BRAZIL’S SAO PAULO HIT BY DEADLY FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES
Floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains
have killed at least 13 people in the city of Sao Paulo and the rest of
the state, Brazilian officials say.
Most died when mudslides swept away their homes.
Main roads were flooded, causing huge traffic jams in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.
Brazil has seen severe flooding this year which has left thousands homeless and dozens dead in the south-east of the country.
The torrential downpours began on Monday night, causing
rivers to burst their banks. Rescue services reported a dozen
landslides.
Brazilian television described Tuesday's rush hour in Sao Paulo as "chaotic".
Officials say that the first few days of January have seen nearly as much as is normal in the entire month.
Further rain is likely across the area over the next few
days with the heaviest downpours now creeping up to the north of Rio.
CAR BOMB RIPS THROUGH CROWD IN YEMENI CAPITAL KILLING 38
A car bomb has exploded outside a police college in Yemen's
capital Sanaa, killing at least 38 people, police sources and residents
in the area have said.
A police source said on Wednesday that a dozen others were
wounded in the explosion that targeted a centre of Houthi fighters near
the police academy officers’ club.
The blast was heard across the city and a large plume of smoke was visible in the area of the college.
Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Sanaa, said the pictures
coming out from the scene suggest the number of casualties is likely to
rise.
Source: Al Jazeera
11 SHOT DEAD AT FRENCH SATIRICAL WEEKLY
PARIS, French - At least 11 people were killed when gunmen
armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher opened fire in the offices
of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, said sources close to the investigation.
The prosecutor's office confirmed that "at this stage" 10 people had been killed without detailing how many had been injured.
Another source close to the investigation said the number of dead had reached 11.
Deputy Mayor of Paris Bruno Julliard earlier said "six people are
seriously injured", including a policeman. It was not clear whether
these now figured among the dead.
French President Francois Hollande(photo) arrived at the scene of the
shooting after rushing there and calling an emergency cabinet meeting,
the presidency said.
The government raised its alert level to the highest possible in the greater Paris region.
A source close to the investigation said two men "armed with a
Kalashnikov and a rocket-launcher" stormed the building in central Paris
and "fire was exchanged with security forces."
The source said a gunman had hijacked a car and knocked over a pedestrian while attempting to speed away.
The publication's cartoonist Renaud Luzier earlier told AFP there were "casualties" after the incident.
- The satirical newspaper gained notoriety in February 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, causing fury across the Muslim world.
- Its offices were fire-bombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammed and under the title "Charia Hebdo".
- Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet.
In September 2012 Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked
Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over
a low-budget film, titled "Innocence of Muslims", which was made in the
United States and insulted the prophet.
French schools, consulates and cultural centres in 20 Muslim
countries were briefly closed along with embassies for fear of
retaliatory attacks at the time.
Editor Stephane Charbonnier has received death threats and lives under police protection.
Source: – AFP
QANTAS NAMED WORLD’S SAFEST AIRLINE?
QANTAS has been named the world’s safest airline, after a
year when fatal air accidents soared above the 10-year average.In a report published by AirlineRatings.com on Tuesday night, Qantas was lauded for amassing “an extraordinary record of firsts” in safety and operations over its 94-year history.
The report comes after what was “in no doubt” a bad year for
airline safety, AirlineRatings.com said, adding 2014 included some of the
industry’s most tragic and bizarre incidents.AirlineRatings.com said the high number of deaths came despite the number of accidents for 2014 being at a record low 21 — one for every 1.3 million flights.
“Two of the crashes last year — MH370 and MH17 — were
unprecedented in modern times and claimed 537 lives,” the report says.“Flashback 50 years and there were a staggering 87 crashes killing 1,597 when airlines carried only 141 million passengers — five per cent of today’s number.”
Qantas, which AirlineRatings.com said was now also accepted
as the world’s most experienced airline, was praised as the leader in terms of
real-time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite
communications.“Doing so allows the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue,” the report says.
Making up the remainder of the top 10 in alphabetical order
were Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad
Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.Qantas, which has a fatality-free record in the jet era, was described as a leader in the development of an avionics system that provides a direct data link communication between the pilot and the air traffic controller, as well as the development of flight data recorders to monitor plane and crew performance.
The report rates 449 airlines, including low-cost carriers, with Jetstar making the top 10 of the later group.
The top 10 low-cost carriers in alphabetical order were Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, Icelandair, Jetstar, Jetblue, Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly and Westjet.
Source: The Ausrtralian
PAC WANTS PUTRAJAYA TO EXPLAIN RM800 MILLION FOR FLOOD VICTIMS?
The Finance Ministry and the National Security Council (NSC)
will be asked by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to explain the RM800
million that was spent on flood relief efforts.PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed(photo) said the amount allocated was huge and as such, its management needed to be transparent.
