haiti saying it was really remarkable how much has been accomplished given
the challenges
of course not satisifed about not getting material and personnel in for
everyone who needs it clinton told reporters when asked if she were satisfied
with the relief effort
but realistically aware of the difficulties that this terrible natural
disaster has posed the chief diplomat said
having followed previous disaster she said it is really remarkable how much
has been accomplished it is heroic historic effort she added
but she added we are not satisfied we are working every day to get better
lack of water hygiene compounds haiti misery
port au prince jan afp
the stench at place saint pierre perceptible from meters away overpowers
the senses inside the makeshift camp where thousands of haitians subsist in
appalling conditions
amid the teaming hordes of quake survivors women bathed next to mounds of
refuse and children relieved themselves on the bare earth one tank supplied
water for people desperately needing to bathe wash clothes and cook
some take their chances and drink the unsanitized water to quench their thirst
in the burning tropical son despite the risk of violent illness many pay the
consequences
sometimes we drink the water even though we know that water not for
drinking said magalta saint fleur
if we don have money to buy purified water there nothing else we can do
she said nearby her seven year old niece fonsiane crouches doubled over and
suffering from intestinal pain
in the immediate aftermath of last week quake clearing out rotting bodies
removing mountains of rubble and debris reuniting broken families and tending
to the injured have topped the concerns of aid and relief workers
the focus on providing immediate medical care to quake victims along with
rescue and recovery operations has meant that hygiene matters have had to take
backseat
but this lack of clean water and clean facilities is threatening to compound the
misery in haiti and the battle to ward off infectious disease is rising to the
top of the priority list of those trying to help the quake ravaged country
there are only six toilets at place saint pierre and the authorities simply
don have the means to provide more explained local official saintizaire
rochemond it just simply never happens he said
last tuesday devastating magnitude earthquake killed as many as
people and left one million homeless meaning that squalid camps like
the on at place saint pierre will be home to thousands for long time ahead
in haiti intense heat everyone is thirsty and clamoring for water which is
in short supply because the country water pipes were damaged by the quake and
other reserves are contaminated by corpses
the lucky few sometimes get their hands on the little packets of potable water
being distributed by aid workers outside the camp
clean facilities are also in short supply and people are left to relieve
themselves wherever and whenever they feel the need
everywhere you go there is feces and that very dangerous said rita
aristide nurse at first aid station run by the haitian red cross
lot of people are experiencing intestinal problems and there vomiting all
over the place she said complaining that severe diarrhea was raging through
the camp
arsitide warned that in such conditions health crisis could develop very
quickly and feared widespread gastro bugs as well as cholera and mosquito borne
diseases
disease epidemic would be catastrophic for doctors in haiti already taxed to
their limits by the legions of untreated traumatic injuries and other medical
priorities
one woman in the advanced stages of pregnancy appears ready to give birth but
her husband is unable to find doctor to attend to her
meanwhile six year old girl jerica has wounds on her face knees and leg
which are becoming infected with pus as flies swarm around the festering
injuries
we couldn go to the hospital we had no money to pay for transportation to
get here there said the child mother marie rosette charles hovering over
the prostrate girl
health workers with the red cross say they feel defeated and dejected having
received scarcely any international aid
there are lot of people here with open wounds but there simply isn any
room for them in the hospital said aristide
many patients are even reluctant to go to the hospital fearing that another
quake or aftershock could send the building tumbling down the nurse added
football french league results
paris jan afp
french league results on wednesday
marseille niang pen le mans le tallec
lorient ducasse lyon lisandro kallstrom
nice auxerre jelen
sochaux perquis dalmat lille vittek
grenoble battles bordeaux gouffran chamakh cavenaghi
toulouse nancy
paris saint germain monaco edel og
lens montpellier montano
playing later
boulogne valenciennes
played tuesday
saint etienne rennes
un climate panel admits himalaya glacier data poorly substantiated
geneva jan afp
the un climate science panel acknowledged on wednesday that grim prediction
on the fate of himalayan glaciers that featured in benchmark report on global
warming had been poorly substantiated and was lapse in standards
charges that the reference was highly inaccurate or overblown have stoked
pressure on the intergovernmental panel on climate change ipcc already
assailed in separate affair involving hacked email exchanges
the new row focuses on paragraph in the ipcc fourth assessment report
page opus whose warning in that climate change was on the march spurred
politicians around the world to vow action
the paragraph notably declared the probability of glaciers in the himalayas
disappearing by the year and perhaps sooner is very high
the ipcc said in statement that the paragraph refers to poorly substantiated
rates of recession and date for the disappearance of himalayan glaciers
in drafting the paragraph in question the clear and well established standards
of evidence required by the ipcc procedures were not applied properly the
panel admitted
