Category: News on Related Issues

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JAPAN TIMES, JUNE 20, 2006 People with Minamata disease still face discrimination and prejudice half a century after the official recognition of the mercury-poisoning disease, they said at a public forum in Tokyo. Speaking at the forum Sunday — in which more than 100 people, including patients and their supporters, took part — Hideki Sato,…

Chemical bomb found in the Kurdish town of Halabja

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KURDISHASPECT.COM, JUNE 19, 2006 Halabja, June 17– a Kurdish Farmer in Seirawan area found a chemical bomb Saturday near Halabja in northern Iraq as he was reconstructing his house that had been torn down in the eighties by the former Iraqi regime, reported Awene the independent newspaper from southern Kurdistan. A source, that did not…

Medha Patkar, 100 others detained

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THE HINDU, JUNE 20, 2006 Medha Patkar being detained in New Delhi on Monday — Photo: S. Subramanium NEW DELHI: Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar and about 100 Narmada dam-displaced people were on Monday detained outside the residence of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. They had gone to apprise Ms. Gandhi of lack…

Russia to float atomic reactor

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ST PETERSBURG TIMES, JUNE 6, 2006 Russia to Float Atomic Reactor By Judith Ingram Associated Press MOSCOW — An Arctic military shipbuilding plant and the Federal Atomic Energy Agency signed a contract Wednesday to build the world’s first floating nuclear reactor. The 9.1 billion ruble ($330 million) reactor will be built by the Sevmash plant…

David & Layla screens on opening night

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KURDISHMEDIA.COM, JUNE 6, 2006 Kurdish ‘Layla’- a survivor of Halabja genocide – in David & Layla screens on opening night – Avignon Film Festival, France. Iranian Hollywood actress SHIVA ROSE playing Kurdish Layla – a survivor of Halabja genocide – in DAVID & LAYLA screens on Opening Night with John Turturro’s film at 23rd Annual…

Narmada activist calls for expat Indians' support

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By Vinita Bharadwaj, Staff Reporter. Gulf News Dubai: Indian activist Medha Patkar, best known for her involvement with the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada) has called upon Indians abroad to show solidarity towards the cause by writing to the prime minister and senior politicians. “Writing letters and signing petitions are considered traditional means of…

Minamata mercury victims, 50 years later, step up legal fight

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June 9 (Bloomberg) — Hideki Sato was a toddler when the cats in his native Minamata city started “dancing” in the streets. He was 13 before Japan’s government said pollution was to blame and chemical company Chisso Corp. stopped dumping methyl mercury in the bay. By then, 1,573 people were dead or dying. Supreme Court…

US won't compensate Vietnam's Agent Orange victims: official

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Eight-year-old boy Phuong Minh Diep sits watching television at the Peace Village in Tu Du hospital, Ho Chi Minh City in 2005. He has been deformed since birth from what may be the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange used by US army during the Vietnam War. The United States won’t compensate Vietnam’s Agent Orange…

Dutch businessman convicted in arms case

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TOBY STERLING, JUNE 7, 2006 THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – A Dutch businessman was convicted of defying a U.N. embargo on the regime of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday. A human rights group called the conviction of Guus Kouwenhoven a fresh warning that merchants who deal with…

Air pollution: Tamil Nadu becoming second Bhopal

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PAPRI SRI RAMAN Chennai, June 7 (IANS) Environmental agencies in Tamil Nadu are demanding monitoring stations in heavily industrialised pockets after a study found air samples from the state among the most polluted in India. The groups have urged the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to apply for central funds to set up volatile organic…

US refuses to compensate Agent Orange victims

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The United States says it will not compensate Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims but will instead offer the latest scientific information and technical advice to deal with the effects of the chemical. The Vietnamese Government raised the issue of compensation in talks with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Hanoi. Millions of Vietnamese have continued to…

Aamir Khan refuses to apologise for Narmada remarks

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Aamir Khan’s new film Fanaa will be restricted in Gujarat. At the same time, a retrospective of MF Husain’s paintings organized by Asia House in London, has been wound up after two of the paintings were vandalized. The organization objecting to Husain is called Hindu Human Rights. The protests were about two paintings called Durga…

Is the Chernobyl reactor really empty?

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MOSCOW, TATYANA SINITSINA German newspaper Berliner Zeitung published articles about the Chernobyl disaster on April 3 and 26 (Die unverstandene Katastrophe; Die Katastrophe nach der Katastrophe), which have been reprinted by many Internet publications. Journalists Frank Nordhausen and Christian Esch cite Konstantin Checherov of the Russian Kurchatov Institute, who has “spoken the truth” at long…

Oak Ridge plant dismantling warheads at faster pace

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May 30, 2006 OAK RIDGE (AP) — Workers at the Y-12 National Security Complex are dismantling nuclear warheads faster than ever before. They’re trying to comply with arms-control agreements and reduce a backlog of old warheads. Dan Linehan, a manager in the plant’s Directed Stockpile Work organization, says historically it’s been filler work. That’s changed…

Moved by guilt over Agent Orange, Vietnam veterans vow help

May 28, 2006

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