Firefox 4 for Android Smartphones and Tablets

Firefox 4 for Android has been released for Android based smartphones and tablets. It is also available for Nokia Maemo devices.

Some of the main updates are that Firefox 4 hides your browser controls when not needed which gives a larger viewing area.  With Firefox Sync you can install add-ons right from your phone or tablet to customize your browser exactly the way you like.

Type less with the Awesome Screen, which gives you one-tap access to your bookmarks, history and custom list of search engines. Tabbed browsing allows for easy navigation and fast switching between Web sites with just one swipe of your finger.

Firefox say that the new Firefox 4 for Android is 3 times quicker than the basic Android mobile browser. It can be downloaded free from Android Market.

Streamlined Interface

    *      Focus on Web content: Features like tabs, one-touch bookmarking and browser controls that stow away when not in use help users focus on the websites they visit

Browse More, Type Less

    *      Awesome Screen: Type less with easy access to history, bookmarks and open tabs
    *      Save to PDF: Capture important websites, like directions or a boarding pass, to view offline
    *      Share Page: Share websites via apps like email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and more
    *      Add Search Engine: Customize your search engine list

Private and Secure Synchronization

    *      Firefox Sync: Access Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices with secure end-to-end encryption

Most Customizable:

    *      Firefox offers thousands of ways for users to customize the features, functionality and look of their mobile Web browser with Firefox Add-ons

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Radioactive Material from Japanese Nuclear Plant Spreads Across Globe

Authorities across Asia and the United States are reporting small amounts of radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, but they all say it poses no threat to public health.

China's Environmental Protection Ministry issued a statement Tuesday saying low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected along the country's southeastern region, including Guangxi, Guangdong and Shanghai.  The same radioactive material was detected a few days ago in northeastern Heilongjiang province. 

South Korea's state-run Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety says it has detected radioactive iodine in Seoul and several other areas across the nation.  The Agriculture Ministry says it is testing fish caught in its waters for possible radiation contamination. 

The Philippines' nuclear research agency says "very tiny amounts" of radioactive isotopes have been detected over the Pacific island nation.

In the United States, state and federal environmental officials says small traces of radioactive iodine-131 released by the Fukushima plant have been detected in several states and territories, including Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as several Atlantic coastal states.

Radioactive iodine-131 is a by-product of nuclear fission, and people exposed to high levels of the material are at risk of developing thyroid cancer and other thyroid-related diseases.  Thousands of Americans were put at risk of exposure to radioactive iodine-131 during nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and '60s. 

Lake Barrett, a nuclear engineer and former staffer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the risk of exposure from the Fukushima plant is very small, "much less than that we encounter in everyday life."

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Workers At Japanese Nuclear Plant Face Grim Conditions

When workers at the damaged nuclear plant in Japan are not toiling to avert a catastrophic nuclear meltdown, they are enduring the most basic living conditions.

An official with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Kazuma Yokota, spent several days at the plant recently and on Tuesday gave reporters their first glimpse into the workers' routine.

Yokota said the workers at the Fukushima plant sleep anywhere they can find floor space, including conference rooms and corridors, in a building on the grounds of the plant.  The building is designed to withstand radiation, but officials say radiation levels inside the building are still higher than normal.

Yokota says the workers eat only two meals a day - crackers and vegetable juice for breakfast, and for dinner instant rice and canned foods.  There are no showers and often no change of clothes for the workers, who spend 12 hours at a time on the job.

The ranks of the workers has risen from an initial 50 when the crisis began to several hundred.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, acknowledged Tuesday that more should have been done for the workers. Edano, however, said the priority had to be on bringing the situation at the plant under control and averting a disaster.

Last week, two workers at the plant were taken to a hospital after stepping in radioactive water.

