More than a decade after sweatshop labour for top brands became a mainstream issue, the problem still seems endemic across the global clothing and footwear sector Marks and Spencer’s, Next, Ralph Lauren, DKNY, GAP, Converse, Banana Republic, Land’s End, Levi’s. And so the list of brands go on and on. What do they all have in common? According to a deeply depressing report (pdf) by the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), the factories in Asia contracted to make their products are still responsible for shocking working practices. More than a decade after sweatshop labour for high street brands became a mainstream issue, and after plenty of companies have instituted monitoring of their supply chains, the problem still seems endemic right across the global clothing and footwear sector. Many of the factories supplying the brands likely to dominate the Olympics in 2012, such as Adidas, Nike, Slazenger, Speedo and Puma, “are routinely breaking every rule in the book when it comes to labour rights”, according to the ITGLWF. The list of brands ultimately sourcing from the 83 factories surveyed in the report is so comprehensive, it seems to make a mockery of the whole idea that the high street has cleaned up its act. Factories in three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – were surveyed, and not one of them paid a living wage to their combined 100,000-strong workforce. Many of them didn’t even pay the legal minimum wage. What the report also makes clear is that this is a gender issue: 76% of the surveyed workforce are women. Globalised supply chains exploit predominantly female labour. It’s an irony that probably escapes most of the women who do the bulk of high street shopping in the west. Women shopping for products made by other, underpaid, exploited, women. What’s more, things seem to be getting worse, rather than better. Employment is becoming more precarious as more workers are put on to temporary contracts, day labour, on call rather than with permanent jobs. That enables employers to dodge holiday pay, sick pay and written contracts. Employers also imposed compulsory overtime, lower wages and higher production targets on workers on these short-term contracts. Such precarious employment makes it harder for trade unions to organise and recruit, because contracts are not renewed if the worker has been involved in trade union activity. On average, 25% of workers in Indonesia were short-term or temporary, while in the Philippines it rose to 85% in one factory, 50% at another. In Sri Lanka, wages were paid on productivity targets – despite such a practice being illegal. At one factory in Girigara, basic pay was cut if targets set by the management were not achieved. At another factory owned by the same company in Katunayake, workers didn’t receive any incentive pay unless the entire quota was reached, but workers reported that the targets were impossible to meet so they never got their bonuses, even if they missed toilet breaks and rest periods to try and reach the target. At other factories, workers were forced to work overtime to meet productivity targets. The report found that excessive overtime was the “norm” in sportswear and leisurewear factories in Indonesia; workers in all the factories surveyed were doing between 10 and 40 hours of overtime a week. There were incidents of mental and physical abuse when workers failed to reach production targets – in one factory, 40 workers were locked in an unventilated room without access to toilet facilities, water and food for over three hours as a punishment. In Sri Lanka, workers were forced to work up to 130 hours per month in overtime, and anyone asking to leave would be verbally harassed. In the Philippines, 24% of workers said that they did not receive additional pay for their overtime. Typical hours can be 6am to 8pm. Many of the workers at these factories in Sri Lanka are young women from rural areas. They are told when recruited that the factories prefer them not to marry, and some companies even carry out pregnancy tests to weed out pregnant women. Sexual intimidation and abuse was common. In many cases, the employers’ behaviour was illegal, but the report – which picked factories at random – points out that what makes laws effective is a well resourced inspection regime. Without inspection, legislation is meaningless. It’s worth adding at the end of this catalogue of abuse that the UK Department for International Development (DfID) has just axed funding to the International Labour Organisation , one of the oldest international bodies in the world trying to improve labour standards. The ILO brings out a report on Friday in conjunction with the Asian Development Bank on women’s employment patterns across Asia and inequality. Retail industry Sri Lanka Philippines Indonesia International trade Madeleine Bunting guardian.co.uk
