10 MOST AMAZING VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

BEIJING, May 20(Xinhuanet) -- The scenes of volcanic eruption not only leave us stunning impression, but also can bring catastrophic aftermath.

Following photos show 10 astonishing volcanic eruptions in the world.

1. Kilauea crater, Hawaii

Kilauea crater, Hawaii (Photo Source: gb.cri.cn)

Thought as one of the most active volcano on the earth, the eruption of Kīlauea Volcano that began in 1983 brought a towering column of steam and ash.

READ MORE..http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/photo/2010-05/20/c_13304727.htm

Stunning eruption moments of Mount St Helens 30 years ago

IATA calls for better handling of volcanic ash crisis in Europe

Volcanic ash to close London airport

Volcanic ash restrikes Europe, grounds 1000 flights

MIHO DOBRASIN WINS EYJA

Miho Dobrasin wins European Young Journalist Award

Croatian Times

17. 05. 10. - 14:15
A Croatian journalist has won the European Young Journalist Award for his article on the Greek economic crisis "Greece is again writing European History."

Miho Dobrasin from the business daily Poslovni Dnevnik received the award in Istanbul from the European Commission for reports related to the European Union and its expansion.

Accepting the award Dobrasin said that no other state so far has experienced as grueling process of accession as Croatia. "Every time it makes a step ahead, the EU member states provide another obstacle, which makes negative perception about membership grow among the ordinary citizens."

Petr Drulak, from the International Relations Institute in Prague said that after Croatia no other state will be given a guarantee of membership. "Currently there are is no more absorption capacity, so in the next five to six years further expansion is unlikely."

The Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule said: "At the moment, as negotiations with candidate countries are continuing, the media has a key role in explaining the expansion process to the European citizens."

Dobrasina's text, which was published in February in Poslovni Dnevnik, was judged as the most successful and mature journalistic work, the Croatian daily Jutarnji List writes.

"The article explained - clearly and objectively - the situation tied to the Greek economic crisis, as well as the position of European Institution and EU citizens towards Greece."
SOURCE:http://croatiantimes.com/news/General_News/2010-05-17/11011/Miho_Dobrasin_wins_European_Young_Journalist_Award

SOLE SURVIVOR OF AIR DISASTER

 

Thursday 13 May,2010
This child is the only survivor of an air crash which claimed the lives of 103 people.
The ten-year-old Dutch boy was plucked from the remains of the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330, which broke up on landing in Libya yesterday.
The youngster was recovering in hospital last night but amazingly did not have life-threatening injuries.
EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek hailed news of the boy’s survival as “truly a miracle”.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said diplomats were planning to visit the child as soon as possible to establish his identity.
“One of our colleagues in Tripoli was told by a doctor that he has broken bones and was being operated on,” a spokesman said.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende reacted with “shock” and Queen Beatrix’s press office said she was “horrified”, as it was revealed 61 Dutch people were among the dead passengers.
The plane arriving from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport.
Witnesses spoke of the plane inexplicably breaking up as it came down to land in clear weather.
Investigators sift the debris after air disaster in Libya kills 103 people

A Libyan plane arriving from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport, killing 103 people but leaving
a boy as the miracle survivor.
Dutch, Libyans, Africans and Europeans were among the dead.
READ MORE...
http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=94096&page=localnews&title=Sole%20survivor%20of%20air%20disaster

7 FIGURES OR 8

For Top Bonuses on Wall Street, 7 Figures or 8?

