New Glow Seen in Space Clouds
posted by impresario | 4:46 PM
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12 comments
The Virtual Land of Rhetoric
Pointers to the important issues of today.
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- Current Posts
Monday, November 07, 2005
Schools, synagogues & hundreds of cars burn. It's Paris 2005
posted by impresario | 8:17 AM
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0 comments
Saturday, November 05, 2005
US removed over 1.7 metric tons of radioactive material from Iraq
posted by impresario | 9:56 AM
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0 comments
Thursday, November 03, 2005
China finds ancient observatory
BBC NEWS
China finds ancient observatory
Archaeologists in northern China have reportedly found one of the world's oldest observatories.
The remains, discovered near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province, are thought to be about 4,100 years old.
Wang Shouguan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state media that the discovery would help the study of ancient astronomy.
Chinese astronomers are thought to have made some of the earliest recorded observations of the stars.
The observatory consists of a semicircular platform 40m (130ft) in diameter, surrounded by 13 pillars which were are believed to have been used to mark the movement of the sun through the seasons.
It "was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites", He Nu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua news agency.
"The ancient people observed the direction of sunrise through the gaps, and distinguished the different seasons of the year," he said.
In order to test this theory, archaeologists reportedly spent 18 months simulating ancient uses of the site.
They found that the seasons they calculated were only one or two days different from the traditional Chinese calendar, which is still widely used today.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4396012.stm
Published: 2005/11/01 11:46:27 GMT
© BBC MMV
China finds ancient observatory
Archaeologists in northern China have reportedly found one of the world's oldest observatories.
The remains, discovered near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province, are thought to be about 4,100 years old.
Wang Shouguan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state media that the discovery would help the study of ancient astronomy.
Chinese astronomers are thought to have made some of the earliest recorded observations of the stars.
The observatory consists of a semicircular platform 40m (130ft) in diameter, surrounded by 13 pillars which were are believed to have been used to mark the movement of the sun through the seasons.
It "was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites", He Nu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua news agency.
"The ancient people observed the direction of sunrise through the gaps, and distinguished the different seasons of the year," he said.
In order to test this theory, archaeologists reportedly spent 18 months simulating ancient uses of the site.
They found that the seasons they calculated were only one or two days different from the traditional Chinese calendar, which is still widely used today.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4396012.stm
Published: 2005/11/01 11:46:27 GMT
© BBC MMV
posted by impresario | 5:25 PM
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0 comments
Paris-Area Riots Spread to 20 Towns
Back to Story - Help
Yahoo! News
Paris-Area Riots Spread to 20 Towns
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 18 minutes ago
A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state.
Facing mounting criticism, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, highlighting the frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to many North African immigrants.
Police deployed for a feared eighth night of clashes, after bands of youths lobbing stones and petrol bombs ignored President Jacques Chirac's appeal for calm a day earlier.
"I will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighborhoods. I will not accept having crime networks and drug trafficking profiting from disorder," Villepin said at the Senate in between emergency meetings called over the riots.
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois — heart of the rioting — men filled the Bilal mosque for evening prayers, but streets were subdued with shops shutting early.
"Look around you. How do you think we can celebrate?" said Abdallah Hammo as he closed the tea house where he works.
Riots erupted in an outburst of anger in Clichy-sous-Bois over the accidental electrocution Oct. 27 of two teenagers who fled a soccer game and hid in a power substation when they saw police enter the area. Youths in the neighborhood suspect that police chased Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, to their deaths.
Since then riots have swelled into a broader challenge against the French state and its security forces. The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing.
The Interior Ministry released a preliminary report Thursday exonerating officers of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths. Some 1,300 officers were being deployed in Seine-Saint-Denis, a tough northeastern area that includes the town of Clichy-sous-Bois and has seen the worst violence.
The report said police went to Clichy-sous-Bois to investigate a suspected intrusion on a building site but did not chase the teenagers who were killed. A third teenager who was seriously injured also told investigators he and the other boys were aware of the dangers when they hid in the substation, which was fenced off, the report said.
The report did not address why the youths ran when officers came to the neighborhood, but it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and Bouna was among those who had intruded onto the building site.
Such official assurances that police were not directly responsible for the deaths have not stemmed the unrest, which authorities said spread Wednesday night to at least 20 Paris-region towns. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted.
Rioters also set fire to a gym near the Les Tilleuls housing complex in the Seine-Saint-Denis region. It burned and smoldered Wednesday night as residents looked on in despair.
"Where is she going to practice now?" asked Mohammed Fawzi Kaci, an Algerian immigrant whose 8-year-old daughter took gymnastics classes at the facility.
The violence also has cast doubt on the success of France's model of seeking to integrate its immigrant community — its Muslim population, at an estimated 5 million, is Western Europe's largest — by playing down differences between ethnic groups. Rather than feeling embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs, housing and opportunities.
"It is very tough when you are stuck midway between France and Algeria or Morocco," said Sonia Imloul, who works with troubled teens in Seine-Saint-Denis and was born in France of Algerian parents. She added: "Perhaps we should be told clearly to stop having children, because they have an 80 percent chance of not succeeding."
On Thursday, rioters fired four shots at police and firefighters but caused no injuries, said Jean-Francois Cordet, the top government official for Seine-Saint-Denis. Nine people were injured in other unrest and 315 cars were torched across the Paris area, officials said.
Traffic was halted Thursday morning on a commuter line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains. A passenger was slightly injured by broken glass.
Police have made 143 arrests during the unrest, Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Residents and opposition politicians have accused Sarkozy of fanning tensions with his tough police tactics and talk — including calling troublemakers "scum."
"Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Kaci, whose daughter lost her gym. "I'm proud to live in France, but this France disappoints me."
___
Associated Press writers John Leicester, Scheherezade Faramarzi, Joelle Diderich and Cecile Brisson in Paris contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Yahoo! News
Paris-Area Riots Spread to 20 Towns
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 18 minutes ago
A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state.
Facing mounting criticism, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, highlighting the frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to many North African immigrants.
Police deployed for a feared eighth night of clashes, after bands of youths lobbing stones and petrol bombs ignored President Jacques Chirac's appeal for calm a day earlier.
"I will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighborhoods. I will not accept having crime networks and drug trafficking profiting from disorder," Villepin said at the Senate in between emergency meetings called over the riots.
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois — heart of the rioting — men filled the Bilal mosque for evening prayers, but streets were subdued with shops shutting early.
"Look around you. How do you think we can celebrate?" said Abdallah Hammo as he closed the tea house where he works.
Riots erupted in an outburst of anger in Clichy-sous-Bois over the accidental electrocution Oct. 27 of two teenagers who fled a soccer game and hid in a power substation when they saw police enter the area. Youths in the neighborhood suspect that police chased Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, to their deaths.
Since then riots have swelled into a broader challenge against the French state and its security forces. The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing.
The Interior Ministry released a preliminary report Thursday exonerating officers of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths. Some 1,300 officers were being deployed in Seine-Saint-Denis, a tough northeastern area that includes the town of Clichy-sous-Bois and has seen the worst violence.
The report said police went to Clichy-sous-Bois to investigate a suspected intrusion on a building site but did not chase the teenagers who were killed. A third teenager who was seriously injured also told investigators he and the other boys were aware of the dangers when they hid in the substation, which was fenced off, the report said.
The report did not address why the youths ran when officers came to the neighborhood, but it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and Bouna was among those who had intruded onto the building site.
Such official assurances that police were not directly responsible for the deaths have not stemmed the unrest, which authorities said spread Wednesday night to at least 20 Paris-region towns. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted.
Rioters also set fire to a gym near the Les Tilleuls housing complex in the Seine-Saint-Denis region. It burned and smoldered Wednesday night as residents looked on in despair.
"Where is she going to practice now?" asked Mohammed Fawzi Kaci, an Algerian immigrant whose 8-year-old daughter took gymnastics classes at the facility.
The violence also has cast doubt on the success of France's model of seeking to integrate its immigrant community — its Muslim population, at an estimated 5 million, is Western Europe's largest — by playing down differences between ethnic groups. Rather than feeling embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs, housing and opportunities.
"It is very tough when you are stuck midway between France and Algeria or Morocco," said Sonia Imloul, who works with troubled teens in Seine-Saint-Denis and was born in France of Algerian parents. She added: "Perhaps we should be told clearly to stop having children, because they have an 80 percent chance of not succeeding."
On Thursday, rioters fired four shots at police and firefighters but caused no injuries, said Jean-Francois Cordet, the top government official for Seine-Saint-Denis. Nine people were injured in other unrest and 315 cars were torched across the Paris area, officials said.
Traffic was halted Thursday morning on a commuter line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains. A passenger was slightly injured by broken glass.
Police have made 143 arrests during the unrest, Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Residents and opposition politicians have accused Sarkozy of fanning tensions with his tough police tactics and talk — including calling troublemakers "scum."
"Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Kaci, whose daughter lost her gym. "I'm proud to live in France, but this France disappoints me."
___
Associated Press writers John Leicester, Scheherezade Faramarzi, Joelle Diderich and Cecile Brisson in Paris contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
posted by impresario | 5:24 PM
|
0 comments
IBM slows light, readies it for networking
Source:
http://news.com.com/IBM+slows+light,+readies+it+for+networking/2100-1008_3-5928541.html
IBM slows light, readies it for networking
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 2, 2005, 10:39 AM PST
IBM has created a chip that can slow down light, the latest advance in an
industrywide effort to develop computers that will use only a fraction of
the energy of today's machines.
The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon
dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the holes,
light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary speed of
186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light pulses could
carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light can be further
slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide.
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California,
Berkeley, have slowed light in laboratories. IBM, though, claims that its
light-slowing device is the first to be fashioned out of fairly standard
materials, potentially paving the way toward commercial adoption.
A number of companies and university researchers are currently tinkering
with ways to replace the electronic components inside computers, which
ferry signals with electrons, with optical technology. Optical equipment
ferries data on photons, the smallest measure of light. Photons are far
faster. More important, optical equipment generates less heat, curbing the
growing problem of heat and power consumption.
The catch, however, is that until recently, creating optical components
has been more of an art than a science. The components cost a lot to make
and can't be cranked out in the millions like silicon chips. Another
factor: Optical parts are typically big, unlike silicon chips, which
measure only a few millimeters on a side.
Progress in blending the best of both technologies is advancing rapidly,
however. Intel has demonstrated a Raman laser fashioned from silicon.
Intel and start-up Luxtera have shown off silicon modulators, which chop
up the light from a laser so that it can represent data.
IBM's silicon waveguide, as the name suggests, would channel light pulses
created by the laser and modulator.
When the optical conversion might start to occur is a matter of
speculation. Luxtera has said it will start to commercially produce
products in 2007. The computer industry, however, tends to move slowly
when it comes to major overhauls of computer architecture. Several
components will have to be developed before photos can replace electrons
inside computers.
A paper providing details on the chip will run in Nature on Wednesday.
Copyright 5 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://news.com.com/IBM+slows+light,+readies+it+for+networking/2100-1008_3-5928541.html
IBM slows light, readies it for networking
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 2, 2005, 10:39 AM PST
IBM has created a chip that can slow down light, the latest advance in an
industrywide effort to develop computers that will use only a fraction of
the energy of today's machines.
The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon
dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the holes,
light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary speed of
186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light pulses could
carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light can be further
slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide.
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California,
Berkeley, have slowed light in laboratories. IBM, though, claims that its
light-slowing device is the first to be fashioned out of fairly standard
materials, potentially paving the way toward commercial adoption.
A number of companies and university researchers are currently tinkering
with ways to replace the electronic components inside computers, which
ferry signals with electrons, with optical technology. Optical equipment
ferries data on photons, the smallest measure of light. Photons are far
faster. More important, optical equipment generates less heat, curbing the
growing problem of heat and power consumption.
