Canadian festival buys fake snow

 

The usually frigid Canadian city of Winnipeg – often nicknamed Winterpeg – has been so mild and dry this winter that a popular snow-sculpting competition has been forced to truck in 200 loads of fake flakes for this year s annual event.

 

While Europe shivers through a severe cold snap that has killed hundreds of people, Winnipeg has enjoyed its third-mildest January in more than a century, with the average temperature a relatively balmy -10.8 Celsius (12.6 Fahrenheit).

 

It s been the same story across much of Canada. Toronto, the country s biggest city, was forecast to climb well above the freezing mark on Thursday, while Berlin will be at -11 C going into the weekend and Paris and London will hover around -6 C.

 

“People refer to Winnipeg as Winterpeg so they expect it to be really cold, but everyone is really happy about the warm weather,” said Emili Bellefleur, spokeswoman for Festival du Voyageur, which includes snow carvings of wolves, bison and cultural symbols around the city of 700,000.

 

“We re going to take it, you know?”

 

With supplies of natural snow skimpy, the festival is trucking in artificially made snow from a winter recreation area, similar to the machine-made snow used on ski hills.

 

Bellefleur said she knows of only one other year that the 43-year-old festival had to buy artificial snow.

 

Winnipeggers and others in Western Canada can thank a flip-flop in air pressure patterns for the mild winter, which has funneled warmer southwest air across the Prairies, said Natalie Hasell, meteorologist at Environment Canada.
Normally, the La Nina weather phenomenon off the Pacific Coast of North America would leave the Prairies digging out of frigid, snowier than usual conditions.

 

But this winter it s been much milder, and bone dry. Nearly all of the country s main grain-growing region has received below-normal precipitation since November 5.

 

While Winnipeggers have happily put away their snow shovels, a dozen of the Festival du Voyageur s snow sculptors, coming from as far away as Switzerland, the Netherlands and evenMexico have been shocked by the mild weather.

 

Usually, “the worst part for them when they come from Mexico is dealing with the cold itself,” Bellefleur said. “Not necessarily the (lack of) snow.”
 

$3.3m aid for frogs, others

 

The threatened species on the list would benefit from a $3.3 million (2.4 million euro) aid award, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Thursday.

 

The conservation fund Save Our Species (SOS), set up by the IUCN, the World Bank and others, has announced it is to allocate the cash to more than 20 projects.

 

SOS is involved in the protection of the Cross River Gorilla and Black Rhino in Africa and the Snow Leopard in Pakistan.

 

Asia s Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Madagascar s Golden Mantella Frog are also on its list.

 

The body is meanwhile working to re-introduce the Philippine Cockatoo to its native land.

 

“By implementing on the ground conservation action, the projects (that) SOS select help protect entire habitats which both people and wildlife depend on,” said SOS director Jean-Christophe Vie.

 

The body was established in 2010 by IUCN, the World Bank and the GEF (Global Environment Facility) with more than $10 million funding to help protect threatened species.–AFP
 

Af-Pak Jihad attracting foreign fighters: Officials

 

The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

 

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

 

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

 

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

 

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion — a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

 

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Moamer Kadhafi from power, he said.

 

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

 

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting Al-Qaeda s (and associated entities ) training camps and pipelines.”

 

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within Al-Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

 

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network s difficulties.

 

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

 

“It s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University s Center on Law and Security.

 

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants — he was the Al-Qaeda brand.

 

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for Al-Qaeda,” he said.

 

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it s likely that the number of volonteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don t think it s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

 

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

 

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.
 

Nepal’s vulture "restaurants" for endangered birds

PITHAULI: In the village of Pithauli, surrounded by ripening mustard fields, a woman hauls a cow carcass on a trolley, drops it in an open field, then runs and hides in a nearby hut as dozens of vultures swoop down.

In under half an hour, the carcass has been reduced to picked bones by the dun-coloured birds, occasionally squabbling as they feed.

