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| Hungarian toxic sludge firm boss arrested Hungarian prime minister tells parliament Zoltan Bakonyi will be held for 72 hours while government takes control of his companyThe director of the Hungarian company responsible for the toxic waste that flooded villages last week has been arrested as authorities race to finish an emergency dam to hold back a threatened second spill.Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, announced the arrest of Zoltan Bakonyi in parliament today and said the government was taking control of his Mal Rt aluminium company and freezing its assets. Bakonyi will be held for 72 hours, a government spokesman said.At least seven people died and one is missing after the sludge, a by-product of aluminium production, leaked from burst banks of a 10-hectare industrial reservoir last Monday.Experts have warned a second flood could be even more toxic because much of what poured out in the original leak was water, leaving the remaining sludge more concentrated.Speaking before his arrest, Bakonyi said the company had "observed every regulation to the letter".A statement on the firm's website said the walls of the burst reservoir met the prescribed standards, based on the findings of a technical survey carried out in 1995.Orban said the company would be liable for the damage caused. "We need to hold the company responsible for the red sludge spill under state control and its assets under state closure until all of these four tasks are handled," he told parliament.He said a state commissioner would be appointed to take over control over Mal Rt and manage its assets. Orban also said the safe resumption of production at the plant was in the public interest and was needed to save the jobs of thousands of workers.Officials said there had been no widening of the cracks overnight on the damaged reservoir. The National Disaster Management Directorate said that measurements taken in the past 24 hours showed no further movement of cracks on the northern wall. More than 500m litres of toxic waste is expected to leak out if the remaining walls collapse.Gyorgyi Tottos, a spokeswoman for the disaster crews, said the effort to contain the waste was "a race against time" as further rain threatens to increase pressure on the reservoir wall.Health authorities are warning the local population, as well as clean-up and construction crews, that the amount of red sludge dust in the air exceeds safe limits and say they should use protective gear.Parts of Kolontar, the town closest to the storage pool, have become uninhabitable and more than 700 residents have been evacuated. Some 6,000 residents of the next village, Devecser, have been ordered to pack a single bag and be ready to abandon their homes at a moment's notice.A spokesman for Orban said he hoped work on the emergency dam would be completed by tomorrow. "We have 4,000 people and 300 machines working at the scene so we are doing our utmost to prevent another tragedy," he said.Gusztav Winkler, a professor at Budapest Technical University, who surveyed the site when the reservoir was being built 30 years ago, told Reuters the structure of the soil made the reservoir unstable.HungaryPollutionMatthew Weaverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Ahmadinejad in Lebanon: A Mideast Doctrine in Ruins A grandstanding state visit allows Iran to demonstrate that its influence in the Arab world forces U.S. allies there to engage with it feedproxy.google.com |
Plan to store Britons' phone and internet data revived Government says police would be able to access data if they could demonstrate it was to prevent a 'terror-related' crimeThe government is to revive a plan to store every email, webpage visit and phone call made in the UK, a move that goes against a pledge made by the Liberal Democrats ahead of the election.The interception modernisation programme, proposed under Labour, would require internet service providers to retain data about how people have used the internet, and for phone networks to record details about phone calls, for an unspecified period.The government says police and security services would be able to access that data if they could demonstrate it was to prevent a "terror-related" crime.The revival of the programme is buried in the strategic defence and security review, which was published yesterday. The review says the programme is required to "maintain capabilities that are vital to the work these agencies do, to protect the public".Ahead of the election, the Lib Dems said they would "end the storage of internet and email records without good reason", a pledge which appears in the coalition agreementThe review says communications data provides evidence in court, and has played a role in "every major security service counterterrorism operation, and in 95% of all serious organised crime investigations".It says: "We will introduce a programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communication data and to intercept communications within the appropriate legal framework … We will put in place the necessary regulations and safeguards to ensure that our response to this technology challenge is compatible with the government's approach to information storage and civil liberties."The Home Office confirmed today it would introduce legislation, but said no timetable or estimate of costs had yet been set.The cost of the programme has been estimated at a minimum of £2bn by the London School of Economics, in a paper published last year. The government had previously declined to respond to Freedom of Information queries about the project.Guy Herbert, of the No2ID group, which opposed ID cards, said: "It is disappointing that the new ministers seem to be continuing their predecessors' tradition of credulousness."Isabella Sankey, of Liberty, told the Telegraph: "Any move to amass more of our sensitive data and increase powers for processing would amount to a significant U-turn."Data protectionTerrorism policyUK security and terrorismFreedom of informationFree our dataData and computer securityGlobal terrorismCharles Arthurguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Pirates seize 2 ships off Kenya By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER 2010-10-24T16:07:13ZBERLIN (AP) -- Somali pirates seized a German freight ship off the coast of Kenya on Sunday - the second commercial vessel to be captured in the region in as many days, officials said.... hosted.ap.org |
Kardashian sisters want out of debit-card deal NEW YORK (AP) -- The Kardashian sisters are seeking to cut ties with a venture that sold prepaid debit cards under their name after coming under attack for the card's high fees. The card, which launched three weeks ago, was aimed at young adults, the same group that watches the sisters' hit cable TV show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."... hosted.ap.org |