Rebel government tries to bring order to the shattered streets of Benghazi
By Kim Sengupta in Benghazi Monday, 28 February 2011
Libya has taken its first steps towards a new future following four decades of dictatorship with the formation of a new administration in the half of the country which is out of Colonel Gaddafi’s control.
The National Council set up in Benghazi, the “capital of Free Libya”, will present itself for recognition by the international community as emissaries of the people who will be representing the country from now on.
Former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil announced that he would head an interim government with the suggestion that it has the backing of the US.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wins his Fish Fight: discarding dead fish may be banned
European fishermen may be banned from throwing a million ton of fish overboard every year to stay within EU quotas following a campaign by the television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
By Heidi Blake 6:45AM GMT 28 Feb 2011
Maria Damanaki, the EU fisheries minister, will unveil a proposal to ban the practice of “discards” which as arisen as a bizarre consequence of a quota system designed to conserve fish stocks by preventing over-fishing.
Officials are bowing to pressure for reform of Europe’s fishing industry after more than 650,000 people signed a petition calling for “discards” to be banned following a series of programmes publicising the issue on Channel 4.
Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight series disclosed that around half of the fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back into the ocean dead because fishermen are afraid of exceeding their quotas.
Brick by brick, a city will rise again
Tracy Watkins and Kate Chapman
February 28, 2011
A NEW Christchurch will rise from the rubble of the earthquake, with the New Zealand government talking about a temporary central business district and imported housing.
The Prime Minister, John Key, has sought advice from Treasury on the feasibility of an earthquake levy, similar to the Queensland flood levy, but was concerned it would dampen economic activity. He said it was not ”feasible or practical” for Christchurch ratepayers to pick up 50 per cent of the cost.
As many as 500 buildings could be demolished in the CBD but the huge rebuilding project will not start until the aftershocks stop.
Tunisia gets new premier after new violence
Feb 28 2011
Security forces again clashed with protesters in Tunis demanding the removal of some ministers of Ghannouchi’s interim government before the premier announced his resignation.“The acts of violence and looting, the unrest and the fires on Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis on Saturday have left five people dead,” said a ministry statement quoted by TAP news agency.
“These human losses happened during the clashes” with “interior security forces which tried to push back a group of young people armed with knives and stones that tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters”.
Synthetic marijuana widely used at Naval Academy, some midshipmen say
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
A synthetic form of marijuana is widely used at the U.S. Naval Academy because it cannot be detected in routine drug tests, according to several former midshipmen who have been removed from campus for using or possessing the substance.
Since its introduction at the academy last year, synthetic marijuana has become popular among rank-and-file midshipmen and on the football and wrestling teams, the former midshipmen said. Some isolated corners of the historic Annapolis campus, they said, have become well-known gathering spots for smoking it.
Frank Buckles, last American veteran of World War I, dies at 110
Frank Buckles, one of more than 4 million Americans to serve in World War I, drove ambulances in France and was later a civilian prisoner of war during Japan’s invasion of the Philippines in WWII.
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
February 28, 2011
Frank Woodruff Buckles, a onetime Missouri farm boy who was the last known living American veteran of World War I, has died. He was 110.Buckles, who later spent more than three years in a Japanese POW camp as a civilian in the Philippines during World War II, died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Charles Town, W.Va., family spokesman David DeJonge said.
A total of 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during World War I.