Fla. Sees Below-Freezing Temps In Arctic Cold Front

Some Areas Expected To Reach 20 Degrees

wesh.com | Jan 3, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida residents had no respite from the cold weather this weekend as temperatures fell Saturday and Sunday.

State officials are urging residents, visitors and agricultural interests throughout Florida to prepare for temperatures near or below the freezing mark throughout this entire week.

Temperatures could reach the lower 20s away from the coast across northern Florida and near the freezing mark as far south as Lake Okeechobee.

“An arctic cold front has moved through the state this weekend and this has resulted in much cooler morning temperatures,” said Meteorologist Amy Godsey. “The cold air-mass will produce a widespread freeze across much of Florida through the entire week. Residents and visitors across the state should prepare for an unusually long period of freezing or subfreezing temperatures each morning that could harm vegetation, pipes, animals and people.”

Durations of freezing temperatures will range from five to seven hours inland and two to four hours near the coast. Freeze warnings could be issued for a large portion of Florida, with hard freeze warnings likely for much of North Florida through the middle or latter parts of this week.

With temperatures hovering in the mid 40s and some areas getting down into the 20s, experts advised residents to crank up the heat and dress warmly. The chilly weather, however, didn’t stop some local families from braving the cold to take in the sights.

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Siberian winds usher in record lows in Beijing

theage.com | Jan 4, 2010

BEIJING – A FREEZING cold front swept over much of northern China on Sunday with snowstorms snarling traffic and air travel, while some of the coldest temperatures in decades were forecast for coming days.

Gale-force winds sweeping down from Siberia could result in temperatures as low as minus 16 degrees in the capital today, the Beijing meteorological station said.

Such temperatures are believed to be the coldest in the capital in 40 years.

Yesterday, major highways in Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in the surrounding provinces and regions of Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia were closed due to the heavy snowfall.

Beijing Capital Airport said 120 departures had been postponed and 86 flights cancelled from late Saturday until mid-morning yesterday because of heavy snow and poor visibility.

Freezing temperatures have also hit Britain, which is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century.

Parts of Scotland have been under snow for nearly three weeks and temperatures are expected to drop to minus 16 degrees.

Meteorologists predicted the freezing snap will last until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating.

And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder.

On New Year’s Day 10 extreme weather warnings were in place, with heavy snow expected in northern England and Scotland.

The continued freezing temperatures did not signal bad news for everyone, however. CairnGorm Mountain said it has had its best Christmas holiday season in 14 years.

More than 15,000 skiers have used the resort since the start of December, compared with 2000 last year.

The cold weather comes despite the Met Office’s long-range forecast, published in October, of a mild winter. That followed its earlier inaccurate prediction of a “barbecue summer”, which was marked by heavy rainfall and the wettest July for almost 100 years.

Paul Michaelwaite, forecaster for NetWeather.tv, said: “It is looking like this winter could be in the top 20 cold winters in the last 100 years.”

A fleet of gritters in Perth, central Scotland, was grounded because of the cold, leaving roads untreated in temperatures of minus 10 degrees.

Perth and Kinross Council said the gritters were unable to leave the depot after the extreme weather led to difficulties in refuelling.

Perth resident Ian Thomson said: “I’ve heard of the rail companies blaming the wrong kind of snow and leaves on the line for disruption, but for the council to say it was too cold to get the gritters out is just ridiculous.”

Frigid temps break winter weather records

Jay Lambert of Winooski, Vt. digs out his driveway a day after the first blizzard of the year struck. By Emily Mcnamany, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

USA TODAY | Jan 3, 2010

By Doyle Rice

Bitterly cold air and howling winds spread across the USA — from the Dakotas to Florida— over the weekend, breaking weather records in the upper Midwest, the Great Lakes and New England.

The wintry blast even shocked International Falls, Minn., the self-described “Icebox of the Nation,” where temperatures bottomed out at 37 below zero Saturday and Sunday mornings, breaking records that have stood since 1979. Sioux Falls, S.D., was 30 below on Saturday morning, the coldest temperature recorded since 1974.

“We basically have an anomalous high-pressure system that came out of Canada and brought some really cold air with it,” reported Jennifer Laflin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sioux Falls.

After a slight moderation early this week, yet another cold air mass — likely even colder than this one — is poised to invade the entire eastern two-thirds of the USA by later in the week, said Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler.

The unusually powerful high-pressure ridge causing the current freeze is holding at bay warmer air from the west and allowing frigid air to spill directly south from north-central Canada across the Midwest, Laflin said.

