10 theSun | MONDAY MARCH 23 2009

news without borders

EARTHREPORT
Week Ending March 20
Nuclear legacy
THE number of insects and other invertebrates around the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster site is still dramatically lower
than normal nearly 22 years after the facility exploded.
The finding contradicts statements from Ukraine officials
that the local wildlife has rebounded. Anders Moller of
the University of Paris-Sud said his team compared
animal populations in radioactive areas around the nu-
clear power plant with those in less contaminated areas.
“What we found was the same basic pattern throughout
these areas — the numbers of organisms declined with
increasing contamination,” Moller wrote in the journal
Biology Letters.
A knock-out rescue
MARINE mammal experts rescued a North Atlantic
right whale that had become snared in fishing gear
by sedating it so rescuers could remove most of the
entanglement. It was the first time such a method
Papers apologise to Hanson over raunchy pics
MELBOURNE: Australia’s largest newspaper
group apologised to far-right politician Pauline
Hanson (pix) yesterday for publishing photos
it incorrectly claimed showed her in a series
of raunchy poses.
Admitting the woman in the pictures was
not Hanson, editors from News Limited’s
stable of Sunday newspapers claimed they
had been conned over the images, which
have prompted a defamation lawsuit from
the politician.
They were published in News Limited Sun-
day newspapers around Australia on March
15, along with claims they were taken by
an ex-boyfriend in the 1970s when Hanson
was about 19.
Hanson, who sparked international
outrage with a campaign against Asian
immigration in the 1990s, denied any
knowledge of the pictures and said she had
never heard of her supposed ex-boyfriend,
a Sydney man named Jack Johnson.
The newspapers, part of Rupert Mur-
doch’s News Corporation media empire,
published apologies yesterday.
“I have said all week I’d be the first person
in Australia to apologise to Pauline Hanson if
it were proven the photographs were not of
her,” Neil Breen, the editor of Sydney’s Sunday
Telegraph wrote.
“We’ve proven it ourselves, so Pauline, I’m
sorry.”
Damon Johnston, the editor of Melbourne’s
Sunday Herald Sun said it was now clear the
pictures were not of Hanson and the newspa-
per had made a mistake in publishing them.
“We acknowledge that Ms Hanson was
right all along – and we were wrong,” he said
in an editorial.
Hanson, who on Saturday failed to revive
her political career when she lost her bid for
a Queensland state seat, said she believed
the pictures may have been a factor in the
loss. – AFP
have noted it is not a good sign that

Obama: Sorry,
had ever been used with whales, according to those the president has had to say it, and so
who helped develop it at the Woods Hole Oceano- often. The odds on whether Geithner
graphic Institution. Team members on four boats, will leave by the end of June increased
assisted by an aerial survey plane, worked for two over the last week in the Intrade politi-
days to free the animal. They eventually succeeded cal prediction market, although trad-
in injecting the 12m, 18,000kg whale with sedatives ers still gave it only a small chance of
that allowed them to cut away the gear wrapped happening.

