Politics Clouds Efforts to Ban Nuclear Testing

On Aug. 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted the first of 456 nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan, at the site where it ultimately held over two-thirds of all Soviet nuclear tests without warning inhabitants of the region of the impact of exposure to these tests.

JAPAN: Fukushima Blows Lid Off Exploited Labour

The Fukushima disaster has thrown up the first opportunity in decades to bring justice to thousands of unskilled workers who risk radioactive contamination to keep Japan’s nuclear power plants running.

Concern Grows Over Prospects for Middle East Disarmament Meeting

Four months before 2012 - the year a conference is slated to be held on freeing the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - no date, facilitator, or host country has been named.

OP-ED: Expanding Deserts, Falling Water Tables and Toxins Driving People from Homes

People do not normally leave their homes, their families, and their communities unless they have no other option. Yet as environmental stresses mount, we can expect to see a growing number of environmental refugees. Rising seas and increasingly devastating storms grab headlines, but expanding deserts, falling water tables, and toxic waste and radiation are also forcing people from their homes.

JAPAN: Fukushima Gives Renewable Energy a Chance

After decades of not bothering to switch off the lights in unoccupied rooms in their Tokyo home, Masayoshi Sakurai and his children now meticulously make sure they do.

U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Holds Fast to Status Quo

The United States is likely to maintain and sustain its huge arsenal of nuclear weapons for many years to come, even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly stressed that he stands for nuclear disarmament and global peace, non-proliferation experts believe.

NGOs Cry “Sabotage” Over U.N. Meeting on Racism

A coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is accusing the U.N. Secretariat of "sabotaging" an upcoming high-level meeting on racism by upstaging it with a nuclear security summit scheduled for the same day.

U.S.: New Iran Sanctions Could Bring Unintended Blowback

A new Congressional push to sanction Iran's Central Bank is aimed at reducing Iranian oil revenues, but could backfire and hurt the global economy.

Citizen Group Tracks Down Japan’s Radiation

The aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis has been marked by an outcry in Japan over radiation leaks, contaminated food and a government unable to put the public's fears to rest.

IRAN: New Oil Minister Cements Ties with Military

Last week's appointment of a ranking member of Iran's influential Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the country's new oil minister could lead to a more unaccountable and unpredictable military with greater influence on the government in Tehran, analysts say.

Fukushima Clouds Hiroshima Anniversary

Matashichi Oishi, 78, a radiation victim from Bikini Atoll, the site of a U.S. hydrogen bomb test in 1954, will make his annual lone visit this week to commemorate the Aug. 6 anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima 66 years ago.

JAPAN: Record Radiation Levels at Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Record levels of radiation have been recorded at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant reactor, just months after the nuclear accident resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in March.

Nuclear Plant Now an Anti-Nuclear Attraction

Environmental groups hope that a mothballed nuclear power plant on Bataan peninsula will become a major tourist attraction and earn green dollars for the country.

U.S. Accuses Tehran of “Secret Deal” with Al-Qaeda

In a significant escalation in the rhetorical battle against Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department Thursday accused Tehran of having forged a "secret deal" with Al-Qaeda to allow it to use Iranian territory to transport money and operatives to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

India-Pakistan Rivalry Afghanistan’s “Gordian Knot”

U.S. hopes to withdraw forces and leave behind a stable Afghanistan may rest on whether Pakistan and India can lower bilateral tensions and refrain from using Afghan territory for a new proxy war.

U.N. Agency Slams Nuclear Rogue Nations

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Wednesday identified three U.N. member states - Iran, North Korea and Syria - as virtual nuclear rogue nations for their continued refusal to comply with international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

OP-ED: Germany Shows the Green Path

The decision was expected, yet it shook the world’s nuclear establishment. On May 29, some two and a half months after disaster struck at Japan’s Fukushima- Daiichi nuclear complex, Germany’s right-wing government of Angela Merkel announced that Germany is exiting from the nuclear era.

BRAZIL: Nuclear Subs to Defend Oil, Project Global Power

Plans for a Brazilian nuclear submarine that had been postponed since the 1970s are beginning to materialise, as the nuclear-propelled sub is regarded as a strategic necessity to guard Brazil's deep water oil reserves, and to project global power.

U.S. Standing Plunges Across Arab World

The United States' popularity in the Arab world has plummeted to levels lower than the last year of the George W. Bush administration, according to a new survey of public opinion in six Arab countries released here Wednesday.

OP-ED: Foreign Policy Goes Gaga

Lady Gaga and Alice Walker don't have much in common. One dresses in red meat; the other doesn't even eat the stuff. One writes lyrics like "I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free." The other writes "The Color Purple".

US-IRAN: Tensions Mount Over Iraq, Nuke Sanctions

Reviving U.S.-Iran friction over Iraq may have more to do with deteriorating relations over Iran's nuclear programme than with uncertainty over U.S. troop levels in Iraq beyond the end of this year.