Saudi king sanctions Binladin firm over pre-hajj tragedy

Yahoo – AFP, Ian Timberlake, 15 Sep 2015

Workers stand next to a crane that collapsed at the Grand Mosque in Saudi 

Arabia's holy Muslim city of Mecca, September 12, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman sanctioned the powerful Saudi Binladin Group Tuesday over the collapse of a construction crane at Mecca's Grand Mosque, which killed more than 100 people days before the hajj pilgrimage.

An investigative commission had concluded that the company "was in part responsible" for Friday's tragedy, which killed at least 107 people and injured almost 400 during a severe thunderstorm accompanied by violent winds.

A picture provided by the Saudi Press

Agency on September 12, 2015 shows

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (C)

holding the hand of an injured pilgrim

at a hospital in Mecca (AFP Photo)

The company had not "respected the norms of safety" at the site, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The firm's executives have been forbidden from leaving the kingdom pending the completion of legal action against the company, SPA said.

During the same period, the company will also be excluded from new public projects.

The construction firm belongs to the family of the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It had been working for four years on a 400,000-square-metre (4.3-million-square-feet) enlargement of the Grand Mosque, to accommodate increasing numbers of pilgrims.

That is the equivalent of more than 50 football pitches, and will allow the complex -- Islam's holiest site -- to accommodate roughly two million people at once.

After visiting the scene of the tragedy Saturday, Salman vowed to reveal what happened.

It was the worst accident in a decade surrounding the hajj, which begins Tuesday and is expected to draw about two million faithful from around the world.

Hundreds of thousands had already converged on the Grand Mosque when the red and white crane, one of several overlooking the site, crashed into a courtyard.

Muslim pilgrims pose for pictures in front of the crane that collapsed at the Grand

 Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy Muslim city of Mecca, September 14, 2015

(AFP Photo)

Saudis, Iranians, Nigerians, Malaysians, Indonesians and Indians and were among the dead.

'Act of God'

Officials say the tragedy will have no effect on preparations for the hajj, one of the world's largest religious events.

An engineer with Saudi Binladin Group told AFP Saturday that what happened was an "act of God" and not the result of a technical fault.

The crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem, he said.

"It was not a technical issue at all," said the engineer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all."

Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque on September 14, 

2015 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (AFP Photo)

The engineer said the crane was the main one used on work to expand the tawaf, or circumambulation area around the Kaaba -- a massive cubed structure at the centre of the mosque that is the focal point of Muslim worship.

"It has been installed in a way so as not to affect the hundreds of thousands of worshippers in the area and in an extremely professional way," he said of the crane.

"This is the most difficult place to work in, due to the huge numbers of people in the area."

The crane's heavy hook, which is able to lift hundreds of tonnes, began swaying and moved the whole crane with it, toppling into the mosque, the engineer explained.

Related Article:

Hajj to go ahead after Mecca crane collapse kills 107

Hajj to go ahead after Mecca crane collapse kills 107

Yahoo – AFP, Kamal Idris, 12 Sep 2015

A picture taken on September 11, 2015 in Saudi Arabia's holy Muslim city of Mecca

shows a construction crane after it crashed into the Grand Mosque (AFP Photo)

Mecca (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - Saudi authorities said Saturday that Islam's annual hajj pilgrimage will go ahead despite a crane collapse that killed 107 people at Mecca's Grand Mosque, where crowds returned to pray a day after the tragedy.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had already arrived in Mecca for the hajj, a must for all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it, when the massive red and white crane collapsed during rain and high winds on Friday.

Parts of the Grand Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, remained sealed off Saturday around the toppled crane, which also injured around 200 people when it fell into a courtyard.

But there was little mourning among pilgrims, who snapped pictures of the wreckage and continued with their prayers and rituals.

"I wish I had died in the accident, as it happened at a holy hour and in a holy place," Egyptian pilgrim Mohammed Ibrahim told AFP.

The accident occurred only about an hour before evening mahgrib prayers on the Muslim weekly day of prayer.

A massive construction crane crashed into Mecca's Grand Mosque in stormy

 weather on September 11, 2015, killing at least 107 people and injuring 238. (AFP

Photo/STR)

Om Salma, a Moroccan pilgrim, said "our phones have not stopped ringing since yesterday with relatives calling to check on us."

Indonesians and Indians were among those killed when the crane collapsed, while the injured included Malaysians, Egyptians and Iranians.

A Saudi official said the hajj, expected to start on September 21, would proceed despite the tragedy.

"It definitely will not affect the hajj this season, and the affected part will probably be fixed in a few days," said the official, who declined to be named.

