|
MultimediaNews
- -001 Relief for Haiti Concert and News(CNN News)
Provides a sample of entertainment from the concert plus news about the current situation. 01-10
Papers
- -02-27-10 Chilean Earthquake Was One of the Largest Ever (USA Today)
"One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and authorities said at least 214 people were dead. The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east." 02-10
- -02-27-10 Why the Chilean Earthquake Was Expected (Time.com)
"Scientists still can't predict exactly when earthquakes will occur, but the massive temblor that struck off the coast of Chile early Saturday was anything but unexpected. Chile sits on the Ring of Fire, the volatile, 40,000 km-long (25,000 MILE) zone that encircles the Pacific Ocean and includes the most seismically dangerous ground on the planet. The unstable plate tectonics along the Ring produce some 90% of the world's earthquakes as well as most of its volcanic eruptions." 02-10
- -03-27-10 The Rise of Muammar Gaddafi's Son in Libya (Time.com)
"ust over six years ago, Saif coaxed his father into abandoning Libya's chemical- and nuclear-weapons program. Muammar Gaddafi's stunning aboutface, which followed longstanding demands from Washington, ended Libya's isolation from the West." 03-10
- -03-28-10 Russia and U.S. Agree to Slash Nuclear Weapons (MSNBC News)
"The U.S. and Russia sealed the first major nuclear weapons treaty in nearly two decades Friday, agreeing to slash the former Cold War rivals' warhead arsenals by nearly one-third and talking hopefully of eventually ridding a fearful world of nuclear arms altogether." 03-10
- -04-10-10 Poland Mourns Death of President (CNN News)
"Thousands gathered outside Warsaw's presidential palace on Saturday evening to lay flowers and light candles in honor of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash in western Russia earlier in the day." 04-10
- -04-10-10 President of Poland Dies in Plane Crash (CNN News)
"Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed early Saturday along with his wife, several top military officials, and the head of the national bank when their plane crashed at a western Russian airport, officials said." 04-10
- -05-08-10 Europeans Attempt to Head Off Spread of Debt Crisis (New York Times)
"Leaders from the euro zone countries signed off on a support package for Greece on Friday night and pledged to take steps to stanch a spreading debt crisis before markets opened on Monday morning." 05-10
- -05-10-10 AIDS Battle Is Being Lost (New York Times)
"Uganda is the first and most obvious example of how the war on global AIDS is falling apart."
"The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. Drugs that once cost $12,000 a year fell to less than $100, and the world was willing to pay."
"In Uganda, where fewer than 10,000 were on drugs a decade ago, nearly 200,000 now are, largely as a result of American generosity. But the golden window is closing." 05-10
- -05-14-10 Violence Continues in Thailand (MSNBC News)
"Thai troops fired bullets at anti-government protesters and explosions thundered in the heart of Bangkok on Friday as an army push to clear the streets and end a two-month political standoff sparked clashes that have killed at least eight and wounded scores of others." 05-10
- -06-17-10 Russia Refuses to Intervene in Kyrgyzstan (Time.com)
"Armed gangs were slaughtering the Uzbek community in the south of Kyrgyzstan — a region that Russia still considers part of its geopolitical backyard — and the interim Kyrgyz government was pleading with Moscow to send in troops. Its leaders said that many of the ethnic Kyrgyz soldiers were refusing to shoot at their own people, allowing the marauders to systematically kill Uzbeks and burn their homes. But President Dmitry Medvedev has refused to intervene." 06-10
- -06-20-10 Massive Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh (CNN News)
"A new study published Saturday in the British medical journal the Lancet found that tens of millions of people in Bangladesh have been exposed to poisonous levels of arsenic from contaminated groundwater." See Arsenic Removal 06-10
- -06-20-10 Mayor of Guadalupe Gunned Down (CNN News)
"Gunmen shot and killed the mayor of the Mexican town of Guadalupe as his wife and child watched, the mayor of nearby Ciudad Juarez told CNN." 06-10
- -07-04-10 Tree-Eating Beetles Invade Italy (Christian Science Monitor)
"In Sicily it has killed an estimated 13,000 palms and has pushed north, attacking trees in Campania and Rome, and all the way up to the famed Italian Riviera, near the border with France."
"Conservationists are calling the weevil infestation a national emergency and say there is, as of yet, no proven way of combating the insect. Scientists have found they can capture the bugs using traps laced with pheromones, but deploying the devices is time-consuming and costly." 07-10
- -08-02-10 UAE Bans BlackBerry and Smart Phone Services (MSNBC News)
"The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority said in an e-mailed response to questions from The Associated Press Monday that the ban on those BlackBerry services planned to take effect in October will be suspended for all users in the country, including visitors using roaming services on foreign smart phones."
