STARTLED KANGAROO TRIES TO DROWN DOG AND ATTACKS OWNER
MELBOURNE, Australia – A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs. The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat.- Rickard said he was walking his blue heeler, Rocky, on Sunday morning when they surprised a sleeping kangaroo in Arthur's Creek northeast of Melbourne. The dog chased the animal into a pond, when the kangaroo turned and pinned the pet underwater.
- When Rickard tried to pull his dog free, the kangaroo turned on him, attacking with its hind legs and tearing a deep gash into his abdomen and across his face.
- "I thought I might take a hit or two dragging the dog out from under his grip, but I didn't expect him to actually attack me," Rickard, 49, told The Herald Sun newspaper. "It was a shock at the start because it was a kangaroo, about 5 feet high, they don't go around killing people."
- Kangaroos rarely attack people but will fight if they feel threatened.
- Dogs often chase kangaroos, which have been known to lead the pets into water and defend themselves there.
- Rickard said he ended the attack by elbowing the kangaroo in the throat, adding his dog Rocky was "half-drowned" when he pulled him from the water.
OVER 100 ANTARCTIC ICEBERGS ARE FLOOTING TOWARDS NEW ZEALAND
SYDNEY – More than 100, and possibly hundreds, of Antarctic icebergs are floating towards New Zealand in a rare event which has prompted a shipping warning, officials said on Monday.
Source: AFP
- An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast.
- Scientist Neal Young said more than 100 icebergs -- some measuring more than 200 metres (650 feet) across were seen in just one cluster, indicating there could be hundreds more.
- He said they were the remains of a massive ice floe which split from the Antarctic as sea and air temperatures rise due to global warming.
- "All of these have come from a larger one that was probably 30 square kilometres (11.6 square miles) in size when it left Antarctica," Young told AFP.
- "It's done a long circuit around Antarctica and now the bigger parts of it are breaking up and producing smaller ones."
- He said large numbers of icebergs had not floated this close to New Zealand since 2006, when a number came within 25 kilometres of the coastline; the first such sighting since 1931.
MAGICAL BEIRUT WOWS TO LURE BACK SHOPPERS
Lebanese capital embarks on charm offensive to lure visitors thanks to its ambitious shopping projects.
Brimming with style, Beirut is regaining its reputation as a shoppers' paradise, with luxury labels such as Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton among a slew of shops opening in the city's renovated souks.
Dethroned by Dubai as a top destination for shoppers, downtown Beirut today has embarked on a charm offensive as it seeks to attract visitors with ambitious projects like the "Beirut Souks," where 400 stores, 49 of them jewellers, are set to open in coming months.
Source: Middle Rast Inline
Dethroned by Dubai as a top destination for shoppers, downtown Beirut today has embarked on a charm offensive as it seeks to attract visitors with ambitious projects like the "Beirut Souks," where 400 stores, 49 of them jewellers, are set to open in coming months.
- "Luxury is spreading like an oil stain through downtown Beirut," said Guillaume Boudisseau, a consultant with Ramco Real Estate. And downtown is now the place to invest," he added.
- The city centre, devastated during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and paralysed between 2007-2008 by an opposition sit-in and by the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, today is bustling with activity. Hotels, restaurants and shops are opening at every turn.
- The old souks have also been revamped to the tune of 100 millions dollars and house names like Vivienne Westwood, Armani, Berluti and Cartier.
- International designers who hail from Lebanon also showcase their work in their capital: Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad both have ateliers in the high-brow shopping district.
- While Beirut still can not compete with the wide array of boutiques Dubai offers, it has one advantage in addition to its long-standing reputation: it's all available within walking distance.
- Tony Salameh, CEO of Lebanon's top luxury importer Aishti, hopes the city will "reclaim its position as the shopping destination of choice in two years' time."
- Salameh says the luxury market in Lebanon is on the rise too, estimating growth at close to 15 percent annually.
- Dubbed "the Paris of the Middle East" before the war, Beirut re-emerged as a showcase for style after the end of the fighting, despite an economic slump and still-shaky infrastructure in the 1990s.
