NEARCHUS

Radiation: an invisible demon...[ 2691 ]

2012-02-10T10:25:00.002+02:00

Japan priest fights invisible demon: radiation

Monk tackles Fukushima nuke "hotspots"

By Ruairidh Villar and Yuriko Nakao

FUKUSHIMA | Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:35am EST/

(Reuters) - On the snowy fringes of Japan's Fukushima city, now notorious as a byword for nuclear crisis, Zen monk Koyu Abe offers prayers for the souls of thousands left dead or missing after the earthquake and tsunami nearly one year ago.

But away from the ceremonial drums and the incense swirling around the Joenji temple altar, Abe has undertaken another task, no less harrowing -- to search out radioactive "hot spots" and clean them up, storing irradiated earth on temple grounds.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, some 50 km (31 miles) away, suffered a series of explosions and meltdowns after the massive earthquake and tsunami last March 11, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 and forcing 80,000 people from their homes.

Radiation, carried on winds and by snow, spread far beyond the 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone around the plant, nestling in hot spots across the region and contaminating the ground in what remains a largely agricultural region.

Many of those who fled have no idea when, if ever, they can return to land held by their families for generations.

"The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami," Abe said.

"You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really, radiation is floating through the area. It's hard for those hit by the tsunami, but it's hard to live here too."

Last summer, Abe grew and distributed sunflowers and other plants, such as field mustard and amaranthus, in an effort to lighten the impact of the radiation and cheer local residents.

CHANGE OF FAITH

Now he is trading his ceremonial robes for a protective mask, working with volunteers to track down lingering pockets of radiation and cleaning them up.

One participant is Masataka Aoki, a 65-year-old engineer at nuclear plant maker Hitachi for more than 40 years. None of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were made by Hitachi.

Aoki had long been a believer in nuclear power, but he had a change of faith after the meltdowns and now seeks to assuage a sense of guilt.

"The thing I'd come to believe was good and useful to society turned out to be useless and caused everybody trouble," Aoki said. "I feel a deep sense of remorse."

On a recent weekend volunteers including Aoki looked for radioactive hot spots along a small path which local parents said was mostly used by children on their way to school.

Tests with hand-held Geiger counters yielded results of more than 9 microsieverts per hour, higher than in some areas of the evacuation zone near the plant itself.

Figures from government testing stations within the exclusion zone the same day read between 3.6 microsieverts and 13 microsieverts an hour. A typical chest x-ray is about 20 microsieverts a scan.

Volunteers dig up the earth in any hot spots they find and load the soil into trucks. The surrounding area is then washed down with high-powered hoses.

Abe said he and the other monks are storing the soil on a hill behind the temple as neither the government nor the nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) are helping with the clean-up.

"No-one else would take the soil. If there's nobody to take care of it, the decontamination can't get going because there's nowhere to get rid of it," Abe said.

Volunteers have gathered some 400 kg (800 pounds) of radioactive waste.

But it is likely to take years to remove all of the "invisible snow," as Abe describes the radiation -- if that is even possible.

"Real snow is cold but it is much better than the invisible snow. The visible snow will eventually melt away," he said.

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(Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Perry)

New Conditions for Greek Bailout...[ 2690 ]

2012-02-10T07:01:00.002+02:00

Eurozone Sets New Conditions for Greek Bailout

Financial crisis in Greece

BRUSSELS, February 10 (RIA Novosti)

Eurozone finance ministers on Thursday night agreed to attach additional conditions to Greece’s 130-billion-euro bailout deal and postponed the final decision until next Wednesday, the meeting’s chairman said on Friday.

Finance ministers from the 17 euro countries met on Thursday night in Brussels for discussions on the bailout package for Greece, which is teetering on the brink of financial collapse.

“We did not have all the elements necessary for making decisions on the table today,” Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the meeting, said.

He named three requirements for Greece to secure the bailout: firstly, Greece needs additional 325 million euro ($432 million) in savings for 2012, secondly, the Greek parliament will have to pass the package of cuts and reforms and thirdly, Greek political forces should guarantee that the austerity measures will continue to be implemented regardless of the outcome of April’s elections.

“The final decision will be taken next week. The Eurogroup is to convene on Wednesday, it will be made if Greece complies with the terms,” Juncker said.

The announcement comes hours after Greek political leaders finally struck a deal on new austerity measures demanded by creditors to secure a 130-billion euro bailout to avoid default and keep the country afloat. The deal included pension and wages cuts.

The troika of international lenders comprising the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund demanded from Greece to introduce pension budget cuts as well as to cut additional income in private sectors, to reduce minimal wages and insurance payments.

Greece has been receiving financial support from the EU and the IMF since May 2010 to reduce the country's large budget deficit. However, the austerity measures approved by the government have sparked numerous riots and strikes, and the Greek government has missed its targets.

NASA's Space Communications Testbed...[ 2689 ]

2012-02-09T20:05:00.000+02:00

Image of the NASA's Space Communications Testbed

In this image from late 2010, software engineers worked in the background as Glenn Research Center technician, Joe Kerka, rotated the SCaN Testbed flight enclosure assembly. The Space Communications and Navigation, or SCaN Testbed will be launched on a Japanese H–IIB Transfer Vehicle and installed on the International Space Station and will provide an on-orbit, adaptable software-defined radio facility with corresponding ground and operational systems.

This will permit mission operators to remotely change the functionality of radio communications and offer the flexibility to adapt to new science opportunities and recover from anomalies within the science payload or communication system.

This effort is sponsored by the SCaN Program as part of the , CoNNeCT, or Communications, Navigation, and Networking reConfigurable Testbed Project led by Glenn Research Center.

The Glenn Research Center will host a media event at 10:30 am on Friday, Feb. 10, to showcase the SCaN Testbed before it is shipped to Japan.

Image Credit: NASA/Quentin L. Schwinn

Shark attacks across the globe,...[ 2688 ]

2012-02-08T19:32:00.000+02:00

Shark Attacks Set Record High in 2011

Tiger shark//© flickr.com/ volk//20:18 08/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti)

With 12 fatalities in unprovoked attacks across the globe, 2011 was the worst year for shark-inflicted deaths since 1993, according to a new report from the International Shark Attack File database.

The fatalities figure was also more than double the average for the previous decade, according to a new report from the database, run by the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Australia led the count with three people killed in attacks, with Costa Rica, Kenya, New Caledonia, Reunion, the Seychelles and South Africa also contributing, according to the report released on Tuesday.

However, the total number of unprovoked shark attacks on people worldwide stood at 75 in 2011, down 10 incidents from the previous year. Sixty percent of the victims were surfers, followed by swimmers at 35 percent and divers at five percent.

