Pollution fears as UK ship loses cargo

A damaged container ship, grounded off the English coast and listing badly, began to lose some of its cargo in heavy winds, and officials said Sunday that oil was leaking from a crack in the vessel's hull.



The stricken MSC Napoli was deliberately run aground in waters close to Sidmouth, southwest England, after it was damaged during a storm on Thursday.



Navy helicopters rescued the vessel's 26 crew members in rough seas, 45 miles (70 kilometers) off Lizard Point on England's southwest tip.



French maritime officials said that of the 41,700 tons of merchandise in the ship's 2,400 containers, 1,700 tons were considered dangerous, including explosive and flammable material. The containers also hold motorcycles, car parts and oak barrels.



Britain's Department for Transport said more than 200 containers from the ship, which was listing at a 30-degree angle, had slid into the sea as new gales struck the English coast late Saturday.



Maritime and Coast Guard spokesman Paul Coley said two of the containers that went overboard contained hazardous materials -- including battery acid and perfume products -- but that the risk they posed was "minimal."



Robin Middleton, the government's salvage adviser, said a greater threat was posed by the ship's 3,000 tons of diesel and fuel oil, some of which had leaked out through a crack in the vessel's port side. He said only one fuel tank appeared to be ruptured, and no more than 200 tons of oil was likely to leak.



Middleton told a news conference that salvage workers would attempt to stabilize the ship to prevent it capsizing, pump out the fuel oil and remove the containers.



The 16-year-old vessel is registered in London and was last inspected by the coast guard agency in May 2005, when officials said it met safety standards.

 

Ship spilling oil and cargo off England

A damaged and listing cargo ship was spilling fuel and cargo containers into stormy seas off the southwest coast of England, near Devon, British officials said Sunday night. Some of the containers held hazardous materials.



An estimated 150 to 200 containers have slipped off the deck of the heavily damaged ship, the Napoli, which is listing severely, said Paul Coley of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at a press conference Sunday.

Some of the containers have already washed up at local beaches, officials said. The police have closed some beaches and warned residents not to approach any of the containers, some of which are thought to contain substances like nitric acid and perfume ingredients.

In addition, the boat's hull developed a crack at some point before or during the towing operation and since last night has been spilling heavy diesel fuel oil into the sea, presumably from its engines.

The Napoli was deliberately run aground after it was damaged during a storm Thursday. The ship was refloating at each high tide and still at risk of capsizing, so two French tug boats were trying to move it further ashore. Once it is firmly beached, the ship will be flooded to prevent further movement and the fuel oil in the tanks will be pumped out.

It is not clear how much fuel oil has spilled into local waters, although there have been reports of a few sea birds covered in oil.

The leaks are extremely threatening because the boat is near a sensitive ecological area, the estuary of the Axe River, an area known for wildlife and also salmon breeding, said Mike Dunning, spokesman for the U.K. Environment Agency in Southwest England. The British authorities have deployed a boom over the mouth of the river as a precaution to prevent any oil from washing in.

"We are working closely with the MCA to minimize damage," he said, referring to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which is leading the salvage operation.

The Napoli was damaged and its crew of 26 evacuated 40 miles, or about 65 kilometers, off the British coast on Thursday after a severe storm, with seas of 40 feet, or 12 meters, and winds of 70 miles per hour. British officials subsequently decided to tow the vessel nearer to land and to ground it to prevent it from sinking.

But recurrent gale force wind and high seas near the coast Sunday caused the boat to list, allowing containers piled 4 high on its deck to fall into the sea perilously close to land, Dunning said.

"The salvage plan concerns the oils that we deem at this present moment to be the greater threat," said Robin Middleton, a salvage advisor to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at a news conference Sunday.

The vessel was carrying 2,323 containers, 158 of which are classed as hazardous according to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code. In addition to the nitric acid and perfume ingredients, dangerous material in the containers included potassium hydoxide and battery acid.

The coastguard agency said that it believed only 2 of the containers washed overboard contained hazardous materials and that the risk they posed was so far deemed "minimal."

Other containers on the British-registered ship held motorcycles and car parts.

The 16-year-old ship was last inspected by the coast guard agency in May 2005. But the same ship, previously named CMA-CGM ran aground in Vietnam in 2001 and subsequently underwent major structural repairs, the BBC reported.

Despite reports of hazardous materials overboard, British officials said Sunday they were still most concerned about the fuel oil.

The ship's tanks hold a total of 3,000 tons of diesel and fuel oil but British officials said Sunday that only one tank, holding 200 tons, appeared damaged.

Zune wants Europe, does Europe want Zune?

From a European’s perspective, the announced launch of Zune for the end of 2007 is apparently not an event to make you anxiously shiver or rejoice.



A recent announcement made by Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, indicates that the Redmond behemoth plans to introduce its… MP3 player (I would have said iPod-killer but that’s not the case) in Europe by the end of this year.



Reindorp also said that the Zune managed to grab since its launch about 10.2 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte MP3 player category. That seems pretty impressive considering the short period (although I do advise you to take Reindorp’s allegations with a grain of salt) and is in accordance with the company’s forecast for the first half of 2007: 1 million Zune owners by June. Alexa.com also reports that Zune.net, the official site where you can find out about Zune and buy songs or download short videos, has made it to the 5,711th place, which indicates that it has between 50,000 and 100,000 visitors per day, but is now way below the peak registered in November (and apparently dropping).



