Thursday, March 31, 2011

New Book on Google Shows Gaffes in China

When Google opened for business in China in 2006, Eric E. Schmidt, its chief executive, said, “Google has 5,000 years of patience in China.” Coach Bags but its divorce from the country just four years later was inevitable because operations there were troubled from the start.

That is the conclusion of Steven Levy, a longtime technology journalist who spent three years reporting inside the company to write “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives.” The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, which arrives in stores April 12.

The book, a wide-ranging history of the company from start-up to behemoth, sheds light on the biggest threats Google faces today, from the Chinese government to Facebook and privacy critics.

Though Google, which declined to comment for this article, bridge rectifier left China after accusing government officials of breaking into company computers and activists’ Gmail accounts, a long sequence of problems led to that decision.

There were missteps from the start. When the Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, visited China in 2004, they needed coaching on how to behave, Mr. Levy writes. On a visit to India, they had been compared to college backpackers, riding in rickshaws. Al Gore, the former vice president, had to warn them that they were politically na?ve and that the Chinese would think they were arrogant if they acted like that in China.

Many Chinese Internet users preferred the search engine Baidu out of patriotism, and the government even redirected traffic from Google to Baidu, according to Mr. Levy. Google never figured out how to manage business customs in China. It fired the head of government relations in China after she gave iPods to Chinese officials, which she charged to her Google expense account.

Google itself made it hard for its workers in China to succeed, Mr. Levy writes. It refused to grant the money to advertise in China, and the founders never visited the country once Google opened an office.

But one problem was bigger than all the rest, according to the book. Though Google prides itself on giving engineers access to its code base to invent new products, it blocked the engineers in China because it said government seamless steel pipe officials might force them to reveal private information. Experienced engineers, who felt distrusted, could not work on new products and had to spend time on tasks like testing Google searches, something that less-qualified people do at other Google offices.

A year before Google discovered the break-in that spurred it to leave the country, a group of executives, led by Andrew McLaughlin, the former head of public policy, and David C. Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, began pushing for Google’s departure.

Other battles that Google is fighting today, against Facebook and critics of its privacy policies, also had their roots years ago.

Mr. Schmidt, Google’s outspoken chief who will be replaced by Mr. Page on Monday, has made public gaffes when speaking about privacy. Mr. Levy reveals that he has made gaffes inside the company, too. Mr. Schmidt asked that Google remove from the search engine information about a political donation he had made. Sheryl Sandberg, a Google executive who is now Facebook’s chief operating officer, told him electronic ballast that was unacceptable.

The fight against Facebook began in earnest last year, when Urs H?lzle, the company’s first engineering vice president, wrote a memo, which insiders called the Urs-Quake, warning that Google was behind in social networking and needed to recruit people to work on it immediately.

They named the project Emerald Sea and recreated an 1878 painting by that name in front of the elevators where they worked, according to the book. It showed an enormous wave knocking over a ship. That ship could be Google, it warned — the company would either sail on the social networking wave or drown in it.
In an interview, Mr. Levy attributed Google’s social networking failures to its inability to play catch-up with a competitor.

“They’re supernervous about Facebook,” he said. “Google’s not strong in the rear view cone crusher mirror. Google’s strong when they’re looking out their windshield.”

The eu to Microsoft Google filed antitrust litigation fire

Microsoft is filing a formal complaint with the European Commission, insisting that arch-rival Google’s competitive practices unfairly dominate the European search market.

“We’re concerned by a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive stainless steel pipe alternative,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel, wrote in a March 30 statement posted on the Microsoft on the Issues blog. “We’ve therefore decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market.”

Smith then unleashes a litany of complaints against Google: that the company restricts other search engines from properly cataloging YouTube videos in search results, that it prevents those YouTube videos from running well on Windows Phones, that it blocks access to book publishers’ content, that it restricts advertisers’ access to their own data.

“Advertising revenue is the economic propellant fueling the billions of dollars needed for ongoing search investments,” he wrote. “By reducing competitors’ ability to attract advertising revenue, this restriction strikes at the heart of a competitive market.”

Microsoft also claims that Google “contractually blocks leading Websites in Europe from bridge rectifier distributing competing search boxes,” and that it “discriminates” against competitors by ratcheting up the price for prominent placement in Google advertisements.

This represents Microsoft’s first-ever antitrust filing with the European Commission. It comes as something of an irony, considering how that same regulatory body pursued Microsoft for years over the supposed anti-competitive practices related to Internet Explorer. Under pressure, Microsoft eventually released a “Web browser choice screen” designed to give Windows users in the European Union a selection of browsers other than IE.

Google already had a response to Microsoft’s filing.?

“We’re not surprised that Microsoft has done this, since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a March 31 email to eWEEK. “For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we’re happy to explain to anyone how our business works.”

By “one of their subsidiaries,” the spokesperson is referring to Ciao! from Bing, an online-community portal aimed at a handful of Western European markets. In February 2010, the European Commission notified Google that Ciao, Coach Bags along with U.K. price-comparison Website Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr, had filed complaints about Google’s effect on European search-engine competition. Foundem is a member of ICOMP, a lobbying group sponsored by Microsoft.???

Opposition hopes to get the information who famously Libyan fled

A member of the rebels fighting forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says members of the Transitional Council have begun efforts to gain “strategic” information from defecting Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in their objective to axial fan force the embattled leader from power.

Awad Juma says recent defections are, in his words, the beginning of the end of Gadhafi’s over four-decade year rule.

“I don’t think a foreign minister defecting [from] his government is insignificant. The guy [Moussa Koussa] has got a lot of information to tell; he’s got information about [the 1988 Pan Am] Lockerbie bombing. He was [the] hand to carry out a lot of dirty jobs for Gadhafi. So, saying it is not significant, I think Gadhafi is playing down the loss as if it’s not important,” Juma said.

“They [Transitional Council] are already trying to get in touch with him [Moussa Koussa]. But, he is watching his steps carefully because he didn’t declare that he is joining the rebels yet. I don’t know if he wants some guarantees,” he added.

Juma says the defections are growing signs of weakness of the Gadhafi administration despite its sharp denial that the defections have had no effect on the ongoing crisis.

“There is Ali Treki [who] refused appointment to replace the representative to the United Nations. He declared his resignation from Gadhafi’s regime. And, this is another beginning of his fall because they have been with cone crusher him for 42 years,” Juma said.

“We know that Gadhafi is holding the whole cabinet at gunpoint in his barracks with their families. Even if one of them goes on a mission, he goes by himself, while his family is held at gunpoint until they come back. This sounds like fiction, but this is what Gadhafi does,” he added.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has repeated his strong opposition to putting any American forces in Libya.



Gates insisted Thursday there will be no U.S. military boots on the ground “as long as I am in this job.”?He spoke as U.S. media reported that the Central Intelligence Agency has small teams working with anti-government rebels in the North African country,



Reports say the teams were sent to gather intelligence and make contact with opposition forces.?Gates said he could not “speak for the CIA” about its role.?He acknowledged the United States has information only “on a handful of [the] rebels” trying to topple Gadhafi.
Gates told a U.S. congressional hearing that political and economic pressures will eventually drive Gadhafi from power. He says the NATO-led operation now under way can degrade the Libyan leader's electronic ballast military capacity, but that Gadhafi's removal will happen only over time and by his own people.

Standards Set for Joint Ventures to Improve Health Care

The Obama administration proposed long-awaited regulations on Thursday encouraging doctors and hospitals to band together, coordinate care and cut costs.

In return, Coach Bags the government offered financial rewards to health care providers that slow spending growth and meet detailed federal standards for the quality of their services.

The proposed rules explain how doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies can qualify for federal bonus payments by forming joint ventures known as accountable care organizations.

Proponents — Democrats and some Republicans — see these entities as a potential boon to patients, a way to transform a health care system that is notoriously fragmented.

Federal officials predicted that 1.5 million to 4 million of the 47 million Medicare beneficiaries would be involved in the program, with the creation of 75 to 150 accountable care organizations.

“These organizations will increase coordination among doctors and hospitals, improve the quality of care and help lower costs,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. Better care can cost less, she asserted, because diagnostic tests are not duplicated and fewer patients are readmitted to hospitals.

Until now, accountable care organizations were like unicorns, creatures that flourished in the bridge rectifier imagination but proved persistently elusive in the natural world. The rules define the new entity as a team of doctors, hospitals and other providers that “work together to manage and coordinate care” for people in the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program.

