Iran nuke talks begin amid hopes of progress

GENEVA (AP) — The United States and five other world powers sat down Tuesday for the first talks on Tehran's nuclear program since the election of reformist Iranian President Hassan Rouhani four months ago.

The talks are being seen as a key test of Iran's overtures to the West. The U.S, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are eager to see whether Iran's new style since Rouhani's election will translate into progress on dispelling concerns that Tehran may want to make nuclear weapons.

Iran has long insisted it does not want such arms and that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, and top Iranian officials have come to the negotiating table saying Tehran is willing to make concessions to end a decade of deadlock. But the U.S. and its allies insist it will take more than words to advance negotiations and end international sanctions crippling Iran's economy.

One immediate change from previous negotiations was the choice of language at the talks. A senior U.S. official said they were being held in English, unlike previous rounds under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani's hard-line predecessor, where Farsi translation was provided. The official demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss any details of the talks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a senior member of negotiating team, said Sunday that Tehran is bringing a new proposal to the talks to dispel doubts about the nuclear program. While offering no details, he told Iran's student news agency ISNA that the Islamic Republic should "enter into a trust-building path with the West."

No final deal is expected at the two-day session.

However, if the Iranians succeed in building trust, the talks could be the launching pad for a deal that has proven elusive since negotiations on Iran's nuclear program began in 2003.

By Aaron Sheldrick

TOKYO (Reuters) - A once-in-a-decade typhoon threatened Japan on Tuesday, disrupting travel and shipping and forcing precautions to be taken at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Typhoon Wipha is moving across the Pacific straight towards the capital, Tokyo, and is expected to make landfall during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, bringing hurricane-force winds to the metropolitan area of 30 million people.

The center of the storm was 860 km (535 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 0800 GMT, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. It was moving north-northeast at 35 kph (22 mph).

The storm had weakened as it headed north over the sea but was still packing sustained winds of about 140 kph (87 mph) with gusts as high as 194 kph (120 mph), the agency said.

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An overturned sightseeing boat is stuck by a bridge after the Katsura River was overflooded by torre …

The agency issued warnings for Tokyo of heavy rain, flooding and gales, and advised people to be prepared to leave their homes quickly and to avoid unnecessary travel.

A spokesman for the meteorological agency said the storm was a "once in a decade event".

The typhoon is expected to sweep through northern Japan after making landfall and to pass near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, on the coast 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo, later on Wednesday.

The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corp, which has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks, said it would cancel all offshore work and it would decide whether to continue work onshore after assessing the weather.

The utility will also take down cranes and secure all cables, hoses and machinery, a company spokesman said.

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Resident man their store amidst flooding at suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila Monday, Sept. …

RADIOACTIVE WATER

Tokyo Electric said it would pump out the rainwater expected to fall into protective containers at the base of some 1,000 tanks storing radioactive water.

The radioactive water is a by-product of its jerry-rigged cooling system designed to keep under control reactors wrecked in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The rainwater that builds up will be pumped into an empty tank, checked for radioactivity, and if uncontaminated, released into the sea, the company said.

Typhoon Wipha is the strongest storm to approach eastern Japan since October 2004. That cyclone triggered floods and landslides that killed almost 100 people, forced thousands from their homes and caused billions of dollars in damage.

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A man holds a baby as they get onto a raft pushed by rescuers on a flooded street after Typhoon Fito …

Four Japanese oil refining companies said they suspended marine berth shipments in eastern Japan as the typhoon approached but there was no impact on refining operations.

The affected facilities are Idemitsu Kosan Co's Chiba and Aichi refineries, JX Holdings Inc's Negishi, Kashima and Sendai refineries, Fuji Oil Co's Sodegaura refinery and Cosmo Oil Co's Chiba refinery.

Japan Airlines Co cancelled 183 domestic flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly from Tokyo's Haneda airport. Rival ANA Holdings Inc halted 210 flights in Japan with three international flights also cancelled. The combined cancellations will affect 60,850 passengers, the airlines said.

East Japan Railway Co said it had cancelled 31 bullet trains going north and west from Tokyo.

Nissan Motor Co said it was cancelling the Wednesday morning shift at its Oppama and Yokohama plants south of Tokyo. Oppama makes the all-electric Leaf and other models.