Reindorp, quoted by Reuters, said at the annual music industry Midem Net conference in France “"You couldn't get a more entrenched competitor. But we feel really good about the first steps that we've taken."



"The industry moves in this sort of Christmas to Christmas cycle. So you can expect that there will be more devices, more features in the market at that point," he said.



"Our next round of introductions will probably be in time for the holiday of this year."



"We're not simply trying to play catch up with Apple," he said. "We are very realistic, we have what is essentially a three-year plan to firmly and solidly get on the radar.”



Well, from hopes to reality is a long way. At least for Zune.



I have unofficially made an ad-hoc poll among my friends on IM clients, all of them being involved in the tech or the news industry here in Europe, and the results are disappointing for Microsoft: Zune apparently doesn’t exist in the EU.



I asked them first whether they know what Zune is. Friends from France, Sweden or Italy have not even heard of this name, and if they did (and associated it by contrast with the iPod, after viewing some photos) they firmly declared that they’ll stick to the iPod. They were on the other side attracted by the wireless sharing feature of the Zune (after I mentioned this to them), but were disappointed by the fact that only around 58% of the songs were actually transferable from one gadget to another (let’s hope that rate will improve).



Concerning Zune’s interoperability with Windows Vista or Xbox or even SoapBox (Microsoft’s new video service which is in Beta - I told them about it because I have a beta-tester account), they didn’t seem to be impressed, all of them saying that they prefer to wait and see how Vista or SoapBox behave on the market before taking a decision.



The interoperability between Zune and Xbox 360 has been made available in advance. In October, MS released a software update for its famous gaming console, through the Xbox Live Marketplace service, explaining that the update will let the Xbox 360 stream music, pictures and video from a Zune device, and from the Zune software on a Windows PC. The Xbox 360 will also stream content from the new Windows Media Player 11 PC software.



I repeat: this is not an official point of view and might not reflect real life situations. But in the next days I will certainly include a poll on the site where users from all over the world (but especially Europeans) will be able to express their thoughts about Zune, so… stay Zuned.

 

Drug Ads: Taking Medicine Never Looked So Good

Remember all those tricks drugmakers used to get you to take medicine as a kid? They made cough syrup sweet and acetaminophen chewable. They transformed horse pill vitamins into friendly cartoon characters.

Well, perhaps a better approach would've been to inundate you with ads--ones that depict a fearful and alone child who becomes happy, confident and popular after taking a pill.

That formula, it seems, works well on millions of Americans, who watch as many as 16 hours of prescription drug ads every year -- far more than the average time spent with a primary care physician.

Since the Food and Drug Administration relaxed restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising 10 years ago, commercials touting prescription cures for everything from insomnia to heart burn to erectile dysfunction have become ubiquitous, if not any less mysterious. (I never understand what any of those medicines do, except potentially provoke the gross list of side effects muttered at lightening speed at the end of the ad.)

Direct-to-consumer ads cost Big Pharma $1.19 billion in 2005, up from $654 million in 2001.

The question is, do all those ads help consumers make health care decisions or are they just convincing people they need treatments for conditions they don't have?

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler thinks prescription drug ads are causing us to overmedicate. In an editorial that accompanied the study, he offered sleeping pills as an example. One-third of direct-to-consumer ad spending in 2005 was on sleep medications, yet sleep disorders are no where near a major cause of death in the United States the way heart disease and cancer are. He also cited a 2002 FDA survey of doctors, which found that 41 percent believed such ads don't help to inform consumers but actually give them bad information.

Given the importance of ads in health-care decisions, a group of researchers lead by Dominick L. Frosch, of the University of California - Los Angeles Department of Medicine, chose to dissect four weeks worth of prescription drug ads from 2004. Their findings are in the latest issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Some nuggets from the report:
- 86 percent of the ads made rational pitches for a drug but only about a quarter described the condition's causes, risk factors and prevalence. When ads did refer to prevalence, they used vague terms such as "millions."

- 95 percent made emotional appeals by framing medication use in terms of losing and regaining control and winning social approval. (Picture once-beleaguered allergy sufferers running merrily, nostrils flared, through a weed-filled field.)

- None of the ads mention lifestyle change as an alternative to products, though some -- 19 percent -- mentioned it as an adjunct to medication. And 18 percent of ads made lifestyle changes seem futile, such as an ad that featured a woman who ran three miles every day and ate 50-calorie salads for lunch but whose cholesterol was 277 mg/dL.

- More than half the ads show people engaging in moderate physical activity -- the one silver lining in the study.

"Portrayal of healthy lifestyles in the ads... may offer some public health benefits" by promoting the benefits of physical activity, the authors noted.

In response to criticism of aggressive prescription drug marketing, especially following the flurry of lawsuits filed over the heavily promoted painkiller Vioxx, some pharmaceutical companies have volunteered to wait a year after a drug is approved to begin advertising, but the study's authors say that's not enough. They need to address the content of the ads, too.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association responded to the study more specifically yesterday saying such advertising "empowers patients," and increases "people's awareness of diseases and available treatments." The trade group also noted that it came out with guidelines for direct-to-consumer ads that address some of the study's concerns. Those took effect in January 2006, but the study doesn't reflect changes made by drugmakers since then because it only looked at ads from 2004.