- But the country was once again plunged into a period of instability following the 2005 assassination of billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who is credited with having rebuilt central Beirut.
- "We now have the chance to regain first place instead of Dubai, because its clientele, mainly wealthy Russians, accounted for between 60 and 65 percent of its turnover," said Salameh. "And that has disappeared."
- He said some of the clients at his high-brow department store don't flinch at spending 200,000 dollars (134,600) per season.
- The shopping area is not limited to the souks with boutiques opening in nearby streets, transforming downtown Beirut into a big outdoors shopping mall wildly popular among visitors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and other Gulf countries.
- Western tourists, largely absent in past years because of security concerns, have also have also begun making a shy comeback.
- "Gulf clients prefer to shop here in Beirut, because to them it still represents sophistication," Salameh said.
- Fadwa, a visitor from the United Arab Emirates, says the arcaded streets are "the new Dubai, but much prettier."
- Wafa al-Ayuti, a wealthy Egyptian tourist, agreed: "It's both modern and intimate at the same time."
- "It's like Paris," added her mother as the two walked down a street in the shopping district.
- But the Beirut Souks' new and improved face has left some seasoned denizens feeling nostalgic for the old city.
AUSTRALIA ON ALERT AS WILDFIRES BLAZE OUT OF CONTROL
The last patient is evacuated from Rylstone Hospital as a fire approaches the town of Rylstone, northwest
Hundreds of residents in eastern Australia were on alert Sunday as out-of-control wildfires fanned by soaring temperatures and windy conditions threatened properties, officials said.
- A bushfire emergency warning, the highest level of alert, has been issued for those living in the New South Wales towns of Rylstone, Kandos and Clandulla about 170 kilometres (105 miles) northwest of Sydney.
- The warning come nine months after a firestorm in southeastern Victoria state in which 173 people were killed as fires razed homes and trapped residents in the country's worst natural disaster of modern times.
- As temperatures in Sydney reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), prompting thousands to flock to Bondi and surrounding beaches, about 1,000 firefighters were battling around 100 blazes across New South Wales state.
- Of most concern was the Rylstone/Kandos fire which has burned through some 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of bush and has now broken containment lines, despite the efforts of 170 firefighters aided by six helicopters and four planes.
PASSENGER FERRY SANK IN INDONESIA, 25 DEAD, 242 RESCUED
UP DATED
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Rescuers saved more than 240 people aboard a crowded Indonesian passenger ferry that sank Sunday in rough waters off Sumatra island, but 29 people have died so far and at least 17 others were missing, officials said.
Source: AFP
- Rescue teams had rescued 242 people but high waves were making the operation difficult, said Brig. Gen. Puji Hartanto, police chief of Riau Kepulauan province. The passengers on the second ferry were all said to be safe.
- The Dumai Express 10 left on an inter-island voyage Sunday morning and reportedly sank in poor weather 90 minutes into the trip from Batam to Dumai in Riau, a province off Sumatra island in western Indonesia. The area is about 600 miles (900 kilometers) northwest of Jakarta
- The passenger manifest said it was carrying 228 passengers, including 15 children, said Yasin Kosasih, a local police chief. It was also carrying 14 crew, according to Lt. Col. Edwin, the local navy chief.
- At least nine ships and several fishing boats were searching for those missing, Edwin said.
- A journalist from el-Shinta radio reported from one of the rescue ships that passengers could be seen floating in the water around some small islets, but the ship could not reach them due to high waves and shallow waters. Passing boats have picked up dozens of those rescued.
CHAVEZ PRAISES NOTORIOUS TERRORIST, "CARLOS THE JACKEL"
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez is praising Carlos the Jackal, the imprisoned Venezuelan once notorious for a series of Cold War-era bombings, assassinations and hostage dramas, saying he was a "revolutionary fighter" and not a terrorist.- The Venezuelan president lauded Carlos — whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez — during a speech Friday night saying: "I defend him. It doesn't matter to me what they say tomorrow in Europe."
- Ramirez is serving a life sentence in a French prison for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informant.
- He has testified that he led a 1975 attack that killed three people at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria. He also has been linked to the 1976 hijacking of an Air France jet en route to Uganda.
