US wants to renegotiate draft UN reform agreement: report
A total of 750 UN amendments have been presented to selected envoys by the new US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
In them, the US government proposes to eliminate new pledges on foreign aid to poor nations, scrap provisions calling for action to halt climate change and urging greater progress by nuclear powers in dismantling their nuclear arms.
...
The US amendments call for striking any mention of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, in which UN members set goals over the next 15 years to reduce poverty, preventable diseases and other scourges of the world's poor.
In their stead, the US wants to underscore the importance of the 2002 Monterrey (Mexico) Consensus, that focused on free-market reforms and required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief, the Post said.
The proposals also underscore US efforts to impose greater oversight of UN spending and to eliminate any reference to the International Criminal Court.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
MATESHIP OF STATE
Parliamentary guards told 'no more Mr Nice Guy'
Security staff at Parliament House in Canberra have been directed not to use the word 'mate' when addressing people in the building.
The Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed a daily brief directed security staff to treat all visitors with courtesy and not to use the term 'mate' or similar colloquialisms.
Security staff at Parliament House in Canberra have been directed not to use the word 'mate' when addressing people in the building.
The Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed a daily brief directed security staff to treat all visitors with courtesy and not to use the term 'mate' or similar colloquialisms.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA
Divers In Gulf report `zero things' Alive
Diver Mike Miller struggles to convey the horror he has seen on the ocean floor. He struggles because there are only so many ways you can say dead.
``I'm talking zero things are alive out there,'' Miller said. ``The only way to describe it is a nuclear bomb.''
Miller and other alarmed divers say they have documented a dead zone 20 miles offshore in the Gulf waters from Johns Pass to Clearwater. This information, combined with an unprecedented number of dead turtles washing up on Pinellas County beaches this week, has divers, fishermen and scientists worried that red tide is killing more efficiently.
``Normally when we get a red tide, you can go a little north or a little west or south or someplace else and dive,'' said Ben Dautermen, who takes divers out of Clearwater on his charter boat. ``Usually it doesn't kill every single thing.''
Red tide, an algae toxic to fish and an irritant to humans who breathe its choking vapors, has hung stubbornly to Florida's west coast for close to three months. Miller and other longtime locals who make their living in the Gulf say it's the worst outbreak in their experience.
Diver Mike Miller struggles to convey the horror he has seen on the ocean floor. He struggles because there are only so many ways you can say dead.
``I'm talking zero things are alive out there,'' Miller said. ``The only way to describe it is a nuclear bomb.''
Miller and other alarmed divers say they have documented a dead zone 20 miles offshore in the Gulf waters from Johns Pass to Clearwater. This information, combined with an unprecedented number of dead turtles washing up on Pinellas County beaches this week, has divers, fishermen and scientists worried that red tide is killing more efficiently.
``Normally when we get a red tide, you can go a little north or a little west or south or someplace else and dive,'' said Ben Dautermen, who takes divers out of Clearwater on his charter boat. ``Usually it doesn't kill every single thing.''
Red tide, an algae toxic to fish and an irritant to humans who breathe its choking vapors, has hung stubbornly to Florida's west coast for close to three months. Miller and other longtime locals who make their living in the Gulf say it's the worst outbreak in their experience.
SIBERIA HEATING
Warming hits 'tipping point'
It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.
It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.
ANIMAL INSTINCT
A bizarre freeway of fish swimming by the thousands along a US shoreline Thursday morning left crowds of beach-goers agog and marine biologists bewildered.
"I've lived her for 10 years, and I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible," said Bob Ricci of Englewood.
Beach-goers reported that a wide variety of sea creatures came swimming south in a narrow band close to the beach at mid-morning.
Included in the swarm were clouds of shrimp, crab, grouper, snapper, red fish and flounder. They were joined by more usual species, including sea robins, needlefish and eels.
Friday, August 12, 2005
SHIPPING NEWS
Furniture causes FedEx fits
Instead of scouting street corners for a ratty, unwanted couch, Avila got creative and built an apartment full of surprisingly sturdy furniture -- out of FedEx shipping boxes.
Fanciful as his creations may seem, FedEx is not amused. The shipping giant's lawyers have sent Avila letters demanding he take down the site he created to document his project, invoking, among other things, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (.pdf), or DMCA.
GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT
Go Cindy, Go
Cindy Sheehan -- the 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year -- has, in the space of just a few days started, from a seemingly quixotic personal mission, something of a phenomenon with media swarming around her, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan -- the 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year -- has, in the space of just a few days started, from a seemingly quixotic personal mission, something of a phenomenon with media swarming around her, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
SOLAR SYSTEM
New planet identified in Solar System
Astronomers say they have found a new planet in our Solar System, the first one bigger than Pluto since that object was discovered in 1930. The planet is also further away than Pluto, the furthest known planet, the researchers said.
The planet, temporarily named 2003UB313, was found in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope, he added. The observatory is on the Palomar Mountain near San Diego, Calif.
Pluto, while historically considered a planet, is more correctly termed a “Kuiper Belt Object,” -- the Kuiper Belt is an area of the solar system outside Neptune’s orbit, and which is believed to contain asteroids, comets, and icy bodies.
Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, it is also the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest Kuiper Belt Object.
Discoverers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz said they first photographed the new planet on October 31, 2003. But it so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data last January. Since then, the scientists said, they have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.
Astronomers say they have found a new planet in our Solar System, the first one bigger than Pluto since that object was discovered in 1930. The planet is also further away than Pluto, the furthest known planet, the researchers said.
The planet, temporarily named 2003UB313, was found in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope, he added. The observatory is on the Palomar Mountain near San Diego, Calif.
Pluto, while historically considered a planet, is more correctly termed a “Kuiper Belt Object,” -- the Kuiper Belt is an area of the solar system outside Neptune’s orbit, and which is believed to contain asteroids, comets, and icy bodies.
Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, it is also the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest Kuiper Belt Object.
Discoverers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz said they first photographed the new planet on October 31, 2003. But it so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data last January. Since then, the scientists said, they have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.
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