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More than a decade after sweatshop labour for top brands became a mainstream issue, the problem still seems endemic across the global clothing and footwear sector Marks and Spencer’s, Next, Ralph Lauren, DKNY, GAP, Converse, Banana Republic, Land’s End, Levi’s. And so the list of brands go on and on. What do they all have in common? According to a deeply depressing report (pdf) by the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), the factories in Asia contracted to make their products are still responsible for shocking working practices. More than a decade after sweatshop labour for high street brands became a mainstream issue, and after plenty of companies have instituted monitoring of their supply chains, the problem still seems endemic right across the global clothing and footwear sector. Many of the factories supplying the brands likely to dominate the Olympics in 2012, such as Adidas, Nike, Slazenger, Speedo and Puma, “are routinely breaking every rule in the book when it comes to labour rights”, according to the ITGLWF. The list of brands ultimately sourcing from the 83 factories surveyed in the report is so comprehensive, it seems to make a mockery of the whole idea that the high street has cleaned up its act. Factories in three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – were surveyed, and not one of them paid a living wage to their combined 100,000-strong workforce. Many of them didn’t even pay the legal minimum wage. What the report also makes clear is that this is a gender issue: 76% of the surveyed workforce are women. Globalised supply chains exploit predominantly female labour. It’s an irony that probably escapes most of the women who do the bulk of high street shopping in the west. Women shopping for products made by other, underpaid, exploited, women. What’s more, things seem to be getting worse, rather than better. Employment is becoming more precarious as more workers are put on to temporary contracts, day labour, on call rather than with permanent jobs. That enables employers to dodge holiday pay, sick pay and written contracts. Employers also imposed compulsory overtime, lower wages and higher production targets on workers on these short-term contracts. Such precarious employment makes it harder for trade unions to organise and recruit, because contracts are not renewed if the worker has been involved in trade union activity. On average, 25% of workers in Indonesia were short-term or temporary, while in the Philippines it rose to 85% in one factory, 50% at another. In Sri Lanka, wages were paid on productivity targets – despite such a practice being illegal. At one factory in Girigara, basic pay was cut if targets set by the management were not achieved. At another factory owned by the same company in Katunayake, workers didn’t receive any incentive pay unless the entire quota was reached, but workers reported that the targets were impossible to meet so they never got their bonuses, even if they missed toilet breaks and rest periods to try and reach the target. At other factories, workers were forced to work overtime to meet productivity targets. The report found that excessive overtime was the “norm” in sportswear and leisurewear factories in Indonesia; workers in all the factories surveyed were doing between 10 and 40 hours of overtime a week. There were incidents of mental and physical abuse when workers failed to reach production targets – in one factory, 40 workers were locked in an unventilated room without access to toilet facilities, water and food for over three hours as a punishment. In Sri Lanka, workers were forced to work up to 130 hours per month in overtime, and anyone asking to leave would be verbally harassed. In the Philippines, 24% of workers said that they did not receive additional pay for their overtime. Typical hours can be 6am to 8pm. Many of the workers at these factories in Sri Lanka are young women from rural areas. They are told when recruited that the factories prefer them not to marry, and some companies even carry out pregnancy tests to weed out pregnant women. Sexual intimidation and abuse was common. In many cases, the employers’ behaviour was illegal, but the report – which picked factories at random – points out that what makes laws effective is a well resourced inspection regime. Without inspection, legislation is meaningless. It’s worth adding at the end of this catalogue of abuse that the UK Department for International Development (DfID) has just axed funding to the International Labour Organisation , one of the oldest international bodies in the world trying to improve labour standards. The ILO brings out a report on Friday in conjunction with the Asian Development Bank on women’s employment patterns across Asia and inequality. Retail industry Sri Lanka Philippines Indonesia International trade Madeleine Bunting guardian.co.uk
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Revenue and subscriber growth puts pressure on Rupert Murdoch to improve offer when government clears takeover deal BSkyB has reported strong growth in the three months to the end of March, adding pressure on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation to improve its 700p-per-share offer when culture secretary Jeremy Hunt gives final clearance for the takeover to go ahead. BSkyB added a total of 51,000 new customers in the first quarter – ahead of most analysts’ expectations – as revenue grew 12.8% year on year to £1.65bn and underlying earnings grew by 5% to £344m. On an adjusted basis, pre-tax profits were down 32.7% year on year to £238m due to exceptional items in the first quarter last year such as the sale of most of BSkyB’s 17.9% stake in ITV. The BSkyB chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, said that the satellite broadcaster had delivered “another good performance in what has clearly been a tough consumer environment”. Operating profit climbed from £249m to £261m. However, with Hunt expected to imminently announce official clearance for News Corporation to proceed with tabling an offer for the 61% in BSkyB that it does not already own, analysts are keenly keeping an eye on key metrics such as earnings per share. BSkyB reported a record adjusted basic EPS of 30.5p, a 30% year-on-year increase. “A continuation of this kind of trend [strongly growing EPS], will confirm that