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Radiation Spike Detected in Ocean Near Japanese Nuclear Plant

Japan's nuclear safety agency says radioactive iodine has been detected at more than 3,000 times the allowable level in the ocean near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Officials said Wednesday that the water sample, with the highest levels yet recorded, was collected about 300 meters from the Fukushima plant, which has been leaking radiation since its cooling systems were knocked out by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan received a phone call Wednesday from U.S. President Barack Obama offering any help in dealing with the nuclear crisis and the natural disasters, which have now left more than 27,500 people dead or missing. A naval task force with more than 18,000 personnel is already assisting in relief efforts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due in Tokyo Thursday to offer support. French nuclear experts are also assisting in the effort to halt radiation leaks and repair cooling systems for the plant's six nuclear reactors.

Japanese nuclear officials said they are working urgently to determine the exact cause of the spike in radioactive iodine in the seawater sample collected Tuesday, which registered 3,355 times the legal limit. They said the finding was a cause for concern but not an immediate threat to human health.

The nuclear plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, announced Wednesday that company president Masataka Shimizu has been hospitalized with high blood pressure and that Chairman Tsunehiso Katsumata will take charge of the crisis.

Kan told parliament Tuesday that TEPCO had failed to make adequate preparations for the tsunami that knocked out vital cooling systems at the plant. The tidal wave is estimated to have been 12 meters high, more than twice the height the plant's seawall was designed to withstand.

Nuclear experts believe the plant suffered partial meltdowns of the nuclear fuel rods in the cores of three of the six reactors after the earthquake and tsunami disabled the primary and back-up cooling systems that keep the rods from overheating.

There are also fears that the containment chambers used to prevent radiation from escaping from the cores may have been damaged in at least two of the reactors. The latest evidence of that came Tuesday when technicians discovered low levels of plutonium matching that used in the number-three unit's fuel rods in soil samples outside the plant.

Plant workers meanwhile are laboring under primitive conditions and with inadequate food and sleep to remove water from the basements and adjoining service tunnels at three of the reactors. The water, which is at 1,000 times the normal radiation level at the Number 2 unit, was at one point threatening to spill into the nearby ocean but it was reported Wednesday to be coming down in the basement of one of the buildings.

Workers need to keep pumping water into the reactors to prevent the fuel rods from overheating, even as they need to remove the contaminated water so they can replace and repair pumps needed for normal cooling. In a worst-case scenario, the fuel rods could catch fire, spewing radiation, or melt through the floor of the reactors allowing their radiation to be widely distributed through the ground water system.

Radiation from the plant has already been detected in milk and vegetables from farms in the surrounding prefecture and at low levels in tap water in Tokyo and other cities. Very low levels have been detected in countries across Asia, Europe and North America. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes within 20 kilometers of the stricken plant.

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Chandy not in Rahul's good books: Balakrishnan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Wednesday said things would be tough for opposition Congress leader Oommen Chandy as it was obvious that he was not in the good books of party general secretary Rahul Gandhi. "Our party has no problems about who the leader is, instead all the confusion and problems are there in the Congress party. (Rahul) Gandhi does not favour Chandy, instead Ramesh Chennithala has got his blessings," Balakrishnan told reporters here.

"This is evident from the number of candidates owing allegiance to Chennithala who have been given Congress tickets to contest the forthcoming assembly polls," said Balakrishnan said. He went on to add that in the recent history of the Congress in Kerala, never have the state party chief and the leader of opposition together contested the assembly polls.

Balakrishnan said KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, who had the 'backing' of Rahul Gandhi, would outsmart Oommen Chandy after the elections. "The fielding of Chennithala in assembly polls clearly shows that the performance of Chandy as the leader of opposition has not been up to the desired mark. And now with Gandhi fully supporting Chennithala, it is amply clear that the going for Chandy is going to get tougher," added Balakrishnan.

Balakrishnan said things are favourable for the Left government. "We might have not done well in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and last year's local bodies polls. That is a thing of the past because the Congress-led UPA government has been drowned in several scandals and that is going to work in our favour," he said.

"We are demanding a second term because in the last five years, people have hugely benefitted here and never ever has a Left government ruled for a decade at one stretch. Give us a term more and analyse us in 2016," said Balakrishnan.