Snow was the main issue over the weekend in much of New England and the interior Northeast, where nearly 3 feet blanketed Burlington, Vt. The 31.8 inches of snow recorded as of Sunday afternoon represented the city’s all-time biggest snowstorm in 120 years of recordkeeping, according to the weather service’s Scott Whittier in South Burlington. Snow was still falling late Sunday in Burlington.

The cold air had marched all the way down the East Coast into south Florida by Sunday, where freeze warnings were issued for nearly the entire state for today.

Robert Ritchey, a tomato grower in Alva, Fla., said temperatures dipped to 39 degrees in his 3-acre fields Saturday night. “I ain’t lost any (crops) yet, and I don’t want to,” Ritchey said.

Contributing: The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.; The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.; The Burlington Free Press in Vermont.

Airport pat-downs provide little security

Experts say disguised bomb could elude inspector

Screeners use the backs of their hands when touching the groin area and breasts

Associated Press | Jan 3, 2010

by Michael Tarm

CHICAGO – With all the screening technology at U.S. airports, the last line of defense is still the human hand: the pat-down search.

But aviation experts say the pat-down is often ineffective, in part because of government rules covering where screeners can put their hands and how frequently they can frisk passengers. As a result, even if the man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day got an airport pat-down, it probably wouldn’t have found the explosives authorities say were hidden in his crotch.

“To have people hold up their arms and just pat them – like I’m really going to carry a bomb there,” said industry analyst Michael Boyd, arguing that pat-downs are often of little value. “You know where you’re going to put it, and no one’s going to go there.”

One woman who filed a formal complaint after she was patted down before a flight in 2004 said such searches don’t make anyone safer.

“The pat-down searches represent a needle-in-a-haystack approach, and I still believe they wouldn’t stop anything from happening,” said Lisa Lynch, 49, of Edmonds, Wash.

And, she said, “to see elderly women in wheelchairs patted down … it is heartbreaking. It is just so invasive.”

Lynch, who flies regularly and just returned home from a trip on Friday, said she has not been patted down since the day it happened as she was rushing to catch a flight.

In fact, most travelers at U.S. airports never get a pat-down when they pass through security. A metal detector must be set off first and then screeners would need to find out what triggered the alarm. That often amounts to screeners just lightly tapping on a passenger’s arms, legs and clothes.

But even if they go ahead with a pat-down, it likely would not turn up something nonmetallic, small and well-hidden.

Unlike the frisking of suspects conducted by police – which involves officers running their hands firmly up and down the body, including sensitive areas like the groin, buttocks and breasts – the pat-downs at airports usually involve, well, patting.

A flood of complaints by women, including one by Lynch, led the Transportation Security Administration in 2004 to list do’s and don’ts on pat-downs, including barring screeners from touching female passengers between their breasts. The TSA hasn’t publicly released that list.

But a report by the Government Accountability Office, which said federal investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past security at U.S. airports, appeared to cause some changes last year in pat-down policies.

In one instance cited in the report, an investigator placed coins in his pockets to ensure he’d receive a secondary screening. But after a pat-down and use of a hand-held metal detector, the screener didn’t catch the prohibited items the investigator brought through a checkpoint.

The TSA last year decided to permit what it describes as “enhanced pat-downs” that include breast and groin searches. But these could be done only under limited circumstances and only after the use of metal detectors, less invasive pat-downs and all other tools had been exhausted.

Still, even in those cases, screeners must use the backs of their hands when touching the groin area and breasts, according to the TSA.

“This new procedure will affect a very small percentage of travelers, but it is a critical element in ensuring the safety of the flying public,” the agency said in a statement on its Web site.

Since the Dec. 25 incident, some have been calling for more pat-downs at airports. But sensitivities on all sides mean any push for more frequent, thorough pat-downs would likely meet fierce resistance.

“People just wouldn’t stand for it. You wouldn’t. I wouldn’t,” said Gerry Berry, a Florida-based airport security expert.

Fearful of lawsuits or allegations of molestation, many screeners at airports would be the most resistant of all, Boyd said.

“You’ll have people yelling, ‘He grabbed me! He groped me!’” he said. “You don’t want that job.”

Lynch said scanning machines would render such searches unnecessary.

“That is way less invasive than somebody putting their hands on you,” said Lynch, who was so bothered by what happened that she lay in bed that night sweating and unable to sleep.

TSA spokesman Greg Soule declined to discuss the agency’s pat-down rules or any directives to airports, including whether the agency has ordered stepped-up pat-downs at U.S. airports since last week.

“Pat-downs are one layer of security in a multifaceted security system,” he said.

The TSA, he added, was aware of concerns surrounding pat-downs.

“I would say that security is TSA’s No. 1 priority while balancing the privacy of all passengers,” he said.