The catch, however, is that until recently, creating optical components
has been more of an art than a science. The components cost a lot to make
and can't be cranked out in the millions like silicon chips. Another
factor: Optical parts are typically big, unlike silicon chips, which
measure only a few millimeters on a side.
Progress in blending the best of both technologies is advancing rapidly,
however. Intel has demonstrated a Raman laser fashioned from silicon.
Intel and start-up Luxtera have shown off silicon modulators, which chop
up the light from a laser so that it can represent data.
IBM's silicon waveguide, as the name suggests, would channel light pulses
created by the laser and modulator.
When the optical conversion might start to occur is a matter of
speculation. Luxtera has said it will start to commercially produce
products in 2007. The computer industry, however, tends to move slowly
when it comes to major overhauls of computer architecture. Several
components will have to be developed before photos can replace electrons
inside computers.
A paper providing details on the chip will run in Nature on Wednesday.
Copyright 5 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
posted by impresario | 5:24 PM
|
0 comments
Web psychotherapy 'just as good'
BBC NEWS
Web psychotherapy 'just as good'
Therapy delivered via the internet is just as good as face-to-face sessions for treating depression, say Swedish researchers.
Web-based programmes could help counteract the current shortage of skilled therapists, they say.
Cognitive behavioural therapy, the focus of the study, helps a person to change how they think and what they do to improve state of mind.
The research is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Self-help treatment of depression is an attractive treatment option
Researcher Professor Gerhard Andersson
In the study, 117 volunteers with mild to moderate depression participated in either a web-based self-help CBT programme plus an internet discussion group, or an internet discussion group alone.
The do-it-yourself CBT programme consisted of 89 pages of text divided into five modules that were estimated to take eight weeks to complete.
Overall, 37% of the patients withdrew from the programme - the main reason given was that it was "too demanding".
However, those that continued with the programme reported significant improvements to their psychological wellbeing.
Self-help
The success of the web-based self-help programme was the same as that seen in past studies of face-to-face therapy, and was much more effective than the internet group therapy on its own.
The self-help programme resulted in decreased depressive symptoms immediately after treatment and at the six-month follow-up, the researchers found.
Lead researcher Professor Gerhard Andersson, from Linköping University, said: "Benefits were also observed regarding anxiety symptoms and quality of life.
"Self-help treatment of depression is an attractive treatment option."
He said such internet-based therapy options should be pursued further as a complement or alternative to conventional treatment methods.
Dr Peter Haywood, consultant clinical psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust said: "Self-help materials can be extremely helpful. Obviously it will not work for everybody.
"There is a shortage of trained CBT therapists so this self-help approach might be useful for some people.
"There are some very well established self-help books that many people have found beneficial, so there are all kinds of ways self-help can be made available."
Richard Brook, chief executive of Mind, said: "Computer-delivered CBT is an important addition to the range of treatment options available for people experiencing depression.
"This method of delivery is useful for people who might not be able to access CBT easily because of their remote location, or for people who find it difficult to speak 'one-to-one' about their depression.
"With the current shortage of therapists, people can sometimes wait up to a year for treatment on the NHS.
"However, online CBT will not suit everyone. It should not be used as a reason to evade training enough therapists so that people experiencing mental health problems can access the treatments they need when they need them."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4395554.stm
Published: 2005/11/01 11:54:32 GMT
© BBC MMV
Web psychotherapy 'just as good'
Therapy delivered via the internet is just as good as face-to-face sessions for treating depression, say Swedish researchers.
Web-based programmes could help counteract the current shortage of skilled therapists, they say.
Cognitive behavioural therapy, the focus of the study, helps a person to change how they think and what they do to improve state of mind.
The research is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Self-help treatment of depression is an attractive treatment option
Researcher Professor Gerhard Andersson
In the study, 117 volunteers with mild to moderate depression participated in either a web-based self-help CBT programme plus an internet discussion group, or an internet discussion group alone.
The do-it-yourself CBT programme consisted of 89 pages of text divided into five modules that were estimated to take eight weeks to complete.
Overall, 37% of the patients withdrew from the programme - the main reason given was that it was "too demanding".
However, those that continued with the programme reported significant improvements to their psychological wellbeing.
Self-help
The success of the web-based self-help programme was the same as that seen in past studies of face-to-face therapy, and was much more effective than the internet group therapy on its own.
The self-help programme resulted in decreased depressive symptoms immediately after treatment and at the six-month follow-up, the researchers found.
Lead researcher Professor Gerhard Andersson, from Linköping University, said: "Benefits were also observed regarding anxiety symptoms and quality of life.
"Self-help treatment of depression is an attractive treatment option."
He said such internet-based therapy options should be pursued further as a complement or alternative to conventional treatment methods.
Dr Peter Haywood, consultant clinical psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust said: "Self-help materials can be extremely helpful. Obviously it will not work for everybody.
"There is a shortage of trained CBT therapists so this self-help approach might be useful for some people.
"There are some very well established self-help books that many people have found beneficial, so there are all kinds of ways self-help can be made available."
Richard Brook, chief executive of Mind, said: "Computer-delivered CBT is an important addition to the range of treatment options available for people experiencing depression.
"This method of delivery is useful for people who might not be able to access CBT easily because of their remote location, or for people who find it difficult to speak 'one-to-one' about their depression.
"With the current shortage of therapists, people can sometimes wait up to a year for treatment on the NHS.
"However, online CBT will not suit everyone. It should not be used as a reason to evade training enough therapists so that people experiencing mental health problems can access the treatments they need when they need them."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4395554.stm
Published: 2005/11/01 11:54:32 GMT
© BBC MMV
posted by impresario | 5:23 PM
|
0 comments
Andy Rooney Gives Us A Few Minutes
10 Plus 1: Andy Rooney Gives Us A Few Minutes
PublicEye
CBS News Blog
This week's "10 Plus 1" subject is Andy Rooney, who is now in his 27th season doing "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" on "60 Minutes."
Rooney has a list of accomplishments too long to do service to here, but a few of the highlights are the national newspaper column he's written for Tribune Media Services since 1979, his 13 books, three Emmy Awards (plus a Lifetime Achievement Emmy), and his Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
So, what do you do for a living?
I am a writer. I write for a living.
What is not being covered enough at CBS News?
The news is not being reported in any comprehensive way by CBS News. The world cannot be covered in a very short half hour.
What's the strangest thing that has ever happened to you on the job?
I got fired.
If you had 10 broken fingers and no gas in the car, which colleague would you want to be there?
All the other "60 Minutes" correspondents use a car service so I'd call one of them for the number. I'd use a pencil clutched in my palm instead of a broken finger to dial. I have never used a car service or run out of gas and do not anticipate either happening.
If you were not in news, what would you be doing?
I'd probably be out of work. I do a lot of woodworking, making furniture, but I'm not really good enough to make a living at it. I couldn't build a house because I don't do plumbing or electrical work. I wouldn't be a bank clerk, a toll collector, a school crossing guard, a White House press secretary.
What is the biggest change at CBS during the time you've been here?
The emphasis used to be on collecting and then distributing the news. The emphasis now is on saving money. CBS management is saving money better than the reduced news staff is collecting and distributing the news.
What are the last three books you've read or the last three movies you've seen?
I write more books than I read. I recently tried to read the Koran but found it more obtuse than the bible. It probably has to be read in its original Arabic and I don't speak or read Arabic. The last movie I saw was "Good Night And Good Luck," the Ed Murrow movie by George Clooney. It was thin on Fred Friendly's part in Murrow's success, but overall, true, good and entertaining.
What is your first memory of TV News?
I forget but I remember watching Doug Edwards, Winston Burdett, Ed Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Dallas Townsend, William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Howard K Smith, Larry LeSueur, Robert Nathan, H.V. Kaltenborn, Elmer Davis, George Herman, Alex Kendrick, David Schoenbrun. It seems likely that I've forgotten a few.
Would you want your child to go into the news business?
Three of my four children ARE in the news business. Son Brian is an ABC News correspondent. Daughter Emily has her own program, "Greater Boston," which is broadcast for half an hour five nights a week. Daughter Ellen works as a photographer in London and often places photos in newspapers and news magazines.
Who is the most fascinating person you've covered and who is the biggest jerk?
In 1967 I wrote and produced a one hour documentary called "Barry Goldwater's Arizona" and was surprised to find what a bright and decent fellow he was. I didn't vote for him but he became a good friend. As for the biggest jerk, it may have been the time I interviewed myself for a "60 Minutes" segment.
Normally we pose one question from a reader for this feature, but we got so many good questions for Andy, we decided to get his answers to three. Here they are:
Who should be the next anchor of the CBS Evening News?
I should be the next CBS News anchor.
Over the years you have painted yourself as not quite a big fan of computers. How do you feel about the CBS Public Eye blog and its policy of transparency? Is that a good use of technology?
I have never read the CBS Public Eye blog so I have no opinion. I'm trying to find out what blog means. It seems vastly over-rated as a communications tool.
Do you think candidates who want to run for President should be required to pass an intelligence and psychological exam?
Voters should be required to take an IQ test. The IQ score of the voter would register along with his or her vote. The candidate who got the highest total of IQ scores would be the winner.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2005/11/02/publiceye/printable1004728.shtml
PublicEye
CBS News Blog
This week's "10 Plus 1" subject is Andy Rooney, who is now in his 27th season doing "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" on "60 Minutes."
Rooney has a list of accomplishments too long to do service to here, but a few of the highlights are the national newspaper column he's written for Tribune Media Services since 1979, his 13 books, three Emmy Awards (plus a Lifetime Achievement Emmy), and his Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
So, what do you do for a living?
I am a writer. I write for a living.
What is not being covered enough at CBS News?
The news is not being reported in any comprehensive way by CBS News. The world cannot be covered in a very short half hour.
What's the strangest thing that has ever happened to you on the job?
I got fired.
If you had 10 broken fingers and no gas in the car, which colleague would you want to be there?
All the other "60 Minutes" correspondents use a car service so I'd call one of them for the number. I'd use a pencil clutched in my palm instead of a broken finger to dial. I have never used a car service or run out of gas and do not anticipate either happening.
If you were not in news, what would you be doing?
I'd probably be out of work. I do a lot of woodworking, making furniture, but I'm not really good enough to make a living at it. I couldn't build a house because I don't do plumbing or electrical work. I wouldn't be a bank clerk, a toll collector, a school crossing guard, a White House press secretary.
What is the biggest change at CBS during the time you've been here?
The emphasis used to be on collecting and then distributing the news. The emphasis now is on saving money. CBS management is saving money better than the reduced news staff is collecting and distributing the news.
What are the last three books you've read or the last three movies you've seen?
I write more books than I read. I recently tried to read the Koran but found it more obtuse than the bible. It probably has to be read in its original Arabic and I don't speak or read Arabic. The last movie I saw was "Good Night And Good Luck," the Ed Murrow movie by George Clooney. It was thin on Fred Friendly's part in Murrow's success, but overall, true, good and entertaining.
What is your first memory of TV News?
I forget but I remember watching Doug Edwards, Winston Burdett, Ed Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Dallas Townsend, William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Howard K Smith, Larry LeSueur, Robert Nathan, H.V. Kaltenborn, Elmer Davis, George Herman, Alex Kendrick, David Schoenbrun. It seems likely that I've forgotten a few.
Would you want your child to go into the news business?
Three of my four children ARE in the news business. Son Brian is an ABC News correspondent. Daughter Emily has her own program, "Greater Boston," which is broadcast for half an hour five nights a week. Daughter Ellen works as a photographer in London and often places photos in newspapers and news magazines.
Who is the most fascinating person you've covered and who is the biggest jerk?