The leader was the United States with 29 attacks, but Russia, unusually, also contributed, with three attacks documented last year, all of them in the far eastern Primorye region, where shark attacks previously never took place. In one attack in August, a shark bit off both arms of a swimmer who sacrificed himself to prevent it from targeting his wife.

The unusual number of fatalities was a “statistical anomaly” because the total number of attacks is decreasing due to shark depopulation, more people learning to avoid shark-infested waters and economic downturn resulting in less swimmers overall, the report said.

Russian success in the Antarctic ice....[ 2687 ]

2012-02-08T19:05:00.000+02:00

Lake Vostok drilling team claims breakthrough

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

BBC., 8 February 2012 Last updated at 14:29 GMT

Vostok station is one of the most difficult places to work on Earth

Russian scientists are reporting success in their quest to drill into Lake Vostok, a huge body of liquid water buried under the Antarctic ice.

It is the first time such a breakthrough has been made into one of the more than 300 sub-glacial lakes known to exist on the White Continent.

Researchers believe Vostok can give them some fresh insights into the frozen history of Antarctica.

They also hope to find microbial lifeforms that are new to science.

"This fills my soul with joy," said Valery Lukin, from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which has been overseeing the project,

"This will give us the possibility to biologically evaluate the evolution of living organisms... because those organisms spent a long time without contact with the atmosphere, without sunlight," he was quoted as saying in a translation of national media reports by BBC Monitoring.

The drilling project has taken years to plan and implement. The lake's location in the heart of East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

It is the place where thermometers recorded the lowest ever temperature on the planet - minus 89C on 21 July 1983.

Vostok Station was first set up in 1956. However, it was only in the 1970s when, with the help of radar, British scientists first started to suspect there might be something underneath all the ice.

Further geophysical survey data then established the true scale of the sub-glacial feature.

With an area of 10,000 square km and with depths reaching 800m, Lake Vostok is similar in size to Lake Baikal in Siberia or Lake Ontario in North America.

More than 300 such bodies of water have now been identified across Antarctica. They are kept liquid by geothermal heat and pressure, and are part of a vast and dynamic hydrological network at play under the ice sheet.

Some of the lakes are connected, and will exchange water. But some may be completely cut off, in which case their water may have been resident in one place for thousands if not millions of years.

Russian researchers will try to establish just how isolated Lake Vostok has been. If it has been sealed then micro-organisms new to science are very likely to have evolved in the lake.

The Vostok project is one of a number of similar ventures being undertaken on the White Continent.

The British Antarctic Survey (Bas) is hoping to begin its effort to drill into Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica later this year. An American crew is targeting Lake Whillans, also in the West.

"It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they've been working on this for years," Professor Martin Siegert, the principal investigator on the Bas-Ellsworth project said.

"The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the US and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments," he told AP.

The projects are of particular fascination to astrobiologists, who study the origins and likely distribution of life across the Universe.

Conditions in these Antarctic lakes may not be that different from those in the liquid water bodies thought to exist under the surfaces of icy moons in the outer Solar System.

Places like Europa, which orbits Jupiter, and Enceladus, which circles Saturn, may be among the best places beyond Earth to go look for alien organisms.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

Whales and ' ocean noise'...[ 2686 ]

2012-02-08T11:27:00.000+02:00

Whales 'stressed by ocean noise'

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

BBC., 8 February 2012 Last updated at 03:28 GMT

Right whales come to the Bay of Fundy late each summer to feed

Noise from ships stresses whales nearby, researchers have shown.

Ships' propellers emit sound in the same frequency range that some whales use for communicating, and previous studies have shown the whales change their calling patterns in noisy places.

Now, researchers have measured stress hormones in whale faeces, and found they rose with the density of shipping.

The species studied in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, the North Atlantic right whale, is listed as endangered.

It had been thought that hunting by the Basque people a few hundred years ago brought a robust population down to barely sustainable levels.

But recent research suggests the big population decline happened much earlier, for reasons that are unclear.

Dr Rosalind Rolland of the New England Aquarium in Boston, US, who led the new study, said the population was now up to an estimated 490 individuals from about 350 a decade ago.

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) roam up and down the east coast of North America, coming to the Bay of Fundy typically in late summer to feed.

Aquarium scientists have been studying them in the bay since 1980.

But the new study, reported in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, came about through chance.

Quiet period

Following the al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington DC on 11 September 2001, ship traffic in the bay dropped off.

Mothers and calves communicate with each other and other whales using low-frequency sound

Whale researchers registered a 6 decibel (dB) fall in the intensity of underwater noise, with the change particularly pronounced at frequencies below 150Hz.

Fortuitously, another team had just begun a five-year project to gather and examine faeces from the right whales.

Trained dogs are taken on boats, their noses guiding researchers to the bobbing faecal matter, which is then pulled inboard in nets.

"We were working on different boats, we knew the different studies were going on without any real interaction," Dr Rolland told BBC News.

"And it was only when I was preparing for a workshop on ocean noise and stress in 2009 that I realised we had this data and analysed it this way - it was just one of those opportunistic things."

Faeces gathered during the 2001 period of light shipping showed a significantly lower level of metabolites of glucocorticoid hormones, which are associated with stress, than in subsequent summers when marine traffic returned to normal levels.

"This is the first time that anyone's documented any physiological effect - these are after all 50 tonne animals so they don't make terribly easy things to study," said Dr Rolland.

Guide to the oceans' great whales

"Past studies have shown they alter their vocalisation pattern in a noisy environment just like we would in a cocktail party, but this is the first time the stress has been documented physiologically."

Precisely how much it matters to the animals is unclear.

But ocean noise has risen substantially in recent decades along with the growth in global shipping; one analysis showed that the north-eastern Pacific is 10-12dB louder now than in the 1960s.

Past years have seen significant numbers of right whales hit by ships and entangled in fishing nets.

In the Bay of Fundy, relocating shipping lanes away from the feeding grounds in 2003 has reduced ship strikes by 80-90%, while similar measures have been taken elsewhere along the coast.

The research team would now like to establish a study that could relate stress hormones to ocean noise in a range of locations.

This could include studying the differences between the North Atlantic right whales and their close relatives in the southern hemisphere, the Southern right whales, whose numbers are increasing much more vigorously since the era of industrial hunting.

Giant whale shark caught...[ 2685 ]

2012-02-08T11:06:00.000+02:00

Pakistani fishermen have caught a 12m whale shark after finding it floating dead in Karachi

By admin on Feb 8, 2012 | In Pakistan News

It took several cranes four hours to lift the massive fish off the boat and onto the pier in Karachi as hundreds of onlookers watched, the Express-Tribune reported.
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Fisheries dealer Qasim Niazi paid 200,000 rupees ($2000) for the giant shark, and will now charge viewers to see it.Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, and feed largely on plankton .
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12 meters whale-shark cought by Pakistani fiserman...

