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After four months, North Korea’s Ebola quarantine comes to an end

Tue, 2015-03-03 18:49 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST BY Anna Fifield March 3, 2015

TOKYO — North Korea has lifted its four-month-long Ebola quarantine, bringing an end to a period of isolation that was notable even by the Hermit Kingdom’s standards.

Embassies and international aid agencies in Pyongyang received a "note verbale" from North Korea's State Emergency Anti-Epidemic Committee informing them that the quarantine was now over for all visitors except for those arriving from a handful of west African countries. Tour operators have also been informed by their North Korean partners and the state airline that the borders are being re-opened.

With no cases of the virus east of Africa, the strictly-enforced 21 day quarantine for everyone entering North Korea — locals and foreigners alike — was puzzling and inevitably sparked theories about what the ban could really be about.

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http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/02/23/north-korea-bars-foreigners-from-pyongyang-marathon

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Nowhere to run: North Korea, citing Ebola concerns, bars foreigners from Pyongyang marathon

Mon, 2015-02-23 22:17 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS By ERIC TALMADGE Feb. 23, 2015

TOKYO — Further restricting travel to the already isolated country, North Korea barred foreigners from one of its most popular tourist events — the annual Pyongyang marathon — because of concerns over the Ebola virus, travel agencies said Monday.

While no cases of Ebola have been reported anywhere near North Korea, the country shut out foreign tourists in October with some of the strictest Ebola regulations in the world. North Korean media have suggested Ebola was created by the U.S. military as a biological weapon.

Nick Bonner, co-founder of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, said he did not think the decision reflected any deeper problems in the North's secretive and often enigmatic government, though the news comes amid reports leader Kim Jong Un has called for increased combat readiness and, at a meeting of senior party and military leaders, described tensions on the peninsula as graver than ever before.

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Fujifilm says tests results on Avigan as Ebola drug by end-2014

Tue, 2014-11-11 11:08 — mike kraft

REUTERS Nov. 11, 2014
By Ayai Tomisawa and Reiji Murai

TOKYO--Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it expects its influenza drug Avigan to be approved by international government bodies to treat Ebola after it receives clinical test results as early as the end of the year.

Tablets of Avigan (generic name : Favipiravir), a drug approved as an anti-influenza drug in Japan and developed by drug maker Toyama Chemical Co, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Co. are displayed during a photo opportunity at Fujifilm's headquarters in Tokyo October 22, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Issei Kato

Fujifilm has been growing its pharmaceutical division through a series of mergers and acquisitions as its photography business wanes. In 2008, it bought Toyama Chemical Co, whose drug Avigan has been drafted to the global fight against Ebola.

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http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-neoguri-japan-okinawa-flood-threat-20140709

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Typhoon Neoguri - Flooding in Nago, Okinawa

Wed, 2014-07-09 23:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Twitter - @M_Ryuki0529 - https://twitter.com/M_Ryuki0529/status/486648262749732865/photo/1

weather.com - July 9, 2014

In Okinawa, heavy rainfall triggered flash flooding, prompting the Japanese Meteorological Society to reissue an "emergency warning" for landslides and damaging floods for the prefecture, having downgraded it earlier after the typhoon's eye had moved north. The city of Nago on Okinawa Island reported 17.24 inches (438.0 mm) of rain between 9:10 a.m. Tuesday and 9:10 a.m. Wednesday local time.

A Twitter user in Nago posted photos of floodwaters swamping the city of 60,000 Wednesday morning, warning residents of his or her native Miyazaki Prefecture that this was coming their way.

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Japan Issues Highest Alert Over Typhoon Neoguri

Mon, 2014-07-07 21:59 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Japanese meteorologist Satoshi Ebihara answers questions during a press conference in Tokyo, on July 7, 2014
(AFP Photo/)

news.yahoo.com - AFP - by Shigemi Sato - July 7, 2014

Japan was bracing Tuesday for one of its worst storms in over a decade as typhoon Neoguri barreled towards the southern Okinawa island chain, with 55,000 people urged to evacuate as the weather agency issued its highest alert.

The top-level warning means a threat to life, as well as the risk of massive damage from torrential rains and gusts of up to 250 kilometres (155 miles) per hour. . .

. . . Waves could reach as high as 14 metres (45 feet), a weather agency official said in a warning that was likely to revive memories of Japan's quake-tsunami disaster in 2011.

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(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

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GDACS Red Alert - Tropical Cyclone NEOGURI-14 in Japan

Fri, 2014-07-04 22:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

PDC Global Hazards Atlas displaying PDC Integrated Active Hazards with Tropical Cyclone Positions and Segments and Cone of Uncertainty (3 and 5 day) layers. http://www.pdc.org/weather/

gdacs.org - July 4, 2014

Tropical Cyclone NEOGURI-14 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the Maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on advisory number 9.

Tropical Cyclone Hurricane/Typhoon > 74 mph (maximum wind speed of 259 km/h)
from 04/07/2014 06:00 UTC to 05/07/2014 00:00 UTC
Population affected by Category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher is 7.4 million

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM THE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER (JTWC)

CLICK HERE - GDACS Tropical Cyclones - Joint Research Centre

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Reversing Course, Japan Makes Push to Restart Dormant Nuclear Plants

Sun, 2014-03-02 18:23 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A TEPCO employee in protective clothing works around tanks filled with radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. (photo: AAP)

nytimes.com - by Hiroko Tabuchi - February 25, 2014

TOKYO — The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made its biggest push yet to revive Japan’s nuclear energy program on Tuesday, announcing details of a draft plan that designates atomic power as an important long-term electricity source.

The new Basic Energy Plan, which states that Japan will push to restart reactors that were closed after the disaster in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, overturns a promise made by a previous government to phase out the country’s nuclear reactors. The plan also leaves open the possibility of building new plants as well as restarting existing ones.

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IAEA Delivers Final Report on Remediation in Fukushima to Japan

Fri, 2014-01-24 16:58 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Remediation workers check bags of soil and other decontamination waste at a temporary storage site in Date city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. (Photo: G. Tudor/IAEA)

iaea.org - January 24, 2014

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) handed Japan the final report from an expert mission that reviewed remediation efforts in areas affected by the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

The IAEA report, which is available online, describes the findings of the Follow-up IAEA International Mission on Remediation of Large Contaminated Areas Off-Site the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, held on 14 to 21 October 2013. The report highlights important progress in all areas to date, and offers advice on several points where the team feels it is still possible to further improve current practices.

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Read more about IAEA Delivers Final Report on Remediation in Fukushima to Japan
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Removing Fuel Rods Poses New Risks at Crippled Nuclear Plant in Japan

Wed, 2013-12-11 17:29 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Members of the media inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Thursday. The plant’s operator plans to start moving radioactive fuel to safer storage. Pool photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi

nytimes.com - by Hiroko Tabuchi - November 10, 2013

TOKYO — It was the part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that spooked American officials the most, as the complex spiraled out of control two and a half years ago: the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4, with more than 1,500 radioactive fuel assemblies left exposed when a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off the building.

In the next 10 days, the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is set to start the delicate and risky task of using a crane to remove the fuel assemblies from the pool, a critical step in a long decommissioning process that has already had serious setbacks.

Just 36 men will carry out the tense operation to move the fuel to safer storage; they will work in groups of six in two-hour shifts throughout the day for months.

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