Dosens dead in an attack of Shiite mosque in Kabul

A suicide attack here that left dozens of Shiite worshipers dead was apparently conducted by a militant group with a history of ties to Pakistan’s main intelligence service, a connection that threatened to escalate tensions in Afghanistan just as the United States plans its exit.

The bombing and a second attack on Shiites in northern Afghanistan killed at least 60 people, including a U.S. citizen, making Tuesday one of the deadliest days for civilians in the decade-long war. The strikes were highly unusual because they targeted members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority, which was persecuted during the Taliban’s reign but which has not been a focus of insurgent bombings since the Taliban fell in 2001.

The Taliban denied any role in Tuesday’s attacks. But a spokesman for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi called a station operated by Radio Free Europe to assert responsibility. If the claim is true, it would mark the first time that the group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has carried out a major attack in Afghanistan.

Fukushima guilty of world's worst sea contamination

A new report shows the Fukushima disaster is responsible for the world's worst nuclear sea contamination.

During the peak of Chernobyl, the Black Sea was registering 1,000 becquerels per cubic meter of water - at Fukushima's peak, it was 100,000 becquerels.

Scientists first believed the ocean would dilute it, but Al Jazeera has learned that dangerous concentrations of radioactive caesium remain.

After the accident, radioactive substances spewed out by the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have likely spread to western Japan and Hokkaido, according to a team of Japanese, U.S. and European scientists.Their findings were published in the Nov. 14 online edition of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Japan’s science ministry said radioactive contamination spread only as far west as the areas near the border between Nagano and Gunma prefectures. However, it conceded there was a possibility, albeit small, of contamination west of that line.

Monday, (December, the 5) the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said that around 45 tonnes (45 cubic meters) of water contaminated with radioactive substances caesium and iodine had likely run into the ocean from a gutter into which water had leaked from a condensation.

According to TEPCO manager, the leaked water contained 16,000 becquerels per litre (16,0000,0000 becquerels per cubic meter) of radioactive cesium 134 and 29,000 becquerels (29,0000,0000 becquerels per cubic meter) of cesium 137, surpassing government safety limits by 267 and 322 times respectively.

Power plant workers used sand bags as an emergency way to prevent further leakage, but it could take up to three weeks to know the real amount of leaked radioactive water.

Local media reports said the contaminated water may also contain other radioactive substances such as strontium, known to cause bone cancer in humans.