In 1967 I wrote and produced a one hour documentary called "Barry Goldwater's Arizona" and was surprised to find what a bright and decent fellow he was. I didn't vote for him but he became a good friend. As for the biggest jerk, it may have been the time I interviewed myself for a "60 Minutes" segment.
Normally we pose one question from a reader for this feature, but we got so many good questions for Andy, we decided to get his answers to three. Here they are:
Who should be the next anchor of the CBS Evening News?
I should be the next CBS News anchor.
Over the years you have painted yourself as not quite a big fan of computers. How do you feel about the CBS Public Eye blog and its policy of transparency? Is that a good use of technology?
I have never read the CBS Public Eye blog so I have no opinion. I'm trying to find out what blog means. It seems vastly over-rated as a communications tool.
Do you think candidates who want to run for President should be required to pass an intelligence and psychological exam?
Voters should be required to take an IQ test. The IQ score of the voter would register along with his or her vote. The candidate who got the highest total of IQ scores would be the winner.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2005/11/02/publiceye/printable1004728.shtml
posted by impresario | 5:22 PM
|
6 comments
Plant oil 'acts like cancer drug'
BBC NEWS
Plant oil 'acts like cancer drug'
Scientists have pinpointed how evening primrose oil fights breast tumours.
It is down to a substance in the oil called gamma-linolenic acid that acts on the same receptor in tumours as the powerful breast cancer drug Herceptin.
Unlike Herceptin, which blocks the Her-2/neu receptor, GLA interferes with the gene carrying the DNA code needed to make the receptor work.
The US work in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute applies to about 30% breast cancers.
GLA does seem to be a worthy candidate for further investigation in clinical trials
Hazel Nunn of Cancer Research UK
Her-2/neu-positive tumours tend to be particularly aggressive. Activation of this receptor makes the cancer grow.
Studies have shown that the drug Herceptin (traztuzumab) cuts the risk of tumours returning in women with early stage Her-2/neu-positive breast cancer by 50%.
UK ministers have already decided that all women in England with early stage breast cancer should be tested to see if they could benefit from the drug.
However, Herceptin is currently licensed only for use in women with advanced breast cancer, although the government's drugs watchdog NICE has been asked to fast track its assessment of the wider use of Herceptin.
Inexpensive therapy hope
The latest work by Dr Javier Menendez and colleagues at Northwestern University suggests evening primrose oil might be a cheaper alternative, or add extra protection.
This research does not suggest that women with breast cancer should routinely take evening primrose oil
Dr Sarah Rawlings of Breakthrough Breast Cancer
In their tests, treating Her-2/neu-positive breast cancers will both GLA and Herceptin led to a synergistic increase in death of the tumour cells and reduced cancer growth.
Earlier work by the same team showed that GLA also enhanced the efficacy of other breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and the anti-oestrogen drug tamoxifen.
"Since over-expression of Her-2/neu generally confers resistance to chemotherapy and endocrine therapies, our current findings can explain why GLA increases the efficacy of breast cancer treatments," said Dr Menendez.
He said the work showed that "an inexpensive herbal medicine" might regulate breast cancer cell growth and help control cancer spread.
Hazel Nunn of Cancer Research UK said: "A lot more work still needs to be done, but gamma-linolenic acid or GLA does seem to be a worthy candidate for further investigation in clinical trials.
"However, there is no evidence to suggest that taking GLA supplements can help prevent cancer. The best ways to reduce the risk of cancer are to avoid smoking and keep a healthy body weight."
Dr Sarah Rawlings of Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "These early findings are interesting, however, this research does not suggest that women with breast cancer should routinely take evening primrose oil and any woman with questions about treatment should discuss them with her doctor."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4395826.stm
Published: 2005/11/02 10:37:59 GMT
© BBC MMV
Plant oil 'acts like cancer drug'
Scientists have pinpointed how evening primrose oil fights breast tumours.
It is down to a substance in the oil called gamma-linolenic acid that acts on the same receptor in tumours as the powerful breast cancer drug Herceptin.
Unlike Herceptin, which blocks the Her-2/neu receptor, GLA interferes with the gene carrying the DNA code needed to make the receptor work.
The US work in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute applies to about 30% breast cancers.
GLA does seem to be a worthy candidate for further investigation in clinical trials
Hazel Nunn of Cancer Research UK
Her-2/neu-positive tumours tend to be particularly aggressive. Activation of this receptor makes the cancer grow.
Studies have shown that the drug Herceptin (traztuzumab) cuts the risk of tumours returning in women with early stage Her-2/neu-positive breast cancer by 50%.
UK ministers have already decided that all women in England with early stage breast cancer should be tested to see if they could benefit from the drug.
However, Herceptin is currently licensed only for use in women with advanced breast cancer, although the government's drugs watchdog NICE has been asked to fast track its assessment of the wider use of Herceptin.
Inexpensive therapy hope
The latest work by Dr Javier Menendez and colleagues at Northwestern University suggests evening primrose oil might be a cheaper alternative, or add extra protection.
This research does not suggest that women with breast cancer should routinely take evening primrose oil
Dr Sarah Rawlings of Breakthrough Breast Cancer
In their tests, treating Her-2/neu-positive breast cancers will both GLA and Herceptin led to a synergistic increase in death of the tumour cells and reduced cancer growth.
Earlier work by the same team showed that GLA also enhanced the efficacy of other breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and the anti-oestrogen drug tamoxifen.
"Since over-expression of Her-2/neu generally confers resistance to chemotherapy and endocrine therapies, our current findings can explain why GLA increases the efficacy of breast cancer treatments," said Dr Menendez.
He said the work showed that "an inexpensive herbal medicine" might regulate breast cancer cell growth and help control cancer spread.
Hazel Nunn of Cancer Research UK said: "A lot more work still needs to be done, but gamma-linolenic acid or GLA does seem to be a worthy candidate for further investigation in clinical trials.
"However, there is no evidence to suggest that taking GLA supplements can help prevent cancer. The best ways to reduce the risk of cancer are to avoid smoking and keep a healthy body weight."
Dr Sarah Rawlings of Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "These early findings are interesting, however, this research does not suggest that women with breast cancer should routinely take evening primrose oil and any woman with questions about treatment should discuss them with her doctor."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4395826.stm
Published: 2005/11/02 10:37:59 GMT
© BBC MMV
posted by impresario | 5:22 PM
|
0 comments
Scientists Find Fossils in Sexual Union
Scientists Find Fossils in Sexual Union
39 minutes ago
This was no one-night stand. Scientists in India say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years.
The findings were published in the October edition of the Indian journal "Current Science," which said it was the first time that sexual copulation had been discovered in a fossil state, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
But voyeurs will need a microscope to view the eternal lovers.
The fossils are tiny swarm cells, a stage in the development of the fungus myxomycetes, also known as slime molds.
The cells reproduce by "fusing," Ranjeet Kar of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow reportedly told PTI. Once the cells fuse, long, threadlike appendages known as flagella, are lost, he said.
Finding the fossils in a fused position and with their flagella shed, is evidence that the two cells were having sex, Kar said.
"The sexual organs being delicate and the time of conjugation short lived, it is indeed rare to get this stage in the fossil state," the study said.
The cells were discovered in a 30-foot deep dry well in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
39 minutes ago
This was no one-night stand. Scientists in India say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years.
The findings were published in the October edition of the Indian journal "Current Science," which said it was the first time that sexual copulation had been discovered in a fossil state, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
But voyeurs will need a microscope to view the eternal lovers.
The fossils are tiny swarm cells, a stage in the development of the fungus myxomycetes, also known as slime molds.
The cells reproduce by "fusing," Ranjeet Kar of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow reportedly told PTI. Once the cells fuse, long, threadlike appendages known as flagella, are lost, he said.
Finding the fossils in a fused position and with their flagella shed, is evidence that the two cells were having sex, Kar said.
"The sexual organs being delicate and the time of conjugation short lived, it is indeed rare to get this stage in the fossil state," the study said.
The cells were discovered in a 30-foot deep dry well in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
posted by impresario | 11:27 AM
|
0 comments
Quantum Physics May Changs Optical Communication
http://www.physnews.com/showlink.php?id=52039
Quantum Physics Discovery May Bring About Changes in Optical Communication
October 28, 2005
Results from experiments conducted at the University of California, Santa
Barbara may lead to profound changes in optical communications. The
discovery is reported in the October 28th edition of the journal Science.
Physicist Mark Sherwin at UCSB explained that as information technology
advances, scientists are intent on transmitting information much more
quickly. "We are working toward sending information 100 times faster than
it can be sent now," he said. His research group has spent five years on
this project. The experiments were performed using the university's
room-sized, free-electron laser.
"We took an existing semiconductor device that is essentially an
electrically controlled shutter and we have tried to open and close the
shutter at the rate of three trillion times a second," he explained. "We
found that in addition to opening and closing the shutter we are making the
shutter itself vibrate."
Those vibrations of the shutter may enable the shutter to be opened and
closed with weak light beams rather than strong voltages, said Sherwin. In
optical communications there are different channels of communications, so
these light beams could correspond to different channels. "It would be a
way of changing channels really fast," he added. "Right now it is a very
slow process to change channels in optical communications.
Sherwin explained that electronics are much slower than optics and that one
optical fiber could transmit information more than 1,000 times as fast as
the information could be put on it by an electronic device like a computer.
"What we have here at UCSB is a special source of radiation, the
free-electron laser, that can generate electromagnetic oscillations at the
rate of a few trillion per second," said Sherwin. "We found that when you
drive the modulator, or shutter, that fast it acts in a peculiar way.
Rather than absorbing light near a single frequency, it can absorb light
near a second frequency as well. This opens the possibility of a new type
of cross modulation, where a beam of light at one of the absorption
frequencies can turn on or off the light of the other."
Sherwin said that light has been used to send information rapidly over long
distances for more than 3000 years. The ancient Greeks, for example, used
large fires to flash signals from mountain top to mountain top, as
described by Homer in the Iliad. In order to send information, light must
be modulated—that is, one must be able to turn the light beam on and off.
In World War II, ships communicated with one another in code using
searchlights that sailors modulated manually with shutters. Modern
modulators for light are controlled by electrical voltages, explained Sherwin.
"In an electro-absorption modulator, light near a particular frequency, the
carrier frequency, can be blocked or transmitted by tuning a material
oscillation in or out of resonance with the carrier frequency," said
Sherwin. "A common electro-absorption modulator is made of a semiconductor
quantum well, a thin layer of a semiconductor with a relatively small "band
gap" (or a relatively large affinity for negatively charged electrons and
positively charged holes) sandwiched between two layers with a larger band
gap."
Sherwin explained that when light of the correct frequency is incident on a
quantum well, it creates bound electron-hole pairs called excitons and is
absorbed. An electric field applied perpendicular to the plane of the
quantum well shifts the frequency of the excitonic absorption so that light
resonant with the zero-field excitonic resonance is no longer absorbed.
Quantum well electro-absorption modulators are currently used to modulate
light at rates exceeding 10 billion bits per second.
In this article, the scientists report that a quantum well
electro-absorption modulator has been strongly driven at frequencies
exceeding one Terahertz (1 trillion cycles). This is more than 100 times
faster than quantum well modulators are usually operated. At these
extremely high frequencies, internal quantum-mechanical oscillations of the
excitons themselves were excited. When the strong Terahertz drive was
resonant with the excitonic oscillations, the absorption spectrum of weak
light near the excitonic absorption of the quantum well was transformed
from a single peak to a double peak, or doublet. This doublet is a
signature that light with frequency near the excitonic absorption can no
longer simply create an exciton in its lowest-energy state, but must create
a quantum mechanical superposition of an exciton in its ground and excited
states.
