30.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Authorities in the Philippines have been making frantic preparations ahead of the arrival of the fourth storm to hit the country in a month.
Typhoon Mirinae is expected to make landfall south of the capital, Manila, early Saturday morning local time.
The storm is expected to spare the rice cultivating land and hit the eastern coconut growing province of Quezon.
Many parts of the country are still reeling after the worst storm-triggered flooding in decades.
The typhoon was travelling at speeds of up to 93mph (150km/h) towards the country’s coast.
Flood risk
The capital’s 12 million residents and others who live in the path of the typhoon have been told to prepare supplies to last 72 hours.
Civil defence spokesman Ernesto Torres said officials were preparing for the worst.
“Considering our land is already saturated with water, it may cause flooding in some areas. It is hard to tell if there will be floods, but we are preparing for the worst,” he said.
Officials closed schools and grounded ferries and trucks loaded with relief supplies were sent to northern provinces in the storm’s path.
Thousands were reported to be stranded on the main island, unable to return to their home provinces to visit their dead as traditional on All Saints’ Day in the mainly Catholic country.
More than 900 people have died in the multiple storms, including Typhoon Parma, which have battered the Philippines over the last month.
More than 100,000 people remain in government-run evacuation centres and some communities in Manila remain flooded with residents using makeshift rafts to move around.
30.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The number of swine flu deaths reported worldwide has jumped by more than 700 in a week, latest World Health Organization figures reveal.
More than 5,700 swine flu deaths were reported by 25 October, compared to nearly 5,000 the week before.
The biggest rise was in the Americas where 4,175 deaths have been reported, up 636 from the week before.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has shut all schools and banned public meetings for three weeks after its first swine flu death.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the measures were to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus.
Mrs Tymoshenko said there would also be restrictions on what she called non-urgent travel between different parts of Ukraine.
Cases ‘unreported’
The latest WHO figures showed there had been 440,000 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus worldwide.
But the organisation said that as many countries have stopped counting individual cases, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes says the WHO has warned for months that as winter sets in, the northern hemisphere can expect swine flu cases to rise. Now that appears to be happening.
The virus emerged in Mexico in April and was declared a global flu pandemic on 11 June.
“In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza transmission continues to intensify, marking an unusually early start to winter influenza season in some countries,” said the WHO’s latest update.
Statistics showed fatal cases in Europe climbed to at least 281, while those in Asia-Pacific rose to 1,070.
In a separate statement, the WHO said that experts meeting this week had concluded that a single dose of swine flu vaccine was sufficient to immunise adults and children over 10.
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (Sage) said that countries that had made vaccinating children a priority could administer them a single dose to ensure that as many as possible are immunised quickly.
It said that while more data on children between six months and 10 years was needed “the priority should be to give them at least one dose of vaccine now, and to cover as many of them as possible”.
30.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
An Indian tribe in Brazil has found at least nine survivors after a plane came down deep in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian air force says.
At least one person is believed to have died and one is missing, reports say. The plane disappeared on Thursday.
Members of the Matis tribe found the wreckage “in the middle of the Amazon jungle” on Friday morning.
The Cessna C-98 Caravan was carrying four crew and seven health workers involved in a vaccination campaign.
Jungle find
“Of the eleven occupants of the plane, one is missing and there are indications of a possible death. The other nine are fine,” a statement from the air force said.
The plane issued a distress signal an hour after it left Cruzeiro do Sul in the Brazilian state of Acre at 0830 local time (1230 GMT).
The air force had dispatched eight planes – including one with thermal sensors – as part of the search effort, but had failed to locate the plane by mid-day on Friday.
But members of the Matis tribe had told the National Indian Foundation (Funai) that they found the plane in a region of the Amazon jungle near the Itui river.
They said the plane came down between the Matis village of Aurelio and Rio Novo in the Muruga tribal area.
The Cessna was en route to Tabatinga, in the state of Amazonas, when it went missing. The cause of the crash is not known.
30.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The EU has agreed a conditional deal on how to help other nations fight global warming, ahead of a key climate summit, but set no figure on what it would pay.