The site is one of a handful of vulture “restaurants” opened to save the birds, which help keep the environment clean by disposing of carrion, from extinction — and at the same time help impoverished villages become self-sufficient.

A drug called diclofenac, used for treating inflammation in cattle, causes kidney failure and death in vultures which feed on their carcasses. As a result, two species of vulture — the White-rumped and Slender-billed — are now critically endangered in Nepal, as well as in Pakistan and India.

“If the situation continues the two species will be extinct in ten years,” said Hem Sagar Baral, chief of the Nepalese Ornithological Union.

“We may maintain certain minimum numbers but we’ll never see the numbers we had 20 years ago.”

Two decades ago there were about 50,000 nesting pairs of the two vulture species in Nepal. Now, barely 500 pairs remain.

Their steep decline is blamed on the widespread use of diclofenac, which was banned in 2006, and loss of habitat, with the kapok trees they use for nesting vanishing fast to meet demand from factories producing match sticks and plywood.

Five years ago, Bird Conservation Nepal came up with the idea of “restaurants” as places where the birds could feed on safe carcasses.

Pithauli, some 100 km (60 miles) southwest of the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, was the site of the first such feeding station, which now number six around the country.

The number of nesting pairs there has grown to 46 compared with just 17 before the feeding site was opened five years ago, said Dhan Bahadur Chaudhary, who coordinates the project.

“When we started I had no idea how it would do. I am happy that we have come to this point,” he said.

Baral agreed that the “eateries” and the ban on the drug had helped, with numbers stabilising after an initial rise, but noted that they still remain under threat.

For one thing, the ban on diclofenac use is being flouted by giving cattle a version of the drug intended for humans, meaning it is still taking its toll on the birds.

In addition, despite the vulture’s positive depiction in Hindu mythology as fighting to free Sita, wife of the god-king Rama, from the clutches of a demon, the birds are widely reviled as ugly and the harbingers of bad luck.

SUPERSTITION AND SUCCESS

Residents in Pithauli, a village of more than 6,000 people, tell how villagers carried out special “purification” rites when vultures perched on the roofs of their homes.

When an old villager died a few days after a vulture had alighted on his house, it was widely believed to have resulted from his failure to perform the proper ritual.

But in an effort to win over the villagers, the organisation that started the feeding stations provides training in income-generating activities such as beekeeping, trail and bridge construction, and tourist guide services.

They also give support to schools and public health offices.

“Initially, it was not easy. But the villagers started to support us gradually as we launched community activities for the local people,” Chaudhary said.

Authorities have also set up a vulture breeding centre in the Chitwan National Park in the neighbouring jungle resort of Kasara, where 60 birds, captured in the wild, are being raised. Ultimately, they plan to release chicks into the wild.

The vulture restaurant has become a tourist attraction in the poverty-stricken village, and admission fees from visitors — who last year numbered some 2,000 — help support it.

Additional help comes from authorities who buy old and sick cattle from the villagers for $3 a head, a modest income. These animals are kept on a farm in a community-run forest and offered to the birds when they die naturally since killing a cow is illegal in deeply Hindu Nepal.

Despite the gains, though, some villagers remain skeptical.

“Why save a bird that feeds on dead animals?” said 34-year-old Chet Nath Gandell, noting that the birds sometimes leave parts of the carcasses unfinished.

“Stinking carrion pollutes the air and we are forced to breathe in a slow poison.” AGENCIES

Panasonic reports record $10 billion annual loss

Japan s Panasonic Corp forecast a record annual net loss of $10.2 billion on Friday, joining beleaguered rivals Sony and Sharp in a sea of red ink as they struggle to fix their broken TV businesses and overcome criticism that they have lost their way.

 

Panasonic said it was headed for a loss of 780 billion yen ($10.24 billion) for the year to March, dwarfing expectations for a loss of around $6.2 billion. The loss was almost entirely due to big restructuring charges and writedowns, including to its Sanyo Electric unit.