By LOUISE STORY and ERIC DASH

Published: January 9, 2010

Everyone on Wall Street is fixated on The Number.
The bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos, begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.
Bank executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into many billions of dollars.
Industry executives acknowledge that the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun the many Americans still hurting from the financial collapse and ensuing Great Recession.
Goldman Sachs is expected to pay its employees an average of about $595,000 apiece for 2009, one of the most profitable years in its 141-year history. Workers in the investment bank of JPMorgan Chase stand to collect about $463,000 on average.
Many executives are bracing for more scrutiny of pay from Washington, as well as from officials like Andrew M. Cuomo, the attorney general of New York, who last year demanded that banks disclose details about their bonus payments. Some bankers worry that the United States, like Britain, might create an extra tax on bank bonuses, and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, is proposing legislation to do so.
Those worries aside, few banks are taking immediate steps to reduce bonuses substantially. Instead, Wall Street is confronting a dilemma of riches: How to wrap its eye-popping paychecks in a mantle of moderation. Because of the potential blowback, some major banks are adjusting their pay practices, paring or even eliminating some cash bonuses in favor of stock awards and reducing the portion of their revenue earmarked for pay.
Some bank executives contend that financial institutions are beginning to recognize that they must recalibrate pay for a post-bailout world.
“The debate has shifted in the last nine months or so from just ‘less cash, more stock’ to ‘what’s the overall number?’ ” said Robert P. Kelly, the chairman and chief executive of the Bank of New York Mellon. Like many other bank chiefs, Mr. Kelly favors rewarding employees with more long-term stock and less cash to tether their fortunes to the success of their companies.
Though Wall Street bankers and traders earn six-figure base salaries, they generally receive most of their pay as a bonus based on the previous year’s performance. While average bonuses are expected to hover around half a million dollars, they will not be evenly distributed. Senior banking executives and top Wall Street producers expect to reap millions. Last year, the big winners were bond and currency traders, as well as investment bankers specializing in health care.
Even some industry veterans warn that such paydays could further tarnish the financial industry’s sullied reputation. John S. Reed, a founder of Citigroup, said Wall Street would not fully regain the public’s trust until banks scaled back bonuses for good — something that, to many, seems a distant prospect.
“There is nothing I’ve seen that gives me the slightest feeling that these people have learned anything from the crisis,” Mr. Reed said. “They just don’t get it. They are off in a different world.”
The power that the federal government once had over banker pay has waned in recent months as most big banks have started repaying the billions of dollars in federal aid that propped them up during the crisis. All have benefited from an array of federal programs and low interest rate policies that enabled the industry to roar back in profitability in 2009.
This year, compensation will again eat up much of Wall Street’s revenue. During the first nine months of 2009, five of the largest banks that received federal aid — Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — together set aside about $90 billion for compensation. That figure includes salaries, benefits and bonuses, but at several companies, bonuses make up more than half of compensation.
Goldman broke with its peers in December and announced that its top 30 executives would be paid only in stock. Nearly everyone on Wall Street is waiting to see how much stock is awarded to Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, who is a lightning rod for criticism over executive pay. In 2007, Mr. Blankfein was paid $68 million, a Wall Street record. He did not receive a bonus in 2008.
Goldman put aside $16.7 billion for compensation during the first nine months of 2009.
Responding to criticism over its pay practices, Goldman has already begun decreasing the percentage of revenue that it pays to employees. The bank set aside 50 percent in the first quarter, but that figure fell to 48 percent and then to 43 percent in the next two quarters.
JPMorgan executives and board members have also been wrestling with how much pay is appropriate.
“There are legitimate conflicts between the firm feeling like it is performing well and the public’s prevailing view that the Street was bailed out,” said one senior JPMorgan executive who was not authorized to speak for the company.
JPMorgan’s investment bank, which employs about 25,000 people, has already reduced the share of revenue going to the compensation pool, from 40 percent in the first quarter to 37 percent in the third quarter.
At Bank of America, traders and bankers are wondering how much Brian T. Moynihan, the bank’s new chief, will be awarded for 2010. Bank of America, which is still absorbing Merrill Lynch, is expected to pay large bonuses, given the bank’s sizable trading profits.
Bank of America has also introduced provisions that would enable it to reclaim employees’ pay in the event that the bank’s business sours, and it is increasing the percentage of bonuses paid in the form of stock.
“We’re paying for results, and there were some areas of the company that had terrific results, and they will be compensated for that,” said Bob Stickler, a Bank of America spokesman.
At Morgan Stanley, which has had weaker trading revenue than the other banks, managers are focusing on how to pay stars in line with the industry. The bank created a pay program this year for its top 25 workers, tying a fifth of their deferred pay to metrics based on the company’s later performance.
A company spokesman, Mark Lake, said: “Morgan Stanley’s board and management clearly understands the extraordinary environment in which we operate and, as a result, have made a series of changes to the firm’s compensation practices.”
The top 25 executives will be paid mostly in stock and deferred cash payments. John J. Mack, the chairman, is forgoing a bonus. He retired as chief executive at the end of 2009.
At Citigroup, whose sprawling consumer banking business is still ailing, some managers were disappointed in recent weeks by the preliminary estimates of their bonus pools, according to people familiar with the matter. Citigroup’s overall 2009 bonus pool is expected to be about $5.3 billion, about the same as it was for 2008, although the bank has far fewer employees.
The highest bonus awarded to a Citigroup executive is already known: The bank said in a regulatory filing last week that the head of its investment bank, John Havens, would receive $9 million in stock. But the bank’s chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, is forgoing a bonus and taking a salary of just $1.

SOURCE:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/

JAMES S.CHANOS-A CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

Contrarian Investor Sees Economic Crash in China
by David Barboza
Friday, January 8, 2010

provided by
The New York Times

James S. Chanos built one of the largest fortunes on Wall Street by foreseeing the collapse of Enron and other highflying companies whose stories were too good to be true.

Now Mr. Chanos, a wealthy hedge fund investor, is working to bust the myth of the biggest conglomerate of all: China Inc.

As most of the world bets on China to help lift the global economy out of recession, Mr. Chanos is warning that China's hyperstimulated economy is headed for a crash, rather than the sustained boom that most economists predict. Its surging real estate sector, buoyed by a flood of speculative capital, looks like "Dubai times 1,000 -- or worse," he frets. He even suspects that Beijing is cooking its books, faking, among other things, its eye-popping growth rates of more than 8 percent.
"Bubbles are best identified by credit excesses, not valuation excesses," he said in a recent appearance on CNBC. "And there's no bigger credit excess than in China." He is planning a speech later this month at the University of Oxford to drive home his point.

As America's pre-eminent short-seller -- he bets big money that companies' strategies will fail -- Mr. Chanos's narrative runs counter to the prevailing wisdom on China. Most economists and governments expect Chinese growth momentum to continue this year, buoyed by what remains of a $586 billion government stimulus program that began last year, meant to lift exports and consumption among Chinese consumers.

Still, betting against China will not be easy. Because foreigners are restricted from investing in stocks listed inside China, Mr. Chanos has said he is searching for other ways to make his bets, including focusing on construction- and infrastructure-related companies that sell cement, coal, steel and iron ore.

Mr. Chanos, 51, whose hedge fund, Kynikos Associates, based in New York, has $6 billion under management, is hardly the only skeptic on China. But he is certainly the most prominent and vocal.

For all his record of prescience -- in addition to predicting Enron's demise, he also spotted the looming problems of Tyco International, the Boston Market restaurant chain and, more recently, home builders and some of the world's biggest banks -- his detractors say that he knows little or nothing about China or its economy and that his bearish calls should be ignored.

"I find it interesting that people who couldn't spell China 10 years ago are now experts on China," said Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros and now lives in Singapore. "China is not in a bubble."

Colleagues acknowledge that Mr. Chanos began studying China's economy in earnest only last summer and sent out e-mail messages seeking expert opinion.

But he is tagging along with the bears, who see mounting evidence that China's stimulus package and aggressive bank lending are creating artificial demand, raising the risk of a wave of nonperforming loans.

