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Nuke

Helen Caldicott: Fukushima is many orders of magnitude worse than Chernobyl

Helen Caldicott, M.D., is a physician, speaker and author who has campaigned tirelessly against the dangers of nuclear power. Although thousands of fellow physicians have supported her through decades of campaigning, no one who really mattered when it comes to life or death decisions over the masses of people would listen to her.


Bomb

Massive blast kills 16 in Pakistan

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© unknown
Police examine evidence at a bomb blast site in a gambling building in Karachi on April 21, 2011.
At least 16 people have been killed and over 30 others injured after a massive explosion ripped through Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

The powerful blast targeted the Liyari area of Karachi on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but police suspect that the attack may have been the result of feuding gangs.

Most of the injured have been taken to the city's hospital.

Hospital sources said the death toll would continue to rise as some of those wounded in the incident are in critical condition.

Info

US: Michigan jury to weigh mosque protest bid

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© Reuters/Rebecca Cook
Controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones sits in the courtroom of the 19th District Dearborn Court for a hearing in front of Judge Mark Somers about Jones' right to protest in Dearborn, Michigan April 21, 2011.
A Dearborn, Michigan jury will consider on Friday whether a controversial Florida pastor will have to post a "peace bond" before a planned demonstration in front of the largest mosque in the United States.

District Court Judge Mark Somers issued a preliminary ruling on Thursday in favor of prosecutors who have sought the bond on the grounds that the appearance by Terry Jones would require heavy police protection to prevent violence.

A six-person jury will hear the case on Friday morning.

Dearborn, which includes one of the largest Muslim American communities in the United States, has denied Jones and a handful of his supporters a permit to protest outside the Islamic Center of America.

Detroit area clergy and community activists have rallied against the planned protest by Jones in recent days, calling him a divisive figure who practices hate speech.

Sherlock

US: Bright, Careful and Sadistic: Profiling Long Island's Mystery Serial Killer

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© Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Dozens of officers with cadaver dogs searched for more human remains this month off Ocean Parkway. The remains of as many as 10 people have been found.
He is most likely a white male in his mid-20s to mid-40s. He is married or has a girlfriend. He is well educated and well spoken. He is financially secure, has a job and owns an expensive car or truck. He may have sought treatment at a hospital for poison ivy infection. As part of his job or interests, he has access to, or a stockpile of, burlap sacks.

And he lives or used to live on or near Ocean Parkway on the South Shore of Long Island, where the police have found as many as 10 sets of human remains.

In interviews with serial-killer experts and criminologists, including a former F.B.I. profiler, a portrait emerges of the man who investigators on Long Island believe is responsible for several of the bodies they have discovered in the brush off Ocean Parkway since December. For the moment, he is known in law enforcement jargon only as Unsub, or unknown subject. No arrests have been made, and no suspects have been identified by the Suffolk County Police Department, which is leading the investigation.

Profiling serial murderers is far from a precise science. There are nearly three million people on Long Island, and the man who killed at least four prostitutes who advertised for clients on Craigslist is perhaps but one.

And the experts interviewed are sketching out a possible suspect based only on details of the case that have been publicly revealed, like the burlap sacks that the four women's bodies were found in and the series of taunting phone calls that the killer is believed to have made to one victim's relatives.

Gear

US: Five accused of luring Florida teen to his death

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© AP Photo / Marion County Sheriff's Office
From left, Michael Bargo, 18; Charlie Ely, 18; James Havens III, 37; and Justin Soto, 20.
Seath Jackson, 15, was brutally beaten, shot several times and burned to ashes in a backyard fire pit. Detectives say he was lured by his ex-girlfriend to a house where she, her brother and friends were waiting.

At the beginning of March, 15-year-old Seath Jackson adored Amber Wright.

He posted on Facebook that he loved Wright, also 15, and noted on one peaceful afternoon that he was spending time with her and her brother, 16-year-old Kyle Hooper. Weeks later, the young couple had broken up.