The new entities are specifically authorized for Medicare patients under the health overhaul that President Obama signed in March last year. However, federal officials and health care executives said the standards would also guide similar efforts in the private sector, for people with commercial insurance.

The new law has already set off a wave of mergers, joint ventures and alliances in the health care industry, as providers try to position themselves to cash in on the new incentives.

Officials from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that they would relax enforcement of antitrust laws to promote collaboration by doctors and hospitals that could show seamless steel pipe how consumers would benefit.

In a joint statement on enforcement policy, the two agencies acknowledged that, “under certain conditions, accountable care organizations could reduce competition and harm consumers through higher prices or lower quality of care” — a fear expressed by some consumer advocates as well.

To minimize this risk, the antitrust agencies said they would closely review any proposed accountable care organization that would have more than 50 percent of the local market for any service.

In an interview, Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the trade commission, said that doctor-hospital collaborations would be subject to “a relaxed form of antitrust scrutiny” if they met Medicare’s standards for clinical cooperation.

Melinda R. Hatton, senior vice president and general counsel of the American Hospital Association, said her electronic ballast group was disappointed with the joint statement. “The antitrust laws still appear to be a barrier to clinical integration among health care providers who try to coordinate services for patients,” Ms. Hatton said.

Doctors and hospitals would have to inform Medicare beneficiaries if they were going participate in an accountable care organization. And they would have to tell patients that the providers might profit from the arrangement.

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new entities would not restrict the ability of patients to choose their doctors and hospitals.

“Medicare beneficiaries retain all the rights they have to see any Medicare provider they wish,” Dr. Berwick said. “There’s no loss of choice at all.”

Nora Super, a lobbyist for AARP, the organization for older Americans, said it was good that patients would be informed. But she said, “We are concerned that the draft regulation may not provide patients with timely information, leading some to learn about an A.C.O. only after arriving at a doctor’s office.”

Medicare beneficiaries can opt out, but may pay a price. If a beneficiary’s doctor becomes part of an accountable care organization and the patient does not wish to receive care coordinated by the new entity, the beneficiary can go to a different doctor, the rules say.

Medicare will distribute 50 percent to 60 percent of its savings to hospitals and doctors who meet its quality standards and hold costs below benchmarks set by the government.

Federal health officials predicted that the government impact crusher would pay $800 million in such shared savings to providers in the next three years. Even after these payments, they said, Medicare would save $510 million, and its savings could be as much as $960 million over three years.

Under the proposed rules, each accountable care organization must agree to take responsibility for at least 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The government could cancel its contract with any organization that stints on care or tries to save money by avoiding high-risk, high-cost patients.

Is there proof the dyes are safe?

Although there is no clear indication that artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity or other behavioral problems in children, enough uncertainty exists to justify more research, an cold room advisory panel told the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.



The panel of medical and environmental experts narrowly voted against recommending that more information about dyes be added to food labels. But panelists acknowledged the chemicals can cause problems for some children, including those who already have hyperactivity disorders.



The FDA had asked the panel whether existing research supported the agency's conclusion that there is no proof food coloring causes hyperactivity among children in the general population.



Critics said the FDA asked the wrong question.



"The question they should have asked is, 'Is there proof the dyes are safe?'" said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public advocacy group that petitioned the FDA to ban the dyes.



Examples of foods with artificial coloring include Jell-O, Skittles, M&M's, Mountain Dew and Fruit Loops, the center said.



"I'm skeptical that FDA will take any action," Jacobson said after the advisory impact crusher panel acted. "It's probably settled for some number of years."



The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its advisory panels, but it usually does so.



The panelists, meeting in suburban Washington, wrestled with murky data, much of it old, and with the difficulty of gauging the accuracy of research that tried to measure sometimes subtle changes in children's behavior based on observations of parents and other adults.



"It's not like measuring blood pressure," said panelist Lisa Lefferts, an environmental health consultant.



Still, she said, even studies that fall short of conclusive proof don't exonerate the chemicals. "There's something going on," Lefferts said. "Parents know that. But it's hard to measure."



Lefferts supported bolstering food labels, which failed on an 8-6 vote.



All but three of the 14 panelists agreed that a causal relationship between dyes and hyperactivity has not been established. All but one voted to recommend more studies on the safety of color additives.



The panel's discussion frequently turned on whether the standard for action should be scientific certitude, which is clearly lacking, or enough evidence to prompt public health warnings.



Panelist Charles Voorhees, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, said he was electronic ballast struck by the persistent but inconclusive evidence of possible harm.



"After 35 years, [the hypothesis] won't quite go away," Voorhees said. "It's within the latitude of the FDA to express to consumers that there may be a concern."



Other panelists objected to the suggestion that a warning label could specify possible problems for only some children.



"That's not how a mother or father reads it. They read it as 'my child,'" said A. Wesley Burks, a professor at Duke University Medical Center. "It's scary more than it's educational."



The petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest to remove the dyes, filed in June 2008, asked the FDA to ban eight of nine approved synthetic food colorings and to put warning labels on food containing the dyes until they could be bridge rectifier removed from the market. Dozens of other FDA-approved dyes, made from natural ingredients such as plants, animals and minerals, were not included in the center's request.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

U.S. gets tough on privacy protection

With social networking emerging as the most potent force on the Internet, federal regulators are moving to limit how companies can exploit personal information.



Google Inc. just became Exhibit A.



In a settlement hailed as the first of its kind, the Federal Trade Commission said laminating machine Google had agreed to strict new measures to protect the privacy of its users. Moreover, the company agreed to submit to independent audits for the next 20 years to ensure that it is following the rules.



The agreement settles claims that Google used deceptive tactics in recruiting its Gmail customers last year for its Buzz social network, a competitor to Facebook. In signing up for Buzz, many Gmail users unwittingly agreed to make public a list of the people with whom they emailed most frequently.



FTC officials said it was the first time the government had required a company to put in place a sweeping privacy policy to protect consumer data.



"When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in announcing the terms Wednesday. "This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations."



Privacy advocates said the action has far-reaching implications beyond Google, as Internet search and social network ventures rely heavily on the mining of user information to sell advertising.



Facebook, for example, sells targeted advertising to its users based on their stated preferences in movies and music. Google computers scan the contents of Gmail messages, looking for key words such as "camping," say, to hit users with ads for camping gear. In both cases, the companies explain those features in their privacy notices.



"This will limit the data mining of social media companies that try to do it without a clear-cut explanation of what they're doing," said Joseph Turow, a professor at University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "The FTC is trying to stake out territory to say that when a company says it's doing something to keep data private, it better do it."



Even so, privacy experts said the FTC's recent actions were evidence of Stainless Steel Pipe a greater industrywide problem. The absence of strong federal privacy laws has allowed many technology companies to freely gather a great deal of information about consumers without their explicit permission — and without federal oversight.



The agreement came as Google once again launched into the social networking arena Wednesday with a tool, called +1, that lets users tag search results and advertisements so they can recommend them to friends.



The feature, aimed at competing with Facebook and getting a bigger foothold in social networking, connects to the same list of personal contacts that Buzz did. The idea is that users will trust Web page recommendations from friends over those from the computerized search engine.



Several of Google's best-known products have attracted intense scrutiny and even penalties in the U.S. and abroad.



Google was fined 100,000 euros — about $141,300 — by the French government last week for improperly gathering private data for its Street View feature, which allows users of Google's maps to view street-level photos of hundreds of thousands of homes and locations around the world.



Last year, officials discovered that the camera-equipped cars Google uses to gather the photos also had been collecting data from private Wi-Fi networks — in some cases passwords, personal emails and Web browsing histories.



Google has said it didn't realize that it had been gathering that data and said it would erase the information as soon as possible.



The company also has come under pressure recently over whether its search engine unnecessarily shares data about users searches with commercial websites, as well as whether software on its Android smartphones too easily shares exercise bike data about users' geographic locations with advertisers.



Google's settlement with the FTC emphasizes the government's stepped-up scrutiny of privacy issues.



The FTC said this month that it settled with short-message site Twitter Inc. for "serious lapses" in which the company "deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk" by failing to adequately protect their information.



Twitter admitted the episode was a "very serious breach of security" and agreed to create a comprehensive information security plan, as well as to allow the FTC to audit the company every other year for 10 years.



Facebook andApple Inc. each have come under scrutiny from lawmakers over concerns that they were sharing user information with third parties. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is drafting a broad privacy bill, said the Google settlement showed the need for tough new laws.



"Google has admitted error, but Google is far from alone in the collection, use and distribution of immense amounts of our information," Kerry said. "Every company should adhere to this kind of standard, not just Google.