BSkyB is entering a harvesting period in terms of returns,” said Thomas Singlehurst, an analyst at Citigroup. In addition average revenue per user – a key metric for analysts – increased 8% year on year to £544. In the nine months to the end of March BSkyB said it spent a total of £12m on various costs relating to the approach from News Corp. BSkyB, which has a total customer base of 10.1m, said that 26% of customers now take a “triple play” of TV, broadband and home phone. Overall, BSkyB added 155,000 new broadband customers and 159,000 telephony customers, while 189,000 customers signed up to Sky+HD. BSkyB’s churn rate – customers leaving the company – grew slightly in the quarter to 10.4%. BSkyB also pointed to huge growth in advertising revenue income – bolstered massively by the acquisition of Living TV Group last year – reporting 41% year-on-year growth in the nine months to the end of March to £348m. Darroch said that he saw no problem with Sky News being spun off as an independent operation – an undertaking News Corp agreed to in order to gain clearance on media plurality grounds from Hunt. “From my perspective I don’t see why Sky News shouldn’t go on and prosper in the future how it does today,” he said. “I can’t see why it can’t be very, very successful as a standalone business.” He added that the Sky News business has always been run as an independent entity – if not in financial terms – in any case. “It is one of the reasons Sky News has been so successful in the long term: people see it as a reliable, independent source of news,” he said. BSkyB said it expects to make £10m in profit from the sale of its 13% stake in Shine – the production company owned by Elisabeth Murdoch acquired by her father Rupert’s News Corp earlier this month . •
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‘Significant drop’ in consumer confidence deals blow to economic recovery hopes Consumer confidence fell sharply during April, dealing a blow to recovery hopes for the UK economy, figures showed today. Market research group GfK NOP said all five of the measures of consumer confidence it tracks dropped during the month, with people feeling most pessimistic about the state of their own finances. The group said its overall index fell deeper into negative territory, sliding by three points to -31, well down on the -16 it stood at in April last year. It added that it was only the third time the index had dropped below -30 in the survey’s 37-year history, with the previous two occasions being in early 1990 and mid-2008. Nick Moon, managing director of GfK NOP Social Research, said: “Coming after six months of stagnant economic growth, this is a significant drop – one that is bad news for the government and bad news for the economy. “It suggests that the attempts to spur growth in last month’s budget have failed to convince the public, and this may well be sorely felt on the already beleaguered high street. “It is particularly striking that all five areas of the index fell this month, pointing towards growing gloom as we head into summer. “These figures must make the possibility of a double dip recession increasingly real.” The research comes the day after official figures showed gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 0.5% between January and March, following a shock decline of 0.5% in the final quarter of 2010. The Office for National Statistics warned that underlying growth was broadly flat and the economy has made no progress since the third quarter of 2010. The GfK NOP research showed that the biggest fall was to people’s confidence about their own personal financial situation, both during the past year and in the next 12 months, with both of these measures dropping by four points to -23 and -14 respectively. Both indexes are now at their lowest level since the middle of 2008, with people’s optimism about their own financial situation going forward 16 points lower than in April last year. There was a three point slide in people’s confidence about the general economic situation during the past year, to -57, while the index measuring people’s expectations for the economy in the coming year dipped by one point to -30, 29 points lower than 12 months ago. Unsurprisingly, given the low level of confidence in the economy and their own financial situation, there was a further drop in people’s optimism about whether it is a good time to make a major purchase, with this index falling by two points to -31. • GfK NOP questioned 2,015 people between 1 April and 10 April. Economics Consumer spending guardian.co.uk
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The renegade Ivory Coast militia leader, whose forces helped the country’s new president gain power, has been killed Renegade warlord Ibrahim “IB” Coulibaly, a two-time coup plotter who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan, was killed in fighting on Wednesday night with one-time allies turned enemy. He died after his top aide said Coulibaly’s troops were waiting for UN peacekeepers to disarm them. “Chief Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly has been killed this evening during fighting with the FRCI,” Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, state television announced. But the senior commander who directed the fighting against Coulibaly said it appeared to be a suicide. “Our men surrounded his residence but he refused to surrender,” said the commander. “When our fighters got access, they found his body, lifeless but with no bullet wound.” Coulibaly spokesman Felix Anoble said earlier they were attacked while waiting for UN peacekeepers to arrive and disarm