"In China, he seems to see the excesses, to the third and fourth power, that he's been tilting against all these decades," said Jim Grant, a longtime friend and the editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, who is also bearish on China. "He homes in on the excesses of the markets and profits from them. That's been his stock and trade."

Mr. Chanos declined to be interviewed, citing his continuing research on China. But he has already been spreading the view that the China miracle is blinding investors to the risk that the country is producing far too much.

"The Chinese," he warned in an interview in November with Politico.com, "are in danger of producing huge quantities of goods and products that they will be unable to sell."

In December, he appeared on CNBC to discuss how he had already begun taking short positions, hoping to profit from a China collapse.

In recent months, a growing number of analysts, and some Chinese officials, have also warned that asset bubbles might emerge in China.

The nation's huge stimulus program and record bank lending, estimated to have doubled last year from 2008, pumped billions of dollars into the economy, reigniting growth.

But many analysts now say that money, along with huge foreign inflows of "speculative capital," has been funneled into the stock and real estate markets.

A result, they say, has been soaring prices and a resumption of the building boom that was under way in early 2008 -- one that Mr. Chanos and others have called wasteful and overdone.

"It's going to be a bust," said Gordon G. Chang, whose book, "The Coming Collapse of China" (Random House), warned in 2001 of such a crash.

Friends and colleagues say Mr. Chanos is comfortable betting against the crowd -- even if that crowd includes the likes of Warren E. Buffett and Wilbur L. Ross Jr., two other towering figures of the investment world.

A contrarian by nature, Mr. Chanos researches companies, pores over public filings to sift out clues to fraud and deceptive accounting, and then decides whether a stock is overvalued and ready for a fall. He has a staff of 26 in the firm's offices in New York and London, searching for other China-related information.

"His record is impressive," said Byron R. Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Services. "He's no fly-by-night charlatan. And I'm bullish on China."

Mr. Chanos grew up in Milwaukee, one of three sons born to the owners of a chain of dry cleaners. At Yale, he was a pre-med student before switching to economics because of what he described as a passionate interest in the way markets operate.

His guiding philosophy was discovered in a book called "The Contrarian Investor," according to an account of his life in "The Smartest Guys in the Room," a book that chronicled Enron's rise and downfall.

After college, he went to Wall Street, where he worked at a series of brokerage houses before starting his own firm in 1985, out of what he later said was frustration with the way Wall Street brokers promoted stocks.

At Kynikos Associates, he created a firm focused on betting on falling stock prices. His theories are summed up in testimony he gave to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2002, after the Enron debacle. His firm, he said, looks for companies that appear to have overstated earnings, like Enron; were victims of a flawed business plan, like many Internet firms; or have been engaged in "outright fraud."

That short-sellers are held in low regard by some on Wall Street, as well as Main Street, has long troubled him.

Short-sellers were blamed for intensifying market sell-offs in the fall 2008, before the practice was temporarily banned. Regulators are now trying to decide whether to restrict the practice.

Mr. Chanos often responds to critics of short-selling by pointing to the critical role they played in identifying problems at Enron, Boston Market and other "financial disasters" over the years.

"They are often the ones wearing the white hats when it comes to looking for and identifying the bad guys," he has said.

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/

EARTHQUAKE IN TAJIKISTAN

Saturdays’ quake leaves 583 people homeless in Vanj

05.01.2010 10:36

Author: Nargis Hamroboyeva

DUSHANBE, January 5, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- According to the preliminary estimates, 1,019 residential building were damaged by a January 2 earthquake in the Vanj district in Gorno Badakhshan, 98 of them were destroyed completely, according to the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES).

The quake left 582 people homeless in Vanj, the source at a CES said, adding that the quake also damaged 30 administrative buildings, including schools and hospitals, as well as 3.2 kilometers of roads and 2.3 kilometers of power transmission lines.

“The most hit areas were the administrative center of the district and the nearby villages of Uskrogh, Punichuguni and Payshanbeobod,” said the source, “An actual damage caused by the disaster to the district has not yet been determined.  People that were left homeless are currently living with their relatives.”

In the meantime, a session of the Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team (REACT), presided over by the first deputy head of the CES, Mahmadullo Halimov, took place in Dushanbe on January 4.  Representatives of more than 40 international organizations and NGOs attended the meeting and they expressed readiness to provide assistance to the quake-hit population of Vanj.

REACT is the Disaster Management Partnership in Tajikistan.  It was established in 2001 to promote the sharing of information, logistics and other resources between partners active in the disaster management sector, including the Committee of Emergency Situations and the Government of Tajikistan.  The group that involves over 50 state, local and international organizations and entities meets regularly to coordinate and share experiences on issues related to various areas of disaster management, including preparedness, response, mitigation and capacity building activities with national bodies.  During emergency situations the partnership works closely together, coordinating response and assistance.

We will recall that quite a strong quake jolted the Vanj district in Gorno Badakhshan on January 2, at 7:15 a.m.  According to the Dushanbe seismological station, an epicenter of the quake was 230 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe and 15 kilometers of the administrative center of the Vanj district.  In the epicenter, the earthquake’s magnitude was 5.0.  A 4.0 magnitude tremor could be felt in Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan and a 3.0 magnitude tremor could be felt in the Lake Sarez area.  The tremor measuring 2.0 on a 12-point scale could be felt in Dushanbe as well.  There were no casualties as residents left their houses when they felt the first tremors.

SOURCE:http://www.asiaplus.tj/

SUNSPOT 1039

EASY COME, EASY GO: Sunspot 1039 is about to disappear over the sun's western limb, but the sun won't remain blank for long. Another active region is approaching from the east, shown here in a Jan. 5th image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:

The approaching region is old sunspot 1035. It has been transiting the far side of the sun since Dec. 20th. After all this time, is it still a dark-cored behemoth or just a decaying tangle of magnetic fields? Monitoring is encouraged: solar telescopes.