It’s possible that pat-downs may become more frequent in airports as the use of full-body scanning machines expands. The high-tech machines are in use at a handful of airports; the TSA just bought 150 and plans to buy 300 more. But passengers can opt for a physical pat-down instead of being scanned.

Iran to hold ‘large-scale military exercise’ to prepare its forces to repel an offensive by the West

CNN | Jan 3, 2010

Word of the planned drill followed foreign minister Manounchehr Mottaki issuing an ultimatum to the West.

Tehran, Iran (CNN) — Iran will hold a “large-scale military exercise” next month in order to prepare its forces to repel an offensive by the nation’s enemies, government-funded Press TV reported, citing a top military official.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, commander of Iran’s ground forces, told a meeting of servicemen in Tehran Saturday the joint drill will be conducted by ground forces and some units of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and aimed at improving “the force’s defensive capabilities,” Press TV said. The exercise will also “boost the region’s security,” he said.

“Both the United States and its close ally Israel have refused to rule out the possibility of a military attack” against Iran, Press TV reported. “Iran has not initiated a war with any country for more than a century.”

The report did not provide specifics on when the military exercise would take place.

U.S. officials have said that time is running out for Iran to address international concerns regarding its nuclear program. And Israel has called Iran’s nuclear program the major threat facing its nation.

Iran has said its uranium enrichment program is aimed at producing fuel for civilian power plants. But the United States and other countries have accused Tehran of working toward nuclear weapons.

Iran says it has a right to produce nuclear fuel under the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, which bars member states from pursuing nuclear weapons and requires international inspectors to have access to nuclear facilities.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister issued an ultimatum to the West: Either renegotiate the United Nations-backed deal on Iran’s nuclear program, or the Islamic republic will enrich nuclear fuel on its own.

Foreign Minister Manounchehr Mottaki said the West has until the end of January to accept the counter-deal proposed by Iran, though he didn’t give details on Iran’s offer, according to state media.

Mottaki’s comments came two days after Iran failed to meet a year-end deadline to accept a deal offered in October by the “P5 plus one” — permanent United Nations Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany. The six nations offered Iran a deal to send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad for conversion into fuel for a medical reactor in Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, had proposed that Iran send low-enriched uranium to Russia and then France for processing.

Iraq to support Blackwater lawsuit in US courts

Reuters | Jan 3, 2010

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq will help victims of the 2007 shooting of civilians in Baghdad to file a U.S. lawsuit against employees of security firm Blackwater, an incident that turned a spotlight on the United States’ use of private contractors in war zones.

Last week, a U.S. judge threw out charges against five guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle, saying the defendants’ constitutional rights had been violated.

Iraq called that decision “unacceptable and unjust” and, as well as supporting a lawsuit brought by Iraqis wounded in the shooting and families of those killed, it will ask the U.S. Justice Department to review the criminal case, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday.

“The government will facilitate a lawsuit from Iraqi citizens to sue the guards and the company in a U.S. court,” he said.

The guards from Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services, say they shot across a crowded intersection in self-defense after hearing an explosion and gunfire.

But an Iraqi whose young son was killed in the incident said they indiscriminately fired at cars.

The shooting strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and became a symbol for many Iraqis of foreigners’ disregard for their lives.

Dabbagh said the court had “rejected the case on form, and not on its merits.”

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, private guards protecting U.S. personnel were given immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. That ended with a bilateral agreement that took effect last year.

The five guards were charged in a U.S. federal court with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 of attempting to commit manslaughter and one weapons violation. A sixth Blackwater guard pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempting to commit manslaughter, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Dabbagh said Iraq was conducting an investigation into whether current or former Blackwater employees were still operating in the country, including with other firms.

He said Iraq did not want them on its soil, but did not say whether they would be expelled.

“We do not want any member of this company, which committed more than one crime in Iraq, to work in Iraq.”

In a speech to Iraq’s parliament on Sunday, lawmaker Omar al-Jubouri suggested a way the government could retaliate for the decision of the U.S. courts.

“Ask the Iraqi courts to release all the (Iraqi) defendants … sentenced to death for killing Americans in Iraq, as an act of reciprocity with the U.S. judicial system,” he said.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; writing by Missy Ryan; editing by Angus MacSwan)

Boston mother sues over forced sterilization

Mom of 9 sues for unwanted sterilization

UPI | Jan 3, 2010

BOSTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) — A Boston mother of nine has sued a hospital and medical personnel allegedly for permanently sterilizing her against her will.

Tessa Savicki, 35, whose children range in age from 3 to 21, said she provided an intra-uterine device to healthcare professionals to be installed after her last Caesarean-section, but they instead performed a tubal ligation, which Savicki said she had not authorized, the Boston Herald reported Sunday.

