Friday, July 12, 2013

Washington Post's Brad Plumer: We better shut down our coal plants, or they will emit CO2 that will warm the planet so much that we'll need to shut down the coal plants, which would be bad

Tom Nelson: Washington Post's Brad Plumer: We better shut down our coal plants, or they will emit CO2 that will warm the planet so much that we'll need to shut down the coal plants, which would be bad skip to main | skip to sidebar

Washington Post's Brad Plumer: We better shut down our coal plants, or they will emit CO2 that will warm the planet so much that we'll need to shut down the coal plants, which would be bad

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Source: http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2013/07/washington-post-brad-plumer-we-better.html

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Rocket crash strains Russia's troubled space program (+video)

The $200 million explosion over a Kazakhstan launchpad is the latest in a series of expensive accidents involving Russian spacecraft over the past three years.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / July 2, 2013

A Russian Proton-M rocket booster carrying three navigation satellites for the Glonass network ??Russia's answer to the US global positioning system?? exploded within seconds of takeoff?Tuesday, raining toxic debris down over a wide area around Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

Recent posts

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For Russia's space program, the $200 million mishap is a dismal signal that engineers may not yet have solved the underlying problems that have produced a string of costly accidents in the past three years so jarring that, at one point, the head of Russia's space agency suggested that it could only be explained by "foreign sabotage."?

Reports from Baikonur say that all looked well with the launch until about 10 seconds after takeoff, when the rocket wobbled, then began to fly horizontally before disintegrating in a spectacular fireball and crashing back into the spaceport. The event was broadcast live on Russian state TV, as major Russian space launches usually are.

No casualties were reported.

"There was an accident during the Proton-M launch. The rocket fell and exploded on the territory of the launch site," the official RIA-Novosti agency quoted a spokesman for Russia?s space agency Roskosmos as saying.

According to Russian news reports there were 600 tons of highly toxic fuel aboard the rocket. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Emergency Services said it had contingency plans to evacuate the nearest community ? about 40 miles away ? if the cloud of poisonous smoke still rising from the wreckage several hours after the crash continued to drift that way with the winds.

Glonass, originally developed for the Soviet military, is currently the only fully operational competitor of the US global positioning system, having achieved full global coverage about two years ago, despite several serious setbacks. In the future it will also compete with the European Space Agency's as-yet unfinished Galileo?satellite navigation network.?

Tuesday's crash looked similar to several previous ones that have occurred in the past three years, many of them involving the workhorse of Russia's space program, the Proton-M, which is evolved from a highly successful family of Soviet rocket boosters.

Russian space scientists say the series of accidents that has beset Russia's space program is probably not due to any flaws in the basic technology, which is mostly tried-and-true designs from the Soviet era. Rather, the problems probably stem from quality control and human-factor issues that have emerged in recent years as Russia scrambles to become a major spacefaring player without the benefit of the USSR's vast industrial base and huge corps of trained space professionals.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev?on Tuesday?appointed a special government commission to investigate the causes of the crash and identify any officials who may have been responsible. He also directed his government to prepare tougher oversight measures over the space industry to prevent such accidents in future, RIA-Novosti reported. ? ? ??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/nQVIRJftEKA/Rocket-crash-strains-Russia-s-troubled-space-program-video

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Tibetans Chinese Police Shot Dalai Lama Birthday Celebrants

  • Shanghai News.Net - Sunday 7th July, 2013

    Pilots of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 tried to abort the landing less than two seconds before the plane crashed on the runway at San Francisco International Airport Saturday, according to officials. Three Indian nationals were among the 305 survivors of the crash that killed two Chinese girls and left 49 seriously hurt. The Boeing 777's voice and flight data recorders show that the flight ...

  • Pakistan to boost cooperation with China

    Shanghai News.Net - Sunday 7th July, 2013

    Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Sunday that his government would promote Pakistan-China partnership by implementing cooperation projects. The cooperation achievements made by Pakistan and China's Guangdong province reflect the profound friendship between people of the two nations, reported Xinhua citing Sharif while visiting the province. On this occasion, provincial ...