"The RM800 million fund for relief is huge. PAC will
ask the Finance Ministry and the NSC to explain in detail how the allocation
will be channelled to flood victims," Nur Jazlan told The Malaysian
Insider.Nur Jazlan said the substantial allocation would require transparency and careful spending to ensure that the additional budget that is due to be presented in the Dewan Rakyat would not become an issue.
"The issue now is the additional budget, many parties
are questioning why can't the government budget accurately."PAC will only call them to find out if the additional budget is really used in a right and transparent way," he said.
Nur Jazlan, who is also Pulai MP, said the move by PAC to seek an explanation from the ministry and the NSC, which is the agency in charge of disaster management, would also avoid confusion when the additional budget is presented.
The RM800 million allocation, said the PAC chairman, was to help flood victims but it does not include the expenses to be incurred in rebuilding the affected areas.
"This is only help for flood victims. It does not
include costs for the re-development of the areas such as rebuilding of roads,
reinstalling electricity and water supplies and more," he added.
Source: TMI...More...
GERMAN ANTI-MUSLIM PROTESTERS RALLY IN SEVERAL CITIES
Protesters marched in several German cities on Monday
against higher levels of immigration and what they see as the growing influence
of Islam, in defiance of an appeal from Chancellor Angela Merkel to spurn
rallies she views as racist.The rallies, organized by a new grassroots movement known as PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, have become an almost weekly event in the east German city of Dresden in recent months.
Some 18,000 people, the biggest number so far, turned out in
Dresden on Monday but similar rallies in Berlin and the western city of Cologne
were heavily outnumbered by counter-protesters who accuse PEGIDA of fanning
racism and intolerance.The PEGIDA protesters waved Germany's black, red and gold flag and brandished posters bearing slogans such as "Against religious fanaticism and every kind of radicalism".
- One poster in Cologne called for "potatoes rather than doner kebabs", a swipe at ethnic Turks who at around three million represent Germany's largest immigrant community.
Germany has some of the world's most liberal asylum rules,
partly due to its Nazi past. The number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany,
many from the Middle East, jumped to around 200,000 last year -- four times as
many as in 2012.In her New Year address, Merkel urged Germans to shun the anti-Muslim protesters, saying their hearts were full of hatred.
Source: Reuters...More...
FOOD PRICES NOT SOLEY DEPENDENT ON FUEL PRICES
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - Food prices do not depend solely on fuel
prices, but other factors as well, including supply of goods and the attitudes
of traders, say economists.Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd chief economist Manokaran Mottain said: "The price of fuel is an external factor in determining food prices, but there are internal factors as well such as inflation, supply and even traders' attitudes."
He explained that while the drop in fuel prices would result
in cheaper transportation costs, other aspects going into the production of
food, such as supply of raw goods and labour costs, had not gone down."Factors such as the floods and the crackdown of illegal immigrants in Cameron Highlands, which have affected the supply of fresh vegetables, also influence food prices," he said.
Manokaran said the attitude of traders was also a major reason.
"When fuel goes up, even by five sen, they raise the prices of food, but when fuel prices drop, they cite other factors such as supply to keep prices high," he said.
Towards this, he said there needed to be more regulation by the Government to prevent traders from profiteering unreasonably.
He said if fuel prices continued to stay low for a year, the prices of food should see reductions as well.
Source: soshiok...More..
CHINA SEEKS TO CURB THE HABIT OF 300 MILLION SMOKER?
China is the world’s biggest cigarette market and government
efforts to curb smoking have only had limited impact.Tobacco was among 24 commodities and services whose cost controls were removed, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at the weekend,
with others including railway bulk cargo, parcels,
passenger transport and explosives for civilian use.The move comes more than a year after Communist Party leaders pledged to give the market a “decisive” role in resource allocation at a key meeting known as the Third Plenum.
China’s economy stagnated under decades of state control, but reforms brought in starting under Deng Xiaoping have seen it enjoy an unprecedented boom.
State-owned China Tobacco Company retains its monopoly on
cigarette production but the tobacco price will be determined according to
“industrial supply and demand and company costs and profits”, the NDRC said in
a statement.China produces about 2.5 million tonnes of tobacco a year, the state-run China Daily quoted NDRC official Wang Shengmin as saying on Monday.
“Leaf tobacco only accounts for a very small portion of
China’s agricultural market, and the relaxation won’t cause much fluctuation of
cigarette prices, as the cost of tobacco leaves usually accounts for about 5 to
10 percent of the final product,” he said.Beijing city authorities have passed anti-smoking legislation set to take effect in June as the government seeks to curb the habit among the country’s 300 million smokers.
But experts point to the state monopoly on cigarettes, which
accounts for nearly a tenth of national government revenue, as one of the
biggest obstacles to anti-smoking efforts.Tobacco kills more than a million people each year in China, where some brands can be purchased for as little as three yuan ($0.49). Chinese and foreign experts say the number of smoking deaths could triple by 2030.
Source: – AFP
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