An investigative committee has "immediately and urgently" begun searching for the cause of the collapse, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The contractor has been directed to ensure the safety of all other cranes at the site, it added.

The cranes poke into the air over the sprawling mosque expansion taking place beneath the Mecca Royal Clock Tower, the world's third-tallest building, at 601 metres (1,972 feet).

For years, work has been underway on a 400,000 square metre (4.3 million square feet) expansion of the Grand Mosque to allow it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.

Abdel Aziz Naqoor, who said he works at the mosque, told AFP he saw the massive construction crane fall during the storm.

"If it weren't for Al-Tawaf bridge the injuries and deaths would have been worse," he said, referring to a covered walkway which broke the crane's fall and surrounds the holy Kaaba.

The Kaaba is a massive cube-shaped structure at the centre of the mosque towards which Muslims worldwide pray.

Saudi governer of the Mecca region Khaled al-Faisal (C) listens to aides of the

 Grand Mosque of Mecca after a construction crane crashed into it on 

September 11 (AFP Photo/STR)

A witness said the winds were so strong that they shook his car and tossed billboards around.

'Act of God'

Pictures of the incident on Twitter showed bloodied bodies strewn across the courtyard, where part of the crane came to rest atop an ornate, arched and colonnaded section of the complex.

A video on YouTube showed people screaming and rushing around following a loud crash.

Saudis and foreigners lined up in the street to give blood in response to the tragedy.

Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of the Mecca-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, suggested that authorities were negligent by having a series of cranes overlooking the mosque.

"They do not care about the heritage, and they do not care about health and safety," he told AFP.

Alawi is an outspoken critic of redevelopment at the holy sites, which he says is wiping away tangible links to the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.

But an engineer for the Saudi Binladin Group, the developer, told AFP the crane was installed in "an extremely professional way" and there was no technical problem.

"It was an act of God", he said.

A picture taken on October 5, 2014, shows construction cranes at the

 Grand mosque in Mecca. (AFP Photo/Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

Saudi Binladin Group belongs to the family of the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, former head of Mecca's religious police, told AFP the accident is a "test" from God.

"We need to accept what happened," he said, calling at the same time for a thorough investigation.

Condolences came in from around the world, including from Arab leaders, as well as from Britain, Canada, India and Nigeria.

This was not the first tragedy to strike Mecca pilgrims, though the hajj has been nearly incident-free in recent years.

In 2006, several hundred died in a stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual in nearby Mina, following a similar incident two years earlier.

Top lawyer takes on NAM over Groningen quake dangers

DutchNews, September 11, 2015

High profile lawyer Gerard Spong has made a formal complaint against gas extraction company NAM, saying he holds it responsible for deliberately damaging houses and other property in Groningen province. 

NAM, a joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil, is in charge of extracting natural gas from large reserves under the province. Thousands of buildings have been damaged in earthquakes caused by the ground settling after the gas has been removed.

‘NAM has continued to drill in Groningen even though it is well aware of the risks, and has put dozens of lives in danger,’ Spong said. ‘This is a scandal, and the criminal courts should have their say.’ 

Various scientific reports show that the drilling is not only causing material damage but presents a real risk to people living in the province, Spong said. He is representing several private individuals and the lobby group Groninger Bodem Beweging. 

A criminal investigation is necessary because the state has a duty to protect its citizens against danger and injury, the lawyer said.

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The Netherlands organises two climate conferences

NAM must compensate quake-hit Groningen home owners, says court

DutchNews, September 2, 2015

Gas extraction company NAM must compensate home owners in Groningen for the loss of value to their homes because of the earthquakes, whether or not they are up for sale, a court in Assen ruled on Wednesday. 

The court said NAM, a 50:50 joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil, is responsible for the earthquakes and is therefore liable for the damage. The quakes are caused by the ground settling after the gas has been extracted. 

Local home owners, united in the WAG foundation, say 100,000 homes have been hit by the quake risk and are now worth over €1bn less than they should be. The foundation represents 12 housing corporations and some 900 private owners. 

NAM does pay compensation for visible earthquake damage and accepts house prices have gone down because of the quake risk. However, the company has refused until now to compensation home owners for intangible damage ahead of a sale. 

Values 

The court said the actual drop in values would need to be established at separate hearings and that it estimated property prices have fallen by several percentage points. WAG puts the drop at between 5% and 25%.

‘This is fantastic news,’ WAG’s lawyer Pieter Huitema told news agency ANP. ‘This is a major support to people living in the quake region.’ 

NAM can appeal against the ruling at the High Court in The Hague and the company said it is now considering what steps to take next.

