China has overtaken the US as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world's politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen next year. Article continues But according to figures released yesterday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which advises the Dutch government, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China's recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those of the US.The agency said China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes. But per head of population, China's pollution remains relatively low, about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.
China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen next year.
Article continues But according to figures released yesterday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which advises the Dutch government, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China's recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those of the US.
The agency said China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes. But per head of population, China's pollution remains relatively low, about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.
And if these emissions are growing at more than 10% per year, we're talking much less than a decade to overtake Europe's emissions per capita. Time to kill that argument. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
NEW YORK -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party status from Republican to unaffiliated, a stunning move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race. The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the GOP for his first mayoral run, said the change in voter registration does not mean he is running for president. "Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," he said in a statement. Despite his coyness about his aspirations, the mayor's decision to switch stokes speculation that he will pursue the White House, challenging the Democratic and Republican nominees with a legitimate and well-financed third-party bid.
NEW YORK -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party status from Republican to unaffiliated, a stunning move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race.
The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the GOP for his first mayoral run, said the change in voter registration does not mean he is running for president.
"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," he said in a statement.
Despite his coyness about his aspirations, the mayor's decision to switch stokes speculation that he will pursue the White House, challenging the Democratic and Republican nominees with a legitimate and well-financed third-party bid.
NEW YORK - Poor residents will be rewarded for good behavior -- like $300 for doing well on school tests, $150 for holding a job and $200 for visiting the doctor -- under an experimental anti-poverty program that city officials detailed Monday. (...)The theory behind cash rewards is that poor people are trapped in a cycle of repeated setbacks that keep them from climbing out of poverty. A person who doesn't keep up with his vaccinations and doctor's visits, for example, may get sick more often and struggle to stay employed. Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican, said he believes paying people in such circumstances to make good decisions could help break those patterns. The program "gives New Yorkers in poverty a financial incentive to look ahead and make decisions that will improve their prospects for the future," he said in a statement. But some critics have raised questions about cash reward programs, saying they promote the misguided idea that poor people could be successful if they just made better choices. "It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that's not reflected in the facts," said Margy Waller, co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group in Washington.
(...)The theory behind cash rewards is that poor people are trapped in a cycle of repeated setbacks that keep them from climbing out of poverty. A person who doesn't keep up with his vaccinations and doctor's visits, for example, may get sick more often and struggle to stay employed.
Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican, said he believes paying people in such circumstances to make good decisions could help break those patterns. The program "gives New Yorkers in poverty a financial incentive to look ahead and make decisions that will improve their prospects for the future," he said in a statement.
But some critics have raised questions about cash reward programs, saying they promote the misguided idea that poor people could be successful if they just made better choices.
"It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that's not reflected in the facts," said Margy Waller, co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group in Washington.
This infuriates me. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
Pregnant Iraqi women who have been forced from their homes by worsening violence are obtaining illegal abortions because they are unable to get medical care for themselves and their unborn, according to a new report by a national humanitarian group. A record number of Iraqis -- most of them women and children -- are fleeing their homes to escape the bloodshed of sectarian violence and anti-U.S. attacks, according to a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescent organization, the largest aid group operating in Iraq. Health care is inadequate and difficult to access for those people, according to the IRC report. "Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get...required medical care," states the report, which was translated from Arabic, "and criminal abortion became [sic] the norms."
Pregnant Iraqi women who have been forced from their homes by worsening violence are obtaining illegal abortions because they are unable to get medical care for themselves and their unborn, according to a new report by a national humanitarian group.
A record number of Iraqis -- most of them women and children -- are fleeing their homes to escape the bloodshed of sectarian violence and anti-U.S. attacks, according to a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescent organization, the largest aid group operating in Iraq.
Health care is inadequate and difficult to access for those people, according to the IRC report.
"Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get...required medical care," states the report, which was translated from Arabic, "and criminal abortion became [sic] the norms."
Last week's developments in Gaza culminating in Fatah's defeat by Hamas resulted in the formation of two Palestinian governments, one led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and the other by Fatah's Salaam Fayad in the West Bank. Call it a nightmare, a fiasco, fragmentation, but not temporary, as all the vital signs indicate that the political partition of the West Bank and Gaza is a fait accompli, unlikely to reverse short of an all-out Israeli military invasion and reoccupation of Gaza. According to the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, that is precisely what Israel's new Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is also the new chairman of the Labor Party, is planning, a "military operation in Gaza within weeks". According to the report, Barak's aim is to destroy Hamas militarily. Then what? Keep Gaza indefinitely occupied, or hand over the authority to the much-discredited Fatah operatives from the West Bank? If Hamas plays its cards right, such as by refraining from any attacks on Israel, then it will be difficult for Barak and other Israeli leaders to justify a unilateral reinvasion of Gaza. Already, in his first interview with the European press since trouncing Fatah, Haniyeh has taken credit for bringing "stability" to Gaza after many months of growing chaos.
