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Nothing coming out of Japan makes sense any more, so this news is simply adding to that growing list. The national government will lift the ban on sales and shipment of meat cows raised in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures because the government is satisfied that the radioactive rice hay is now separated from other feed - either under the tarp or buried - so that it will not be fed to the cows. If I remember right, the worry was not the rice hay but the meat itself, which tested high in radioactive cesium all over Japan as the cows from these two prefectures (and several more in Tohoku) had been sold far and wide because of the suddenly "affordable" price. They were particularly favored by certain cost-conscious municipalities (most notably Yokohama City) that fed the suspected meat to the kindergarteners and school children in school lunches, ignoring protests from the parents. Humans eat beef not rice hay, as far as I know. But now the ban will be lifted because of ... rice hay storage procedure?

From Mainichi Shinbun (8/18/2011):

The Japanese government started to prepare for the total lifting of the shipping ban on meat cows raised in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures on August 18. The government will instruct the governors of the two prefectures as early as August 19. As radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional national safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) was found in the meat, the government banned the shipping of the cows in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Tochigi Prefectures between July 19 and August 2. Fukushima and Miyagi would be the first to have the ban lifted.

An Iranian lawmaker says his parliament has postponed vote on a bill requiring the government to immediately halt crude oil sales to Europe. The ban would be a response to the EU's decision to stop importing Iranian oil and freeze assets of its central bank.

Lawmaker Ali Adiani Rad is quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency as saying lawmakers need experts' views before they vote on the ban. Many Iranian officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before the EU's ban goes into full effect in July.

This video is a news report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster forcing a ban on exports of beef and the nuclear power plant still leaking as of Oct 28th 2011.

For the first time in Canadian history, First Nations, whose territory encompasses the entire coastline of British Columbia, have publicly united to oppose the transport of tar sands crude oil through their land. Over 60 nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, which bans tar sands oil pipelines throughout the Fraser River watershed, an area that was never ceded to the Canadian government, and therefore not legally under the government’s control. “North or south, it makes no difference. First Nations from every corner of BC are saying absolutely no tar sands pipelines or tankers in our territories,” said Chief Jackie Thomas of Saik’uz First Nation, a member of the Yinka Dene Alliance. “We have banned oil pipelines and tankers using our laws, and we will defend our decision using all the means at our disposal.” The First Nations’ refusal to allow tar sands oil extraction or transport through their would make it legally impossible for the Canadian government to move forward with many high price oil production projects. Monday’s announcement – on the first anniversary of the Save the Fraser Declaration – comes in response to recent calls from the Harper government and oil executives to push through pipeline and tanker projects against the wishes of British Columbians and First Nations.

European Union governments have reached a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude to the EU but have yet to decide when such an embargo would be put in place, EU diplomats said on Wednesday. Diplomats said that EU envoys held talks on the issue in the last days of December and that any objections to the idea, notably from Greece, were dropped. 'A lot of progress has been made,' one EU diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'The principle of an oil embargo is agreed. It is not being debated anymore.'

Japan has announced its first ban on rice produced near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant after samples showed radioactive contamination well above legal limits.

Having measured radiation from imported cars, Ulan Bator custom office and nuclear energy department of Mongolia decided to ban importing cars from Japan. They will start stopping importing cars from Japan as of 11/30/2011. Mongolian government have been checking imported cars since May,and 18 cars turned to be irradiated. (Source)

The U.S. military is preparing to lift a ban on some Japanese foods, imposed after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear scare.The Japan District Veterinary Command, which is responsible for food safety on U.S. bases, said Thursday that, within a month, products from 26 Japanese processing plants will once again be sold on U.S. installations.

Food deliveries from those factories were suspended due to a range of health concerns, including the proximity of some of them to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, which was severely damaged by the quake and tsunami, said Lt. Col. Margery Hanfelt, commander of the veterinary command.The suspended plants — among 60 that deliver to U.S. bases — produce a variety of foods ranging from baked goods and eggs to fresh fruit, vegetables and processed items. Some of the facilities, which Hanfelt declined to identify, were damaged by the earthquake while others had supplies of basic ingredients cut. For example, a farm supplying grain to one plant was destroyed by the tsunami, she said.

“As they recover, we are going through and re-auditing and re-assessing them,” she said.In the past month, teams of U.S. servicemembers have been inspecting the suspended plants — located in 13 prefectures in northern Honshu — and testing food samples for chemical, microbiological and radiological contamination, she said.

A national fisheries cooperative has decided to ban saury fishing within a 100-kilometer radius of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in an effort to gain consumer confidence in the safety of saury caught in other areas.

Can Japan do better than Chernobyl?, Australian Broadcasting Corporation by Dr Margaret Beavis, Jan. 6, 2012:

[...] There have been many failures in the handling of this situation. But perhaps the greatest relate to the government’s duty of care to protect Japanese citizens. The government failed to act on information about radioactive plumes. In doing so it exposed many communities to harmful radiation, and many evacuated into even higher radioactive areas. In addition, the government has declared the “safe” allowable limits for radiation exposure can be changed from the internationally accepted levels of 1 mSv to 20 mSv a year. Women and children are particularly sensitive to radiation exposure. Subjecting children to 20mSv a year for five years will result in about 1 in 30 developing cancer. After Chernobyl anyone likely to be exposed to more than 5 mSv a year was evacuated, and those in areas of 1-5 mSv were offered relocation and bans were placed on eating locally produced food.

Finally, there is an ongoing culture of poor monitoring, poor information release and cover up. It continues to significantly under report radiation levels, claiming total radiation releases at approximately half the level of observed releases detected by world wide Nuclear Test Ban Treaty monitoring sites. Current radioactivity levels are measured at 1 metre off the ground, not at ground level where children play and where radioactivity levels are significantly higher. [...] From a public health perspective the Japanese government continues to fail to protect its people, particularly its children. To quote Tilman Ruff, Associate Professor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, “At this point, the single most important public health measure to minimi[s]e the health harm over the long term is much wider evacuation.” [...]

A senior Iranian lawmaker stressed that Tehran will block its oil supplies to the European Union for the next 5 to 15 years as part of its strategy to punish the EU for its oil ban against Tehran.

"We will change the threat into an opportunity for Iran and cut Iran's oil supplies to the Europeans for five to 15 years," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Karim Abedi told FNA on Sunday.

He pointed to a bill drafted in the parliament to cut oil exports to the EU, and noted, "We will not leave enemies' sanctions unanswered and we will impose other sanctions on them in addition to closing Iran's oil supplies to Europe." Abedi also said that Iran will use the banned oil in its refineries and petrochemical complexes to turn it into more valuable products.

This unusually high level of radiation is suspected to be related to incineration ash of radioactive debris,which started to coming from Iwate to Tokyo.http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/11/breaking-news-radioactive-debris-arrived-at-tokyo/ Radioactive debris is supposed to be burnt at Tokyo Waterfront Recycle Power, which is a group company of Tepco.

By accepting radioactive debris to Tokyo, Tepco makes money again. A journalist who asked about this “transaction” at Tepco’s press conference was banned to attend at the conference anymore by Mr.Terasawa, Tepco’s spokesman.

The smoke and incineration ash are suspected to be highly radioactive to cause secondary exposure to all around in Japan.