May
20
Warning panics China quake zone
Filed Under BBC News, Most Pepular, Opinion, World News | Leave a Comment
Tens of thousands of people in China’s quake-hit Sichuan province have rushed from their homes after a government warning of a possible major aftershock.
People slept on the streets or drove to open ground after the warning was broadcast on television.
The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit on 12 May left over 71,000 people dead, buried or missing. On Monday, three days of mourning for the victims began.
Early on Tuesday, one more survivor was pulled from a collapsed building.
A 31-year-old man was rescued from the rubble of a hydro-electric plant in Yingxiu, near the quake’s epicentre, after being trapped for nearly 179 hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.
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Man pulled alive from collapsed building eight days after quake
Such success stories are increasingly rare as rescue workers turn to the recovery of bodies from the rubble and to helping the millions of people made homeless by the disaster.
The government says 34,073 are known to have died so far and the figure is expected to rise much higher.
Multiple aftershocks
On Monday, a statement from the National Seismology Bureau was read out on television, triggering the panic.
In pictures: China mourns
Town mourns as search goes on
Uncertain times for survivors
Silent tribute: Your comments
People in cities across the quake-hit area rushed out of their homes carrying pillows and blankets.
Roads out of Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, were jammed as people headed for the open ground of the province’s agricultural plains.
The US Geological Survey reported an aftershock of magnitude 5.2 in the region on Monday night.
Government seismologists appeared on television on Tuesday, trying to calm people’s fears.
“Just because you can feel aftershocks, it doesn’t mean they will hurt you,” said Han Weiding, a researcher with the local seismological bureau.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean you should stand in harm’s way,” Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
It is not the first panic to hit the earthquake-weary residents of Sichuan.
The entire population of the city of Beichuan, close to the epicentre, rushed for high ground on Saturday amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river bursting its banks.
Dozens of aftershocks have rattled the area, the strongest has measured 6.1.
Chinese media said mudslides have buried 200 relief workers in the past three days.
Tents needed
On Monday at 1428 local time (0628 GMT), people across the country fell silent for three minutes as air-raid sirens wailed and car horns honked.
All public entertainment has been cancelled and presenters on state television are wearing black. The Olympic torch relay has been suspended for three days and flags are flying at half-mast.
In addition to those dead or buried, more than 220,000 people were injured in the quake.
QUAKE STATISTICS
Up to Monday 19 May:
34,073 dead
9,509 buried and 29,418 missing in Sichuan province
220,109 injured
145 aftershocks above level 4, 23 above level 5, biggest 6.1
34,000 medical staff in quake zone
181,460 tents, 220,000 quilts despatched
6bn Chinese yuan ($860m, £440m) received in donations, from China and abroad
Drinking water for 7m people restored
Source: Chinese government
In pictures: Beichuan evacuation
See a detailed map of quake zone
The quake was centred in the mountains north-west of Chengdu.
Nick Mackie was one of the first foreign journalists to reach the Yinchangguo region, close to the epicentre.
He says the popular tourist region was devastated first by the earthquake and then by massive landslides that swept away villages and buried hotels, guest houses and farmers’ home stays.
An unknown number of villagers and tourists lie under the rocks and mud, he says.
Although across the region a few survivors are still being pulled from beneath collapsed buildings, the rescue effort has now focused on providing food, shelter and drinking water for the millions of people affected by the earthquake.
The foreign ministry appealed on Monday to the international community to provide tents for the more than 4.5m people whose homes have been destroyed.
To help raise money for the long-term relief effort, the government is to sell special stamps starting next month. Thirteen million of the stamps, featuring three interlocking hearts on a red background, will be sold, potentially raising as much as $4m (£2m).
The government said $1.5bn had been donated for disaster relief.
Persistent rain is compounding the misery for the homeless.
And the weather may deteriorate, with rains turning torrential later in the week, potentially triggering more landslides, Chinese forecasters said.
Mar
16
‘Whistle-blowing’ or just blowing smoke?
Filed Under Opinion | Leave a Comment
Whistle-blowers have revealed airline safety violations, Medicare fraud, sleeping guards in a nuclear plant, wasteful government spending and the abuse of civil liberties. Surely Al wouldn’t want to keep Americans in the dark and corrupt politicians in office. At USA TODAY, we believe confidential sources should be used sparingly and for the right reasons, but not so sparingly that we let corruption go unreported.”
