Tokyo -- Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan's stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity -- a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate.
The apology came after employees fled the complex's Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor's cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.
On Sunday night, though, plant operators said that while the water was contaminated with radiation, the extremely high reading was a mistake.
Society's Child
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David Kelly inquest plea made to David Cameron
A group of doctors campaigning for a full inquest for Dr David Kelly have appealed to Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene on their behalf.
The doctors have questioned Lord Hutton's 2004 verdict of suicide on the government weapons inspector.
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Fukushima nuclear plant before Japan quake
Fukushima nuclear plant before Japan quake
Many of the companies on Saturday avoided Tokyo Bay, which is home to two major ports of Tokyo and Yokohama,The New York Times reported.
Chinese officials had detected radioactive contamination in their cargo ship having sailed at least 80 miles farther from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Although some cargo ships enter ports south of Tokyo, many others have totally cancelled any shipment to Japanese ports until further notice.
© Dave Masko
A bike rider reports 'swirls of greasy sea water is washing up' along this stretch of Oregon beach this morning in Newport.
A bike rider reports 'swirls of greasy sea water is washing up' along this stretch of Oregon beach this morning in Newport.
Japan crisis spawns new concerns about fish safety along West coast
As Japan's nuclear reactors continue leaking radiation into the atmosphere and, in turn, have obliterated centuries-old fishing ports in the Tsunami-hit city Kamaishi, this news has prompted growing fears here in Newport and other coastal fishing towns that radiation could find its way here. For example, a hard wind blowing post-Tsunami wind came sliding down over the Newport beach Saturday morning greeting a lone bike rider on usually packed beaches that are now filled socked in waste from Japan. The woman biker said she's fears rabid dogs that are roaming the low sand dunes called "denes" where toxic water and dead sea life collect along sandy tracks. And, this against a backdrop of zero Spring Break tourists being seen on what's traditionally the busiest Saturday of the early spring season.
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Billionaire Curt Johnson, right, listens to defense attorney Michael Hart discuss bond recommendations, as he is charged with repeated child sexual assault March 24, 2011 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Billionaire Curt Johnson, right, listens to defense attorney Michael Hart discuss bond recommendations, as he is charged with repeated child sexual assault March 24, 2011 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Racine, Wisconsin - A billionaire executive whose family has run SC Johnson for five generations was charged Thursday with having sexual contact with a now 15-year-old girl over the course of several years.
Samuel Curtis Johnson III, who goes by Curt, faces a count of repeated sexual assault of a child. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Johnson, 55, is the former chairman of Sturtevant-based Diversey Inc., a cleaning-products company that was spun off from SC Johnson in the late 1990s. Privately held SC Johnson makes household products including Pledge, Glade, Windex and Ziploc.
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Fukushima Daiichi's reactors 1 to 4 are shown in this image taken 30km (18 miles) offshore from the stricken nuclear plant
Fukushima Daiichi's reactors 1 to 4 are shown in this image taken 30km (18 miles) offshore from the stricken nuclear plant
Radioactivity levels in one part of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are 10m times higher than normal, Japanese officials have said, amid warnings that the operation to avert disaster at the facility could last for months..
Tests on the surface of a pool of water that has formed in the No 2 reactor revealed radioactivity of 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour - four times the level deemed safe by the government. The worker carrying out the test reportedly fled before taking a second reading.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa), said: "This is quite a high figure." The water was "likely to be coming from the reactor", he said.
© Agence France-Presse/Martin Bureau
French climber Alain Robert poses in Paris on March 17. After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf emirate of Dubai.
French climber Alain Robert poses in Paris on March 17. After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf emirate of Dubai.
Alain Robert, 48, is due Monday to climb the exterior of the skyscraper which stands 828-metres (2,717-feet) tall, as part of an "Education Without Borders" conference for which it is being used as a venue, organisers said.
The climber, whose nickname comes from wearing the outfit of the fictional superhero while scaling the tallest of the tall around the globe, usually works without a safety harness, relying on bare hands and sturdy footing.
In Dubai, however, he will resort to a rope and harness, organisers said.
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Geraldine A. Ferraro
Geraldine A. Ferraro
Ferraro, born in Newburgh, N.Y., died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital while surrounded by her loved ones, a statement from her family said.
The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years, her family said.
Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, a former Queens schoolteacher, was the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket.
The White House website proudly says 'President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.'
But try telling Vice President Joe Biden's staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.
As the unaware $500-a-head invitees dined on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese, grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps, veteran reporter Scott Powers was locked away.
The Orlando Sentinel reporter was ushered into the closet inside wealthy property developer Alan Ginsburg's Winter Falls mansion, after being told that Joe Biden and Senator Bill Nelson had not yet arrived.
They were due to speak to the audience to raise money for the 2012 elections.
But try telling Vice President Joe Biden's staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.
As the unaware $500-a-head invitees dined on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese, grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps, veteran reporter Scott Powers was locked away.
© The Associated Press and Getty Images
1st Amendment: Freedom of the press was stretched when VP Joe Biden's staff refused to let a reporter talk with guests at a fundraiser with Sen Bill Nelson
1st Amendment: Freedom of the press was stretched when VP Joe Biden's staff refused to let a reporter talk with guests at a fundraiser with Sen Bill Nelson
The Orlando Sentinel reporter was ushered into the closet inside wealthy property developer Alan Ginsburg's Winter Falls mansion, after being told that Joe Biden and Senator Bill Nelson had not yet arrived.
They were due to speak to the audience to raise money for the 2012 elections.
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Damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The plant operator, known as TEPCO, says it measured 2.9-billion becquerels of radiation per one cubic centimeter of water from the basement of the turbine building attached to the Number 2 reactor.
The level of contamination is about 1,000 times that of the leaked water already found in the basements of the Number 1 and 3 reactor turbine buildings.
The company says the latest reading is 10-million times the usual radioactivity of water circulating within a normally operating reactor.
TEPCO says the radioactive materials include 2.9-billion becquerels of iodine-134, 13-million becquerels of iodine-131, and 2.3-million becquerels each for cesium 134 and 137.
