Year: 2014

Underground sensors have detected excessive radiation levels inside a nuclear waste storage site deep below New Mexico’s desert, but no workers have been exposed and there was no risk to public health, U.S. Department of Energy officials said on Sunday. An air-monitoring alarm went off at 11:30 p.m. local time Friday indicating unsafe concentrations of radiation inside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in what DOE officials said appeared to be the first such mishap since the facility opened in 1999. We’re waiting until we get other assessments done before we authorize re-entry,” DOE spokesman Bill Mackie said. The facility, located in southeastern New Mexico near Carlsbad, is designed as a repository for so-called transuranic waste, which includes discarded machinery, clothing and other materials contaminated with plutonium or other radioisotopes heavier than uranium.

POINT PLEASANT, N.J. (AP) — On an icy night last month, a man entered a grocery store here, walked past the displays of cake mix and paper towels, and went into the bathroom, where he injected himself with heroin.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday called climate change perhaps the world's "most fearsome" destructive weapon and mocked those who deny its existence or question its causes, comparing them to people who insist the Earth is flat.

By Timothy Heritage SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Russian skicross racer Maria Komissarova was flown to Germany on Sunday for further treatment after breaking her back during training at the Winter Olympics and undergoing surgery. Russia's Freestyle Ski Federation said a special flight had been laid on to enable the 23-year-old to be treated at a specialist clinic in Munich, where Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said she would have a second operation. Nobody will abandon Masha." Komissarova suffered the injury during training on Saturday at the Olympic skicross venue at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in the mountains above Sochi. President Vladimir Putin visited Komissarova on Saturday evening to wish her a rapid recovery and called her father by telephone after the skier told him he was extremely worried.

* Skier underwent spinal surgery after training crash * Medvedev and Putin wish her a full recovery (Updates with departure for Germany) By Timothy Heritage SOCHI, Russia, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Russian skicross racer Maria Komissarova was flown to Germany on Sunday for further treatment after breaking her back during training at the Winter Olympics and undergoing surgery. Russia’s Freestyle Ski Federation said a special flight had been laid on to enable the 23-year-old to be treated at a specialist clinic in Munich, where Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said she would have a second operation.