Google has admitted that Buzz was beset with problems.



"The launch of Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control — letting our users and Google down," Alma Whitten, its autoclave director of privacy, product and engineering, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.



The settlement "thankfully put this incident behind us," she said.



Under the terms, Google will be required to give users "clear and prominent notice" and obtain "express affirmative consent" before sharing the users' information with any third party "in connection with a change, addition or enhancement to any product or service."



The independent review every two years for two decades will certify that Google's privacy policy adheres to standards set in the settlement. Google faces civil penalties of up to $16,000 for each violation.



"It's a broad reaching order, applicable to all their products," said Jessica Rich, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.



She noted that the FTC dismissed a complaint against Google for its Street View data collection last year because there was no violation of law. If a similar incident comes up now, it could violate the settlement and allow the FTC to take action, she said.



The Google case arose from a complaint filed last year with the FTC by the cold room Electronic Privacy Information Center.



"The message to companies is they're going to have to be more careful about the collection and use of information from users," said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC's executive director.

Google adds +1 for recommendations

Taking a cue from Facebook's popular "Like" button, Google (GOOG) on Wednesday announced a new option for its users to recommend individual search results to their friends and contacts.

Google's new program, known as "+1", represents the Mountain View search giant's latest move to capitalize on the growing power of online social networks exercise bike, as it also tries to fend off the increasing competitive threat posed by Facebook and other rivals.

Recommendations have become a key part of online interactions, said industry analyst Hadley Reynolds, director of search and digital marketplace technologies for the IDC research firm. "It's becoming almost a standard of web commerce."

The new program works by letting a Google user click on a "+1" button to recommend a particular search result or search ad; eventually it will let them click on a similar button when they visit a web page. When someone else in that user's circle of contacts conducts a search on a similar topic, they will get the usual list of results and ads, but those endorsed by their friend will be flagged with a note that says their friend "+1'd this."
Google said the recommendations will eventually become one of the factors used to calculate search rankings, although a spokeswoman said it "will take some time to figure out how strong a signal or how useful it is."

But after the recent outcry over privacy concerns related to its Google Buzz initiative last year, Google stressed that "+1" has safeguards to protect users from revealing information they don't intend to share.

Coincidentally, Google reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the Buzz issue on Wednesday.

"You have the option to never '+1' something," said Google spokeswoman Katie Watson. Users who click on the button will be reminded that their recommendation will be made public to others, she added. "If you're not prepared to share it with the world, you shouldn't '+1' it, and we're being very explicit about that."

Users must create a Google account and a profile to participate in the program. If a recommendation autoclave comes from outside their circle of contacts, users may see how many people endorsed a site, but not the endorsers' names.

The new program expands on earlier moves that Google has taken to add social networking features to its services. Since 2009, for example, users who search while logged into their Google account have been able to see results that are flagged if they include blog posts,Twitter links or other content created by friends in their circle.

Google plans to eventually show "+1" endorsements from users' contacts in other public networks, such as Twitter or Flickr. For now, participants will only see endorsements from the people listed in their Gmail contacts, Gmail chat buddy list or people they're following on Google Reader or Buzz. The program won't include Facebook friends because Facebook does not make that information public.

Facebook has a similar program that lets its users recommend posts, pages or even ads to their friends, by clicking a "Like" button. It recently launched a partnership with Microsoft that lets Facebook "likes" show up in results from Microsoft's Bing search engine.

The power of recommendations can be seen in their increasing use by a variety of Internet companies, from Amazon to Yelp, said IDC's Reynolds. "Many web commerce businesses are now much more dependent on the presence of recommendations, and the tone of recommendations, than they have ever been before."

The exploding popularity of Facebook has created a huge audience for advertisers, which analysts say could pose an increasing threat to Google's ad business. That's led to speculation that Google is attempting to build its own social network with programs like "+1."

But at this point, Reynolds noted that Google still dominates the Internet search business, handling cold room nearly two-thirds of all searches in the United States.

"Having that kind of audience, that can now consume a recommendation feature, gives Google yet another way of influencing commerce that it's not clear to me that Facebook can match," said Reynolds.

why Nokia has become such a huge player

In the world of mobile communications, the world is divided into two basic places, the U.S. and everywhere else. While I hate to think of this as an Us versus Them situation, that’s actually what it is. The reason ultimately boils down to exercise bike relatively little competition in the way phones are sold in the U.S., and in how wireless companies operate.

In the U.S., for example, you see a nearly even divide between CDMA and GSM phones. Outside of North America, CDMA hardly exists. Just about everyone uses GSM, the frequencies are mostly compatible and the carriers don’t have nearly the leverage on handset selection as they do in the U.S.

Visit a mobile phone store outside the U.S., for example, and you’ll find phones, but you’ll find either no carrier presence at all or you’ll find that the store will carry SIM cards for several carriers. While the carriers do have their own phone stores, they don’t have the dominance that they have in the U.S. Even the process of adding money to your SIM card is divorced from the carriers. When I was in Germany covering CeBIT, I added money to my German T-Mobile SIM card by going to the Shell service station across the street from my hotel.

This nearly total disconnect between phones and carriers means that there are a lot more phones available outside the U.S. In addition, the differences in economic circumstances and social communications are different from what happens in the U.S. In India, for example, there is an entire social network based not on Web browsing as you do with Facebook, but on SMS messages.

This is the world that phone makers compete in outside the U.S. and this is why Nokia has become such a huge player. In the U.S., most of the competition seems to be centered around smartphones. Elsewhere, most people can’t afford an iPhone or a BlackBerry. They need a phone with some features, but it has to be affordable. Nokia is a major player in this global phone market and its Symbian operating system is a major part of Nokia phones.

This outside-the-U.S. phone market is now changing. Nokia, which has long been the biggest European phone company, has decided to move autoclave ahead with Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft. This is the phone OS that will power the smartphones and in many cases the higher-end feature phones in the rest of the world. As a result, recent reports that Windows Phone 7 may be a dominant player might not be too far off the mark.

SNAPSHOT-Japan's nuclear crisis

(Reuters) - Following are main developments after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled a nuclear power station, raising autoclave the risk of an uncontrolled radiation leak.

- UN watchdog suggests widening of the exclusion zone around Fukushima nuclear power station after radiation measured at a village 40 km from the facility exceeds a criterion for evacuation.

- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chairs the G20 and G8 blocs of nations, due to arrive in Tokyo on Thursday. He will be the first foreign leader in Japan since the March 11 quake and tsunami.

France also flew in two experts from state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva and its nuclear research body to assist Japan's heavily criticised plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) .

- Singapore has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog some cabbages imported from Japan had radiation levels up to nine times the levels recommended for international trade. Japan urges the world not to impose "unjustifiable" jaw crusher import curbs on its goods.

- Japan says comprehensive rules will be drawn up for power plant operators in light of the accident that ripped apart the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. It was the first acknowledgment that norms were insufficient when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the facility.

- Plant operator TEPCO says its chairman is at the firm's helm after its president, barely seen since the crisis began, was taken to hospital suffering from high blood pressure and extreme dizziness.

Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata says TEPCO wants to remain a publicly listed company while acknowledging that emergency loans of 2 trillion yen ($24 billion) will not cover current costs.

- New readings show a sharp rise in radioactive iodine in the sea off the power plant to 3,355 times the legal legal limit, according to the state nuclear safety agency.

- Around 27,500 people dead or missing from the earthquake and tsunami. About 173,600 living in exercise bike shelters on high ground above the vast plains of mud-covered debris.

- Estimated cost of damage from the earthquake and tsunami to top $300 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster. The 1995 Kobe quake cost $100 billion while Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused $81 billion in damage. (Tokyo bureau; Compiled by World Desk Asia)

Libya's foreign minister in Britain

 Dealing a major blow to the embattled Moammar Qadhafi regime in Libya, its Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has fled to Britain, reports said.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the defection and said in a exercise bike statement that Koussa had arrived at Farnborough Airport in southern England, on a flight from Tunisia on Wednesday.

"He traveled here under his own free will. He has told us that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him and we will release further details in due course. We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya that allows political transition and real reform that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people," it said.

According to the Foreign Office, Koussa is "no longer willing" to work for the Qadhafi regime.

"Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi's government and his role was to represent the regime internationally - something that he is no longer willing to do," a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

Even though Tunisia's TAP news agency reported on Monday that Koussa had left Libya for Tunisia, a Libyan government spokesman denied speculation that Koussa had defected.