it added the chair vice chair and co chairs of the ipcc regret the poor
application of well established ipcc procedures in this instance
this episode demonstrates that the quality of the assessment depends on
absolute adherence to the ipcc standards including thorough review of the
quality and validity of each source before incorporating results from the source
in an ipcc report
the statement noted that the reference was not repeated in an important
synthesis report of the assessment and stressed the ipcc strong
commitment to thorough accurate review of scientific data
the ipcc co won the nobel peace prize for bringing climate change to the
world attention through reputation for rigour caution and fact checking
under this process data are peer reviewed by other scientists and are then
meant to be double checked by editors
in an exceptional move the lapses came under public attack from four prominent
glaciologists and hydrologists in letter to the prestigious us journal
science
they said the paragraph mistakes derived from report by green group wwf
which picked up news report based on an unpublished study compounded by the
accidental inversion of date instead of in russian paper
published in
these errors could have been avoided had the norms of scientific publication
including peer review and concentration upon peer reviewed work been
respected according to the letter which science released on wednesday two
days ahead of scheduled publication
one of the letter authors was austrian specialist georg kaser who contributed
to different section of the report
he told afp on monday that the mistake was enormous and that he had notified
ipcc colleagues of it months before publication
despite the controversy the ipcc stood by the overall conclusions about glacier
loss this century in major mountain ranges including the himalayas
the report concluded that widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions
in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the
st century
that would reduce water availability hydropower potential and changing
seasonality of flows in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges
hindu kush himalaya andes where more than one sixth of the world
population currently lives it added
ipcc chairman rajendra pachauri on tuesday defended the panel overall work
position shared by other scientists who say the core conclusions about climate
change are incontrovertible
theoretically let say we slipped up on one number don think it takes
anything away from the overwhelming scientific evidence of what happening with
the climate of this earth pachauri said
skeptics have already attacked the panel over so called climategate entailing
stolen email exchanges among ipcc experts which they say reflected attempts to
skew the evidence for global warming
the row came as the un panel began the marathon process of drafting its fifth
assessment reports inviting scientists to lead its work
the reports due out in and will focus on sea level changes the
influence of periodic climate patterns like the monsoon season and el nino and
forge more precise picture of the regional effects of climate change
wait on healthcare obama tells lawmakers
washington jan afp
us president barack obama wednesday urged democratic senators not to jam
through an ambitious healthcare reform bill but to wait for new republican
lawmaker to take his seat
here one thing know and just want to make sure that this is off the
table the senate certainly shouldn try to jam anything through until scott
brown is seated obama told abc
the people of massachusetts spoke he got to be part of that process
he was speaking just hours after brown defeated democratic candidate martha
coakley in the race to replace the late edward kennedy in the seat us
senate costing obama party its thin vote super majority
the shock defeat in elections for seat held for almost five decades by the
liberal lion kennedy has left the white house reeling year to the day since
obama historic inauguration
but obama admitted he felt he had lost touch with the american people since his
stunning victory in the november presidential race over republican rival
john mccain
he said he felt he had made mistake by focusing on policy issues instead
seeking to maintain his connection with the american people
that do think is mistake of mine obama said
if there one thing that regret this year is that we were so busy just
getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of
us that think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the american
people about what their core values are obama told abc news
think the assumption was if just focus on policy if just focus on this
provision or that law or if we re making good rational decision here then
people will get it
instead the president said the american people ended up with feeling of
remoteness and detachment from the policy makers in washington
but the us leader elected america first african american president thanks to
his sweeping promise of change said he felt he could do better job in his
second year in office
think that can do better job of that and partly because do believe
that we re in stronger position now than we were year ago he said
hermes to launch new chinese luxury firm
paris jan afp
french luxury goods group hermes is set to open chinese subsidiary later this
year that will sell furniture clothes and household accessories the company
said on wednesday
the group which already has major presence in the fast growing chinese
market said the new company shang xia would open its first store in shanghai
in the spring then second in paris in the autumn
the company will have chinese managers and is intended to showcase high class
chinese artisanal knowhow hermes said
hermes already has stores in around dozen chinese cities
all clear at munich airport after explosives alert police
munich germany jan afp
german police gave the all clear at munich airport on wednesday after major
