Articles by ASA

We found 240 results.


90% of TEPCO Workers Defied Orders, Fled Fukushima Plant in 2011
Hideaki Kimura – The Asahi Shimbun, 1 Sep 2014

Almost all workers, including managers required to deal with accidents, defied orders and fled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant at a critical juncture when the disaster was unfolding in March 2011, documents showed.

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West Antarctic Glaciers in Irreversible Decline
NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 May 2014

In that region, six glaciers hang in a precarious balance, partially supported by land, and partially floating in waters just offshore.

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No Turning Back – West Antarctic Glaciers in Irreversible Decline
NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 May 2014

Over the years, as temperatures around the world have ratcheted upward, climate change researchers have kept a wary eye on one place perhaps more than any other: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and particularly the fastest melting part of it, the glaciers that flow into the Amundsen Sea.

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The Current and Future Consequences of Global Climate Change
NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 May 2014

The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions and an increase in the number, duration and intensity of tropical storms. It has already observable effects: Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.

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Abe Taking Pacifist Constitution Away from the People
The Asahi Shimbun, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 May 2014

May 3, 2014 – Japan’s Constitution cannot be revised with a simple majority vote in the Diet. Any constitutional amendment must first be initiated through a vote of two-thirds or more of all members of each house in the Diet and then approved by the public with a majority vote in a special referendum.

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Peace Education for Genuine Democracy, Good Governance and Nonviolence
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Apr 2014

Prof. Prasad has developed his own concept of peace education, which is based on universally inherent five elements, viz. body, vitality, mind, intellect and spirit, in every man and woman without any discrimination.

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Women, Education and Peace
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Mar 2014

The author dedicates this article to all women of the world on the eve of UN International Day of Peace. Dr. Prasad advises to foster in education and women an essential portion of our perception of life with fearless enthusiasm for improvement of the moral and physical state of mankind by profound and sound education for women’s freedom and against women’s sequestration and war.

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Anti-Whaling Activists Stage Season’s 1st Attack against Japanese Fleet
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jan 2014

Anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tried to disrupt the operations of Japan’s whaling fleet in Antarctic waters on Jan. 10 [2014], the Fisheries Agency said.

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Why Suffering and Spirituality Go Hand-in-Hand
Gadadhara Pandit dasa – The Huffington Post, 23 Dec 2013

As a society, we have become so dependent on material things for our happiness that our lives would become completely disrupted without them. When things are on shaky ground, we pray to God to protect what we have. This need-based spirituality is all right, but it’s a bit superficial.

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Peace Education for Protection of Human Rights and Global Peace
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Dec 2013

This article of Prof. Prasad is on the eve of UN Day of Human Rights which annually falls on December 10. The job of conscientization to the citizens and people of the different nations of the world about their rights can be done very successfully through the knowledge and practice of peace education leading to global peace.

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4 Tons of Contaminated Rainwater Leaks at Fukushima Plant
Reuters - The Asahi Shimbun, 7 Oct 2013

Oct 2, 2013 – Four tons of rainwater contaminated with low levels of radiation leaked at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant during an operation to transfer the water between tank holding areas, the operator said Oct. 1.

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TEPCO Official Denies Abe’s Claim That Nuclear Crisis Is ‘Under Control’
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Sep 2013

“We regard the current situation as not being under control,” Kazuhiko Yamashita, an executive officer of Tokyo Electric Power Co., told a meeting in Fukushima Prefecture. The comment contradicts the well-publicized assurance that Abe gave at an IOC general meeting in Buenos Aires on Sep. 7, before Tokyo was selected as the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games.

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Peace Education and a Call for Social Dialogue on Nonviolence and Peace
Surya Nath Prasad – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Sep 2013

Peace education is education of man (humanity). It is the manifestation of an integral culture of body, vitality, mind, intellect and spirit. These elements constitute every man and woman without any discrimination of race, caste, creed, language, nationality and other differences.

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Extremely High Tritium Level Found in Water in Pit at Fukushima Plant
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Aug 2013

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on July 28 [2013] that an extremely high level of radioactive tritium has been detected in a pit in the compound of its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The level was 8.7 million becquerels per liter of water, which was 145 times that of the permissible level stipulated under the law.

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Waterborne Radioactive Levels in Fukushima Plant Pit Unchanged from 2011
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jul 2013

Water in a pit on the grounds of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been found to contain high levels of radioactive substances, the plant operator said July 27, 2013. 2.35 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium were detected per liter of water on July 26 in the No. 2 reactor. The breakdown was 750 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 1.6 billion becquerels of cesium-137.

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Ex Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan Now Sorry He Pushed Export of Nuclear Plant Technology
Erika Toh – The Asahi Chimbun, 10 Jun 2013

If he could turn the clock back, Naoto Kan says he would never have promoted the export of Japanese nuclear plant technology to India, Turkey and Vietnam. “Before March 11 [2011], I was in favor of the safe usage of nuclear plants, but my thinking has changed 180 degrees after that,” he said.

