Apr
02
2013
The world’s richest man, Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, has drawn criticism from the U.S. trade office over his monopoly which it says has stifled foreign investment and competition that could otherwise improve services and increase industry revenue.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pointed out in its 2013 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers that Slim’s America Movil (NYSE:AMX), the parent company of landline service provider Telmex and wireless carrier Telcel, “dominates …
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Apr
02
2013
Southern California Edison released a draft of its proposed operating license amendment for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station ahead of a Wednesday Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing to discuss the license and plans to partially restart the plant by summer.
Edison volunteered for the amendment in response to pressure from environmental groups, one of which filed a legal complaint with the NRC demanding court-like license amendment hearings with sworn testimony about the plant’s operation.
The San Onofre …
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Apr
02
2013
WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–March 8 – A secret Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report released today confirms that Southern California Edison knew about serious problems in the radically redesigned replacement steam generators for the San Onofre nuclear reactors years before the defective equipment was installed, yet failed to make changes to fix the problems. The report was released today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) revealed its existence and demanded it …
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Apr
02
2013
Former Guatemalan President José Efraín Ríos Montt and former Intelligence Director José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, who together controlled the country between 1982 and 1983, are currently facing genocide charges in a trial many thought would never come.
“It is the first time that a former head of state is being tried for genocide in a credible national court, by the national authorities, in the country where the alleged crimes took place,” says Marcie Mersky of …
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Apr
02
2013
James E. Hansen, the climate scientist who issued the clearest warning of the 20th century about the dangers of global warming, will retire from NASA this week, giving himself more freedom to pursue political and legal efforts to limit greenhouse gases.
His departure, after a 46-year career at the space agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, will deprive federally sponsored climate research of its best-known public figure.
At the same time, retirement will allow …
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Apr
02
2013
An ExxonMobil pipeline broke on Friday evening, dumping thousands of gallons of tar sands oil in Mayflower, Arkansas. The Pegasus pipeline starts in Illinois and carries 95,000-barrels of oil per day from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in Texas.
Exxon was cagey, at first, about giving an estimate of how much spilled, initially telling reporters it was “a few thousand” barrels or declining to give an estimate. In an interview with Inside Climate, a local official …
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Apr
02
2013
African participants at the World Social Forum in Tunisia have taken a historic decision to launch a No REDD in Africa Network and join the global movement against REDD.
Participants from Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Mozambique, Tunisia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania participated in the launch of the network recently.
REDD, an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation; as well as REDD+ are carbon offset mechanisms whereby industrialized Northern countries …
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Apr
02
2013
The rewriting of history by the power elite was painfully evident as the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Some claimed they had opposed the war when they had not. Others among “Bush’s useful idiots” argued that they had merely acted in good faith on the information available; if they had known then what they know now, they assured us, they would have acted differently. This, of course, is …
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Apr
02
2013
A Palestinian prisoner has died of cancer after claims of medical negligence by the Israeli authorities, triggering unrest in the West Bank and among Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails. A three-day hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners has been announced.
Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, died on Tuesday morning, three days after being transferred to Soroka hospital in the city of Be’er Sheva. Following news of his death, Israeli prison guards used teargas in response to protests …
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Apr
02
2013
British soldiers and airmen who helped to operate a secretive US detention facility in Baghdad that was at the centre of some of the most serious human rights abuses to occur in Iraq after the invasion have, for the first time, spoken about abuses they witnessed there.
Personnel from two RAF squadrons and one Army Air Corps squadron were given guard and transport duties at the secret prison, the Guardian has established.
And many of the detainees …
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