 

Its grim outlook follows loss forecasts at Sony and Sharp Corp – almost $17 billion combined for the three Japanese electronics firms – highlighting the impact of fierce competition from foreign rivals such as South Korea s Samsung Electronics, weak demand and a strong yen.

 

Panasonic, which is in the process of shedding 17,000 jobs by end-March, also missed third-quarter market forecasts, diving to a loss of 197.6 billion yen from a profit a year earlier.

 

With TVs becoming smart – linked to other devices like tablets and smartphones – an inability to win in the TV market risks hobbling sales across their consumer electronics line-up.

 

“They don t seem like a company that s progressing towards a particular goal,” said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO and president of Fukoku Capital, which managed assets worth $7.6 billion as of last March. “What exactly is this company good at? What does it want to do? They don t have answers to these questions.”

 

Makoto Kikuchi, CEO of Myojo Asset Management in Tokyo, noted Panasonic, Sharp and Sony all have structural issues, and need to come to grips with problems in their TV businesses.

 

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo gave no indication he planned to ditch the TV business.

 

“I don t think it s a business that has lost its growth potential,” he said, adding Panasonic wanted to “develop TV in a different manner” by exploring growth in sales to businesses rather than direct to consumers.

 

The near-term outlook for better TV sales is grim.

 

By 2015, flat panel industry research company DisplaySearch expects annual global sales of liquid crystal TVs to contract by 8 percent to $92 billion. Even worse, plasma sets, a market that Panasonic dominates, will shrink 38 percent to $7 billion.

 

If Panasonic s market share “keeps shrinking by 10 percent or so they may need to prepare some more restructuring,” said Shiro Mikoshiba, analyst at Nomura Holdings in Tokyo.

 

Moody s Investors Service downgraded the debt ratings of Panasonic and Sony last month and retained a negative outlook for both, citing their continued losses on TVs.

 

It s not only the TV unit, however, that poses a risk to profits and is keeping investors away from Panasonic shares, say analysts.

 

Panasonic shares initially fell on Friday, extending a slide to their lowest in more than 30 years, but later rallied to close 1.2 percent higher ahead of the quarterly results.

 

“One silver lining is that there is investment being made for the future,” said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust.

 

“You could take the added restructuring costs as a serious move by the company to reform and improve its business. You could look at this as the bottom, to show all the losses and then move aggressively towards the next quarter,” he said.

 

Sony on Thursday pressed its reset button by announcing that Kazuo Hirai will succeed Howard Stringer as CEO in April, sparking an 8 percent surge in its share price on Friday, its biggest one-day percentage gain in almost a year.

 

Ohtsubo, who like Stringer at Sony, has called the shots at Panasonic for the past six years, has so far shown no intent to step aside.

 

“Its last record net loss in 2001/02 was because of the impact of a sudden slump in PCs after the IT bubble burst, but there was hope then for growth in flat-screen TVs,” said Hideyuki Suzuki, general manager investment research at SBI Securities.

 

“This time, and not just for Panasonic, it doesn t feel like they ve got rid of all the rot.”

 

SANYO DRAG

 

Buying Sanyo was part of a strategy to focus Panasonic more on business-to-business markets such as car parts and green technologies, rather than selling to more fickle retail consumers.

 

Panasonic makes everything from refrigerators and bicycle pumps to fax machines, light bulbs and nose hair trimmers. Its most profitable business currently is white goods, including fridges and washing machines.

 

“We decided to purchase (Sanyo) in the summer of 2008 and … the competition (environment) has changed since then and the yen has strengthened very much,” said Panasonic Managing Director Makoto Uenoyama.

 

Sanyo had a quarterly operating loss of more than 20 billion yen.

 

Panasonic, which trimmed its forecast for the number of flat-screen TVs it will sell, does expect to make an operating profit for the year, though this is now seen at just 30 billion yen, down from a previous 130 billion yen.

 

Last year, Panasonic had an operating profit, which excludes one off items, of 305 billion yen.
 