- Ken Paulson and Brian Gallagher
“Is Al serious? I don’t know any reporters who don’t try to get all sources on the record. Sometimes secret sources are the only way to get information to the public.”
- Lucy Dalglish, executive director, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Source: Yahoo News
Mar
16
Change from within in Iran?
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The dangers posed by Iran can hardly be ignored. Tehran continues to enrich uranium and could restart its nuclear weapons program at any time. It has been undeterred by sanctions. Its virulently anti-American president has called for the destruction of Israel and supports Middle East terrorism. Its regional influence is growing - in part because it is no longer held in check by one-time enemy Saddam Hussein. The United States has accused it of being behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.
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An intense debate over what to do about this threat has long raged within the Bush administration. The latest manifestation was this week’s resignation of Adm. William Fallon as head of U.S. Central Command, after an Esquire article portrayed him as a lonely voice of reason trying to avert another war.
Fallon, though off-message, was on the right track with his preference for less trash talk from Washington and for balancing a show of strength with more engagement.
Ultimately, of course, the best way to change the behavior of any regime is from within. Overt U.S. attempts to encourage a bottom-up revolution have proved more likely to backfire than succeed. But when Iranians go to the polls today for parliamentary elections, they have a chance to make a statement about the direction they’d like their country to go in. And those results need to be taken into account when shaping U.S. policy.
Iranian elections aren’t exactly free and fair. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, can veto parliament’s decisions. The Council of Guardians, a group of religious elders that he heads, has disqualified thousands of candidates from standing - mostly those with detectable reformist tendencies.
Even so, veteran Iranian watchers see the election as a mini-referendum on which course Iran should steer - whether it should stick with Ahmadinejad’s hard-line approach or moderate its stance. Though few reformers are standing, many pragmatic candidates are, including those who want more engagement with the United States and more cooperation on the nuclear program. And though Ahmadinejad came to power as the champion of the poor, he has mismanaged the economy, a mismanagement amplified by sanctions. There has been a backlash against his religious crackdown.
For all the fanatics in Iran, the country has a tradition as a cultural power with skilled politicians and diplomats. The U.S. debate over what to do about Iran needs to focus in part on how policies can encourage reform from within. That was a part of the U.S. strategy toward the Soviet Union, which had seemed evil and monolithic - before it collapsed. Fallon’s more sophisticated approach would fit that bill better than bombastic threats that help build support for Ahmadinejad and his hard-line backers.
Source : Yahoo News
Mar
16
‘Whistle-blowing’ or just blowing smoke?
Filed Under Opinion | Leave a Comment
Whistle-blowers have revealed airline safety violations, Medicare fraud, sleeping guards in a nuclear plant, wasteful government spending and the abuse of civil liberties. Surely Al wouldn’t want to keep Americans in the dark and corrupt politicians in office. At USA TODAY, we believe confidential sources should be used sparingly and for the right reasons, but not so sparingly that we let corruption go unreported.”
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- Ken Paulson and Brian Gallagher
“Is Al serious? I don’t know any reporters who don’t try to get all sources on the record. Sometimes secret sources are the only way to get information to the public.”
- Lucy Dalglish, executive director, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Source Yahoo News
Mar
16
.Spitzer’s fall draws little sympathy
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Daily News, New York, in an editorial: “(Eliot) Spitzer’s patronage of a high-priced prostitution service drained what was left of his moral authority, and his blithe willingness to order up a hooker by telephone revealed an abysmal and disqualifying lack of judgment. … More often than not, Spitzer was right on the issues. But there’s more to public service than a menu of sound policies. Of still greater importance are character and honesty, and in those he proved deeply lacking. Through his first year in office, Spitzer repeatedly showed a lack of perspective that cast him into free fall in the polls. New Yorkers got a glimpse of the dark side to the white knight and recoiled. At the start of year two, there was hope Spitzer would recover. … No such luck.”