SOURCE:http://spaceweather.com/

TB INFECTION

TB-infected workers left to fend for themselves

By IRIN
First Published: January 4, 2010

Amr Emam/IRIN Mohamed Mustafa, a father of six and former cement factory worker, has lung cancer, psoriasis and TB Amr Emam/IRIN "Tuberculosis patients shouldn’t be given that treatment. Employers shouldn’t take the fruit and throw out the peel like this," says Mohamed Al-Asmaie, head of Friends of the Environment about automatic dismissal.

CAIRO: For years, Mohamed Mustafa inhaled the soft dust that used to come out of the machines in the cement factory south of Cairo where he worked, but he never thought those small particles would end his career.
A few years ago, the 55-year-old former cement worker developed a chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, fever and night sweats, and he began losing weight. When a doctor told him he had tuberculosis (TB), he said he collapsed in shock with the realization that he would lose his job, just as many of his former colleagues had when they had been found to have TB.
“Cement dust used to fall on my head in showers every minute,” Mustafa said. “I never expected it to bring about my end,” he told IRIN.
The Egyptian government says 21 in every 1,000 Egyptians are infected with TB every year. But only about one in 10 of these latent cases become active. It estimates the number of patients nationwide to be 17,000, but independent organizations say the number is far higher.
“TB has come to pose a real danger to the people of this country,” said Essam Al-Moghazy, chief of the National Tuberculosis Control Program, a state-run agency seeking to assist TB patients. “The problem is that poor Egyptians living in the country’s slums are more prone to it.”
Having TB, an infectious and sometimes deadly disease that is passed from person to person through the air, is cause for automatic dismissal in many companies in Egypt.
Mohamed Al-Asmaie, head of Friends of the Environment, a local NGO campaigning on behalf of TB patients, said when many Egyptian workers become sick with TB, instead of receiving treatment in hospitals, they are laid off and have to fend for themselves.
“Tuberculosis patients shouldn’t be given that treatment,” said Al-Asmaie. “Employers shouldn’t take the fruit and throw out the peel like this.”
Mustafa, who lives in the industrial city of Helwan, about 30km south of Cairo’s centre, blames the years of cement dust inhalation for weakening his immune system enough to get infected by TB.
No hard scientific evidence
Though there is no hard scientific evidence linking cement dust to TB, studies have shown that persons with silicosis — an occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust — are up to 30 times more likely to develop TB.
TB is the third most life-threatening disease in Egypt, after bilharzia and hepatitis C, according to the Health Ministry.
Despite this, in its 2009 Global Report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Egypt had succeeded in achieving the global target in TB case detection and treatment success in 2007.
The case detection rate of positive cases in Egypt was 72 percent (global target is 70 percent) and the treatment success rate was 87 percent (global target is 85 percent), WHO said in its report.
Health officials in Egypt hope to eradicate TB by 2050.
But such statistics mean nothing to TB patients like Mustafa. The father of six, who lives on a pension of LE 76 ($14) a month, has already developed lung cancer and psoriasis, like many of his colleagues from the factory who were infected with TB.
Adding to his burden is that he has infected his wife and one of his six children.
“Most of the drugs my doctors give me are ineffective,” Mustafa said. “Everybody keeps avoiding me and my wife for fear of catching TB.” –IRIN
SOURCE:http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/

DUBAI OPENS TALLEST TOWER

Dubai opens tallest tower

DUBAI: Dubai opened the world's tallest skyscraper yesterday, and in a surprise move renamed the gleaming glass-and-metal tower Burj Khalifa in a nod to the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi - the oil-rich sheikdom which came to its rescue during the financial meltdown. A lavish presentation witnessed by Dubai's ruler and thousands of onlookers at the base of the tower said the building was 828 m tall. Dubai is opening the tower in the midst of a deep financial crisis..


SOURCE:http://www.kuwaittimes.net/

LATEST EARTHQUAKE

Another undersea quake strikes near Solomons

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A magnitude 6.8 undersea earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands on Tuesday, the latest in a series near the South Pacific island nation since Monday, but police said there was no tsunami or reports of further damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred about 100 miles southeast of the small island of Gizo.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the quake, at a depth of 33 km (20 miles), may cause a local tsunami, but that there was no Pacific-wide threat.
"We have had no reports of damage and no tsunami threat. It was quite a bit bigger than the previous night," a police officer in Gizo told Reuters by telephone.
Two strong earthquakes damaged villages and triggered landslides in remote parts of the Solomon Islands on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The magnitude 7.2 and 6.5 quakes struck close together about 55 miles south-southeast of Gizo, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A large 8.1 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck Gizo in 2007, killing 52 people and leaving thousands homeless. The Solomons are part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" on which colliding continental plates frequently cause seismic activity.
A series of tsunamis swept into the island nations of Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa in September 2009, killing more than 100 people and leveling several villages.
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Nick Macfie)
SOURCE:http://news.yahoo.com/