Watch video

La Nina compared to El Nino in Australia....[ 2684 ]

2012-02-07T10:32:00.000+02:00

La Nina ~ More Wet Australian Summers to Come

Posted by Linda Lin on Jan 27, 2011 //nature.com

If you've wondered what's with all the massive floods this year and last year (Australia, Brazil, Pakistan etc.), well, La Nina, Spanish for "the girl", is to blame. It is a climate event and counterpart to El Nino, "the boy". Opposite and sometimes following "him", La Nina is characterized by a colder surface temperature in the oceans, by about 3-5 degree celsius.

The cold can mix in with a cloudier atmosphere and higher winds, resulting in a change in weather patterns in the Pacific (if you're in the north, you can look forward to some extra cold spells this winter). For us in the southern hemisphere, this translates to a rise in tropical storms, copious rainfall and lower temperatures during the summer. 2010 has had record highs in precipitation across Australia, and this isn't going to change.

At best, it will die down by autumn in April, only to return for a few more summer in the years to come.

(flikr CC, Queensland floods by robandstephanielevy)
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Perhaps it's connected to global warming, some speculate that higher world temperatures can enhance a climatic event. Not a good deal of studies are available on La Nina compared to El Nino, but it is a natural phenomenon. In the past, there have been 4 strong La Nina events in Australia. The last one was in 1988-89. This was followed by droughts, which typically is what El Nino brings to these parts.

It's been interesting to see the local effects of the wet summer, here in Canberra. Allergies have been more intense for everyone this season, because flowers are happier with more rain. There's more bugs and spiders around, and Australian spiders can get pretty big and hairy. Animals are noticeably more fertile as well.

I swear there's been a spike in the population of feral rabbits around Canberra. And nearly everyone's seen a pair of ducks with a brood of 14 ducklings around the ANU.

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From the Australian Bureau of Meterology
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Austerity agreement and the Greek Default?...[ 2683 ]

2012-02-07T07:50:00.002+02:00

Is Merkel Too Comfortable With Greek Default?

Posted 7/2/2012 -Published: Monday, 6 Feb 2012 | 1:09 PM

By: Bob Pisani//CNBC Reporter

Austerity watchers take note: the Prime Minister of Romania resigned today (Monday), the latest European leader felled by anti-austerity fury.

Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images

A European Union, left, and a Hungarian national flag, fly outside the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Hungary's central bank, in Budapest.

Romania was the receiver of a 20-billion euro loan in 2009, on condition of deep austerity cuts.

The euro has rallied on headlines that Greek politicians are getting down to the nitty-gritty, with reports they may be willing to cut 15,000 public sector jobs as part of the austerity package.
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But the talk over the weekend was about the key player, Angela Merkel: is she more comfortable with letting Greece default?
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Oh, she protests, telling German TV today that they will not allow a Greek bankruptcy.
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But at the same time she is digging in her heels: she has insisted it's time for Greece to decide on whether they want in or out. No money without an austerity agreement, and all parties must sign off.
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It's not just Merkel insisting on getting the Greeks to agree on a painful austerity budget. She has also floated a trial balloon for the EU to take over control of the Greek budget.
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The Greeks, obviously, do not want to do that. They may simply choose to default. Surely Merkel must understand that the probability of a default has risen.
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Merkel seems to be calculating that a Greek default might not be all that disruptive. The stock and bond markets seem not to be so worried, and the banking system is certainly in stronger shape than it was three months ago. But is it sufficiently strong?
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If all this is a comfort to you, you should hear the response of the inimitable Art Cashin, who, after I presented the above thesis to him, said: "Merkel may be increasingly comfortable, but they were all comfortable before Lehman Brothers."
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[1603], Δηλώσεις Merkel -Sarkozi…(Greek text)

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Norway ,mass shooting suspect stays jailed...[ 2682 ]

2012-02-07T07:09:00.001+02:00

Saying he deserves a medal, Norway mass shooting suspect stays jailed

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 7, 2012 -- Updated 0232 GMT (1032 HKT)

Anders Behring Breivik appears in court Monday in Olso, Norway. He will be kept in custody until his trial in April.

(CNN) -- A Norwegian court concluded Monday that Anders Behring Breivik -- the man charged with killing 77 people last July, an attack he claimed merited a medal of honor -- can legally be kept in custody until his trial starts in April, according to court documents.

The court acknowledged that Breivik's mental health remains an issue, noting that he may not be able to get the maximum possible punishment for the crimes if he's deemed insane.

Even so, the court found legal basis to keep him in custody for the next two months because prosecutors have said that if Breivik is found insane, they will push for him to be confined to a mental health facility, court documents state.

Breivik is accused of killing eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo and 69 more in a gun rampage on nearby Utoya Island on July 22. It was the deadliest attack on Norwegian soil since World War II. The latter victims were among 700 mostly young people attending a Labour Party camp on the island.

He has pleaded not guilty, though he has admitted carrying out the attacks, the judge handling his case said previously.

In November, prosecutors said psychiatrists had determined Breivik was paranoid and schizophrenic at the time of the attacks and during 13 interviews experts conducted with him afterward.

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen told reporters in January that the court requested a second opinion because of the importance of the question of his sanity to Breivik's trial.

Arizona shooting suspect Loughner to continue receiving treatment

Two new psychiatrists were subsequently assigned to carry out the evaluation, court spokesman Geir Engebretsen said.

Breivik reiterated some of his extremist views during Monday's court hearing, which began with him entering with a smile and offering up a raised, clenched-fist salute in solidarity.

Confirming accounts posed to him by Norwegian reporters, his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said Breivik said he did not accept the legitimacy of the presiding judge because he didn't believe in the multicultural Norway that the judicial system is part of. The lawyer's back-and-forth with reporters was captured by Norwegian media, including national broadcaster NRK.

Breivik further claimed the shooting rampage was a matter of self-defense, meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces and prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians, according to Lippestad.

Rather than punishment, Breivik said he deserved a medal of honor, a statement that prompted derisive laughs from victims and relatives of those killed on Utoya Island.

He also said nobody could believe that he was insane, describing questions about his mental makeup as ridiculous, Lippestad confirmed.

Scheduled to begin April 16, Breivik's trial is expected to last 10 weeks.

Authorities have described him as a right-wing Christian extremist. A 1,500-page manifesto attributed to Breivik posted on the Internet is critical of Muslim immigration and European liberalism, including Norway's Labour Party.

The manifesto predicts that a "European civil war" will lead to the execution of "cultural Marxists" and the banishment of Muslims.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in the aftermath of the attacks that his country had been fundamentally changed, but vowed that Norway would remain "an open society."