A potential application for optical communication is that two arbitrarily
weak light beams separated by the frequency of the Terahertz drive could
modulate one another. "Usually, such cross-modulation occurs only when
light beams have power exceeding a certain threshold," said Sherwin.
On a separate note, Sherwin said, "In atomic gases, the doublet observed
here has been the first step toward creating a system that could greatly
slow or even stop the propagation of light. The ability to slow or stop
light in a semiconductor would also enhance the toolbox for optical
communications and computation. However, in order to achieve slowing or
stopping of light, the mechanisms for energy dissipation in the quantum
well modulator would have to be significantly reduced."
The Science article, "Quantum Coherence in an Optical Modulator," was
co-authored by S. G. Carter, who worked on the experiments at UCSB and then
moved to the University of Colorado; V. Birkedal, from UCSB; C. S. Wang,
from UCSB; L. A. Coldren, from UCSB; A. V. Maslov, from the Center for
Nanotechnology at the NASA Ames Research Center; and, D. S. Citrin from the
Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Source: University of California, Santa Barbara
Quantum Physics Discovery May Bring About Changes in Optical Communication
October 28, 2005
Results from experiments conducted at the University of California, Santa
Barbara may lead to profound changes in optical communications. The
discovery is reported in the October 28th edition of the journal Science.
Physicist Mark Sherwin at UCSB explained that as information technology
advances, scientists are intent on transmitting information much more
quickly. "We are working toward sending information 100 times faster than
it can be sent now," he said. His research group has spent five years on
this project. The experiments were performed using the university's
room-sized, free-electron laser.
"We took an existing semiconductor device that is essentially an
electrically controlled shutter and we have tried to open and close the
shutter at the rate of three trillion times a second," he explained. "We
found that in addition to opening and closing the shutter we are making the
shutter itself vibrate."
Those vibrations of the shutter may enable the shutter to be opened and
closed with weak light beams rather than strong voltages, said Sherwin. In
optical communications there are different channels of communications, so
these light beams could correspond to different channels. "It would be a
way of changing channels really fast," he added. "Right now it is a very
slow process to change channels in optical communications.
Sherwin explained that electronics are much slower than optics and that one
optical fiber could transmit information more than 1,000 times as fast as
the information could be put on it by an electronic device like a computer.
"What we have here at UCSB is a special source of radiation, the
free-electron laser, that can generate electromagnetic oscillations at the
rate of a few trillion per second," said Sherwin. "We found that when you
drive the modulator, or shutter, that fast it acts in a peculiar way.
Rather than absorbing light near a single frequency, it can absorb light
near a second frequency as well. This opens the possibility of a new type
of cross modulation, where a beam of light at one of the absorption
frequencies can turn on or off the light of the other."
Sherwin said that light has been used to send information rapidly over long
distances for more than 3000 years. The ancient Greeks, for example, used
large fires to flash signals from mountain top to mountain top, as
described by Homer in the Iliad. In order to send information, light must
be modulated—that is, one must be able to turn the light beam on and off.
In World War II, ships communicated with one another in code using
searchlights that sailors modulated manually with shutters. Modern
modulators for light are controlled by electrical voltages, explained Sherwin.
"In an electro-absorption modulator, light near a particular frequency, the
carrier frequency, can be blocked or transmitted by tuning a material
oscillation in or out of resonance with the carrier frequency," said
Sherwin. "A common electro-absorption modulator is made of a semiconductor
quantum well, a thin layer of a semiconductor with a relatively small "band
gap" (or a relatively large affinity for negatively charged electrons and
positively charged holes) sandwiched between two layers with a larger band
gap."
Sherwin explained that when light of the correct frequency is incident on a
quantum well, it creates bound electron-hole pairs called excitons and is
absorbed. An electric field applied perpendicular to the plane of the
quantum well shifts the frequency of the excitonic absorption so that light
resonant with the zero-field excitonic resonance is no longer absorbed.
Quantum well electro-absorption modulators are currently used to modulate
light at rates exceeding 10 billion bits per second.
In this article, the scientists report that a quantum well
electro-absorption modulator has been strongly driven at frequencies
exceeding one Terahertz (1 trillion cycles). This is more than 100 times
faster than quantum well modulators are usually operated. At these
extremely high frequencies, internal quantum-mechanical oscillations of the
excitons themselves were excited. When the strong Terahertz drive was
resonant with the excitonic oscillations, the absorption spectrum of weak
light near the excitonic absorption of the quantum well was transformed
from a single peak to a double peak, or doublet. This doublet is a
signature that light with frequency near the excitonic absorption can no
longer simply create an exciton in its lowest-energy state, but must create
a quantum mechanical superposition of an exciton in its ground and excited
states.
A potential application for optical communication is that two arbitrarily
weak light beams separated by the frequency of the Terahertz drive could
modulate one another. "Usually, such cross-modulation occurs only when
light beams have power exceeding a certain threshold," said Sherwin.
On a separate note, Sherwin said, "In atomic gases, the doublet observed
here has been the first step toward creating a system that could greatly
slow or even stop the propagation of light. The ability to slow or stop
light in a semiconductor would also enhance the toolbox for optical
communications and computation. However, in order to achieve slowing or
stopping of light, the mechanisms for energy dissipation in the quantum
well modulator would have to be significantly reduced."
The Science article, "Quantum Coherence in an Optical Modulator," was
co-authored by S. G. Carter, who worked on the experiments at UCSB and then
moved to the University of Colorado; V. Birkedal, from UCSB; C. S. Wang,
from UCSB; L. A. Coldren, from UCSB; A. V. Maslov, from the Center for
Nanotechnology at the NASA Ames Research Center; and, D. S. Citrin from the
Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Source: University of California, Santa Barbara
posted by impresario | 11:22 AM
|
0 comments
Paris Riots Spread, Shaking French Government
Paris Riots Spread, Shaking French Government
Agence France-Presse (France)
The French government was reeling after nearly a week of suburban rioting outside Paris spread to other areas around the capital, laying bare what observers said was the country's failure to address deep problems of poverty and immigration.
Gangs of stone-throwing youths clashed with police and torched 180 cars overnight in several towns north and west of Paris in an escalation of dusk-to-dawn violence that has raged since last Thursday following the death of two teenagers in the northeast suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
Thirty-four people were arrested in the rampages, which have so shaken authorities that President Jacques Chirac came forward to call for calm and vow to investigate the teens' deaths.
"Tempers must calm down," a spokesman quoted him as telling his cabinet.
Chirac warned that "an escalation of disrespectful behaviour would lead to a dangerous situation" and asserted that "there can be no area existing outside the law" in France.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin put off indefinitely a trip to Canada originally scheduled for Wednesday to call an emergency meeting of ministers to discuss the problem and attend a parliamentary session in which he called the violence "extremely serious".
He told ministers that "the government will ensure public order and will do so with the necessary firmness."
He said he was counting on Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- who cancelled a trip next week to Pakistan and Afghanistan to deal with the situation -- to "take the necessary measures."
In all, more than 80 people have been arrested and two dozen police hurt since the start of the riots last week.
They were triggered by the accidental electrocution of two youths, aged 15 and 17, who had scaled an electrical relay station's walls to escape a police identity check in the street.
Since then, tensions -- punctuated by the nighttime confrontations -- have increased in the low-rent, high-immigrant suburbs that surround Paris.
The firing of a police teargas grenade against a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois during clashes late Sunday also sparked rage in the suburb's large Muslim community.
The grievances have been further fuelled by Sarkozy's hardline law-and-order policies.
The interior minister, who is also leader of France's ruling UMP party, has made no secret of his ambition to succeed Chirac in 2007 presidential elections.
Just one week before the riots exploded, he promised a "war without mercy" on violence and petty crime in the suburbs.
The opposition Socialist Party criticised Sarkozy's rhetoric, and accused the government of "creating an explosive situation" in the suburbs.
Observers saw the riots as a sign of the growing divisions in French society -- Muslim immigration, poverty, declining education standards in downtrodden areas and joblessness.
The left-leaning newspaper Liberation said successive governments had "broken their noses on the reality of the ghettos, often minimized and often forgotten in their priorities."
But in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper Wednesday, Sarkozy defended his tough policies by saying that some poor suburbs had come under "the rule of gangs, of drugs, of traffickers" and that his measures had brought down crime by eight percent a year.
"The feeling of exclusion, illegal immigration and the high level of unemployment creates considerable problems," he said, asserting that "firmness, but also justice" was needed.
Suburbs such as Clichy-sous-Bois suffer from unemployment rates more than twice the national average, which is already relatively high at around 10 percent.
Tuesday night's violence included fewer of the direct clashes between youths and police seen on previous nights in Clichy-sous-Bois, police and municipal sources said.
But while that suburb was relatively calm under the presence of several hundred police, outbreaks of trouble in other areas overwhelmed officers.
Cars were torched and police reported sporadic incidents involving groups of youths in Val-d'Oise to the north of the capital and Seine-et-Marne to the southeast, with lesser violence reported in Yvelines to the west.
Similar violence has gripped poor Paris suburbs at least 13 times in the past decade following the deaths of local youths by accident, by police or by neighbours, according to an AFP tally.
A French sociologist, Michel Wieviorka, told AFP that such rampages were "the _expression of desperation, of anger and a feeling of injustice."
They came about, he said, because "France doesn't know how to cope with the faltering of its republican model of integration."
Agence France-Presse (France)
The French government was reeling after nearly a week of suburban rioting outside Paris spread to other areas around the capital, laying bare what observers said was the country's failure to address deep problems of poverty and immigration.
Gangs of stone-throwing youths clashed with police and torched 180 cars overnight in several towns north and west of Paris in an escalation of dusk-to-dawn violence that has raged since last Thursday following the death of two teenagers in the northeast suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
Thirty-four people were arrested in the rampages, which have so shaken authorities that President Jacques Chirac came forward to call for calm and vow to investigate the teens' deaths.
"Tempers must calm down," a spokesman quoted him as telling his cabinet.
Chirac warned that "an escalation of disrespectful behaviour would lead to a dangerous situation" and asserted that "there can be no area existing outside the law" in France.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin put off indefinitely a trip to Canada originally scheduled for Wednesday to call an emergency meeting of ministers to discuss the problem and attend a parliamentary session in which he called the violence "extremely serious".
He told ministers that "the government will ensure public order and will do so with the necessary firmness."
He said he was counting on Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- who cancelled a trip next week to Pakistan and Afghanistan to deal with the situation -- to "take the necessary measures."
In all, more than 80 people have been arrested and two dozen police hurt since the start of the riots last week.
They were triggered by the accidental electrocution of two youths, aged 15 and 17, who had scaled an electrical relay station's walls to escape a police identity check in the street.
Since then, tensions -- punctuated by the nighttime confrontations -- have increased in the low-rent, high-immigrant suburbs that surround Paris.
The firing of a police teargas grenade against a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois during clashes late Sunday also sparked rage in the suburb's large Muslim community.
The grievances have been further fuelled by Sarkozy's hardline law-and-order policies.
The interior minister, who is also leader of France's ruling UMP party, has made no secret of his ambition to succeed Chirac in 2007 presidential elections.
Just one week before the riots exploded, he promised a "war without mercy" on violence and petty crime in the suburbs.
The opposition Socialist Party criticised Sarkozy's rhetoric, and accused the government of "creating an explosive situation" in the suburbs.
Observers saw the riots as a sign of the growing divisions in French society -- Muslim immigration, poverty, declining education standards in downtrodden areas and joblessness.
The left-leaning newspaper Liberation said successive governments had "broken their noses on the reality of the ghettos, often minimized and often forgotten in their priorities."
But in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper Wednesday, Sarkozy defended his tough policies by saying that some poor suburbs had come under "the rule of gangs, of drugs, of traffickers" and that his measures had brought down crime by eight percent a year.