Related Articles:

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At least five people dead in chemical plant blast in Shandong

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-09-02

The aftermath of the explosion in Shandong, Sept. 2. (Photo/Xinhua)

At least five people have been confirmed killed after a blast at a chemical plant on midnight Monday in east China's Shandong province, local authorities said early Wednesday morning.

The explosion occurred at around 11:22pm Monday at Shandong Binyuan Chemical in Diaokou township of Lijin county, according to the publicity department of Dongying city, which administers Lijin.

The fire was put out at around 4:20am Tuesday, and wastewater from the plant has been sealed without any spillover, the publicity department said. Air quality at the site is being monitored, which was "up to standard" till 8:00am Tuesday, the authorities added.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

According to the website of Shandong Binyuan Chemical, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shandong Binyuan Group. It was founded in March 2014 and is located in Binhai Economic and Technological Development Zone of Lijin county. The company is a high-tech enterprise with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes of modified adhesive materials.

The incident comes weeks after explosions at a warehouse storing hazardous chemicals in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 158 people (confirmed death toll as of press time), exposing the lax supervision of the chemicals industry in China.

Related Articles:

Chinese prosecutors announce probe into deadly warehouse blasts

Groningen houses to get earthquake-proof chimneys Housing

DutchNews, August 17, 2015

Some 800 houses in Groningen are to be fitted with aluminium chimneys which are better able to withstand earthquakes. 

Tens of thousands of buildings in Groningen province have been affected by subsidence caused by the land settling after gas has been extracted.

‘The shaking of a house during an earthquake can loosen the chimney,’ a spokesman for the centre for safe living CVW told Radio 1. ‘This can then fall, causing more damage and possibly hitting bystanders.’ 

The new chimneys are made from aluminium with a thin stone cladding to match the house, and are much lighter than the traditional brick chimneys. ‘Those can weigh 600 or 700 kilos and are much more likely to fall during a severe earthquake,’ the CVW said.

At the beginning of this year the cabinet agreed to a substantial cut in gas extraction over the next three years because of the earthquake risk. In Loppersum, the epicenter of many of the quakes, production is being reduced by 80%. 

A decision to further cut the gas supplies was made in June which will cost the cabinet hundreds of millions of euros in lost revenue.

Chinese prosecutors announce probe into deadly warehouse blasts

Chinese prosecutors are to probe whether deadly blasts at a warehouse in Tianjin were due to illegal storage of dangerous materials, state media say. The explosions killed 112 people and injured hundreds.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Aug 2015

State prosecutors in China said on Sunday they had started an investigation to see whether owners of the warehouse where the explosions occurred were guilty of violating laws on the storage of hazardous chemicals.

The announcement comes as authorities confirmed that hundreds of tons of the toxic chemical sodium cyanide had been on the site of the blasts late Wednesday evening in a mostly industrial area of the northern port city of Tianjin, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing.

Such a large amount would be a clear violation of rules cited by state media that a maximum of 10 tons of the chemical may be stored at any one time. Chinese laws on hazmat storage also stipulate that such substances should not be kept closer than 1 kilometer from residential areas and public structures.

The Chinese military is helping with cleanup operations

Sodium cyanide can form a flammable gas upon contact with water, and members of the public have questioned whether this fact had been taken into account by firefighters responding to the accident. At least 21 firefighters were among those killed in the warehouse fire and ensuing explosions, making the disaster the deadliest for the Chinese fire brigade in more than six decades.

Eighty-five of the 1,000 firefighters sent to combat the blaze remained unaccounted for on Sunday, with 88 bodies of victims still unidentified.

In addition to the 112 people confirmed dead, more than 700 people were hospitalized with sometimes serious injuries. Many were hurt by glass shattered in the huge fireballs that rose over the city on Wednesday night.

The explosions caused massive
blast waves

Official reassurances

In the face of internet rumors to the contrary, authorities have sought to reassure the public that the air in Tianjin remains safe to breathe, despite slightly raised levels of some pollutants.

In a bid to further dispel public mistrust, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon and came within a kilometer of the blast site without wearing any form of protective clothing.

Li also visited those injured and displaced by the disaster.