Journalist Olav Mellingsaeter in Oslo contributed to this report.

Australia: Queensland's flood..[ 2681 ]

2012-02-07T06:54:00.001+02:00

Wivenhoe Dam manual 'not a priority in the field'

by: Jareds Owens
From: The Australian
February 07, 2012 1:04PM

<p><a href="http://video.theaustralian.com.au/2193626405/Wivenhoe-flood-engineers-named">VIDEO: Wivenhoe flood engineers named</a></p>

FOLLOWING Wivenhoe Dam's manual was ''not a priority for operating in the field'' ahead of Brisbane's devastating flood, according to Seqwater's dam

manager.

Queensland's flood, after The Australian revealed a string of inconsistencies in the flood engineers' evidence suggesting they disregarded the manual and used the wrong-flood mitigation strategy in the days before Brisbane was swamped.

Giving evidence this morning, SEQWater dam operations manager Rob Drury continued

to be grilled over an email he authored to a colleague at 8.23am on January 10, saying the dam was implementing a release strategy known as ''W2''.

The official history, branded ''a fiction'' by counsel assisting Peter Callaghan SC, said the dam moved to strategy W3 two days earlier, bypassing W2 completely.

Mr Drury said: ''I didn't mean to be wrong at the time and didn't intend to be. But if the documents show it was not right, then I was wrong.''

Barrister Jim Murdoch SC, for mid-Brisbane River irrigators, then asked: ''As a senior professional, if you were wrong on that it's a humiliating error, isn't it?''

Mr Drury replied: ''The W-strategies were a priority for operating in the field. Me saying the wrong W strategy was purely off the top of my head, me saying what I thought at the time. The strategies, the releases, the (situation reports) were all the important things. There certainly wasn't comment on W-strategies though, because they were not at the time a priority nor a necessity.'

Under the Wivenhoe manual, the engineers must always implement one of four strategies from the manual, ranging from limited releases that preserve downstream rural infrastructure, known as W1, to intensive releases to ensure the integrity of the dam, known as W4.

Operators are saved from financial liability for damage caused by releases if they follow the manual, which prescribes environmental triggers before for each strategy can be implemented.

Mr Drury denied knowing the email was inconsistent with the official report until he read it in The Australian last month.

The inquiry continues.

Aircraft dispatched in Australia floods...[ 2680 ]

2012-02-06T13:36:00.000+02:00

Military aircraft dispatched in Australia floods

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 5, 2012 -- Updated 1006 GMT (1806 HKT)

An aerial view of flood affected streets on Friday in Moree, Australia.

(CNN) -- Authorities were using military helicopters and a C-130 cargo plane Sunday to evacuate thousands of residents stranded by rising floodwaters in the eastern Australian state of Queensland, the government said.

Heavy rains in recent weeks have swollen rivers beyond their banks, threatening a number of communities in Queensland and New South Wales.

Authorities were using the plane and helicopters to evacuate patients from a hospital in particularly hard-hit Queensland town of St. George, where officials were warning about 4,000 residents to get out of the path of what officials say will be a record-breaking flood.

"This is a very serious situation and I urge people to cooperate,'' Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told CNN affiliate Nine Network.

The Balonne River is expected to crest Monday at 15 meters (49.2 feet), swamping the town of St. George.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said authorities were coordinating calls for assistance.

""Emergency Management Australia has liaison officers in flood-affected regions to ensure that requests for any further assistance can be actioned immediately," Gillard said in a statement.

Food and medical supplies have been flown to isolated communities elsewhere in Queensland, authorities said.

Rescue workers on Sunday recovered the body of a woman who died trying to drive her pickup through floodwaters, authorities said.

Jane Sheahan was swept away Friday in the Queensland town of Roma, authorities said.

Witnesses told CNN affiliate Nine Network that Sheahan managed to hand off her 7-year-old son, Darcy, to a would-be rescuer before she was swept away.

In the neighboring province of New South Wales, thousands of people remained isolated despite reports of receding floodwaters in some areas.

Emergency officials lifted a number of evacuations ordered evacuations early Sunday, though they warned residents not to walk, drive or swim in the receding waters.

Flood waters have started to recede around North Moree after five days of major flooding, the New South Wales Emergency Services said, but many of the town's streets remain closed.

Aerial assessments show some 300 homes and businesses have been inundated -- making it the worst flooding in nearly 60 years, CNN affiliate Seven Network reported.

Major flooding has also affected communities along the Namoi River, where the town of Wee Waa has been cut off, the New South Wales Emergency Services said. Major flooding is expected to continue there until the middle of this week.

Other communities affected by the Namoi River include Boggoabri, Narrabri Bugilbone and Goangra, with flood waters closing roads and inundating some rural properties.

Siberian Huskies...[ 2679 ]

2012-02-06T13:09:00.004+02:00

Siberian Huskies in Kamchatka Kennel

Eighty dogs of three working breeds –Kamchatka, Alaska, and Siberian Huskies– are kept at the Sibirsky Klyk sledge dog kennel. Siberian Huskies are known for their distinct facial coloring and blue eyes.

An open day was held at Sibirsky Klyk (Siberian Fang) sledge dog kennel in the suburbs of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Visitors were taught to drive dog sleds.

More photos 1 / 2 / 3 /

Occupy Oakland protest muted...[ 2678 ]

2012-02-05T13:18:00.002+02:00

Occupy Oakland protest muted after last week's arrests

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 5, 2012 -- Updated 0921 GMT (1721 HKT)

(CNN) -- A week after the mass arrests of Occupy Oakland demonstrators following clashes with police, a more muted protest played out Saturday in the northern California city.
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Despite a call by a small faction of the Occupy Oakland group to conduct "militant action" against authorities, there was no repeat of last week's violence where protesters threw bottles and tossed pipes at police, who responded with tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bag bullets.

Authorities arrested more than 400 people in that incident.
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The Occupy Oakland Tactical Action Committee called last week's police response "police repression" and vowed to conduct "militant action.
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"If you identify as peaceful and are likely to interfere with the actions of your fellow protesters in any way (including telling them to stop performing a particular action, grappling, assaulting or holding them for arrest), you may not want to attend this march," the committee warned in a statement on its website.
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"It is a militant action. It attracts anti-capitalists, anti-fascists and other comrades of a revolutionary bent. It is not a march intended for people who are not fully comfortable with diversity of tactics."

But Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan warned the city would not tolerate a repeat and said officers would arrest anyone "who engages in criminal activity or assaults against officers or community members."
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"This type of destructive and aggressive behavior is not welcome in our city," Jordan said.