Savicki’s nine children were fathered by several men. She is unemployed and receives public aid for two of the four children who reside with her, receives supplemental security income because she has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, her mother has custody of three of the children, and two of her children are no longer minors, she said.

Savicki’s fiance, Angel Flores Tirado, 36, lives with her and helps support the family — three of the children are his — with his full time position as a personal care assistant. She said she had hoped to have one more child with Tirado.

Savicki said she realized some people may not have much sympathy for her, but said she should not be judged on the basis of being a poor, single mother of 9.

“I would never have the right to tell anyone else ‘because you have this many kids, that’s enough,’” she said.

“I take care of my kids. I love my kids. I was not ready to make that kind of decision (for permanent sterilization),” she said.

Dubai’s “superscraper” makes history in hard times

Reuters | Jan 3, 2010

A general view of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower, in Dubai January 3, 2010. REUTERS/Mosab Omar

DUBAI (Reuters) – Started at the height of the economic boom and built by some 12,000 laborers, the world’s tallest building will open on Monday in Dubai as the glitzy emirate seeks to rekindle optimism after its financial crisis.

Burj Dubai, whose opening has been delayed twice since construction began in 2004, will mark another milestone for the deeply indebted emirate with a penchant for seeking new records.

Dubai, one of seven members of the United Arab Emirates, gained a reputation for excess with the creation of man-made islands shaped like palms and an indoor ski slope in the desert.

With investor confidence in Dubai badly bruised by the emirate’s announcement in November that it would seek a debt standstill for one of its largest conglomerates, the Burj Dubai is seen as a positive start to the year after a bleak 2009.

The project has been scrutinized by human rights groups, who have objected to its treatment of laborers, as well as by environmentalists who said the tower would act as a power vacuum, increasing the city’s already massive carbon footprint.

But despite the criticism, many say the edifice, believed to have cost $1.5 billion to build, is an architectural marvel.

The tower’s height has been kept a closely guarded secret until now. Developer Emaar Properties PJSC will reveal the height — known to exceed 800 meters (2,625 feet) — on Tuesday and Dubai’s ruler will inaugurate the opening.

Experts believe Dubai’s recent financial troubles have not hurt sales of approximately 1,100 residential units in the Burj — meaning tower in Arabic — saying they were nearly all sold.

Dubai’s real estate sector crashed at the end of 2008 when the global financial crisis hit the emirate after a six-year economic boom. Thousands of jobs were slashed and projects worth billions of dollars were canceled or delayed.

With analysts suggesting tax-free Dubai might sell some of its assets to boost revenues and slash $80 billion in debt, many wondered if the tower was on the list for grabs.

Dubai, with few natural resources of its own, expects a budget deficit of 2 percent of GDP this year.

In December, the emirate received a $10 billion lifeline from neighboring Abu Dhabi to repay a $4.1 billion bond for Nakheel, a property arm of indebted Dubai World, and other obligations.

Mandela nephew threatens to secede from South Africa

Tribal king threatens to secede from S.A.

UPI | Jan. 3, 2010

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan. 3 (UPI) — The nephew of former South African president Nelson Mandela, King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, says his tribe might secede from the nation.

The king says his tribe, the Thembu, will declare independence and claim 60 percent of South Africa’s territory unless President Jacob Zuma withdraws the charges of manslaughter, kidnapping and assault against him, The Sunday Times of London reported.

The newspaper said King Dalindyebo is facing a 15-year jail sentence after being convicted of the charges, which stem from early 1990s violence committed against his subjects in which a woman and children were kidnapped, homes were destroyed and young people assaulted.

The Sunday Times said the situation is proving embarrassing to the ruling African National Congress because the Thembu tribe is one of the largest constituents of the Xhosa group, from which many ANC leaders have sprung.

The newspaper said Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, a Thembu chief, is probably the strongest supporter of the accused king.

Three Approved Genetically Modified Foods Linked to Organ Damage

Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage

dissidentvoice.org | Jan 3, 2010

by Rady Ananda

In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize.

All three varieties of GM corn, Mon 810, Mon 863 and NK 603, were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities. Made public by European authorities in 2005, Monsanto’s confidential raw data of its 2002 feeding trials on rats that these researchers analyzed is the same data, ironically, that was used to approve them in different parts of the world.

The Committee of Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and Universities of Caen and Rouen studied Monsanto’s 90-day feeding trials data of insecticide producing Mon 810, Mon 863 and Roundup® herbicide absorbing NK 603 varieties of GM maize.

The data “clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system,” reported Gilles-Eric Séralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen.

Although different levels of adverse impact on vital organs were noticed between the three GMOs, the 2009 research shows specific effects associated with consumption of each GMO, differentiated by sex and dose.

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