- "They accuse him of being a terrorist, but Carlos really was a revolutionary fighter," Chavez said during a televised speech to socialist politicians from various countries, who applauded.
- He said Ramirez had aided the cause of the Palestinians, something Chavez has also supported while verbally clashing with Israel.
136,000 TAMIL REFUGEES TO BE RELEASE
In this photo provided by the United Nations, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John
MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka will release next month the remaining 136,000 Tamil refugees still in the squalid and overrun government camps where they've been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, a top official said Saturday.
Source: AP
- Some 300,000 war refugees were forced into the camps after fleeing the final months of the government's decades-long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May.
- The ethnic-minority Tamils are being held against their will. More than half were released in recent months amid pressure from rights groups and foreign governments. Authorities say nearly 136,000 people remain detained in the camps, which are guarded by soldiers and strung with barbed wire.
- Basil Rajapaksa, a senior adviser to his brother, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Saturday the refugees will be free to return to their villages after Dec. 1, and the camps will be completely closed by Jan. 31.
A PERUVIAN GANG KILLED DOZENS PEOPLE FOR THEIR FAT
The remains of victims that were allegedly kidnapped and killed by a criminal gang in the jungle of Peru for human fat trafficking. Photograph: National Police Of Peru/EPA
Police in Peru say they have broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold fat from the corpses to buyers in Europe who used it to make cosmetics.
Source: The Agencies
- Three of the people arrested confessed to killing five people, Colonel Jorge Mejia, who heads Peru's anti-kidnapping police, said on Thursday.
- He said that the gang, which operated in the remote Peruvian jungle, might have been involved in dozens more incidents.
- He said that one of the suspects claimed other gangs were also involved in such killings.
- The gang allegedly cut off their victims' heads, arms and legs, removed the organs, then suspended the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as fat dripped into tubs below.
- Police dubbed the gang the "Pishtacos" after a Peruvian myth about men who killed to extract human fat.
GREENPEACE VOWED TO HARASS JAPAN WHALING MISSION
SYDNEY ,Australia – Australia said it was "deeply disappointed" after a fleet of Japanese whaling ships set out to kill hundreds of the giant ocean mammals on their annual hunt.Environment Minister Peter Garrett urged Japan, which says the killings are for research purposes, to "swap harpoons for science" and study whales by other means.
- "We are deeply disappointed that the Japanese Government has again embarked on its annual hunt to the Southern Ocean," Garrett said in a statement late on Thursday.
- "The Australian government has said repeatedly that we do not have to kill whales to study them."
- Greenpeace said four whaling ships left Japan for a five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean, using a loophole in an international moratorium that allows their killing for lethal "research".
- Anti-whaling nations led by Australia and New Zealand and environmental groups including Greenpeace have long attacked the expeditions as cruel and unnecessary.
- Militant activists have disrupted previous hunts by pursuing the whalers, leading to a series of angry confrontations involving rancid butter, stink bombs and, allegedly, ear-piercing sonic weapons.
- The environmentalists have vowed to harass the ships in coming months using a futuristic, super-fast powerboat that last year clocked the fastest circumnavigation of the world on record.
ETHIOPIAN JEWS ARE TREATED LIKE 2nd CLASS CITIZENS IN ISRAEL
TEL AVIV - The ancient hymns brought tears to the eyes of Solomon Ayeli, as well as memories of his native Ethiopia which he left two decades ago for Israel a country he loves but where he often feels rejected.
Source:Middle East Online
- "There should be no differences between black Jews and white Jews," said Ayeli, 29, who was among 15,000 people who this week celebrated the Ethiopian-Jewish Sigd prostration festival in Jerusalem.
- "We want to be fully fledged Israelis," he said, as priests intoned prayers in Ethiopia's ancient scriptural language Geez. "We want to fully belong to Israeli society which often rejects us."
- In spite of everything, Ayeli, like many members of the Ethiopian Jewish community are known as Beta Israel says his journey to the Holy Land (Palestine and Israel) was the fulfilment of a dream. "Living here is an exceptional opportunity." But the cost was high.