The government has also shut down a total of 50 websites and 360 social media accounts for "creating panic by publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless rumors," according to the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The Tianjin accident was one of the deadliest to occur in China in recent years. In June 2013, a fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin killed 121 people. In August 2014, 97 died in an explosion at a metal plant in eastern Jiangsu province.

tj/sgb (AP, dpa, AFP)

An aerial view of Tianjin Port, October 2012. (File photo/Xinhua)

Related Articles:

Tianjin Port Group lacked proper government oversight: official - New
Safety checks on commercial explosives ordered after Tianjin blasts
Sodium cyanide threatens environment in Tianjin
Deadly cyanide was stocked at Tianjin blast site

Chemical experts assess China blast site after 50 killed

Chemical experts assess China blast site after 50 killed

Yahoo – AFP, Benjamin Haas, 13 Aug 2015

A damaged fire truck is seen at the site of the massive explosions in Tianjin 

on August 13, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Tianjin (China) (AFP) - A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical experts began work Thursday at the site of two massive explosions in the city of Tianjin, state media said, as pressure grows for authorities to explain the cause of blasts that left 50 dead.

The detonation at a chemical warehouse in the major Chinese port city also injured more than 700, according to official media, leaving a devastated landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings.

The 217-strong group of military specialists tested the air around the site for toxic gases, with rescue teams ordered to wear protective clothing in the vicinity due to the ongoing risk of leaking poisonous chemicals, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Enormous explosions in Tianjin have killed 

at least 50 people and injured more than

700, state media report (AFP Photo)

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace warned that substances from the site could be dangerous, saying it was "critical" that the potential toxins in the air were monitored closely.

Rescuers were attempting to remove 700 tons of deadly sodium cyanide from the area late Thursday, Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily reported.

Wen Wurui, head of Tianjin's environment protection bureau, told a televised briefing that harmful chemicals detected in the air were not at "excessively high" levels.

A lack of answers as to what caused the blast 24 hours on has reinforced questions about standards in the country, where campaigners say lives are sacrificed on a lack of respect for safety and poor implementation.

A panel of officials at a Thursday press conference were peppered with questions about what chemicals were in the tanks that exploded, but they refused to provide details, and the briefing ended abruptly with officials rushing off stage.

"Clearly there is no real culture of safety in the workplace in China," said Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which promotes worker rights.

Zhang Yong, the head of Binhai New District where the blasts occurred, told journalists only that "before the explosion, locals saw the fire and reported it".

Citing rescue headquarters, the official Xinhua news agency said 50 people had been killed, including at least 12 firefighters.

'I thought it was an earthquake'

Damaged cars and containers are seen 

at the site of a series of explosions in

Tianjin, on August 13, 2015 (AFP Photo)

An AFP reporter in Tianjin in the early hours of Thursday saw shattered glass up to three kilometres (two miles) from the site of the blast, which unleashed a vast fireball that dwarfed towers in the area, lit up the night sky and rained debris on the city.

"When I felt the explosion I thought it was an earthquake," resident Zhang Zhaobo told AFP. "I ran to my father and I saw the sky was already red. All the glass was broken, and I was really afraid."

The blast site sits in a giant logistics hub more than twice the size of Hong Kong.

It hosts auto plants, aircraft assembly lines, oil refineries and other service and production facilities.

The explosion was felt several kilometres away, even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite, and images showed walls of flame enveloping buildings and rank after rank of gutted cars at an import facility.

Paramedics rushed the injured on stretchers into city hospitals as doctors bandaged up victims, many of them covered in blood.

At one city hospital a doctor wept over a dead firefighter still in uniform, his skin blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past along with two other bodies.

Rescuers are seen at the site of the massive

 explosions in Tianjin on August 13, 2015 

(AFP Photo)

Xinhua said 701 people were hospitalised, 71 of them in critical condition.

Mei Xiaoya, 10, and her mother were turned away from the first hospital they went to because there were too many people, she told AFP.

"I'm not afraid, it's just a scratch," she said pointing to the bandage on her arm. "But mum was hurt badly, she couldn't open her eyes."

The blaze that followed the blast was brought "under initial control" on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua cited the public security ministry as saying, after 1,000 firefighters and 143 fire engines had been deployed to the site.

Xinhua described the facility as a storage and distribution centre of containers of dangerous goods, including chemicals.

Executives from the storage centre's owner, Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics, were taken into custody by police, it said.

'All-out efforts'

State broadcaster CCTV said that President Xi Jinping had urged "all-out efforts to rescue victims and extinguish the fire".

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the injuries to scores of people".

A man waits in a wheelchair after receiving treatment at Gangkou hospital in

 Tianjin, following a series of explosions at a warehouse in the northern Chinese

city, early on August 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Benjamin Haas)

China has a dismal industrial safety record as some factory and warehouse owners evade regulations to save money and pay off corrupt officials to look the other way.

In 2013, a pipeline explosion at state-owned oil refiner Sinopec's facility in the eastern port of Qingdao killed 62 people and injured 136.