"The feeling of exclusion, illegal immigration and the high level of unemployment creates considerable problems," he said, asserting that "firmness, but also justice" was needed.
Suburbs such as Clichy-sous-Bois suffer from unemployment rates more than twice the national average, which is already relatively high at around 10 percent.
Tuesday night's violence included fewer of the direct clashes between youths and police seen on previous nights in Clichy-sous-Bois, police and municipal sources said.
But while that suburb was relatively calm under the presence of several hundred police, outbreaks of trouble in other areas overwhelmed officers.
Cars were torched and police reported sporadic incidents involving groups of youths in Val-d'Oise to the north of the capital and Seine-et-Marne to the southeast, with lesser violence reported in Yvelines to the west.
Similar violence has gripped poor Paris suburbs at least 13 times in the past decade following the deaths of local youths by accident, by police or by neighbours, according to an AFP tally.
A French sociologist, Michel Wieviorka, told AFP that such rampages were "the _expression of desperation, of anger and a feeling of injustice."
They came about, he said, because "France doesn't know how to cope with the faltering of its republican model of integration."
posted by impresario | 11:21 AM
|
0 comments
Astronomers on Verge of Seeing Black Hole!
Astronomers Say They Are on Verge of Seeing a Milky Way Black Hole!
By Dennis Overbye, N Y Times Staff Writer, Thursday, November 3, 2005
Astronomers said they had moved one notch closer to seeing the unseeable
today.
Using a worldwide array of radio telescopes to obtain the most detailed
look yet at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, they said that they had
narrowed the size of a mysterious fountain of energy there to less than
half that of the Earth's orbit about the Sun.
The result strengthens the case that the energy is generated by a
massive black hole gobbling stars and gas, they said. And it leaves
astronomers on the verge of seeing the black hole itself as a small dark
shadow ringed with light, in the blaze of radiation that marks the
galaxy's center.
Up until now the existence of black holes -- objects so dense that not
even light can escape them- has been surmised by indirect measurements
of, say stars or gas swirling in their grip. Seeing the black hole's
shadow would require the ability to see about twice as much detail as
can now be discerned. Such an observation could provide an important
test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, his theory of
gravity, which predicts black holes can exist.
"We're getting tantalizingly close to being able to see an unmistakable
signature that would provide the first concrete proof of a supermassive
black hole at a galaxy's center," Zhi-Qiang Shen of the Shanghai
Astronomical Observatory, one of the leaders of an international team of
radio astronomers, said in a news release. Their report appears today in
the journal Nature.
Fred Lo, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in
Charlottesville, Va., said that achieving the extra resolution could
take several years and would probably require new radio telescopes.
"We're not there yet, but in time no question, we will get there." He
added that seeing the shadow, would be "proof of the pudding" that
Einstein was right and that black holes exist.
In an accompanying commentary, Christopher Reynolds of the University of
Maryland wrote that such observations "will herald a new era in probing
the structure and properties of some of the most enigmatic objects in
the universe."
Other experts, however, said it might be difficult, even if the extra
resolution could be achieved, to untangle the detailed properties of the
black hole from its tangled blazing surroundings. In the last few
decades, astronomers have identified thousands of probable black holes.
These include objects billions of times as massive as the Sun at the
centers of galaxies, where, it is theorized, gas and dust swirling
toward doom are heated and erupt with jets of x-rays and radio energy.
But the putative holes are all too far away for astronomers to discern
the signature feature of a black hole, a point of no return, called the
event horizon, in effect, an edge of the observable universe, from which
nothing can return. Instead, the evidence for black holes rests mostly
on showing that to much invisible mass resides in too small a space to
be anything but a black hole.
The center of our own galaxy is about 26,000 light years away, in the
direction of Sagittarius. The new observations conclude that at the
center of the Milky Way, an amount of invisible matter equal to the mass
of four million Suns is crammed into a region no larger than half the
size of Earth's orbit around the Sun, about 90 million miles. That small
size eliminates the most likely alternative explanation of the galactic
center fireworks, a cluster of stars, the radio astronomers said. Such a
dense cluster would collapse in 100 years.
Even more conclusive proof would come from the observation of the black
hole's shadow, which would be about five times the size of the event
horizon and appear about as big as a tennis ball on the moon according
to calculations by Eric Agol of the University of Washington, Heino
Falcke of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, in Germany, and
Fulvio Melia of the University of Arizona.
"For most people, seeing is believing," said Dr. Agol, who added that
observations of the shadow could in principle be used to test whether
general relativity is correct in such strange conditions and to measure
how fast the black hole is spinning.
Holland Ford, a Johns Hopkins astronomer who has used the Hubble Space
Telescope to investigate black holes at the centers of galaxies, said,
"It would be very exciting to begin to resolve the black hole's event
horizon."
Martin Rees of Cambridge University in England, who along with Donald
Lynden-Bell first proposed a black hole as the energy source at the
Milky Way's center in 1971, said he was encouraged by this progress. But
he cited studies suggesting that the shadow could be washed out by
radiation or particles in front of the black hole, making definitive
measurements hard.
Moreover, as all the astronomers pointed out, getting to the next level
of detail will require building new radio telescopes that operate at
shorter wavelengths (and high frequencies) than the Very Long Baseline
Array with which the present observations were carried out.
According to the laws of optics, seeing smaller details requires shorter
wavelengths than the present array can handle. Short wavelengths, Dr. Lo
explained, can also best see through the haze of electrons that surround
black holes and scatter radio waves, blurring images. The best hope, he
said, is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, which is to be
built by an international consortium high in the mountains of Chile.
"It's something I've been working on for 30 years, its been a long
saga," Dr. Lo said, referring to the quest for the black hole. For a
long time he explained, astronomers were peering through a haze, but
"now we're seeing the thing in itself."
------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company / Click below for "Printer
Friendly Version."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/science/02cnd-hole.html?pagewanted=print
By Dennis Overbye, N Y Times Staff Writer, Thursday, November 3, 2005
Astronomers said they had moved one notch closer to seeing the unseeable
today.
Using a worldwide array of radio telescopes to obtain the most detailed
look yet at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, they said that they had
narrowed the size of a mysterious fountain of energy there to less than
half that of the Earth's orbit about the Sun.
The result strengthens the case that the energy is generated by a
massive black hole gobbling stars and gas, they said. And it leaves
astronomers on the verge of seeing the black hole itself as a small dark
shadow ringed with light, in the blaze of radiation that marks the
galaxy's center.
Up until now the existence of black holes -- objects so dense that not
even light can escape them- has been surmised by indirect measurements
of, say stars or gas swirling in their grip. Seeing the black hole's
shadow would require the ability to see about twice as much detail as
can now be discerned. Such an observation could provide an important
test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, his theory of
gravity, which predicts black holes can exist.
"We're getting tantalizingly close to being able to see an unmistakable
signature that would provide the first concrete proof of a supermassive
black hole at a galaxy's center," Zhi-Qiang Shen of the Shanghai
Astronomical Observatory, one of the leaders of an international team of
radio astronomers, said in a news release. Their report appears today in
the journal Nature.
Fred Lo, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in
Charlottesville, Va., said that achieving the extra resolution could
take several years and would probably require new radio telescopes.
"We're not there yet, but in time no question, we will get there." He
added that seeing the shadow, would be "proof of the pudding" that
Einstein was right and that black holes exist.
In an accompanying commentary, Christopher Reynolds of the University of
Maryland wrote that such observations "will herald a new era in probing
the structure and properties of some of the most enigmatic objects in
the universe."
Other experts, however, said it might be difficult, even if the extra
resolution could be achieved, to untangle the detailed properties of the
black hole from its tangled blazing surroundings. In the last few
decades, astronomers have identified thousands of probable black holes.
These include objects billions of times as massive as the Sun at the
centers of galaxies, where, it is theorized, gas and dust swirling
toward doom are heated and erupt with jets of x-rays and radio energy.
But the putative holes are all too far away for astronomers to discern
the signature feature of a black hole, a point of no return, called the
event horizon, in effect, an edge of the observable universe, from which
nothing can return. Instead, the evidence for black holes rests mostly
on showing that to much invisible mass resides in too small a space to
be anything but a black hole.
The center of our own galaxy is about 26,000 light years away, in the
direction of Sagittarius. The new observations conclude that at the
center of the Milky Way, an amount of invisible matter equal to the mass
of four million Suns is crammed into a region no larger than half the
size of Earth's orbit around the Sun, about 90 million miles. That small
size eliminates the most likely alternative explanation of the galactic
center fireworks, a cluster of stars, the radio astronomers said. Such a
dense cluster would collapse in 100 years.
Even more conclusive proof would come from the observation of the black
hole's shadow, which would be about five times the size of the event
horizon and appear about as big as a tennis ball on the moon according
to calculations by Eric Agol of the University of Washington, Heino
Falcke of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, in Germany, and
Fulvio Melia of the University of Arizona.
"For most people, seeing is believing," said Dr. Agol, who added that
observations of the shadow could in principle be used to test whether
general relativity is correct in such strange conditions and to measure
how fast the black hole is spinning.
Holland Ford, a Johns Hopkins astronomer who has used the Hubble Space
Telescope to investigate black holes at the centers of galaxies, said,
"It would be very exciting to begin to resolve the black hole's event
horizon."
Martin Rees of Cambridge University in England, who along with Donald
Lynden-Bell first proposed a black hole as the energy source at the
Milky Way's center in 1971, said he was encouraged by this progress. But
he cited studies suggesting that the shadow could be washed out by
radiation or particles in front of the black hole, making definitive
measurements hard.
Moreover, as all the astronomers pointed out, getting to the next level
of detail will require building new radio telescopes that operate at
shorter wavelengths (and high frequencies) than the Very Long Baseline
Array with which the present observations were carried out.
According to the laws of optics, seeing smaller details requires shorter
wavelengths than the present array can handle. Short wavelengths, Dr. Lo
explained, can also best see through the haze of electrons that surround
black holes and scatter radio waves, blurring images. The best hope, he
said, is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, which is to be
built by an international consortium high in the mountains of Chile.
"It's something I've been working on for 30 years, its been a long
saga," Dr. Lo said, referring to the quest for the black hole. For a
long time he explained, astronomers were peering through a haze, but
"now we're seeing the thing in itself."
------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company / Click below for "Printer
Friendly Version."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/science/02cnd-hole.html?pagewanted=print
posted by impresario | 11:19 AM
|
0 comments
Brain May Have 'Blindsight'
Source: Yahoo/AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051031/ap_on_he_me/blindsight
Study: Brain May Have 'Blindsight'
October 31, 2005 By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Even when the brain can't consciously tell what the eyes are
seeing, it may still be able to sense what's there. The finding suggests
that the brain may have "blindsight" � an alternate way of processing
visual information.
That might help scientists better understand the nature of consciousness
and suggest ways to restore some types of vision loss, according to Tony
Ro, a psychology professor at Rice University in Houston.
Not all vision researchers accept the idea of blindsight, however, and
other studies into the concept are under way.
Ro and his research team studied what could be sensed by volunteers who
were temporarily blind. Their findings are reported Monday in the online
edition of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, temporary, reversible blindness was induced in volunteers by
using magnetic pulses that affected the visual cortex, the area in the back
of the brain that processes what the eyes are seeing.
A computer screen was in front of the volunteers. In one test, during their
momentary blindness the screen flashed with either a vertical or horizontal
line. In a second test a red or green ball was shown on the screen.
When the volunteers were asked what they had seen during the temporary
blindness, they said they saw nothing, the researchers reported.
But, the researchers said, when the patients were told to guess which way
the line was oriented, they were right 75 percent of the time. And they got
the color of the ball right 81 percent of the time. Random guessing would
be expected to result in a 50 percent correct rate.
