Saturday, April 16, 2011

Search continues for missing Tennessee nursing student | Reuters

(Reuters) - Some 300 searchers combed northern Decatur County on Saturday for a 20-year-old Tennessee nursing student who has been missing for three days.

Holly Bobo of Darden was last seen Wednesday morning being led by a man in camouflage into the woods near the family home in Darden.

"Everybody is dedicated to this search," said Kevin Cagle, director of the Decatur County Emergency Management Agency.

Searchers were using a helicopter to pinpoint areas to send search teams on Saturday after late-afternoon rain, wind and hail cut short the search on Friday, Cagle said.

"We have a couple of different command posts set up," Cagle said. "We've got ATVs, horses ... foot searchers."

Level of Radioactive Materials Rises Near Japan Plant

Workers have been struggling to deal with contaminated runoff at the plant that resulted from makeshift efforts to cool reactors and spent fuel rod pools after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out regular cooling systems.

Much of the tons of water that has been sprayed on the reactors and pools has been stored, but the company that operates the plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, recently discovered and eventually plugged a leak that could have been gushing for days. The levels of radioactive materials in the ocean near the plant dropped after that.

But the government said Saturday that levels of radioactive materials in the seawater have risen again in recent days. The level of radioactive iodine 131 jumped to 6,500 times the legal limit, according to samples taken Friday, up from 1,100 times the limit in samples taken the day before. Levels of cesium 134 and cesium 137 rose nearly fourfold. The increased levels are still far below those recorded earlier this month before the initial leak was plugged.

The government said the new rise in radioactivity could have been caused by the installation on Friday of steel panels intended to contain radioactive materials. The construction may have temporarily stirred up stagnant waste in the area, Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy director general of Japan’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told reporters. However, the increase in iodine 131, which has an eight-day half life, could signal the possibility of a new leak, he said.

“We want to determine the origin and contain the leak, but I must admit that tracking it down is difficult,” he said.

The authorities have insisted that the radioactivity will dissipate and poses no immediate threat to fish outside the waters nearest to the plant or to the people who might eat them. The government has banned fishing close to the shore there.

Both cesium and iodine can increase the long-term risk of cancer with exposures to high levels.

Regardless, plant workers on Saturday began dumping sandbags filled with zeolite, a mineral that absorbs radioactive cesium, into the sea.

Gaddafi presses siege of Misurata as civilians beg NATO to prevent massacre - The Washington Post

TRIPOLI, LIBYA — Libyan government forces rained scores of rockets into residential districts of Misurata for a third consecutive day Saturday as ground troops tried to cut the city’s access to the port, its lifeline for food, water and medicine, rebel groups in the city said.

Civilians enduring a weeks-long assault that Western leaders have described as a “medieval siege” pleaded with NATO to intervene to prevent what they said was an impending massacre by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

“Our lifeline is the port, and he is going for it,” said Mohammed, a city council spokesman who for security reasons uses only his first name. “If he is able to do that, then we really are in trouble.”

“If a massacre occurs in Misurata, what will be NATO’s position?” added Mohammed, who spoke via Skype. “It is now or never. Either they intervene immediately and bring in ground troops to protect the port or we will all regret this.”

NATO’s mandate under U.N. resolution 1973 is to protect Libyan civilians, a mission that appears to be going unfulfilled in Misurata. The city, which lies 131 miles east of the capital, Tripoli, is the only one in western Libya under rebel control and a major strategic prize in the conflict.

Doctors reached through Skype said five people died in Misurata on Saturday, bringing the death toll there to 36 in the past three days alone and at least 276 since the siege began in late February.

Farther east, rebels said that four days of NATO airstrikes had helped them advance toward the strategic oil town of Brega, a city that has already changed hands half a dozen times.

But in Misurata, there was no respite, with NATO citing the difficulty of identifying clear targets within the city.

The fighting intensified Thursday when forces loyal to Gaddafi shelled Misurata’s port, forcing it to close for the day and interrupting the flow of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians. Five Egyptians sheltering in a refugee camp for foreign workers were among the dead that day.

On Friday, there was evidence of cluster bombs being used by the government, according to Human Rights Watch, and further shelling and heavy fighting took place on the city’s main thoroughfare, Tripoli Street, and on the main road between the port and the city.

Rebels said government troops had been seen on foot in the city center Friday, an unusual sight as most usually stay in their tanks and armored cars.

On Saturday, government forces shelled a dairy factory and bakeries in the city, rebels said.

The Libyan government has strenuously denied using cluster bombs and has blamed civilian deaths on the “armed gangs” occupying Misurata, an assertion contradicted by UNICEF and foreign aid workers.