KYOWÃ, Brazil: As the Karitiana Indians remember it, the first researchers to draw their blood came here in the late 1970s, shortly after the Amazon tribe began sustained contact with the outside world. In 1996, another team visited, promising medicine if the Karitiana would just give more blood, so they dutifully lined up again.But that promise was never fulfilled, and since then the world has expanded again for the Karitiana through the arrival of the Internet. Now they have been enraged by a simple discovery: their blood and DNA collected during that first visit are being sold by an American concern to scientists around the world for $85 a sample.They want the practice stopped, and are demanding compensation for what they describe as the violation of their personal integrity."We were duped, lied to and exploited," Renato Karitiana, the leader of the tribal association, said in an interview here on the tribe's reservation in the western Amazon, where 313 Karitiana eke out a living by farming, fishing and hunting. "Those contacts have been very injurious to us, and have spoiled our attitude toward medicine and science."
KYOWÃ, Brazil: As the Karitiana Indians remember it, the first researchers to draw their blood came here in the late 1970s, shortly after the Amazon tribe began sustained contact with the outside world. In 1996, another team visited, promising medicine if the Karitiana would just give more blood, so they dutifully lined up again.
But that promise was never fulfilled, and since then the world has expanded again for the Karitiana through the arrival of the Internet. Now they have been enraged by a simple discovery: their blood and DNA collected during that first visit are being sold by an American concern to scientists around the world for $85 a sample.
They want the practice stopped, and are demanding compensation for what they describe as the violation of their personal integrity.
"We were duped, lied to and exploited," Renato Karitiana, the leader of the tribal association, said in an interview here on the tribe's reservation in the western Amazon, where 313 Karitiana eke out a living by farming, fishing and hunting. "Those contacts have been very injurious to us, and have spoiled our attitude toward medicine and science."
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-925451@51-923279,0.html
[...] Le ministre a récusé les chiffres avancés rappelant que, depuis 2003, vols et cambriolages diminuent. Mais il n'a pu nier que les homicides ont atteint en 2006 le record de 12 257 - trois fois plus qu'en 1998. La situation est très grave à Caracas, où, selon le Centre pour la paix de l'Université centrale du Venezuela, le nombre d'homicides pour 100 000 habitants atteint le chiffre de 105, le plus élevé d'Amérique latine. L'opposition estime que les données officielles sont sous-estimées. "L'impunité décourage les gens d'aller porter plainte", note Carlos Ocariz, de Primero Justicia. 90 % des crimes commis restent impunis. "Chavez est un bon président, mais manque d'autorité, et les flics sont toujours aussi corrompus", soupire Pedro Reyes, un épicier qui s'étonne de la réputation d'autoritarisme faite à M. Chavez sur la scène internationale. A Caracas, l'alcool, la drogue et les armes alimentent la violence faite de conflits familiaux et de rixes entre voisins. "Alors que des voix s'élèvent pour demander l'instauration de la peine de mort et que les militaires voudraient durcir la politique répressive, Hugo Chavez reste rétif au discours sécuritaire et aux mesures autoritaires", note Ana Maria Sanjuan, du Centre pour la paix. "Il croit, contre toute évidence, poursuit-elle, que l'amélioration des conditions de vie finira par résoudre le problème de la criminalité." [...]
L'opposition estime que les données officielles sont sous-estimées. "L'impunité décourage les gens d'aller porter plainte", note Carlos Ocariz, de Primero Justicia. 90 % des crimes commis restent impunis.
"Chavez est un bon président, mais manque d'autorité, et les flics sont toujours aussi corrompus", soupire Pedro Reyes, un épicier qui s'étonne de la réputation d'autoritarisme faite à M. Chavez sur la scène internationale.
A Caracas, l'alcool, la drogue et les armes alimentent la violence faite de conflits familiaux et de rixes entre voisins. "Alors que des voix s'élèvent pour demander l'instauration de la peine de mort et que les militaires voudraient durcir la politique répressive, Hugo Chavez reste rétif au discours sécuritaire et aux mesures autoritaires", note Ana Maria Sanjuan, du Centre pour la paix. "Il croit, contre toute évidence, poursuit-elle, que l'amélioration des conditions de vie finira par résoudre le problème de la criminalité." [...]
That's the true failure of Hugo Chavez government up to now. What are the real causes and possible solutions looks like hard questions and neither government nor opposition seem to propose workable solutions:
http://oilwars.blogspot.com/2007/06/again-open-microphone-but-nothing-to.html
China has been the most obvious cause of this. On May 29th its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, asserted that the "mere presence" of Indian settlements would have no bearing on China's continuing claim to Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state bordering China and Bhutan. This was a surprise to India. Its officials had understood the presence of the settlements to be precisely one of the "political parameters" that in 2005 the two countries agreed would help resolve their dispute. ... Such sparring should not be exaggerated. On the whole, relations between the two countries are as good as they have been in decades. For its part, India remains distrustful of China, traditionally an ally of Pakistan, yet it seems earnestly to want to make friends. Why should China be more reluctant?
Perhaps because it is less sure than India of who will be its allies in a changing Asia. India wants genial relations with China but also a strong alliance with America. Thus, for example, the military partnership it agreed on with America two years ago. As a result of this, a large portion of the $30 billion-worth of arms that India is expected to buy in the next five years will be American-made.
The Minister, who spoke on 'India's foreign policy priorities', was asked during the question-answer session if China could be concerned over the developing India-US ties as it may feel that it could be used to contain Beijing.
''We do not believe in containing any country whether big or small. No power can contain any other power,'' the Minister said.