Now Wright is accused of luring Jackson to his death with text messages.

Marion County Sheriff's Office detectives say Wright, Hooper and three older friends planned a deadly encounter during which Jackson was beaten and shot several times, then burned to ashes. They have been charged with first-degree murder.

Bizarro Earth

Japan's Disaster and the Manufacturing Meltdown

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As U.S. auto assembly lines grind to a halt for want of components that usually come from now-disabled factories in northeastern Japan, business strategists may be forced to rethink the way globalized companies do business.

The effects of Japan's March earthquake and tsunami are being felt far beyond the shattered region around Sendai and Fukushima. As U.S. auto assembly lines grind to a halt for want of components that usually come from now-disabled factories in northeastern Japan, business strategists may be forced to rethink the way globalized companies do business. The result could well be a retreat from current manufacturing methods -- sourcing key components from a single supplier and running "lean" factories without stocks of supplies on hand -- whose main goal is to minimize costs. Now, management may also pay close attention to risks.

Such a change would represent a reversal of course for major international companies, potentially transforming the way that many of the world's industrial giants have functioned for the past two decades. Whereas companies used to run separate operations in many countries, each serving a given national market, in the 1980s multinational corporations started to run their affairs with diminishing attention to national borders. Today, a single plant or research center will often take worldwide responsibility for a particular product or business area. And whereas factories once manufactured their own components or purchased them nearby, now even some small plants have supply lines that stretch across the globe. Almost every manufacturer, from your local maker of wedding dresses to Boeing and Caterpillar, is a global company, because its production relies critically on parts or other inputs made or designed outside its home country.

The globalization of manufacturing is responsible for much of the boom in international trade over the past two decades. Around half of the maritime shipping containers that arrive in the Los Angeles and New Jersey ports, for example, contain not products for retail sale but "intermediate goods," products partially manufactured in one location and destined for further processing somewhere else. Similarly, a large proportion of airfreight consists of high-value components, such as semiconductors and optical lasers, rather than finished consumer goods.

Briefcase

BP sues Cameron and Deepwater Horizon owner Transocean

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An inquiry found the blowout preventer had snagged on a piece of drill pipe

BP is suing Transocean, the owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, for $40bn (£24.37bn) in damages.

BP said safety systems on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig had failed.

Separately, BP also sued the maker of the rig's blowout preventer, alleging the device failed to stop the huge oil spill that followed the explosion.

Camera

Two photojournalists killed in Libyan city of Misrata

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Mr Hetherington was best known for his award-winning work in Afghanistan

Two award-winning photographers have been killed while covering the conflict in the Libyan city of Misrata.

Briton Tim Hetherington, 40, is said to have been killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

US photographer Chris Hondros, 41, was also killed, and two others, including Briton Guy Martin, were injured.

Mr Hetherington co-directed the Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo. Mr Hondros won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for war photography.

UFO

The JFK-UFO Connection: Bogus Documents or Unanswered Questions?

Do you like a good UFO detective story? Well, here's one for you. And it's ongoing, so we don't yet know the ending. It involves President John F. Kennedy's interest in UFOs shortly before his death and an allegation that he may have angered officials in his administration when he asked for information on the subject.

Recently, the FBI opened a new website, "The Vault," that lets you view a variety of documents, including those regarding UFOs. I looked into one document that appears to include a phony UFO story and mentioned how important it is to be extremely careful when looking at UFO documents and how it's critical to know the background of this information.

"As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow. Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group."

Newspaper

Breitbart accuses MSNBC of being controlled by Soros, Podesta, Ayers and Media Matters

In a contentious interview with MSNBC's Martin Bashir Wednesday, Andrew Breitbart accused the network of being controlled by George Soros, John Podesta, Bill Ayers and Media Matters' Eric Boehlert.

Breitbart also admitted during the interview that he had not watched the entire Shirley Sherrod tape before posting it to his website.

Watch this video from MSNBC's Martin Bashir, broadcast April 20, 2011.