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Posted by feww on March 24, 2017
We ask the 100-billion-dollar question:
If Ukraine were to explode, or implode, would Uncle Sam, Aunt Matilda and Sister Sara give a damn?
[Prepared jointly by FIRE-EARTH Science Team and affiliated political scientists.]
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Balakliya, CJ Members, EAC, FIRE-EARTH Focus, Kharkiv, NATO, Petro Poroshenko, TML, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 20, 2016
Global forced displacement escalate sharply in 2015 due to ongoing conflict and persecution, “reaching the highest level ever recorded and representing immense human suffering, according to a report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.”
UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, which tracks forced displacement worldwide based on data from governments, partners including the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, and the organization’s own reporting, said 65.3 million people were displaced as of the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just 12 months earlier. This is the first time that the threshold of 60 million has been crossed.
Of the 65.3 million total, about comprises 3.2 million are in industrialized countries awaiting decisions (as of end 2015) on asylum (the largest total UNHCR has recorded), 21.3 million refugees worldwide (1.8 million more than in 2014 and the highest refugee total since the early 1990s), and 40.8 million were IDPs, people who forced to flee their homes but remained within the confines of their own countries (an increase of 2.6 million from 2014 and the highest number on record).
Based on Earth’s 7.349 billion population, these numbers show that 1 in every 113 people globally is currently either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee. The numbers are comparable to the 2015 populations of UK (64.7 million), France (64.4 million) and Italy (59.8 million).
Forced displacement has been on the rise since at least the mid-1990s in most regions, but over the past five years the rate of climb has increased. The reasons are threefold: Situations that cause large refugee outflows are lasting longer (for example, conflicts in Somalia or Afghanistan are now into their third and fourth decades, respectively), dramatic new or reignited situations are occurring frequently (today’s largest being Syria, but also in the space of the past five years South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Ukraine, Central African Republic, etc.), and the rate at which solutions are being found for refugees and internally displaced people has been on a falling trend since the end of the Cold War. As recently as 10 years ago, at the end of 2005, UNHCR recorded an average of six people displaced every minute. Today that number is 24 per minute – almost double the typical frequency at which adults breathe.
“More people are being displaced by war and persecution and that’s worrying in itself, but the factors that endanger refugees are multiplying too,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Politics is gravitating against asylum in some countries. The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what’s being tested today, and it’s this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail.”
Among countries covered by the Global Trends report several stand out: Syria at 4.9 million, Afghanistan at 2.7 million and Somalia at 1.1 million together accounted for more than half the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate worldwide. Colombia at 6.9 million, Syria at 6.6 million, and Iraq at 4.4 million meanwhile had the largest numbers of internally displaced people. Yemen was the biggest producer of new internal displacement in 2015 – 2.5 million people, or 9 per cent of its population.
Children constituted 51 per cent of the world’s refugees in 2015 according to the data UNHCR was able to gather (complete demographic data was not available to the report authors). Worryingly, many were separated from their parents or travelling alone. In all there were 98,400 asylum requests from children who were unaccompanied or separated from their families. This is the highest total UNHCR has seen – and a tragic reflection of how global forced displacement is disproportionately affecting young lives.
Additional Information
UNHCR’s Global Trends Report is being released on World Refugee Day, 20 June, in conjunction with our #WithRefugees petition campaign. A full multimedia package is available in connection with the Global Trends report, including infographics, photos, video materials and other products.
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: forced displacement, Global Trends, IDP, Refugees, syria, Ukraine, UNHCR, World Refugee Day, Yemen | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 26, 2016
Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970 to serve the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. By the time it was evacuated, on April 27, 1986, the day after the Chernobyl disaster, the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union had a population of about 49,400.
Chernobyl NPP, [The V. I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station] was commissioned in 1970. The first reactor came online in 1977, followed by Reactor No. 2 (1978), No. 3 (1981), and No. 4 (1983). Between them, the four reactors were producing about 10 percent of Ukraine’s electricity before the core meltdown.
A power surge blew the roof off the reactor No. 4, releasing radioactive clouds across Eastern Europe, and leaving entire regions in three countries—Ukraine, Russia and Belarus—unlivable.
The explosion has so far claimed at least a million lives, and counting.
Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a core meltdown [center] in 1986 with disastrous consequences. The radionuclide levels still exceed the normal background in 60 Ukrainian towns and villages. This image was taken by authorities in the former Soviet Union.
The radiation contaminated 50,000 square kilometers of land across 12 regions in Ukraine, and forced hundreds of villages to be relocated. In neighboring Belarus 20 percent of the entire country’s land area was also contaminated.
The radionuclide levels still exceed the normal background in 60 Ukrainian towns and villages.
Today, a second casing is being built to contain the radiation, which is still being emitted by the reactor because the old sarcophagus is crumbling.
“In mid-February [2013,] a 600-square-meter section of the roof at the Chernobyl site collapsed, sparking fears of another disaster. The collapse occurred 70 meters above the sarcophagus that contains the radiation from the damaged No. 4 reactor,” said a report.