By nightfall Saturday, about 150 protesters -- many dressed in black and some with their faces covered -- marched from a park outside Oakland's City Hall to the police department. Police maintained a large presence along the route.
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Last week's mass arrests, described by Oakland police as the largest in city history, came after protesters tried to take over a long-vacant auditorium to use as its hub.

When police blocked the group, clashes ensued.

Occupy Oakland is part of a larger movement that began last year on New York's Wall Street and quickly spread across the globe.
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While the protesters have highlighted a number of causes, the overarching theme remained the same: populist anger over what activists portray as an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite.

Oakland has been a flash point of the Occupy movement since October when police used tear gas to break up demonstrators who refused to leave downtown.
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One demonstrator, an Iraq war veteran, suffered a skull fracture after being hit with a police projectile, according to a veteran's group. Police said they acted after the crowd threw paint and other objects at officers.

The Oakland march Saturday followed a move hours earlier by U.S. Park Police in Washington to close an Occupy DC camp at McPherson Square.
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Park police in riot gear first entered at dawn Saturday, and said they were not there to evict protesters, but to check for compliance with "no camping" laws.

Still, at one point, there was a confrontation between protesters and riot police. At least eight people were arrested.

The move comes after a federal judge Tuesday rejected an Occupy DC request to keep park police from enforcing a ban on camping in McPherson park and nearby Freedom Plaza.
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Living in a public park as a means of protest is not protected by the First Amendment, Judge James Boasberg ruled.

CNN's Maria P. White and Greg Morrison contributed to this report.

Road congestion crisis...[ 2677 ]

2012-02-05T09:47:00.001+02:00

Brace yourself, highways to hell coming

by: Alex White
From: Sunday Herald Sun
February 05, 2012 12:00AM

Funds for the Princes Highway upgrade project will be held back to the 2013-14 financial year. Herald Sun

MELBOURNE is on the road to a congestion crisis, with an extra 101,500 cars forecast to clog the city's freeways within five years.
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VicRoads' official traffic projections, released exclusively to the Sunday Herald Sun, show an enormous influx of cars on five major Melbourne thoroughfares by 2016.

Traffic experts have warned the projections - which do not include trucks or motorbikes - exposed the growing threat of city-wide gridlock.

RACV spokeswoman Thanuja Gunatillake said the State Government had no strategy in place to deal with the growing chaos on Melbourne's freeways and said the future was "dire" for motorists commuting to the city.

The Eastern Freeway, Western Ring Rd, Tullamarine Freeway, the West Gate Bridge and the Monash Freeway all would be flooded with thousands of extra cars every day by 2016, according to the VicRoads figures.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal:

THE Monash Freeway between Forster Rd and Huntingdale Rd will be the worst affected with more than 37,000 extra cars per day.

UP to 1610 of the extra vehicles per hour will join the city-bound morning peak hour, causing further delays on the already packed route.

THE West Gate Bridge, one of Melbourne's biggest traffic trouble spots, will be pushed to the limit with 18,469 extra cars crossing daily.

DRIVERS on the Tullamarine Freeway will jockey with 20,831 added cars per day.

MOTORISTS on the already clogged Eastern Freeway between Springvale Rd and Blackburn Rd will battle an extra 500 cars in the morning rush.

THE Western Ring Rd between Princes Freeway West and Boundary Rd will increase by 12 per cent, reaching 134,400 cars per day with 5488 cars flooding the road during morning peak hour.

The data was released by VicRoads under Freedom of Information laws after a four-month campaign by the Sunday Herald Sun. Statistics on trucks were not available for all roads, but the data indicated an extra 1223 trucks would use the West Gate Bridge, taking the daily freight traffic to almost 13,000.

The RACV estimated congestion cost the Victorian economy $3 billion a year and would continue to sky-rocket as roads became more jammed.

"The picture is pretty clear. We cannot waste any more time," Ms Gunatillake said.

"Congestion affects everyone. We tend to think of people in cars, but 85 per cent of the public transport system uses the same network," she said.

"This shows a dire need for investment in transport."

Ms Gunatillake called on the Victorian Government to invest now in key projects including an 18km project that would incorporate a tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway to the Western Ring Rd with connections to the Tullamarine Freeway.

She also called for a better public transport strategy in Melbourne's growth suburbs.

Minister for Roads Terry Mulder said the State Government had applied to Infrastructure Australia for $30 million to build the controversial East-West road link, which will require significant private investment.

"The Coalition Government's new East-West Link is a once-in-a-generation project that will transform the way people move around Melbourne in a way not seen since CityLink and the city rail loop were built," Mr Mulder said.

"The improved East-West Link will provide an alternative to the M1 corridor, remove traffic from Melbourne's inner arterial roads, particularly at Hoddle St where the Eastern Freeway ends abruptly, and link industry in Melbourne's north, east and west." No time line has been given for the project or state funds committed.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen slammed the Government's strategy and said building more roads was not the answer.

"We have seen massive expansion on the freeways in the past decade and we still have chronic congestion," Mr Bowen said.

"The Government is putting some money into the rail system but some suburbs will never have rail and it is inevitable they will drive cars. We need to expand the public transport network."

Drivers were also shocked about the potential delays.

Motorist Judy Guardiani feared longer waits meant more stress for many Melbourne drivers.

"There are too many angry people on the road already, something needs to be done," she said.

VicRoads director of network and asset planning Robert Freemantle denied there would be congestion chaos in the future.

"Melbourne's freeways have been designed to operate efficiently while carrying the bulk of the daily traffic volume and heavy vehicles, and they will continue to do so into the future," he said.

"With increasing traffic volumes due to population growth, VicRoads continues to implement an ongoing program of road improvement projects designed to accommodate this trend."

Iran Launches Military Exercises...[ 2676 ]

2012-02-04T22:05:00.008+02:00

Iran Launches New Military Exercises

Tensions Rise as Iran 'Flexes' Its Muscle

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran February 4, 2012 (AP)

Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations as tensions rise over suggestions that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
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Tehran has stepped up its rhetoric as international pressure mounts over allegations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a charge it denies.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued stern warnings against any possible U.S. or Israeli attacks against Tehran's nuclear facilities. Western forces also have boosted their naval presence in the Gulf led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

The new military maneuvers came weeks after Iran rolled out its troops and arsenals in an unprecedented display of military readiness, with 10 days of naval maneuvers that included the first threats to block Gulf oil tankers in early January. Ground forces also were sent on winter war games — against what a Tehran military spokesman called a "hypothetical enemy" — with U.S. forces just over the border in Afghanistan.

Plans for new Iranian naval games in the Persian Gulf off the country's southern coast have been in the works for weeks.