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Extremists Point to Western Foreign Policy to Explain Their Acts – Why Do We Ignore Them?
Mehdi Hasan – New Statesman, 3 Jun 2013

Often, the likes of Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo, who used violence to make “points” about the Muslim world in Woolwich-UK, aren’t “religious fanatics”. The trigger we refuse to see is our foreign policy.

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Amplified Greenhouse Effect Shifts North’s Growing Seasons
NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Mar 2013

Vegetation growth at Earth’s northern latitudes increasingly resembles lusher latitudes to the south, according to a NASA-funded study based on a 30-year record of ground-based and satellite data sets.

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The Hawks Were Wrong: Iraq Is Worse Off Now
Mehdi Hasan – New Statesman, 18 Feb 2013

So, Saddam is gone – but at what cost? Iraq has been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, as the direct result of an unnecessary, unprovoked war that, according to the former chief justice Lord Bingham, was a “serious violation of international law”. “It was worse than a crime,” said the French diplomat Talleyrand, responding to the execution of the Duc d’Enghien by Napoleon; “it was a blunder.” Iraq turned Talleyrand’s aphorism on its head – it was worse than a blunder; it was a crime.

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NASA Finds Long-Term Climate Warming Trend
Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Jan 2013

NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.

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Sri Lankan Buddhist Chauvinists Provoke Violence against Muslims
Gamini Karunasena and Wasantha Rupasinghe, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Jan 2013

President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government is again giving tacit support to communal provocations against Sri Lanka’s minorities in a bid to divide working people amid the country’s deepening economic and social crisis. This time, Muslims have become the main target of chauvinist groups.

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Overcoming the Scars of Our Caste Past
Anuttama Dasa for The Huffington Post – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2012

Recently, a religion scholar wrote an article on the Huffington Post questioning the legitimacy of non-Indian converts to Hindu/Vedic traditions. The essence of the Vedic culture, today known as Hinduism, teaches that none of us are white, black, brown, red or yellow. We are spiritual beings, eternally lovers and servants of God, who have forgotten our spiritual nature and are wandering through this material world seeking happiness via money, power, sex, fame and other temporary will-o-wisps.

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Kudankulam on Shaky Legal Ground
D. Nagasaila and V. Suresh – The Hindu, 5 Nov 2012

Violations of Coastal Regulation Zone and Environmental Impact Assessment notifications make official claims questionable. The debate over nuclear energy will go on, but the issue with the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is one of the several illegalities on which it is founded.

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“India’s Democracy Has Been Kidnapped” – Udayakumar
Aditi Prasad - The Sunday Indian, 15 Oct 2012

The government’s expert committee has declared the plant safe. But if the reactors are so safe, why is the Russian company not accepting the liability? Our government has agreed that if there is an accident we will pay from our own pockets – that is, pay from the taxpayers money. That is not fair. Also, the plant itself is situated on a fault line. People are saying that there will be no tsunami because the plant is 1600 kilometers away from the tsunami line. But did we expect tsunami to strike the Indian coast in 2004? There are two major slumps near the plant which can trigger a massive tsunami if there is an earthquake.

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Rhetoric and Reality of AFRICOM: Lessons from Mali
Abena Ampofoa Asare – Pambazuka News, 1 Oct 2012

What is the value of America’s military and humanitarian interventions? Just look at Mali: Its shattered democracy and roving rebel groups are a troubling picture of an AFRICOM partner state.

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University of California to Pay Nearly $1 Million in UC Davis Pepper-Spray Settlement
Stephen Ceasar – Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct 2012

The University of California will pay damages of $30,000 to each of the 21 UC Davis students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an otherwise peaceful protest 10 months ago, the university system announced Wednesday [26 Sep 2012].

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Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Commissioning Should Be Deferred
M.G.Devasahayam – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jun 2012

It is famously said: “In public domain, truth is not the truth, perception is the truth”. This adage could be related to the discourse on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). While the arguments in favour of the plant is that it will generate electric power essential for ‘development’, People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) say that the plant will be ‘destructive’ to the life and livelihood of the Project Affected People (PAP).

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Astronomers Predict Titanic Collision: Milky Way vs. Andromeda
NASA Science News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jun 2012

May 31, 2012: NASA astronomers say they can now predict with certainty the next major cosmic event to affect our galaxy, sun, and solar system: the titanic collision of our Milky Way galaxy with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy.

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U.K. MPs Sign Anti-Kudankulam Letter to [India PM] Manmohan
Hasan Suroor – The Hindu, 21 May 2012

The letter, to be handed to the Indian High Commission after a protest planned outside India House on Friday [18 May 2012], also demands withdrawal of police and court cases against anti-KKNPP protesters accusing the security forces of “intimidation” and “harassment”.