  • US China Open First Meeting to Ease Cyber Disputes

    VOA - Monday 8th July, 2013

    The United States and China have opened the first meeting of a committee aimed at easing cybersecurity disputes that have become a major irritant in relations between the two world powers. U.S. and Chinese officials of the cybersecurity working group met in Washington Monday. They hope to make progress before senior ministers of the two sides hold security and economic talks in the U.S. ...

  • Tour Guide in China Threatens to Knife Tourists for Not Shopping Enough

    The Epoch Times - Monday 8th July, 2013

    A Chinese tour guide waved a knife as tourists, threatening them to shop more on a July 3 one-day bus tour of Beijing that suddenly took detours to at least six shopping centers. The guide is circled in red while the man in the green shirt was part of his company, but it is unclear whether the man was the bus driver or another guide. (Screenshot via ...

  • Steve Wynn says federal officials ending inquiry into casino donation in Macau

    Star Tribune - Monday 8th July, 2013

    LAS VEGAS -- Wynn Resorts Ltd. CEO Steve Wynn says the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its inquiry into allegations by a Japanese billionaire that the casino operator made an improper donation to the University of Macau. Wynn informed The Associated Press from his boat on the Spanish island of Ibiza on Monday. Wynn says he'd never had any doubt federal investigators would ...

  • As China?s respect for elderly fades they can sue kids who don?t visit

    McClatchy - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Three generation households have been the tradition in China, assuring the elderly that they would have a place to live and a family to care for them. But today, as China's economy modernizes, grown children are pursuing their careers in cities around the world, leaving their parents feeling lonely and forgotten. | Dave Cole/Penn State ...

  • Tropical Storm Soulik formed may affect Taiwan

    The China Post - Monday 8th July, 2013

    As of 8 a.m. Monday, Tropical Storm Soulik (??) was centered about 2,600 kilometers east of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Eluanbi, moving in a westerly direction at a speed of 23 km per hour. The storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kph, with gusts reaching 90 kph, the bureau said. Soulik is most likely to affect Taiwan from July 12-15, but the level of impact needs further ...

  • General Motors biggest market China

    MSNBC - Monday 8th July, 2013

    A mechanic works on a Buick at a General Motors dealership in Shanghai in 2011. China is now General Motors' biggest market, selling more vehicles than in the U.S. Despite signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy, General Motors posted record sales in China -- where GM sales now have surpassed the total number of vehicles the company is selling in its home market, the United States.GM ...

  • San Francisco plane crash Chinese teenagers Wang Linjia and Ye Minguan died at start of US college tour

    The Independent - Monday 8th July, 2013

    The two Chinese teenagers killed in a plane that crashed in San Francisco this weekend were school-friends travelling to the US together to visit the country's ...

  • Chinese police seize meat 46 years past its ?best before? date

    The Province - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Oddly enough, living next to a dump can actually have its benefits. For Ernie Adams, growing up next to one in a small Nebraska town sparked a lifelong interest in building things out of odds and ...

  • Northern Chinas air pollution reduces life expectancy by 5.5 years ? study

    The Guardian - Monday 8th July, 2013

    a study released on Monday which claims to show in unprecedented detail the link between air pollution and life expectancy.High levels of air pollution in northern China - much of it caused by an over-reliance on burning coal for heat - will cause 500 million people to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years from their lives, the authors predict in the study, published in the journal the Proceedings ...

  • Video Watch Panda gives birth at Taiwans Taipei Zoo

    CBS News - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Raw Video: Sights and sounds from a train derailment in Quebec, involving 73 rail cars filled with crude oil. The accident sparked a massive fire that led to the evacuation of 1,000 people from their ...

  • Pollution Leads to Drop in Life Span in Northern China Study Finds

    International Herald Tribune - Monday 8th July, 2013

    BEIJING ...

