Taleban has '2,000 suicide bombers primed for spring war THE white flag of the Taleban still flies above the northern Helmand town of Musa Qala, as the group yesterday issued a chilling battle cry promising the bloodiest year since its fall in 2001, with legions of willing suicide bombers.
As the snows melt and the weather warms, NATO troops are preparing for the bloodiest spring offensive the Taleban has ever launched. It has arguably begun, with the brazen capture of Musa Qala. The attack began last Thursday, when hundreds of Taleban rebels rolled into the town in pick-up trucks, kidnapped government officials, bulldozed buildings, set up barricades and flew the white flag of the Taleban movement.
Taleban leaders promised this was only the beginning: "We have made 80 per cent preparations to fight American and foreign forces and we are about to start war," Mullah Hayatullah Khan, 35, a guerrilla leader, said from his rustic camp among the hills of eastern Afghanistan.
Mullah Khan boasted of having 2,000 suicide bombers ready to deploy against western forces, including British troops based in Helmand, and that his fighters were better trained and more eager for a fight than last year. The Scotsman

Amidst bloodshed, millions of Muslims pray for peace ONGI, Bangladesh (AP) -- Some 3 million Muslims put aside their country's violent struggle with political corruption and Islamic extremists and raised their hands in prayer for global peace at one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

The final prayer Sunday capped a three-day Islamic gathering on the sandy banks of the River Turag in a small industrial town just north of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital.

Pilgrims, many of whom left work early to join the prayer, streamed into the site stretching 190 acres along both banks of the river. As the crowd overflowed the space, people arrived at the site on packed boats or climbed onto the rooftops of nearby buildings. (Watch a huge crowd gather to pray )

The annual gathering shuns politics, which have become increasingly bloody in Bangladesh, and focuses on reviving the tenets of Islam and promoting peace and harmony. CNN

Infighting hurting their case, Palestinians fear he fierce internal clashes among Palestinian factions have shocked many Palestinians and Arab governments, who fear that the bloodshed is damaging the Palestinian case before the world.

Even as the Bush administration moves in its second term to try to press for significant progress toward peace, Palestinians say their own infighting is making it too easy for Israel to argue that nothing needs to be done now to promote a Palestinian state.

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have all intensified efforts to stop the fighting and push the warring Fatah and Hamas factions into a form of unity government, no matter how fragile. On Tuesday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called a meeting in the holy city of Mecca between President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and senior Hamas figures to try to restore at least the façade of Palestinian unity. the International Herald Tribune

France and 45 other countries call for world environmental monitor Forty-five nations joined France in calling for a new environmental body to slow global warming and protect the planet, a body that potentially could have policing powers to punish violators.

Absent were the world's heavyweight polluter, the United States, and two booming nations on the same path as the United States, China and India the International Herald Tribune

....Global warming .... has become a runaway train that cannot be stopped. .... The warming of Earth and increases in sea levels "would continue for centuries … even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized," according to a 20-page summary of the report that was leaked to wire services..../ The report also says scientists' "best estimate" is that temperatures will rise 3.2 to 7.8 degrees by 2100. In contrast, the increase from 1901 to 2005 was 1.2 degrees.

The report also projects that sea levels could rise by 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century, and perhaps an additional 4 to 8 inches if the recent melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the Larsen B ice shelf in western Antarctica continues at current rates. ... such an increase would inundate many low-lying areas around the world, including islands such as Kiribati in the western Pacific Ocean and marsh areas near New Orleans. Such flooding would affect more than 10 million people.

The report also predicts a melting of Arctic ice during summers and a slowing of the Gulf Stream. LA Times

The debate on global warming is over

That's the ultimate message from the report released in Paris today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. body of leading researchers charged with analyzing climate science and producing the final word on what is happening — and will happen — to our planet. IPCC scientists now say that it is "very likely" that global warming is chiefly driven by the buildup of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases caused by human activity, and that dangerous levels of warming and sea rise are on the way.
Those two words — the product of 2,500 scientists, 130 nations and 6 years of work — translates into a certainty of over 90%, up from the 66 to 90% chance the panel reported in its last major climate change assessment in 2001. That might not seem like a big difference, but in science, especially in a field as rapidly developing as climate studies, 90% is as good as it gets. The new report effectively completes a scientific revolution that began at the end of the 19th century, when a Swedish geochemist named Svante Arrhenius first proposed that CO2 released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels could change the planet's climate. "The message of this report is that the time for sitting on the fence is finished," says Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank and a former chair of the IPCC. "Now is the time for action. Time