alert sparked by man running away from security check when his laptop tested
positive for possible explosives
police spokesman albert poerschke said that the passenger who has still not
been identified was most likely businessman in hurry to catch his flight
who was unaware that security personnel wanted to check inside his laptop bag
authorities said they were still searching for the man who contrary to earlier
statements by the police took his computer with him
although the facts were not too clear it was decided to take strong measures
poerschke said
we wanted to rule out anyone being endangered
an explosives scanner at the airport one of germany busiest alerted
personnel as the man went through security at around pm gmt but
instead of stopping he ran into restricted area police said
during the three hour lockdown the fourth floor of the airport terminal two
used for flights within germany and europe passport free schengen area was
evacuated and all docked planes were stopped
police were unable to comment on his nationality spokesman had acknowledged
that the scanner could have been set off by harmless chemicals such as perfumes
about flights were delayed or cancelled during the alert an airport
spokesman said twenty flights were cleared for take off without passengers
still waiting in the terminal
airports around the world have been on high alert since nigerian man allegedly
tried to blow up an airliner over the united states on december with
explosive chemicals concealed in his underwear
umar farouk abdulmutallab pleaded not guilty in us court on january to
six charges including attempted murder of people on board the plane and
trying to use weapon of mass destruction he faces life imprisonment
al qaeda in the arabian peninsula militant islamist group active in yemen and
saudi arabia claimed it was behind the botched attempt to blow up the northwest
airlines jet as it landed in detroit
germany which has never suffered an attack by islamist extremists has so far
resisted pressure to install body scanners at its airports of the kind that
experts say would have detected abdulmutallab explosives
amid concerns about the implications for health and privacy as well as efficacy
in detecting explosives the government has said that more research is needed
and is conducting tests which it hopes to complete later this year
dutch airport schiphol said on january that it planned to install new full
body scanners in addition to already in place to cover all us bound flights
in the coming months
abdulmutallab boarded in lagos and changed at schiphol to connecting flight
bound for detroit
thirty three americans died in haiti quake us
washington jan afp
the us state department said at least american citizens died in last week
earthquake in haiti in the latest update on us casualties
we have total of confirmed american fatalities so far state department
spokesman philip crowley told reporters one of those was us government
official
he said that another americans have not been accounted for but said it is
very possible they are alive
crowley urged reporters not to jump to conclusions adding it is possible they
are sitting in their living rooms
he added that three us government officials remain unaccounted for
the state department reported tuesday that at least americans died in the
earthquake most of them dual haitian us nationals
cs lc jm
brazil to add at least soldiers to haiti force officials
brasilia jan afp
brazil is looking to boost its peacekeeping contingent in haiti to at least
under request before congress officials said wednesday
defense minister nelson jobim who visited haiti immediately after last week
devastating quake was asking for more than reinforcements to join the
brazilian troops already in the country they said
they would comprise soldiers and police officers according to the
senate leader office
the defense ministry would not give precise number but said it would be more
than in total
that does not mean that all these troops will head to haiti immediately what
the government wants to do is have congressional approval for when it considers
it necessary ministry spokeswoman told afp
the un security council on tuesday voted to send more security personnel
to haiti to maintain order and protect aid convoys
brazil has military command of the un peacekeeping force in haiti which is
currently strong and has been in the caribbean nation since the
force currently counts soldiers from various nations and police
total of brazilian peacekeepers died in the quake
five year old boy rescued alive from haiti rubble cnn
port au prince jan afp
five year old boy was brought alive to hospital here wednesday having been
pulled from the rubble of his home eight days after the haiti earthquake the
boy uncle told cnn
the uncle said he found the boy in small void in the rubble of the house where
his mother and father were believed to have died
he is being cared for very well by the doctors within the international medical
corps and other than being severely dehydrated and dysphoric they don know
anything else that is wrong with him and they believe he will make it cnn
reporter at the hospital said
on tuesday three survivors were pulled from the rubble including year old
woman found in the ruins of sumpermarket and year old woman who sang as
she was brought out of the wreckage of the port au prince cathedral
three week old baby was found alive in the rubble of house in jacmel in
southern haiti tuesday after surviving for week without food french radio
reported on wednesday
un spokeswoman in geneva said earlier wednesday that international teams have
rescued people from the debris of collapsed buildings since the quake
portugal budget situation critical imf
lisbon jan afp
the international monetary fund on wednesday warned portugal of the critical
importance of getting its public finances in order as fears over rising debt
levels in the eurozone hit markets