- "I lost 10 family members in the desert, on the way to Israel," says Ayeli who had to walk for days through Sudan on his way to Israel when he was 10-years-old.
- The Beta Israel were only recognised as Jews by Israel's two chief rabbis in 1975.
- The recognition was crucial, as Aliyah the Israeli law of return allows any Jew to settle in Israel and get citizenship.
- Israel airlifted in 35,000 Ethiopian Jews under Operation Moses in 1984, at the height of a killer famine in the Horn of Africa, and during the 1991 Operation Solomon.
- Today, there are more than 120,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel, 80,000 of whom were born in Africa.
- Many feel they are still treated like second-class citizens.
- A recent study showed that 53 percent of employers preferred not to hire Ethiopians, who nevertheless still fared better than Arabs with an 83 percent rejection rate.
- Israel has often come under international criticism for ‘racism’ and mistreatment of its non-Jewish Arab minority, who are the original inhabitants of the land and today make up one fifth of its total population.
- The study also found that 70 percent of employers tended not to promote Ethiopians.
- Israel's Association for Civil Rights says employment rates within the Ethiopian community were 10 percent lower than for the rest of the population last year.
- Official figures show that 2008 high school completion was only 36 percent among students of Ethiopian origin as compared with 55 percent for other Israelis.
- In September, ultra-Orthodox schools in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, caused a public uproar when they initially refused to accept children of Ethiopian descent, although they eventually accepted some of the applicants.
MALAYSIA TO PROMOTE MUSLIM TOURS PACKAGES TO CHINESE TOURIST
KUNMING, China - Malaysia will step up the promotion of Muslim tour packages, including Ramadan attractions, for the Chinese market, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
Source: Bernama
- "The number of Chinese Muslim tourists to Malaysia in year 2003 was 50,000 and the figure has gone up to 94,000 people last year.
With the high volume of Chinese tourists, I believe that promoting Islamic tourism among Chinese Muslims has great potential," she said at a dialogue Thursday with Muslim leaders and tour operators in her 12-day working trip to China", Eng said - Ng added the packages could incorporate visits to mosques and promotions during the Ramadan month such as halal food stalls and hotel buffets during the period.
- "Malaysia has Islamic banking and is a halal food hub which could be advantageous in promoting Islamic tourism. Besides that, Chinese Muslim travel agents could also bring their customers to attend exhibition on halal products organised in Malaysia," she added.
- Ng also encouraged Chinese Muslim tour operators to look into the potential of Malaysian Muslim tourists to China apart from travelling to the Middle East.
- For example, she said, Malaysian Muslims could take holidays in southwestern Yunnan province, to enjoy the four seasons of the year.
- Amee, a Chinese tour operator who attended the dialogue with Dr Ng, said the 20-million Muslim population in China was a strong potential market and tour operators here had been working together with Tourism Malaysia in recent years.
- He said religious travel, education travel, family holidays and the "Malaysia My Second Home" programme were the main draws.
- Dr Ng also led a delegation to the opening of the 11th China International Travel Mart (CITM) on Thursday attended by 94 countries and visited the Malaysian pavilion and exhibitors.
- With Chinese arrivals to Malaysia totalling 835,000 in October, she hoped that the target of one million Chinese tourists could be achieved this year. Dr Ng also attended the inaugural China-Asean Tourism Cooperation Forum and called on Shao Qiwei, China National Tourism Administration chairman.
HAMID KARZAI SWORN IN AS AFGHAN PRESIDENT
KABUL – Afghanistan will prosecute corrupt officials and control its own security within five years, President Hamid Karzai pledged Thursday in an inauguration speech made under intense pressure to shed the cronyism and graft that marked his government's first term.
Source:AP
- As Karzai vowed to make the country safe from an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency, two U.S. service members died in a bomb attack and a suicide bomber killed 10 civilians in the south. But his speech appeared to make strides toward appeasing the international allies he needs to fend off the Islamist militants.
- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Karzai's comments about battling corruption provide a "very strong base on which to measure the actions taken."
