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Saturday, June 22, 2013
John Hodgman explains the end of the world to you
New record as haze chokes Singapore
21 June 2013
Last updated at 10:09 ET
The BBC's David Shukman explains the impact and cause of the haze
Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state.
The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) - the highest in Singapore's history.
The index also reached 400 in one part of Indonesia, which is readying helicopters and cloud-seeding equipment in an effort to tackle the fires.
Schools in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia have closed temporarily.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned on Thursday that the haze could remain in place for weeks.
"We can't tell how this problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it depends on the weather, it depends on the wind," he said.
"It can easily last for several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October."
'Life threatening' Continue reading the main storyAnalysis
Indonesia is struggling to contain the raging forest fires that are causing the thick smog which is enveloping Singapore, parts of Malaysia and some Indonesian cities.
On Friday, the government despatched helicopters to the worst affected areas, in a bid to create artificial rain. The plan is to seed the clouds once the temperature is a bit cooler to induce rain over the burning forestland.
It is a big challenge. Fire-fighters on the ground have been working around the clock to put out the blazes, but they have spread to peatlands and are proving to be very difficult to extinguish. Officials have complained about a lack of resources and say they desperately need some rain to help.
Indonesia's weather agency says rainfall is not likely until 29 June. Singapore and Malaysia have both urged Indonesia to do more to solve this crisis. Singapore has offered aircraft to help with the cloud-seeding operation, but there needs to be clouds in the sky for it to work. This time of year is typically the hottest and driest on the island of Sumatra.
A PSI reading above 300 is defined as "hazardous", while Singapore government guidelines say a PSI reading of above 400 over 24 hours "may be life-threatening to ill and elderly persons".
"Healthy people [may also] experience adverse symptoms that affect normal activity," the government says.
The PSI dropped down to 143 at 17:00 (09:00 GMT), although this is still classed as "unhealthy".
Before this week's episode, the previous air pollution record was from September 1997 during the 1997-1998 South East Asian Haze, when the PSI peaked at 226.
Singapore resident Nicole Wu told the BBC that she had stayed indoors for the past two days.
"It's terrible. In my flat the windows are all closed with the air conditioning on," she said. "My mother has to wear a mask to go shopping."
"I can't even see what's happening outside my house due to the smog. You can't see birds [or] moving objects," she added.
Philip Koh, a doctor, told AFP news agency that the number of medical consultations he had had in the past week had increased by 20%.
Continue reading the main story"My patients are telling me they are worried about how long this is going to last and how much higher this is going to go," he said.
In Indonesia's Riau province, where the fires are concentrated, the PSI went up to 400 on Friday, the head of the local health office told the BBC.
Schools are to remain closed until air quality improves.
The chief of the health department Zainal Arifin said there was an "increasing number of asthma, lung, eye and skin problems due to higher CO2 levels".
"I call for residents to stay at home and reduce outdoor activities," he said.
Diplomatic strain Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End QuoteThe face masks which are in high demand in Singapore can protect against the worst of the smog... [but] are unlikely to provide total protection?
Singapore's National Environment Agency has started providing hourly PSI updates on its website, in addition to the three-hourly updates it previously provided.
Around 300 schools in southern Malaysia have now been closed as a result of the smog. Schools in Singapore are currently closed for the holidays.
There are also reports of flight delays in both Singapore's Changi airport and Riau province in Indonesia.
The fires are caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore.
The smog has strained diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia - two countries that usually share good relations, the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta reports.
Continue reading the main storySlash-and-burn clearances
- Slash-and-burn farming is a technique that involves cutting down vegetation and burning to clear land for cultivation
- It is cheaper than using excavators and bulldozers
- The illegal burning of forests to clear land for palm oil plantations has long been a problem in Indonesia - particularly during the dry season in the summer
- Indonesia's Environment Minister Balthazar Kambuaya has said the government is investigating several palm oil companies in this respect
- Some producers have already denied their companies use slash and burn land clearance
Mr Lee said Singapore had provided satellite date to Indonesia to help it identify companies involved and said that if any Singapore firms were involved, that would be addressed.
Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said it would deploy two helicopters to conduct "water-bombing" operations, as well as planes with cloud seeding equipment.
More than 100 Indonesian fire-fighters are attempting to put out the fires in Sumatra.
Selina Latiff, from Novena, Singapore, filmed this footage of the smog from a 29th floor balcony
However, an official in Riau province said they were "overwhelmed and in a state of emergency".
"We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks," Ahmad Saerozi, the head of the natural resources conservation agency in Riau, told AFP news agency.
He added that the fires were in peat around three or four metres below the ground, making it particularly hard to fight them.