Some of the participants said they were guessing randomly and were
surprised with their high success rates, the researchers said. Others
reported they had a "feeling" about what had been there.
Asked to rate the confidence of their guesses, the higher confidence
ratings tended to correspond with more accurate guesses.
"These findings demonstrate that while certain brain areas are necessary
for awareness, there is extensive processing of information that takes
place unconsciously," Ro said via e-mail.
He said the results, "suggesting the existence of alternate visual
processing routes that function unconsciously, may provide some hope for
people with damage to the primary visual cortex."
Dr. Edmond Fitzgibbon of the National Eye Institute said the report adds
weight to the idea of a second pathway for experiencing sight, but he added
that the idea remains controversial and many researchers don't accept it.
The new study is "intriguing," Fitzgibbon said. But he added that there can
be perception that people aren't aware of, such as subliminal suggestions
briefly flashed during a film.
"If you're not aware of it, does that really mean you didn't see it?" he asked.
___
On the Net:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: http://www.pnas.org
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051031/ap_on_he_me/blindsight
Study: Brain May Have 'Blindsight'
October 31, 2005 By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Even when the brain can't consciously tell what the eyes are
seeing, it may still be able to sense what's there. The finding suggests
that the brain may have "blindsight" � an alternate way of processing
visual information.
That might help scientists better understand the nature of consciousness
and suggest ways to restore some types of vision loss, according to Tony
Ro, a psychology professor at Rice University in Houston.
Not all vision researchers accept the idea of blindsight, however, and
other studies into the concept are under way.
Ro and his research team studied what could be sensed by volunteers who
were temporarily blind. Their findings are reported Monday in the online
edition of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, temporary, reversible blindness was induced in volunteers by
using magnetic pulses that affected the visual cortex, the area in the back
of the brain that processes what the eyes are seeing.
A computer screen was in front of the volunteers. In one test, during their
momentary blindness the screen flashed with either a vertical or horizontal
line. In a second test a red or green ball was shown on the screen.
When the volunteers were asked what they had seen during the temporary
blindness, they said they saw nothing, the researchers reported.
But, the researchers said, when the patients were told to guess which way
the line was oriented, they were right 75 percent of the time. And they got
the color of the ball right 81 percent of the time. Random guessing would
be expected to result in a 50 percent correct rate.
Some of the participants said they were guessing randomly and were
surprised with their high success rates, the researchers said. Others
reported they had a "feeling" about what had been there.
Asked to rate the confidence of their guesses, the higher confidence
ratings tended to correspond with more accurate guesses.
"These findings demonstrate that while certain brain areas are necessary
for awareness, there is extensive processing of information that takes
place unconsciously," Ro said via e-mail.
He said the results, "suggesting the existence of alternate visual
processing routes that function unconsciously, may provide some hope for
people with damage to the primary visual cortex."
Dr. Edmond Fitzgibbon of the National Eye Institute said the report adds
weight to the idea of a second pathway for experiencing sight, but he added
that the idea remains controversial and many researchers don't accept it.
The new study is "intriguing," Fitzgibbon said. But he added that there can
be perception that people aren't aware of, such as subliminal suggestions
briefly flashed during a film.
"If you're not aware of it, does that really mean you didn't see it?" he asked.
___
On the Net:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: http://www.pnas.org
posted by impresario | 11:18 AM
|
0 comments
A laser for nanomedicine
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
http://www.physorg.com/news7674.html
A laser for nanomedicine
October 28, 2005
A modified femtosecond laser can correct poor eyesight and identify
malignant melanomas. In addition, it represents an effective tool for laser
nanomedicine: It can be used for example to drill nanoholes in cellular
membranes and to transfer genes into cells by means of light.
Sixty-four percent of Germans cannot see properly without glasses or
contact lenses. One in two short- or long-sighted adults could be treated
by a laser operation, and femtosecond lasers are being increasingly used.
This type of laser can be focussed through the tissue directly onto the
working area, saving time and improving the healing process.
There is a disadvantage, however: residual radiation permeates the eye
right through to the retina, and may cause impaired vision. Karsten König
and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT
are working on eliminating these side effects. “We are attempting to remove
tissue constituents gently and very precisely using extremely low pulse
energies of just a few nanojoules,” explains König. This is made possible
by a heavily modified femtosecond laser system with a very high pulse
sequence, which can focus its beam with great accuracy using precision
optics from Zeiss.
The laser paves the way for entry into nanolaser medicine, a new branch
dealing with the diagnosis and therapy of individual cells. Depending on
the laser power and optics used, the system can be a “femtoscope” providing
insights into living tissue which are a thousand times more precise than
the best computer tomographs. It is also a precision tool.
The team of research scientists succeeded in performing the world’s
smallest incision into living tissue – with a width of just 70 nanometers.
This opens up new possibilities: gene transfer by light, in which foreign
genetic material is inserted into living cells using ultra-short laser
pulses, without destroying the cells. “In this way we can introduce
pharmaceutical agents or genes into individual cells,” emphasises König. He
has been awarded the new Technology Prize for his human-centered technology.
The first application – diagnosis and therapy of melanomas – was realized
in cooperation with dermatologists at Jena University Hospital. The
“femtoscope” renders the cell layers of the skin visible. Diseased cells
are diagnosed by comparing samples. In future, doctors could use the same
device for treatment: The diseased cell would be radiated with increased
laser power and destroyed. After approval of the process, it would no
longer be necessary to perform biopsies and time-consuming histological
tests. The laser system could also be used outside the medical field, in
microchip manufacture. The high-precision lasers are able to produce
structures in silicon which are smaller than 100 nanometers.
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
http://www.physorg.com/news7674.html
A laser for nanomedicine
October 28, 2005
A modified femtosecond laser can correct poor eyesight and identify
malignant melanomas. In addition, it represents an effective tool for laser
nanomedicine: It can be used for example to drill nanoholes in cellular
membranes and to transfer genes into cells by means of light.
Sixty-four percent of Germans cannot see properly without glasses or
contact lenses. One in two short- or long-sighted adults could be treated
by a laser operation, and femtosecond lasers are being increasingly used.
This type of laser can be focussed through the tissue directly onto the
working area, saving time and improving the healing process.
There is a disadvantage, however: residual radiation permeates the eye
right through to the retina, and may cause impaired vision. Karsten König
and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT
are working on eliminating these side effects. “We are attempting to remove
tissue constituents gently and very precisely using extremely low pulse
energies of just a few nanojoules,” explains König. This is made possible
by a heavily modified femtosecond laser system with a very high pulse
sequence, which can focus its beam with great accuracy using precision
optics from Zeiss.
The laser paves the way for entry into nanolaser medicine, a new branch
dealing with the diagnosis and therapy of individual cells. Depending on
the laser power and optics used, the system can be a “femtoscope” providing
insights into living tissue which are a thousand times more precise than
the best computer tomographs. It is also a precision tool.
The team of research scientists succeeded in performing the world’s
smallest incision into living tissue – with a width of just 70 nanometers.
This opens up new possibilities: gene transfer by light, in which foreign
genetic material is inserted into living cells using ultra-short laser
pulses, without destroying the cells. “In this way we can introduce
pharmaceutical agents or genes into individual cells,” emphasises König. He
has been awarded the new Technology Prize for his human-centered technology.
The first application – diagnosis and therapy of melanomas – was realized
in cooperation with dermatologists at Jena University Hospital. The
“femtoscope” renders the cell layers of the skin visible. Diseased cells
are diagnosed by comparing samples. In future, doctors could use the same
device for treatment: The diseased cell would be radiated with increased
laser power and destroyed. After approval of the process, it would no
longer be necessary to perform biopsies and time-consuming histological
tests. The laser system could also be used outside the medical field, in
microchip manufacture. The high-precision lasers are able to produce
structures in silicon which are smaller than 100 nanometers.
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
posted by impresario | 11:12 AM
|
0 comments
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
New Study Warns of Total Loss of Arctic Tundra
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/science/earth/01cnd-climate.html?ei=5090&en=df11600275c7b550&ex=1288501200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
November 1, 2005
New Study Warns of Total Loss of Arctic Tundra
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
If emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at the current rate, there may be many centuries of warming and a near-total loss of Arctic tundra, according to a new climate study.
Over all, the world would experience profound transformations, some potentially beneficial but many disruptive, and all at a pace rarely seen in nature, said the authors of the study, being published today in The Journal of Climate.
"The question is no longer whether we will need to address this problem, but when we will need to address the problem," said Kenneth Caldeira, an author of the study and a climate expert at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, based at Stanford University.
"We can either address it now, before we severely and irreversibly damage our climate, or we can wait until irreversible damage manifests itself strongly," Dr. Caldeira said. "If all we do is try to adapt, things will get worse and worse."
The paper's lead author, Bala Govindasamy of the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said it might take 20 or 30 years before the scope of the human-caused changes becomes evident, but from then on there is likely to be no debate.
The researchers ran a computer model that simulates both the climate system and the flow of heat-trapping carbon into the air in the form of carbon dioxide, then back into soils and the ocean.
Most simulations of the potential human impact on climate have been confined to studying the next 100 years or so, but in this case the scientists started the calculations in 1870 and let the computers churn away through 2300.
The authors stressed that the uncertainties were high over such a time span, and said the study was intended to illustrate broad consequences rather than project specific ones.
They programmed the model to run as if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose about 0.45 percent a year through 2300. That is slightly less than the current rate, about 0.5 percent.
In the simulation, the concentration of carbon dioxide doubles from pre-industrial levels in 2070, triples in 2120, and quadruples in 2160.
The results are sobering, Dr. Caldeira and other climate experts said, because the computer model used in this study tends to produce less warming from a greenhouse-gas buildup than many of the other climate simulations being run by other research teams.
It also presumes that plants and the ocean will continue to sop up carbon dioxide in the future, limiting the amount retained in the atmosphere. Many other independently developed models calculate that at some point, chemical and biological shifts caused by warming would reverse that flow and cause even more greenhouse gases to flood into the atmosphere.
Consistent with many other studies, the model showed that the Arctic would see the most warming, with average annual temperatures in many parts of Arctic Russia and northern North America rising more than 25 degrees Fahrenheit around 2100.
Antarctica would follow suit later, with temperatures there rising sharply around 2200.
The impact on vegetation and landscapes would transform large areas of the earth.
In the simulation, at least one ecosystem, the scrubby Arctic tundra largely vanishes as climate zones shift hundreds of miles north. Tundra would decline from about 8 percent of the world's land area to 1.8 percent.
Alaska, in the model, loses almost all of its evergreen boreal forests and becomes a largely temperate state.
But vast stretches of land that were once locked beneath permanent ice cover would open up. The area locked beneath ice would diminish to 4.8 percent of the planet's total land area, from 13.3 percent.
Several climate scientists not associated with the study said its main benefit was akin to the murky visions of possible futures experienced by Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol."
"It's a cautionary tale," said Gerald A. Meehl, a climate modeler at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who has conducted similar studies.
"The message is not to give up because the changes appear overwhelming, but instead the message should be the longer we wait to do something, the worse the consequences."
* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
November 1, 2005
New Study Warns of Total Loss of Arctic Tundra
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
If emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at the current rate, there may be many centuries of warming and a near-total loss of Arctic tundra, according to a new climate study.
Over all, the world would experience profound transformations, some potentially beneficial but many disruptive, and all at a pace rarely seen in nature, said the authors of the study, being published today in The Journal of Climate.
"The question is no longer whether we will need to address this problem, but when we will need to address the problem," said Kenneth Caldeira, an author of the study and a climate expert at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, based at Stanford University.
"We can either address it now, before we severely and irreversibly damage our climate, or we can wait until irreversible damage manifests itself strongly," Dr. Caldeira said. "If all we do is try to adapt, things will get worse and worse."
