The number and strength of earthquakes in central Arkansas have noticeably dropped since the shutdown of two injection wells in the area, although a state researcher says it's too early to draw any conclusions.
"We have definitely noticed a reduction in the number of earthquakes, especially the larger ones," said Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey. "It's definitely worth noting."
Arkansas Earthquakes Decline After 'Fracking' Injection Well Closures
US unarmed drones track drug gangs in Mexico - report
The US has been sending unarmed drones over Mexico since February to gather intelligence on major drug cartels, the New York Times reports. Useful information has already been turned over to Mexican authorities, US officials told the paper.
The missions had been kept secret because of Mexican legal restraints and sensitivities over sovereignty. Mexico's northern border areas have seen much of the violence that has left more than 34,000 dead since late 2006.
'World's largest paedophile ring' uncovered
Police from around the world say they have broken up the largest internet paedophile ring yet discovered. Rob Wainwright, head of Europol, the European Police Agency, said the abuse network had 70,000 members and links to 30 countries.
The operation has identified 670 suspects and 230 abused children. Detectives say 170 people have so far been arrested - and 121 of them were in the UK. Some 60 children have been protected in the UK.
U.S. defense industry depends on Mideast
Middle East arms sales, such as the massive $67 billion military package for Saudi Arabia, are keeping the U.S. defense industry in business. These days, with the Arab world in turmoil, two presidents booted out and a third fighting for survival of his authoritarian regime, that strategy is being questioned.
The wave of unrest in the region has given new weight to concerns that the vast arsenals of weapons the United States has sold to Arab states over the years could fall into the hands of anti-American forces.
Haiti cholera 'far worse than expected', experts fear
The cholera epidemic affecting Haiti looks set to be far worse than officials had thought, experts fear. Rather than affecting a predicted 400,000 people, the diarrhoeal disease could strike nearly twice as many as this, latest estimates suggest.
Aid efforts will need ramping up, US researchers told The Lancet journal. The World Health Organization says everything possible is being done to contain the disease and warns that modelling estimates can be inaccurate.
AIPAC's newest strategy
Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu is being heavily criticised in Israel for his blatant exploitation of the murder of five members of one family (including three children) at the Itamar settlement near Nablus.
Particularly egregious has been Netanyahu's demand that president Mahmoud Abbas personally appear on Palestinian radio and television to condemn the killings, although Abbas had issued an unusually strong statement as soon as he heard of the tragedy.
Japan Radiation Leaks Feared as Nuclear Experts Point to Possible Coverup
Nuclear experts have thrown doubt on the accuracy of official information issued about the Fukushima nuclear accident, saying that it followed a pattern of secrecy and cover-ups employed in other nuclear accidents. "It's impossible to get any radiation readings," said John Large, an independent nuclear engineer who has worked for the UK government and been commissioned to report on the accident for Greenpeace International.
"The actions of the Japanese government are completely contrary to their words. They have evacuated 180,000 people but say there is no radiation. They are certain to have readings but we are being told nothing."
The Japanese Learned Nothing From Hiroshima and Nagasaki
You would think that the only nation to actually learn first hand about the potential horrors of nuclear power would be smart enough to realize that nuclear energy and life on Earth cannot coincide. You would think that the nation that suffered not once, but twice from the direct results of nuclear energy unleashed by human technology, would understand the risks associated with this unnecessary evil.
Of course money trumps logic, so the profits made by the nuclear energy industry speak louder than the combined experience of the victims of the premier example of what happens when a society's technology advances faster than it's intelligence.
What will spark the next Fukushima?
The gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing to mark next month's 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of the world. Fukushima is not a rotting old power plant in a failed state manned by half-trained kids, but supposedly one of the safest stations in one of the most safety-conscious countries with the best engineers and technologists in the world.
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