Stolen cobalt60 found in Mexico curious thieves likely doomed
No related posts. MEXICO CITY — The day after a load of stolen radioactive material was found in a field, Mexican authorities had formed a perimeter around the area and were measuring for contamination as they planned the recovery process Thursday, according to Mexican news reports.Federal police and soldiers formed a cordon of several hundred yards around the highly radioactive container of cobalt-60, stolen earlier in the week in a carjacking as the material was being moved from a public hospital in the border town of Tijuana to a storage facility in central Mexico, news reports said.The carjackers, who set off international alarm bells by absconding with the material, most likely had no idea what they were stealing and will probably die soon from exposure, Mexican authorities said at the end of a brief national scare.The prospect that material that could be used in a radioactive dirty bomb had gone missing sparked an urgent two-day hunt, which concluded Wednesday afternoon when the cobalt-60, used in hospital radiotherapy machines, was found along with the stolen Volkswagen truck. Mexican officials said no public health risk remained, although one family who lived nearby may have been exposed.The driver of the cargo truck and his assistant worked for a licensed private company, and the lethal radioactive substance was sealed in the back, according to news reports.The truck, equipped with a crane, was nearing its destination early Tuesday morning, several hours before the storage facility opened. While waiting for daybreak at a gas station in the state of Hidalgo, north of Mexico City, the drivers were jumped by two gunmen who beat them and stole the truck, said Mardonio Jiménez, a physicist and high-ranking official with Mexico’s nuclear safety commission.With lethal radioactive material on the loose, Mexican authorities posted a lookout across six states. The International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the material “could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed” from its casing.“I believe, definitely, that the thieves did not know what they had,” Jiménez said. “They were interested in the crane, in the vehicle.”The cobalt-60 was found, removed from its casing, in a rural area near the town of Hueypoxtla, about 25 miles from where the truck was stolen. Jiménez said he suspected that curiosity got the better of the thieves, and they opened the box. So far the carjackers have not been arrested, but authorities expect they will not live long.“The people who handled it will have severe problems with radiation,” he said. “They will, without a doubt, die.”© 2013, The Washington Post Facebook Comments
Ex-FBI agent details raid on Phoenix body donation facility The presence of civilians across the battle zone is one of the main factors hindering the tactics and progress of government forces. Officials say that army operations are hampered not only by poor equipment and lack of air support, but by the presence of the militants in people’s homes, and fears that fighting in rural districts could set fire to the wheat crop now ready for harvest.Provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Sabor Nasrati conceded that “progress is slow.”“To avoid civilian casualties we can’t use heavy artillery and we don’t have air support” since the departure last year of international combat troops as the U.S. and NATO operations moved to a training and support role. “It makes our men on the ground extra careful and slows the operation.”A total of 204 war-wounded were admitted to Kunduz’s only trauma hospital, run by French NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres, between April 24, when the assault kicked off the Taliban’s annual warm-weather offensive, and May 11, said project coordinator Laurent Gabriel. “In just one week, May 11-17, 84 people arrived with war wounds, double the number in the same week last year,” he said. In this Thursday, May 21, 2015 photo, an Afghan refugee woman walks near her tent in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Kunduz province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. When the Taliban descended a month ago on Dam Shakh, a hamlet on the wheat-growing plains of northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, nobody was prepared. By the time they were beaten back from the provincial capital of Kunduz, more than 100,000 people were forced from their homes and total of 204 war-wounded were admitted to Kunduz’s only trauma hospital, run by French NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres in less than a month. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) Patients with chronic pain give advice Comments Share Mohammad Aslam welcomes the militiamen into his compound in Al-Chin, which he shared with the families of his five brothers until they found themselves on the front line of the newest war. Half the family compound was destroyed and most of the 40 residents fled. He remains with a couple of his young sons to tend the cows and donkeys tethered under a tree, and the chickens and ducks with their newly-hatched broods.“We fought here for a week alone, we were surrounded, we fought until we ran out of ammunition,” he said.Now as he kicks the charred bricks and wood of a brother’s house, Aslam worries that it will be a long time before lasting peace is assured.Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Milstead says best way to stop wrong-way incidents is driving sober Top Stories Former Arizona Rep. Don Shooter shows health improvement
New Valley school lets students pick career-path academies The hospital’s wards tell the tale of the past month’s violence.Seventeen-year-old Nasrullah was walking home from school on May 17 when he was caught in crossfire in the Iman Sahib district north of the city — scene of some of the worst fighting. “I heard the gunfire, but it slowed down and I thought it was ok to keep walking along the road,” said Nasrullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name. He took three bullets in his left leg — now pinned and hoisted — and one in his right leg.In the opposite bed, 18-year-old policeman Abdullah Raouf is recovering from a May 19 mortar attack in Gor Tepa. Still dazed from surgery, he was unable to talk as two male relatives said both legs and his right shoulder were wounded.In areas returned to government control, a tense and uncertain peace prevails. The militias in mufti outnumber the army. Military Humvees and armored police vehicles come and go sporadically, and soldiers sit in watchtowers reinforced with dirt-filled Hesco bags. In the fields, the wheat is cut into sheaves, and the occasional shop opens for the residents who are tentatively making a return to their damaged homes.Residents of villages like Talawka, with 4,000 households and just a few kilometers from the front line at Gor Tepa, are not taking their shaky moment of respite for granted. Local militia groups were drafted for the front-line fight, some of them armed and paid by the provincial authorities. Now they patrol the cleared areas, walking in single file along the mud-brick walls of deserted compounds and through the shimmering wheat fields — their automatic rifles, grenade launchers and machine guns slung over baggy cotton shalwar khameez. KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (AP) — When the Taliban descended a month ago on Dam Shakh, a hamlet on the wheat-growing plains of northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, nobody was prepared.