Monitoring efforts along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada have detected the presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident 100 miles (150 km) due west of Eureka, California. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and human sources of radioactivity in the ocean.

In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami off Japan, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant released cesium-134 and other radioactive elements into the ocean at unprecedented levels. Since then, the radioactive plume has traveled west across the Pacific, propelled largely by ocean currents and being diluted along the way. At their highest near the damaged nuclear power plant in 2011, radioactivity levels peaked at more than 10 million times the levels recently detected near North America.

"We detected cesium-134, a contaminant from Fukushima, off the northern California coast. The levels are only detectable by sophisticated equipment able to discern minute quantities of radioactivity," said Ken Buesseler, a WHOI marine chemist, who is leading the monitoring effort. "Most people don't realize that there was already cesium in Pacific waters prior to Fukushima, but only the cesium-137 isotope. Cesium-137 undergoes radioactive decay with a 30-year half-life and was introduced to the environment during atmospheric weapons testing in the 1950s and '60s. Along with cesium-137, we detected cesium-134 - which also does not occur naturally in the environment and has a half-life of just two years. Therefore the only source of this cesium-134 in the Pacific today is from Fukushima."

Dismantling what the former US President George W. Bush once described as the Syria - Iran component of the "axis of evil," or interrupting in Iraq the geographical contiguity of what King Abdullah II of Jordan once described as the "Shiite crescent," was and remains the strategic goal of the US - Israeli allies in the Middle East unless they succeed first in "changing the regime" in either Damascus or Tehran.

The US , Israel and their regional allies have been on the record that the final target of their "regime change" campaign in the Middle East was to dismantle the Syria - Iran alliance.

With the obvious failure of Plan A to dismantle the self- proclaimed anti-Israel and anti - US Syrian - Iranian "Resistance Axis" by a forcible "regime change" in Damascus, a US - led regional alliance has turned recently to its Plan B to interrupt in Iraq the geographical contiguity of that axis.

This is the endgame of President Barak Obama's strategy, which he declared on last September 10 as ostensibly against the Islamic State (IS).

This would at least halt for the foreseeable future all the signed and projected trilateral or bilateral Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian pipeline networks to carry oil and gas from Iran and Iraq to the Syrian coast at the Mediterranean .

After over a week of intense discussion between opposition parties, mass organizations and religious leaders of Burkina Faso, there was an announcement made on Nov. 10 that a roadmap had been agreed upon for a transition to civilian rule.

This consensus among the political parties and mass organizations must now be negotiated with the military to set the terms of the transition.

Popular organizations had rejected the military's attempt to lead a transition team. Three leaders from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal representing the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) visited the capital of Ouagadougou on Nov. 7 calling for a rapid process that would lead to national elections. The plan put forward from discussions among the opposition parties and mass organizations is calling for elections by Nov. 2015 after the appointment of an interim civilian president to guide the entire process.

Earlier on Oct. 30, demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands demanded the resignation of the 27-year dictator President Blaise Compaore. When members of parliament were set to approve a bill that would have provided legal cover for Compaore to run for another term of office, thousands gathered outside the Place de la Nation while many stormed the parliament, the ruling party headquarters and other symbols of authority, setting them on fire.

To prevent further unrest, Gen. Honore Traorewas selected by the military to head a new government, terminating the parliament and declaring a nighttime curfew. Eventually, Compoare resigned on Oct. 31 and fled to neighboring Ivory Coast.

Nonetheless, by Nov. 1, Gen. Traore had been removed by the military and replaced by Lt. Col. Zida. By the following day thousands re-entered the streets telling Zida that he must also go and pave the way for civilian control.

The organization's true purpose has always been wrapped in cynical, sanctimonious lies

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, was launched sixty five years ago following the signature of the Atlantic Pact in 1949. The original member states that came together under US tutelage claimed that their alliance was dedicated to the preservation of peace and to the defence of Western Europe against the supposed threat of military aggression. It is noteworthy that the launch of NATO coincided with the intensification of the Cold War, the political division of Germany and the first tentative steps by the US and Britain to rearm the new West German state.

Russia's economic difficulties intensified on Friday as the beleaguered rouble crashed during morning trading, stoking fears that the country was on the verge of a full-blown currency crisis reminiscent of the 1990s.

The rouble has fallen steadily in recent months amid rising tensions with the west, but it took a dramatic downward lurch earlier this week, plunging more than 10% in 48 hours.