"It is still burning under the surface so we have to stick a hose into the peat to douse the fire," he said.
"We take one to two hours to clear a hectare, and by then another fire has started elsewhere."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said "all the country's resources" would be mobilised to extinguish the fires.
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22998592#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Gunman kills Hamelin politician then himself - The Local
A 74-year-old gunman killed a top official in the northern German town of Hamelin on Friday before shooting himself dead, police said.
Shots were heard shortly after 10am in the city's main administrative building, where 63-year-old Butte was later found dead along with the body of his assailant.
The attacker was not identified. Police refused to comment on media speculation that the shooter was a gun fanatic but did say that the suspect was known to officers in the area. He used a heavy-calibered revolver to shoot Butte.
Butte was married with two adult children and five grandchildren, according to his profile on the district website. By Friday afternoon, his personal website had been taken off line.
Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement that Butte's murder had left him stunned. ?He will be missed by everyone. My thoughts go to his wife and children.?
He served as a police officer, rising through the ranks to become the head of the State Crime Investigations Office of Lower Saxony from 2001 to 2005. He had served as district administrator of Hamelin-Pyrmont, an elected office, since 2005.
The town is best known for the folk tale of the Pied Piper, later popularised by the Brothers Grimm.
Gun violence is rare in Germany, although major massacres in Erfurt in 2002 and Winnenden in 2009 made headlines around the world.
Gun crime, never high in Germany when compared with many other countries, dropped considerably over the past decade ? in 2000, police registered 19,400 crimes in which involved a firearm. By 2011, this figure stood at 11,700.
Of the 2011 statistics, 5,600 were shootings and 132 were incidents in which a gun was involved in a murder, manslaughter or assisted suicide investigation.
AFP/DPA/The Local/jcw
Source: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130426-49387.html
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Stocks sputter on tepid US economic growth
NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market sputtered Friday after the U.S. economy didn't grow as much as hoped. Neither did earnings from a handful of big companies.
Economic growth accelerated to a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the government said. But it was below the 3.1 percent forecast by economists.
The shortfall reinforced the perception that the economy is grinding, rather than charging, ahead. Investors have also been troubled by reports in the last month of weaker hiring, slower manufacturing and a drop in factory orders.
"There are some concerns as we head into the summer," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for TD Ameritrade. "In the last three weeks, we've have seen numbers that weren't exactly what you'd love to see."
Corporate earnings this week have also contained worrisome signs. Many companies missed revenue forecasts from financial analysts, even as they reported higher quarterly profits. For example, Goodyear Tire slipped 3.4 percent to $12.49 Friday after revenue fell short of analysts' estimates, hurt by lower global tire sales.
Of the companies that have reported earnings so far, 70 percent have exceeded Wall Street's expectations, compared with a 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. However, 43 percent have missed analysts' revenue estimates.
The S&P 500 index fell three points to 1,583, or 0.2 percent, paring its gain for the week to 1.8 percent.
The Dow, however, was up 11 points, or 0.1 percent, at 14,717, lifted by Chevron's stock. Profit for the U.S. oil company beat expectations of financial analysts in the first quarter, pushing shares up $1.29, or 1 percent, to $119.80 on Friday.
The Dow index is 1.2 percent higher this week.
The Nasdaq composite was down 20 points at 3,269, a decline of 0.6 percent. The index is still 2 percent higher this week.
The tech-heavy index has lagged both the Dow and the S&P 500 this year, but led the way higher this week, boosted by Microsoft. The software giant, which makes up 5.3 percent of the Nasdaq, is on track to record its biggest weekly gain since January last year, after reporting earnings April 19 that beat Wall Street expectations and revealing an aggressive push into the computer tablet market.
Even Apple, the largest stock in the Nasdaq, had a good week, advancing 5.8 percent to $413.20, despite posting a decline in quarterly profit Tuesday. Apple accounts for 7.6 percent of the index's value and the weekly gain was its biggest since November.
Among big names that investors were focusing on Friday, Amazon.com fell 7 percent to $255.20 after the company warned of a possible loss in the current quarter. And in the first quarter, the online retailer reported lower income fell as it continued to spend heavily on the rights to digital content. Expedia fell 11 percent to $58.15 after the online travel company's reported a quarterly loss.
Homebuilder D.R. Horton surged 8 percent to $26.48 its income nearly tripled thanks to a continuing recovery the housing market. The results were handily beat the forecasts of financial analysts who follow the company.