Earlier on Wednesday, the British government expelled Libya's military attache and four other diplomats over their alleged involvement in intimidating opposition Libyan opposition groups based in London.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, told lawmakers that the move was to "underline autoclave our grave concern at the regime's behavior".

"...We have today taken steps to expel five diplomats at the Libyan embassy in London, including the military attache. The government also judged that, were those individuals to remain in Britain, they could pose a threat to our security." he added.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Brown ends talks on bipartisan budget deal

Gov. Jerry Brown abandoned his effort to negotiate a bipartisan budget Tuesday, charging that Republicans were unwilling to support his plan to put taxes before voters unless he yielded to "an metal halide lamp ever-changing list of collateral demands."

The governor's announcement that he is walking away from the negotiating table, made in a late-afternoon
press release, places the state's finances in further turmoil.

Budget cuts that lawmakers approved earlier this month closed only a fraction of the state's $26-billion
budget shortfall. Brown wanted to close much of the rest of the gap with a special election in June, when
voters would have the option of extending temporary increases in taxes on income, sales and vehicles that will all have expired by July 1.

The governor needed at least four GOP votes to get that measure on the ballot. On Tuesday, he announced that weeks of talks have led nowhere. Brown said he was giving up on his plan.

"Each and every Republican legislator I've spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote
unless I agree to an ever-changing list of collateral demands," his statement said.

Brown said he was willing to make concessions on key policy issues that are important to Republicans.

"Let me be clear: I support pension reform, regulatory reform and a spending cap 3d prototype and offered specific and detailed proposals for each of  these during our discussions," his statement said. "While we made significant progress on these reform issues, the Republicans continued to insist on including demands that would materially undermine any semblance of a balanced budget. In fact, they sought to worsen the state's problem by creating a $4-billion hole in the budget."

He cited as an example the GOP demand that he eliminate from his proposed budget a change in the tax code to end a tax break given to California companies that move jobs out of state.

Administration officials and legislative leaders declined to elaborate on how they intend to proceed. They would say that a June election is no longer part of their plans.

Earlier in the day, key GOP lawmakers who had been negotiating with the governor had declared the talks fruitless. They announced that they, too, were walking away from the negotiating table.

"We gave it our best. We're very disappointed. It's done," said Sen. Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet).

Talks involving business groups and union leaders as well as Brown and GOP lawmakers had moved in fits and starts for weeks. Impasses have been declared before. But all sides made clear that by Tuesday, talks were over.

There were several major disagreements that could not be overcome, Emmerson said. One was how to impose a cap on state spending. Another was the amount of time voters would be asked to renew billions in temporary taxes on income, sales and vehicles in a June election. Brown wants to extend the taxes for five years. Republicans wanted three years.

The third problem area was a GOP demand to place a change in a business-tax formula before voters. Brown wants the Legislature to change the formula.

Emmerson called Brown a "very honorable adversary" in negotiations but said the divide bakugans between them could not be bridged even though much progress had been made on changes to state regulations and pensions.

Yemen weapons factory exploded in the death toll

Initial reports said 78 had died, but more bodies have since been pulled out of the factory in the town of Jaar.

The explosion has caused great anger among locals, who accuse the bakugans authorities of planning it to try to win further support from the US, a BBC correspondent says.

Yemeni officials have blamed al-Qaeda for the blasts.

The explosions came after weeks of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.

They occurred while residents were searching for ammunition left behind by suspected Islamist militants, who had been involved in clashes with government forces in the area on Sunday.

'Burnt beyond recognition'

Local officials said the death toll was based on the number of bodies found and the number of people missing following the blasts, adding that some bodies had been burnt beyond recognition.

About 80 people were injured, according to Ahmed Ghaleb Rahawi, the sub-prefect of Jaar.

Hundreds of people protested in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday, blaming the explosion on the authorities.

Residents quoted by Reuters said the authorities had deserted Jaar over recent days.

Opposition groups accused the authorities of withdrawing "in a desperate attempt by President Saleh and rapid prototype his ilk to prove that he was right when he said that Yemen is a ticking time bomb, that he is the only one who can prevent it from blowing up".

A statement from the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said it held "the president and his entourage accountable for the conspiracy with al-Qaeda" in the Arabian Peninsula.

The authorities said fighters from the al-Qaeda group raided the factory on Sunday, stealing carloads of weapons.

Analysts fear that the group, which claims affiliation with Osama Bin Laden's militant network, is taking advantage of instability caused by the spate of anti-government protests.

The Yemeni government has been a key US ally in the region, conducting numerous joint anti-terror raids.

Despite this, militancy has continued to flourish.

It is one of a range of security issues in the country, including a separatist movement in the south and an uprising of Shia Houthi rebels in the north.

Yemen is also chronically poor - unemployment runs at about 40%, and there are rising food prices and acute levels of malnutrition.

Mr Saleh has continued to reject opposition demands high pressure sodium lamp that he leave office immediately.

"I tell those who appear in the media asking others to leave, that it is up to them to go," he was quoted as as saying by the state news agency Saba on Tuesday.

BP loses laptop with private info on 13,000 people

(CNN) -- A BP laptop computer containing the private information of about 13,000 individuals who filed oil-related claims after last year's led flexible strip oil spill has been lost, according to the oil giant.

The laptop contained names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers for those who filed claims related to last year's Deepwater Horizon spill.

"There is no evidence that the laptop or data was targeted or that anyone's personal data has in fact been compromised or accessed in any way," BP spokesman Tom Mueller said in a written statement. "We have sent written notice to individuals impacted by this event to inform them about the loss of their personal data
and to offer them free credit monitoring services to help protect their personal information."

The loss of the laptop, which can be remotely disabled, was reported to law enforcement authorities and BP security. Its loss came during business-related travel.

BP says they cannot release any information on where or when, the laptop computer was lost to prevent the investigation from being jeopardized.

Mueller told CNN that he could not comment on the employee involved in the loss of the laptop.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil well in cable ties the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, killed 11 workers and spilled an estimated 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

It took 85 days to stop the oil from pouring into the sea.

IDC think 2011 smartphone market growth 50 pct

With more and more consumers and business users clamoring for smartphones, the global market for these handsets is slated to grow nearly 50 percent this year, research firm gearbox IDC said Tuesday.

IDC expects the market to grow 49.2 percent in 2011, with smartphone makers shipping over 450 million smartphones, up from 303.4 million shipped in 2010.

Growth last year was "exceptional," helped by many people buying smart phones that they'd held off on buying in 2009 due to the shaky economy, IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo said in a statement.

This year, growth will still be notable, but will taper off somewhat from last year, he said.
As for which smartphone operating system will reign, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC thinks Google Inc.'s Android software will wrestle the lead from Nokia Corp.'s Symbian software, which has been the market leader.

For 2011, IDC expects Android smartphones to make up 39.5 percent of the market, while smartphones running Symbian will account for 20.9 percent. Apple Inc.'s iPhone is expected to make up 15.7 percent of the market and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry software are expected to make up 14.9 percent.

By 2015, IDC believes Android-running phones will take up 45.4 damper percent of the market, while phones running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone software will take up 20.9 percent of the market and the iPhone will capture 15.3 percent of the market.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Never heard of Earth Hour? Just turn off the lights Saturday

Get ready to fade to black. Millions of people around the world are expected to turn off cold room their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time Saturday -- no matter what time zone they're  in -- to observe Earth Hour.

Never heard of it? It was started in 2007 by the WWF conservation organization to make a statement about energy overuse and how it affects the planet.

Times Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip, Niagara Falls, the Opera House in Sydney, and many more landmarks around the world plan to douse the lights, according to Earth Hour's website.

In Southern California, the Queen Mary will blast its horn at 8:30 p.m. to electronic ballast indicate the beginning of Earth Hour. Then the Long Beach landmark will turn off lights on its smokestacks, the string of lights atop the ship and other areas as well as encourage guests staying in staterooms to do likewise.

The free event from 7 to 9 p.m. on the ship's Verandah Grill will include a mix of other activities, from an "Unplugged" musical performance to a video about some of the ship's uniforms made from recycled bottles.

Check out the Queen Mary's website to RSVP (even though it's free).

The nearby Hotel Maya at 700 Queensway Drive in Long Beach plans to dim its jaw crusher lights throughout the property and offer candlelight dining at its restaurant Fuego  -- with special drinks created for the occasion.

The U.S. stock profits, GDP growth progress

US stocks advanced, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest weekly rally since February, after Oracle Corp.’s profit forecast beat analyst estimates and the rate of economic growth was revised higher.

