News Headlines - 04 August 2018
▽Despite tensions, Russia seeks U.S. help to rebuild Syria | Reuters
Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with America’s top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a U.S. government memo.
The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, to U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the memo which was seen by Reuters.
▽Monju reactor fuel removal faces delays as monitoring cameras fog up in tests - The Mainichi
The removal of fuel from the prototype reactor in Fukui Prefecture must be carried out remotely, because there are some areas that human workers cannot enter. Fuel rods will be removed from the reactor vessel and from a spent fuel pool, both filled with sodium -- a material that is difficult to handle because it reacts with water and air -- using special equipment.
Before extracting the fuel, staff tested their removal technique up until July 26 by attempting to take control rods out of the spent fuel pool. However, two cameras near a special receptacle for the rods and at an enclosed intermediate monitoring area fogged up, preventing workers from properly checking the work, the agency said.
One of Japan’s top medical universities has been systematically blocking female applicants from entering the school for at least eight years, local news agencies reported on Thursday.
Tokyo Medical University, a private institution consistently ranked among the country's best for clinical medicine, has been automatically lowering the entrance exam results of female applicants for the past decade, an attempt to keep the ratio of women in each class of students below 30 percent, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. A specific coefficient was reportedly applied to the scores of all female applicants, lowering them by 10 to 20 percent.
▽Man with Down's Syndrome shot dead by Swedish police after running away from home with toy gun
A man with Down’s Syndrome has been shot dead by Swedish police after running away from home in the middle of the night carrying a toy gun.
Eric Torell, 20, who was autistic and was described by his family as being severely disabled, was fatally shot by police who erroneously believed he was carrying a real weapon in the early hours of Thursday morning in downtown Stockholm.
▽Federal Judge Halts Release of 3D-Printed Gun Blueprints | Time
A federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday to stop the release of blueprints to make untraceable and undetectable 3D-printed plastic guns, saying they could end up in the wrong hands.
The company behind the plans, Austin, Texas-based Defense Distributed, had reached a settlement with the federal government in June that allows it to make the plans for the guns available for download on Wednesday.