"That would put BlackBerry service out of reach for business travelers and others passing through the Mideast's busiest airport in the international business hub of Dubai, which averages about 100,000 passengers a day. The decision puts the federation's reputation as a business-friendly commercial and tourism hub at risk." 08-10
- -08-12-10 Moscow Under Siege From Bog Fires (New York Times)
"Perhaps the most noxious and dangerous characteristic of peat fires is their heavy smoke. In a surface fire, the heat forces the smoke plume into the atmosphere. But in a peat fire, with its relatively cool surface temperatures, the smoke hugs the ground, seeping into homes, choking lungs and stopping flights at airports."
"All countries with peat — the four largest are Russia, Canada, the United States and Indonesia, according to Mr. Rein — experience peat fires, he said. Fires are more common in tropical peat than in boreal peat, he said, though global warming may change that." 08-10
- -08-22-10 Electronic Voting Researcher Arrested in India (Freedom-to-Tinker.com)
"India uses paperless electronic voting machines nationwide, and the Election Commission of India, the country's highest election authority, has often stated that the machines are "perfect" and "fully tamper-proof." Despite widespread reports of election irregularities and suspicions of electronic fraud, the Election Commission has never permitted security researchers to complete an independent evaluation nor allowed the public to learn crucial technical details of the machines' inner workings. Hari and others in India repeatedly offered to collaborate with the Election Commission to better understand the security of the machines, but they were not permitted to complete a serious review."
"We discovered that, far from being tamperproof, it suffers from a number of weaknesses. There are many ways that dishonest election insiders or other criminals with physical access could tamper with the machines to change election results. We illustrated two ways that this could happen by constructing working demonstration attacks and detailed these findings in a research paper, Security Analysis of India's Electronic Voting Machines. The paper recently completed peer review and will appear at the ACM Computer and Communications Security conference in October." 08-10
- -08-22-10 Help the People of Pakistan (Avaaz.org)
"A humanitarian catastrophe of terrifying proportions is unfolding in Pakistan, with a fifth of the country under water, and millions of people homeless and desperately needing assistance."
"Some relief efforts are underway, but the international response to the mega-disaster has been irresponsibly slow and weak -- the UN has urgently appealed for $460 million of vital aid, but just 60% has been committed. Relief workers warn that without an immediate increase in aid the death toll could sky-rocket."
"With the expert advice of leading humanitarian NGOs on the ground, we'll offer donations to trusted local organizations, including: Hirrak Development Centre (HDC) and Participatory Welfare Services (PWS). With these partners on the ground our community will help provide much needed humanitarian aid. 100% of the funds raised will go directly to helping Pakistanis cope with this disaster and strengthen their local systems." Visitors sometimes misspell as Packistan, Pakestan, or Packestan. 09-08
- -08-26-10 Mexican Massacre That Shook All of Latin America (Time.com)
"How, newspapers asked, had the situation gotten so out of control that a heavily armed gang could commit such a massacre, comparable to some of the worst atrocities in wars, in one of the country's most developed regions? And how would other Latin American countries now look at what Mexicans had done to their citizens?" 08-10
- -09-06-10 Study: After $75,000, Wealth Does Not Increase Happiness (Time.com)
"People say money doesn't buy happiness. Except, according to a new study from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, it sort of does — up to about $75,000 a year. The lower a person's income falls below that benchmark, the unhappier he or she feels. But no matter how much more than $75,000 people make, they don't report any greater degree of happiness." 09-10
- -09-22-09 How to Not Get H1N1 Flu (Time.com)
"Keeping your hands clean can stop viruses that are living and breeding around you from causing infection." 09-09
- -09-25-09 Editorial: Global Financial System Still At Risk (MSNBC News)
"A year after the panic that brought the world’s financial system to the brink of collapse, the Group of 20 nations will now assume the role of a permanent council on global economic cooperation. But there is still no global regulatory framework to prevent another major market meltdown." 09-09
- -09-26-09 Children Under 10 Will Need Two Swine Flu Shots (U.S. News)
"Still confused about what's going to happen with swine flu shots next month? You're not alone. The federal government and individual states still haven't told us how they're going to distribute the vaccine, or when. Yesterday's chirpy press release from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases made it easy to think that all children will need just one swine flu immunization, but that's not true. The younger a child is, the less well his or her immune system responded to the swine flu vaccine in clinical trials. So children under age 10 will need two doses of swine flu vaccine, one month apart, according to the NIAID itself." 09-09
- -10-08-10 Jailed Chinese Human Rights Advocate Given Nobel Prize (New York Times)
"Liu Xiaobo, an impassioned literary critic, political essayist and democracy advocate repeatedly jailed by the Chinese government for his activism, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.' " 10-10
- -10-17-10 Haiti: The Beginning of Rubble Removal (New York Times)
When rubble removal finally became an urgent priority late this summer, only baby steps were taken."
