A chemical plant has exploded in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, less than two days after a deadly blast in the nearby town of Geismar. [Geismar blast aftermath video: Fire rages after massive blast at Louisiana plant.] At least one person was killed Friday evening, and some eight injured.
Sheriff Jeff Wiley told The Baton Rougue Advocate that an 18-wheeler truck was being loaded with product at CF industries when it exploded. CF Industries is the largest producer of nitrogen in North America, shipping out 5 million tons of the combustible chemical for agricultural and industrial use annually.
At least eight victims were transported from the site of the blast, Wiley said, adding that emergency responders were still on the scene.
On Thursday the Williams Olefins plant in Geismar, Louisiana exploded, killing two people and sending 73 others to hospital. Eight remain in treatment 24 hours later.
CF Industries also produces phosphorous and nitrogen, according to the company’s website. The plant stands at the foot of Sunshine Bridge, which was immediately closed following the blast.
The blast was reported at 6:27 pm EST, at which point several ambulances and medical helicopters were dispatched. Louisiana State Police spokesman Doug Cain told the Times-Picayune that by 7:30 pm the fire had been extinguished and the “scene is reportedly secure.” Two people are thought to be critically injured.
An explosion took place at the same plant in 2000, when three people were killed and eight injured. That blast resulted in 14 citations for safety and health violations. In November 1998, one employee was injured when a boiler filled with natural gas exploded.
[Potent News editor’s note: via Pepe Escobar: For those who haven’t seen it yet. RT’s title is misleading; I meant “start” metaphorically; Obama’s Syria decision is a diversion from PRISMgate. At least for 24 hours it worked, bumping Snowden off the headlines.]
CIA whistle blower Edward Snowden has reportedly been stopped from flying to the UK. The man who lifted the lid on America’s secret surveillance activities is being pursued by Washington. For his latest revelation, he told a Hong Kong newspaper that the U.S. repeatedly hacks into Chinese computer networks. For more about the leaks and Snowden’s future we’re now joined live by Pepe Escobar, a roving correspondent for the Asia Times.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
In this video, Luke Rudkowski documents the end of the Bilderberg protest, gets inside the Grove hotel, interviews Mark Anderson of AFP and Jon Scoby of WRC Birmingham. The next vlogs will be taking place from the G8 summit in Northern Ireland so stay tuned.
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A protester stands with a placard during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)
In Singapore, up to 2,000 activists lead by local bloggers staged a rally against recently introduced licensing rules for news websites, including breaches of “racial or religious harmony”, which protesters see as an attack on freedom of expression.
A crowd with posters denouncing “internet censorship” gathered on Saturday in Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park to demand the withdrawal of the policy. The peaceful demonstration in the Southeast Asian city-state was organized by a group of bloggers called “Free My Internet.”
The message of the gathering – “the government must trust us, and stop treating us like babies,” said Choo Zheng Xi, the group’s spokesperson. “It is an international embarrassment when governments around the world are working to deregulate the Internet, and Singapore, one of the wealthiest nations per capita, is going in the opposite direction,” the activist told AFP.
A Caricature of former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is displayed during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)
Under the rules that came into force in June, news websites must obtain annual licenses if they have over 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and publish at least one weekly article on the island’s news over a period of two months.
Iranians are preparing for a changing of the guard – the country will be welcoming a new President for the first time in eight years. Six candidates are vying for that position in the Islamic republic – with the first round of voting due to begin on Friday. But election campaigning and the process itself – have some noticeable differences from most other nations.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
In the course of its investigation into the Reyhanlı bombings (11 May 2013), the Turkish police conducted on Monday, 27 May 2013, a series of raids on the homes of Al-Nusra Front militants in Adana and Mersin. 12 suspects were arrested.
2 kg of sarin gas were found.
The Al-Nusra Front is the Levantine branch of Al-Qaida. The militants were preparing to use the sarin gas inside both Turkey and Syria. Sarin gas is a chemical weapon banned by the United Nations in 1991.
This discovery comes as the French daily Le Monde, in its edition dated May 28, published a five-part report by Jean-Philippe Rémy and Laurent Van Der Stockton “certifying” the use of gas by the Army Syrian Arab against the “rebellion” in Jobar (district of Damascus).
The report is a carbon copy of the one carried out in Homs, more than one year ago by the same newspaper, which was translated into the main European languages and published by all major outlets in NATO member states. The report contains several absurdities: journalists describe a chemical warfare at the heart of the capital supposed to affect only “opponents“; the people show diverse symptoms, but no convulsions; and photos illustrating the first installment point to an eye treatment which is incongruous with for poison gas (which penetrates the skin and is not a tear gas). This piece of propaganda was disseminated and widely relayed on the eve of the lifting of the EU embargo on sending weapons to armed groups in Syria.
PN 