Every day, men, women and children are admitted to the hospitals and clinics of Misurata with head, chest and leg wounds from sniper fire and shrapnel, said Morten Rostrup of Doctors Without Borders who visited the city Friday to bring in supplies and help evacuate civilians.

Local doctors told Rostrup they were managing but could easily run out of supplies if casualties keep coming in, he said, adding that many patients were being discharged too early, to make room for others.

“If the port was cut off and there was no way to get supplies in, it would create a very dire humanitarian situation,” he said, speaking by phone from Tunis, where he had just arrived.

Misurata’s port is also a conduit for guns and ammunition sent to the rebels from their stronghold in Benghazi, 500 miles to the east.

Rostrup said thousands of foreign workers were sheltering in a makeshift camp by the port hoping to be evacuated. They had plastic sheets and blankets for shelter, not enough water and were facing an epidemic of gastroenteritis, he said.

Residents of Misurata say they are grateful for the help NATO has provided, but as the shelling continues, they say they need more.

“They are shelling a factory today that makes milk and dairy products for children,” said Aiman Abushahma, a doctor, who spoke via Skype. “We are at war, under siege, and it seems like no help is coming from NATO or anybody.”

“They are firing Grad rockets,” he added, referring to Russian truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers. “Surely they are big enough to be seen by NATO and to be destroyed?”

denyers@washpost.com

Is Twitter worth $10

Is Twitter worth $10 billion? John Dvorak’s Second Opinion – MarketWatch: BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Th... http://twurl.nl/24wsmq

U.S. Unveils Plan to

U.S. Unveils Plan to Shield $10 Trillion Online Marketplace – Bloomberg: inShare4 More Business Exchange ... http://twurl.nl/rmf4ht

U.S. Unveils Plan to Shield $10 Trillion Online Marketplace - Bloomberg

The U.S. government plans to spend $56.3 million on technology aimed at safeguarding the online marketplace and those who operate in it, including consumers, businesses and government agencies.

“The fact is that the old password and username combination we often use to verify people is no longer good enough,” and leaves Internet users “vulnerable to ID and data theft,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said at a conference today in Washington. “Nowadays, the world does an estimated $10 trillion of business online.”

The plan, called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, “charts a course for the public and private sectors to collaborate to raise the level of trust” connected to online identities, according to the plan.

The administration will play a supporting role and let the private sector take the lead in developing and operating the network, Locke said.

A $24.5 million Commerce Department allocation in fiscal 2012 goes toward the development of a network of credentials that would allow consumers to prove their identities while conducting online transactions.

The network, called the “Identity Ecosystem” would let consumers use devices such as “software on a smartphone, a smart card, or a token that generates a one-time digital password,” according to a White House statement.

The effort will include pilot programs to help facilitate the development of security devices.

‘Biggest Buyer’

The pilot projects are important to companies because the government is showing a willingness “to come to the market as a buyer,” said Mike Ozburn, a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH) who has been involved in the plans.

“What each company knows is that they on their own are not big enough” to start this system, Ozburn said. The government will create the marketplace with the pilot programs, to which it has designated $25 million next year, and then will be the first big buyer of the technology, he said.

“The biggest buyer now said that they’re ready,” he said in a telephone interview.

Some secure identification mechanisms will be ready for consumer use in the next three to five years, with the full system available to “those who choose to adopt it” in 10 years, according to the plan.

“The government will neither mandate that individuals obtain an Identity Ecosystem credential nor that companies require Identity Ecosystem credentials from consumers,” according to the plan.

In 2010, companies lost about $37 billion to online fraud or theft, and 8.1 million U.S. adults had their identities stolen, according to a February report prepared by Javelin Strategy & Research, a Pleasanton, California-based research group.

To contact the reporter on this story: Juliann Neher in Washington at jfrancis31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net

Is Twitter worth $10 billion? John Dvorak's Second Opinion - MarketWatch

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — There has been a slew of rumors that Twitter Inc. turned down a $10 billion offer from Google Inc. to acquire the microblogging site. Among the rationales for the high valuation is that Twitter, like Facebook Inc., is an important social-networking tool.

First of all, Twitter is really a messaging service with various uses, and only a few uses remotely impinge on Facebook. In addition, there is no clear major revenue model for Twitter, and it’s doubtful that Google /quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog GOOG -8.26%  will be able to change that.

When you sign up for Twitter, you seek to create a network of people with which you can exchange messages. You also follow others you hope will provide you with links or insight about certain topics.

Weather: Tornado, Winds, Kill at Least 16 in Southern States - ABC News

Powerful storms snapped power lines, uprooted trees and smashed cars across the south this week. Seven deaths were reported in Alabama Saturday, raising the storm's total death toll to at least sixteen.