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Wednesday, February 1, 2006

United States President George W. Bush delivered his annual State of the Union Address on Tuesday.

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The two Australian mine-workers, who were trapped for 14 days underground in a collapsed mine, have signed a media deal reportedly worth AUD$2 million for their story of survival. Local media reports that the lucrative deal, announced by the Nine Network, is believed to be the “highest ever paid to secure news talent”. A planned TV special will be the outcome of a deal secured by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), which owns the Nine Network.

Miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were entombed nearly a kilometre underground following a cave-in on April 25 at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania. A third miner, Larry Knight, was killed in the rock-fall. The two survivors trapped in a wire cage, survived by drinking water seeping through rocks until rescuers managed to dig a small tunnel to deliver fresh food and water. Their tale has captured the attention of the nation, with media corporations fighting for exclusive rights to the miners’ story.

The Nine Network’s chief executive Eddie McGuire said under the PBL deal, Woman’s Day, the Australian Women’s Weekly and the Bulletin magazines would also have access to the men. The Nine Network has announced it would broadcast a two-hour special with entitled “The Great Escape.”

Another deal is expected to be brokered with U.S. media. Mr McGuire said the deal would not restrict the pair from selling their story to CNN, the US Today Show and Good Morning America, who have all reportedly made contact with Mr Russell and Mr Webb this week.

Under the PBL deal, Woman’s Day, the Australian Women’s Weekly and the Bulletin magazines would also have access to the men, Mr McGuire said. Nine says it also wants the footage and photographs taken by the miners during their ordeal. The footage remains in the hands of the mining company.

The men, who were rescued on May 9, have not spoken publicly about the time they spent trapped underground.

See Wikipedia article: Beaconsfield mine collapse

Monday, July 10, 2006

New York City —A four-story building on 62nd Street in Manhattan collapsed after an explosion Monday. Both the White House and New York Fire Department have said the explosion was not caused by a terrorist attack. The New York Fire Department said that the owner of the building, Dr. Nicholas Bartha, might have deliberately caused the explosion in a suicide attempt after a difficult divorce.

According to the latest reports, five people were injured by the blast, one of whom was hospitalised in critical condition. An additional ten firefighters were injured in the following rescue operation. No deaths have been reported.

Most sources give the cause as a natural gas leak that ignited; a ConEd spokesperson said that someone had reported a gas leak to them about one and a half hours before the explosion took place. The resulting fire, which began in the basement, burned strongly for some time, but was later brought under control by firefighters.

Numerous people described the shockwave from the blast as being similar to an earthquake.

Friday, October 9, 2009

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on a sweeping health care reform bill next Tuesday. US President Barack Obama has made clear that extending health insurance coverage to as many Americans as possible is his top domestic priority.

Republican lawmakers, however, are still overwhelmingly opposed to the bill, saying it is too expensive and would expand the role of government in people’s health care.

Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate received some good news late Wednesday from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which put the total cost of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill at $829 billion over the next decade, below Obama’s stated goal of $900 billion. The budget watchdog organization also said the health care bill would help reduce the federal budget deficit over the next ten years.

Harry Reid said he believed health care reform was moving forward. “And so today we stand closer than ever to fulfilling that fundamental promise, one for which we have fought for more than 60 years,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, however said that the cost estimate was “irrelevant”, because the final bill that will actually emerge from both houses of Congress is likely to look very different and cost a lot more. “What matters is that the final bill will cost about a trillion dollars, vastly expand the role of government in people’s health care decisions, increase premiums and limit choice,” McConnell said.

McConnell said Republicans favor a step by step approach to health care reform, focusing on prevention and wellness programs and dealing with the high costs of malpractice insurance doctors have to pay due to fears of excessive lawsuits.

Under the Finance Committee’s bill, US residents would be required to get health insurance or face a penalty, and insurance companies would face tough new regulations. For example, insurance companies could no longer reject coverage for people due to pre-existing conditions.

The Senate Finance Committee is likely to pass the bill, which will then have to be merged with one passed by the Senate health committee before it goes to the full Senate floor for debate.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

A new report on climate change’s impact on agriculture predicts 25 million more malnourished children around the world by 2050, compared to a scenario with no global warming. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable.

The report from the International Food Policy Research Institute projects that the the number of malnourished children will decrease by 10 million in the next 40 years. However, without global warming the report projects a decrease of 35 million. Forty percent of undernourished children will live in Africa.

The report compares economic and biological factors affecting child nutrition in two future scenarios — a world with and a world without climate change.

Gerard Nelson is lead researcher for the report at the International Food Policy Research Institute. He said that climate change will have a particularly strong impact on agricultural yields in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The food price crisis of last year really was a wake-up call to a lot of people that we are going to have 50% more people on the surface of the Earth by 2050. Meeting those demands for food coming out of population growth is going to be a huge challenge — even without climate change,” Nelson said.

“On top of that, sub-Saharan Africa in particular is home to a large number of poor people. And one of the key messages to take home from our analysis is that with higher incomes people are more resilient to a variety of changes and that will be especially true for climate change.”

The report says that in 2050 average wheat yields in sub-Saharan Africa will decline by up to 22 percent as a result of climate change. Irrigation water supply is also expected to decrease and less food availability will mean on average 500 calories less per person.

Without climate change, the report projected a rise in calorie availability in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2050.

Nelson says African governments need to prioritise investment in the agriculture sector, particularly in rural roads, research and new technologies. With the December 2009 climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nelson says African governments should focus on helping their farmers adapt to climate change.

“As the governments of sub-Saharan Africa prepare to go to the Copenhagen negotiations they should ensure that agriculture is included both in the adaptation funding mechanisms that will come out of Copenhagen as well as allow for the possibility that mitigation funds can be used in Africa,” Nelson said.

The report says an additional investment in global agriculture of US$7 billion per year could increase production and counteract the adverse effects of climate change. The report says 40 percent of this investment should go to sub-Saharan Africa.