The Australian dollar advanced too, hitting a high of 102.94 US cents - a record since seamless steel pipe it began trading freely in 1983 - before easing back to 102.6 US cents. It was also buying 72.8 euro cents, 64 pence and 83.5 yen.

Oracle, the world’s top supplier of database software, climbed 1.6 per cent. US shares of Accenture Plc, the world’s second-largest technology-consulting firm, rallied 4.5 per cent after its sales forecast beat analyst’s projections. Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. advanced 3.3 per cent after the pharmaceutical company won US approval a melanoma drug.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 1,313.80 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge climbed 2.7 per cent this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 50.03 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 12,220.59 today, bringing the week’s advance to 3.1 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.64 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 2,743.06, extending the week’s gain to 3.8 per cent.

Australian shares were poised to open slightly lower when trading resumes on Monday. The SPI futures index was down 9 points at 4764. At the market close of Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 43 points, or 0.91 per cent, higher at 4742.6,  capping its best weekly gain - 2.4 per cent - since November. The broader All Ordinaries index rose 46.1 points, or 0.96 per cent, to 4840.3.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which bridge rectifier measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, fell 0.5 per cent to 17.91, extending its retreat since March 16 to 39 per cent.

“Corporations are making money amid this pace of economic growth,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist in Florham Park, New Jersey, at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which has about $US90 billion in client assets.

“We saw a solid GDP number. The fact that Oracle reported a decent forecast would be consistent with that trend. As long as the data is supporting the recovery, the S&P 500 can get to $US100 a share of earnings over the next year and a half. That means the index rising to 1,500.”

Recouping losses

US stocks rose yesterday, recouping losses that followed Japan’s March 11 earthquake, as corporate profits beat estimates and a government report showed a decline in jobless claims. The S&P 500 has advanced 4.5 per cent in 2011, extending last year’s 13 per cent rally, amid government stimulus measures and an eighth straight quarter of higher-than-estimated earnings.

The US economy grew at a 3.1 per cent annual rate in the fourth quarter, led by a jump in consumer spending that will be hard to match early in the year as energy prices surge. The revised increase in gross domestic product compares with a 2.8 per cent estimate issued last month, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington.

Stocks rose even as the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment decreased to 67.5 from 77.5 in February. The preliminary estimate issued earlier this month was 68.2. The median forecast of 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a reading of 68.

Emergency aid

European Union leaders at a two-day meeting in Brussels agreed to cut the startup capital for the future euro emergency aid mechanism, while Portugal continued to rule out a rescue after the parliament’s rejection of budget cuts led Prime Minister Jose Socrates to offer to quit.

A bailout may total as much as 70 billion euros ($97 billion), two European officials with direct knowledge of the matter said, as credit-rating cuts threatened to deepen Portugal’s debt woes.

“The market has digested a lot of uncertainties in the past couple of weeks, with the tragedy in Japan and the unrest in Libya,” said Charles Stamey, who helps manage $US42 billion at Manning & Napier

Advisors Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I certainly think the market is looking for some good news and this is a bit of it,” he said of Oracle’s forecast.

Oracle climbed 1.6 per cent to $US32.64 after the company late yesterday forecast profit Coach Bags excluding acquisition costs and some other expenses of 69 cents to 73 cents this quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of 66 cents. Earnings on that basis were 54 cents a share in the period that ended Feb. 28, also exceeding analysts’ projections.

Accenture rallies

Accenture added 4.5 per cent to $US54.29. Third-quarter net revenue, or sales before reimbursements, will grow to a range of $US6.3 billion to $US6.5 billion, the Dublin-based company said. The average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey was $US6.08 billion. The company also increased forecasts for full-year net revenue growth to a range of 11 per cent to 14 per cent, from 8 per cent to 11 per cent, and for earnings per share to $US3.22 to $US3.30, from $US3.08 to $US3.16.

“Very robust results from enterprise bellwethers Oracle and Accenture will reassure people that the enterprise capex cycle remains a powerful tailwind,” London-based analysts Jonathan Tseng and Andrew Griffin at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research wrote in a report to clients.

Bristol-Myers Squibb rose 3.3 per cent to $US27.29. The pharmaceutical company won US approval for ipilimumab, the first drug in a new family of medicines to treat advanced melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.

Smithfield Foods Inc. gained 2 per cent to $US24.44. The world’s biggest pork processor said it sees no “backup” in Japanese orders and that the nation is shifting to fresh pork, according to a Barclays Plc presentation.

Research In Motion Ltd. slumped 11 per cent to $US56.89 after the axial fan maker of the BlackBerry smartphone forecast first-quarter revenue and profit that trailed estimates.

Earnings will be $US1.47 to $US1.55 a share as the company spends more on research and steps up marketing for its PlayBook tablet and new smartphones, RIM said late yesterday. Analysts had predicted profit of $US1.66 on average, excluding some costs.

Libyan rebels into Ajdabiya town

Libyan rebels say they have entered the government-controlled city of Ajdabiya from the east, in a bid to wrestle control of the strategic eastern city.

Many fighters belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were impact crusher held hostage after fierce fighting on Friday, they said.

Pro-Gaddafi forces are now mainly positioned in the west of the city, having previously held the entire city, they said.

Earlier on Friday, western warplanes bombed Gaddafi's tanks and artillery outside the town to try to break a battlefield stalemate and help rebels retake the strategic area.

Plumes of smoke filled the sky as the pace of coalition air strikes escalated, forcing terrified residents to flee Ajdabiya, which is 160km south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

"We entered the town," Colonel Mohammed Ehsayer, who defected from the army to join the rebellion told AFP news agency at a rebel outpost a few kilometres east of the city.

Misurata fighting

Forces loyal to Gaddafi shelled an area on the outskirts of the city of Misurata on Friday, killing six people including three children, a rebel said.

The Libyan port, the North African country's third biggest city, has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi since an uprising began on February 16.

Officials and rebels said on Friday aid organisations were able to deliver some supplies to Misurata.

"There is a fairly regular supply going into Misurata," Simon Brooks, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, told Reuters.

"But we are deeply concerned about the reports we are receiving about fighting in the city."

Casualties have overwhelmed the local medical clinic and prompted electronic ballast international concern about the safety of civilians.

Residents say electricity, water and regular land and cell phone service to Misurata are not functioning.

Reports from the city cannot be verified independently because Libyan authorities have prevented journalists from going there.

On Thursday, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the government was in total control of the city, a claim denied by rebels.

AU proposal

Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the African Union said it plans to facilitate talks to help end the conflict in Libya between government and rebel forces.

"The AU action is ... aiming at facilitating dialogue between the Libyan parties on reforms to be launched to
eliminate the root causes of the conflict," the union's commission chairman Jean Ping told a meeting in

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday.

He said that the process should end with democratic elections in Libya.

It was the first statement by the AU, which had rejected any form of foreign intervention in the Libya crisis, since the UN Security Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and a Western coalition began air strikes on Libyan military targets.

Call for ceasefire

Libya's delegation to the meeting, at which the rebels were not represented, called for an end to air strikes and said the government was committed to upholding a ceasefire it declared on Sunday.

The delegation said Tripoli is ready to implement an AU roadmap to resolve the Libyan crisis, while also demanding a halt to the Western-led coalition's military intervention.

"We are ready to implement the Road Map envisaged ... (by) the High-Level Committee mandated by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union," said a statement from the delegation headed by Mohammed al-Zwai, secretary general seamless steel pipe of the General People's Congress.

The AU roadmap calls for an immediate end to all hostilities, "cooperation on the part of the relevant Libyan authorities to facilitate humanitarian aid," and "protection for all foreign nationals, including African migrant workers."

The delegation called on the international community to oblige the "other parties" in the conflict to respect a ceasefire, referring to the opposition, and demanded "the cessation of the air bombardment and the naval blockade carried out by Western forces and the United States".

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, said it was not the first time that a Libyan delegation "conducted a little freelance foreign policy on the sideline" and that there was no way of telling if the offer was sincere.

"In much the same way we had the foreign ministry go out on a limb a few days ago and say that they declared a ceasefire," she said.

"That was in complete contradiction of the facts on the ground and also the rhetoric coming from Colonel Gaddafi himself who wasn’t saying anything to do with a ceasefire.

"He was saying: We'll fight to the death; we'll chase you into your homes. We'll pursue this war to the end."