Experts estimate that 200 tons of radioactive corium [a molten, lava-like mixture of nuclear reactor core materials, containing nuclear fuel, fission products, control rods, structural materials and other substances found in a reactor core,] several dozen tons of highly contaminated dust and 16 tons of uranium and plutonium remain under the existing sarcophagus that covers the disaster stricken power plant.
Birth defects and cancer were the norm for many years following the Chernobyl disaster. By the time residents of Pripyat were ordered to evacuate, about two days after the Chernobyl core meltdown had occurred, many had already been exposed to varying doses of radiation poisoning.
“A report by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko which appeared in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science showed that by 2004, there were 985,000 additional deaths worldwide caused by the nuclear disaster, including 212,000 of within Western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.”
Related Links
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Belarus, Chernobyl disaster, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Fukushima, meltdown, nuclear disaster, Pripyat, Radiation poisoning, radioactivity, Soviet Union, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on January 22, 2016
Report Highlights
At least 14 lethal swine flu cases have reportedly been registered across Russia since December 2015.
Swine flu (subtype H1N1 of influenza A virus) is common among pigs. Transmission of the virus from animals to humans is not common and does not always lead to human flu, often resulting instead in the production of antibodies only. However, when it does develop in humans, it carries a higher risk of fatality than the common flu.
Moscow. Swine flu in Moscow in the current epidemic season is responsible for 21 percent of all influenza cases in the city.
Other Regions. New cases of swine flu were registered in seven Russian regions: Kaliningrad, Samara, Vologda, Sakhalin, Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Primorye.
As of January 18, at least 27 fatalities caused by swine flu have been registered across Russia.
Ukraine. Authorities will impose a quarantine, starting January 23, in an attempt to stem the spread of swine flu across the country.
Georgia. The infection has killed at least three people in the mountainous Caucasus region. Georgia’s health workers were put on high alert on Wednesday, following a surge in influenza and acute viral respiratory infection cases.
Armenia. As of January 20, at least 18 fatalities have occurred from complications of swine flu. However, the Armenian health authorities do not consider the spread of swine flu in the country as an epidemic outbreak, said the report.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160122/1033527252/swine-flu-russia.html
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Armenia, flu fatalities, georgia, H1N1, moscow, Russia, Swine flu, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on December 9, 2015
At least 9,098 people—including civilians, soldiers and militia—have been killed since the the Ukraine conflict began in mid-April 2014 through mid-November 2015, with another 20,732 wounded, said a UN report.
Some 47 civilians were killed and 131 others wounded in the conflict zones of eastern Ukraine, between August 16 and November 15 this year, despite reduction in hostilities; however, human rights violations persist, said the new report.
A UN Human Rights Office report documents a decline in hostilities in the Ukrainian conflict. However it has raised concerns about lawlessness in the East of the country, describing it as governed by the rule of the gun.
It would be interesting to know the term(s) UN uses to describe the coup in Ukraine.
Related Links
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: debt crisis, human rights, NIGHTMARE SCENARIO 04, Ukraine, Ukraine Conflict, Ukraine death toll, UN | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 9, 2015
The catastrophic fire at the BRSM-Nafta facility near the Ukrainian capital ignited Monday night, claiming several lives and burning uncontrollably, as of posting.
BRSM-Nafta Ltd. is a Kiev-based company that supplies gasoline and diesel in Ukraine. The oil depot is located in the village of Kryachky, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Kiev.
“There is a serious threat of the fire burning at an oil depot in the Vasylkivsky district of the Kyiv region spreading to an Armed Forces unit’s ammunition warehouse located nearby,” said the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
Related News Links
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: BRSM-Nafta, fuel depot, Kiev, major fire, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 30, 2015
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been appointed as the governor of Odessa region [Poroshenko’s home province,] according to Ukraine News Agency.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed hope that Saakashvili can successfully fight corruption in his new post.
“This is the person who is able to materialize ideas and who changed his country [Georgia] in the transparency, efficiency, anticorruption areas, attracting new investors, establishing fair court, protecting rights of citizens and democracy and whom I want to see in Ukraine—this is Mikheil Saakashvili,” he said, introducing Saakashvili as the new head of Odessa Regional Administration to the regional officials.
[When asked if he was aware of an outstanding arrest warrant against Saakashvili, Poroshenko did not reply.]
A Tblisi Court issued arrest warrants for former president Saakashvili and 4 of his aides, including former defense minister David Kezerashvili and former prosecutor general Zurab Adeishvili, in August 2014 on charges of abuse of power, using excessive force against protesters in Tbilisi in November 2007 and a raid on the independent TV station Imedi that had criticized the government.
He also faces corruption charges. The court froze both Saakashvili’s and his family’s assets in Georgia, including bank accounts and properties.
Saakashvili, now a fugitive, fled his native Georgia just before his presidency was about to end in November 2013.
“US Congressmen John McCain and Michael Turner requested Interpol not to issue an international arrest warrant against Saakashvili,” said a report.
However, international arrest warrants were issued for Adeishvili and Kezerashvili. Former Tbilisi Mayor, Gigi Ugulava, “was arrested and remanded in custody in early July on suspicion of money-laundering and using budget funds to finance the ENM parliamentary election campaign in 2012,” said a report.