them. Reached after news of his death, Anoble told the AP he could “confirm nothing, I have no information.” Ouattara on Friday had ordered Coulibaly, 47, and his forces to disarm or expect to have weapons seized by force. Coulibaly said that disarming would take time to organise. He pledged his allegiance to the new president in an interview, but has not been received by him. “Our positions were attacked this morning by Republican Forces (FRCI) while our soldiers had met to wait for disarmament overseen by the UN,” Anoble said. Brigadier Genernal Michel Gueu, the military adviser to Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, said on Tuesday he met with a Coulibaly delegation to advise they to disarm. “We’re here to bring a verbal message from the president and the prime minister who ask that IB deposes his arms,” he said, adding that it was a prerequisite to meeting with the two leaders. Coulibaly had said he considered Ouattara “like a father,” since he led the bodyguard of Ouattara’s French wife from 1990 to 1993, when he was an army chief sergeant and Ouattara was prime minister. On Monday, Coulibaly’s aides accused Soro’s camp of attacking their forces. The two men have a years-old feud. Soro’s men did not reach Abidjan until April. The rivalry between Soro and Coulibaly was the biggest challenge to confront Ouattara’s fledgling government since former strongman Laurent Gbagbo was arrested April 11. Coulibaly had led a successful 1999 coup that installed General Robert Guei, who was assassinated after elections in 2000. In 2002 Coulibaly helped lead a failed coup against Gbagbo and made no secret of his own presidential aspirations. Later that year, Coulibaly began the rebellion that divided Ivory Coast between a rebel-held north and government-run south. In 2004, Soro and Coulibaly waged bloody battles for leadership in the rebels’ stronghold in the central city of Bouake. Soro won and Coulibaly was forced into exile. Ouattara has little control over the former rebel forces that brought him to power and who will form the new Ivorian army by integrating with Gbagbo’s old forces. The former rebels grouped loosely under Soro, who is also the prime minister, are commanded by five different warlords. Coulibaly re-emerged in Abidjan in January at the head of the “Invisible Commandos” to start the battle against Gbagbo’s forces after soldiers fired mortar shells and rockets into Abobo, a neighborhood that voted en masse for Ouattara. The November 28 elections were supposed to reunite the country, but Gbagbo’s stubborn refusal to accept his defeat precipitated the most recent violence in a country in conflict for a decade. It is not known how many thousands have been killed and wounded. Ouattara’s government has appealed for residents to return to their normal lives in the West African nation. Ivory Coast guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The renegade Ivory Coast militia leader, whose forces helped the country’s new president gain power, has been killed Renegade warlord Ibrahim “IB” Coulibaly, a two-time coup plotter who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan, was killed in fighting on Wednesday night with one-time allies turned enemy. He died after his top aide said Coulibaly’s troops were waiting for UN peacekeepers to disarm them. “Chief Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly has been killed this evening during fighting with the FRCI,” Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, state television announced. But the senior commander who directed the fighting against Coulibaly said it appeared to be a suicide. “Our men surrounded his residence but he refused to surrender,” said the commander. “When our fighters got access, they found his body, lifeless but with no bullet wound.” Coulibaly spokesman Felix Anoble said earlier they were attacked while waiting for UN peacekeepers to arrive and disarm them. Reached after news of his death, Anoble told the AP he could “confirm nothing, I have no information.” Ouattara on Friday had ordered Coulibaly, 47, and his forces to disarm or expect to have weapons seized by force. Coulibaly said that disarming would take time to organise. He pledged his allegiance to the new president in an interview, but has not been received by him. “Our positions were attacked this morning by Republican Forces (FRCI) while our soldiers had met to wait for disarmament overseen by the UN,” Anoble said. Brigadier Genernal Michel Gueu, the military adviser to Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, said on Tuesday he met with a Coulibaly delegation to advise they to disarm. “We’re here to bring a verbal message from the president and the prime minister who ask that IB deposes his arms,” he said, adding that it was a prerequisite to meeting with the two leaders. Coulibaly had said he considered Ouattara “like a father,” since he led the bodyguard of Ouattara’s French wife from 1990 to 1993, when he was an army chief sergeant and Ouattara was prime minister. On Monday, Coulibaly’s aides accused Soro’s camp of attacking their forces. The two men have a years-old feud. Soro’s men did not reach Abidjan until April. The rivalry between Soro and Coulibaly was the biggest challenge to confront Ouattara’s fledgling government since former strongman Laurent Gbagbo was arrested April 11. Coulibaly had led a successful 1999 coup that installed General Robert Guei, who was assassinated after elections in 2000. In 2002 Coulibaly helped lead a failed coup against Gbagbo and made no secret of his own presidential aspirations. Later that year, Coulibaly began the rebellion that