Geithner stays
around its head. The new sedation delivery system Obama stressed in the 60 Minutes
uses a needle and a syringe driven by compressed interview that neither he nor Geithner
air, which injects the drug into the whale’s muscle. had discussed the possibility of his
quitting, CBS said in a statement on
Queensland spill Saturday.
NEARLY 64km of Australian beaches were blackened Geithner said this week he took
with oil that spilled from a cargo ship caught in stormy Eric full responsibility for the controversy
seas churned up by last week’s Typhoon Hamish. More Margolis: WASHINGTON: President Barack you’ve still got the job.” Geithner surrounding the AIG bonuses and
than 600 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser also Obama on Saturday stepped up his has been under fire over his failure dismissed calls for his resignation,
spilled from the Pacific Adventurer’s deck, sinking to
The new weeklong defence of much-criticised to block at least US$165 million (610 saying it “just comes with the job.”
the ocean floor in one of coastal Queensland’s worst- red peril Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, million), and possibly as much as Geithner, who has been in his
ever environmental disasters. State Premier Anna Bligh pg 13 saying he would not accept his resig- US$218 million (RM806 million), in job less than two months, has also
declared the stretch of polluted coast a disaster zone as nation even if it was tendered. bonuses paid out to employees of in- faced criticism over his slow roll-out
a navy mine-hunting ship searched for the 31 containers It came ahead of a critical week for surer American International Group of plans to save the banking sector,
of lost chemicals. The cargo of the potentially dangerous Geithner, who is expected to unveil (AIG), which has received billions in which Obama said this week was key
fertiliser was lost near a marine sanctuary. Some environ- his much-anticipated bank bailout government aid. to staving off further financial calam-
mental experts warned that if the nutrient-rich chemical plan and flesh out the administration’s With public outrage over the AIG ity.
is released into the sea, it could feed a huge algae bloom proposals for financial regulatory bonus scandal mounting and several A source familiar with the bank
that could cause a marine life catastrophe. reform when he appears before the lawmakers calling for Geithner’s res- bailout plan said on Saturday the
House of Representatives Financial ignation, Obama was forced this week Treasury Department would unveil
Services Committee. to repeatedly defend his treasury a programme next week aimed at
South Seas cyclone Obama said in an interview with secretary, saying he had his complete cleansing toxic assets from bank
THE second tropical cyclone to form near the Cook CBS television network’s 60 Minutes confidence. balance sheets that have frozen up
Islands in as many weeks was dubbed Ken as the programme that if Geithner tried to While Obama has said Geithner’s lending and fuelled the recession.
storm gained strength to the southwest of Raro- quit, he would tell him, “Sorry buddy, job is safe, some Washington pundits – Reuters
tonga.
» Cyclone Ilsa formed over the Indian Ocean between
Java and Australia’s northwest coast. – Universal
Press Syndicate Deadly stampede mars Papal visit to Angola
LUANDA (Angola): Pope Coqueiros, filling the stands looking tired but smiling, the
Benedict XVI on Saturday ad- and the field as music blared crowd on the field surged
dressed over 30,000 Angolan from the stage ahead of the toward his vehicle in a near
youths to revive their faith in pope’s appearance. stampede as he drove toward
a nation where evangelicals But the stampede around the stage.
are gaining ground, but the noon, when the gates of More than half of Angola’s
event was marred by a deadly the stadium opened, killed population is under 18, and
stampede that killed two. two young many bear physical scars of
“We don’t have the decades of civil war that
EPAPIX left the country one of the
most heavily landmined na-
tions on the planet.
Although Angola’s econ-
omy has boomed since the
end of civil war in 2002, two
thirds of the population lives
on less than two dollars a day
– struggles that the pope ad-
dressed directly as he sought
to reaffirm faith among the
youth.
“I see some of the many
thousands of young Angolans
who have been maimed or
disabled as a result of the
Benedict meets a young war and the landmines. I
worshiper as he arrives think of the countless tears
for a mass at Sao Paolo that have been shed for the
Church in Luanda. loss of your relatives and
friends,” he said.
people and injured 18, “You may have your share
any details about senior police official Paulo de of difficulties, but you are
the circumstances of the Almeida told Portugal’s Lusa filled with great hope, great
drama or the identity of the news agency. enthusiasm and a great desire
victims,” said Vatican spokes- The two – a male and a to make a new beginning. My
man Federico Lombardi. female whose ages were not young friends, you hold within
“The Holy Father will clear – died at the scene. Ten yourselves the power to shape
speak about this tragedy dur- others were treated on the the future,” Benedict added.
ing a Mass he is due to hold spot and eight taken to hos- His visit to Angola is a chance
in Luanda”, he added. pital, Lusa said, adding that to revitalise the church in a
Tens of thousands of a criminal investigation had country that is 55% Catholic,
young people, including been launched. but where evangelical groups
mothers carrying babies, When the 81-year-old and home-grown sects are
packed into the Stadio dos pope arrived in the stadium, gaining popularity. – AFP