Decades after Vietnam War, dioxin levels dangerously high at old U.S. air base
DANANG, Vietnam — More than 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange has emerged anew with a scientific study that has found extraordinarily high levels of health-threatening contamination at the former U.S. air base at Danang.
"They’re the highest levels I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Thomas Boivin, the scientist who conducted the tests this spring. "If this site were in the U.S. or Canada, it would require significant studies and immediate cleanup.”
Soil tests by his firm, Hatfield Consultants of Canada, found levels of dioxin, the highly toxic chemical compound in Agent Orange, that were 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted limits.
Tens of thousands vent anger at Syria in funeral procession for slain legislator
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — The funeral for an anti-Syrian lawmaker killed by a car bomb swelled Thursday to tens of thousands of mourners, who angrily blamed the Damascus government and its ally Hezbollah for the latest political killing in Lebanon.
The crowd lined the streets or marched behind the coffins of Walid Eido, his 35-year-old son, Khaled, and one of his bodyguards, escorting the caskets to a mosque next to a cemetery in West Beirut.
A total of 10 people were killed Wednesday by the bomb, which ripped through Eido’s car as he drove from a seaside sports club.
In addition to his son and two bodyguards, six passers-by also died, including two of Lebanon’s national soccer players. Eleven people were wounded.
During the procession, Quranic verses rang out from a mosque as car loudspeakers blared: "Today is the funeral for a new martyr killed at the hands of Bashar Assad,” the Syrian president.
Eido was a close friend of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was similarly assassinated in a Beirut car bombing in 2005. He also was a political ally of Hariri’s son, Saad, who now leads the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament.
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