URGENT / Japanese nuclear-polluted tires enter Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Planning Ministry has announced on Monday that a shipment of Japanese tires that bear traces of nuclear pollution have entered in Iraq, saying that his Ministry would check up on the goods, coming from the country of origin.   “A shipment of Japanese tires, polluted with nuclear rays coming from Japan, has actually entered in Iraq,” Iraq’s Planning Minister, Ali Shukri, told a news conference in Baghdad, attended by IraqiNews.com news agency.   Shukri noted that his Ministry “had signed contracts with a French and a Swiss companies, to check on the goods coming from an outside point of origin.”  The Ministry has informed all Iraqi trade representations worldwide about its measure, Shukri pointed out, noting that “check up measures would start from now.”   “In the event that the two said companies, with whom the said contracts were signed, commited any violation, the Ministry will enforce a penalty of one million U.S. dollars on them,” Minister Shukri said.   On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by the strongest earthquake in its history, reaching 8.9 degrees on the Richter scale. The quake caused severe human and material damage, along with vast material damage to 4 Japanese electric power stations, working with nuclear power.   SKH (TI)/SR 645