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Mikheil Saakashvili, Odessa, Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 30, 2015
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake [and its strong aftershocks] that struck Nepal on April 25 has wreaked a mega disaster across the impoverished nation, especially in the densely-populated Kathmandu Valley.
At least 6,116 people have been killed (April 17, 2015) and 15,474 others wounded in the Ukrainian conflict, which began in April 2014, said the UN.
[It’s not known whether the UN figures include the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. All of the 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed on July 17, 2014, when the plane was apparently shut down over the Ukraine airspace, presumably to widen the scope of the conflict and involve more of the EU member countries in the conflict. See also: “9/11 Mafia” make Malaysian Airlines an offer… ]
As of April 20, 2015 at least 1,236,495 people in Ukraine had registered as IDPs across the country, said the Ministry of Social Policy (MoSP). Additionally, about 801,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum, residence permits or other forms of legal stay in neighboring countries. By April 24, 2015, the total included 659,143 individuals in Russia, 81,044 in Belarus and 47,589 others in Poland, reported UNHCR.
The conflict began after the new government in Kiev sent troops to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk) because the people refused to recognize the new coup-imposed president.
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: 911 Mafia, Atrocity, catastrophe, Donbas, earthquake, Mega Disaster, nepal, Tragedy, Ukraine, Ukraine Conflict | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 26, 2015
29 Years ago today (April 26, 1986) a power surge blew the roof off the reactor No. 4 of the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station, as it was then called, releasing radioactive clouds across Eastern Europe, and leaving entire regions in three countries—Ukraine, Russia and Belarus—unlivable.
The explosion has so far claimed at least a million lives, and counting.
Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a core meltdown [center] in 1986 with disastrous consequences. The radionuclide levels still exceed the normal background in 60 Ukrainian towns and villages. This image was taken by authorities in the former Soviet Union.
The radiation contaminated 50,000 square kilometers of land across 12 regions in Ukraine, and forced hundreds of villages to be relocated. In neighboring Belarus 20 percent of the entire country’s land area was also contaminated.
The radionuclide levels still exceed the normal background in 60 Ukrainian towns and villages.
Today, a second casing is being built to contain the radiation, which is still being emitted by the reactor because the old sarcophagus is crumbling.
However, the dire economic situation in Ukraine may mean the project may be shelved, said a report.
“In mid-February [2013,] a 600-square-meter section of the roof at the Chernobyl site collapsed, sparking fears of another disaster. The collapse occurred 70 meters above the sarcophagus that contains the radiation from the damaged No. 4 reactor.” Said a report.
Experts estimate that 190 tons of reactor fuel remain under the existing sarcophagus that covers the disaster stricken power plant.
Birth defects and cancer were the norm for many years following the Chernobyl disaster. By the time residents of Pripyat, a town located near the plant, were ordered to evacuate, about two days after the Chernobyl core meltdown had occurred, many had already been exposed to varying doses of radiation poisoning.
“A report by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko which appeared in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science showed that by 2004, there were 985,000 additional deaths worldwide caused by the nuclear disaster, including 212,000 of them within Western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.”
Consequences of the Catastrophe. Authors Alexey Yablokov (Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow), Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko ( Institute of Radiation Safety, Minsk, Belarus) studies about 5,000 reports and scientific papers mostly published in Slavic languages and compiled their finding in the book “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” which was published last year on the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor core meltdown.
“For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” They wrote.
“No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe,” the authors said. “Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere.”
According to the book, a total of about 830,000 people, referred to as the “liquidators,” were responsible for various emergency works at the Chernobyl site including fire extinguishing, decontamination and cleanup.
The authors say between 112,000 and 125,000 of the liquidators had died by 2005. The authors also estimate that between 1986 and 2004 some 985,000 people died as a result of Chernobyl fallout {2011 estimates are well over a million deaths.]
“Official discussions from the International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations’ agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific literature and consequently have erred by not including these assessments.” The authors said last year.
What Happened to Wildlife?
Researchers found that there were “areas with an abundance of 100 animals per square meter. And then there are areas with less than one specimen per square meter on average; the same goes for all groups of species.”
The researchers also found that animals living near the Chernobyl reactor were subject to more incidences of deformities, including discoloration and stunted limbs, than normal.
“We wanted to ask the question: Are there more or fewer animals in the contaminated areas? Clearly there were fewer,” said Moller, one of the researchers who has worked on Chernobyl since 1991.
Effects of Chernobyl radioactive contamination on decomposition of plant material
A new study has found that the microbial communities, which are responsible for natural cycle of decay of organic materials, have been significantly reduced in radioactively contaminated zones near Chernobyl.
The following is Abstract from the report E-pubulished on March 4, 2014.