Cricket: Dhoni ready to quit the leadership

 

Facing severe criticism for his unimpressive captaincy and performances in Test cricket, under-fire Mahendra Singh Dhoni has offered to quit the leadership role in the longer format of the game if the BCCI feels there is a better replacement waiting in the wings.

 

Dhoni said if somebody could do a better job than him in Tests, then he will be more than happy to step down as captain for the sake of the team.

 

“It (captaincy) doesn t belong to anyone. It s a position I hold, and it s an added responsibility. I always like to do well till I am in job but it s not something I want to stick to. If there is a better replacement, he can come in,” Dhoni said on Tuesday ahead of tomorrow s first Twenty20 game Australia.

 

“At the end of the day, you want India to perform. If there is someone who can do a better job, captaincy should be given to him. It s not something you have to cling on to,” said Dhoni as speculation grew over his Test future both as a batsman and captain.

 

Dhoni has lost seven straight Test matches abroad as captain and as a batsman, his stocks have really fallen low on foreign pitches.

 

While he made 220 at 31.43 from four Tests in England, he scored 102 from six innings of three Tests at 20.40 on the present tour.

 

“The responsibility was given to me three-and-a-half years ago. I am trying to fit into the shoes, get along with the team and perform well.”

 

Dhoni had earlier dropped hints during the Test series that he might leave Test cricket altogether by 2013 to make himslef available the 2015 World Cup.

 

“It s two years to 2013. I don t know whteher I would still be alive There would be IPL, Champions League, back-to-back series. It s not a calendar you can decide in advance or if there is a lot of rest,” Dhoni said.

 

“I would have to decide by 2013 but it s two years away. I can t say in 2014 that I am not playing next World Cup and give a player of 25-odd matches (a chance to prove),” he said.

 

Dhoni, however, made it clear that his journey as a Test cricketer was far from over but believed the decision was not entirely in his hands.

 

“I am still on my way (through the journey). I haven t reached anywhere. But it s not an individual who decides, it s others who decide whether you are good enough or not.”

 

“As a player, I am giving my 100%. I am still doing what I was doing. Test cricket is real cricket, but I am not discarding other formats. Every format has its own challenges,” he said.

 

The India captain made a tongue in cheek remark about the dressing room, which according to him is humming with the noise and bubble of the youngsters — much in contrast to the staid, sober and solemn environment when the seniors were around.

 

“Our one-day squad looks very different. It s lot more noisy and lift the dressing room atmosphere. People pull each other s legs and it s more lively. It s very, very different,” he said.

 

“It s like you have come from Kishore Kumar to Sean Paul It s that kind of difference. It s very noisy. It s a very different generation of players.

 

“As for me, I keep adjusting. A mix of everything is good. From classical to rap music of latest version,” he said.

Talks between US, Taliban started in Qatar

 

According to the newspaper, several Taliban negotiators have begun meeting with American officials in Qatar, where they are discussing preliminary trust-building measures, including a possible prisoner exchange, several former Taliban officials said Saturday.

 

The former officials said that four to eight Taliban representatives had traveled to Qatar from Pakistan to set up a political office for the exiled Afghan insurgent group.

 

The comments suggested that the Taliban, who have not publicly said they would engage in peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, were gearing up for preliminary discussions.

 

American officials would not deny that meetings had taken place, and the discussions seemed to have at least the tacit approval of Pakistan, which has thwarted previous efforts by the Taliban to engage in talks.

 

The former Taliban officials, interviewed Saturday in Kabul, were careful not to call the discussions peace talks.

 

“Currently there are no peace talks going on,” said Maulavi Qalamuddin, the former minister of vice and virtue for the Taliban who is now a member of the High Peace Council here. “The only thing is the negotiations over release of Taliban prisoners from Guantánamo, which is still under discussion between both sides in Qatar. We also want to strengthen the talks so we can create an environment of trust for further talks in the future.”

 

The Taliban officials now in Doha, Qatar, include a former secretary to the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, as well as several former officials of the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, according to Mr. Qalamuddin and Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban minister of higher education.

