Japan makes Fukushima a no-go zone

Japan has made it illegal to enter a 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor.

People were urged to leave the area shortly after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant, but the order was not enforced by law.
Cooling systems were knocked out by the twin disasters and radiation has been leaking from the plant.
Brief re-entry will be allowed to the area's 80,000 former residents to collect belongings.
It is not clear how many people are still living in the evacuation zone, but reports said police had counted at least 60 families.
After the disaster the government also declared a wider 10km zone around the 20km evacuation area where people should either stay indoors or leave.
It later recommended that people also evacuate parts of that area as well.
"The plant has not been stable," said the chief government spokesman, Yukio Edano.
"We have been asking residents not to enter the area as there is a huge risk to their safety," he said. "Unfortunately, there are still some people in the areas."
"Today... we have decided to designate the area an emergency area based on disaster law."
He said brief visits would be arranged, with one member of each family allowed back into each house for a two-hour period to pick up belongings, which would then be screened for contamination.
Those who entered illegally could face fines of up to JPY100,000 ($1,200, £730) or possible detention of up to 30 days.
Long wait Most of the evacuees are living in sports hall and gymnasiums as they wait to return home.
It could be a long wait, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo, as the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), has said it aims to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown within nine months.
The evacuation zone will be reassessed then, adds our correspondent.
On Thursday Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited evacuees in Fukushima prefecture. As he left, he was reportedly heckled by some.
"Are you leaving already?" one man reportedly asked, with another evacuee calling on Mr Kan to "exercise much more leadership".
Mr Kan apologised, adding: "The government as a whole is doing our best to implement the timetable without delay, or speed it up."
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are attempting to remove highly radioactive water from a reactor building to allow repair work to the cooling systems knocked out on 11 March.
Emergency workers have been unable to enter any of the damaged reactor buildings at the plant since then.
Speaking in Tokyo ahead of a meeting with Mr Kan, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised a secure and reliable supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan to help it meet shortages caused by the damaged plant.
"Japan will rebuild and Australia will help as a friend," she said. "We have great admiration for Japan's people and great confidence in Japan's future."
Nearly 14,000 people have been confirmed to have died in the earthquake and tsunami, and more than 13,000 people are missing.

France blocks train from Italy with Tunisian immigrants

A train carrying Tunisian immigrants from Italy was halted at the French border in an escalation of an international dispute over the fate of North African migrants fleeing political unrest for refuge in Europe.

But France blamed what it said were hundreds of activists on the train planning a demonstration in France, and posing a problem to public order. Traffic was re-established by evening, but not before Italy lodged a formal protest.

"At no time was there a ... closing of the border between France and Italy," French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henri Brandet said yesterday. It was an "isolated problem," he said by telephone, "an undeclared demonstration." He estimated that up to 10 trains may have been affected, five on each side.

There was no immediate Italian reaction to the French explanation late yesterday.

Italy has been giving temporary residence permits to many of the roughly 26,000 Tunisians who have gone to Italy to escape unrest in northern Africa in recent weeks.

Many of the Tunisians have family ties or friends in France, the country's former colonial ruler, and the Italian government says the permits should allow the Tunisians to go there under accords allowing visa-free travel among many European countries.

France says it will honour the permits only if the migrants prove they can financially support themselves and it has instituted patrols on the Italian border, unprecedented since the introduction of the Schengen travel-free zone, bringing in about 80 riot police last week. Germany has said it would do the same.

A spokesman for the Italian rail company, Maurizio Furia, told The Associated Press in Rome that the train carrying migrants and political activists who support them wasn't allowed to pass into Menton, France, from the border station of Ventimiglia yesterday.

Italy lodged a protest with the French government, calling the move "illegitimate and in clear violation of general European principles" the Italian Foreign Ministry said. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini ordered his envoy in Paris "to express the strong protest of the Italian government."

Paani puri vendor caught peeing in serving bowl

The Thane seller was detained for peeing into utensil he otherwise used to serve customers; let off with Rs 1,200 fine and warning



    If you’re one of the millions in this city who get their kicks out of its street food, the tastelessness of this story is sure to piss you off. A 59-year-old paani puri vendor in Naupada (near Thane) was detained on Thursday for – and no one could make this up – peeing into a small utensil that he otherwise used to serve his customers.

    Rajdev Lakhan Chauhan, who has been serving chaat in Bhaskar Colony in Naupada for four years, was picked up by cops after a resident captured the disgusting act on camera from a nearby balcony.

    Whistle-blower Ankita Rane, a 19-year-old student, was shocked when she first spotted Chauhan urinating into his lota. “His stall is right below our building. Though there were rumours of him being quite gross, his stall was always flooded with customers,” she said. “Since I had nothing to do after my exams, I started keeping an eye on him. Every day, he’d pee into the utensil and then use the same to pour tangy water into the ragda or stir the paani puri mix. Some customers even used that lota to drink water once they had finished eating.”

    When she told her family members and neighbours, however, they refused to believe her. When residents in the area saw the video she had recorded, they first beat up Chauhan before taking him to the police station.

    “Residents of Bhaskar Colony came up with a video clip that showed Chauhan urinating in one of his utensils. We arrested him on Monday night and he confessed. His excuse was that he had nowhere else to pee as there was no urinal around,” Police Inspector Hemant Sawant said, adding that Chauhan said he felt uncomfortable peeing on the streets as Bhaskar Colony was a clean, residential area.

    The police were, however, confused about what section to book Chauhan under. “In the end, all we could book him under was the Bombay Police act for urinating in public places,” Sawant said. On Tuesday morning, Chauhan was produced in a lower court in Thane where, having pleaded guilty, he was fined Rs 1,200 and let off with a warning.

    Around Naupada, the residents are still recovering. Rahul Joshi, another resident from the building, said that Chauhan was quite disgusting even if his toilet breaks were ignored. “We have seen him scratching himself or picking his nose if no one was around. I had always asked my friends to refrain from eating there, but they were so hooked to the taste that they rubbished whatever we said.”

    The Thane Municipal Corporation said they were trying to get vendors under an umbrella body so hygiene levels could be monitored.

The video shot by Rane starts with Rajdev Lakhan Chauhan having some paan



He starts getting fidgety and looks around to see if anyone’s watching ...



Tugging at his dhoti with his right hand, he picks up a lota and slips it under the cart



Thankfully, we can’t see what’s going on underneath ...



Unfortunately, you catch a glimpse when the lota reemerges from under the cart



... and, a one-second rinse later, it’s business as usual for the paani puri vendor