World news in brief
Robot finds melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima
Images captured by an underwater robot have revealed deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as one metre (three feet) on the bottom of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO).
On Friday, the robot, nicknamed "Little Sunfish", spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant. Locating and analysing the fuel debris and damage in each of the plant's three wrecked reactors is crucial for decommissioning the plant. The search for melted fuel in the two other reactors has so far been unsuccessful because of damage and extremely high radiation levels.
Experts have said the fuel melted and much of it fell to the chamber's bottom and is now covered by radioactive water as deep as six metres (20 feet). The fuel, during meltdown, also likely melted its casing and other metal structures inside the reactor, forming rocks as it cooled. TEPCO spokesman Takahiro Kimoto said it would take time to analyse the debris in the images to figure out debris removal methods.
Erdogan kicks off Gulf crisis diplomacy with Saudi visit
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Saudi Arabia and met King Salman yesterday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, his first stop on a Gulf diplomatic tour aimed at healing an Arab rift with Ankara's ally Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties and imposed sanctions on Qatar last month, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charges.
The boycotting countries want Qatar to close down a Turkish base, curb relations with their arch-foe Iran and close down the Al Jazeera TV channel.King Salman and Erdogan discussed "efforts to combat terrorism and its sources of funding," SPA reported.
Erdogan is also scheduled to visit Kuwait, which is attempting to mediate the crisis, and Qatar during the two-day trip. Reuters
Briton shot days before wedding in Philippines
A British man is fighting for his life after being shot in the Philippines just days before his wedding. Tarek Naggar, 44, is said to be critically injured and in intensive care after being attacked during a robbery on the island of Cebu.
The Sunday Herald reports that Mr Naggar – from Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire but recently living in Sweden – was gunned down while sitting outside a bar in the capital, Cebu City, in the early hours of Thursday with his fiancee Angie and best man Chris McLaughlin.
Three men on a moped are believed to have pulled over and demanded the Scot hand over his wallet. When he refused, one of the assailants pulled out a gun and blasted him in the chest.
Australia: school allows children to smoke during break
A school in Australia is permitting students as young as 15 to have a smoking break at lunch and other recess periods. Carolyn Blanden, principal at The Warakirri College in Sydney, said she believed that relaxed rules would encourage the children to keep attending school. “At my school you can come with bright blue hair and metal in your face,” Ms Blanden told Australia's Daily Telegraph.
Ms Blanden defended her decision, saying she would rather her students smoke cigarettes, with all the health risks it involved, rather than have them “floating around the streets or in detention”.
The school is similar to an adult learning environment, with no fees or uniforms. There is a gym and students are allowed to leave the campus grounds when not in class. Many of the children who graduated Year 10 (age 14-16) in 2016 were the first in their families to achieve a Record of School Achievement (RoSA).
Women demand end to ‘marry your rapist’ laws
Campaign groups in Lebanon and across the Middle East are pushing to repeal longstanding laws that allow rapists to avoid criminal prosecution if they marry their victims. The laws were built around patriarchal attitudes that link a family’s honour directly to a woman’s chastity; the marriage option is aimed at shielding the victim’s family from “the scandal,” as one victim’s brother put it in an interview.
In 2014, Morocco repealed a provision that allowed convicted rapists to evade punishment by marrying their victims. Parliamentary votes are expected as early as this summer in Lebanon and in Jordan after
government committees in both countrys recommended repealing similar exemptions for both the accused and the convicted. New York Times