ABCNEWS.com

Israel Braces for Potential Attack From Iran

Iran Says Attack From Israel Would 'Harm America'

Iran Threat: Attack on U.S.?
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Iranian state media reported the ground maneuvers of the elite Revolutionary Guard started Saturday near Jiroft, 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran. No more details were available, but it appeared that they were small-scale exercises and not linked to the planned major naval maneuvers near the Strait of Hormuz, the route for one-fifth of the world's crude oil.

Iranian officials and lawmakers repeatedly have threatened to close the strait, which funnels down to a waterway no wider than 30 miles (50 kilometers) at the mouth of the Gulf, in retaliation for sanctions that affect Iran's oil exports.
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But they have as yet made no attempts to disrupt shipping through the waterway, and the U.S. and other Western powers have warned they would respond swiftly to any attempts at a blockade.

Washington and its allies fear Iran could use its uranium enrichment labs — which make nuclear fuel — to eventually produce weapons-grade material. Tehran insists it only seeks reactors for energy and medical research.

So far, the West is relying primarily on the threat of economic sanctions to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
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Tehran has claimed that the most recent move — EU sanctions approved on Jan. 23, which include an oil embargo and the freezing of central bank assets — will be ineffective, while members of Iran's parliament say they have drafted a bill which would cut off the flow to Europe early, before it can find alternative suppliers.

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi also said Saturday the Islamic Republic would "definitely" cut off oil to "hostile" European countries, without specifying which ones they were.
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However, he said Iran is moving toward reducing reliance on oil revenues, a hint that Tehran is preparing for the worst. Oil sales account for about 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenues.
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Qassemi, the oil minister, reiterated Iran's argument that the EU oil embargo will not cripple Iran's economy, claiming that the country already has identified new customers to replace the loss in European sales that accounted for about 18 percent of Iran's exports.

Russians Rally as Putin Hints Reforms...[ 2675 ]

2012-02-04T21:53:00.001+02:00

Russians Rally as Putin Hints Reforms, Warns of Regime Change

Topic: February 4: Russia Rallies – Part 3

15:55 04/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti)

Over a hundred thousand people braved the bitter cold at two major rallies in downtown Moscow on Saturday as a power play between champions of political liberalization and supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin continues to unfold.
The first demonstration demanded fair elections at the March 4 presidential polls, at which Putin is expected to secure a third term in the Kremlin. It also calls on Russians “not to give a single vote” to Putin.

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The opposition rally is widely seen by analysts as a litmus test of protesters’ ability to maintain momentum after two earlier protests against alleged vote fraud in favor of Putin’s United Russia party at December’s parliamentary polls.
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“We are prepared for a long tough struggle,” protest organizer and opposition figure Boris Nemtsov said on the eve of the rally. “One peaceful march will not change the country.”
The protests included a march through downtown Moscow and a rally across the Moskva River from the Kremlin, when temperature in Moscow stood at minus 22 degrees Celsius. The two previous rallies in December drew an estimated combined total of 100,000 people.
A variety of political groups gathered for the rally: participants carried flags of the liberal Yabloko Party, of the unregistered liberal Party of People's Freedom, red Communist flags, as well as anarchist and Russian nationalist banners. Many held white balloons and ribbons of the Voters League.
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Protesters carried posters and banners with demands ranging from rather general "Russia will be free!" and "We do care!" to blatantly anti-Putin "Not a single vote for Putin!" and "Putin, go away!
Many protesters chanted "Russia without Putin!"
Among the crowd are presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov and former finance minister and Putin’s longtime friend Alexei Kudrin. Both said earlier they do not plan to speak at the rally.
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Boris Akunin, a founding father of the Voters League, told RIA Novosti while marching that people came to demand fair elections, division of powers and the democratization of political life in Russia.
"It is important that so many people came here," he stressed. Leaders of the opposition were worried that a poor showing at the rally and the march would mean that the momentum of the protests had been exhausted, putting an end to hopes of pressing the government to pursue reforms.
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The rally passed a resolution calling attendants not to vote for Putin in March, as well as calling for the release of “political prisoners.” It also called for the sacking of election head Vladimir Churov, who is accused of covering-up large-scale fraud during the parliamentary vote, and the liberalization of political legislation.
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Speakers at the rally were a mixed bunch, ranging from nationalist leader Alexander Belov to writers Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Boris Akunin. Former TV host Leonid Parfyonov and failed presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, who was denied a place on the ballots by the authorities, also gave speeches.
Staunch leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov denied allegations that the rally was staged by the U.S. State Department in his speech, a key point for speakers at a pro-Putin rally held elsewhere in the city on the same day.
“That’s bullsh*t,” Udaltsov said.
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The rally was concluded with a song from Russian rock star Yury Shevchuk, whose acoustic performance was accompanied by a host of white balloons which were let loose by participants of the rally, who chanted along with the singer.
The next protest rally is tentatively set for February 26, rally host Vladimir Ryzhkov announced.
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In a seperate rally accross town, Putin's supporters chanted "There are more of us!" Hundreds of tri-color Russian flags fluttered above the huge crowd and many participants carried posters, saying "Muscovites for Putin!", "No to Orangists!" and "Russia forever!"
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President Dmitry Medvedev, widely seen as Putin’s junior partner in Russia’s ruling tandem, proposed a host of political reforms after the initial vote protests, including the return of direct elections for regional governors and easier registration for political parties and presidential candidates. His proposals were dismissed by protest leaders on Friday as "imitation reforms."
Putin has also ordered the installation of video cameras at polling stations and has encouraged independent monitors to oversee the presidential vote.
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The organization of Saturday’s march has seen the involvement of the Voters League, a freshly-minted public group that claims no involvement in politics and is led by popular figures such as novelist Akunin, TV journalist Leonid Parfyonov and rock musician Yury Shevchuk.
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A separate rally drew some 140,000 people, according to police, and speakers urged protesters to resist what organizers say are attempts to instigate an Orange Revolution in Russia. So-called Color uprisings took place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia in the early 2000s after contested presidential elections.
Putin thanked late on Friday those people who planned to attend the rally in his support.
“I share their views,” he said.
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There have been numerous reports in the Russian media of state employees being coerced to attend the Anti-Orange rally, but the authorities have said these are untrue or the actions of over-zealous, low-level officials.
Speakers at the pro-government rally lambasted the opposition for plotting a revolution in the interests of Western powers.
“We say no to the destruction of Russia. We say no to Orange arrogance. We say no to the American government…let’s take out the Orange trash,” political analyst Sergei Kurginyan said at the rally by Moscow’s Poklonnaya Gora memorial, which he co-organized.
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Kurginyan and the others said their opponents intend to overthrow Putin through public protests, like during Ukraine’s “Orange revolution” in 2004. They also insist protesters at Bolotnaya Ploshchad are acting in the interest of the United States, whose ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, met with rally organizers in January.
Participants of the two rallies “have nothing to discuss with each other,” political analyst Nikolai Starikov said at the rally.
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Writer Eduard Bagirov, a member of Putin’s campaign staff, denounced participants of the rival rally as “good-for-nothing slackers” and told the attendants that Putin passed his greetings.
Putin and other senior officials also warned about a foreign influence in Russian protests and cautioned against a possible revolution, though also conceded the protests were peaceful and mostly driven by grassroots activism.
The rally lasted slightly over an hour and wrapped up shortly after 2 p.m. without incidents. Police said the organizers would be fined for exceeding the officially sanctioned attendance limit of 15,000.
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Both demonstrations have been authorized by City Hall. Moscow police say they deployed 9,000 officers to maintain order at the rallies.
Rallies by both the opposition and Putin's supporters took place in cities across Siberia and the Far East, most of them gathering several hundreds of protesters.
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An opposition rally in Novosibirsk was attended by an 1,500 to 2,000 people, according to police estimates, while a pro-Putin indoors rally in far eastern Birobidzhan had 600 participants, organizers said.