Philippines clean up after Typhoon NariPlay video."

(Additional reporting by Tim Kelly, Osamu Tsukimori and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Typhoon Wipha is expected to make landfall at a critical time and is forcing precautions to be taken at Fukushima.
Flights, trains halted

Publicado el 12/10/2013

TOKYO (AP) — A typhoon caused deadly mudslides that buried people and destroyed homes on a Japanese island Wednesday before sweeping up the Pacific coast, grounding hundreds of flights and disrupting Tokyo's transportation during the morning rush. At least 14 deaths were reported and more than 50 people were missing.

Hardest hit was Izu Oshima island about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Tokyo. Rescuers found 13 bodies, most of them buried by mudslides, police and town officials said. Dozens of homes were destroyed, and more than 50 people are missing. "We have no idea how bad the extent of damage could be," town official Hinani Uematsu said.

One woman from Tokyo died after falling into a river and being washed 10 kilometers (6 miles) downriver to Yokohama, police said. Two sixth-grade boys and another person were missing on Japan's main island, Honshu, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

More than 350 homes have been damaged or destroyed, including 283 on Izu Oshima, it said.

Typhoon Wipha, which stayed offshore in the Pacific, had sustained winds of 126 kilometers per hour (78 mph) with gusts up to 180 kph.

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Houses in a residential area in Oshima are buried by mudslides after a powerful typhoon hit Izu Oshi …

More than 80 centimeters (30 inches) of rain fell on Izu Oshima during a 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning, a record since record keeping began in 1991.

The rainfall was particularly heavy before dawn, the kind in which "you can't see anything or hear anything," Japan Meteorological Agency official Yoshiaki Yano said.

Izu Oshima is the largest island in the Izu chain southwest of Tokyo. It has one of Japan's most active volcanoes, Mount Mihara, and is a major base for growing camellias. About 8,200 people live on the island, which is accessible by ferry from Tokyo.

As a precaution, the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, released tons of rainwater that were being held behind protective barriers around storage tanks for radioactive water. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said only water below an allowable level of radioactivity was released, which Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority allowed Tuesday. During an earlier typhoon in September, rainwater spilled out before it could be tested.

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Landslide survivors offer prayers as the body of a victim is carried by rescue workers in the rubble …

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Iran's President Hassan Rouhani takes questions from journalists during a news conference in New York September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran suggested it was ready to address calls to give the U.N. atomic watchdog wider inspection powers as part of Tehran's proposals to resolve a decade-old nuclear dispute with the West.

The comments from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi appeared to be the first specific indication of what concessions Tehran might be prepared to make in return for the removal of sanctions hurting its oil-dependent economy.

Iran presented a three-phase plan for ending the standoff over its nuclear program during the first day of an October 15-16 meeting with six world powers in Geneva on Tuesday. The talks were due to resume later on Wednesday.

Iran did not give details of its proposal On Tuesday, but said it included monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear body which regularly inspects declared Iranian facilities.

Iran's official IRNA news agency asked Araqchi about the issues of uranium enrichment and the so-called Additional Protocol to Iran's agreement with the IAEA.

"Neither of these issues are within the first step (of the Iranian proposal) but form part of our last steps," he replied without going into further details, in comments reported on Wednesday.

The Additional Protocol allows unannounced inspections outside of declared nuclear sites and it is seen as a vital tool at the IAEA's disposal to make sure that a country does not have any hidden nuclear work.

The world powers have long demanded that Iran implement the protocol. Iran says it is voluntary.

The powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia - also want Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment program and suspend higher-level activity.

Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, but can also provide the fissile core of a nuclear bomb if processed further, which the West fears may be Tehran's ultimate goal.

Western diplomats stress they want Tehran to back up its newly conciliatory language with concrete actions.

Both sides are trying to dampen expectations of any rapid breakthrough at the two-day meeting, the first to be held since President Hassan Rouhani took office, promising conciliation over confrontation in Iran's relations with the world.

(Reporting by Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Fredrik Dahl in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Iran hints its ready to make a key concession

In talks with six powers over its nuke program, Tehran suggests a longtime world demand isn't off the table.
West wants action