 

The former Taliban officials here described fairly advanced discussions in Qatar about the exchange of prisoners. One former official, Syed Muhammad Akbar Agha, who had been a Taliban military commander, said that five Taliban prisoners were to be released in two phases. “The first group of two to three Taliban prisoners will be released, and then two others,” he said.

 

There has also been discussion in Qatar of removing some Taliban members from NATO’s “kill or capture” lists, the former Taliban officials said.

 

In return, the Taliban have offered to free an American soldier they are holding.
 

Dhanush and Mallika crowned PETAs hottest vegetarians

Bollywood hottie Mallika Sherawat and Kollywood superstar Dhanush have been bestowed with the title of being the ‘Hottest Vegetarian Celebrities of 2011′ by PETA India.

Thousands of people had cast their votes to help People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India determine the winners. Besides Mallika Sherawat and Dhanush, the other competitors included Vivek Oberoi, Vidya Balan, Sonu Sood, Shahid Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Kareena Kapoor.

While Mallika Sherawat said, “If I had to pick the very best thing about being vegan, it’s my clear conscience”, the sensational Kolaveri Di singer Dhanush said, “Being a vegetarian always made me feel healthy. I’ve always felt light. Every time I sit down to eat, I’m helping the environment. I’m proud to be a vegetarian. Go PETA, go green.”

Spread of viruses, scientists make new discovery

Scientists have discovered gained fresh knowledge about how viruses such as flu and HIV jump between species, a finding that is expected to help predict the appearance of new diseases.

The research carried out by Edinburgh and Cambridge universities seek to understand how viruses such as bird flu infect distant species like humans.

The scientists found that the viruses were better able to infect species closely related to their typical target species than species that were distantly related.

However, the research also suggested that when diseases make a big leap they may then spread easily in species closely related to the new victim, regardless of how closely related these are to the original target species, the BBC reported.

Dr Ben Longdon, of Edinburgh Universitys school of biological sciences who led the study, said, “Emerging diseases such as Sars, HIV and some types of flu have all got into humans from other species.

By infecting more than 50 species of flies with three different viruses, the researchers showed that species closely related to a virus usual target species were more susceptible than distantly related flies.

They also showed that groups of flies that were closely related were similarly susceptible to the same viruses.

The study, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society, was published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Nissan develops cheaper, smaller charger for EVs

The basic model of the revamped charger will cost about half the price of the current model. Nissan has developed a charger for electric vehicles that s smaller, about half the price, and easier to install.Nissan Motor Co., Japan s No. 2 automaker, said the new charger will go on sale in November

in Japan and is planned later for the U.S. and Europe, although dates are not set. The basic model of the revamped charger will cost about half the price of the current model, which is stockier and has more parts, and costs 1.47 million yen ($19,000). The higher-grade model for outdoors will also be cheaper and cost under 1 million yen ($13,000), according to Nissan.

Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric vehicle, is targeting sales of 5,000 of the new chargers in Japan by the end of March 2016. Zero-emission electric vehicles are drawing attention amid concerns about global warming and the environment. The Leaf is among the pioneering models in the technology.

But electric vehicles still make up a niche market. They have to be recharged, and recharging stations aren t that plentiful. Owners generally have to go through the trouble of installing a recharger in their homes. Right now, Leafs are being sold to mostly local governments rather than regular consumers.

The difficulty of installing chargers, which look like the filling machines at gas stations, is another reason. Nissan is hoping to sell the new chargers to highways, airports, shopping centers, convenience stores and gas stations, it said. Nissan has sold more than 13,600 Leaf cars around the world since they went on sale in December 2010. There are now 619 chargers throughout Japan, 32 percent, or 196, in the Nissan group, while the rest are with local governments, highways and other companies that promote EVs.

Competition in electric vehicles is likely to intensify in coming years as others, such as Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp., enter the sector.
Toyota already offers plug-in hybrid cars, which run partly as EVs but switch to become regular hybrids with gas engines when they run out of the electric charge.

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