After typhoon, Philippines faces one of the most profound resettlement crises in decades
By Chico Harlan, Sunday, January 5, 8:19 AM E-mail the writer
TACLOBAN, Philippines – The typhoon that recently barreled through the Philippines has left in its wake one of the most profound resettlement crises in decades, with the number of newly homeless far exceeding the capacity of aid groups and the government to respond.
Two months after one of the strongest typhoons on record, recovery in the central Philippines has been marked by a desperate scramble for shelter, as people return to the same areas that were ravaged and construct weaker, leakier and sometimes rotting versions of their old homes.
That urgent but crude attempt to rebuild has raised the prospect that the storm-prone areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan will emerge more vulnerable to future disasters.
Iraqi PM to al Qaeda fighters: ‘We will not withdraw’ from Anbar province
By Chelsea J. Carter and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
January 5, 2014 — Updated 0330 GMTThe Iraqi army shelled Falluja on Saturday in an effort to clear out al Qaeda-linked fighters amid dueling claims by the terror group and government forces about just who was in control of the flashpoint city in the Anbar province.
The fighting in the Sunni province in recent days has posed a serious challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government, raising questions about his ability to hold the country together amid a rising insurgency.
Is it 1914 all over again? We are in danger of repeating the mistakes that started WWI, says a leading historian
The Great War was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Balkans. The Middle East could be viewed as the modern-day equivalent, argues Professor Margaret MacMillan
IAN JOHNSTON Sunday 05 January 2014
History never repeats itself, but it sure does rhyme, it has been said. Now an internationally respected historian is warning that today’s world bears a number of striking similarities with the build-up to the First World War.
The newly mechanised armies of the early 20th century produced unprecedented slaughter on the battlefields of the “war to end all wars” after a spark lit in the Balkans with the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Professor Margaret MacMillan, of the University of Cambridge, argues that the Middle East could be viewed as the modern-day equivalent of this turbulent region. A nuclear arms race that would be likely to start if Iran developed a bomb “would make for a very dangerous world indeed, which could lead to a recreation of the kind of tinderbox that exploded in the Balkans 100 years ago – only this time with mushroom clouds,” she writes in an essay for the Brookings Institution, a leading US think-tank.
Thai protesters march again in bid to bring down government
BY KHETTIYA JITTAPONG
BANGKOK Sun Jan 5, 2014 12:47am EST(Reuters) – Thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the Thai capital on Sunday, a prelude to a broader action next week when they say they will shut down Bangkok in their bid to scuttle a February election and topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The protesters, who accuse Yingluck of being the puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, have vowed to stop the February 2 election. Instead, they want an appointed “people’s council” to oversee reforms before any future vote.
Terminators or protectors? Rise of the robot soldiers may be closer than you think
President Obama’s use of drones to kill is turning science fiction into fact.
Tom Chivers January 5, 2014
Every discussion of robots and warfare will always come back to one, or both, of two science-fiction touchstones: Skynet and Asimov.
Skynet, the artificial intelligence defence system described in the Terminator films, gains self-awareness and immediately attempts to wipe out humanity.
In Isaac Asimov’s robot stories, he imagines ”three laws of robotics”, the first of which instructed all robots: ”A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Those are the options, popularly understood: robot murderers trying to destroy mankind; or pacifist automatons barred by their programming from hurting humans.
US icebreaker to rescue 2 ships in Antarctica
By ROD McGUIRK
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A U.S. Coast Guard heavy icebreaker left Australia for Antarctica on Sunday to rescue more than 120 crew members aboard two icebreakers trapped in pack ice near the frozen continent’s eastern edge, officials said.
The 122-meter (399-foot) cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because “there is sufficient concern that the vessels may not be able to free themselves from the ice,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped in ice-clogged Commonwealth Bay since Christmas Eve, while the Chinese ship which came to its rescue, Xue Long or Snow Dragon in Chinese, reported on Friday it too had become stuck nearby.
Recent Comments