Has anyone noted an improvement in prescription drug ads? Or do the study's findings still resonate with what you see? More importantly, do you feel like you've learned valuable health information after watching Abe Lincoln sitting around a kitchen table talking to a beaver?

Greece: Three weeks of struggle… and it continues!!!!!

Greek universities are paralyzed. More than half of faculties nation wide (Universities and Colleges) are occupied by the students who refuse the privatization of Greek education system .Every day General Assemblies are organized and new faculties are added to the list. At side of the students we find also the university lecturer, primary and secondary education teachers and several trade-unions.

Why this explosion??

In the center of this new social explosion is the government’s will (with the explicit agreement of the party of opposition, the PASOK, Socialist Party) to revise Article 16 of the Greek Constitution. This article guarantees a high quality, free and especially public education for all Greek citizens. It declares without ambiguity that only the State can provide this service and that any private person is explicitly prohibited to do it in its place or in parallel.

It is obvious that an article of this type poses a major problem in the process of privatization of education. Process, let us not forget it, directed by the U.E through the Essen, Bologna and Lisbon Agreements.

In the Greek Parliament the discussion is not likely to be tense. The PASOK and Nea Dimokratia-party in government, centre right wing-, which together count for 90% of the seats, are in agreement on the revision. It is ironic is that it was the president of the opposition to the Parliament, G. Papandreou the president of the PASOK, who introduced it. The proposal concerns the opening of the market of education.
“The revision of Article 16 is essential for the improvement of the public system of education. Thanks to the creation of non-state and non-profit organizations the public universities will be forced to rationalize and become more effective thus exceeding the phenomena of bureaucracy and stagnation. ” he said in 2005. It is thanks to this “assist” on behalf of the “opposition” that the party in the government, Nea Dimokratia, can without obstacles dismount the national educational system.

The movement is getting bigger and bigger and bigger….
After three weeks of struggle the students do not seem tired. It started with a dozen occupied faculties and in three weeks it reached 311 occupied faculties. This has more merit if we think that the occupations are not permanent but each week, and in certain cases twice per weeks, there is a struggle in General Assemblies against the DAP (student union organization related to the party in government) which is a great force among the students.

Each week Coordinations at city level and one at national level take place. In spite of their structure being little fuzzy and questionable it is obvious that the participation increased since their beginning two weeks ago. The first national meeting had 200 students of all Greece representing their committee of occupation while in the second, one week later, there where more than 2000 students.

Since the beginning of the movement there are demonstrations organized every Wednesday. The participation in these demonstrations reflects the national tendency. On Wednesday January 24, third national event, the number of demonstrators at the national level reached 40000. In Athens there were 20000 demonstrators, in Thessaloniki 8000 to10000 and in other cities 10000.

However these figures are clearly lower than the capacity of the movement. It should not be forgotten that in the movement May-June 2006 more than 90% of faculties were occupied and that the demonstrations at the national level reached 70.000 - 80.000 demonstrators. “It is obvious that the fear of loss of the exam session or even of the whole semester and the arguments of the DAP limit the students to take part in the movement... ” Declared one participant of the Coordination of the occupations of Thessaloniki.

Students are not alone….
However in the street the students are not alone. The trade-unions: of university professors, primary and secondary teachers, employees at the universities, public services, of the workers in the construction /industry, some of the private sectors support and take part in the mobilizations. According to voice of the left, this is also the struggle of the workers.

This is only the beginning. The vote on the revision of the Constitution will take place in Mars. Meanwhile this week of new General Assemblies were called to decide the future actions, regional Coordinations and a national one of all faculties in the struggle are already planned. As it appears even more faculties will be swallowed by the wave of discontent as new mobilizations take place this week.

Skype Founder Tries Hand at Online Advertising

The folks behind eBay-owned Skype announced that they will invest in Wunderloop, an online advertising firm based in Luxembourg. Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype, along with two of his technology investors, Klaus Hommels and Howard Hartenbaum, will invest in the European company that claims to have developed a groundbreaking type of targeted advertising.

Wunderloop has already begun working with AOL, T-Online, Tiscali, Lycos, and Deutsche, and lays claim that its technology can improve revenue gain for advertisers by 10 to 15 times over its current rate. The company claims that advertising efficiency would also reach almost 80 percent with this new technology, which Wunderloop claims continuously analyzes users’ current behavior - what they click on or their queries in search engines, for example – and compares available market research data in real-time from AGOF, Nielsen NetRatings and comScore among others. Additional information is culled with the user’s consent from in-house data such as CRM profiles.

Other investors like the Samwer brothers are joining in on backing Wunderloop, which will receive an estimate of €8m (£5m). While Hommels and Hartenbaum are using their own funds to invest, Zennstrom is investing through his Atomico Investments.

In a statement to the New York Times, Hartenbaum said, “When I am surfing the web, I get a lot of ads that are a waste of my time and a waste of the advertisers’ time - weight-loss products for women, for example. Wunderloop means that I get a better experience, and it works for the advertise.

Educational unification in Australia

THE University of New England will lead a consortium of 14 Australian universities to develop a template for a new international "qualifications passport".

The Australian Diploma Supplement is expected to make it easier for graduates to move between jobs and institutions in Australia and overseas.

It is part of the commonwealth's response to Europe's Bologna Process, a higher education bloc of 45 countries with common degree structures.

Education Minister Julie Bishop announced in September that she would proceed with a diploma supplement. Today she will reveal the 14 members of the consortium selected to draw up a template.