"A rebel spokesman in Benghazi said they weren't consulted in this initiative. Some reports say they were even invited to the meeting others say they were but refused to go. Others are saying there isn't an opening for negotiating, that they simply bridge rectifier want the bombing to stop and Gaddafi and his family to leave."

Japan's nuclear crisis a long way from over

BEIJING/TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Problems continue to arise at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, despite progress in restoring the power needed to cool down its overheating reactors.

In recent days, injuries to workers, black smoke rising from No. 3 reactor and abnormal radiation have come one after another.

Some experts say the crisis might not end soon, Coach Bags while others insist its effects will be limited.

The crisis arose from the shutdown of the plant's cooling systems, which are critical to bringing down temperatures in the reactors' cores and stabilizing its nuclear fuel. The systems shut down after the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami wiped out the power supply.

Workers are making efforts to bring the six-reactor facility's cooling systems back online and are spraying stricken reactors with seawater to cool damaged reactors and fuel rods The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant uses boiling water reactors, which went into emergency shutdown when the earthquake hit. The backup power started automatically to circulate cooling water to carry away the residual heat.

However, the earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. The emergency diesel power generators also failed when the tsunami arrived.

With the cooling system shut down, the residual heat built up, bringing down the water level of the fuel pool and threatening eventual core meltdown.

In 1979, a partial core meltdown occurred at Three Mile Island in the United States bridge rectifier due to a cooling system failure. It remains the most severe nuclear leak accident in the country and forced the evacuation of at least 150,000 local residents.

Fortunately, Fukushima workers on Monday reconnected power lines to all six reactors, marking a critical first step in getting the overheated reactors under control after days of public anxiety. But much still needs to be done before electricity can be turned on. It is not clear what condition the equipment is in.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted Friday it might take at least another month to achieve a cold shutdown of all reactors, when temperatures inside fall below boiling point and its cooling systems are back at atmospheric pressure.

"We are still in the process of assessing the damage at the plant, so we can't put a deadline on when the cooling operations will work again. It may take more than a month, " a TEPCO spokesman said.

The biggest worry for the public is radiation leaking from the reactors. Previously, in order to avoid damaging the reactors, the plant released the potentially devastating build up of pressure, with some radioactive particles emitted into the air.

According to the latest news, a possible breach has been found in No. 3 reactor, which might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that is lined with several  feet of reinforced concrete.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers were exposed to radiation 10,000 times the normal level and suffered skin burns while dealing with an emergency at the No. 3 reactor.

The two workers, in their 20s and 30s, who were seamless steel pipe laying power cables with their feet submerged in the water of the turbine room at the troubled No. 3 reactor, sustained injuries, including skin burns caused by beta rays. This suggests the reactor or its spent nuclear fuel pool is damaged.

A total of 17 workers have been exposed to radiation exceeding 100 millisieverts since the March 11 earthquake.

Radioactive leaks were detected after a series of explosions and fires at four of the plant's six reactors and the government on Friday suggested residents living within a 20 to 30 kilometer distance of the stricken plant voluntarily evacuate the area.

The radiation leak from the plant has contaminated sea water, food produce, milk and water supplies in regions as far away as Tokyo, 240 km southwest of the plant.

However, some experts said, with continued follow-up measures, the situation was still under control.

Judging from historical experience, the effects of the nuclear leak would be limited.

Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency currently only rates Fukushima at 5 out of 7 on its warning level, the same electronic ballast level as the 1979 accident at Three

Mile Island.

Many international organizations also said people outside Japan need not worry about the health effects of the nuclear leak.

FAA Issues New Rules For Air Traffic Controllers

The Federal Aviation Administration gave air traffic controllers new procedures Friday as officials try to
contain the fallout from an incident earlier this week in which two airliners landed at Reagan National

Airport without assistance because the lone controller on duty was asleep.

Regional radar facilities are now required to alert controllers working jaw crusher alone at night in an airport tower that a plane is approaching, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. The radar controllers are "to confirm that there is a controller prepared to handle the incoming flight," he said.

Regional controllers have also been reminded that if no controller can be raised at an airport tower, proper procedures require they offer pilots the option of diverting to another airport, Babbitt said.

Controllers at a regional FAA radar facility in Warrenton, Va., about 40 miles from Reagan, didn't offer that option to the pilots who were unable to reach the airport's tower between 12:04 and 12:28 a.m. on

Wednesday.

Repeated phone calls from the regional facility to the tower also went unanswered.

The planes — an American Airlines flight from Dallas and a United Airlines flight from Chicago with a combined 165 people on board — landed safely.

Pilots can always decide on their own authority to divert to another airport, said Rory Kay, a former Air

Line Pilots Association safety chairman and an international airline captain.

The controller on duty in the tower — a veteran air traffic supervisor — acknowledged to investigators who interviewed him Thursday that he had dozed off, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The controller, who has not cold room been identified, was working his fourth 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a row, according the board, which is investigating the episode.

The incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern of the board.

It has also sparked criticism of FAA's practice of scheduling a single controller on overnight shifts at some airports, but especially at Reagan, which is in Arlington, Va., and just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington.

"This is not a mom-and-pop airport for small planes, and is in the vicinity of some very sensitive airspace," Kay said.

At least one congressional committee has launched its own investigation, and the issue is expected to be raised next week when the House takes up a bill to provide long term authority for FAA programs.

On Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the incident, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a second controller be added to the overnight shift at Reagan

About 30 other airports around the country also have a single controller on duty on the overnight shift. In some instances, the controllers work alone for only a part of the shift.

FAA is examining whether staffing on those overnight shifts should be increased.

On Friday, the safety board recommended to the FAA that it no longer allow air traffic controllers to provide supervisory oversight while performing operational air traffic duties. The recommendation wasn't directly related to this week's incident. But if FAA were to follow the board's recommendation, the agency would effectively have to assign at least two people — a supervisor and a controller — to every shift.

In a previous letter to FAA, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman pointed to several previous airport accidents in which the air traffic supervisor on Coach Bags duty was also working as a controller directing air traffic instead of being free to devote attention entirely to the supervising of controllers.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

7.0 magnitude quake in Burma, at least ten people dead

YANGON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed in landslides and building exercise bike collapse in Myanmar's northeastern Tachileik and Tarpin, Shan state, caused by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Thursday night.

According to Myanmar's Meteorology and Hydrology Department, the quake that hit Loimwe, some 56 km southeast of Kengtung, Shan state, occurred at 8:29 p.m. local time (1369 GMT).

The quake, with the epicenter only 10 km deep, struck along Myanmar's borders with Thailand and Laos, about 87 km from Thai northern city of Chiang Rai. A 5.4-magnitude aftershock hit the area two hours later.

The quake affected many areas in Myanamr, with it being felt strongly in the border town of Tachilek and slightly in Taunggyi, Bago, Shwegyin, Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay and Toungoo. It is reported that Tachilek authorities have advised people to stay out of their houses.

In Yangon, only people living in high-rise buildings slightly felt the quake, residents said, adding that some people have left their apartment buildings for safety.

The quake also affected a wide swath of land in Thailand, China and Vietnam, with a person killed in quake-caused collapse of a wall in Thai northern city of Chiang Rai.

Thai media also reported that the quake was felt in the country 's capital Bangkok, a city some 772 km away, with buildings there seen shaking and swaying.

According to Vietnam News Agency, buildings in Hanoi shook when the autoclave earthquake happened, which caused panic among residents of apartment blocks. The U.S. Geological Survey has put the quake at 6.8 magnitude.

French fighters in Libya

BENGHAZI—French fighter jets hit aircraft and a crossroads military base deep inside Libya on Thursday as the U.S. reduced its combat role in the international operation that is working to thwart Moammar Gadhafi’s forces exercise bike by land, sea and air.

Libya’s air force has been effectively neutralized, and the government has taken part of its fight to the airwaves. State television aired pictures of bodies it said were victims of airstrikes, but a U.S. intelligence report bolstered rebel claims that Gadhafi’s forces had simply taken bodies from a morgue.

International military support for the rebels is not open-ended: France set a timeframe on the international action at days or weeks — not months.

The Gadhafi regime asked international forces to spare its broadcast and communications infrastructure.
“Communications, whether by phones or other uses, are civilian and for the good of the Libyan nation to help us provide information, knowledge and co-ordinate everyday life. If these civilian targets are hit, it will make life harder for millions of civilians around Libya,” Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, told reporters in Tripoli.

Representatives for the regime and rebels were expected to attend an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who described it as a part of an effort to reach a cease-fire and political solution.