France 'dims' for climate protest

The lights of Paris dimmed for five minutes on Thursday in a nationwide "lights out" campaign, aimed at raising public awareness over global warming.
The Eiffel Tower, lit by 20,000 bulbs, also went dark at 1955 (1855 GMT).
During the switch-off, the power grid operator RTE observed a fall of 800 megawatts, representing just over 1% of France's total consumption. It comes a day before the release in Paris of a major report warning of humanity's role in climate change. BBC News

A view of Rome's ancient Colosseum with its lights switched on after a five-minute "lights-out" gesture between 7:55 p.m. and 8 p.m. (1855-1900 GMT) part of an environmental campagin, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007. The move was to show solidarity with the French activists who have asked citizens to turn off their lights and other illuminated devices such as televisions and computers in a show of unity before Friday's release in Paris of a major report on climate change. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Exxon posts biggest annual profit ever ..(more than $75,000 every minute..) Exxon Mobil Corp. Thursday reported the biggest annual profit on record for a U.S. corporation - earning more than $75,000 every minute of 2006 on the back of record oil prices.

The world's biggest publicly traded company by revenue posted net earnings of $39.5 billion on revenue of $377.6 billion last year, topping its previous profit record of $36.1 billion in 2005, which at the time was the largest for any U.S. company. CNN Money

French to explore value of napping on the job The French already enjoy a 35-hour workweek and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job.
France launched plans this week to spend $9 million this year to improve public awareness about sleeping troubles. About 1 in 3 French people suffer from them, the ministry says. Fifty-six percent of French complain a poor night’s sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry Detroit Free Press

World's scientists say climate change is much worse than they thought

... The final version of the IPCC's latest report is to be published on Friday but a draft copy, seen by The Independent, makes it clear that climate change could be far worse than previously thought because of potentially disastrous "positive" feedbacks which could accelerate rising temperatures.

A warmer world is increasing evaporation from the oceans causing atmospheric concentrations of water vapour, a powerful greenhouse agent, to have increased by 4 per cent over the sea since 1970. Water vapour in the atmosphere exacerbates the greenhouse effect. This is the largest positive feedback identified in the report, which details for the first time the IPCC's concern over the uncertainties - and dangers - of feedback cycles that may quickly accelerate climate change... Belfast Telegraph

Stonehenge workers' village found

Archaeologists have uncovered what may have been a village for workers or festival-goers near the mysterious stone circle Stonehenge in England.

The village was located at Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge, and is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle.

Eight houses have been excavated and the researchers believe there were at least 25 of them, archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing held by the National Geographic Society. (Watch scientist describe big parties for Stonehenge builders)
CNN

Commuters in cages ... Obtained by the Herald under a freedom of information request, they show much of the dissatisfaction is due to overcrowding and insufficient carriages during peak periods.

One passenger complained: "It was standing room only to Thirroul today. And it is likely to get worse, as Mondays and Fridays are usually the quieter commuting days. How dare you treat us like livestock.

"It doesn't take a maths genius to figure out that if you cancel a train the commuters don't just disappear." The Sydney Morning Herald

Silicon Valley's lead over Europe is narrowing MUNICH: A technology and media conference held here this week provided ample evidence that Silicon Valley's dominance of Internet-style technology innovation is waning. ... Several organizers noted that Silicon Valley's original success as an innovation center was in large part the result of business and social networks developed over several decades in a community of venture capitalists and technologists.

Now, they said, with the Internet supplementing and replacing traditional face-to-face social networks, Silicon Valley may be losing its competitive advantage. International Herald Tribune

Beyond the Multiplex You can start out a weekend at Sundance, as I did, irritated by all the minor inconveniences of this place and end it, as I also did, sitting in a roomful of strangers weeping at an impromptu late-night speech delivered live by Dick Gephardt. In between came a lot of other things: a grisly horror movie about a girl blessed with a unique ability to repel sexual advances, a lyrical documentary about men who love horses (in a manner illegal in most jurisdictions), a faux-documentary about the growing population of zombies (aka the "non-living community") in Los Angeles. My favorite film of the festival so far, beyond a doubt, is a documentary about a dead '80s rock musician that I almost didn't show up for.