The supplement, used in many European countries, is a document of several pages attached to a degree or diploma that can be easily understood by institutions and employers anywhere.

It outlines their achievements, describes courses, the university attended and the higher education system in their country of study.

"The ultimate aim for the supplement is to assist students and employers, both at home and abroad, by providing a world-class system for verifying student qualifications," Ms Bishop said.

The consortium will work with a range of interested people, including students, and employer and professional associations.

Ms Bishop has also established a steering group to monitor the Bologna Process.

"The steering group will help to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge on the latest developments in Europe and act as an important source of advice and leadership on this issue."

Last April a federal government discussion paper warned that Australia needed to look at uniform degree structures, a diploma supplement and international recognition of qualifications to meet competition from Europe.

"The Bologna process seems likely to have a profound effect on the development of higher education globally," the paper said.

But some sceptics believe the potential effect is overstated and that it would be better for Australia to align with Asian countries.

Europe wide smoke ban proposed

The EU could become a "smoke-free zone" with a Europe-wide smoking ban if proposals by the European Commission go ahead.

The Commission wants the rest of the EU to follow the lead of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales which have all banned smoking in public places.

Partial bans apply elsewhere - and a partial ban in France starts this week - but EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said he wants a comprehensive ban on smoking in all public places in the EU by 2009.

Member states are being asked to step up their own measures, but the EU's 27 countries are being warned Europe-wide legislation may be imposed.

Conservative MEP John Bowis said the EU should avoid legislating on smoking. He said: "Europe should butt out on enforcing smoke-free zones across member states with more heavy-handed legislation."

"As usual, Europe is at its best when it shares good practice. It enables us to learn from and, when appropriate, emulate one another."

The Irish ban came into force in March 2004, followed by Scotland in March last year. Complete smoke-free legislation will be in force in Northern Ireland, England and Wales by summer this year.

The Commission says that about one third of the EU's 480 million population still smokes - almost 38 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women.

Canadian PM letter dismisses Kyoto as 'socialist scheme'

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals.

The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party.

He was writing to party supporters, asking for money as he prepared to fight then-prime minister Jean Chrétien on the proposed Kyoto accord.

"We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says.

"I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord."

The accord is an international environmental pact that sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada officially ratified the accord Dec. 17, 2002, under Chrétien's Liberal government. Harper's Conservative government, which took power January 2006, has since been accused of ignoring the accord.

Harper's letter goes on to outline why he's against the agreement.

Accord based on 'contradictory' data: Harper

He writes that it's based on "tentative and contradictory scientific evidence" and it focuses on carbon dioxide, which is "essential to life."

He says Kyoto requires that Canada make significant cuts in emissions, while countries like Russia, India and China face less of a burden.

Under Kyoto, Canada was required to reduce emissions by six per cent by 2012, while economies in transition, like Russia, were allowed to choose different base years.

"Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," Harper's letter reads.

He said the accord would cripple the oil and gas industries, which are essential to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

He wrote in the letter that he would do everything he could to stop Chrétien from passing the Kyoto agreement.

"We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ [Bloc Québécois]."

The Prime Minister's Office refused to comment about the letter on the record.

In recent weeks, Harper has spoken strongly about the environment, saying he will dramatically revamp his minority government's much-criticized Clean Air Act.

His comments come as public-opinion polls indicate the environment has become the number one issue among Canadians.

Liberal MP Mark Holland told the Canadian Press on Tuesday that the leaked letter shows that Harper isn't actually committed to climate change.

"Now, suddenly, because he has seen the polls and realized the political opportunism of going green, the prime minister has launched a new campaign — that of trying to convince Canadians that he actually cares about the environment," Holland said.

"But no one is buying it."

The Kyoto Protocol went into effect Feb. 16, 2005, with 141 countries signing on, including every major industrialized country, except the United States, Australia and Monaco.

Here is the full text

Text of a 2002 letter by Stephen Harper to members of his Canadian Alliance party denouncing the Kyoto accord:

Dear Friend,

We’re on a roll, folks!

The Canadian Alliance is once again setting the agenda in the House of Commons. Look at what happened in less than two months since Parliament reopened:

- We bagged another Liberal cabinet minister when we drove the hapless Lawrence MacAulay to resign for violating the ethics guidelines.

- We broke Jean Chretien’s chokehold on the House of Commons by getting the election of committee chairs and votes on all private members’ bills.

- We finally (!) got the Liberals to agree to set up a national registry for sex offenders.

But we can’t just relax and declare victory. We’re gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I’m talking about the “battle of Kyoto” - our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.

It would take more than one letter to explain what’s wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called “Accord”:

- It’s based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.

- It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.

- Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.

- Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

- As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.

- The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy “emissions credits.” Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.

- On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale.

For a long time, the Canadian Alliance stood virtually alone in opposing the Kyoto Accord, as Bob Mills, our senior environment critic, waged a valiant battle against it. Now, however, allies are stepping forward - eight of 10 provincial governments, and a broad coalition of businesses across Canada - to help us fight the “battle of Kyoto.”

Jean Chretien says he will introduce a resolution to ratify Kyoto into Parliament and get it passed before Christmas. We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ.

But the “battle of Kyoto” is just beginning. Ratification is merely symbolic; Kyoto will not take effect unless and until it is implemented by legislation. We will go to the wall to stop that legislation and at that point we will be on much stronger procedural ground than in trying to block a mere resolution.