J.C. Penney jumped 8.5 percent to $16.52 after the billionaire financier George Soros disclosed that he had taken a 7.9 percent stake in the struggling company.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.67 percent from 1.71 percent, its lowest rate of the year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-sputter-tepid-us-economic-growth-184133429.html
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Marathon deaths prompt review of security policy
In this photo taken Wednesday, April 24, 2013, a security guard checks the backpack of a fan entering AT&T Park before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Wednesday, April 24, 2013, a security guard checks the backpack of a fan entering AT&T Park before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Tuesday, April 23, 2013, fans have their backpacks searched by security personnel prior to entering AT&T Park for a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
In this photo taken Tuesday, April 23, 2013, security personnel check bags as fans enter the American Airlines Arena before the start of Game 2 of the first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks in Miami. NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, "We regularly practice a wide range of state of the art security measures in all of our arenas." (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
In this photo taken April 23, 2013, a New York City police officer watches as fans stop to have their bags checked by security before entering Citi Field for a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers in New York. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Left unattended, no accessory looks as menacing these days as a backpack.
At the airport. On the subway. At a sports event.
And, as a result of the two backpack-encased bombs that exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, sports teams and leagues around the world are rethinking what kind of bags, satchels, purses and, yes, black nylon backpacks should be allowed inside stadiums and arenas.
The packs will even be the focal point of a conference this summer of stadium-security personnel in Orlando .
"After what happened ... I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people eliminating backpacks would increase," said Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, founded in 2006 and based at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Next Saturday, more than 165,000 people are expected at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. Backpacks, duffel bags and large purses have been banned from the track since 2002 ? part of the clamp-down that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, Derby officials have told fans their bags will undergo increased security checks for this year's race.
No matter where the world ends up on the bag-check spectrum, some fans may never again regard the pack slung across their body quite the same way.
"I never really thought about backpacks until last week, and now you notice backpacks all over the place," said Ryan Hershberger of Hartwell, Ga., as he headed into a Colorado Rockies game carrying a black backpack. "It makes you think."
Down the street, at the Denver Nuggets game, a handful of fans shared the same sentiment.
"I've been thinking about it all day," Joel Cross said on the concourse at the Pepsi Center in Denver. He and his wife traveled from Harrisburg, Neb., to attend Tuesday night's Nuggets playoff game. "We're from a community where our whole county only has 600 people in it. Nobody is going to bomb us because there's no one there. But we're coming to a populated area."
The NFL beefed up security for thousands of fans attending its annual draft, which runs through Saturday, with metal detectors, pat-downs and about 20 percent more personnel in place than previous years. Backpacks are banned. The league said it would consider what, if any, changes might be made for the 2013 season, which ends with the Super Bowl in New York next February.
Major League Baseball's security officials met Thursday but Commissioner Bud Selig said no changes are expected in the rules on bags fans can bring to ballparks, generally limited to 16x16x8 inches. The meeting was scheduled before the Boston explosions that killed three and injured more than 260/
"I wouldn't say that Boston has changed anything," Selig said. "Each club makes its own decision."
At Yankee Stadium, for example, briefcases, coolers and other hard-sided bags or containers are not permitted. At Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, wrapped presents are banned along with cameras with lenses of 12 or more inches. The Baltimore Orioles ban bags with wheels at Camden Yards.
Boston and San Francisco were among the teams opting to use metal-detecting wands on fans and their possessions this week.
"We've added people, and people are getting in faster now, so we're going to stick with the plan," Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said.
Though the marathon bombings caught the attention of the world, not every event or championship, especially overseas, is beefing up or changing security measures.
For instance, officials at Manchester United, the FA Cup final and the European Champions League say their policies, which either ban large bags or strongly discourage them, are under constant review but not set to change.
"We did, of course, contact the police in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, as part of our commitment to the security of fans and visitors to the stadium," Manchester United said in a statement.
At Wimbledon, where tennis action starts in June, no changes are planned.
"It was a terrible event, but we have no reason to believe it's something that has a direct impact on Wimbledon," All-England Club chief executive Richard Lewis said, referring to the Boston explosions.
At the Summer Olympics in London, soft-sided bags were required to fit under seats and couldn't hold more than 25 liters (6 gallons).
Sebastian Coe, who led London's organizing committee, says a ban on backpacks at sports events would not be justified.
"We have to make some pretty tough decisions in the way we want to live our lives," he said. "It's very easy to draw all sorts of conclusions (from the Boston bombings). Do we want to live in a world where people can't wear backpacks to sporting events? I'm not sure we do."
Organizers in Brazil aren't making any radical changes to their backpack policy for the upcoming Confederations Cup or next year's World Cup. So far, the extensive list of prohibited items includes "unwieldy" bags ? no more than 10x10x10 inches and too big to fit under a seat.
Officials in Russia, which hosts the 2018 World Cup, said that whenever a sports-related tragedy occurs, they review what happened "to ensure that our own regulations and procedures are sufficiently covering such potential tragedies or risks."