  • China grants Sudan $700 mln loan to build new Khartoum airport

    Reuters - Monday 8th July, 2013

    KHARTOUM, July 8 | Mon Jul 8, 2013 3:05pm EDT KHARTOUM, July 8 (Reuters) - China has granted Sudan a $700 million loan to build a new airport for the capital Khartoum, state media said on Monday, highlighting close ties between China and the sanctions-hit African country. Sudanese officials signed a five-year loan with China's Export Import Bank, a state bank which supports ...

  • Coal pollution cuts lifespans in north China by 5.5 years -study

    Reuters - Monday 8th July, 2013

    By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO, July 8 | Mon Jul 8, 2013 3:00pm EDT OSLO, July 8 (Reuters) - Air pollution is shortening the lives of people in northern China by about 5.5 years compared to the south, a disastrous legacy of a policy that provided free coal for heating in the north, an international study shows. Environmental problems are a source of rising social ...

  • Low-Water Lunch A Chinese Breakthrough on Irrigation

    The World - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Growing more food with less water will be one of the biggest challenges in the coming era of surging populations and increasing climate disruption. In China, scientists say they?ve developed a new irrigation method that?s twice as efficient as today?s best technology, part of an increasingly urgent effort by researchers around the world to meet the water ...

  • Nigeria $1 billion infrastructure loan from China

    San Diego Union-Tribune - Monday 8th July, 2013

    ABUJA, Nigeria -; Nigeria's finance minister says President Goodluck Jonathan's visit to China will finalize $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Africa's giant, from airports and roads to a hydropower ...

  • Asian stocks drop as China sinks on growth concerns

    MENAFN - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Asian stocks fell on Monday hammered down by a sharp sell-off in Chinese stocks amid worries China?s credit squeeze will curb growth in the world?s second largest economy, while the strong US jobs data increase believes stimulus will start being reduced this ...

  • China Cell in PM office to monitor projects

    MENAFN - Monday 8th July, 2013

    (MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will set up a dedicated "China Cell" in the Prime Minister's House to follow up on a host of projects signed during his recent China visit.Officials in the PM Secretariat here described the visit as extremely successful and hope high impact Chinese investment in energy and infrastructure.The state-run APP news agency reporting ...

  • Chinas Yuan Weakens to 6.181 against USD

    MENAFN - Monday 8th July, 2013

    (MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) The Chinese currency Renminbi, or yuan, retreated 2 basis points to 6.181 against the U.S. dollar on Monday, the China Foreign Exchange Trading System reported. In China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 1% from the central parity rate each trading day, according to (Xinhua) News Agency. The central parity rate of the yuan ...

  • Hit By Slow Growth Hong Kong and Singapore Rethink Strategies

    Forbes - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Hong Kong and Singapore are former British colonies that rose to prominence as trading ports serving the region. Both are magnets for global talent and capital that developed into international financial centers. But they now have another similarity: Both have seen their growth rates fall in recent years. According to the World Bank, Hong Kong and Singapore grew by 1.5% and 1.3% in 2012. In the ...

  • They will come in and take us over Small tropical island of Ishigaki is latest flashpoint between China and Japan

    The Independent - Monday 8th July, 2013

    Lush and sleepy, the subtropical island of Ishigaki shows little sign of preparing for war with Asia's rising superpower China. Dotted with sugar cane fields and surrounded by coral reefs, the 85-square-mile Pacific speck hovers on the far fringes of Japan's south-west territories, 1,000 miles from ...

  • Source: http://www.shanghainews.net/index.php/sid/215697401/scat/9366300fc9319e9b

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    Immigration, student loan top congressional agenda

    (AP) ? Republicans and Democrats put goodwill to the test as Congress returns this week to potentially incendiary fights over nominations, unresolved disputes over student loans and the farm bill, and the uncertainty of whether lawmakers have the political will to rewrite the nation's immigration laws.

    The rare cooperation on display in the Senate last month with passage of a bipartisan immigration bill could be wiped out immediately if Majority Leader Harry Reid, frustrated with minority Republicans' delaying tactics on judges and nominations, tries to change the Senate rules by scrapping the three-fifths majority for a simple majority.