Russian Armored Vehicle...[ 2674 ]

2012-02-04T09:49:00.004+02:00

New Russian Armored Vehicle Can Withstand Eight-Kilogram TNT Blast

Typhoon Ural-63095, Russia

Russia is currently testing a new Project Typhoon Ural-63095 armored truck. Developers say the vehicle is more dependable than BTR armored personnel carriers, and that it can withstand anti-tank mine blasts.

A ferry carrying some 300 passengers sunk ...[ 2673 ]

2012-02-02T09:28:00.005+02:00

Ferry With 300 Passengers Lost Near Papua New Guinea

08:07 02/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 2 (RIA Novosti)

A ferry carrying some 300 passengers between the Papua New Guinean coastal towns of Kimbe and Lae is believed to have sunk, Australia’s ABC television channel reported.

Star Ships, which operates the ferry, told ABC that it lost contact with the MV Rabaul Queen on Thursday morning.

Australian rescuers went to the area to assist the local authorities in the search operation.
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"At 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) eight merchant ships were at the point of sinking, and five of them rescued survivors," announced the Australian maritime safety authorities.
"On board the ships are 219 survivors, "they added.
So far there have not been known what caused the wreck.
The shipping company Star Ships that owns the ship said that contact with the MV Rabaul Queen was lost early in the morning.

Egypt : Stupid Football Tragedy......[ 2672 ]

2012-02-02T01:07:00.001+02:00

At Least 73 Killed, 1,000 Injured in Egypt Football Tragedy

CAIRO, February 2 (RIA Novosti)

At least 73 people were killed and up to a thousand injured following clashes and a stampede at a football stadium in the Egyptian city of Port Said on Wednesday night.

Numerous fans rushed to the field after their home team from Port Said, Al-Masry, defeated Al-Ahly, one of Egypt’s top clubs from Cairo, 3-1. They first clashed with rival fans of the Cairo-based club and then attacked the players and coaching staff from Al-Ahly. The attack resulted in a stampede at the stadium, which was attended by some 40,000 people that night.

A spokesman for the country’s Health Ministry said most of the deaths were caused by injuries sustained in the stampede, concussions and deep cuts to the heads.

Another football game between Al-Ismaili and Zamalek teams in Cairo was called off after the news about the melee in Port Said broke out. Cairo fans angered by the violence in Port Said set the stadium on fire. National television reported that firefighters extinguished the blaze and no one was hurt.

The Egyptian Football Association has ordered to postpone indefinitely all matches of the country’s championship and the parliament has called for an emergency session on Thursday.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which currently holds power in the country, dismissed the governor of the Port Said Province and the head of the province’s security department.

Egypt’s state television appealed to all Egyptians to help in donating blood for the injured people in Port Said and the military allocated two aircraft for transporting those with serious injuries to hospitals in Cairo.

FIFA President Joseph Blatter called the tragedy in Port Said “a black day for football” saying that “such a catastrophic situation is unimaginable and should not happen.”

“I am very shocked and saddened to learn this evening that a large number of football supporters have died or been injured following a match in Port Said, Egypt,” he said in a statement.

The violence in Port Said is the deadliest in football after 1996 events in Guatemala City, when some 80 people were killed and 180 others injured in a stampede at a stadium before a World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Aeroflot on the New York Stock Exchange,?..[ 2671 ]

2012-02-01T13:41:00.000+02:00

Aeroflot Plans to Float ADRs on NYSE

15:22 01/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)

Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot plans to float American Depositary Receipts representing its stock on the New York Stock Exchange, Aeroflot Deputy General Director for Finance and Investment Shamil Kurmashov said on Wednesday.

“We are going to place Level 1 ADRs with a proportion of 1 (ADR) to five (shares),” Kurmashov said.

Aeroflot wants to sell Level 1 ADRs in New York to acquaint American investors with the company. Statistics show that U.S. investors favor investment in the aviation business, he said.

The Aeroflot board of directors approved in late December a program for floating ADRs to the sum of 20 percent of the airline’s authorized capital.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia...[ 2670 ]

2012-02-01T00:07:00.000+02:00

Patriarch Kirill to Hold Liturgy on Enthronement Anniversary

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral
© RIA Novosti. Sergei Piatakov//01:51 01/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who was enthroned as head of the Russian Orthodox Church three years ago, will on Wednesday hold a divine liturgy in downtown Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, the patriarchal press service reported.

By tradition, the Russian Church celebrates enthronement anniversaries as big festivals. Orthodox bishops and priests from Russia and other countries will take part in the solemn service in the Russian capital’s main church.

Kirill, seen as a liberal in the largely traditionalist Church, was elected to head the Russian Church after the death of his predecessor, Patriarch Alexy II, who led a revival of faith in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet system. Kirill was enthroned on February 1, 2009.

The Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed a dramatic rise in influence since the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union and Patriarch Kirill was recently granted official residence in the Kremlin.

Volcanic eruptions and the Little Ice Age...[ 2669 ]

2012-01-31T21:41:00.000+02:00

Volcanoes may have sparked 'Little Ice Age'

By Wynne Parry//Published January 31, 2012// LiveScience

hare10

A mysterious, centuries-long cool spell, dubbed the Little Ice Age, appears to have been caused by a series of volcanic eruptions and sustained by sea ice, a new study indicates.

The research, which looked at chemical clues preserved in Arctic vegetation as well as other data, also pinpointed the start of the Little Ice Age to the end of the 13th century.

During the cool spell, which lasted into the late 19th century, advancing glaciers destroyed northern European towns and froze the Thames River in London and canals in the Netherlands, places that are now ice-free. There is also evidence it affected other continents.