fiscal consolidation is critical to prevent further deterioration and preserve
hard won credibility the imf said in report on the portuguese economy
urging portugal to rein in public sector salaries and social spending
the imf said portugal deficit for would come to around eight percent in
and could increase further in before falling back to around five or
six percent by while the debt ratio was at around percent of gdp
achieving the government deficit target of three percent of gdp gross
domestic product in is thus critical the imf added referring to the
ideal three percent threshold set by the nation eurozone
the consolidation should focus on reducing primary current spending especially
the public wage bill and social transfers it continued
the government of prime minister jose socrates is currently in talks with
opposition parties on reaching an agreement on the budget
finance minister fernando teixeira dos santos has suggested wave of
privatisations in order to help reduce portugal debt
greece is currently mired in the eurozone worst debt crisis which has raised
fears among investors about whether european governments are prepared to deal
with the political fallout from slashing record high debt levels
yemen warplanes pound qaeda chief home military
sanaa jan afp
yemeni jets pounded the home of suspected al qaeda leader on wednesday
military source said as top us official acknowledged that sanaa has made
decisive turn against the extremists
british prime minister gordon brown meanwhile announced in london the
suspension of direct flights from yemen until further security measures are
agreed in the wake of the christmas day us airliner bombing scare
yemeni tribal source confirmed the air strikes on erq al shabwan village in
maarib province east of sanaa and said number of people had been killed
local forces responded with anti aircraft fire
the wave of air strikes which began in the morning blasted the house of ayed
al shabwani one of six suspected al qaeda leaders the government said were
killed in an air strike last week the tribal source said
the military official who would not be named said there had been three strikes
on the house and one on nearby orange grove where the authorities think
shabwani created safe haven for dozens of al qaeda members
in the afternoon witnesses said jets twice fired missiles into the grove and
afterwards continued to overfly the area
the strikes come just days after yemen said it killed six suspected leaders of
al qaeda in the arabian peninsula including shabwani in saada province north
of sanaa
aqap denied anyone was killed in the attack on three vehicles in remote
desert area saying instead that some militants were wounded
no one commented on whether the government now believed shabwani had in fact
survived that raid
yemen has come under increased us pressure to clamp down on aqap since it
claimed responsibility for the december bid to blow up northwest airlines
flight from amsterdam as it prepared to land in detroit
sanaa points to air strikes in december in remote mountainous areas of shabwa
province east of the capital which it says killed more than suspected aqap
operatives as well as last week strikes in saada and number of recent
arrests as proof it is winning the war against the extremists
jeffrey feltman assistant us secretary of state for near eastern affairs
acknowledged these efforts on wednesday
in terms of the government of yemen determination and willingness to confront
threat of al qaeda militants in the country we should be and we are
encouraged by recent steps the government has taken feltman told the senate
foreign relations committee in washington
but he insisted the us was not naive about the sanaa government as an ally
he cited violent unrest in the country north and south an inconsistent
ability to deliver services to much of its people and said sanaa record on
human rights good governance and anti corruption had been wanting
the us state department top counter terrorism official daniel benjamin told
the committee said some yemeni institutions had proved effective incubators of
radicalisation
but benjamin praised decisive turn by the yemeni government and decisive
interest by the international community to help it battle extremism
the comments came day after the senate committee released report warning
that aqap may also be training as many as three dozen us citizens who converted
to islam in prison
the americans went to yemen on their release ostensibly to study arabic but
possibly for al qaeda training the report said
us officials are also worried about non yemeni americans blonde haired
blue eyed types who travelled to yemen converted to islam became
fundamentalists married yemeni women and fit the profile of americans that al
qaeda has sought to recruit
also in washington yemeni foreign minister abu bakr al kurbi met us national
security adviser james jones who reiterated us support for sanaa determined
efforts to combat the terrorist threat posed by al qaeda national security
council spokesman mike hammer said
shabwa provincial governor ali hassan al ahmadi has said dozens of al qaeda
fighters are holed up in mountain redoubts in the province
among them he said are aqap chief nasir al wahishi his number two said al
shihri and radical us yemeni cleric anwar al awlaqi
britain brown meanwhile said in statement to the house of commons on
wednesday that in the wake of the failed christmas day attack no more direct
flights from yemen would be allowed to land in britain
we have agreed with yemenia airlines pending enhanced security that they
suspend their direct flights to the uk from yemen with immediate effect he
said
microsoft patch due thursday for ie hole
san francisco jan afp
microsoft will release patch on thursday for an internet explorer ie
software hole through which china based cyber spies attacked google and other
firms
microsoft continues to see limited attacks and to date the only successful