The U.S. has been trying to give up the lead role in the operation against Gadhafi’s forces, and NATO agreed late Thursday to assume one element of it — control of the no-fly zone. The U.S.-led coalition will still supervise attacks on targets on the ground, though fewer U.S. planes were used in airstrikes Thursday.

“Nearly all, some 75 per cent of the combat air patrol missions in support of the no-fly zone, are now being executed by our coalition partners,” Navy Vice Adm. William Gortney, told reporters at the Pentagon. Other countries were handling less than 10 per cent of such missions, he said.

The U.S. will continue to fly combat missions as needed, but its role ice cream machine supplier will mainly be in support missions such as refuelling allied planes and providing aerial surveillance of Libya, Gortney said.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the international action would last days or possibly weeks, but not months. But he told RTL radio that in addition to protecting civilians, the mission “is also about putting Gadhafi’s opponents, who are fighting for democracy and freedom, in a situation of taking back the advantage.”

Libyan state television showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli. Rebels have accused Gadhafi’s forces of taking bodies from the morgue and pretending they were civilian casualties.

A U.S. intelligence report on Monday, the day after coalition missiles attacked Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital, said that a senior Gadhafi aide was told to take bodies from a morgue and place them at the scene of the bomb damage, to be displayed for visiting journalists. A senior U.S. defence official revealed the contents of the intelligence report on condition of anonymity because it was classified secret.
Gadhafi officials have claimed large numbers of casualties, both civilian and military, as a result of the coalition onslaught — a tragic and bitter irony, if true, for a mission designed to protect Libyan lives. But the international press corps in Tripoli under the watchful gaze of the regime has asked repeatedly to meet and interview injured survivors of the airstrikes and was rebuffed again Wednesday, as another day passed without evidence of blood spilled under the banner of the UN.

The French strikes hit a base about 250 kilometres south of the Libyan coastline, as well as a Libyan combat plane that had just landed outside the strategic city of Misurata, France’s military said.

Briefing reporters in Tripoli late Thursday, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said no Libyan planes have been in the air since the no-fly zone was declared. He said a plane might have been destroyed in an allied attack on an air base.

Canadian CF-18s have been tasked with attacking ground targets. The jets have flown four air-to-ground attack missions in the last few days, including blowing up an ammunition depot Wednesday .

No bombs were dropped in the other three sorties, but Maj.-Gen Tom Lawson said the overall campaign is progressing from attacking air threats posed by Libyan jets and helicopters to targets on the ground, such as tanks.

The Harper government initially autoclave dispatched six CF-18s to enforce the no-fly zone. It added a seventh aircraft as a spare early this week.

Two C-140 Aurora reconnaissance aircraft were added Thursday to patrol the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya.

The CDC says, tuberculosis cases in the US amounted to historic lows

The number of tuberculosis cases in the United States reached an all-time low last year, with only 11,181 cases reported to public health authorities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That represented a 3.9% drop in the number autoclave of cases from the preceding year, but was a disappointment on two counts: the number of cases had dropped by 11.9% in 2009, and authorities had hoped a major decline would continue; and in 1989, health officials had set a goal of eradicating TB in the U.S. by 2010, a roadmark that was clearly not met.



The agency reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that nearly 40% of the cases, 4,378, were in people born in the United States. The remaining 6,707 cases were in people who were born abroad. More than half of those cases were among people born in four countries: Mexico (23%), the Philippines (11%), India (8.6%) and Vietnam (7.7%). Overall, foreign-born people were 11 times as likely to have TB as those born in this country.



Four states -- California, Texas, New York and Florida -- accounted for 49.2% of the TB cases, a total of 5,503 cases. More cases were reported among Hispanics than any other ethnic group, but Asians had the highest case rate. TB rates among Hispanics, blacks and Asians were seven, eight and 25 times as high as among Caucasians, respectively.



Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It can be cured with antibiotics, but a full course of treatment requires six to nine months to fully eradicate the microorganism. Many people do not finish the full treatment, which leads to the development of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium. According to the CDC, nearly 94% of those who began treatment in 2007 completed their regimen.



The survey of TB cases detected 113 cases of so-called multidrug-resistant TB, which is caused by a bacterium that is resistant to at least two different antibiotics. The researchers found only one case of extensively drug-resistant TB, which is caused by a strain that is resistant to virtually all the antibiotics used to treat TB. Both forms of the disease are growing problems around the world because exercise bike they are spreading rapidly and are extremely difficult to treat. The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for more funds for research and treatment of drug-resistant TB.

NATO over part of the military line to Libya

NATO agreed has to take over part of the military operations against Libya -- enforcement of the no-fly zone -- after days of hard bargaining among its members. But attacks on the ground will continue to be run by the coalition led by the U.S., which has been anxious to give up the lead role.



NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who announced the NATO agreement late Thursday in Brussels, said the alliance operation autoclave would proceed in parallel with the bombing campaign carried out by coalition aircraft.



"At this moment there will still be a coalition operation and a NATO operation," Fogh Rasmussen said. "We are considering whether NATO should take on the broader responsibility in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution, but that decision has not been reached yet."



Photos: U.S. and allies strike Libya targets from air and sea



In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised NATO for taking over the no-fly zone, even though the U.S. had hoped the alliance would have agreed Thursday to take full control of the military operation that was authorized by the United Nations, including the protection of Libyan civilians and supporting humanitarian aid efforts on the ground.



NATO expects to commence enforcement of the no-fly zone within 48-72 hours. The operation will be commanded from Naples by Adm. Samuel J. Locklear. U.S. warplanes will continue flying strike missions over Libya, the Pentagon said earlier Thursday.



NATO also agreed to launch military planning for a broader mandate, including ice cream machine supplier a no-drive zone that would prevent Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's armor and artillery from moving. The North Atlantic Council is scheduled to meet on Sunday to consider the plans.



"Without prejudging deliberations, I would expect a decision in coming days," Fogh Rasmussen said.



NATO'S top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, had been struggling for six days to reach an agreement on using its military command and control capability to coordinate the operation in Libya. The logjam appeared to have broken earlier Thursday when Turkey, which had sought assurances that the NATO operation would be limited, finally gave its assent. The alliance needs the approval of all 28 members to take such action.



Turkey's parliament authorized the government to participate in military operations in Libya, including the no-fly zone. Turkey is NATO's only Muslim member.



Before the approval of the mission, hundreds of people, including members of left-wing political parties, protested against the deployment outside Turkey's Parliament as well as the U.S. Embassy, where protesters chanted slogans against NATO and Stavridis' visit.



Separately, the 27 European Union heads of government, also in Brussels for a summit, issued a statement saying the EU stood ready to assist in building a new Libya "in cooperation with the United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union and others."



In Rome, Italy's parliament approved the country's involvement in Libya with back-to-back votes in both houses. The lower Chamber of Deputies gave its approval on Thursday, a day after the Senate.



Italy has offered the coalition attacking military targets in Libya the exercise bike use of seven military bases for its aircraft. It has also made available eight of its own jets for use in missions. But it has been pushing for NATO to take over command of the operation.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tokyo water problem is serious

TOKYO—Tokyo officials said infants in Japan's capital shouldn't be given city tap water due gearbox to elevated radiation levels, as the country's nuclear crisis broadened into a public-health issue for its biggest city.

Some Tokyo tap water could represent a long-term health risk to infants, officials said Wednesday, after tests done earlier this week at three Tokyo water plants showed levels of radioactive iodine-131 at one plant exceeded the government's threshold for consumption by infants.

The officials sought to dispel broader fears, discouraging residents from stockpiling water and saying Tokyo's tap water remains safe for adults, even under Japanese standards that are tighter than international guidelines. Officials also said contamination found in food and water elsewhere in the country remains below levels that could cause immediate health damage.

Still, Wednesday's findings suggest a new front is unfolding in Japan's fight to contain radioactive material at the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex in northeast Japan.

Airborne radiation in Tokyo was four times the normal level Wednesday, though still within government limits. Officials said the heightened levels could have been due to recent rainstorms that brought radioactive material down from the air—the same possible cause to which they attributed the radiation levels that spurred concerns at one Tokyo water facility this week.

Also Wednesday, Japan's Food Safety Commission barred shipments of various types of vegetables from Fukushima prefecture, after heath officials found higher-than-permissible levels of radioactive material in food goods led flexible strip from the area over the weekend. The commission barred shipments of milk and parsley from neighboring Ibaraki prefecture, expanding its list restricted products, including spinach, from Ibaraki, Gunma and Tochigi prefectures. The U.S. has blocked imports of milk, vegetables and fruit produced near the plant.