DAMAGE ON SOLOMON ISLAND

HONIARA, Solomon Islands – Landslides and a tsunami destroyed the homes of about one-third of the population on a Solomon Island, but lives were likely spared as residents with memories of previous disasters fled quickly to higher ground, officials said Tuesday.
From the air, extensive damage could be seen on a remote western island after a 7.2-magnitude temblor triggered the landslides in the Pacific Solomon Islands on Monday, said disaster management office director Loti Yates.
No injuries have been reported some 30 hours after the biggest in a series of quakes churned a tsunami wave that was up to 10 feet (3 meters) high as it plowed into the coast, officials said.
However, more than 1,000 people have been affected after some 200 houses were destroyed on Rendova, an island some 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital Honiara. Only 3,600 people live on Rendova.
Photographs taken from police helicopters Tuesday showed debris lining the foreshore and damaged houses on the coasts of Rendova and Tetepare, as well as deep scars on hills and cliffs caused by landslides.
Hillsides crashed down and the tsunami inundated homes Monday, but residents' memories of earlier disasters probably helped prevent any casualties, officials and residents said.
In April 2007, an 8.1 temblor unleashed a tsunami that killed more than 50 people. A quake-churned tsunami that killed more than 200 on nearby Samoa and Tonga in September was another reminder, locals said.
"People are very sensitive, as a quake conjures up memories, and people immediately begin going to higher ground," police commissioner Peter Marshall told The Associated Press.
"The fact it was daylight, the isolated nature of the wave and that the landslides were in a relatively sparsely populated area" also helped, he said.
The largest quake — magnitude 7.2 — happened about 9:30 a.m. local time Monday and caused the tsunami to hit the coast a short time later. At least nine other quakes greater than magnitude 5.0 have rocked the earthquake-prone region since, including three Tuesday night.
In the provincial capital Gizo, dive shop owner Danny Kennedy said the general rule is that "if there's anything more than 20 seconds of shaking or any sea water recedes, head for the hills."
A police boat patrolled Tuesday to check the coastline, where many homes are at sea level, making them vulnerable to tsunamis, National Disaster Management Office spokesman Julian Makaa said. No casualties had been reported so far, he said.
One village, Retavo, home to about 20 people, was reportedly completely inundated by a wall of sea water up to 10 feet (3 meters) high, but Makaa said no deaths or injuries had been reported there.
Emergency food, water and tarpaulins were being shipped in.
The Solomon Islands lie on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

SOURCE:http://news.yahoo.com/

WATER AND CLIMATE CHANGE THE WORLD BANK

August 18, 2008 — Water and climate change is one of the standing issues to be discussed at this year’s World Water Week, whose focus is on sanitation in response to the UN International Year of Sanitation.
Vahid Alavian, World Bank water adviser, is attending the conference and will report on progress and preliminary findings of a two-year Bank study on water and climate change.
Worldbank.org talked with Alavian about his findings to date.

What’s the objective of the study?

In the water sector, water managers inherently have to deal with variability and uncertainty, but what’s new is the increased level of uncertainty due to the changes in climate. As a result, the Bank is looking at issues such as the impact of climate change on water systems and ways to reduce vulnerability.

The study addresses three questions: What are the impacts of climate variability and change on water systems? What are adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability of water systems? How can the Bank assist client countries in making informed decisions regarding adaptation options in their water investments?
It specifically looks at four major water-related issues: operation of existing water systems, planning and design of new water systems, delivery of water services under increased climate uncertainty, and preparedness of water policies and institutions to deal with climate change.

What have you found so far?

First, we’ve tried to synthesize the science of water and climate change to provide a solid foundation for understanding key issues. What we found through this process is that future trends in climate variability and climate-related hazards pose an increasing challenge to countries in managing water. The question is how to best cope and manage under a much riskier set of conditions.
Broadly speaking, there are two options for adapting to climate change: those that carry “no regrets” and those that are “climate justified.”
The “no regrets” actions are essentially best practice actions that should be done regardless of climate change. The “climate justified” ones are those that might be justifiable under significant changes in climate. They would need to be studied more carefully for their appropriateness in reducing vulnerability to climate change.

What, other than climate change, can affect future water availability?

Climate change is only one of many factors that will determine future patterns of water availability and use.
In some countries, other factors, such as population growth and land management, may be far more significant and critical than climate change.
For this reason, the impact of climate change on water should be put within the context of the broader development agenda.

What’s the impact of water and climate change on food production and prices?

Water availability is critical for food production, and will become even more so in the future, but it has not received the attention it needs.
We’re finding that many countries are moving forward with accelerated food production, mostly through irrigated agriculture, to take advantage of high prices, without giving serious consideration to the availability of water.
If this practice continues, water will soon become a limiting factor for food production as a basic staple for the general public in some countries. The impact of that will be felt on the poor the most.

How does climate change affect sanitation, the focus of this year’s Water Week?

Public health, which is the end point of sanitation, is affected by a change in climate. From the water standpoint, two factors play a role: global warming, and a change in moisture or water availability.
Less available water affects hygiene. On the other hand, more precipitation and increased moisture may lead to more risk of vector-borne diseases.
Our sanitation specialists are trying to better understand the links between climate change and sanitation with the broader context of health and hygiene.
Photo Luc Viatour