The EU agreed climate change would need 100bn euros ($148bn; £90bn) a year by 2020, and would pay its “fair share”, conditional on other nations.
UK PM Gordon Brown said the deal, which came after a deadlock on cost sharing was broken, was a “bold proposal”.
However, Green groups criticised the deal, saying it was not nearly enough.
The accord had been threatened by a coalition of nine poorer EU nations, which argued that richer countries should pay more.
To meet the concerns, the initial funding will be voluntary and no cost targets for individual EU nations were announced.
Details of how the burden will be shared will be sorted out later by a working group.
Earlier EU leaders agreed a deal designed to secure the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to streamline decision-making and bolster the bloc’s role on the world stage.
Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, the only country that had been holding out on ratification, said it would no longer raise objections.
‘Bold proposals’
Mr Brown, announcing the climate deal, said the EU discussions had been a success.
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ANALYSIS
Oana Lungescu, BBC European affairs correspondent
“We can look the others in the eye,” said the president of the European Commission, “we Europeans have done our job.” But to critics, that job may look only half-done.
EU leaders have agreed that developing nations would need $150bn a year to tackle climate change and pledged they would pay their fair share. But they haven’t said how much.
And poorer EU nations like Poland will continue on a voluntary basis or according to their means. It’s now up to the other big global players – the US, China and India – to decide if that’s enough for them to put an offer on the table and avoid failure in Copenhagen.
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“We were aware that if we did not come together to make progress, the possibility of a deal [in Copenhagen] would be a lot less likely.”
He said: “Europe is leading the way with these bold proposals – do not allow years to go by without action.”
The EU said the amount to come from public funding from all countries to meet the estimated 100bn euros a year needed by 2020 would be between 22bn and 50bn euros a year.
However, it did not fix the EU’s contribution, saying it would only pay its “fair share”.
But Mr Brown did announce a “fast track” scheme to reduce carbon emissions, with the richest countries providing development finance to the poorest.
This would come in soon after the Copenhagen summit and would cost 5bn to 7bn euros immediately, to come from all richer countries.
He insisted that all these funding targets would be conditional on other richer countries making funding offers and on developing countries showing how they would spend the money.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement was “an important breakthrough that brings new momentum”.
He said the EU nations had “agreed a negotiating mandate” for the Copenhagen climate talks.
“Next week, we’ll meet the US president and will say ‘let’s make Copenhagen a success’,” Mr Barroso said.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, PM of Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said: “The EU has a very strong negotiating position. This enables the EU to continue taking a lead in the negotiations and encourages others.”
‘Opacity’
However, the Green bloc in the European parliament criticised the EU leaders for failing to fix the costing, calling the deal “a calamitous result for the climate”.
“The EU preferred to give into dissension, opacity and internal tactics during the negotiations between the member states,” the bloc’s leaders said.
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Gordon Brown: ”Europe is leading the way in making these bold proposals”
Joris den Blanken of environmental group Greenpeace, said: “[The EU] failed to use this opportunity to put its money where its mouth is.
“President Barack Obama should now step up and break the deadlock in negotiations.”
International development charity ActionAid said the EU suggestion of 22bn to 50bn euros a year from public finance by 2020 was far below its estimate of 132bn euros a year.
Earlier, the Czech Republic was granted an opt-out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, similar to that of the UK and Poland, paving the way for the full ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
President Klaus said he accepted this was a “significant exemption”.
He added: “I am not going to raise any further conditions for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the treaty would “doubtless” come into force on 1 December.
30.10.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
We know that Monday (the day your favorite feature ‘Guess Who’ appears) is still a good 3 days away. However, when we came across this picture, we couldn’t resist but throw open the challenge of asking all you Bollywood buffs to guess who the actor in the. picture is?
This time, we would not be giving away too many clues as we want to keep it as tough as possible for all you die-hard filmy fanatics. All we would say is that this is a picture from one of the most anticipated films of this year. Revealing anything more would spoil all the fun and hence, we leave it to you to put on your thinking caps and guess who the actor is. Our only warning is take your time cause this is no child’s play. You may post your answers in the comments section below.