"This is the first time anyone has clearly identified the specific onset of the cold times marking the start of the Little Ice Age," said Gifford Miller, a geological sciences professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the lead study researcher. "We also have provided an understandable climate feedback system that explains how this cold period could be sustained for a long period of time."

The cause appears to have been massive tropical volcanic eruptions, which spewed tiny particles called aerosols into the atmosphere. While suspended in the air, the aerosols reflect solar radiation back into space, cooling the planet below.

The cooling was sustained after the aerosols had left the atmosphere by a sea-ice feedback in the North Atlantic Ocean, the researchers believe. Expanding sea ice would have melted into the North Atlantic Ocean, interfering with the normal mixing between surface and deeper waters. This meant the water flowing back to the Arctic was colder, helping to sustain large areas of sea ice, which, in turn, reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere. The result was a self-sustaining feedback loop.

Miller and colleagues came to these conclusions by looking at radiocarbon dates — based on how much of the radioactive form of carbon they contain — from dead plants revealed by melting ice on Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic. Their analysis found that many plants at both high and low altitudes died between A.D. 1275 and A.D. 1300 — evidence that Baffin Island froze over suddenly. Many plants also appeared to have died at around A.D. 1450, an indication of a second major cooling.

These periods coincide with two of the most volcanically active half centuries in the past millennium, according to the researchers. [History's Biggest Volcanic Eruptions]

They also found that the annual layers in sediment cores from a glacial lake linked with an ice cap in Iceland suddenly became thicker, indicating increased erosion caused by the expansion of the ice cap in the late 13th century and in the 15th century .

"This gave us a great deal more confidence that there was a major perturbation to the Northern Hemisphere climate near the end of the 13th century," Miller said.

Simulations using a climate model showed that several large, closely spaced eruptions could have cooled the Northern Hemisphere enough to spark sea-ice growth and the subsequent feedback loop.

It's unlikely decreased solar radiation, a separate theory to explain the Little Ice Age, played a role, according to the researchers.

The research will appear Tuesday (Jan. 31) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

European leaders adopt debt reduction...[ 2668 ]

2012-01-31T04:54:00.001+02:00

European leaders adopt treaty pledging debt reduction

Leaders aim to hammer out a plan to save the euro, while demonstrators take to the streets to show opposition to austerity measures in cash-strapped countries.

By Edward Cody, Updated: Tuesday, January 31, 12:40 AM

BRUSSELS — European leaders adopted a groundbreaking new treaty Monday that binds them to imposing caps on deficits and government debts to combat the painful financial crisis that has sabotaged prosperity across the continent and left it slipping toward recession.
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The treaty, endorsed by 25 of the 27 European Union governments, was intended as a gesture to show skeptical financial markets that European governments are at last committed to gaining control over lax borrowing habits that over the last four decades have helped create dangerously high debts.

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Credit ratings of euro zone countries

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An interactive look at the situation in Europe and how it affects you.

But the effort is just the latest in a series of efforts over many months to contain the crisis, and it was unclear whether Monday’s action would be enough. Europe’s mounting debts have already led to bankruptcy in Greece and raised the specter of default in several other countries, leading to fears of cascading financial turmoil that could disrupt once booming economies not only across Europe but also in the United States and as far away as Asia.
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European leaders are determined to prevent that from happening, said Herman Van Rompuy, the E.U. president. “The treaty is all about more responsibility and more surveillance,” he said.
The effort was undermined, however, by Britain’s reluctance to go along, citing its determination not to relinquish national sovereignty to the treaty’s provisions for automatic sanctions against governments that exceed the new debt limits. In addition, the Czech Republic also declined to sign up, with the government saying it was not sure it could get such a treaty approved in its parliament and courts.
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Moreover, a chorus of European officials and economists have questioned the wisdom of the treaty in the first place. The pact was unnecessary, they contend, because European rules — merrily ignored over the years — already forbid excessive government deficits and because the emphasis should be on economic growth rather than fiscal discipline.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, lectured the gathered presidents and prime ministers on the need to stimulate growth and provide more jobs for the unemployed.
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“The aim of the fiscal pact is to win back the confidence of the markets, and we certainly need that,” Shulz, a leader of Germany’s opposition Social Democratic Party, said in a brief speech. “At the same time, however, we must take care not to lose the confidence of ordinary people.”
With that in mind, the European leaders also announced measures designed to foster employment and provide financing for small and medium-sized businesses.
“Governments are undertaking strong efforts to correct budgetary imbalances on a sustainable basis but further efforts are needed to promote growth and employment,” they declared. “There are no quick fixes. Our action must be determined, persistent and broad-based. We must do more to get Europe out of the crisis.”
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Van Rompuy also recognized that fiscal discipline is not enough to restore prosperity. “We recognize that financial stability is not enough in itself to get out of the crisis,” he told a news conference. “We must do more, particularly in the areas of growth and employment.”

Jet skiers filmed chasing dolphins ...[ 2667 ]

2012-01-31T01:09:00.001+02:00

Jet skiers filmed chasing dolphin pack

The Mercury
January 31, 2012 9:03AM

JET skiers near Hobart have ploughed through a dolphin pod that included baby dolphins.

Video footage and photographs show the two jet skiers appear to deliberately target the pod, which contained up to 30 dolphins, the Mercury reports.

Onlookers who saw the incident said people were enjoying watching the dolphins when they were horrified to see the two skis, each carrying a man and a woman, ride through the dolphins.

Their horrified voices calling out are heard on the tape.

They believed the riders did it deliberately and seemed to continue riding among the dolphins, which split up and swam in different directions.

Wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said it was likely the dolphins would not return.

"The dolphins will have felt harassed and basically will clear out, at least in the short term," said Mr Carlyon, of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment.

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Topic: February 4: Russia Rallies – Part 3

MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti)

Russian Armored Vehicle...[ 2674 ]

New Russian Armored Vehicle Can Withstand Eight-Kilogram TNT Blast

A ferry carrying some 300 passengers sunk ...[ 2673 ]

MOSCOW, February 2 (RIA Novosti)

Egypt : Stupid Football Tragedy......[ 2672 ]

CAIRO, February 2 (RIA Novosti)

Aeroflot on the New York Stock Exchange,?..[ 2671 ]

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia...[ 2670 ]

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)

Volcanic eruptions and the Little Ice Age...[ 2669 ]

Volcanoes may have sparked 'Little Ice Age'

European leaders adopt debt reduction...[ 2668 ]

European leaders adopt treaty pledging debt reduction

By Edward Cody, Updated: Tuesday, January 31, 12:40 AM

Jet skiers filmed chasing dolphins ...[ 2667 ]

Jet skiers filmed chasing dolphin pack