The paper's lead author, Bala Govindasamy of the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said it might take 20 or 30 years before the scope of the human-caused changes becomes evident, but from then on there is likely to be no debate.
The researchers ran a computer model that simulates both the climate system and the flow of heat-trapping carbon into the air in the form of carbon dioxide, then back into soils and the ocean.
Most simulations of the potential human impact on climate have been confined to studying the next 100 years or so, but in this case the scientists started the calculations in 1870 and let the computers churn away through 2300.
The authors stressed that the uncertainties were high over such a time span, and said the study was intended to illustrate broad consequences rather than project specific ones.
They programmed the model to run as if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose about 0.45 percent a year through 2300. That is slightly less than the current rate, about 0.5 percent.
In the simulation, the concentration of carbon dioxide doubles from pre-industrial levels in 2070, triples in 2120, and quadruples in 2160.
The results are sobering, Dr. Caldeira and other climate experts said, because the computer model used in this study tends to produce less warming from a greenhouse-gas buildup than many of the other climate simulations being run by other research teams.
It also presumes that plants and the ocean will continue to sop up carbon dioxide in the future, limiting the amount retained in the atmosphere. Many other independently developed models calculate that at some point, chemical and biological shifts caused by warming would reverse that flow and cause even more greenhouse gases to flood into the atmosphere.
Consistent with many other studies, the model showed that the Arctic would see the most warming, with average annual temperatures in many parts of Arctic Russia and northern North America rising more than 25 degrees Fahrenheit around 2100.
Antarctica would follow suit later, with temperatures there rising sharply around 2200.
The impact on vegetation and landscapes would transform large areas of the earth.
In the simulation, at least one ecosystem, the scrubby Arctic tundra largely vanishes as climate zones shift hundreds of miles north. Tundra would decline from about 8 percent of the world's land area to 1.8 percent.
Alaska, in the model, loses almost all of its evergreen boreal forests and becomes a largely temperate state.
But vast stretches of land that were once locked beneath permanent ice cover would open up. The area locked beneath ice would diminish to 4.8 percent of the planet's total land area, from 13.3 percent.
Several climate scientists not associated with the study said its main benefit was akin to the murky visions of possible futures experienced by Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol."
"It's a cautionary tale," said Gerald A. Meehl, a climate modeler at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who has conducted similar studies.
"The message is not to give up because the changes appear overwhelming, but instead the message should be the longer we wait to do something, the worse the consequences."
* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
posted by impresario | 11:47 AM
|
0 comments
There was a secret exile offered to Saddam
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/10/29/1284358-ap.html
Arab League scuttled secret exile offer for Saddam: U.A.E. officials
DUBAI, U.A.E. (AP) - Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein accepted an 11th-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion but Arab League officials scuttled the proposal, officials in Dubai said.
The exile initiative was spearheaded by the late president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, at an emergency Arab summit held in Egypt in February 2003, Sheik Zayed's son said in an interview aired by Al-Arabiya TV during a documentary. The U.S.-led coalition invaded March 19 that year.
A top U.A.E. government official confirmed the offer Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Saddam allegedly accepted the offer to try and halt the invasion and bring elections to Iraq within six months, said the official and Sheik Zayed's son.
"We had the final acceptance of the various parties...the main players in the world and the concerned person, Saddam Hussein," the son, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said during the program aired Thursday to mark the first anniversary of his father's death.
Sheik Zayed's initiative would have given Saddam and his family exile and guarantees against prosecution in return for letting Arab League and UN experts run Iraq until elections could be held in six months, the official said.
"We were coming (to the summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort) to place the facts on the table," said Sheik Mohammed, who is deputy chief of the Emirates armed forces and crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
"The results would have emerged if the initiative was presented and discussed. This is now history."
The anonymous Emirates official said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa did not bring the proposal to the summit's discussion because Arab foreign ministers had not presented and accepted it as league protocol dictated.
At the time, Arab League leaders said the summit decided not to take up the idea, citing league rules barring interference in members' domestic affairs.
It was not immediately possible to verify the Emirates claims their offer had been accepted by Saddam, who is being held in U.S. military custody in Iraq and his facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Officials from the Egypt-based 22-member Arab League declined comment.
But at the 2003 summit, the Iraqi delegation rejected the Emirates proposal, while Iraq's former UN ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, said Saddam was not going anywhere.
The Al-Arabiya documentary claimed Iraqi officials had dismissed the idea because they did not know Saddam had accepted it.
Saddam remained defiant ahead of the U.S.-led onslaught and hid in Iraq until being captured in December 2003.
The speculation over Saddam's acceptance of the offer comes three years after the start of the Iraqi war.
The documentary also included an interview with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who said the United States was aware of the proposal.
In a January 2004 interview with British Channel 4 TV, former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel said Saddam had rejected calls to leave Iraq and end the 2003 standoff with the United States. Gemayel mediated between Saddam and the U.S. administration.
One country that came up in the exile discussions was Belarus but the Emirates official said some governments balked at offering sanctuary to Saddam's notorious sons, Odai and Qusai.
Almost all the Arab League's member states are Sunni Muslim-majority countries and the pan-Arab body has kept Iraq at arm's length since the U.S.-led invasion, which most of its members opposed.
Arab League scuttled secret exile offer for Saddam: U.A.E. officials
DUBAI, U.A.E. (AP) - Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein accepted an 11th-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion but Arab League officials scuttled the proposal, officials in Dubai said.
The exile initiative was spearheaded by the late president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, at an emergency Arab summit held in Egypt in February 2003, Sheik Zayed's son said in an interview aired by Al-Arabiya TV during a documentary. The U.S.-led coalition invaded March 19 that year.
A top U.A.E. government official confirmed the offer Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Saddam allegedly accepted the offer to try and halt the invasion and bring elections to Iraq within six months, said the official and Sheik Zayed's son.
"We had the final acceptance of the various parties...the main players in the world and the concerned person, Saddam Hussein," the son, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said during the program aired Thursday to mark the first anniversary of his father's death.
Sheik Zayed's initiative would have given Saddam and his family exile and guarantees against prosecution in return for letting Arab League and UN experts run Iraq until elections could be held in six months, the official said.
"We were coming (to the summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort) to place the facts on the table," said Sheik Mohammed, who is deputy chief of the Emirates armed forces and crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
"The results would have emerged if the initiative was presented and discussed. This is now history."
The anonymous Emirates official said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa did not bring the proposal to the summit's discussion because Arab foreign ministers had not presented and accepted it as league protocol dictated.
At the time, Arab League leaders said the summit decided not to take up the idea, citing league rules barring interference in members' domestic affairs.
It was not immediately possible to verify the Emirates claims their offer had been accepted by Saddam, who is being held in U.S. military custody in Iraq and his facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Officials from the Egypt-based 22-member Arab League declined comment.
But at the 2003 summit, the Iraqi delegation rejected the Emirates proposal, while Iraq's former UN ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, said Saddam was not going anywhere.
The Al-Arabiya documentary claimed Iraqi officials had dismissed the idea because they did not know Saddam had accepted it.
Saddam remained defiant ahead of the U.S.-led onslaught and hid in Iraq until being captured in December 2003.
The speculation over Saddam's acceptance of the offer comes three years after the start of the Iraqi war.
The documentary also included an interview with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who said the United States was aware of the proposal.
In a January 2004 interview with British Channel 4 TV, former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel said Saddam had rejected calls to leave Iraq and end the 2003 standoff with the United States. Gemayel mediated between Saddam and the U.S. administration.
One country that came up in the exile discussions was Belarus but the Emirates official said some governments balked at offering sanctuary to Saddam's notorious sons, Odai and Qusai.
Almost all the Arab League's member states are Sunni Muslim-majority countries and the pan-Arab body has kept Iraq at arm's length since the U.S.-led invasion, which most of its members opposed.
posted by impresario | 11:46 AM
|
0 comments
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4375910.stm
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
The BBC News website's Henri Astier explores the sense of alienation felt by many French Muslims.
When Nadir Dendoune was growing up in the 1980s, his home town of L'Ile Saint-Denis, north of Paris, was a fairly diverse place.
"We were all poor, but there were French people, East Europeans, as well as blacks and Arabs," says Mr Dendoune, 33, an author and something of a celebrity in his estate.
Two decades on, the complexion of the place has changed.
"On my class photos more than half the kids were white," he says. "On today's pictures only one or two are."
L'Ile St-Denis is among the "suburbs" around French cities where immigrants, notably from former North African colonies, have been housed since the 1960s.
Blighted by bad schools and endemic unemployment, the suburbs are hard to escape.
FRENCH ISLAM
Second largest religion
Five million Muslims (estimate)
35% Algerian origin (estimate)
25% Moroccan origin (estimate)
10% Tunisian origin (estimate)
Concentrated in poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities
The immigrants' children and grandchildren are still stuck there - an angry underclass that is increasingly identified through religion.
Ten years ago these youths were seen as French "Arabs".
Now most are commonly referred to, and define themselves, as "Muslims".
Alarm
Many countries have ethnic and religious enclaves. But in France they cause particular alarm, for three reasons.
First, they are not supposed to exist in a nation that views itself as indivisible, and able to assimilate its diverse components.
Muslims praying at a mosque in Evry, south of Paris
Most French Muslims say Islam is compatible with French values
Separatism, the French are told, is a plague afflicting the Anglo-Saxon multicultural model.
The government bans official statistics based on ethnicity or religion. As a result, no one knows exactly how many Muslims live in the country - at least five million is the best guess.
Ghettos also threaten another tenet of French identity - secularism.
As the country celebrates the centenary of the separation of Church and State, Islam is seen as the biggest challenge to the country's secular model in the past 100 years.
Thirdly, the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy strikes fear in the heart of a country that is home to Western Europe's biggest Muslim community.
French police know that there is no shortage of potential jihadis in the country.
The assertiveness of French Islam is seen as a threat not just to the values of the republic, but to its very security.
A different view
Is such alarm justified? The view from the suburbs invites a nuanced, and ultimately sanguine, assessment.
Some groups do advocate cultural separation for Muslims - but they do not speak for many.
How am I supposed to feel French, when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin?
Nadir Dendoune
Far more common is the attitude of Nour-eddine Skiker, a youth worker near Paris: "I feel completely French. I will do everything for this country, which is mine."
Mr Skiker's Moroccan origins mean a lot to him. But, like many youths in the suburbs, he sees no contradiction between being French and having foreign roots.
The main problem is that many French people do, says writer Nadir Dendoune.
"How am I supposed to feel French when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin? I was born here. I am French. How many generations does it take to stop mentioning my origin?"
And crucially, the suburbs are full of people desperate to integrate into the wider society.
"I do not know a single youth in my estate who does not want to leave," Mr Dendoune says.
Social housing in Aubervilliers, near Paris
Immigrants have been housed in estates around French cities
France's Muslim ghettos, in short, are not hotbeds of separatism. Neither do they represent a clear challenge to secularism - a doctrine all national Muslim groups profess to support.
"We have no problem with secularism," says Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF).
He argues that by establishing state neutrality in religious matters, the doctrine allows all religions to blossom.
Islam has adapted to local laws - from Indonesia to Senegal - and is adapting to France, says Azzedine Gaci, who heads the regional Muslim council in Lyon.
This is not just the leaders' view. A 2004 poll suggested that 68% of French regarded the separation of religion and state as "important", and 93% felt the same about republican values.
Suspicious minds
All observers agree that jihadism does pose a direct threat to the country.
The fact that - in France as elsewhere - the militants speak for a tiny minority of Muslims does not make the threat less severe.
We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa
Rachid Hamoudi
Director of Lille mosque
But as Islam expert Olivier Roy notes, bombers should not be seen as the vanguard of the Muslim people. Jihadis everywhere, he says, are rebelling both against the West and their own community.