The CPM politburo member also said there is no anti-incumbency factor working against the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala ahead of the April 13 assembly elections. He said people would cast their votes against the 'anti-people' policies of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, which was responsible for unprecedented price rise in the country.

While the UPA government was steeped in corruption, top UDF leaders in Kerala were facing several corruption charges, Balakrishnan said. "The internal strife in the Congress, which came to the fore with the announcement of its candidates' list, would intensify in the coming days," he said.

He said former Minister and senior Congress leader K K Ramachandran had already charged that many in his party got seats after paying money. The IUML also had candidates who got accommodated in such 'payment seats," he alleged. "The Election Commission which has a system to check paid news, will now have to look into charges of payment seats also," Balakrishnan said.

Denying reports that there was secret alliance between CPM and BJP, he said the Congress should explain why it did not put up a candidate in Nemom in the capital where senior BJP leader O Rajagopal was contesting. The UDF had left the

seat to its partner Socialist Janata-Democratic, he said.

To a question on the attack on a television channel scribe by CPM workers at Kannur on Monday, he said the incident was isolated and would be examined. "Our party is of the view that journalists should be allowed to work freely," he said. The party had decided that its leaders would not be sent to talk shows being held by mediapersons who were not able to handle the show properly, he added.

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AERB to reassess safety measures at Indian N-plants

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board today said it would carry out a comprehensive reassessment of safety and emergency mitigation measures at all the Indian nuclear power plants, in the light of the crisis in Japan.

Emergency-preparedness plans exist for all nuclear power plants in India, and they are periodically “rehearsed”, AERB said here.

“However, in the light of the unprecedented event in Japan, AERB will be carrying out a comprehensive reassessment of safety and emergency mitigation measures of all the Indian nuclear power plants,” AERB Secretary R. Bhattacharya said here in a statement.

AERB is constantly monitoring the situation at Japan’s crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plan, he said.

“A detailed review will be taken up by us as full information (on situation in Japan) becomes available,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

Out of the 20 reactors (19 are in operation) in India, only Tarapur Atomic Power Station’s units one and two are Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs), similar to ones at Fukushima.

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PM promises independent nuclear regulator

Stressing, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident, that the government was committed to ensuring the safety of Indian nuclear power plants, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said steps would be taken to make the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) “truly autonomous and independent.”

“We will strengthen the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and make it a truly autonomous and independent regulatory authority. We will ensure that it is of the highest and the best international standards,” he said here at a function honouring nuclear scientists.

Though the AERB is tasked with ensuring the safe use [of] nuclear energy, its lack of independence from the Department of Atomic Energy has led critics to question its effectiveness as a regulatory authority on safety issues.

Making an oblique reference to complaints that decision-making on nuclear related issues was shrouded in secrecy, Dr. Singh emphasised that there was need for “greater openness and transparency.”

“The people of India have to be convinced about the safety and security of our nuclear power plants. We should bring greater openness and transparency in the decision making processes relating to our nuclear energy programme and improve our capacity to respond to the public desire to be kept informed about decisions and issues that are of concern to them.”
Technical review

Incidentally, the Prime Minister is also the Minister in charge of Atomic Energy and heads the “decision making processes” involved. Noting that the government had already directed a technical review of all safety systems of the nuclear power plants using the best available expertise, he pointed out that all reactors that would be built in India would have to be certified by the regulatory authority and meet its safety standards. “This will apply equally to reactors and technologies that are imported from abroad,” he added. He noted that the tragedy at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant in Japan had raised world-wide concerns about the safety of nuclear energy as a source of power and stressed that it was “vitally important” to address the concerns. “I would like to see accountability and transparency in the functioning of our nuclear power plants.”
For energy independence

Rejecting demands for doing away with nuclear power as an energy option in toto, he said that for a large and fast growing economy like India, it was imperative that all sources of energy were tapped and the energy mix was diversified. “Nuclear energy has the potential of playing an increasingly important role in giving our country energy independence from traditional and polluting sources of energy.”

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