Wednesday, May 21, 2008

At least two men in Sweden were arrested after security officials at the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant discovered traces of an explosive material on a plastic bag. Oskarshamnsverkets Kraftgrupp OKG operates the plant, which is one of three nuclear power plants in Sweden.

Reports say that on the outside of a bag was Acetone peroxide, or TATP, primarily used as a high yield explosive, but is also an organic peroxide used in making chemicals for cleaning.

The unidentified men in their 40’s to 50’s, who were contractors and welders hired for doing work at the plant, were stopped as they entered the plant. Authorities were called to the scene along with the bomb squad, who sealed off parts of the plant when they detected the explosive material on a bag’s handle. Security detected the material in what is described by CNN as a “routine” security check. Police believe it was on one of the man’s hands when it rubbed off onto the bag, but no bomb was found after an extensive search. Both men have been charged with attempted sabotage and are still undergoing interrogation. Both face sentences of up to two years in prison.

Plant officials state that the plant has never received a threat “not in the past, not now, and we have no threat for the future,” said President of OKG, Lars Thuring. “The only thing that we have found is this trace of explosives in the bag.”

TATP is “very unstable, very sensitive to both friction and shocks,” said Swedish Defense Research Agency expert, Svante Karlsson. A small amount could cause serious damage to someone handling the material which is described as ‘Mother of Satan’. Would-be ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid used the substance in an attempt to blow up American Airlines flight 63 from Paris, France to Miami, Florida in 2001. The same substance was also used in the July 2005 bombings in London, England.

The plant’s reactors, where the men were scheduled to work, were turned off on May 11 for routine maintenance. The rest of the plant’s operations were not interrupted.

Monday, December 24, 2007

The “NBA 2K8 Asia Championship” Taiwan Qualifier, organized by NBA Asia Corp. and sponsored by Microsoft Taiwan, was held on December 22 & 23. According to the organizer, Taiwan was chosen as the first on-site stage tournament because of some of the market share factor on the gaming industry and the gaming population.

In Taiwan’s qualifier, the organizer successively invited models from Catwalk Production House and two Taiwanese bands (Yummy, 2moro) for friendship matches with the public. With the entertainers’ participation, it attracted media and press in the entertainment industry.

On the other hand, to conjunct with sports and gaming, the organizer set the experience area with not only the Xbox 360 gaming console but also a shooting machine.

In this 2-day qualifier, due to some issues on the arrangement of the schedule, some registered gamers offered to quit the championship, but it didn’t take effect on the results of the single day champion, the 2-day champion, and overall champion. Finally, Yu-cheng Lin won the overall champion to participate in the Grand Final of the championship in South Korea on January 12, 2008.

According to the organizer, the Hong Kong qualifier will start on January 5 & 6, 2008 at Plaza Hollywood in Diamond Hill, Hong Kong.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005File:Plastic bag stock sized.jpg

They are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. A report issued on Feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that Kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country’s environmental problems stemming from the bags’ popularity.

Friday, February 23, 2007

A major snowfall has disrupted transport in Norway this week. Several roads and all railway services have been reported as closed due to the heavy snowfall, and meteorologists have recommended that people try to stay at home if possible. Snow storms are also causing problems in other parts of Southern Scandinavia, such as Denmark and Southern Sweden.

In Norway, the E-18, the highway from Kristiansand and eastwards have been closed after several accidents, which according to the local police primarily was the result of truck drivers not having prepared for the heavy snow and getting stuck.

Several cars got stuck as a result of this, with some motorists being stuck from 3.30 pm Wednesday until Thursday morning. The local Red Cross cooperated with the police in getting food and gasoline out to the stuck drivers, and also evacuated a bus full of senior citizens who had been out on an excursion.

Regional bus and rail services have been canceled for most of Wednesday and Thursday from Kristiansand and eastwards, and in Kristiansand and nearby areas in the southern regions of Norway the heavy snowfall also made local traffic slow with major disruptions and delays.

According to the regional newspaper Fædrelandsvennen, it is expected that there will be about 100 cm more snowfall on Friday alone, with Wednesday and Thursday having resulted in 50 cm so far.