"At its September meeting, Haiti’s reconstruction commission, led by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former President Bill Clinton, approved a $17 million United Nations Development Program plan to clean up six neighborhoods — an important project but only a small piece of the $1 billion in reconstruction projects approved to date." 10-10
- -10-31-10 Brazil Elects First Female President (CNN News)
"Brazil's new president-elect vowed to continue her predecessor's move to fight against inequality and promote human rights and fight poverty in her victory speech Sunday night."
" 'My mission is to eradicate poverty,' Dilma Rousseff said after the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared her the winner in Sunday's runoff election." 10-10
- -11-13-10 Myanmar Releases Aung San Suu Kyi (Guardian.co.uk)
"Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was freed from house arrest on Saturday, setting her on the path to a possible new confrontation with the generals who had kept her out of the public eye for 15 of the past 21 years." 11-10
- -11-21-10 North Korea Reveals Vast New Nuclear Capabilities (New York Times)
"North Korea showed a visiting American nuclear scientist earlier this month a vast new facility it secretly and rapidly built to enrich uranium, confronting the Obama administration with the prospect that the country is preparing to expand its nuclear arsenal or build a far more powerful type of atomic bomb." 11-10
- -11-22-10 Editorial: Will the Irish Bailout End the Euro Crisis? (Time.com)
"Just as the Greek bailout failed to stem the euro crisis, I believe the Irish bailout will fail as well. That's because all of the underlying issues will remain in place. Sure, this time around, the EU has funds already committed to help Ireland – the $1 trillion rescue fund announced in May, which didn't exist during the Greek meltdown. But the availability of bailout money won't resolve the uncertainties inherent in the very nature of the EU's bailout scheme."
"First, the success of the bailout will depend on the ability of Ireland's government to impose incredibly severe budget cuts, demanded by its Eurozone pals in return for the rescue funds." 11-10
- -11-24-10 U.S. Sends Carrier Group to Korea (MSNBC.com)
"A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, in a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China."
"The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that the United States believes the North's attack was an isolated action and not part of a wider campaign by Pyongyang."
"State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley also said the United States expects China to use its influence to get North Korea to cease its provocative behavior, saying Beijing could play a 'pivotal' role in helping to calm the situation."
"Tuesday's attack was the heaviest in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953, and marked the first civilian deaths in an assault since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987."
"A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement it had responded in 'self-defense' and accused the South of firing shells into its waters near the disputed maritime border." 11-10
- 02-06-10 Toyota Knew About Brake Problem (CNN News)
"Prius hybrid cars coming off Toyota's assembly line in Japan have had an improved version of the software used to control the cars' brakes since January."
"That's little consolation to those driving Priuses made before then which seem to be the source of mounting complaints about brake performance and have been linked to four crashes." 02-10
- Party Veterans Issue Letter for Free Speech in China (PBS)
"This hasn't been a great week for China's Communist Party leaders in the PR department, as they gather for a big party confab in Beijing today. Yes, they're flush with the glow from high-octane economy and their new assertiveness on the world stage. But they've also taken a couple of public hits for their decidedly unmodern brand of repression at home." 10-10
- -Editorial: Economic Summit Fell Short (New York Times)
"In normal times we don’t expect a lot from summit meetings. But with the global economy imploding, leaders at Thursday’s meeting of the world’s top 20 economic powers had an urgent responsibility to come up with concrete policies to fix the global financial system and restore growth. They fell short."
"Where they fell dangerously short was their refusal to commit to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars in additional fiscal stimulus that the world economy needs to pull out of its frighteningly steep dive. With consumer spending and business investment collapsing around the world, rich countries are the only ones that have the resources to do what is needed." 04-09
- -How to Avoid Human Extinction (Huffington Post)
"Why are we in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs? What has caused progress to slow and governments, leaders and experts to suddenly become gridlocked, unable to solve our most dangerous problems?"
"The answer is complexity."
"There's no denying it. Even the most brilliant among us is trapped in the same biological spacesuit -- a spacesuit that requires millions of years to develop new features. So what happens when the complexity of the problems we have to solve simply exceeds the capabilities we humans have evolved to this point?"
"The answer is that we come to an impasse."
|