attacks have been against internet explorer the us software giant said
wednesday while announcing the out of band security update
we recommend that customers install the update as soon as it is available
microsoft will release the patch as soon as it is ready instead of following its
protocol of releasing security updates the second tuesday of each month
microsoft will host public webcast starting at pm pacific time
gmt on thursday to discuss the security update and field questions the
software patch will be released three hours earlier according to microsoft
we are working by around the clock microsoft general manager of
trustworthy computing security george stathakopoulos told afp we have been
monitoring the threat landscape since the start of this issue
attacks that prompted showdown between internet giant google and global power
china only worked against ie so computer users can protect themselves by
switching to newer versions of the web browser according to stathakopoulos
ie and seem to be holding stathakopoulos said none of the attacks we
know of will be effective against ie that could change but that is what we
know
no matter which web browser people use upgrading to the most current version
promises to increase protection against hackers
microsoft confirmed last week that previously unknown security vulnerability
in its ie browser was used in cyberattacks which prompted google to threaten
to shut down its operations in china
revealing the attacks on january google said they originated from china and
targeted the email accounts of chinese human rights activists around the world
but did not explicitly accuse the chinese government of responsibility
web security firm mcafee inc said that the attacks on google and other
companies showed level of sophistication beyond that of cyber criminals and
more typical of nation state
google said more than other unidentified firms were targeted in the highly
sophisticated attacks while other reports have put the number of companies
attacked at more than
stathakopoulos described the attacks as limited and targeted
only one other company adobe has come forward so far and acknowledged that it
was target
attackers used email or some other lure to get employees of targeted company
to click on link and visit specially crafted website using internet
explorer
malicious software would then be downloaded that has the capability to
essentially install back doors in machines and give hackers access according
to mcafee
workers block opel car factory in belgium
brussels jan afp
workers at an opel car plant in northern belgium blocked access to the
installation on wednesday ahead of meeting in which unions fear that the
factory closure will be announced
we are blocking all the cars that are ready to leave until we know what they
are intending to do walter cnop from christian trade union csc told afp
adding that car production would be allowed to continue
the blockade could last until thursday when the local management for us parent
company general motors has convened an emergency meeting
we are sure they will announce plan to close the factory cnop said
gm has said it will be forced to cut jobs out of total of more than
employees across europe the belgian opel factory in antwerp has around
workers and is considered the most likely to be shut down
euro plunges to six month low against dollar
london jan afp
the euro tumbled to its lowest level against the dollar since last august on
wednesday with worries mounting over the european economy and the dollar
getting boost from china credit tightening
the european single currency was changing hands at dollars late in
london compared to dollars late in new york on tuesday
the euro also fell against the japanese currency to yen compared to
on monday while the dollar rose to yen from yen
the euro has continued to fall after poor german economic sentiment data
yesterday as well as on concerns about how greece financial plight will weigh
on the european economy said cmc markets analyst michael hewson
the shared european unit until recently favoured as high yielding currency
is now being shunned in favour of the dollar despite persistent weakness in
the us economy said hachijuni bank strategist masatsugu miyata
due to the uncertain economic outlook in europe markets are in no mood to buy
the euro he said noting increasing worries over greece fiscal health and
german survey that showed drop in business confidence
although the united states has its own problems at least it is in control of
its fiscal policies relative to europe he added
international rating agency moody on tuesday said it was maintaining
negative outlook on greece because it was unclear whether the government could
implement plan to shore up public finances
the greek government which last month suffered credit downgrade from all
three leading ratings agencies is struggling to overcome huge debt and public
deficit that have sparked concern among its eurozone partners
in germany investor sentiment fell for fourth month running in january as
europe biggest economy braced for burdensome and long recovery the zew
economic research institute said
the zew indicator of german economic sentiment fell more steeply than forecast
to an indexed points its lowest level since july
the dollar also got boost after top regulator said china would rein in
credit after explosive growth last year to prevent the economy overheating
this year we will continue to control the pace of the credit supply banking
regulator liu minkang told the asian financial forum in hong kong
in london on wednesday the euro was changing hands at dollars against
dollars late on tuesday yen pounds and
swiss francs
the dollar stood at yen and swiss francs
the pound was at dollars
on the london bullion market the price of gold eased to dollars an
ounce from dollars on tuesday
clinton vows to speed up adoptions from haiti
washington jan afp
us secretary of state hillary clinton vowed wednesday to speed up american