The Reform Party defeated the Charlottetown Accord in an epic struggle in the fall of 1992. Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord!

But we can’t do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat Charlottetown.

We can’t stop Kyoto just in Parliament. We need your help at all levels. We need you to inform yourself about Kyoto, to discuss it with your friends and neighbours, and to write protest letters to newspapers and the government.

And, yes, we need your gifts of money. The “battle of Kyoto” is going to lead directly into the next election. We need your contribution of $500, or $250, or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us drive the Liberals from power.

Yours truly,

Stephen Harper, MP

Leader of the Opposition

PS: The “battle of Kyoto” shows why the Canadian Alliance is so important to you and to Canada. All the other federal parties are supporting Kyoto (Liberals, NDP, BQ) or speaking out of both sides of their mouth (Tories). Only the Canadian Alliance is strong and fearless enough to block dangerous and destructive schemes like the Charlottetown Accord and the Kyoto Accord.

What is the Kyoto Protocol

Delegates from 189 nations will meet in Nairobi from November 6-17 for annual talks on combating climate change and the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, meant to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming.

Here are some frequently asked questions about Kyoto:

WHAT IS THE KYOTO PROTOCOL?

- It is a pact agreed by governments at a 1997 U.N. conference in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. A total of 165 nations have ratified the pact.

IS IT THE FIRST AGREEMENT OF ITS KIND?

- Governments agreed to tackle climate change at an "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with non-binding targets. Kyoto is the follow-up and is the first binding global agreement to cut greenhouse gases.

SO IT IS LEGALLY BINDING?

- Kyoto has legal force from February 16, 2005. It represents 61.6 percent of developed nations' total emissions. The United States, the world's biggest source of emissions, pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto is too expensive and wrongly omits developing nations from a first round of targets to 2012.

HOW WILL IT BE ENFORCED?

- Countries overshooting their targets in 2012 will have to make both the promised cuts and 30 percent more in a second period from 2013.

DO ALL COUNTRIES HAVE TO CUT EMISSIONS BY FIVE PERCENT?

- No, only 35 relatively developed countries have agreed to targets for 2008-12 under a principle that richer countries are most to blame. They range from an 8 percent cut for the European Union from 1990 levels to a 10 percent rise for Iceland.

HOW ARE THEY DOING SO FAR?

- Rich nations' emissions were 3.3 percent below 1990 levels in 2004, mainly due to a collapse of Soviet-era industries. Emissions are now rising in many countries. In the United States, outside Kyoto, emissions were up 15.8 percent from 1990.

WHAT ARE THESE 'GREENHOUSE GASES?'

- Greenhouse gases trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. The main culprit is carbon dioxide, produced largely from burning fossil fuel. The protocol also covers methane, much of which comes from agriculture, and nitrous oxide, mostly from fertilizer use. Three industrial gases are also included.

HOW WILL COUNTRIES COMPLY?

- The European Union set up a market in January 2005 under which about 12,000 factories and power stations are given carbon dioxide quotas. If they overshoot they can buy extra allowances in the market or pay a financial penalty; if they undershoot they can sell them.

WHAT OTHER MECHANISMS ARE THERE?

- Developed countries can earn credits to offset against their targets by funding clean technologies, such as solar power, in poorer countries. They can also have joint investments in former Soviet bloc nations.

US Airways stands firm on bid to acquire Delta

The prospect of imminent airline industry consolidation faded Tuesday as US Airways Group Inc. reported no headway in its bid to take over rival Delta Air Lines Inc.

US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker said his airline's nearly $10-billion bid for Delta was firm and he had no intention of extending the Feb. 1 deadline for Delta's official committee of creditors to respond.

Investors had hoped a US Airways-Delta deal would lead to more takeovers in the sector, which would cut competition and give surviving carriers an opportunity to raise fares.

Airline shares dropped across the board, even after US Airways and discount rival JetBlue Airways Corp. reported quarterly profits as oil prices jumped, heralding higher costs.

Parker dismissed as speculation reports that the airline would increase its $9.7-billion bid for Delta, which is operating under bankruptcy protection.

Delta has resisted US Airways, saying that Delta is worth more as a stand-alone company and that a merger would present antitrust problems. Delta said Tuesday that it had lined up $2.5 billion in financing from six major Wall Street banks when it exits bankruptcy.

Parker made his comments after US Airways reported a quarterly profit, reversing a year-earlier loss. The company also reported a profitable 2006, its first full year since the 2005 combination of US Airways and America West.

Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways reported fourth-quarter net income of $12 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $261 million, or $3.27. The loss was made worse by a large fuel-hedge loss and some merger costs.

Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue also reported a fourth-quarter profit as both airlines benefited from strong travel demand and higher ticket prices.

But shares of both airlines dropped in the face of surging crude oil prices. US Airways' stock fell $1.33 to $53.10. JetBlue shares fell 65 cents to $13.85.

Scientists Gather to Finalize Climate Report

Scientists from across the world gathered here today to hammer out the final details of an authoritative report on climate change that is expected to project centuries of rising temperatures and sea levels unless curbs are placed on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

According to scientists involved with writing or reviewing the report, the fourth since 1990 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body overseen by the United Nations, it is nearly certain to conclude that there is at least a 90 percent probability that human-caused emissions are the main driver of warming since 1950.

