David Bowie - Tokyo Dome, 16th May 1990
2 hours ago
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Nuclear power at heart of Russia's Arctic ambition
Could the Arctic become a battleground over control of large reserves of oil and gas thought to lie under the Arctic Sea, or will there be co-operation in the polar region? This will be a question for politicians and experts from around the world as they meet in Moscow.
In a grimy shipyard in St Petersburg, an ugly hulk of red-painted metal sits floating in the dock.
On deck, workmen scurry back and forth, hammering, drilling and welding.
In 2007, Artur Chilingarov planted a Russian flag on the Arctic seabed
This strange construction, part ship, part platform, is unique and lies at the heart of Russia's grand ambitions for the Arctic.
When it is completed in 2012, it will be the first of eight floating nuclear power stations which the government wants to place along Russia's north coast, well within the Arctic Circle.
The idea is the nuclear reactors will provide the power for Russia's planned push to the North Pole.
Moscow is claiming more than a million square kilometres of extra territory in the Arctic, stretching from its current border in the Arctic Sea, all the way to the Pole.
'Complicated and dangerous'
The area includes an underwater mountain range called the Lomonosov ridge, which some Russian scientists claim could hold 75 billion barrels of oil.
This is more than the country's current proven reserves.
"These [floating nuclear power stations] have very good potential, creating the conditions for exploring the Arctic shelf and setting up drilling platforms to extract oil and gas," says Sergey Zavyalov, deputy director of the operating company, Rosenergoatom.
"Work in the Arctic is very complicated and dangerous and we should ensure there's a reliable energy supply."
He says each power station, costing $400m, can supply electricity and heating for communities of up to 45,000 people and can stay on location for 12 years before needing to be serviced back in St Petersburg.
And while initially they will be positioned next to Arctic bases along the North coast, there are plans for floating nuclear power stations to be taken out to sea near large gas rigs.
"We can guarantee the safety of our units one hundred per cent, all risks are absolutely ruled out," says Mr Zavyalov...
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Richard Galpin @'BBC'
Vatican Bank 'investigated over money-laundering'
The inquiry into Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has surprised the Vatican
The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say.
Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank's accounts with another smaller institution.
The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.
The Vatican said it was "perplexed and astonished", and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.
The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests.
Police intervention
Rome magistrates are looking into claims that Mr Gotti Tedeschi and the bank's chief executive Paolo Cipriani violated laws that require banks to disclose information on financial operations.
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says the Bank of Italy's financial intelligence unit tipped off Italy's tax police last week, after two suspicious transactions were reported between the Vatican Bank and two different Italian banks.
The tax police seized 23m euros that the Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato.
Some 20m euros was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.
Reports say the Vatican Bank had failed to inform the financial authorities where the money had come from.
Past scandal
In a statement, the Vatican strongly defended its record.
"The Holy See is perplexed and astonished by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors, considering the data necessary is already available at the Bank of Italy," the statement said.
And the Vatican also gave its backing to the two officials under investigation.
"The Holy See wants to express the maximum confidence in the president and in the chief executive of the IOR," it said.
Mr Gotti Tedeschi, who is an expert on financial ethics, has been in charge of the bank for a year. He was formerly head of Spanish bank Santander's Italian operations.
The Vatican Bank was last mired in scandal in 1982 when its governor Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was indicted over his involvement with the collapse of what was then Italy's largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano.
Although he was never arrested, the fallout from that scandal took a darker turn when two of its top executives, one of them its chairman, Roberto Calvi, were murdered.
Calvi, known as God's Banker because of his close ties to the Vatican, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
US Supreme Court allows execution of Virginia woman
The US Supreme Court has refused to halt the Virginia execution of Teresa Lewis, scheduled for Thursday.
She is the first woman to face the death penalty in the US for five years.
Teresa Lewis, who has learning difficulties, conspired with two men to kill her husband and stepson in 2002, leaving a door unlocked so the gunmen could enter the family home.
Two of three women in the nine-judge court voted to halt the execution.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted against. but there was no other comment from the court.
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell has said he will not commute the death penalty, despite claims Lewis, who pleaded guilty, has learning disabilities.
The two gunmen who carried out the killings received life sentences.
Lewis - due to die by lethal injection on Thursday - will be the first woman executed in Virginia since 1912.
Her lawyers filed a petition for executive clemency on 25 August 2010.
Declining to commute the sentence, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell said: "Lewis does not deny that she committed these heinous crimes.
"Numerous psychiatrists and psychologists have analysed Lewis, both before and after her sentencing.
"After numerous evaluations, no medical professional has concluded that Teresa Lewis meets the medical or statutory definition of mentally retarded."
Lewis's husband, Julian Lewis, and stepson, Charles Lewis, were killed with shotgun blasts by Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller at their home in Danville, Virginia.
Fuller reportedly arranged a deal with prosecutors and received a life sentence.
Shallenberger - who was Lewis's lover - was also sentenced to life. Lewis's lawyers argue that he manipulated her.
Lewis was motivated by inheriting her husband's assets and her stepson's life insurance. She paid for the weapons and ammunition used in the murders.
Prosecutors said Lewis's husband was still alive after the shootings and that she waited 45 minutes before ringing police.
"I'm a little nervous... I'm also scared. But I am peaceful because I've got Jesus with me," Lewis said in an interview with CNN hours before her appeal for clemency was denied.
vaughanbell Drug testing circulated euro banknotes. Heroin traces found on 90%; Cocaine on every single one. http://is.gd/flOuI
NaomiAKlein < Isn't Bono's RED all about buying lots of corporate crap to show how much we care about poverty? What's the difference? http://is.gd/flly7
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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