No question about it, Sundance can be a pain. Sometimes, as you're trudging through the icy muck from one distant venue to another, or waiting in the bone-numbing wind, while your extremities turn exquisite shades of crimson and ivory, for a shuttle bus that will putter along so incrementally you'd be better off just trudging through the icy muck, thoughts occur to you. Thoughts like: Whose idea was it to wedge a major film festival into a ski resort at the peak of snow season, when it's freezing cold, insanely expensive and plagued with blond people recklessly driving SUVs and recklessly wearing headbands? Salon

New Orleans of Future May Stay Half Its Old Size NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 20 — The empty streets, deserted avenues and abandoned houses prompt a gnawing question, nearly 17 months after Hurricane Katrina: Is this what New Orleans has come to — a city half its old size? ....
Hurricane Katrina may have brutally recalibrated the city’s demographics, setting New Orleans firmly on the path its underlying characteristics had already been leading it down: a city losing people at the rate of perhaps 1.5 percent a year before Hurricane Katrina, with a stagnant economy, more than a quarter of the population living in poverty, and a staggeringly high rate of unemployment, in which as many as one in five were jobless or not seeking work. NY Times

Filmmakers at Sundance look to indie video game industry PARK CITY, Utah--Imagine a Sundance Video Game Festival, an event that might showcase new work from some of the world's best independent game makers.

Such an idea is not a stretch to video game makers who view themselves much like the independent filmmaking pioneers of decades ago--innovators whose work led the creation of the annual Sundance Film Festival taking place here.

The young, but fast-growing independent video game industry--which has been offering new genres, including documentary, casual and serious games--was the focus of a panel discussion Saturday for filmmakers interested in exploring the evolving video game medium.

The enthusiastic panelists, comprised of both indie game community members and those watching them, concluded that the movement is not only radically changing the gaming industry; it's changing the way in which people perceive the world.

"We've come to understand that we're at the beginning of a major revolution of learning," said panelist Connie Yowell, who reviews education grants for the MacArthur Foundation. "Games are based on productive conflict. Fundamentally, that's what learning is...We're beginning to understand just how powerful this medium is for learning." CNET

Murdered Turkish-Armenian writer shunned silence Hrant Dink spoke with quiet intensity about Turkey's most controversial issue. He wrote about it openly and bravely.
His murder is another challenge to the forces of modernisation in a country locked in a bitter internal debate about how it should deal with its past. BBC News

Sundance 2007 Invited from the same short film program as its namesake event, this exclusive collection of premiere work in short filmmaking premieres first in Park City, Utah -- and then rolls-out streaming to you. Free from anywhere in the world. Sundance Film Festival

Cancer deaths finally on decline in U.S. About 3,000 fewer people died from cancer in the United States from 2003 to 2004, the American Cancer Society reported on Wednesday.

It said the big decrease shows that not only has the death rate from cancer been reversed -- but it has been reversed so much that fewer people are dying, even though the population of elderly people, who are most susceptible to cancer, is growing.

The American Cancer Society projected there will be 559,650 deaths from cancer in 2007. "The Society also predicts there will be 1,444,920 new cases of cancer in 2007; 766,860 among men and 678,060 among women," it said in a statement.

The society uses a different method to project and calculate deaths now, so the 2007 numbers cannot be compared directly with the 2004 numbers.

"Cancer death rates have been declining for a long time. The declines have now outpaced the growth and aging of the population," Elizabeth Ward, director of surveillance research for the American Cancer Society, said in a telephone interview.

She said a small decline seen in the previous report had grown considerably, showing the trend was real.

Decreases in smoking may be a major factor, Ward said.

"I think tobacco control has had a real impact. There is also the influence of early detection and screening and thirdly the influence of improvements in treatment," Ward said.

The biggest fall in deaths was seen in colorectal cancer, the second-leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths, which will affect 112,000 people in 2007 and kill 52,000. Reuters Canada