TOKYO: The world's largest nuclear power plant resumed part of its operations on Saturday, two years after it was shut down following a strong earthquake off the Japanese coast, the operator said.One of seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located 300 kilometres (185 miles) northwest of Tokyo, started test operations, said operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The company earlier said it would shift to full power generation at the reactor after up to 50 days of test runs."But it is still uncertain when we can resume operations at the remaining six reactors," Akemi Otsuki, a TEPCO spokeswoman, told. TEPCO decided on the move after the municipal governments gave the formal go-ahead, company officials said. The sprawling 8,200-megawatt plant has been dormant since July 2007 when a quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), killing 15 people and injuring thousands. Public concern mounted when television footage showed white smoke coming from an electric transformer, while the operator said radioactive water had leaked into the ocean during the tremor.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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