SOURCE:http://guatemala-times.com/technology/science/

KHAT,A TRADITIONAL DRUG

Drug Enforcment Crackdown on Khat Sparks Controversy

At the Coffee Time Daily café in City Heights, a group of Somali immigrants gathers to share coffee and stories.In another time, and another place, instead of drinking coffee, men their age might be chewing a plant known as khat.”People just enjoy it based on the culture, the way they were brought up,” explained Omar Yusuf.
He says khat to Somalis is what cigarettes or alcohol is to Americans.”Just to make yourself, not to be depressed, just to be happy,” he said.The plant is grown in Eastern Africa.
It’s a major crop for Yemen and has been chewed for centuries in countries around the Horn of Africa including Somalia, Yemen, and Ethiopia.In many parts of the world, khat is legal. However, in the United States its main ingredient is considered by federal law on par with heroin or crystal meth.
The entire plant is outlawed in California and seizures are up.”It’s been gradually growing,” said Amy Roderick, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency.Khat was first seen in San Diego in the late 1990s, and then it spiked in 2005, according to the DEA.
Khat-related seizures and arrests have so far been limited to within the Somali community, which is sizable in San Diego County. The fear is that khat usage will spread beyond the typical traditional users.”As with any other illegal substance, there is a significant amount of money to be made,” Roderick said.Typically, the plant arrives in the United States from other countries where it is legal.
It loses its potency within 48 hours of being harvested, so it’s often smuggled through express mail.”Or private courier, like UPS or DHL,” Roderick explained.In September, two parcels of nearly 80 pounds of khat labeled “green tea” were intercepted by the Department of Homeland Security. They were shipped from London and addressed to an apartment in City Heights.
A woman who is staying in that apartment said that her relative, Amina Issak, was arrested and is still in jail.Issak and another Somali woman are each facing one count of felony possession to sell.Issak’s attorney Frank Birchak said he can’t comment about the facts of the case, other than “I think the story will be very different than what the DA is charging.”
A search warrant obtained by the I-Team asserts that the “shipments were the fruits of an organized, international smuggling concern.”The warrant states that previously other packages destined for that same apartment were intercepted.Roderick says the DEA is tracking khat, and that nearly 6,000 pounds were seized in San Diego County in 2007.
“It’s a big problem of ours, where is the money going? We’re seeing a lot of the money going back to those countries.”Money transferred to Yemen and Somalia has raised the allegation that the plant is a fundraiser for terrorist groups.But Naomi Long of the Washington, D.C. – based Drug Policy Alliance says that claim is part of the hysteria used to strengthen misguided drug laws.
“I think the key word there is alleged. There’s been no evidence to support that claim,” Long said.She argues that khat is an African tradition that has shown little potential for abuse and is not showing any signs of spreading outside of the East African communities.
“So it begs the question, why are we criminalizing a plant that only certain communities use for cultural, religious, and medical reasons,” she said.
Roderick countered, “I would say we target the drug, no matter what the culture may be.”In 2004, a woman in Minneapolis was gunned down in what is believed to be the first khat-related murder in the United States.

In San Diego, the I-Team did not find any reports of violence directly linked to khat.However, San Diego police have warned that gangs of African refugees that deal in khat are becoming more organized and violent.

SOURCE:http://www.abeshabunnabet.com/

CLIMATE CHANGE

Changing climate hurts Myanmar

By Aye Sapay Phyu and Sann Oo

MYANMAR has suffered more than almost any other country in the world from the harmful effects of climate change, according to a report issued as world leaders meet for the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. A survey issued by the NGO Germanwatch on December 8 placed Myanmar second on a list of countries badly affected by extreme weather events during the period 1990-2008. For the year 2008 alone, Myanmar featured in the top three worst-hit countries, together with Yemen and Vietnam, AFP reported. Bangladesh, Yemen, the Philippines and Honduras also suffered greatly during the period in question. “While Vietnam and the Philippines are relatively regularly affected through storms and flooding, as can be seen in the Climate Risk Index editions 2006, 2007 and 2008, the high figures for Myanmar and Yemen are exceptional,” the report said. The study takes into account a range of factors, including the total number of deaths from storms, floods and other weather extremes, deaths per 100,000, losses in absolute US dollar terms, and losses as a percentage of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). All the 10 most affected countries from 1990 to 2008 were developing countries in the low-income or lower-middle income country group. In total, 600,000 people died as a direct consequence of more than 11,000 extreme weather events, which together caused losses of US$1.7 trillion. Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May 2008, was the most devas-tating storm in the country’s history, causing the death of 85,000 people, with a further 54,000 people missing, the loss of K3.3547 trillion in the public sector and K8.3800 trillion in the private sector, according to official Myanmar government figures. AFP quoted Germanwatch as saying that weather extremes are an increasing threat to life and property around the world, and their impact is likely to intensify in the future due to climate change. Similarly, the Asian Development Bank estim-ated in its April 2009 report on the Economics of Climate Change in South East Asia that by 2100, the region is likely to suffer more than the global average, with a reduction in regional GDP of nearly 7pc every year as a result of climate change. The report said climate change could seriously hinder Southeast Asia’s sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts, and called for urgent action to combat climate change. The British foreign office has announced a proposal by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a US$10 billion “Copenhagen Launch Fund” to help developing countries tackle climate change immediately, with priority given to the poorest and most vulnerable. But advocacy groups say between $50 billion and $160 billion will be needed each year to fund adaptation by 2030, with some projections reaching as high as $350 billion. SOURCE:http://www.mmtimes.com/no501/n005.htm

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

SOARING TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN YEMEN

SANA'A, JAN. 1 (BNA) A TOTAL OF 3041 YEMENIS DIED IN ROAD ACCIDENTS LAST YEAR, RECORDING AN INCREASE BY 144 PEOPLE IF COMPARED TO THE 2008 FIGURES.
HOWEVER, 19,828 PEOPLE WERE INJURED AGAINST 19445 DURING THE PREVIOUS YEAR. THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR ATTRIBUTED THE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS TO SPEED, DRIVERS' NEGLIGENCE, NONUSE OF SAFETY BELTS, CHEWING QAT AND USE OF MOBILE PHONES WHILE DRIVING. MTQ 01-JAN-2010 21:24 


SOURCE:http://english.bna.bh/

SWINE FLU VIRUS 'COULD STILL MUTATES'

Swine flu virus 'could still mutate' WHO warns

Dr Margaret Chan says avian flu is more of a problem than swine flu

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the global swine flu pandemic is not yet over and the virus could still mutate.

Dr Margaret Chan said it was important to "guard against complacency" despite signs the disease had peaked in North America and parts of Europe.
She said the virus was still active in countries including India and Egypt.
More than 11,500 people are believed to have died in more than 200 countries and territories because of swine flu.
However Dr Chan said it would take at least two years before a true death toll could be established.
The WHO's director general said the US, Canada and the UK were among those countries where the worst of the swine flu outbreak had appeared to have passed.
Danger
But she added: "It is too premature and too early for us to say we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide."
She said experts needed to continue monitoring the pandemic for another six to 12 months as it could mutate into a more dangerous strain.
"We will watch this virus with eagle's eyes," she said.

SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS 1. High temperature, tiredness and lowered immunity 2. Headache, runny nose and sneezing 3. Sore throat 4. Shortness of breath 5. Loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhoea 6. Aching muscles, limb and joint pain Source: NHS Fergus on Flu Q&A: Advice about swine flu

Dr Chan said it was fortunate the pandemic had been milder than expected.
"The fact that the long overdue influenza pandemic is so moderate in its impact is probably the best health news in a decade," she said.
Millions of people are believed to have recovered after contracting the virus and displaying few symptoms.
She said the demand for swine flu vaccinations in some European countries had been lower than expected and WHO was investigating whether superfluous vaccines could be sent to developing countries.
Dr Chan said drug makers and countries promised to donate nearly 190 million vaccine doses to WHO, with the first doses of the donated vaccines to be distributed in Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Afghanistan next month.
However she admitted she had not yet had a vaccine but said she would have it soon.
She said that although countries are now better prepared to cope with a global disease outbreak, people still had to be aware of the dangers of bird flu (H5N1).
She said this was more toxic and deadly than swine flu and that many countries remained ill-prepared for mass outbreaks of this virus.
"The world is not ready for a pandemic to be caused by H5N1," she said.


SOURCE:http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Kathmandu in a Nutshell

By Tobias Freiwald
A German visitor finds that Kathmandu is one rare place which take your breath away as soon as you step out to experience its sights and sounds

A machine gun! It only took me ten minutes after arriving in Kathmandu to find a machine gun pointed to my head. I was desperately struggling for a good explanation why I was running back into the airport without a bag and my passport. The answer was pretty easy though. I thought the immigration officer in Nepal would accept Nepalese Rupees for issuing the Visa. I didn't bring anything else. Unfortunately, I didn't even have enough Rupees and an ATM is only one of the modern amenities Kathmandu's airport does not provide. However, running out of the building in order to find a bank and get some US$ is a really good way to get in touch with the local security personnel. And after explaining to the gun-wielding police officer the reasons why I was desperately trying to find some Dollar notes, his suspicious look finally turned into a warm and friendly smile.

A couple of days after the airport incident, the ubiquitous sense of serenity prevail almost everywhere throughout Kathmandu. Whether I stroll through the cramped roads of the old town, watch the Nepal Police Club on its way to win the Gurkha Cup Trophy or enjoy my Tongba at a candle-lit bar in less crowded districts like Baluwatar: People in Kathmandu are hardly ever disconcerted......

READ MORE....http://www.nepalnews.com/

NEW FORM OF MALARIA

New form of malaria threatens Thai-Cambodia border

By MARGIE MASON and MARTHA MENDOZA - Associated Press Writers

PAILIN, Cambodia -- O'treng village doesn't look like the epicenter of anything.

Just off a muddy rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines.
Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. This time, scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.
If this drug stops working, there's no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million annually. As a result, earlier this year international medical leaders declared resistant malaria here a health emergency.

"This is not business as usual. It's something really special and it needs a real concerted effort," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University in Bangkok who has spent decades trying to eradicate the disease from Southeast Asia. "We know that children have been dying in Africa - millions of children have died over the past three decades - and a lot of those deaths have been attributed to drug resistance. And we know that the drug resistance came from the same place."
Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, the AP found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying.
Already, The Associated Press found, resistance to malaria has spread faster and wider than previously documented. Dr. White said virtually every case of malaria he sees in western Cambodia is now resistant to drugs. And in the Pailin area, patients given artemisinin take twice as long as those elsewhere to be clear of the parasite - 84 hours instead of the typical 48, and sometimes even 96.
Mosquitoes spread this resistant malaria quickly from shack to shack, village to village - and eventually, country to country.
And so O'treng, with its 45 poor families, naked kids, skinny dogs and boiling pots of rice, finds itself at the epicenter of an increasingly desperate worldwide effort to stop a dangerous new version of an old disease.

Bundled in a threadbare batik sarong, 51-year-old Chhien Rern, one of O'treng's sick residents, sweats and shivers as a 103-degree fever rages against the malaria parasites in her bloodstream.
Three days ago Chhien Rern started feeling ill while looking for work in a neighboring district. So she did what most rural Cambodians do: She walked to a little shop and asked for malaria medicine. With no prescription, she was handed a packet of pills - she's unsure what they were.
"After I took the drugs, I felt better for a while," she says. "Then I got sick again."
The headaches, chills and fever, classic symptoms of malaria, worsened. Chhien Rern's daughter persuaded her to take a motorbike taxi past washed out bridges and flooded culverts to the nearest hospital in Pailin, a dirty border town about 10 miles from O'treng.............
READ MORE:http://www.thestate.com/sportswire/story/1087143.html

CYBER LAW AWARE CxO IN INDIA

The era of Cyber Law aware CxO is now in India.

Posted on January 1st, 2010

by naavi in All News, Country News, India News

Read 336 times.

 Cyber Laws are the laws applicable to the Cyber Environment. Today’s business environment is becoming increasingly dependent on Cyber Space. If an entrepreneur/business manager has to plan his business today, he has to go through many challenges.
If we closely analyse these challenges, we will understand how Cyber Law knowledge becomes essential for the business manager at every stage. Whatever business decision he takes revolves around e-strategies and therefore a fair sprinkling of Cyber Laws.
Today whenever a business manager takes a decision on naming a company or a product, he must remember that he would require a supportive domain name to be used for promotion of the company or the product. If a manager choses a name and builds a brand around it over a couple of years of efforts and then finds that it is in conflict with another established domain name or trademark, he may have to take a fresh decision on the name or brand. It is therefore necessary to understand that domain name laws have a great impact on many business decisions.
Chosing a market and the target segments is another critical decision for the manager. With the global reach that Internet has achieved today, access to global market is at the fingertip for any business manager for the purpose of communication of product information. But understanding the risks of reaching out with a communication to the global market, what warranties are created on the website, how does jurisdiction work etc are matters of concern to the business manager............
READ MORE....http://www.bloggernews.net/123426