divided Ivory Coast between a rebel-held north and government-run south. In 2004, Soro and Coulibaly waged bloody battles for leadership in the rebels’ stronghold in the central city of Bouake. Soro won and Coulibaly was forced into exile. Ouattara has little control over the former rebel forces that brought him to power and who will form the new Ivorian army by integrating with Gbagbo’s old forces. The former rebels grouped loosely under Soro, who is also the prime minister, are commanded by five different warlords. Coulibaly re-emerged in Abidjan in January at the head of the “Invisible Commandos” to start the battle against Gbagbo’s forces after soldiers fired mortar shells and rockets into Abobo, a neighborhood that voted en masse for Ouattara. The November 28 elections were supposed to reunite the country, but Gbagbo’s stubborn refusal to accept his defeat precipitated the most recent violence in a country in conflict for a decade. It is not known how many thousands have been killed and wounded. Ouattara’s government has appealed for residents to return to their normal lives in the West African nation. Ivory Coast guardian.co.uk
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‘Young people don’t know their employment rights,’ says social enterprise Almost a fifth of British businesses have admitted to using unpaid interns to “get work done more cheaply” and prop up company profits during the recession, according to a new survey. The research, carried out by YouGov on behalf of Internocracy – a social enterprise that develops work experience schemes for employers – found that 17% of UK businesses had taken on interns to use as a cheap source of labour, while 95% of the 218 UK managers who responded agreed that interns were “useful to their organisation”. The Internocracy study also found that only 12% of company managers and 10% of young people knew unpaid internships could be illegal under employment law. “It’s a real shame that young people don’t know their employment rights,” said Internocracy’s chief executive, Becky Heath. “Conversely it is disappointing that businesses don’t understand what interns are worth and the new talent, energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace.” Earlier this month Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, argued that unpaid internships were promoting a crisis of social mobility , in doing so apparently contradicting the views of the coalition’s Conservative prime minister David Cameron . The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimated that last summer there were a quarter of a million interns working in UK companies, with the vast majority believed to be unpaid positions. Clegg and the Low Pay Commission have called on HMRC , the Whitehall department responsible for minimum wage (NMW) enforcement, to be tougher on employers. Under NMW legislation, workers aged over 21 are entitled to at least £6.08 an hour if performing any tasks which can be classified as “work”. Business lobbyists the Confederation of British Industry argued that young people doing internships had no right to expect payment. “The vast majority of interns especially in a very difficult labour market are looking for valuable experience which strengthens their ability to get their next job. The reality is that they do not expect to be paid for this,” said a CBI spokesperson. The survey, which drew on opinions from 2,609 people, found that only 9% of the ordinary public believed the experience of an internship “was payment enough”. Tanya de Grunwald, who runs the Graduate Fog website which campaigns for interns’ rights, said: “Many managers continue to hide wimpishly behind the defence that they are offering these opportunities out of the goodness of their hearts, in order to give young people the chance to gain some experience. “We need to move away from this bogus idea. What these companies are doing is taking their labour without paying for it. [Interns] are not just making the tea and distributing the post – they are doing real jobs and they deserve to be paid,” she said. Graduate careers Work & careers Young people Social mobility Shiv Malik guardian.co.uk
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At least five people killed in Karachi attack, which is the third in a week to target navy personnel A roadside bomb hit a bus taking Pakistani navy employees to work in Karachi, killing five people in the third such attack this week and just days after the army chief claimed to have “broken the backbone” of militants. The series of attacks in the country’s largest city and economic heart show the determination and reach of al-Qaida-linked extremist networks despite American-backed Pakistani army offensives against their main bases in the north-west close to the Afghan border. The blast, which hit early on Thursday morning, mangled the bus and damaged nearby buildings. Four of the dead were sailors, while the fifth was a passer-by, said navy spokesman Salman Ali and Seemi Jamali, a doctor at the city’s Jinnah hospital. Five people were wounded. On Tuesday, remote-controlled blasts 15 minutes apart in different parts of Karachi ripped through two navy buses, killing four navy personnel. The Pakistani Taliban the country’s deadliest militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks, and warned of more unless the army stopped its campaigns in the north-west. Karachi is home to 18 million people and is the economic heart of Pakistan. It is far from the north-west, but has not been spared the Islamist violence wracking the country over the last four years. The Pakistan navy is based in the city, which is on the Arabian Sea. The army has launched several offensives in the north-west, but bombings against government and security force targets, as well as indiscriminate attacks on public places, have continued. The Pakistani Taliban have little direct public support, but their identification with Islam, strong anti-American rhetoric and support for insurgents in Afghanistan resonates with some. Last Saturday, Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told graduating cadets that their force had “broken the backbone” of the militants. Those comments followed American criticism of the army campaign, which has struggled to hold border areas it has retaken from the insurgents. Pakistan Taliban Global terrorism al-Qaida guardian.co.uk
