10  theSun | MONDAY JANUARY 19 2009

news without borders

EARTHREPORT
Britain finalises
resumption of lending.”
Week Ending Jan 17 The package is designed to “get
lending moving in the economy” to help
families and businesses, he added.
Ocean filters choked Key parts of the bailout may include
SOUTH KOREAN researchers warn of a sudden collapse in the a huge state insurance scheme to
amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) being absorbed by the Sea of guarantee billions of pounds of banks’

second bank bailout

Japan. Kitack Lee, an associate professor at Pohang University,
said he found warmer waters due to climate change have
disrupted a process known as “ventilation” in which flowing
and churning seas drag absorbed CO2 from surface waters to
the deep. He found the amount of CO2 absorbed between 1999
and 2007 was half the level observed from 1992 to 1999.
Dirty snow melts earlier
SOOT FROM industrial and automotive sources that falls on
the snow-covered mountains of the western US and Canada
is causing the snowpacks to melt as much as a month earlier
in spring, according to a new study. The trend may create ad-
ditional challenges for hydroelectric generation, fisheries and
irrigation, which are also grappling with greenhouse gas-caused
climate change. Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that soot absorbs
sunlight somewhat like an asphalt surface, warming the snow
and air just above it by up to -19.25°C, melting the snow. Report
co-author William Gustafson said that the Cascades have lost
60% of their snowpack since the 1950s.
Fiji floods
LONDON: Britain is poised to guarantee
“toxic debt” worth up to 200 billion pounds
(RM1.07 trillion) in a second bank bailout
designed to boost lending and fend off a
prolonged recession triggered by the worst
economic turmoil in 70 years, newspapers
reported yesterday.
Government officials and bank chiefs
have spent the weekend in talks, a finance
ministry spokesman told Reuters, as they
Black boxes from US Airways jet recovered
seek a solution to a credit freeze that has
crippled industry, small businesses and
homeowners already struggling to cope
with the downturn.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said de-
tails of the package would be announced
“in the next day or two”.
Speaking to reporters in Egypt, where
he was attending talks on Gaza, he said:
“We know the essential problem is the
bad assets and the government taking
bigger stakes in several banks, the BBC
reported.
Banks would have to identify their
riskiest loans and pay a fee to a state-
backed insurer for protection against
losses above a certain level, the state
broadcaster said.
Downing Street and the finance
ministry have declined to comment on
reports giving details of the planned
bailout.
Britain has been forced into a second
rescue after state injection of 37 billion
pounds to recapitalise three of the big-
gest banks last October failed to get
credit moving again. – Reuters

EPAPIX
NEW YORK: Federal investigators
DAYS OF torrential rainstorms in Fiji left at least 11 people yesterday recovered the black box
dead and unleashed flooding that destroyed homes, farms and flight recorders from a US Airways
businesses. Many international tourists at the popular vacation Airbus, after working all night to pull
destination were trapped in their resorts, waiting for the storms the wreckage from New York’s Hud-
to abate. About 9,000 Fijians have been forced from their homes son River, NY1 television showed.
by the flooding, which has caused about US$20 million (RM72 Footage on the local New York
million) in damage to roads and other infrastructure. channel showed officials carrying
away the boxes, which contain
cockpit voice and data recordings
Tropical cyclones leading up to Thursday’s crash and
HIGHWAYS were submerged and entire towns were isolated ditching into the Hudson.
from the “double whammy” of Tropical Cyclone Charlotte and The recorders will provide crucial
high astronomical tides that swamped far northern Australia. evidence in determining why the
Officials said damage from the storm and high tides is expected plane suddenly lost power in both
to rise into the tens of millions of dollars. engines shortly after take-off from
• Tropical Storm Dongo briefly threatened shipping lanes in LaGuardia Airport.
the central Indian Ocean. – Universal Press Syndicate The pilot reported hitting a

The flight recorders removed from

the wreckage of the US Airways
airplane

flock of large birds, some of which

are believed to have been sucked
into the engines, knocking out all
power.
Salvage teams pulled the Airbus
mostly intact from the river follow-
ing a marathon operation hampered
by ice in the river, snow, and swift
currents that limited the time divers
could spend in the water.
NY1 footage showed the fuse-
lage in one piece, although some The downed US
areas of the underbody, wings and Airways plane is
engine areas were shredded from hoisted from the
the impact of the splash landing. Hudson River in
The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, New York City on
has been credited with saving the Saturday.
lives of all 155 people aboard with
his skillful handling of the plane as
it came down. – AFP

Zimbabwe first lady Grace Mugabe

investigated for Hongkong assault
HONGKONG: The wife of Zimbabwe president
Robert Mugabe was yesterday being investi-
gated by Hongkong police for an alleged assault
on a photographer during a shopping trip to the
city.
Grace Mugabe, 43, is accused of repeatedly
punching Richard Jones – chief photographer
of the Hongkong photo agency Sinopix – after
he took pictures of her shopping in Mody Road,
Tsim Sha Tsui.
Jones was on assignment for the Sunday
Times in London which yesterday published a
front page story about the incident along with
pictures of Mugabe and her alleged victim
showing his injuries.
The wife of the Zimbabwean leader was be-
ing tailed by Jones and a colleague as she left
the five-star Shangri-la hotel to go shopping with
a bodyguard and a woman friend.
Jones told dpa the president’s wife tried to
wrestle his camera from him before hitting him
repeatedly in the alleged attack last Thursday.
“They noticed me taking pictures when she
was about 150 metres from her hotel and began
shouting at me,” said Jones, 43, who said he
was tailing Mugabe as part of the newspaper’s
investigation into her shopping holiday.
“The bodyguard chased after me. I ran but I
was carrying heavy camera gear and he caught
up with me after 30 metres and tried to get my
camera off me.
“Then I saw Grace Mugabe coming at me.
She launched herself at me, tried to grab my
camera and then directed punched at my face.
She hit me at least 10 times in the face and
head.
Asked about the alleged assault by Grace
Mugabe, a Hongkong police spokeswoman said:
“The police received a report from a 43-year-old
man on January 17.
“He reported the case to Tsim Sha Tsui police
station stating he was assaulted by a woman on
January 15 in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. – dpa
“The case has been classified as assault oc-
casioning actual bodily harm and the Tsim Sha
Tsui CID team is investigating the case.” – dpa