SHIPYARD ACCIDENTS

Over 1,300 workers killed in Chittagong in 12 years
BSS, Chittagong

Thirty workers were killed in accidents in different shipyards in Chittagong in the last 11 months raising the death toll from such accidents in the industry to more than 1,300 in the last 12 years.
Over 10,000 workers were also injured as the rate of accidents in the shipyards, being run without the 'final certificate' of the Explosives Department and ignoring the maritime policy, is increasing alarmingly.
Five workers were killed and 28 others injured in a gas explosion at Diamond Shipbreaking Yard in Madambibir Hat last week. Two days later, six workers suffered injuries in another accident.
"Before conducting gas cutter in scrapped ship, releasing of gas and other flammable things from its oil tanker and gas cylinder is a must. But the ship-breaking firms are not maintaining the system that led to the accidents frequently in the industry," an official of the Explosives Department told BSS Saturday.


READ MORE:http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm

HUMANITARIAN TRIP

By HEATHER SMATHERS
BULLHEAD CITY – A group of local business leaders, doctors and dentists are heading out for a humanitarian trip to Costa Rica in January.
The group of six will visit the tiny village of Jorco and will perform medical and dental exams for the villagers, and the seasonal visitors who pick coffee.
“After going to Central America earlier in the year, I realized there was so much more we could do to help the people out,” said Dana Kern, owner of the Firehouse Coffee Company and Roaster and organizer of the trip. “I came back and wanted to get a group together to go during the prime coffee-picking season to help out the pickers.”
Exams will be offered to both villagers and coffee pickers, many of whom will travel from Panama and Nicaragua for the season. Exams will include blood pressure and blood sugar checks, and screens for respiratory problems and diabetes. Basic CPR, first-aid and hygiene lessons also will be offered.
Traveling with Kern, who also is a paramedic with the Bullhead City Fire Department, will be his wife, Karen, serving as a dental assistant; Dr. Rob Sturms, DDS; Adriana Bauer, RN; David Vierthaler, RN; and Alice Cummins.
Each person is paying their own way to Costa Rica, where the group will stay at the coffee plantation.
“I’m really excited,” Cummins said. “This will be my first trip to Costa Rica and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Kern said he planned the excursion because he believes it is the right thing to do. He said he tries to think globally by purchasing organic and free trade coffees from Central and South America, and by helping the people picking the coffee.
“I believe that if I recycle and use organic coffees and try and help the people who are picking the coffee, that the people will be paid back in other ways,” he said.
The group will be gone from Jan. 17-23.

SOURCE:http://thecostaricanews.com/

NO PAIN NO GAIN

Without pain there is no gain

ONE would say prison is a sinister place to live due to high razor wired-fence and surrounding brick walls.
Others would say prison is a place where bad people are put so they can suffer because they are criminals convicted of crimes and deserved to die there.
Some say prison is a place where continuous harassments, violence and intimidation are prevalent.
But to me, I would say I’m thankful that I was sent to prison.
It is prison that shaped and molded my character and now I am really a new person, though the experiences I had encountered in prison were painful.
I appeal to all the inmates at Bomana and other prisons around the country, not to return to past doings but dedicate your lives to God and you will see change in your ways, dreams and visions.
These were the words of a former Bomana prison inmate, Barry Pale, who served seven years in the nation’s biggest and notorious prison from 2002 to 2009.
He was released last month with 50 other inmates from Bomana having completed their jail-terms.
Here he described his ordeal as “irregular and frame up” statements that led to his conviction.
“At the time, I was doing my third year economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.
“I was given financial support by my relatives and friends for bus fare and other daily needs. But I didn’t use the funds purposefully.................


READ MORE :http://www.thenational.com/

MALARIA ON MOUNT KENYA

Global warming blamed for rise in malaria on Mount Kenya The Times 2009-12-30

Global warming has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a British-funded research team has found. A 2C increase in average temperatures around the mountain in the past 20 years has allowed the disease to creep into higher altitude areas, where the local population of four million has little or no immunity. The researchers, funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), found that the average temperature in the Kenyan Central...



SOURCE:
http://www.theworldpress.com/

LENSMAN'S WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT

Lensman's world record attempt on Mt Kinabalu

2009/12/31

By Roy Goh
KUNDASANG: News photographer Mohd Noor Mat Amin began his quest to put his name in the Guinness Book of World Records here yesterday by scaling Mount Kinabalu 111 times in as many days.
Noor's campaign, called the "1Malaysia Solo Climb" was launched by Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah at the Mount Kinabalu National Park here.

He started climbing the mountain yesterday and will scale the peak in the early hours today to complete his first climb.

The 42-year-old will continue to do this until April 19.

Noor currently holds the record of reaching the mountain summit 50 times in 50 days in 2007 to commemorate the 50th year of Merdeka as well as the Solo 24-hour Climb of Menara Kuala Lumpur last year.

At the launch yesterday, Noor was accompanied by 111 students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, who will take turns climbing the mountain until he ends his feat.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah flagging off Mohd Noor Mat Amin (centre) and his retinue of University Malaysia Sabah students on their first climb up Mount Kinabalu yesterday.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah flagging off Mohd Noor Mat Amin (centre) and his retinue of University Malaysia Sabah students on their first climb up Mount Kinabalu yesterday.

Noor will also climb Menara Kuala Lumpur 111 times from May 1 to May 7 as part of his campaign to spread the meaning of 1Malaysia.

Also present at the ceremony yesterday were UMS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Kamaruzaman Ampon, the university's Sports Science head, Mohd Asyraf Fong, and the programme director, Hazran Mohamed.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah flagging off Mohd Noor Mat Amin (centre) and his retinue of University Malaysia Sabah students on their first climb up Mount Kinabalu yesterday.

SOURCE:
http://www.nst.com.my/