- "He could have been very vague and talked about how we're all against it and all want to end it, but he was much more specific, and we're going to, along with the people of Afghanistan, watch very carefully to see how that's implemented," said Clinton, who attended Karzai's inauguration.
FORESTS AND OCEANS DECLINE IN ABSORBING CARBON EMISSIONS
Scientists have warned that global temperatures could rise by six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, four degrees higher than previously predicted and at a level that could wipe out species and cause widespread natural disasters.
Source: The Agencies
- In addition, the study by the Global Carbon Project (GCP) said on Wednesday, that the ability of the world's forests and oceans to absorb carbon emissions was declining.
- The paper, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, comes in the run up to UN talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, aimed at crafting a pact to combat climate change from 2013.
- It said pollution "continued to track the average of the most carbon-intensive family of scenarios" put forward by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- Professor Corinne Le Quéré, the lead author of the study from the British Antarctic Survey, said: "The projections of climate that have been made before are always based on scenarios of climate change, so they tell that if the emissions are such and such you get 2C, if they are such and such you get six or seven.
- "What our study is doing is identifying that the trend in the CO2 emissions, particularly from fossil fuels in the past decades, is so large it is at the higher end of the emissions scenario and this is why I am saying that we are on the scenario for a 6C warming," she said.
- Under the IPCC's most extreme scenario, the Earth's surface will warm by around four degrees Celsius by 2100 compared with 2000 - a rise consistent with a wipeout of species, widespread hunger, flooding, drought and homelessness.
- The new report highlighted the situation in emerging economies, such as China and India, where emissions have more than doubled since 1990 and now emit more greenhouse gases than developed countries.
- Sarah Clifton of Friends of the Earth said, "This is yet more evidence, if any more was needed, of a strong and fair deal at Copenhagen in December in order to help us reduce emissions and avoid catastrophic climate change.
- "Politicians are hiding behind each other, no one wants to step up and take the action, and what we actually need to see is political leadership by the rich countries. We need emission reductions, commitments from the the rich countries of at least 40 per cent by 2020.
CZECH MARKS THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF VELVET REVOLUTION
March through Prague : Thousands of Czech people are seen through a window, in which a poster portraying a man is reflected, as they march through streets of Prague to commemoration the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
Czech people watch a symbolic iron curtain burning on Narodni trida in Prague in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
People light candles at the memorial for the Velvet Revolution in Prague's city centre November 17, 2009. Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Communist government in the "former Socialist Czechoslovakia"
Source:AFPUS MILITARY SUICIDAL RISE IN 2009
A US general says that suicides in the US military will rise to a new high this year.
“We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year,” General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told a Pentagon briefing.
“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way.”
Source: Press TV
“We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year,” General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told a Pentagon briefing.
“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way.”
- Chiarelli said the causes of the suicides were still unclear and noted that roughly a third of the soldiers who took their own lives had never been deployed abroad.
- The US Army recently announced that about one in five low-ranking soldiers suffer from mental health problems like depression.
- Earlier in November, an army doctor -- identified as 39-year-old Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars -- opened fire at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, killing 12 people before being shot and wounded. Thirty-one people were also injured.
- US President Barack Obama called the incident 'a horrific outburst of violence.'
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY IS SUSPECTED A CRIMINAL ORGANISATION ?
SYDNEY – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd voiced "concerns" about the Church of Scientology Wednesday after a senator detailed explosive allegations including torture, imprisonment and coerced abortions.
Source: AFP
- Rudd said the accusations, made by independent Senator Nick Xenophon in parliament but strenuously denied by the organisation, were "grave" and needed further consideration.
- "Many people in Australia have real concerns about Scientology. I share some of those concerns," the prime minister said.
- "I don't want to rush into any judgement on this, other than to say (Xenophon) raised concerns and made some serious allegations," he added.
- "Let us proceed carefully and look carefully at the material he has provided before we make a decision on further parliamentary action."
- Xenophon on Tuesday branded the secretive group, whose high-profile adherents include Tom Cruise and John Travolta, a "criminal organisation" and called for a review of its tax-exempt status as a religion.