Tokyo's main stock index fell following the news, ending down 1.7%.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Wednesday that it had tested water in three of the 11 plants that supply water to greater Tokyo. The city's spiderweb of pipes makes it difficult for consumers to know which plant supplies their water, but the plants where tests were conducted represent different sources—three rivers that account for the vast majority of the city's water.

The government said it detected 210 becquerels per kilogram of iodine-131 from a sample collected Tuesday at a water facility in Katsushika ward in northern Tokyo, which accounts for about 22% of Tokyo's overall water capacity. The level is about double the government's permissible limit for infants, 100 becquerels. An initial check Wednesday showed a similarly elevated level, of 190 becquerels.

A sample gathered at a second location found 32 becquerels Tuesday, though on Wednesday the level had dropped to zero. At a third water facility, no radioactivity was found either day.

None of the radioactive iodine levels in Tokyo tap water exceeded 300 becquerels per kilogram, the broader limit set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan. Japan's threshold, in turn, is stricter than the international level for intervention of 3,000 becquerels—a measure that represents one radioactive event per second—per kilogram.

Iodine-131 has a half-life of roughly a week, which means levels cable ties could fade if new radioactive material isn't added.

Citing Japan's stricter standards, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano urged shoppers not to stockpile bottled water.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said parents of babies under one year old shouldn't use tap water for powdered milk or baby formula. "We will continue to disclose tap-water testing results. We want everyone to act calmly," he said. The Tokyo government said Wednesday evening that it will distribute as much as 240,000 bottles of water to households with babies.

Several grocery stores on Wednesday had empty shelves where bottled water used to be. Bottled water was already in short supply as consumers stocked up on emergency supplies following the quake.

"If available, you can get only one or two" bottles, said a manager at a Tokyo daycare that takes care of about 100 children aged 1-6. "All we can do is not drink too much."

A number of people in Japan took the announcement in their stride after two weeks of unsettling events. But the latest disclosures fed already heightened anxiety over the uncertainty of radiation readings, and over conflicting reports in the past several days about progress at the Fukushima Daiichi complex.

"I thought this was something that only happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or something I'd read in a novel," said Ayaka Nishimura, a 20-year-old student at Tokyo's Keio University. "It worries me that this is becoming a reality."

Tokyo government officials said it is unclear bakugans why radioactivity suddenly increased in water, but said airborne iodine-131 drifting over rivers that feed Tokyo's water system could have come down in recent rainfall. The plant with the higher radiation levels is fed by the Edogawa River, which runs north to south along Tokyo's east side. The other plants tested are fed by different rivers.

Officials referred to rivers, not groundwater, as feeding the plants tested this week.

Radioactivity in water has been a mounting concern in Japan. The science ministry said it had detected radioactive iodine in 12 prefectures in a nationwide survey of tap water Tuesday, up from eight on Monday, though the detected levels were all below the suggested limit.

Officials cited rain as a potential reason, too, for a rise in radiation in Tokyo since Monday. The Tokyo government said Wednesday that radiation levels in downtown Tokyo began to rise Monday and stood at an average 0.146 microsieverts an hour at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, compared with the 0.035 microsieverts an hour a person would typically be exposed to in central Tokyo. A chest X-ray typically exposes a patient to a dose of around 100 microsieverts, according to the Radiological Society of North America.

Japanese officials declined to comment Wednesday on data disclosed by U.S. officials that they said justified the U.S.-recommended 50-mile evacuation area around the site. Previously, Japan's government defended its 12-mile evacuation zone—plus an 18-mile stay indoors requirement—as appropriate.

U.S. officials late Tuesday said their own tests had concluded that radiation levels in certain areas within 25 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi complex exceeded levels at which U.S. officials would order evacuations to protect public health. The Energy Department said U.S. aircraft and ground measurements detected radiation levels in some areas, mostly in a northwest direction within 25 miles of the plant, that exceeded 125 microsieverts per hour over three days last week.

Japanese tests show lower levels. Wednesday's results from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology showed levels of 8.5 microsieverts at roughly the same distance northwest of the plant, with lower levels in surrounding areas. It is unclear how well those results compare due to potential differences in location and equipment.

Japan has worked in recent years to overcome a reputation of downplaying past national rapid prototype health scares. The current Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan, gained fame in the 1990s by helping to expose a government cover-up of HIV-tainted blood in the country's blood supply.

Socrates defeat push Portugal close to the international support

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates tendered his resignation after plans to cut the budget were rejected by parliament, pushing the country closer to an high pressure sodium lamp international bailout.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva said late yesterday he will meet the main parties on March 25 and the government will retain its powers until he accepts Socrates’s resignation. The vote came hours before European Union leaders meet in Brussels to sign off on measures aimed at drawing a line under the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

The risk is that investors dump Portuguese bonds in the face of a political stalemate that delays the negotiation of a rescue package, which Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc estimates may be worth around 80 billion euros ($113 billon). The cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default is near a record high.

“It’s pretty inevitable” that Portugal will need a rescue, said Jacques Cailloux, a London-based economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, in a phone interview. “The market will deteriorate in the absence of other measure going through. There is obviously the risk of further downgrades, which will become anticipated by the markets and be a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Portugal has already raised taxes and implemented the deepest spending cuts in more than three decades to convince investors it can reduce its budget shortfall. Additional cuts, announced on March 11, prompted a political backlash and failed to persuade investors.

The spread between Portuguese and German 10-year bond yields widened 16 basis points to 438 basis points yesterday after reaching a euro-era record of 484 on Nov. 11.

Spotlight

“This crisis occurs in the worst possible moment for Portugal,” Socrates said last night. Greece and Ireland were forced to seek bailouts last year.

The spotlight now falls on President Cavaco Silva,3d rapid prototyping with JPMorgan Chase & Co. economist Nicola Mai saying his statement stresses that Socrates still holds power as he heads into two- day summit that starting later today.

It “could open the door for a possible negotiation of an international bailout package as soon as this week,” said Mai in an e-mailed note. She says further options include calling an election, which could take more than two months; asking the parties to form a coalition; or appointing an “independent technical government.”

Opposition parties united to reject the additional cuts that were the equivalent of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product over three years. The package included a reduction in pensions of more than 1,500 euros ($2,114) a month and further cuts in tax benefits.

Extra Measures

The government said the extra measures were needed to trim the deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP this year and within the EU’s 3 percent limit in 2012.

Socrates warned on March 15 that parliament rejecting the cuts would cause “a worsening of the financing risks of our economy and would lead Portugal to request external intervention.”

Socrates, who first came to power in 2005, leads a minority government. The Social Democrats, the biggest opposition group, had allowed the government’s earlier batch of austerity measures to pass with this year’s budget plan. They say they still support efforts to reduce the budget gap, while voting against the current package.

Polls

The Social Democrats would defeat the Socialists if elections were held today, polls indicate. In a Feb. 25 survey published by Diario Economico, 48 percent said they supported the Social Democrats with 29 percent backing the Socialists.

“The country has faced very difficult times gearbox before and has always been able to overcome them,” Pedro Passos Coelho, the leader of the Social Democrats, said in Lisbon last night after Socrates announced his resignation.

The political crisis comes as Portugal braces for its first bond maturities of the year. Portugal faces redemptions in April and June worth about 9 billion euros in total. It also faces bill maturities in July, August, September, October and November. The country intends to sell as much as 20 billion euros of bonds this year to finance its budget and cover maturing debt.

“Portugal faces heavy redemptions in April and June and difficult and costly access to the primary market, which makes it hard to roll over the debt,” Tullia Bucco, an economist at Unicredit SpA in Milan, said in an e-mailed note to investors.

Credit Rating

Concern about Portugal’s finances also led to a decline in its creditworthiness. Portugal’s credit rating was cut two steps by Moody’s Investors Service on March 15 to A3, four steps from so-called junk status, with the outlook on the grade “negative.”

Portugal should continue to finance itself in the market at present, Teixeira dos Santos had said on March 16, though “it’s obvious that current market conditions are unsustainable in the medium to long term.”

The European Central Bank has prevented those yields from rising further by buying Portuguese debt in secondary markets to shore up demand. The ECB has bought about 20 billion euros of Portuguese debt since last May, Barclays Capital estimates.

“In a situation of political void, cutting a deal with the IMF and the EU to trigger financial support cable ties would be particularly cumbersome,” Gilles Moec, an economist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, said in a research note yesterday. “In the meantime, ECB intervention may be required.”