    Republican leader Mitch McConnell has indicated it is a decision Reid could regret if the GOP seizes control in next year's elections.

    "Once the Senate definitively breaks the rules to change the rules, the pressure to respond in kind will be irresistible to future majorities," McConnell said last month, looking ahead to 2014 when Democrats have to defend 21 seats to the GOP's 14.

    McConnell envisioned a long list of reversals from the Democratic agenda, from repealing President Barack Obama's signature health care law to shipping radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Reid's home state of Nevada.

    Recently elected Democrats have clamored for changes in Senate rules as Obama has faced Republican resistance to his nominations. Two Cabinet-rank choices ? Tom Perez as Labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency ? could be approved by the Senate this month after a loud debate over administration policies. The GOP also has challenged Obama's three judicial nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

    Reid had served notice in April that the Democratic majority could change the Senate rules on "any given day," and he was willing to do so if necessary.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-07-Congress%20Returns/id-b5820881300f4f44a67390b3933386fc

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    Sunday, July 7, 2013

    Snowden gets Venezuela, Nicaragua asylum offers

    Venezuela?s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a military promotion ceremony at the 4F military museum in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 5, 2013. Venezuela marks on Friday the 202 anniversary of independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

    Venezuela?s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a military promotion ceremony at the 4F military museum in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 5, 2013. Venezuela marks on Friday the 202 anniversary of independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

    Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega speaks during a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the withdrawal to Masaya, a tactical move by the Sandinistas that was critical in the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza's dictatorship in 1979, in Managua, Nicaragua, Friday, July 5, 2013. The presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela offered Friday to grant asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, one day after leftist South American leaders gathered to denounce the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid reports that the American was aboard. (AP Photo/Lucia Silva)

    Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, left, speaks with Defense Minister Admiral Diego Molero, right, during an Independence Day parade at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 5, 2013. Standing at center is Venezuela's first lady Cilia Flores. The presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua offered Friday to grant asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, one day after leftist South American leaders gathered to denounce the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid reports that the American was aboard. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

    Venezuela's Defense Minister Admiral Diego Molero, far left, Venezuela?s President Nicolas Maduro, second from left, and Chief of Strategic Command Gen. Wilmer Barrientos, center, attend a military promotion ceremony at the 4F military museum in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 5, 2013. On Friday Venezuela marks its 202 independence anniversary from Spain. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

    Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, right, speaks as his wife Rosario Murillo gestures during a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the withdrawal to Masaya, a tactical move by the Sandinistas that was critical in the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza's dictatorship in 1979, in Managua, Nicaragua, Friday, July 5, 2013. The presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela offered Friday to grant asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, one day after leftist South American leaders gathered to denounce the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid reports that the American was aboard. (AP Photo/Lucia Silva)

    (AP) ? The quest by NSA leaker Edward Snowden for a safe haven has taken a turn toward Latin America, with offers for asylum coming from the leftist presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela.

    But there were no immediate signs that efforts were underway to bring him to either nation after Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua made their offers during separate speeches in their home countries Friday.

    The offers came one day after leftist South American leaders gathered to denounce the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid reports that the fugitive American was aboard.

    Snowden, who is being sought by the United States, has asked for asylum in more than 20 countries, including Nicaragua and Venezuela. Many another nations have turned him down.

    "As head of state, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden so that he can live in the homeland" of independence leader Simon Bolivar and the late President Hugo Chavez without "persecution from the empire," Maduro said, referring to the United States.

    Maduro said several other Latin American governments have also expressed their intention of taking a similar stance by offering asylum for the cause of "dignity."

    Chavez, who hand-picked Maduro as his successor, often engaged in similar defiance, criticizing U.S.-style capitalism and policies. In a 2006 speech to the U.N. General Assembly of world leaders, Chavez called President George W. Bush the devil, saying the podium reeked of sulfur after the U.S. president's address. He also accused Washington of plotting against him, expelled several diplomats and drug-enforcement agents and threatened to stop sending oil to the U.S.

