Fukushima tritium levels spike 15-fold in three days

In just three days, readings of tritium in groundwater near the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant have soared more than 15 times, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant admitted, results of recently tested water taken from the well some 20 meters south from a number of storage tanks have showed that levels of tritium have now reached 64,000 becquerels per liter, on Monday a new hotspot of radiation was detected in groundwater from an observation well next to a faulty water storage tank. some 3,200 becquerels per liter of radioactive substances were recorded in the well, back on September 9, the level of tritium – a potentially dangerous radioactive isotope – from the same location stood at 29,000 compared to 4,200 becquerels per liter on Sunday.

source rt.com

Diplomatic efforts intensify on corralling Syrian chemical arms

Both the Syrian rebels and government forces are guilty of multiple war crimes, including mass killings and torture, a UN report alleges. Investigators say perpetrators have committed crimes against humanity without any fear of accountability.

"The perpetrators of these violations and crimes, on all sides, act in defiance of international law. They do not fear accountability. Referral to justice is imperative," said the report by the UN commission of inquiry, which is led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil. The inquiry is based on 258 interviews and other evidence gathered in the month leading up to July 15.

The document says that both parties have carried out indiscriminate killings of civilians and need to be held responsible for their crimes. However, the inspectors state: “There is no military solution to this conflict.”

“Those who supply arms create but an illusion of victory. A political solution founded upon tenets of the Geneva communiqué is the only path to peace,” said the report, calling on international backers to stop sending weapons into Syria as “they will be used to commit serious violations of international law.”

source rt.com

White House pledges to work with Brazil on surveillance concerns

The White House said on Wednesday it would work with Brazil to address concerns caused by leaked information that the United States had spied on President Dilma Rousseff and hacked into the computer networks of state-run oil company Petrobras.

source reuters.com

EU lawmakers nominate Snowden for Sakharov human rights prize

Members of the European Parliament have officially nominated whistleblower and former CIA employee Edward Snowden for the prestigious prize, which celebrates freedom of thought.

Edward Snowden "deserves to be honored for shedding light on the systematic infringements of civil liberties by US and European secret services," leaders of the parliament's Greens group Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms said in a statement. "Snowden has risked his freedom to help us protect ours."

source rt.com

US receives Russian plan to take control of Syrian chemical weapons

“We have handed over to the Americans our plan for establishing international control over Syria’s chemical weapons and we hope to discuss it in Geneva,” said a source in the Russian delegation that will accompany Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov during his consultations with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

At the same time Russia has reportedly passed to the UN Security Council evidence of Syrian rebels being behind the use of chemical weapons in the counter,“ we submitted to the UN SC documents that prove that the chemical weapons were used by opposition forces,” Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Aleksandr Zasypkin told Al Mayadeen channel, reports RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile on Wednesday in New York, envoys from the five permanent UN Security Council member states – the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia – met to discuss the Russia proposed plan as well as try to come up with common language for a UN resolution to support it.

source rt.com

School for snooping: LA to monitor students’ social media postings

Authorities in California are now snooping on school students’ social media postings to catch law-breaking, bullying and other harmful activities. But parents worry the move is yet another example of Big Brother prying into ordinary Americans’ lives.

Glendale Unified School District, the third-largest in Los Angeles County, has paid Geo Listening Company over $40,000 to follow its students on social media networks. The stated aim is to prevent law-breaking, bullying and doing harm to themselves and others.

Under the scheme, the online activities of Glendale’s 13,000 middle-school and high-school students are closely monitored.

“All of the individual posts we monitor on social media networks are already made public by the students themselves. Therefore, no privacy is violated,” Geo Listening Company said, adding it does not “monitor email, SMS, MMS, phone calls, voicemails or unlock any privacy setting of a social network user.”

source rt.com