Briefs, February 24, 2013

SEATTLE - Six underground tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the US state of Washington are leaking radioactive waste, but there is no immediate risk to public health, Governor Jay Inslee said. Inslee said he was told last wee of one leaking tank at the decommissioned nuclear weapons plant by outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu - but was told by Chu on Friday radioactive waste was seeping out of six tanks in total. Inslee said Chu told him his department initially missed the other five leaking tanks because staff there did not adequately analyse the data it had. Reuters

KHARTOUM - An Arab militia firing heavy machine guns killed more than 50 people in Sudan's Darfur region, residents said, continuing unrest that has caused the largest displacement of people in years. "They burned 30 houses, killing 53 people," said one resident of El Sireaf town, to which most of the 100,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled. Witnesses said the attackers wore uniforms and belonged to a militia of the Rezeigat tribe, which has been fighting rival Arabs since early January in the Jebel Amir gold mining area. AFP