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San Francisco Chronicle, in an editorial: “A politician who rises on the sword of righteousness must beware its double edge. As attorney general and governor, Spitzer did not just condemn official corruption and malfeasance, he attacked them with a vengeance. He made it personal. His rectitude became his calling card. … In terms of sleaziness, Spitzer’s paid liaison in a Washington hotel room was no worse than Sen. Larry Craig’s clumsy attempt to solicit sex with a stranger in an airport restroom. … But Spitzer does not win this game by being no worse than the common politician. He cast himself as superior - and … betrayed his wife on the eve of Valentine’s Day, then allowed her to stand by him Monday for 60 seconds of hell. We will welcome the day when a shamed politician has the decency to spare his spouse such public humiliation.”
Linda Hirshman, blogger, Slate: “When Spitzer’s wife, Silda, called Hillary Clinton for advice on how to be a good first lady a few years ago, she probably didn’t realize how horribly relevant the connection would be. … What could she have done? What can any woman do? How about this: Don’t quit your day job. Silda Wall Spitzer was … a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, she was one of the highest-billing associates at (an) incredibly successful mergers and acquisitions law firm. … But sometime in the 1990s, like many of the other women of her class, she decided … to devote herself to raising their three daughters and to her philanthropies. … Sure, all marriages don’t end in the arms of an international prostitution ring. … However, the rate of divorce, prostitution, online pornography and the rest isn’t negligible, either. … The women who quit their jobs to tend their alpha-male husbands’ ambitions could just hire a private detective to follow him around all the time. But I think I’d prefer the mergers and acquisitions practice myself.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an editorial: “This isn’t even about the sex; a matter to be resolved, as Spitzer said, between him and his wife - and their three daughters. This is about a betrayal of the public’s trust … provided in a federal affidavit based on a wiretap that told of a ‘Client 9′ paying $4,300 in cash for sex with a ‘petite, pretty brunette’ named Kristen. … Spitzer built his reputation as an enemy of corruption. … Just the mention of his name caused many on Wall Street to gag. They accused Spitzer of preferring the court of public opinion to jurisprudence. … Spitzer’s tactics won him plenty of enemies, which makes it even more difficult to fathom why he thought he could get away with illegal behavior.”
John Nichols, blogger, The Nation: ” ‘I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family … (and) my sense of right and wrong,’ admitted Spitzer. … Ouch for Spitzer. Ouch for all New York Democrats, including a certain New York senator. … Clinton will be answering breathless questions about … what it means when prominent political players - like governors or, say, presidents in the 1990s - get wrapped up in sex scandals. Double ouch! The one bright side for Clinton is this: (Lt. Gov. David) Paterson will be the first African-American governor of New York state. He will instantly become Clinton’s most prominent African-American backer.”
Mar
16
Opposing view: States are succeeding
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By William T. Pound
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Many of us remember, with dread perhaps, the first time our newly licensed child took the car for a spin around the block. State legislators, many of whom are parents or grandparents of teen drivers, know what it’s like to worry about the safety of their children. It’s what they hear about when they sit at their local restaurant or stop at the gas station on Saturday morning. Legislators across the country have taken what they’ve heard from their neighbors and turned that into sound, effective teen-driving laws that make sense for their districts and states.
Some critics who contend states aren’t doing enough would like to mandate a minimum driving age at 16 and implement a one-size-fits-all licensing policy that is supposed to work in cities, suburbs and small towns - on congested beltways and rural farm-to-market roads.
And, like so many things that come out of Washington these days, states could be whacked with a stick, rather than just enticed with a carrot to adopt this approach. Instead of encouraging states to continue to innovate only by offering financial incentives, these critics would penalize states that don’t meet the federally endorsed approach.
Unfortunately, teens have the highest car-crash risk of any age group, and each year about 1,000 16-year-old drivers are killed in vehicle crashes in the USA, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. State legislatures have responded to this national tragedy with effective approaches that are specific to the driving conditions and circumstances in each state.
Some have strengthened licensing procedures for teens, including restrictions on nighttime driving and cellphone use. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have implemented graduated driver’s licensing laws that require teens to go through a multiple-step process to get licenses. As a result of these and other innovative measures, teen fatalities in car wrecks have plummeted.
States recognize the scope of the problem and are succeeding in their efforts to reduce the number of teens killed in vehicle crashes. And, unlike Congress, which has trouble doing almost anything quickly, states make adjustments to laws when they learn of ways to make them better. Why penalize state officials for what they do best - being responsible, imaginative and responsive? Let the states lead this effort together.
Source: Yahoo News