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Is Laptop Wi-Fi Murdering Your Semen?
Asawin Suebsaeng – Mother Jones, 12 Dec 2011

The digital age has left men’s nether parts in a squeeze, if you believe the latest science on semen, laptops and wireless connections. In a report…scientists describe how they got semen samples from 29 healthy men, placed a few drops under a laptop connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and then hit download. Four hours later, the semen was, eh, well-done.

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‘Liberticidal Anti-Terror Laws Must Go’
Asad Hashim – Al Jazeera, 19 Sep 2011

International rights advocacy group says laws used pretext of fighting “terror” to legalise discrimination and torture. As the United States positioned itself to respond to the September 11, 2001 attacks, it began by rearranging more than just military assets, but legislative ones, too. It went on to pass the infamous USA PATRIOT Act, which greatly reduced the restrictions on law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Other countries followed suit, and the last 10 years have seen a raft of new anti-terrorism legislation put in place, from Pakistan to Britain, from India to the Philippines.

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Voyager, the Love Story
Dr. Tony Phillips, Science NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2011

April 28, 2011: NASA’s Voyager probes are at the edge of the solar system carrying a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations. Highlights include greetings from humans and whales, some of Earth’s greatest music, and the brainwaves of a young woman in love. Rewind to 1977.

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ScienceCasts: Voyager
ScienceAtNASA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2011

More than 30 years after they were launched, NASA’s two Voyager probes have traveled to the edge of the solar system and are on the doorstep of interstellar space.

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Discovery of “Arsenic-bug” Expands Definition of Life
NASA Science News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Dec 2010

Dec. 2, 2010: NASA-supported researchers have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism, which lives in California’s Mono Lake, substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in the backbone of its DNA and other cellular components.

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The Hiroshima Peace Summit
The Asahi Shimbum, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Nov 2010

Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize gathered in Hiroshima over the weekend [Nov 12-14, 2010] for an international conference held under the theme: The Legacy of Hiroshima: A World Without Nuclear Weapons.” The participants issued a declaration that called for popularizing the view that the use of nuclear weapons is immoral and illegal, immediately ratifying the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty by the United States and Russia, and deeply cutting the nuclear arsenals of nuclear powers…. The organizers of the conference and the city of Hiroshima invited U.S. President Barack Obama, who won the prize last year, to attend, but to no avail…. The U.S. government’s moves to increase the nuclear arms budget and conduct a subcritical nuclear test in September have caused deep disappointment in Hiroshima, leaving many citizens feeling “betrayed” by Obama.

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Nigeria: Shell Oil’s ‘License to Kill’?
Abena Ampofoa Asare – Pambazuka News, 25 Oct 2010

Following a controversial ruling by US Judge José A. Cabranes of the Manhattan-based federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals that transnational corporations ‘cannot be held responsible for torture, genocide, war crimes and the like’, Abena Ampofoa Asare discusses the challenges for establishing responsibility and valuing human rights over profit.

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(Italian) Aosta, 2010, June 1. For Freedom Flotilla
Silvia Berruto, amica e persuasa della nonviolenza – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Jun 2010

Tuesday, 17:00 – Italy – Aosta – Piazza Chanoux. Manifestazione nonviolenta a sostegno della missione della Freedom Flotilla. Contro l’attacco in acque internazionali, da parte di un commando dell’esercito israeliano sferrato il 31 maggio scorso alla nave turca Mavi Marmara carica di aiuti umanitari.

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PUSHING FOR “ZERO TOLERANCE” ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Ramona Vijeyarasa – RH RealityCheck, 10 Feb 2010

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been torn by violent conflicts since its independence from Belgium in 1960. Beginning in 1998, the Second Congo War involved seven foreign armies, these major actors driven largely by desires for control over natural resources, including diamonds, copper, zinc and coltan, these “economic forces and mineral resources fueling […]

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(FRENCH) SOMMET AMÉRIQUE DU SUD-AFRIQUE: CRÉATION DE LA BANQUE DU SUD, VERS UNE BANQUE SUD-SUD
ASA, 3 Oct 2009

Le deuxième sommet des chefs d’États d’Amérique du Sud et d’Afrique (ASA) se déroule ce week end des 26 et 27 septembre 2009 sur l’île de Margarita au Nord-Est du Vénézuela et rassemble les représentants de 61 pays. Le premier sommet a eu lieu fin Novembre 2006 à Abuja au Nigéria . Le Président Vénézuélien, […]

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INTERVIEW WITH JOHAN GALTUNG ABOUT THE CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA
Namini Wijedasa – Journalist, 24 Apr 2009

Editor’s Note: Published on Sun Apr 26 2009 in The Island, a major Sri Lankan daily. NW – The Rajapaksa regime used the attack on Sri Lanka’s embassy in Oslo to officially terminate Norway’s role as facilitator in the peace process. Hanssen Bauer responded via news reports that mediation had ended a long time ago. […]

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