Weather forecasters were keeping a close watch Friday on a storm system developing over the central Plains and central Rockies. More snow fell across the region and some parts of Kansas and Colorado braced for heavy blizzards. Forecaster Brian Korty said the entire eastern half of the country would feel the brunt of it in the coming days, calling it the kind of storm that happens “once every 20 years.” Along with the chances for more spring snow in some areas, Korty says the storm could bring flooding rains to the Northeast. By Thursday, the deadly storm had grounded hundreds of flights and postponed a baseball game. A jet trying to land at Traverse City, Mich., skidded 50 feet off a runway in the heavy snow early Thursday. The plane remained upright, and the 46 passengers and three crew members were unhurt, Pinnacle Airlines spokesman Phil Reed said.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com censor News |
Editor - 09:33:00 04-13-07 |
THE MUSLIM WORLD'S MOST MODERN CITY Miniskirts Meet Minarets in the New Istanbul |
Istanbul, the engine of Turkey's economy, has been reinventing itself for centuries. Now the city's elite is embracing the country's Ottoman past, while the poor dream of ascending the social ladder -- and urban planners simply try to keep the metropolis functioning. Kagan Gürsel's daily commute to work is one of the highlights of his day. The 47-year-old Istanbul entrepreneur doesn't have to worry about the stress of driving, nor is he forced to breathe the exhaust fumes with which millions of cars stuck in Istanbul's never-ending traffic jams pollute the city's air. Gürsel, who runs a hotel chain, goes to work on a boat, crossing the Bosporus twice a day. The "Esma Sultan," an old yellow and white pilot boat named after a proud daughter of a sultan, chugs steadily through the waves of the Bosporus. Along the way it passes giant container ships, oil tankers from Kazakhstan and a gleaming white cruise liner. "The Bosporus is different every day," ... http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,477158,00.html
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Editor - 09:30:00 04-13-07 |
Net reaches out to final frontier |
A programme to kick-start the use of internet communications in space has been announced by the US government. The Department of Defense's Iris project will put an internet router in space by the start of 2009. It will allow voice, video and data communications for US troops using standards developed for the internet. Eventually Iris could extend the net into space, allowing data to flow directly between satellites, rather than sending it via ground stations. "Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," said Don Brown, of Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform. Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the predecessor of the internet, was developed by the United States Department of Defense. The Iris (Internet Router Protocol in Space) project has been given the go ahead after winning funding from the US Department of Defense, under its Joint ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551807.stm
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Editor - 09:23:00 04-13-07 |
Bovine TB 'can spread in humans' |
Bovine TB can spread from human to human, scientists fear after a cluster of six cases, one fatal, in England. All had visited the same Birmingham bar or nightclub, yet only one of the young patients had been in contact with infected unpasteurised milk or cattle. The Health Protection Agency said although rare, the cases emphasised the need for rigorous checks and controls. Experts told The Lancet that bovine TB was an under-appreciated cause of disease and death in humans. 'Human-to-human spread' The HPA investigation was launched after one case was reported in 2004, four in 2005 and one at the beginning of 2006. DNA fingerprinting showed all six cases were identically linked, most probably by person-to-person spread. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6547973.stm
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Editor - 09:21:00 04-13-07 |
India 'to drop' menstrual forms |
The Indian civil service is dropping part of a new appraisal form requiring female employees to detail their menstrual cycles, a top official says. The ministry of personnel says that the decision to delete the controversial part of the form was taken following an intervention by the prime minister. Some female civil servants described the form as grossly insensitive. The questions were reported to have been put in the 2007 appraisal on advice from the health ministry. "Following a series of protests we have decided to delete the objectionable part of the form which require women to provide details of their menstrual cycles," the secretary of the personnel department at the Ministry for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Satyanand Mishra, told the BBC Hindi service... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6553567.stm
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Editor - 09:18:00 04-13-07 |
Amnesty for Ivory Coast conflict |
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has signed a law giving amnesty for crimes committed during the civil war. The amnesty, part of a recent peace deal, applies to both the New Forces rebels and the armed forces loyal to President Gbagbo. Last month human rights group Amnesty International condemned Ivory Coast's "climate of impunity" and said both sides were guilty of large-scale rape. A BBC correspondent says there will be no local prosecutions for such crimes. Any on-going prosecutions are to be dropped immediately, and prisoners convicted of crimes covered by the amnesty will be released. Economic crimes are a notable exception, as they are not covered by the amnesty. The BBC's James Copnall in Ivory Coast says the new law will go some way to reassuring both sides that they can move forward in the peace process without fear. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6553547.stm
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Editor - 09:16:00 04-13-07 |
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