The effects of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl on decomposition of plant material still remain unknown. We predicted that decomposition rate would be reduced in the most contaminated sites due to an absence or reduced densities of soil invertebrates. If microorganisms were the main agents responsible for decomposition, exclusion of large soil invertebrates should not affect decomposition. In September 2007 we deposited 572 bags with uncontaminated dry leaf litter from four species of trees in the leaf litter layer at 20 forest sites around Chernobyl that varied in background radiation by more than a factor 2,600. Approximately one quarter of these bags were made of a fine mesh that prevented access to litter by soil invertebrates. These bags were retrieved in June 2008, dried and weighed to estimate litter mass loss. Litter mass loss was 40 % lower in the most contaminated sites relative to sites with a normal background radiation level for Ukraine. Similar reductions in litter mass loss were estimated for individual litter bags, litter bags at different sites, and differences between litter bags at pairs of neighboring sites differing in level of radioactive contamination. Litter mass loss was slightly greater in the presence of large soil invertebrates than in their absence. The thickness of the forest floor increased with the level of radiation and decreased with proportional loss of mass from all litter bags. These findings suggest that radioactive contamination has reduced the rate of litter mass loss, increased accumulation of litter, and affected growth conditions for plants.
Oecologia. 2014 May;175(1):429-37. doi: 10.1007/s00442-014-2908-8. Epub 2014 Mar. Authors: Mousseau TA(1), Milinevsky G, Kenney-Hunt J, Møller AP. PMID: 24590204 [PubMed – in process]
Chernobyl and Other Nuclear Stats
Legacy: More than 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children and adolescents between 1992 to 2002 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Victims under 14 years were most severely affected by the elevated concentrations of radioiodine found in milk.
The Poisoned land. Up to 5 million people continue to live on radioactive contaminated land. About 85% of the children who live in contaminated areas of Belarus today are ill, a near 6-fold increase compared to the time before the explosion (15%), according to The Belarusian National Academy of Sciences.
Birth defects and cancer were the norm for many years following the Chernobyl disaster. By the time residents of Pripyat, a town located near the plant, were ordered to evacuate, about two days after the Chernobyl core meltdown had occurred, many had already been exposed to varying doses of radiation poisoning
Fukushima NPP is said to contain about 4,277 tons of nuclear fuel, about 24 times as much as Chernobyl (~ 180 tons).
“The Fukushima Dai-ichi site has a considerable number of fuel rods on hand, according to information provided Thursday by Toyko Electric Power Co., which owns the atomic complex: There are 3,400 tons of fuel in seven spent fuel pools within the six-reactor plant, including one joint pool storing very old fuel from units 3 and 4. There are 877 tons in five of the reactor cores. Officials have said that the fuel in Unit 4′s reactor vessel was transferred to its spent fuel pool when the unit was temporarily shut in November.” AP reported.
On April 12, Japanese authorities raised the measure of severity of the Fukushima NPP disaster to the maximum level of 7 on INES. (See below for details.)
The INES, a logarithmic scale, which was introduced in 1990 by the IAEA to enable prompt communication, classifies the intensity of nuclear incidents as follows:
7 – Major Accident [Chernobyl disaster, criticality accident, April 1986]
6 – Serious Accident [e.g., Kyshtym incident, Mayak, former Soviet Union, steam explosion released up to 80 tons of highly radioactive material into the atmosphere, September 1957. ]
5 – Accident With Wider Consequences [e.g., Three Mile Island accident Pen State, U.S., partial meltdown release radioactive gases into the environment, March 1979.]
4 – Accident With Local Consequences [e.g., Sellafield, UK, at least 5 incidents reported between 1955 to 1979]
3 – Serious Incident [e.g., Vandellos NPP, Spain, fire destroyed control systems; the reactor was shut down, July1989]
2 – Incident [e.g., Forsmark NPP, Sweden, a backup generator failed, July 2006]
1 – Anomaly [e.g., TNPC, France, 1,600 gallons of water containing 75 kilograms (170 lb) of uranium leaked into the environment, July 2008]
0 – Deviation (No Safety Significance) — [e.g., Atucha, Argentina – Reactor shutdown caused by tritium increase in reactor encasement, December 2006.]
Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received 450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.
(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays. Source: MIT)
1 rem = 10 mSv (1 Sv = 100 rem)
Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:
[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]
Adults
Under 18
Fetal Exposure
Medical
Air Travel
*Note: Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.
[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: 29th Anniversary of Chernobyl, Chernobyl, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, chernobyl victims, ghost town, Grohnde nuclear protest, nuclear disaster, Prypyat, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 14, 2015
As of early April, at least 1,213,011 people in Ukraine have registered as IDPs across the country. Some 6,108 have been killed and 15,450 others wounded, according to the Ministry of Social Policy (MoSP).
Total number of Ukrainians who have sought asylum, residence permits or other forms of legal stay in neighboring countries currently stand at 777,355 including 636,544 in Russia and 80,994 in Belarus, reported UNHCR.
Meantime, rapidly increasing food prices has led to lower food consumption, severely affecting the lives of millions in the eastern oblasts of the country, said the report.
Access to social services, especially pension and salaries, remains suspended in the conflict-affected zone.
[The above figures do not include victims from renewed fighting in January and February, said the UN.]
Other highlights of the UN report
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Belarus, collapse, Donetsk, IDP, Luhansk, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine Crises | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on December 20, 2014
Conflict in Ukraine has forced 147 schools to close in parts of Donetsk Oblast where fighting continues, and disrupted the education of some 50,000 children since September 1, said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a statement.