The instability of currency is reviving uncomfortable memories among Russian people, many of whom suffered after the country's default in 1998 when savings were wiped out and queues formed at exchange points as the rouble was dramatically devalued amid spiralling inflation.

A supposedly independent review of the Home Office's handling of allegations about decades of systemic child abuse that infiltrated Westminster has ruled that it's impossible to discern if there was an establishment cover-up.

Conducted by the chief executive of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the inquiry examined whether the Home Office carried out an adequate and effective review last year into its handling of damning information relating to alleged historic child sex abuse.

Key findings of the report include a definitive lack of evidence the Home Office financed the Paedophile Information Exchange, and the government department's "chaotic" system for keeping records.


On the question of a potential cover-up, Peter Saunders of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood told the Home Affairs Committee he's unsure of whether documents relating to historic child sex abuse allegations were purposefully destroyed. But he added he wasn't surprised files had vanished when they identified "people at the top of the political tree" in relation to such alleged criminality.

While NSPCC chief PeterWanless' review found no evidence of a historic cover-up of child abuse supposedly carried out by establishment figures, May was unable to rule out the possibility.

"I cannot stand here and say the Home Office was not involved in a cover-up in the 1980s and that is why I am determined to get to the truth," she said on Tuesday.

Statement by Railroad Commission Chairwoman is just latest attack on ban since it passed one week ago.

A Texas regulator declared last week she will not honor a fracking ban passed in the midterm elections by the town of Denton, in the north of the state.

Christi Craddick, Chairwoman of the Texas Railroad Commission, which is charged with regulating the oil and gas industries in the state, told the Dallas Morning News on November 6, "It's my job to give permits, not Denton's... We're going to continue permitting up there because that's my job." The chairwoman is the daughter of Republican state representative and former House speaker Tom Craddick.


Adam Briggle from the Denton Drilling Awareness Group told the Dallas Morning News in response to Craddick's statement, "They should have got a wake-up call, but it's like they're still just sleeping."

The regulator's statement is not the first attack on the ban since it passed one week ago.

Just a day after the ban passed, the Texas Oil and Gas association filed an injunction in a bid to prevent it from being instated. In addition, the Texas General Land Office filed a separate lawsuit to block the new rule.

Denton was one of several communities across the United States to pass fracking bans last week.

It was the day the Nasty Party showed its true-blue colours - by sneering at the plight of hungry families forced to rely on food banks.

Tory MPs laughed and jeered as they were told how some hard-up shoppers were so desperate they fought to snap up discounted items in supermarkets.

Astonishingly, all the Government ministers from the responsible departments - including Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith - sneaked out after just an hour of the crucial Commons debate.

By then a cowardly IDS had already ducked questions, putting forward his deputy instead.

In one of the most shameful episodes ever witnessed in Parliament, Tory backbenchers sniggered and hooted as Labour MP Fiona MacTaggart told of shocking scenes at her local Tesco in Slough, Berks, as people battled over cut-price fruit and veg.

The Russian and Australian leaders have discussed the crash of Malaysian Airlines MH17 on the sidelines of the APEC summit in China. Despite a previous promise to act tough, PM Abbott has abstained from physical force against President Putin.

"The leaders have quite resolutely called for a genuine investigation of the causes of the catastrophe [of the MH17 flight], Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, claiming lives of everyone on board, 298 passengers and crew, among them 38 Australian residents. Abbott has stated on more than one occasion that in his opinion that Malaysian Boeing was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's Donetsk Region.

Peskov said that both leaders have spoken in favor of speeding up the investigation process and condemned the situation when experts are unable to get to the crash site because "Ukrainian [government] units are shelling the site."

In the course of the conversation President Putin stressed that Russia has always insisted on "an unbiased, quick and effective investigation," Peskov told journalists.

There's hardly a more graphic illustration of where the multipolar world is going than what just happened at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Take a very good look at the official photos. This is all about positioning - and this being China, pregnant with symbolic meaning. Guess who's in the place of honor, side by side with President Xi Jinping. And guess where the lame duck leader of the "indispensable nation" has been relegated. The Chinese can also be masters at sending a global message.

When President Xi urged APEC to "add firewood to the fire of the Asia-Pacific and world economy," this is what he meant, irrespective of inconclusive decisions out of the summit.

1) Beijing will go no holds barred for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) - the Chinese vision of an "all inclusive, all-win" trade deal that really promotes Asia-Pacific cooperation, instead of the US-driven, corporate-redacted, and quite divisive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).