The report, according to several authors, who spoke only on condition of anonymity saying that details could still change, will describe a growing body of evidence showing that warming is likely to profoundly transform the planet.

Three large sections of the report will be forthcoming during the year, with the summary for policymakers and sections on basic climate science coming on Friday.

Among findings in recent drafts are that the Arctic Ocean could largely be devoid of sea ice in summers later in the century; the Alps could shift from snowy winter destinations to summer havens from the heat; growing seasons in temperate regions will expand, while droughts will likely further ravage semi-arid regions of Africa and southern Asia.

"Concerns about climate change and public awareness on the subject are at an all time high," the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, told delegates today.

"It would perhaps be no exaggeration to suggest that at no time in the past has there been a greater global appetite for knowledge on any subject as there is today on the scientific facts underlying the reality of global climate change," Dr. Pachauri said.

But scientists involved in the effort warned that squabbling between teams and representatives from governments of more than 100 countries over how to portray the most probable amount of sea-level rise during the 21st century could distract from the basic finding that a warming world will be one in which retreating coasts are the new normal for centuries to come.

Jerry Mahlman, an emeritus researcher at the National Center For Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was a reviewer of the report’s single-spaced, 1,644-page summary of climate science, said that most of the leaks to the press so far were from people eager to find elements that were the scariest or most reassuring.

He added in an interview yesterday that such efforts distract from the basic, undisputed findings, saying that those point to trends that are very disturbing.

Mr. Mahlman pointed to recent disclosures that there is still uncertainty about the pace at which seas will rise due to warming and melting of terrestrial ice over the next 100 years. That span, he said, was just the start of a process of a rise in sea levels that would then almost certainly continue for 1,000 years or so.

The latest draft of the IPCC summary highlights the hazardous consequences of “business as usual,” finding that twice the pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will likely warm the climate by between 3.5 degrees and 8 degrees Fahrenheit, with a greater than one-in-ten chance of much higher temperatures.

Even the mid-range projection for warming, according to many climate experts and biologists, is likely to powerfully stress ecosystems and disrupt longstanding climate patterns related to water supplies and agriculture.

Many economists and energy experts long ago abandoned any expectation that it would be possible to avoid a doubling of pre-industrial carbon dioxide concentrations given growth of human populations, use of fossil fuels, particularly coal, and deforestation in the tropics.

As a result, a significant focus of the summary coming this week and of other sections of the report will be the necessity to boost the resilience of agriculture and water supplies to inevitable shifts, while trying to slow and, as soon as it can be affordably done, reverse the century-long climb in releases of the heat-trapping gases.

Many experts involved in the IPCC process said there is hope that with a prompt start on slowing emissions, the chances of seeing much great warmer and widespread disruption of ecosystems and societies can be cut.

Outside experts agreed.

``We basically have three choices - mitigation, adaptation, and suffering,” said John Holdren, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an energy and climate expert at Harvard University. ``We’re going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.”

One key point of controversy in early drafts of the IPCC report is a smaller rise in sea level than the last report projected. In the next several days, scientists relying on field observations and computer models of ocean and ice behavior in a warming world will struggle to find a consensus.

Some scientists say that the figures used in the upcoming report are not up to date because they leave out recent observations of instability in some ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

Ice loss in those regions has been very sudden in some cases, implying a more rapid rise in sea levels than projected by some computer models.

Another possible point of contention during the four days of closed-door sessions in Paris this week could be assertions in early drafts of the report that the recent warming rate was blunted by particle pollution and volcanic eruptions.

Some scientists say the final report should reflect the assumption that the rate of warming in coming years is likely to be more pronounced that in previous decades.

The IPCC report will not outline measures to tackle global warming. Instead, it will concentrate on the latest evidence that the phenomenon is underway.

But Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said the findings that will be presented on Friday should lead decision-makers to accelerate efforts to slash carbon emissions and to help people in vulnerable parts of the world prepare for climate change.

"These findings should strengthen the resolve of governments to act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put in place the medium to longer term strategies necessary to avert dangerous climate change," said Mr. Steiner.

In a new report issued on today, UNEP said the most recent evidence from mountain glaciers showed they were melting faster than before, or 1.6 times more than the average of the 1990s, and three times the loss rate of the 1980s.

UNEP warned that the trend was likely to continue because 2006 was one of the warmest years in many parts of the world.

Also today, there were new concerns about climate change in low-lying parts of the world. Indonesia could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 because of the phenomenon, according to the country’s environment minister, Rachmat Witoelar.

Over the past year, international concern over what to do about global warming has grown along with concrete signs of climate change in developing regions like Africa, where water is running low, and in developed regions, like Europe, where there was a marked lack of snow at Alpine ski resorts during early January.

Even so political leaders are still groping for ways to tackle the phenomenon. Europe has adopted a program that caps the amount of emissions from industrial producers.

But the world’s largest emitter, the United States, still is debating whether to adopt a similar policy while developing-world countries like China are resisting caps on the grounds that the industrialized world contributed about 75 percent of the current volume of greenhouse gases and should make the deepest cuts.

That has hampered the chances of an effective solution, which experts say will require all nations to cut emissions or become more energy efficient.

The second section of the IPCC report, which focuses on the impacts of and ways of adapting to climate change, is slated for release in April, while a section on mitigating climate change is expected to be released in May.

The final part, a synthesis of all three parts for policy-makers, is expected in November.