In Sochi, Russia, site of February's Winter Olympics, security for test events was so stringent that the president of the international skiing federation, Gian Franco Kasper, cracked, "The only moment they didn't inspect our athletes was during the race."
International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound of Canada said one strategy might be to push back security boundaries.
"I remember in Vancouver and other places, the tension between the organizers and the events and the security folks was over the size of the perimeter," Pound said. "If you can move the perimeter back 50 or 100 meters, a backpack bomb is going to have less lethal effect."
In the U.S., NBA spokesman Tim Frank wouldn't comment on specific security practices, beyond saying: "We regularly practice a wide range of state of the art security measures in all of our arenas." The Nuggets have long used wands and searched bags. But Cross' wife, Shelly, said she noticed a more extensive security presence at Tuesday's game than the last time they made the trip to Denver.
"We were here not too long ago and we don't remember this," she said.
At least one backpack developer said she was unaware of any pending changes to basic designs. She also thought the bombings were unlikely to create a need for see-thru or clear backpacks.
"I don't think people want to share their belongings with everyone. Everyone wants their privacy," said Annelies Mertens, a member of the Samsonite development team in Belgium. "I don't think this will have an influence on the way backpacks are made. I don't see that happening."
While the Boston Marathon presented its own set of difficult challenges ? securing a 26-mile course dotted with trash cans and spectators on almost every block ? one expert says there's no such thing as perfect security guidelines, regardless of venue.
"A no-backpack policy is fine if it applies to everyone," said Derek Catsam, an associate professor at University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa who has studied the safety issue in stadiums. "But then you start making exceptions for people with kids, and for the elderly and for women with purses and people in expensive seats. Where does it end? You can have a policy or not have a policy. But once you start selectively enforcing it, that's going to be problematic."
After the bombings, the NHL's Boston Bruins added metal-detecting wands to their security regimen and checked cars parking in a garage underneath the arena. Security measures vary by arena in the NHL. The New York Islanders, for example, don't allow backpacks; the Detroit Red Wings ban oversized bags and search all bags that are allowed in.
Catsam said security can always be ratcheted up, but then comes the issue of how much convenience people are willing to give up for the sake of safety.
"They could start saying you can bring whatever kind of backpack you want but you have to go through an X-ray system like you do at the airport," he said. "It would take forever and we'd adjust, but I'm not sure what we'll discover or if we'll be making anything really safer."
Marciani, on the other hand, envisions a day when backpacks are as obsolete at a stadium as the bulky transistor radios that fans once brought along so they could listen to play-by-play as they watched the game.
"I think it's just one less aggravation we'd have to put up with," he said. "I'd just say, 'Why backpacks at a stadium?' I don't think we need them."
___
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver, Howard Fendrich in Washington, Stephen Wilson, Rob Harris, Steve Douglas and Chris Lehourites in London, Tales Azzoni in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Janie McCauley in San Francisco, Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis, Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Jimmy Golen in Boston, Ben Walker and Ron Blum in New York, David Ginsburg in Baltimore and Bernie Wilson in San Diego and Associated Press reporter Peter Banda contributed to this report.
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Congress approves bill to end delays in flights
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress hurried to approve legislation Friday that will end the furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.
The House approved the measure on a 361-41 vote, a day after the Senate agreed to the bill. Friday's vote came as lawmakers prepared to leave town for a weeklong spring recess, a break that would have been less pleasant if they were confronted by constituents upset over travel delays.
Republicans accused the Obama administration of purposely furloughing controllers to pressure Congress to replace $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts ? known as the sequester ? that took effect last month at government agencies.
"The administration has played shameful politics with the sequester at the cost of hard-working American families," said Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa.
The White House and Democrats have argued that by law, the administration has little room to decide where the cuts fall. They want Congress to work on legislation lifting all of the cuts, which lawmakers noted have also caused reductions in Head Start preschool programs, benefits for the long-term unemployed and medical research.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president would sign the new bill, but he added, "The problem is this is just a Band-Aid solution."
During House debate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had a similar complaint.
"How can we sit there and say, 'Four million Meals on Wheels for seniors, gone, but that's not important. Over 70,000 children off Head Start, but that's not important," Pelosi said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has furloughed the controllers as part of the government-wide reductions. The bill would let the FAA use up to $253 million from airport improvement and other accounts to end the furloughs through the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year.
In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, the available funds can be used for other FAA operations, including preventing the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA had said it would shut the facilities to meet its share of the spending cuts.
The FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."
Administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."
Senate approval Thursday night followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.
For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.
In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.
The airlines, too, had pressed Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.
In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, said, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."
In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.
Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.
Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and an additional $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.
___
Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
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