“The situation for more than 1.7 million children affected by the growing crisis in eastern Ukraine remains extremely serious. Since March 2014, over 1 million people have been displaced from the conflict-affected areas, including nearly 530,000 people within Ukraine, of whom at least 130,000 are children.”
Some of the schools have been destroyed, while others remain closed due to safety concerns, said UNICEF. “In government-controlled areas 187 educational institutions have been damaged or destroyed.”
Eastern Ukraine:Humanitarian Impact of the Conflict
16 December 2014 – Reliefweb/ACAPS
Death toll in Ukrainian conflict has more than doubled since mid-August, from over 2,000 to at least 4,707¹ as of December 16, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Violence has been ongoing in eastern Ukraine despite the ceasefire of 5 September. Heavy fighting and shelling have increased the number of killed and wounded, and between mid-September and mid-December, the number of registered internally displaced increased by over 266,000. A new ceasefire was announced for 9 December, with differing reports as to whether it has been violated.”
Ukraine Disaster Summary
¹This is a very conservative estimate of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and World Health Organization based on available official data. These totals include: Ukrainian armed forces casualties as reported by the Ukrainian authorities; 298 people from flight MH-17; and casualties reported by civil medical establishments and local administrations of Donetsk and Luhansk regions: civilians and some members of armed groups (without distinguishing them). OHCHR and WHO believe that actual fatality numbers are considerably higher.
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Donetsk Oblast, Mass Displacement, Ukraine, Ukraine Conflict, Ukraine Disaster, UNICEF | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on August 13, 2014
“This corresponds to a clear escalating trend,” UN human rights spokeswoman told Reuters.
In addition to the 2,086 killed, about 5,000 others have been wounded.
The figures comprise civilians, self-defense forces and Ukrainian military. However, those are “very conservative estimates,” said the spokeswoman.
N early a million people have abandoned their homes, including 730,000 people that have fled across the border into Russia, and at least 110,000 others who have been internally displaced in the conflict, according to reports.
Posted in global disasters, News Alert, significant events | Tagged: humanitarian disaster, Internally displaced, moscow, Ukraine, Ukraine Conflict, war refugee, Wars for Resources | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 3, 2014
At least two airstrikes by Ukraine government forces have devastated densely-populated residential areas in the Cossack settlement of Luganskaya (population: ~15,000), residents say.
Ukrainian authorities deny the accusations and instead blame the pro-Russian separatists.
Meanwhile, Kiev has admitted that 279 people have been killed in Donetsk region since the start of fighting, including 160 civilians. The death toll for Lugansk has not been revealed.
Residents flee for their lives after their homes the village of Luganskaya after airstrikes by Ukrainian air force left dozens dead or wounded. (Image credit: RIA Novosti/Valeriy Melnikov)
Posted in global disasters | Tagged: Donetsk, Europe, genocide, Luganskaya, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2014
“A state of emergency has now been declared across the entire region. The measure is aimed at facilitating the work of temporary accommodation centers and ensuring sustenance for the refugees. In early June, a state of emergency was declared in 15 territories bordering Ukraine.”
“Amid simmering tensions in the Ukrainian east, where violent clashes between pro-Kiev forces and independence supporters continue, thousands of civilians are leaving their homes and seeking shelter in neighboring Russia,” said the report.
As of last week, at least 110,000 people had fled Ukraine to Russia since the beginning of the crisis, and more than 54,000 were internally displaced, according the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Ukraine President Calls Ukrainians “Dirt and Parasites”
“Ukrainian forces struck at pro-Russian separatist bases in eastern regions with air and artillery strikes on Tuesday after President Petro Poroshenko announced he would not renew a ceasefire but go on the offensive to rid Ukraine of ‘[dirt and] parasites,'” Reuters pro-Kiev reporters said.
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters | Tagged: collapse, Rostov Region, Russia, state of emergency, STATE TERRORISM, Ukraine, UNHCR, Wars for Resources | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 24, 2014
“The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow,” said Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in Moscow.
“War games by NATO in Poland and the Baltic states are not helping the normalization of the situation. We are forced to react to the situation.”
“The special operation against pro-federalization protesters underway in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk has left five members of local self-defense forces dead and one policeman injured,” reported RIA Novosti, quoting he Ukrainian Interior Ministry as saying on Thursday.
Some 11,000 Ukrainian troops, 160 tanks, 230 armored carriers and at least 150 artillery pieces are deployed in the operation against anti-Kiev activists, said Shoigu.
“National guard units and Right Sector extremists are fighting against the peaceful population, as well as a volunteer Donbass ‘anti-terrorist’ unit. Also security and internal forces transferred to Lugansk and Donetsk from other areas of the country are suppressing dissent,” he said.
Protesters in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk consider the current Ukrainian government as “illegitimate” and are urging interim authorities to hold referendums similar to the one held in Crimea last month, which led to the republic’s reunification with Russia, said RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile, NATO began war games in Poland on Wednesday, and plans to hold military drills in the Baltic states next week.
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, significant events | Tagged: Crimea, Kiev, NATO, NIGHTMARE SCENARIO 04, Russia, Slaviansk, Ukraine, War games | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 15, 2014
Ukrainian forces have seized an airfield in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing at least 4 people and injuring two others, according to reports quoting separatists, as well as a confirmation by the coup-imposed acting President Aleksandr Turchinov.
