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FAA declares ‘no-fly’ zone directly over crippled Nebraska nuclear plant, but claims everything is just fine
Last week, NaturalNews reported that rising Missouri River flood waters prompted officials to declare a “Notification of Unusual Event” as the Fort Calhoun Nuclear plant just outside of Omaha, Neb. (http://www.naturalnews.com/032672_n…). Since that time, flood waters have continued to rise, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared a mysterious two-mile radius “no-fly” zone around the plant for unknown reasons, and federal officials continue to claim in spite of all this that plant is just fine.
According to reports, the plant has been in shutdown mode since April for refueling, and is allegedly still dry inside, despite being literally surrounding in every direction by massive flood waters. However, after the notification of unusual event was announced, as well as the cryptic FAA declaration that no aircraft is permitted to fly Read more…
Flights out of Scotland cancelled as ash cloud from Iceland volcano ‘will drift over UK within hours’
A Scottish airline has cancelled 36 flights tomorrow as the ash cloud billowing from a volanco in Iceland approaches UK airspace.
Regional carrier Loganair, which flies out of Glasgow, announced that there would be no flights following a Civil Aviation Authority warning that disruption could not be ruled out.
The Met Office is predicting the plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano will begin to drift over parts of Scotland in the next few hours and would cover all of Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 6am tomorrow.
Asked whether this would cause some disruption to flights, a CAA spokesman said: ‘That’s the way it’s looking certainly at the moment.’
William Hague, however, has said he does not predict the volcano will not cause the chaos seen a year ago. The Foreign Secretary has said that Britain has more information on how ash clouds move and is less likely to have to enforce a blanket flight ban.
Last April airports across the UK were shut down for five days. With school half-term holidays next week any disruption to UK airports would cause chaos for hundreds of thousands of families.
Why the world is quiet as Syria crackdown continues
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, pictured here at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome Friday, also spoke in Italy about the US plan to keep pressure on Syria for political reforms.
The United States on Monday suggested it is using the current weak position of the Syrian government on the world stage to try to pressure it into dropping its support for Hezbollah, the extremist organization in Lebanon.
In an interview with the US-funded Radio Sawa, US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the US is demanding from the Syrian government that it immediately cease its assistance to Hezbollah and treat Lebanon as a friendly and sovereign country.
Aside from that development, however, the US – like much of the international community – appears to have adopted a muted response to Syria in the wake of its continuing crackdown on dissidents.
Officially, the Obama administration says that unlike Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, President Bashar al-Assad still has time to reverse Read more…
Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels
An ammunition belt hangs over a car door painted in the colours of the rebel Kingdom of Libya flag near Brega in eastern Libya March 30, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Finbarr O’Reilly
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with the matter.
Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. This is a necessary legal step before such action can take place but does not mean that it will.
As is common practice for this and all administrations, I am not going to comment on intelligence matters,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “I will reiterate what the president said yesterday — no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya.”
The CIA declined comment. Read more…
World powers agree to set up contact group to map out Libya’s future
“Participants of the conference agreed to establish the Libya Contact Group,” said a statement issued by Mr Hague, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting of more than 35 countries plus the UN and Nato.
“Qatar has agreed to convene the first meeting of the group as soon as possible,” the statement said.
The group will provide “leadership and overall political direction to the international effort in close co-ordination with the UN (United Nations), AU (African Union), Arab League, OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and EU (European Union) to support Libya.”
The London conference was called to map out Libya’s future following the fighting between forces loyal to the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and rebels opposed to his four-decade rule.
Britain, France and the United States had launched military strikes on Libya ten days ago to Read more…
Nato takes over Libya no-fly zone
Nato has agreed to take command of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya from the US.
But Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made clear that other aspects of the operation would remain in the hands of the current coalition for now.
Nato has been locked in dispute about whether to take charge of the mission to enforce a UN resolution.
It is believed there are differences of opinion whether attacks on ground troops should form part of the action.
Coalition raids on Libya are meanwhile continuing for a sixth consecutive night.
Mr Rasmussen has insisted there is no split on the military handover, saying Nato is still considering whether to take on the “broader responsibility”.
The handover of the no-fly mission could come as early as this weekend.
Mr Rasmussen said all Nato members had agreed to the move, including Turkey, which had expressed Read more…
Libya no-fly zone cost could hit $1 bln in months
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – The no-fly zone over Libya could end up costing the Western coalition more than $1 billion if the operation drags on more than a couple of months, defense analysts say.
Zack Cooper, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the initial cost of eliminating Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s air defenses was likely to be between $400 million and $800 million.
The expense of patrolling the no-fly zone once it is established is likely to be $30 million to $100 million a week, he said.
The U.S. military has no official cost figures yet for the operation, which has been going on less Read more…
Concern about mission creep grows as more bombs fall on Libya
Barely 48 hours into the Libyan war, the American general running the air strikes came under fire about mission creep even while insisting that allied warplanes won’t hunt Moammar Gadhafi or back the rebels seeking to oust him.
“I have no mission to attack that person. And we are not doing so. We are not seeking his whereabouts or anything like that,” said General Carter Ham, U.S. regional commander for all of Africa.
Concerns over mission creep continue to be raised around the world – including in Canada – as a new set of strikes hit Triopoli late Monday. On a day in which Canadian CF-18s flew their first missions over Libya and Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canada had a “moral duty” to participate, all four opposition parties endorsed Canadian involvement in the mission but pressed for details over how long the mission would last, what it would cost, and how it would Read more…
Arab League criticizes Western strikes on Libya
AFP
CAIRO – The Arab League on Sunday criticized Western military strikes on Libya, a week after urging the United Nations to slap a no-fly zone on the oil-rich North African state.
“What has happened in Libya differs from the goal of imposing a no-fly zone and what we want is the protection of civilians and not bombing other civilians,” Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa told reporters.
On March 12, the Arab League urged the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone on Libya and said Moammar Gadhafi’s regime had “lost legitimacy” as it sought to snuff out a rebellion designed to oust him from power.
In the West’s biggest intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, US warships and a British submarine fired more than 120 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libya on Saturday, the US military said.
French warplanes also carried out strikes.
The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on Thursday authorising military action to prevent Gadhafi’s forces from attacking civilians.
Libya crisis: fighter plane ‘shot down’ as Gaddafi forces attack Benghazi
A Libyan rebel grimaces on the frontline near Sultan, south of Benghazi Photo: AP
News agency reports a fighter plane has been shot down and artillery bombardment of the city.
“The explosions started about 2 a.m. Gaddafi’s forces are advancing, we hear they’re 20 kms (12 miles) from Benghazi,” Faraj Ali, a resident, said.
Gaddafi’s forces advance into Benghazi pre-empted an international meeting hosted by France to discuss military intervention in Libya. The meeting will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Arab leaders.
“We saw Gaddafi’s tanks, cars and missile trucks less than five km away,” a rebel figher giving his name as Mohammed told Reuters.
Libya had declared a unilateral ceasefire on Friday after the U.N. Security Council authorised a no-fly zone over Libya.
But the United States accused Gaddafi of defying international demands for an immediate ceasefire, and France’s U.N. envoy predicted military action within hours of the Paris meeting on Read more…
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