- He tabled letters from former members claiming embezzlement, forced confinement, torture and blackmail, as well as the "ordering" of abortions and virtual house arrest of followers.
- "Scientology is not a religious organisation, it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs," Xenophon told parliament.
- "The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contain extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking," he added.
- "These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative and violent organisation."
- The Church said Xenophon's claims were "fascistic" and an "outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege", referring to his protection from libel laws.
- "Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences in the Church," it said in a statement.
- "They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner."
- According to an excerpt of one of the letters, published in The Australian newspaper, Church staff who fell pregnant were "put under duress" and members lived in fear of expulsion and being "severed" from their families.
- "We had one staff member who used a coathanger and self-aborted her child. All her files were destroyed," wrote former staff member Aaron Saxton.
- Politicians in some European countries including France, Germany, Greece and Russia have accused the movement, which claims global membership of 12 million, of exploiting its followers financially.
- Last month, French judges fined the group almost one million dollars for defrauding vulnerable followers.
- Founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is officially recognised as a religion in Australia for tax purposes.
'IRON LADY OF THE NORTH' BID FOR EU's PRESIDENT
Former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga
Flame-haired Latvian Vaira Vike-Freiberga, known as the "Iron Lady of the North", is leading a pack of late contenders who have dashed into the closing round of the race to become the EU's first president.
Source: The Independent
- With so much still to play for, diplomats have warned of a long night on Thursday, when EU leaders meet to decide names over dinner.
- Some suspect the talks will spill over into Friday; others that a decision may be postponed even beyond that, but the Swedish presidency is determined not to let that happen.
- Over the past days, another Baltic colleague, Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has added his name to the growing list of presidential hopefuls, which is now thought to include around a dozen potential candidates.
- Although Tony Blair's chances still look extremely slim, there has been renewed momentum behind a faltering bid by Luxembourg's premier Jean-Claude Juncker and mentions of Spain's ex-leader Jose Maria Aznar.
- Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who was president of Latvia until 2007 and led the former Soviet state into the EU and Nato, is the only female candidate applying for the newly created job. Known for her charisma and outspoken views, she was an enormously popular leader at home, with thousands of grateful Latvians turning out to lay flowers when she retired.
IS CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY MEANS TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING?
The technology of carbon capture and storage is a means to reduce the effects of global warming by 'capturing' carbon dioxide gas emitted from power plants and storing it beyond the reach of the atmosphere.
Source: The Agencies
- "We know that we must use coal in a more clean fashion," said Joe Manchin, West Virginia's governor, at the commissioning ceremony for the pilot project. "This is what we've demonstrated today - that it can be done."
- The process involves cooling the carbon dioxide gas into a liquid state, then compressing and injecting it into shafts drilled more than 2km under the surface, below water tables and drinking water supplies. (For an animation of the process, click here).
- The carbon dioxide (CO2) spreads through porous rock formations, similar to water filling up a sponge. It is prevented from rising up again by the same thick solid rock layers above that have kept oil and gas deposits trapped for millions of years.
- Environmental groups are divided about carbon capture. Some dismiss the very possibility of clean coal, while others are worried that despite all assurances, some of the trapped CO2 could eventually escape.
- Then there is the added cost.By most estimates, the retail price of electricity from low-carbon coal could be more expensive than nuclear or solar power.
- To make carbon burial commercially practical, billions of dollars in government subsidies would be required.
- Low-carbon burning plants. For the long-term, some experts are calling on the US and China, the world's number one CO2 polluter, to collaborate on a crash programme of building new low-carbon- burning coal plants.
- In a new report, the Asia Society of the US, an institution which works to improve Asia-US ties, says: "Both countries will continue to depend on burning large amounts of coal for the foreseeable future, and thus, if this technology can be proven at sufficient levels of scale and safety, the deployment of CCS [carbon capture and storage] technologies is an essential element in any effort to stabilise global greenhouse gas emissions."
- But even if carbon capture clears all its technical and economic hurdles, sceptics say it might take another 15 to 20 years to start making a noticeable difference in the world's CO2 output.
- Without an ambitious investment in the technology, however, the fight against global warming could well be futile.