“They turned up suddenly and took us completely by surprise,” said resident Ghulam Sakhi of the night of April 24 when hundreds of Taliban militants launched a coordinated attack. “It was horrific. People just started running away as fast as they could and for those who stayed, we were on our own for 10 days. The government just couldn’t cope.” Military and intelligence authorities were equally surprised. Armed gunmen took over homes and used residents as human shields. Army reinforcements didn’t arrive for days and then lacked supplies — ammunition, food, fuel — because of poor logistics, Gov. Mohammad Omer Safi said. As government forces rallied their defenses, the fighting raged for more than two weeks as the militants came within three kilometers (less than 2 miles) of the provincial capital, Kunduz city, Safi said.For now, the city of Kunduz appears secured. A combined force of government troops and hastily recruited militiamen has pushed managed to push back the insurgents to Gor Tepa, some 15 kilometers (12 miles) from Kunduz city, and liberated occupied villages and hamlets such as Talawka and Dam Shakh.But the battle continues and Afghan officials concede it will be slow, bloody work to dislodge the insurgents much further. In the meantime, the region’s civilian population will bear the brunt of living on Afghanistan’s new northern front line. Already more than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, many renting houses or staying with other families and receiving assistance from U.N. agencies and other charities. Parents, stop beating yourself up Sponsored Stories 5 treatments for adult scoliosis
Speculation continues on Tuesday over who would be in President Nicos Anastasiades’ new cabinet, suggestions that Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides will step down and the president himself saying the body would contains new faces, including women.Director of the President’s Office Michalis Sophocleous in a Facebook post all but confirmed Kasoulides’ retirement, saying “your departure would be a loss for the country.”Sophocleous added, “You are leaving as a gentleman, as you have always been. Cyprus owes you tremendous gratitude.”The comments follow those made by Health Minister Giorgos Pamboridis at Anastasiades’ victory speech on Sunday where he said he felt his time at the helm of his troubled ministry had come to an end and someone else should have the chance to take charge.Meanwhile in an interview with Euronews Anastasiades said “there will be more women, and new individuals.”In the current cabinet there is only one woman, Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou. Anastasiades said the new complement of 11 ministers and the under-ministers in the process of being created will include more women.He said the cabinet will also include people in their 40s and 50s who have already shown a significant contribution over the previous five-year period.When asked about Kasoulides he said he would discuss his plans with him in the coming days.Speculation is rife that he will be replaced by current government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides.Earlier in the day on Tuesday in a statement Anastasiades said he wished to make it clear that “his main concern after his re-election is to define and prioritise a series of actions based on his election programme”.He will deal with the makeup of the new cabinet after planning the policies to tackle the problems and challenges the new government has to face, the statement said.Anastasiades is expected to make an announcement before the new government is sworn in on March 1 as to the new cabinet, but there is no indication at the moment as to when that may be.In the same interview Anastasiades said he planned to call Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in the coming days.Anastasiades responded to Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s statement on Sunday that Greek Cypriots need to “change their mentality” if they want negotiations on the Cyprus issue to resume under UN auspices.The president dismissed changing the basis for negotiations as set by the UN Secretary-General. “Based on Mr Cavusoglu’s statements, there is no clear prospect” in sight, he said.Talking to Akinci would determine whether there was room for “productive dialogue,” said Anastasiades, who intends to contact his Turkish Cypriot counterpart “in a few days,” after the National Council convenes.Anastasiades accused the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot negotiating sides of not budging on their initial positions, and of not responding to the Greek Cypriot side’s proposals during talks in Crans-Montana last summer. Their refusal to compromise on the issue of Turkey’s right to intervene and on the presence of Turkish troops on the island led to “the worst” of “many [such] regressions” from progress achieved, he said, referencing recent news that the Turkish Cypriot side had withdrawn a territorial map submitted to the UN during reunification talks. Anastasiades blamed Ankara’s pressure on the Turkish Cypriot leadership for these backtrackings.Echoing Cavusoglu’s statement on Sunday, Akinci called on Anastasiades to “follow a more realistic and constructive policy” with regards to the Cyprus issue as he congratulated the president on his re-election on Monday. Akinci has also confirmed, following Ozdil Nami’s resignation, that he will not appoint a new negotiator, spelling difficulty in restarting talks.In spite of these developments, the president reiterated his commitment to dialogue, though he stressed that he will remain firm on his position on guarantees, rejecting any scenario that would compromise Cyprus’ “independence”. “The current, unacceptable situation is due to the presence of the Turkish army [on the island],” he said.Anastasiades also stressed the benefits that a solution to the Cyprus problem would spell for Turkey, which would gain a close partner in the EU.You May LikeDr. Marty ProPower Plus Supplement3 Dangerous Foods People Feed Their Dogs (Without Realizing It)Dr. Marty ProPower Plus SupplementUndoPopularEverythingColorado Mom Adopted Two Children, Months Later She Learned Who They Really ArePopularEverythingUndoTotal Battle – Online Strategy GameIf You’re PC User This Strategy Game Is A Must-Have!Total Battle – Online Strategy GameUndo Turkish Cypriot actions in Varosha ‘a clear violation’ of UN resolutions, Nicosia saysUndoConcern over falling tourism numbersUndoPensioner dies after crash on Paphos-Polis roadUndoby Taboolaby Taboola