The fallout of global warming: 1,000 years

In stark terms, scientists confirm that climate change is 'unequivocal'

Humans have already caused so much damage to the atmosphere that the effects of global warming will last for more than 1,000 years, according to a summary of a climate-change report being prepared by the world's leading scientists.

The draft, seen by The Globe and Mail yesterday, also says evidence the world is heating up is now so strong it is “unequivocal” and predicts more frequent heat waves, droughts and rain storms, as well as more violent typhoons and hurricanes. It concludes the higher temperatures observed during the past 50 years are so dramatically different from anything in the climate record that the last half-century period was likely the hottest in at least the past 1,300 years.

Moreover, 11 of the past 12 years rank among the warmest since humans began taking accurate temperature measurements in the 1850s, a record of extremes so pronounced it is unlikely to be due to chance.

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice, and rising sea level,” says the draft, which is being reviewed in Paris before its formal release Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The draft also makes projections of how the climate is likely to change over this century:

-- Sea ice will shrink in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and late summer sea ice in the Arctic could disappear almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century;

-- Heat waves and storms involving heavy precipitation will continue to become more common, as will droughts;

-- The number of hurricanes will decrease, but the ones that do occur will be more powerful;

-- Ocean currents responsible for such things as the Gulf Stream will slow, possibly by as much as 25 per cent. The report said it's “very unlikely” that currents will have abrupt changes during the 21st century, but longer-term alterations “cannot be assessed with confidence.”

-- Global temperatures in 2090-99 are likely to be 1.7 degrees to 4 degrees warmer than the period from 1980-1999;

-- Current models suggest global warming of 1.9 to 4.6 degrees would lead to a “virtually complete” elimination of the Greenland ice sheet and a rise in sea levels of about 7 metres, if sustained for millennia;

-- Sea levels will probably rise from between 0.28 metres and 0.43 metres, although there is a chance the increase will be larger if Greenland and Antarctic ice discharges continue to grow.

The IPCC report is the fourth to be issued by the UN-organized group of scientists, and draws on contributions of about 2,000 top experts from around the world, including many from Canada.

The panel's findings have evolved since the first was issued in 1990, becoming more confident over time that human activity — mainly the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and large-scale agriculture — have been causing profound changes on the climate.

The first report suggested global warming might be happening. The second, in 1995, said it was likely to be under way, while the third, in 2001, had a tone that indicated scientists were pretty sure they were seeing humanity's fingerprints on changes in climate.

Given the stark tenor of the draft scientists are now considering, they seem absolutely sure that climate change is happening.

The projection that human influence on the atmosphere during the 21st century will contribute to warming for more than 1,000 years is based on estimates for how long it will take nature to remove global-warming gases from the air.

The draft says evidence of warming is now being found almost everywhere in the world, from the tops of mountains, where glaciers are in retreat, to ocean deeps, where the average water temperatures have increased all the way down to depths of 3,000 metres because of the warming effect of a hotter atmosphere.

Some environmentalists are predicting that a strongly worded IPCC report will dispel any lingering doubts that global warming is really happening, and are calling on politicians to start taking more sweeping action to limit emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.

“There is no more reason to delay,” said John Bennett, spokesman for the Climate Action Network Canada. “We need the policies, regulations, and programs to reduce emissions and we need to do it with the same kind of urgency that we would use to fight a war.”

The United Nations' top environment official is calling for an emergency climate-change summit later this year.

The IPCC report will be issued in four instalments over the course of the year. The first section, now being prepared, deals with all new scientific evidence assembled since 2001 on how the world's climate has been changing. The others will deal with specific topics, such as how humans can adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.

The draft says concentrations of two main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, “far exceed” anything seen over the past 650,000 years, based on data that reconstructed the atmospheric composition of earlier times using air bubbles contained in ice cores.

The changes to the atmosphere are so large the scientists estimate that warming due to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are at least five times larger than natural changes caused by normal alterations in output of solar energy from the sun.

Although the draft doesn't mention Canada directly, it says average Arctic temperatures have experienced a far sharper rise than elsewhere on the planet, increasing at a rate over the past 100 years that is double the global average.

Major global warming report

The Eiffel Tower's 20,000 flashing light bulbs will go dark for five minutes on Thursday evening, hours before scientists and officials publish a long-awaited report about global warming.

The blackout comes at the urging of environmental activists seeking to call attention to energy waste -- and just hours before world scientists unveil a major report on Friday warning that the planet will keep getting warmer and presenting new evidence of humanity's role in climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release a report laying out policy proposals for governments based on the latest research on global warming.

The top U.N. official for the environment asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to convene an emergency summit of world leaders aimed at breaking a deadlock over cutting greenhouse gases.

The impetus for such a world summit is U.S. President George W. Bush's acknowledgment in his Jan. 24 State of the Union speech that climate change needs to be dealt with, and the EU's Jan. 10 proposals for a new European energy policy that stresses the need to slash carbon emissions blamed for global warming, U.N. environment program spokesman Nick Nuttall said.

"There's a lot of momentum that has being building," Nuttall said. "We have a window of opportunity."

Nuttall said the summit could be held between July and December.

The second day of the Paris talks wound down Tuesday evening more or less on schedule, according to officials at UNESCO, the conference's host.

There was little sign of the late-night wrangling among countries that marked previous reports. The report must be unanimously approved by bureaucrats from more than 100 governments who can challenge the scientists' wording.