The great majority of Muslims resent the extremists in their midst - although many in France do not recognise this.
Yazid Sabeg, an industrialist and writer, says the French have "a real problem" with both Arabs and Islam and equate both with extremism.
The most worrying aspect of the separation between French Muslims and the rest of society is that it breeds suspicion on both sides.
"We must tell youths that France does not want to hold them down," says Rachid Hamoudi, director of the Lille mosque in northern France.
"We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa. If you get to know me, you will get to trust me. If I get to know you, I will trust you."
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
The BBC News website's Henri Astier explores the sense of alienation felt by many French Muslims.
When Nadir Dendoune was growing up in the 1980s, his home town of L'Ile Saint-Denis, north of Paris, was a fairly diverse place.
"We were all poor, but there were French people, East Europeans, as well as blacks and Arabs," says Mr Dendoune, 33, an author and something of a celebrity in his estate.
Two decades on, the complexion of the place has changed.
"On my class photos more than half the kids were white," he says. "On today's pictures only one or two are."
L'Ile St-Denis is among the "suburbs" around French cities where immigrants, notably from former North African colonies, have been housed since the 1960s.
Blighted by bad schools and endemic unemployment, the suburbs are hard to escape.
FRENCH ISLAM
Second largest religion
Five million Muslims (estimate)
35% Algerian origin (estimate)
25% Moroccan origin (estimate)
10% Tunisian origin (estimate)
Concentrated in poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities
The immigrants' children and grandchildren are still stuck there - an angry underclass that is increasingly identified through religion.
Ten years ago these youths were seen as French "Arabs".
Now most are commonly referred to, and define themselves, as "Muslims".
Alarm
Many countries have ethnic and religious enclaves. But in France they cause particular alarm, for three reasons.
First, they are not supposed to exist in a nation that views itself as indivisible, and able to assimilate its diverse components.
Muslims praying at a mosque in Evry, south of Paris
Most French Muslims say Islam is compatible with French values
Separatism, the French are told, is a plague afflicting the Anglo-Saxon multicultural model.
The government bans official statistics based on ethnicity or religion. As a result, no one knows exactly how many Muslims live in the country - at least five million is the best guess.
Ghettos also threaten another tenet of French identity - secularism.
As the country celebrates the centenary of the separation of Church and State, Islam is seen as the biggest challenge to the country's secular model in the past 100 years.
Thirdly, the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy strikes fear in the heart of a country that is home to Western Europe's biggest Muslim community.
French police know that there is no shortage of potential jihadis in the country.
The assertiveness of French Islam is seen as a threat not just to the values of the republic, but to its very security.
A different view
Is such alarm justified? The view from the suburbs invites a nuanced, and ultimately sanguine, assessment.
Some groups do advocate cultural separation for Muslims - but they do not speak for many.
How am I supposed to feel French, when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin?
Nadir Dendoune
Far more common is the attitude of Nour-eddine Skiker, a youth worker near Paris: "I feel completely French. I will do everything for this country, which is mine."
Mr Skiker's Moroccan origins mean a lot to him. But, like many youths in the suburbs, he sees no contradiction between being French and having foreign roots.
The main problem is that many French people do, says writer Nadir Dendoune.
"How am I supposed to feel French when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin? I was born here. I am French. How many generations does it take to stop mentioning my origin?"
And crucially, the suburbs are full of people desperate to integrate into the wider society.
"I do not know a single youth in my estate who does not want to leave," Mr Dendoune says.
Social housing in Aubervilliers, near Paris
Immigrants have been housed in estates around French cities
France's Muslim ghettos, in short, are not hotbeds of separatism. Neither do they represent a clear challenge to secularism - a doctrine all national Muslim groups profess to support.
"We have no problem with secularism," says Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF).
He argues that by establishing state neutrality in religious matters, the doctrine allows all religions to blossom.
Islam has adapted to local laws - from Indonesia to Senegal - and is adapting to France, says Azzedine Gaci, who heads the regional Muslim council in Lyon.
This is not just the leaders' view. A 2004 poll suggested that 68% of French regarded the separation of religion and state as "important", and 93% felt the same about republican values.
Suspicious minds
All observers agree that jihadism does pose a direct threat to the country.
The fact that - in France as elsewhere - the militants speak for a tiny minority of Muslims does not make the threat less severe.
We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa
Rachid Hamoudi
Director of Lille mosque
But as Islam expert Olivier Roy notes, bombers should not be seen as the vanguard of the Muslim people. Jihadis everywhere, he says, are rebelling both against the West and their own community.
The great majority of Muslims resent the extremists in their midst - although many in France do not recognise this.
Yazid Sabeg, an industrialist and writer, says the French have "a real problem" with both Arabs and Islam and equate both with extremism.
The most worrying aspect of the separation between French Muslims and the rest of society is that it breeds suspicion on both sides.
"We must tell youths that France does not want to hold them down," says Rachid Hamoudi, director of the Lille mosque in northern France.
"We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa. If you get to know me, you will get to trust me. If I get to know you, I will trust you."
posted by impresario | 11:44 AM
|
0 comments
Iran takes a more confrontational stance
Iran Removes 40 Ambassadors and Diplomats
Email this Story
Nov 2, 10:37 AM (ET)
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line government said Wednesday it was removing 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, from their posts in a shake-up that comes as the Islamic republic takes a more confrontational international stance.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced the changes to parliament, saying "the missions of more than 40 ambassadors and heads of Iranian diplomatic missions abroad will expire by the end of the year," which is March 20 under the Iranian calendar.
Mottaki, quoted by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, did not specify which ambassadors were among those being removed.
But IRNA said they included the ambassador to London, Mohammad Hossein Adeli, one of Iran's top diplomats and a leading member of the pragmatic foreign policy wing that supports contacts with Europe.
Email this Story
Nov 2, 10:37 AM (ET)
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line government said Wednesday it was removing 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, from their posts in a shake-up that comes as the Islamic republic takes a more confrontational international stance.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced the changes to parliament, saying "the missions of more than 40 ambassadors and heads of Iranian diplomatic missions abroad will expire by the end of the year," which is March 20 under the Iranian calendar.
Mottaki, quoted by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, did not specify which ambassadors were among those being removed.
But IRNA said they included the ambassador to London, Mohammad Hossein Adeli, one of Iran's top diplomats and a leading member of the pragmatic foreign policy wing that supports contacts with Europe.
posted by impresario | 11:44 AM
|
0 comments
Riots Plague Paris Suburbs for Sixth Night
Riots Plague Paris Suburbs for Sixth Night
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
PARIS — Unrest spread across troubled suburbs around Paris in a sixth night of violence Tuesday as police clashed with angry youths and scores of vehicles were torched in at least nine towns, local officials said.
Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois — one of the worst-hit suburbs — where 15 cars were burned, said the prefecture that runs the Seine-Saint-Denis (search) region. Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails (search) at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the firehouse. It was not immediately clear whether there were injuries from the clashes.
Four people were arrested for throwing stones at police in nearby Bondy where 14 cars were burned, the prefecture said. A fire engulfed a carpet store, but it was not immediately clear whether the blaze was linked to the suburban unrest.
Officials gave an initial count of 69 vehicles torched in nine suburbs across the Seine-Saint-Denis region that arcs Paris on the north and northeast.
The area, home mainly to families of immigrant origin, often from Muslim North Africa, is marked by soaring unemployment and delinquency. Anger and despair thrive in the tall cinder-block towers and long "bars" that typically make up housing projects in France.
No trouble was immediately reported in Clichy-sous-Bois (search), where rioting began Thursday following the accidental deaths of two teenagers hiding to escape police in a power substation.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — blamed by many for fanning the violence with tough talk and harsh tactics — met Tuesday night in Paris with youths and officials from Clichy-sous-Bois in a bid to cap days of rioting. But the unrest spread even as they met. Sarkozy recently referred to the troublemakers as "scum" and "riffraff."
An Associated Press Television news team witnessed confrontations between about 20 police and 40 youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois (search) with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Officials said that "small, very mobile gangs" were harassing police and setting fires to garbage cans and vehicles throughout the region.
France-Info radio said some 150 blazes were reported in garbage bins, cars and buildings across Seine-Saint-Denis. The unrest highlighted the division between France's big cities and their poor satellites.
Tension had mounted throughout Tuesday after young men torched cars, garbage bins and even a primary school 24 hours earlier. Scores of cars were reported burned Monday night in Clichy-sous-Bois and 13 people were jailed.
Youths set two rooms of a primary school in Sevran on fire Monday along with several cars, Mayor Stephane Gatignon (search) said in a statement.
Unrest was triggered by the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted in a power substation where they hid to escape police. A third was injured. Officials have said police were not pursuing the boys, aged 15 and 17.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met Tuesday with the parents of the three families, promising a full investigation of the deaths and insisting on "the need to restore calm," the prime minister's office said.
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
PARIS — Unrest spread across troubled suburbs around Paris in a sixth night of violence Tuesday as police clashed with angry youths and scores of vehicles were torched in at least nine towns, local officials said.
Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois — one of the worst-hit suburbs — where 15 cars were burned, said the prefecture that runs the Seine-Saint-Denis (search) region. Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails (search) at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the firehouse. It was not immediately clear whether there were injuries from the clashes.
Four people were arrested for throwing stones at police in nearby Bondy where 14 cars were burned, the prefecture said. A fire engulfed a carpet store, but it was not immediately clear whether the blaze was linked to the suburban unrest.
Officials gave an initial count of 69 vehicles torched in nine suburbs across the Seine-Saint-Denis region that arcs Paris on the north and northeast.
The area, home mainly to families of immigrant origin, often from Muslim North Africa, is marked by soaring unemployment and delinquency. Anger and despair thrive in the tall cinder-block towers and long "bars" that typically make up housing projects in France.
No trouble was immediately reported in Clichy-sous-Bois (search), where rioting began Thursday following the accidental deaths of two teenagers hiding to escape police in a power substation.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — blamed by many for fanning the violence with tough talk and harsh tactics — met Tuesday night in Paris with youths and officials from Clichy-sous-Bois in a bid to cap days of rioting. But the unrest spread even as they met. Sarkozy recently referred to the troublemakers as "scum" and "riffraff."
An Associated Press Television news team witnessed confrontations between about 20 police and 40 youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois (search) with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Officials said that "small, very mobile gangs" were harassing police and setting fires to garbage cans and vehicles throughout the region.
France-Info radio said some 150 blazes were reported in garbage bins, cars and buildings across Seine-Saint-Denis. The unrest highlighted the division between France's big cities and their poor satellites.
Tension had mounted throughout Tuesday after young men torched cars, garbage bins and even a primary school 24 hours earlier. Scores of cars were reported burned Monday night in Clichy-sous-Bois and 13 people were jailed.
Youths set two rooms of a primary school in Sevran on fire Monday along with several cars, Mayor Stephane Gatignon (search) said in a statement.
Unrest was triggered by the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted in a power substation where they hid to escape police. A third was injured. Officials have said police were not pursuing the boys, aged 15 and 17.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met Tuesday with the parents of the three families, promising a full investigation of the deaths and insisting on "the need to restore calm," the prime minister's office said.
SEARCH
Click here for FOX News RSS Feeds
Advertise on FOX News Channel, FOXNews.com and FOX News Radio
Jobs at FOX News Channel.
Internships at FOX News Channel (Accepting Fall Applications Now).
Terms of use. Privacy Statement. For FOXNews.com comments write to
foxnewsonline@foxnews.com; For FOX News Channel comments write to
comments@foxnews.com
© Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005 ComStock, Inc.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
All market data delayed 20 minutes.
posted by impresario | 11:43 AM
|
0 comments