Leader is an "extremely moving" tour of Chernobyl - AFP

UN Chief visits "extremely moving" to Chernobyl (AFP) - 1 hour ago

Chernobyl, Ukraine, Secretary-General of the United Nations visited the site of the Chernobyl explosion on Wednesday, a day after international donors pledged 550 million euros towards a permanent shelter to secure the ruined reactor.

Under a clear blue sky, civil servants, including A Chief, Ban Ki-moon, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the head of the International Atomic Energy Association Yukiya Amano was outside the power plant for about 20 minutes.

The Ukraine needs of EUR 740 million for the construction of a new shelter on the fourth reactor exploded on April 26, 1986. The 550 million euros (785 million dollars) in promises did not meet the necessary figure at the Conference Tuesday.

"It was one thing to hear and read about the Chernobyl disaster". This is another totally different experience to see it, the head of the United Nations said after the helicopter flight site, calling his visit "extremely moving experience".

He drew parallels with the damaged power plant in Fukushima (Japan), saying that the recent disaster should provide a new impetus to take measures to improve nuclear safety standards.

"The Fukushima nuclear accident with the Chernobyl disaster has given us two strong messages." We must draw lessons from such tragedies, "he says.

Yanukovych said Wednesday that he was confident the whole sum for the project would be raised shortly and that the money raised Tuesday was sufficient to complete the construction of the shelter.

"We raised yesterday the major part of the sum." The rest, I am sure, will be collected shortly. "In fact, we have the possibility of building the new refuge to complete construction here 2015," he said.

The EBRD said in a statement Tuesday that he would work with the major donors "to close" the financial gap remains.

The money goes to a project managed by the EBRD to build a secure shelter on the existing concrete sarcophagus covering reactor, hastily erected in 1986 and supported until a few years after that he became unstable.

It will also fund an installation of safe storage for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive debris inside the reactor, which should be gradually extracted under the coating new Hi-Tech.

The two projects are due to become operational in 2015, according to the EBRD.

Copyright ? AFP 2011. All rights reserved. "More".

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Opposition Leader Besigye arrested in Uganda protest - New York Times

KAMPALA, Uganda - figurehead opposition here was arrested Monday and charged with incitement to violence, as a third day of street protests in the capital of Uganda has ended in the shrouds of tear gas and rubber bullets.

"Walk to work" protests are a campaign against the spirals of fuel and food prices led by the former candidate to the Presidency, Kizza Besigye.

Despite the meagre size of protests - rarely numbering more than a few hundred people in a country more $ 30 million - they got an overwhelming response by the security forces Government, sending tear gas through a crowd of spectators and dormitories of the University. Demonstrators were beaten and fired on, raise more political tensions.

Mr. Besigye was dragged on the back of a pickup truck by several police officers Monday, his right hand in a sling after be slaughtered by the military police with a Thursday rubber bullet, and a distribution on the second day of the walk to the work of the demonstrations. Demonstration on Monday was the third at the time where the riots broke out in a number of universities in Kampala.

A spokesman of the police, Judith Nabakooba, said the protests in Kampala had dissipated by the beginning of the afternoon and 98 people, including the leading political figures, have been arrested.

"The situation has been limited," said agent Nabakooba. She also said there were demonstrations in the nearby town of Jinja, on the Nile, but those too had been pacified.

Mr. Besigye, who won just over 20% of the vote in February, vowed earlier this month that he could walk at his home on the outskirts of Kampala from the town centre every Monday and Thursday to raise attention to the high prices of the products that he said are stimulated by the corruption of the Government.

Mr. unexpected cited Besigye a supplementary budget of 250 million just before the February elections, the recent secret fighter acquisition Russian for about $ 750 million, as well as lucrative but oil contracts signed by the Government after the discoveries of oil wells in the West of the country.

Mr. Besigye vowed on Monday that he could walk to work again on Thursday.

On Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni said that Uganda should not complain about the increase in food prices, and that the Government would crush any demonstration, including walking to work the movement.

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