"The government people determine how things are said, but we (the scientists) determine what is said," said Kevin Trenberth, a lead author of the report and director of climate analysis at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

The end result is a cautious document, many scientists say.

One Russian participant said Tuesday that the discussions he observed were more procedural than political.

Another observer who has taken part in several such conferences, Stephanie Tunmore of Greenpeace, said, "So far we're running on timetable. But who knows, we've got two more days. If there's any panic, it will be Wednesday night when they realize they've only got a few hours left."

An early draft of the report being released in Paris suggests it will contain stronger evidence of the human role in climate change and more specific predictions of rising temperatures and sea levels this century.

The report "won't change our scientific basis, but it will make our jobs easier," Steve Sawyer, of Greenpeace, said Tuesday. "It is an important and powerful new tool in public debate and policy debate."

Environmental groups have long urged governments and consumers to rely more on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power instead of greenhouse gas-emitting ones like coal and oil. Greenhouse gases are considered a key culprit of rising global temperatures.

Global warming: impacts of temperature increases

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will publish a report, the most complete overview of climate change science, in Paris on February 2. It will guide policy makers combating global warming.

A draft of the report projects temperatures rising by 2 to 4.5 Celsius (3.6 to 8.1 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a "best estimate" of a 3C (5.4 F) rise.

Below are some estimates of the global implications of different temperature rises relative to pre-industrial levels, as detailed in a report on climate change by Nicholas Stern, chief British government economist, published in October.

Temp. rise/ Impacts 1 DEGREE

* Shrinking glaciers threaten water for 50 million people

* Modest increases in cereal yields in temperate regions

* At least 300,000 people each year die from malaria, malnutrition and other climate-related diseases

* Reduction in winter mortality in higher latitudes

* 80 percent bleaching of coral reefs, e.g. Great Barrier Reef

2 DEGREES

* 5 - 10 percent decline in crop yield in tropical Africa

* 40 - 60 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa

* Up to 10 million more people affected by coastal flooding

* 15 - 40 percent of species face extinction (one estimate)

* High risk of extinction of Arctic species, e.g. polar bear

* Potential for Greenland ice sheet to start to melt irreversibly, committing world to 7 meter sea level rise

3 DEGREES

* In Southern Europe, serious droughts once every 10 years

* 1 - 4 billion more people suffer water shortages

* Some 150 - 550 additional millions at risk of hunger

* 1 - 3 million more people die from malnutrition

* Onset of Amazon forest collapse (some models only)

* Rising risk of collapse of West Antarctic Ice Sheet

* Rising risk of collapse of Atlantic Conveyor of warm water

* Rising risk of abrupt changes to the monsoon

4 DEGREES

* Agricultural yields decline by 15 - 35 percent in Africa

* Up to 80 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa

* Loss of around half Arctic tundra

5 DEGREES

* Possible disappearance of large glaciers in Himalayas, affecting one-quarter of China's population, many in India

* Continued increase in ocean acidity seriously disrupting marine ecosystems and possibly fish stocks

* Sea level rise threatens small islands, coastal areas

EC to propose Europe-wide ban on smoking

The European Commission discusses whether to introduce legislation that, in its most stringent form, would totally ban smoking at work and in public places

An EU-wide ban on smoking in public spaces could be put in the pipeline after the European Commission on Tuesday (30 January) launches a debate on whether to introduce a piece of smoke-free legislation binding on all member states.

EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou is to issue a so-called green paper that takes a favourable view of the examples set by Ireland, Italy, Malta and Sweden on public smoking.

There are two options laid down in the commission's paper, seen by EUobserver.

A most stringent approach envisages "a total ban on smoking in all enclosed or substantially enclosed workplaces and public places, including means of public transport".

Restrictions could also be extended to "outdoor areas around entrances to buildings and possibly to other outdoor place where people sit or stand close to each other, such as open air stadiums, bus shelters or train platforms", the paper says.

The second option—and "a less effective one" according to the commission's paper—proposes "exemptions granted to selected categories of venue", e.g. hospitality establishments that do no serve food.

Apart from the smoke-free initiative, how much Brussels has to say on the issue is also to be decided, with the paper suggesting several options ranging from no new activity on the part of the EU to rules that are legally binding.

Currently, at EU level, the issue of a smoke-free environment has been addressed mainly in work safety directives and in non-binding recommendations, which invite member states to ban smoking in indoor workplaces, enclosed public places and public transport.

However, national legislation differs widely across the 27-nation block.

Smoking in all enclosed public places and all workplaces has already been outlawed in Ireland and Scotland, with the UK coming on board by the summer of 2007.

Italy, Malta and Sweden have also walked down the ban route, although permitting employers to create specially sealed-off smoking rooms with separate ventilation systems.

France and Finland are set to take the same route in the coming days and weeks.

However, it is expected that EU capitals will prefer to manage the process themselves rather than granting powers to Brussels' executive body on the issue.

There have been concerns about possible harm to the hospitality industry in some EU member states, but current statistics prove rather ambiguous.

For instance, non-EU Norway has experienced a slight fall of 0.8 percent in sales in eating and drinking establishments, while in Ireland the volume of sales in bars and pubs increased by 0.1 percent.

But last polls—carried out in the EU-25 last year—show that 84 percent of Europeans favour a smoking ban in any indoor public space, with Ireland, Italy and Sweden leading the chart.

More than 79,000 adults die each year as a result of so-called second hand smoking.