    Maduro made the asylum offer during a speech marking the anniversary of Venezuela's independence. It was not immediately clear if there were any conditions to Venezuela's offer.

    But his critics said Maduro's decision is nothing but an attempt to veil the current undignified conditions of Venezuela, including one of the world's highest inflation rates and a shortage of basic products such as toilet paper.

    "The asylum doesn't fix the economic disaster, the record inflation, an upcoming devaluation (of the currency), and the rising crime rate," Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said in his Twitter account. Maduro beat Capriles in April's presidential election, but Capriles has not recognized defeat and has called it an electoral fraud.

    Asked earlier this week about the possibility that any countries in the region would offer Snowden asylum, Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said that he thought Ortega would be careful not to damage his country's relationship with the U.S.

    "Ortega has been tremendously successful at exploiting both the ALBA relationship and the U.S. relationship," Thale said, referring to the ALBA leftist trade bloc that provides Nicaragua with petroleum subsidies. Although Ortega is publicly seen as anti-American, "Nicaragua and the U.S. cooperate very closely on drug interdiction and the U.S. and Nicaraguan militaries work very closely, too," Thale said before the asylum offer was made.

    Ortega said Friday he was willing to make the same asylum offer "if circumstances allow it," although he didn't say what those circumstances would be when he spoke during a speech in Managua.

    He said the Nicaraguan embassy in Moscow received Snowden's application for asylum and that it is studying the request.

    "We have the sovereign right to help a person who felt remorse after finding out how the United States was using technology to spy on the whole world, and especially its European allies," Ortega said.

    The offers came one day after Maduro joined other leftist South American presidents Thursday in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to rally behind Morales and denounce the incident involving the plane.

    Spain on Friday said it had been warned along with other European countries that Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence worker, was aboard the Bolivian presidential plane, an acknowledgement that the manhunt for the fugitive leaker had something to do with the plane's unexpected diversion to Austria.

    It is unclear whether the United States warned Madrid about the Bolivian president's plane. U.S. officials will not detail their conversations with European countries, except to say that they have stated the U.S.'s general position that it wants Snowden back.

    President Barack Obama has publicly displayed a relaxed attitude toward Snowden's movements, saying last month that he wouldn't be "scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker."

    But the drama surrounding the flight of Morales, whose plane was abruptly rerouted to Vienna after apparently being denied permission to fly over France, suggests that pressure is being applied behind the scenes.

    Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told Spanish National Television that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside."

    He did not identify who "they" were and declined to say whether he had been in contact with the U.S. But he said that European countries' decisions were based on the tip. France has since sent a letter of apology to the Bolivian government.

    Meanwhile, secret-spilling website WikiLeaks said that Snowden, who is still believed to be stuck in a Moscow airport's transit area, had put in asylum applications to six new countries.

    WikiLeaks said in a message posted to Twitter on Friday that it wouldn't be identifying the countries involved "due to attempted U.S. interference."

    Icelandic lawmakers introduced a proposal in Parliament on Thursday to grant immediate citizenship to Snowden, but the idea received minimal support.

    ___

    Galeano reported from Managua, Nicaragua. Associated Press Writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this story from Mexico City.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-06-NSA%20Surveillance/id-adbb9b971aa1485e8143ee6d2f73501c

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    STORM680: Tornado Warning, Severe Thunderstorm Watch (UPDATED at 7:43pm)


    CJOB News Team reporting
    7/6/2013

    ?

    A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect for Brandon, Carberry, Treherne, Killarney, Pilot Mound, Manitou, Arborg, Hecla, Fisher River, Gypsumville, Ashern, Ste. Rose, McCreary, Alonsa, Gladstone.?and Grand Rapids.

    Environment Canada Doppler Radar:

    Western Manitoba
    Eastern Manitoba?

    Source: http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1999821

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