Free Republic

Violent protests in the Spanish city of Burgos went into a third day Sunday, with street demonstrators venting frustration at the council's decision to reduce the size of a road by half, and remove a significant number of parking spaces.

Spain's government said Friday there is a limited risk of a big earthquake shaking the eastern coast after a string of small tremors linked to a vast offshore gas storage plant. In the past month, some 400 earthquakes have rattled the Gulf of Valencia, where a depleted oil reservoir is being used as a giant gas storage facility. The activity has frightened residents but so far caused no damage.

This week everyone is talking about the possible Greek exit from the euro and the apparently appealing idea of "why not Spain?". Let's press the reset button and start over. The Greek state, which has more public employees than Spain with four times fewer inhabitants, wasted bailout after bailout and continues delaying reforms, saying that "they'll come, be patient". And now, some demand breaking the agreement-yes-after having accepted the money. One thing is to belong to the European club with its obligations and rights, and another is to demand to participate only for the party and not to collect the...

A World Health Organization (WHO) preliminary estimate report on the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant found that human risk of cancer did not increase in most of the country, but that some infants in a nearby town who were exposed to radioactive iodine-131 may have a higher lifetime risk of developing thyroid cancer.

THE REGION TO BE INVESTIGATED FOR TAX REIMBURSEMENTS Navarra in €1.7bn tax inquiry The Spanish tax authorities are stunned, and they have every reason to be so. A discovery of a tax maneuver involving Volkswagen’s car production in the small region of Navarra in northern Spain, has disclosed that the region is indirectly funded by the central government in Madrid through tax returns that add up to 10 percent of the region’s yearly budget.

With Manzano, everything was mixedThe EDU provincial chief denounces that the reports on the explosives were concealed from him LD has accessed new testimonies against Sanchez-Manzano. The testimonies before judge Coro Cillan by the EDU officers who participated in the collection of the evidence from the attacks continue revealing that the former commander of the Central Unit of Explosive Disposal, Juan Jesus Sanchez-Manzano, failed to fulfill the protocol. The person in charge of the Provincial Brigade for Explosive Disposal in Madrid, Jose Maria Caceres-Vadillo, who was present in the collection of samples at Atocha [station] and Tellez [street explosion scenes]...

Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, has declared an end to the most critical phase of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but conceded that the crisis is far from over. In a nationally televised address on Friday, Noda said the plant had been brought to a state of "cold shutdown", a significant step towards resolving the crisis, nine months after it was struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami that left almost 20,000 people dead and missing along the country's north-east coast.

UPDATE 1-Spain bond sale costs soar toward danger levels Thu Nov 17, 2011 5:35am EST * Spain sold 3.6 bln euros of new 10-yr benchmark bond * Yield was 6.975 pct, highest since 1997 * Just below 7 pct level seen as unsustainable By Nigel Davies MADRID, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Spain paid the highest rate to sell its 10-year debt since 1997 on Thursday, just shy of the 7 percent mark seen as unsustainable, as the country is swept deeper into the euro zone's debt crisis ahead of a Parliamentary election on Sunday.

Report on the finding of Xenon inside the contention building of #2 reactor, and the general state of this reactor: Press Release (Nov 04,2011) Report to Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with regards to the detection of Xe135 at Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Report regarding the levels of Plutonium, Strontium, Cesium and Iodine in seawater (open seas): Press Release (Nov 04,2011) Detection of Radioactive Materials from Seawater near Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (217th release) Report on the detection of Plutonium, Strontium and other radiactive materials on...

To send spacecraft to other stars in the space of a human lifetime, new methods of propulsion are going to be needed to provide the necessary ‘oomph’ to break free of our Solar System. Currently the best bet is nuclear fusion power, but there’s a problem – it hasn’t even been shown to be a commercially viable source of energy on Earth yet. ‘Splitting the atom’ in the 1930s paved the way for modern day nuclear fission reactors, but nuclear fusion is a different and altogether far cleaner process.

Units 1 to 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are all on track to be declared in cold shutdown by the end of the year, in line with the schedule set in the restoration roadmap, according to plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

Dani Pedrosa rode serenely at a dramatic MotoGP race in Motegi, Japan to seal a win for home manufacturer Honda. Jorge Lorenzo finished second and Casey Stoner a distant third following a mistake in the early stages. Stoner's gap now stands at 40 points over Yamaha's Lorenzo.

As part of monitoring activity of the surrounding environment, we conducted an analysis of plutonium contained in the soil collected on March 21 and 22 at the 5 spots in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. As a result, plutonium 238, 239 and 240 were detected. (Previously announced) As a result of plutonium and strontium analysis in the soil from the samples at the 3 periodic sampling spots collected on August 22 and 29, plutonium 238, 239, and 240 were detected as shown in the appendix 1. In addition, as a result of nuclide analysis of the gamma ray contained in...

Judiciary investigation on 3/11The EDU team maintains that they picked up hundreds of samples Today March 11th the judge hears the testimony of 24 Explosive Disposal Unit members that participated in the collection of evidence. They showed their astonishment on certain matters of the investigation. ANGELA MARTIALAY Since the 9:30 hours, the holder of the #43 court in Madrid, Coro Cillan, questions the EDU technicians that on March 11th, 2004 and the following days, participated in the collection of rests in the explosion scenes of the Madrid terrorist attack. The judge has called today Friday –the seventh anniversary of the...

MADRID -- The Spanish government said Thursday a communication error led it to claim China's sovereign wealth fund was studying a plan to inject euro9.3 billion ($13.5 billion) into Spain's ailing savings bank sector.

Press Release (Mar 13,2011) Plant Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (as of 0pm March 13th)All 6 units of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been shut down. Unit 1 (Shut down) - Reactor has been shut down. However, the unit is under inspection due to the explosive sound and white smoke that was confirmed after the big quake occurred at 3:36PM. - We have been injecting sea water and boric acid which absorbs neutron into the reactor pressure vessel. Unit 2 (Shut down) - Reactor has been shut down and Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System has been injecting...

TOKYO, March 12 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co plans to fill a leaking reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant with sea water to cool it down and reduce pressure in the unit, Japan's top government spokesman said on Saturday. "The nuclear reactor is surrounded by a steel reactor container, which is then surrounded by a concrete building," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Spain's unemployed rush to fill jobs in Germany The telephones to the European employment service Eures have been ringing off the hook this week. The calls are from unemployed Spaniards urgently seeking jobs - in Germany. Eures' German branch has requested applications from Spanish engineers, medics, teachers and tourism professionals. Other skilled workers, who speak German, can also apply. "All our lines have been jammed!"

As a response to the WSJ, who has carefully avoided to publish the details of this particular issue while focusing in others, minor in comparison, developing on regions having a right wing government. Neither flights, nor employmentCiudad Real Airport Sinks After Squadering more than €1 billion Fernando Díaz Villanueva It was a bad idea from the begining. It has cost €1.1 billion and today flags with a few flights. The list of people to blame is long. [...] An expensive and unnecessary airport The plan did not work. The high speed train station was never constructed. Madrid airport, on the...

Madrid - Spain may extend its state of emergency for up to two months to train military personnel to take over the jobs of those air traffic controllers who are sacked or face legal action, El Mundo newspaper said on Monday. The army took over air control towers late on Friday...