She seems to be stronger, but what they want her to be is weak
She could play pretend, she could join the game, boy
She could be another clone
Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say
The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide.
USA
Senate panel critiques prewar claims by White House
‘Nobody is going to be happy’ with the long-delayed report’s mixed verdict on whether the Bush administration misused intelligence to argue for war with Iraq, an official says.
WASHINGTON — After an acrimonious investigation that spanned four years, the Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to release a detailed critique of the Bush administration’s claims in the buildup to war with Iraq, congressional officials said.The long-delayed document catalogs dozens of prewar assertions by President Bush and other administration officials that proved to be wildly inaccurate about Iraq’s alleged stockpiles of banned weapons and pursuit of nuclear arms.
But officials say the report reaches a mixed verdict on the key question of whether the White House misused intelligence to make the case for war.
Surging costs of groceries hit home
Bread, eggs, milk prices up sharply
American families, already pinched by soaring energy costs, are taking another big hit to household budgets as food prices increase at the fastest rate since 1990.
After nearly two decades of low food inflation, prices for staples such as bread, milk, eggs, and flour are rising sharply, surging in the past year at double-digit rates, according to the Labor Department. Milk prices, for example, increased 26 percent over the year. Egg prices jumped 40 percent.
Europe
Pope could face protests in Ireland over abuse cases
The first papal visit to Ireland in 29 years could be marred by protests if the Pope refuses to meet victims of sexual abuse by priests over many years.
An organisation representing some of the victims of paedophile priests has written to the Irish Conference of Catholic Bishops asking for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during a visit expected to take place next year.
The bishops were to receive the warning during a special session held today to discuss matters including ongoing paedophile scandals.
Sean O’Conaill, the coordinator of Voice of the Faithful in Ireland, which includes Catholic priests as well as abuse victims, said that if the bishops refused to arrange a meeting between the victims and the Pope there would be “outrage and disgust”.
Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told
Alert over scramble for control of energy resources in the Arctic
European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral riches of the Arctic.A report from the EU’s top two foreign policy officials to the 27 heads of government gathering in Brussels for a summit this week warns that “significant potential conflicts” are likely in the decades ahead as a result of “intensified competition over access to, and control over, energy resources”.
The seven-page report, obtained by the Guardian, has been written by Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy supremo, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations. It predicts that global warming will precipitate security issues for Europe, ranging from energy wars to mass migration, failed states and political radicalisation.
Asia
Pakistan judges may be reinstated in coalition deal
Pakistan’s two largest parties agreed to form a coalition government yesterday and promised to reinstate judges fired last year by Pervez Musharraf, raising the prospect of fierce antagonism between president and cabinet.Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister once exiled by Musharraf, and Asif Ali Zardari, widow of Benazir Bhutto, announced a power-sharing deal at a resort town in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The deal dashes Musharraf’s hope that the party which backs him – a poor third in last month’s election – might get a role in the government. Zardari’s Pakistan People’s party won 120 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly, followed by Sharif’s party with 90. The former ruling party aligned with Musharraf won 51.
Thirsty land sucked dry to irrigate Olympics
By Clifford Coonan in Tang County, Hebei
Monday, 10 March 2008It has not rained in Tang County since August and Liu Haishui is not expecting much from his peach crop this year.
Water was always scarce in this arid northern Chinese township several hundred kilometres from Beijing, but competition for it is more intense than ever as his land adjoins a new canal, which is going to pump 300 million cubic metres of water to Beijing to make sure that everything looks lush and green for August’s Olympic Games.
Africa
President Robert Mugabe accused of taking company cash to buy votes
President Mugabe has shored up his election campaign with a handover of millions of pounds of imported vehicles, machinery and cattle paid for with money seized from private companies and local and international aid agencies, business sources say.On Saturday Mr Mugabe, 84, presided over the distribution of 500 tractors, 20 combine harvesters and an array of modern farm equipment as well as 50,000 ox-drawn ploughs, 60,000 ox carts, tools, cattle, buses, motorcycles, generators and diesel.
The goods were to be distributed around the farming districts, he said, under the agricultural mechanisation programme, which would produce “the sound of machinery tilling the land in places far and wide and announcing with an irreversible finality that our land has returned to us”.
Rare pygmy hippos caught on film
Two civil wars, illegal logging and poaching – it was thought this was more than enough to wipe out Liberia’s population of pygmy hippos.But this rare and endangered species has survived against the odds and there are photographs to prove it.
A team led by the Zoological Society of London travelled to the West African country.
It was delighted to discover that, despite their fears, the hippo population had not been wiped out.
Middle East
Toddler Returns to Iraq After Life-Saving Surgery
HADITHA, Iraq – She is an amazingly lucky girl in a country where bad luck is everywhere. But 2-year-old Amenah al-Bayati is not aware of her good fortune.
She is still ignorant of how ruthlessly death stalks her country. She was not yet born when, in 2005, American marines killed 24 civilians, including five children, after their convoy hit a roadside bomb in this farming town on the Euphrates. She was too young to understand the politics that briefly landed her father in jail, suspected of ties to the insurgency.
Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month
The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.Beyond 2008, working with “best-case” and “realistic-moderate” scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion – or more – by 2017.
Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.
Latin America
New docs detail Colombian rebel ties
BOGOTA, Colombia – Newly published documents released by Colombia’s security forces claim the leftist presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador conspired for months with rebel insurgents who seek to overthrow the country’s U.S.-allied government.
ADVERTISEMENTThe 16 documents were published Sunday by the news magazine Semana. They also detail previously unknown relationships held or sought by Latin America’s oldest and most potent rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
One is a letter to Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi asking for $100 million to buy surface-to-air missiles. Another discusses an apparent effort by U.S. Democrats to have celebrated novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez mediate talks with the insurgents – possibly with former President Clinton’s involvement.
2 comments