there is no consensus.

image Canada announced from July 1 all foreign and domestic vessels travelling through its Arctic waters would have to disclose details of their cargo and destination. This would help coast guards keep watch on vessels carrying pollutants, fuel oil or any toxic goods and respond in the event of an accident.

image Peru declared a 90-day state of emergency in its Andean region after a gold mine tailings dam collapsed, pouring 21 million litres of lead-laced wastewater into surrounding three rivers and farmlands. Peru is a major exporter of gold and copper.

image A wildfire is threatening the world’s largest wetland, Pantanal. Spread over the border of Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay, the wetland is a popular tourist attraction and has rich biodiversity. The authorities said the blaze is spreading due to a prolonged drought.

image The first independent review of criticisms of the global assessment of climate change led by the UN said it found “no errors that would undermine the main conclusions” of the panel of international scientists that climate change will have serious consequences.

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