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At least 58 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 or more when a massive tornado devastated Tuscaloosa A wave of tornados and storms hit the American South on Wednesday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing 72 people in four states. At least 58 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 or more when a massive tornado devastated Tuscaloosa. The city’s mayor said sections of the city that’s home to the University of Alabama have been destroyed and the city’s infrastructure is devastated. Eleven deaths were reported in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee. News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened Tuscaloosa home, with many neighbouring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble. A hospital there said its emergency room had admitted at least 100 people. “What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time,” Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters, adding that he expected his city’s death toll to rise. The storm system spread destruction on Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia, and it was forecast to hit the Carolinas next and then move further northeast. Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians. University officials said there didn’t appear to be significant damage on campus, and it was using its student recreation center as a shelter. Maddox said authorities were having trouble communicating, and 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state. Brian Sanders, the manager of an oil change shop, brought his daughters to DCH Regional Medical Center because he felt they’d be safe there. He said his business had been leveled. “I can’t believe we walked away,” he said. Storms struck Birmingham earlier in the day, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas. Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths by late Wednesday; another hard-hit area was Walker County with eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around the state, emergency officials said. In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of tornado and had to evacuate the National Weather Service office. In Mississippi, a Louisiana police officer was killed on Wednesday morning when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisor with the National Park Service. The girl wasn’t hurt. Also in Mississippi, a man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during the storm, a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a state highway and a member of a county road crew was killed when he was struck by a tree they were removing. By late Wednesday, the death toll had increased to 11 for the day, said Mississippi Emergency Management Association spokesman Jeff Rent. The governor also made an emergency declaration for much of the state. Storms also killed two people in Georgia and one in Tennessee on Wednesday. Aside from the 39 deaths on Wednesday, one person was killed by the same storm system late the previous night in Arkansas. In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain. Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside. United States Alabama guardian.co.uk
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enlarge The eerie, perplexing testament. Click here to view this media Before April 26th 1986, Chernobyl was a word hardly anybody ever heard. But within days it became the only word on peoples minds. In what was first passed off as “nothing” quickly escalated as reports from outside the Soviet Union filtered in what was to become the worst Nuclear Power Plant disaster in history. Here are several reports – the first starting with a small mention on the CBS World News Roundup of April 27th and then picks up with acknowledgment from the Soviet Union on the 29th of April – three days after the initial event. Bill Lynch (CBS News – April 29th): “Even Radio Moscow is now using the word disaster to describe the massive release of radiation from a nuclear reactor in the Ukraine, the Soviet bread basket. The dimensions of that disaster are becoming more clear today. One Soviet diplomat called it the “worst nuclear accident in history”. A West German nuclear safety expert says what happened north of Kiev last weekend appears to be even more serious than the worst case scenarios scientists predicted for such plants. A Swedish diplomat in Moscow says Soviet officials there told him it was worse than a meltdown.” Twenty-five years later, Chernobyl stands as mute testimony, an exclusion zone and a sarcophagus . And how is Fukushima doing these days? If you found this post useful, informative, or mildly enlightening, consider making a donation to this site so it can keep doing what it’s doing. You can help make a difference.
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