“There are about 60 units of armored vehicles. They have been preparing for several days, and now they started to storm [the airfield]. The protesters blocked their way, they started shooting, there are wounded. Our people retreated. There are about 15 tanks, the other units are armored personnel vehicles,” one of the separatists told RIA Novosti.
Ukrainian troops have also attacked the city of Slavyansk, according to separatists quoted by Russian media.
“Currently there is a major attack on Slavyansk, armored personnel vehicles are entering the city… there are many troops. The men are getting ready to defend [the city],” said a separatist.
SLAVIANSK (Donetsk Region), April 15 (RIA Novosti) – At least four protesters were killed and two other wounded on Tuesday as the Ukrainian troops stormed an airfield in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk, a spokesman for local People’s Militia told RIA Novosti.
“There are four dead and two wounded at the airfield. They are all militia,” the source said, adding that no casualties among the government troops had been reported.
“The fighting for the airfield is over as the militia has retreated and the Ukrainian side took control of the airfield,” he said.
Eastern Ukraine has been swept by pro-federalization rallies since March.
Federalization supporters in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian government and are urging interim authorities to hold referendums similar to the one that has been held in Crimea in March and led to its reunification with Russia.
In an effort to suppress the protesters Ukraine’s parliamentary speaker and acting President Olexander Turchynov ordered Monday a special anti-terrorist operation in the country’s east, involving the use of armed forces.
Meanwhile, the head of Ukrainian Security Service said: “[Protesters] must be warned that if they do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed.”
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, Significant Event Imagery, significant events | Tagged: Aleksandr Turchinov, Donetsk Region, Kramatorsk, Separatists, Slavyansk, Ukraine | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on March 6, 2014
Avian flu epidemic outbreaks have struck at least 22 of Vietnam’s 58 provinces, so far this year, forcing the authorities to destroy tens of thousands of chickens.
The Animal Health authorities in Vietnam plan to import 60 million doses of H5N1 vaccine, according to reports.
New York and Philadelphia experienced a decline in economic activity, which was mostly attributed to the “unusually severe weather” experienced in those regions, said the Federal Reserve in its latest Beige book report.
“Agricultural conditions softened since the previous report. Severe winter weather affected several Districts with some crop damage being reported by Richmond and Atlanta, while Chicago noted disruptions in the flow of agricultural products. Both Kansas City and Dallas cited dry conditions adversely affecting wheat crops, while San Francisco reported concerns about water shortages and water costs.”
Manufacturing was affected in multiple regions including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond and St. Louis due to extreme weather utility outages.
Although the word “weather” appeared 119 times in the report, as noted by Reuters, economists say the report unhelpful because it did not clarify the extent to which weather was responsible for the soft economic data.
“The Supreme Council of the Crimea on its session has made a fundamental decision for the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea to join Russia as a federal subject,” reported Itar-Tass.
First Deputy Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea announced on Thursday the legislature had approved in principle the republic’s accession to Russia. A referendum to ratify the vote is scheduled for March 16.
The Crimean parliament has [unanimously] resolved “to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation,” he said, and has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin “to start the procedure.”
Reunited
“This means we have reunited with our motherland which we have been a part of for so long,” said Crimea’s deputy parliamentary speaker.
Illegitimate
Ukraine’s interim Economy Minister has called the Crimea vote to join the Russian Federation “unconstitutional.”
However, Crimea’s Deputy PM has dismissed the suggestion, saying Crimea views the new government in Kiev as illegitimate.
Guided Missile Destroyer
Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy reveled that a guided missile destroyer, the USS Truxton, was heading to the Black Sea, as part of a long-planned training exercise.
Continued …
Posted in Global Disaster watch, health, significant events | Tagged: avian flu, Beige Book, Crimea, crop damage, Federal Reserve, H5N1, Russia, U.S. Economy, Ukraine | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on March 5, 2014
The wars for resources are about the survival of the fattest. They are fought by the urge to secure more of other peoples’ resources: More water, more food, more fertile land and more energy to maintain unsustainable lifestyles. —EDRO
In the most likely scenario, after the first phase of world’s cities has collapsed, an all-out global war would break out that would be fought with nuclear, exotic, biological and conventional weapons:
http://edro.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/nuking-earth-for-lifestyle/
Officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to the ousted President Viktor Yanukovich have hacked phones of Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and leaked their conversation to the web. The officials discuss their impressions of what’s happening in the country after the revolution. The gist of it is that Ukrainian people have no trust in any of the leaders of Maidan [Kiev Independence Square.]
However, the most striking thing of all is the fact which concerns the use of force during the revolution, particularly the snipers who killed both protesters and officers of the riot police. Mr. Paet reveals astonishing information which confirms the rumors that the snipers were employed by the leaders of Maidan.
Leaked Tape:
Watch Section http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEgJ0oo3OA8&t=8m15s
Posted in Global Disaster watch, Significant Event Imagery, significant events | Tagged: Catherine Ashton, collapse, HEGEMONY OVER WORLD'S RESOURCES, Independence Square, Kiev, limited nuclear war, Russia, Ukraine, Urmas Paet, Wars for Resources | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 2, 2014
The development follows an appeal by the Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, who requested help from Russia to “cope with the crisis and ensure peace and calm in the region,” said reports.
