Brazilian police defend security for Pope
RIO DE JANEIRO – Even though Pope Francis’ motorcade ended up stalled on a traffic-choked street and swarmed by thousands of faithful, Brazilian officials said Tuesday they evaluated security for the pontiff’s arrival in Rio as “positive.”
The frenzied crowd surrounded the motorcade Monday afternoon as people reached inside to touch Francis, snap photos with their phones or hand him babies to kiss – scenes that alarmed some onlookers, although the pope himself seemed overjoyed with the raucous welcome and kept his car window down. Francis later moved through the masses in an open-air vehicle.
Early Tuesday, Brazilian security forces blamed each other for the lapse, and no one took responsibility for the traffic fiasco, which began when the driver of the pope’s car made a wrong turn.
Later though, federal police, who are in charge of most of Francis’ security, took an upbeat tone.
Images show North Korea launch-pad halt
SEOUL, South Korea – An eight-month construction standstill at a North Korean site meant to launch bigger and better long-range rockets may signal Pyongyang is slowing or even stopping development of larger rockets, according to a new analysis of recent satellite imagery.
The sight of unfinished roads and grass growing from the foundation of a large new rocket assembly building could be welcome news for Washington and others who see Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile work as a threat – though it is unknown if the work stoppage is only temporary.
Another unknown is why North Korea stopped construction on the launch pad, rocket assembly building and launch control center at what was intended to be a major new facility at the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground on the northeast coast, according to analysis provided to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website for the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
But the analysis of May 26 commercial satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe and Astrium provides some possible scenarios about what’s happening.
One theory is that equipment and construction troops sent from the site to help repair widespread rain damage last year may still be at other posts. Another is that North Korea’s leadership has decided that its more modern Sohae rocket launching site on the northwest coast, the one used to launch rockets in April and December 2012, will be sufficient to support large rocket development
Japan plant likely contaminating sea
TOKYO – A Japanese utility said Monday its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is likely leaking contaminated water into sea, acknowledging for the first time a problem long suspected by experts.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, also came under fire Monday for not disclosing earlier that the number of plant workers with thyroid radiation exposures exceeding threshold levels for increased cancer risks was 10 times what it said released earlier.
The delayed announcements underscored the criticisms the company has faced over the Fukushima crisis. TEPCO has been repeatedly blamed for overlooking early signs, and covering up or delaying the disclosure of problems and mishaps.
Company spokesman Masayuki Ono told a regular news conference that plant officials have come to believe that radioactive water that leaked from the wrecked reactors is likely to have seeped into the underground water system and escaped into the sea.
Associated Press