In July this year, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal fireworks warehouse exploded in the northern province of Hebei, which neighbours Tianjin.

And 146 were killed in an explosion at a car parts factory in Kunshan, near Shanghai, in August last year.

Tianjin, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Beijing, is one of China's biggest cities with a population of nearly 15 million people, according to 2013 figures.

Japan ends nuclear shutdown sparked by Fukushima crisis

Yahoo –  AFP, Harumi Ozawa, 11 Aug 2015

Operators restart the nuclear reactor at the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai 

nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on

August 11, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Japan on Tuesday restarted its nuclear power programme after a shutdown triggered by the 2011 Fukushima crisis, as the government pushes to return to a cheaper energy source despite widespread public opposition.

Utility Kyushu Electric Power turned on a reactor at Sendai, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo, at 10:30 am (0130 GMT).

The 31-year-old reactor -- operating under tougher post-Fukushima safety rules -- was expected to reach full capacity around 11:00 pm Tuesday and would start generating power by Friday.

People stage a sit-in rally against the

restarting of the nuclear reactor outside

the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai 

nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai 

on August 11, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Commercial operations would begin early next month, a company spokesman said.

The restart comes more than four years after a quake-sparked tsunami swamped cooling systems and triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant, prompting the shutdown of Japan's stable of 50 reactors and starting a pitched battle over the future use of atomic power.

The accident sent radiation over a wide area and forced tens of thousands from their homes -- many of whom will likely never return -- in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Decommissioning of the crippled Fukushima reactors is expected to take decades and compensation expenses -- excluding the cost of the site's cleanup -- now top $57 billion.

Anti-nuclear sentiment still runs high in Japan and television showed protesters scuffling with police in front of the plant, which is on the southernmost main island of Kyushu.

Among the 200 protesters was Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of Fukushima and now a high-profile anti-nuclear activist. He said the failure of pro-atomic premier Shinzo Abe to cancel the restart "cannot be forgiven".

The resource-poor nation, which once relied on nuclear power for a quarter of its electricity, restarted two reactors temporarily to feed its needs after Fukushima. But they both went offline by September 2013, making Japan completely nuclear-free for about two years.

'Safety first'

The country adopted stricter safety regulations to avoid a repeat of the accident, including more backup prevention measures and higher tsunami-blocking walls in some areas.

The restart of a reactor at the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai nuclear power 

plant ends a two-year nuclear shutdown in the energy-hungry country that was

sparked by public fears following the 2011 Fukushima crisis (AFP Photo/JIJI PRESS)

"It is important to restart reactors one by one from the perspective of energy security, the economy and measures against global warming, but safety always comes first," Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa told reporters..

Yukio Edano, a senior member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan who criticised Abe for taking a holiday near Mount Fuji on Tuesday, said the restart was ill-advised and "trampled on the grave sacrifice seen in Fukushima".

Strengthened safety measures are key to Abe's bid to get some of about four dozen reactors back up and running. The government wants nuclear power to generate up to 22 percent of Japan's electricity needs by 2030, a lower percentage than before Fukushima.

Power companies that own the reactors are also keen for more restarts after having to import pricey fossil fuels.

Japan's post-Fukushima energy bill skyrocketed as it scrambled to fill the gap left by taking reactors offline, a problem worsened by a sharp weakening of the yen which pushed up the cost of dollar-denominated energy imports.

Several other reactors have been given a safety green light, but battle lines are drawn in many local communities strongly opposed to restarts.

About 200 protesters gathered in front of the Sendai plant to protest against

 the restart, including Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the Fukushima

disaster (AFP Photo)

"Abe is not listening to the voice of the people -- he is acting as if he has been given a blank cheque," said Takashi Kato, professor emeritus at Tokyo's Seikei University.

Officials have stressed that any switched-on reactor would operate under much tighter regulations than those that existed before Fukushima. Some will be decommissioned for safety reasons.

"A disaster like that at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will not occur" under the new rules, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka said in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper published at the weekend.

But Tanaka conceded there was "no such thing as absolute safety" and Japan's people are sceptical as the country remains deeply scarred by the legacy of Fukushima -- although no deaths have been directly attributed to the accident.

The government was strongly criticised for its cosy ties with Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, which itself was accused of incompetence in dealing with the 2011 crisis.

Last month a judicial review panel decided that a trio of former TEPCO executives should be indicted, paving the way for the first criminal trial linked to the disaster.

Related Articles:

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Japan pushes ahead with plans to reopen nuclear reactors

Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear  (> 20 Min)

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”