Events in Ukraine indicate there is a “threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation… and the personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory,” said the Russian president Putin.
“We are particularly concerned with the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, where, in accordance with the international treaty, the Black Sea Fleet is stationed; where 1.5 million Russian people live,”said a presidential spokesman.
RT.com considers “stabilizing Russian forces” as “Nazi” forces. [Image sent by Kelly. M]
Putin has not yet decided weather to use military force in Ukraine despite the unanimous approval by the senate, said a presidential spokesman.
About 6,000 additional Russian troops and 30 armored vehicles have been sent to Crimea, said the Ukrainian Defense Minister on Saturday.
“Russian soldiers are widely reported to be guarding a number of administrative buildings and military bases in Crimea. Parliament, airports, the state television building and telecommunications hubs have also been surrounded,” said a report.
At least 930 civilians were killed [murdered] in Iraq in February, according to Iraq Body Count.
This brings the total number of civilians killed in Iraq so far this year to more than 2,000.
The United Nations says almost 1, 200 civilians, including civilian police personnel, were wounded in the ongoing armed violence.
However, the U.N. report excludes the number of casualties in the Anbar province.
At least 29 people were killed and 130 others wounded in a violent attack on the main railway station in southwest China’s Kunming city, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
A group of unidentified men armed with knives stormed the station at about 21:00 local time on Saturday, said the police.
“It was an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack, according to the authorities,” reported Xinhua.
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, Significant Event Imagery, significant events | Tagged: Black Sea Fleet, China, Iraq, Kunming, massacre in China, Putin, Russia, Ukraine | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on December 11, 2013
Thousands of riot police and Interior Ministry personnel have moved on large protest camps in Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in the center of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev amid snow and sub-zero temperatures.
Clashes broke out after police began tearing down barricades close to the main protest site in the square, but soon turned into a tense standoff.
According to unconfirmed reports police began storming the Kiev city hall, which was occupied by protesters a week ago.
Mass street rallies began about three weeks ago shortly after the government’s decision to withdraw from a free-trade deal with the EU last.
Police surround a section of the protest stage in central Kiev, Ukraine. Image credit: Paulina Leonovich
Looting has spread across 19 out of 23 provinces in Argentina, as police continue their strike due to low pay.
The looting first broke out in Cordoba province earlier this month, leaving several people dead and more than 100 others injured before the local police struck a deal to double their monthly salaries to about $1,900.
Police are demanding above-inflation pay rises and refuse to answer call-outs. Inflation in Argentina is running at 25 – 30 percent a year.
Supermarkets, retail businesses, banks and public transport have all shut down in dozens of Argentina’s cities, just as a summer heatwave engulfs the country.
About a dozen people have been killed and hundreds more injured since the looting began.
One of hundreds of stores ransacked by looters in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman December 10, 2013. Credit: Paloma Cortes/Reuters Aysua)
Auckland taxi drivers are on hunger strike outside the airport’s headquarters protesting conditions at Auckland Airport, according to local reports.
About 100 drivers from the Auckland Taxi Association (ATA), representing drivers from five small taxi companies and dozens of supporters have been holding the hunger strike since Monday because they say changes in rules favors larger companies.
ATA, which represents 180 drivers from smaller companies, wants the minimum fare in line with what the larger companies charge.
Spokesperson for ATA told reporters that with waiting times included, drivers are earning little more than $1 per hour.
Image Credit: One News
Indian Nurses Hunger Strike 2012
Indian nurses working in New Zealand went on a hunger strike vigil at the Ghandi statue near Wellington’s railway station on July 24, 2012.
“The hunger strike began two months after several hundred Indian nurses marched on parliament over the frustrations they have had in attempting to gain registration in New Zealand, including nursing students and graduates of two bridging nursing degree programs,” said a report.
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, global disasters 2013, Significant Event Imagery, significant events | Tagged: argentina, Auckland airport, Business news, EU, free-trade deal, hunger strike, Kiev, looting, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Mass protests, new zealand, police strike, taxi drivers, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on November 20, 2010
Sivash, Ukraine. This natural-color image was captured by the Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite on June 6, 2010. Source: NASA
The Yukon Delta’s sinuous waterways, which empty into the Bering Sea, was captured by the Earth-observing Landsat satellites in a 2002. Source: NASA
False-color satellite image of the Yukon Delta, Alaska, USA. acquired on 26 May 2002. Source: NASA
Greenland fjords. Image acquired in 2001. Source: NASA
Posted in earth from space | Tagged: Alaska, Lagoons of Sivash, satellite images of earth, Ukraine, Yukon Delta | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 27, 2010
Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on April 26, 1986 at about 1:00am local time. The explosion killed at least four plant employees instantly.
By the time residents of Pripyat, a town located near the plant, were ordered to evacuate, about two days after the Chernobyl core meltdown had occurred, many had already been exposed to varying doses of radiation poisoning.
Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a core meltdown [center] in 1986 with disastrous consequences. This image was taken by authorities in the former Soviet Union
The Incident: A meltdown of the reactor’s core in the Chernobyl power plant killed thirty people in 1986. About 135,000 people were evacuated. It is believed that about one hundred times more radiation was released in the accident than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Legacy: More than 4000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children and adolescents between 1992 to 2002 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Victims under 14 years were most severely affected by the elevated concentrations of radioiodine found in milk.
Incidents of skin lesions, respiratory ailments, infertility and birth defects were readily found among the more than five million people who inhabit the affected areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine for many years following the accident.
Disputed Facts: The above facts, however, have been disputed by a number of individuals including the author of a recent WHO report, and the retired “nukophile” British academic, James Lovelack. Local and international experts, however, have dismissed the WHO report findings. A UN report released in 2005 estimated the number of victims at just 4,000. Their figure is hotly disputed by NGOs and independent experts.
“A report by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko which appeared in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science showed that by 2004, there were 985,000 additional deaths worldwide caused by the nuclear disaster, including 212,000 of them within Western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.”
The Poisoned land. Up to 5 million people continue to live on radioactive contaminated land. About 85% of the children who live in contaminated areas of Belarus today are ill, a near 6-fold increase compared to the time before the explosion (15%), according to The Belarusian National Academy of Sciences.
Chernobyl and Other Nuclear Stats
Related Links:
Serial No 1,632. Starting April 2010, each entry on this blog has a unique serial number. If any of the numbers are missing, it may mean that the corresponding entry has been blocked by Google/the authorities in your country. Please drop us a line if you detect any anomaly/missing number(s).
Posted in nuclear accident, nuclear energy, nuclear fuel, nuclear industry, nuclear power | Tagged: Belarus, Chernobyl, Chernobyl core meltdown, Chernobyl disaster, Pripyat, radioactive contamination, thyroid cancer, Ukraine | 4 Comments »
Posted by feww on April 27, 2009
A man holds a candle at a memorial dedicated to firefighters who died from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, during a night service in the city of Slavutych, Ukraine April 26, 2009. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich. Image may be subject to copyright.
Related Links:
Posted in animal deformity, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Chernobyl reactor, core meltdown, nuclear power | Tagged: Chernobyl, Chernobyl meltdown, Memorial for firefighters, Slavutych, Ukraine | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on July 28, 2008
Floods caused by 5 days of nonstop rain kill up to 20 people, mostly children. A senior government official described the floods as the worst in 100 years. More than 20,000 homes have been flooded and 7,000 people evacuated.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko (3rd L) visits a settlement affected by floods in the Ivano-Frankivsk region July 27, 2008. Floods described by a senior government official as the worst in a century have killed 13 people in western Ukraine and four in neighboring Romania, officials said on Sunday. REUTERS/Mykhailo Markiv/pool
President Viktor Yushchenko flew to the worst affected area in the Ivano-Frankivsk region after leaving early a service in Kiev marking the 1,020th anniversary of the adoption of Orthodox Christianity in the region. Reuters reported.
Up to 10,000 people from 200 villages were evacuated as 2,500 houses and 25,000 hectares of farmland were flooded. At least 4 people were killed, including a child who drowned.
“We have two critical situations, on the rivers Siret and Prut,” Romanian Prime Minister said.
“So you understand the gravity of the situation, water levels on the river Prut next to the borders with Ukraine and Moldova are higher than on the Danube.”
g at least three dead and as many as 100,000 homes without electricity. About 10,000 tourists were stranded. [In 2008, New Zealand has thus far experienced the worst deforestation rates,worst snow storms, worst floods, worst drought and worst storms in 50 years.]
Up to 20 people were killed or reported as missing as the fourth day of torrential rains lashed parts of South Korea . In the worst-hit areas of North Gyeongsang province, up to 250 mm of rain
in a 24-hour period caused landslides and flooding forcing people to evacuate their homes.
Cholera outbreak has affected eight districts in Nyanza and Western provinces. Over 80% of cholera transmission has been attributed to lack of access to safe drinking/domestic water. About 75% of the water sources are contaminated.
Some three months after Cyclone Nargis struck the country inflicting immense damage, as many as 700,000 children are still in need of assistance. The cyclone destroyed or damaged about 750,000 homes, affected about 2.4 million people and destroyed three quarters of the local health facilities. “In addition, the cyclone struck a severe blow to people’s livelihoods by flooding 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killing up to 50 per cent of livestock in the affected areas, and destroying fishing boats, food stocks and agricultural implements. According to the report, the damages and losses amount to $4 billion.” UNICEF reported.
Typhoon Fung-Wong with winds up to 147km/h (92 mph) struck the east coast of Taiwan today with heavy rains, forcing schools and businesses to close. In July 18, tropical storm Kalmaegi struck southern Taiwan, which left 20 people killed and 6 missing. “A Central Weather Bureau forecaster was quoted as saying the total rainfall may reach 900mm (35 inches).” BBC reported.
Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, new zealand, politics, Tourism, Travel | Tagged: Cholera outbreak, Cyclone Nargis, Extreme Rain Events, flooding, Kalmaegi, Kenya, Myanmar, Romania, South Korea, Typhoon Fung-Wong, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Fire Earth 