Urban flooding a Great Lakes regional dilemma

James Dau in Great Lakes Echo: More people in Great Lakes cities are falling victim to urban flooding, some as often as 30 to 40 times in their lifetimes, according to a Chicago-based sustainability nonprofit organization. “We did a brief survey of people in the Chicago region, and we heard some actually devastating stories about flooding from some of them,” said Harriet Festing, director of the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s water program. “We came away from it pretty shocked.”

The September report defines urban flooding as when buildings, streets or open property are inundated by rain, sewage or overflowing bodies of water. Festing characterized the problem in Chicago as not catastrophic, but frequent.

It’s also hidden. Property owners often don’t want to talk about it, she said. “They’re somewhat ashamed of it, having sewage in their living space. They’re afraid of what it might do to their property values.

Chicago flood victims are not alone. The survey led the center to investigate urban flooding across the Great Lakes region. “We wanted to find out if it was more widespread than just Chicago, to see if other cities were suffering the same problem,” Festing said.

Thirty of 48 cities surveyed responded. They represent approximately 19.7 million people, almost 23 percent of the region’s population.

Every city reported flooding, with 80 percent characterizing those issues as medium or large. While most municipalities track flooding, only about half have a plan for dealing with it. Only 20 percent could estimate the cost of flooding damage....

Stillman Creek Flood in Marion, Illinois, in August 2007, shot by Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin) stitched by Marku1988, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

UN clinches global deal on cutting mercury emissions

Tom Miles and Emma Farge in Planet Ark: More than 140 countries have agreed on the first global treaty to cut mercury pollution through a blacklist of household items and new controls on power plants and small-scale mines, the United Nations said on Saturday. The legally-binding agreement aims to phase out many products that use the toxic liquid metal such as batteries, thermometers and some fluorescent lamps, through banning global import and exports by 2020.

The treaty will require countries with coal-fired power plants such as India and China to install filters and scrubbers on new plants and to commit to reducing emissions from existing operations to prevent mercury from coal reaching the atmosphere.

...The deal also includes measures to reduce mercury use in small-scale gold mining, although stopped short of an all-out ban. Gold prices near $1,700 a metric ton have spurred the use of mercury as a catalyst to separate gold from its ore.

...The Minamata Convention on Mercury - named after the Japanese city where people were poisoned in the mid-20th century from industrial discharges of mercury - needs ratification from 50 countries and is expected to be formalized later this year....

Disease 'halves people's incomes' in tropical countries

Luís Amorim in SciDev.net: Tropical countries' per capita incomes could more than double if they managed to reduce their health burden from vector-borne and parasitic diseases (VBPDs) to that seen in temperate countries, a study has found.

The study says that poor economic performance is caused partly by high disease burden, which is in turn affected by biodiversity. Although VBPDs remain a leading cause of death and disability in poor countries, there is debate over their relative impact on global poverty patterns, the paper says.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Princeton University in the United States and from Université de Cergy-Pontoise in France set out to examine whether these diseases only played a historical role in delaying tropical countries' growth by limiting foreign investment and institutions' development, or whether environmental factors present in the tropics are the key element driving the VBPDs — which in turn still harming wealth production today.

If disease is still hindering development, then healthcare improvements should be made a key part of macroeconomic strategies and foreign economic aid, and not only be done for humanitarian reasons, the paper argues.

The researchers used models to estimate the relative effects of disease burden and per capita income on each other, controlling for other factors. The findings bolster the case for targeting diseases to lessen their impact on tropical countries' economic development, according to Matthew Bonds, lead author from Harvard Medical School....

Nurse Ubah Mahammed marks a child after administering de-worming medicine, Shinile Woreda, Ethiopia, Oct. 13, 2010. US Army photograph

Dietary shifts driving up phosphorus use

Seed Daily via SPX: Dietary changes since the early 1960s have fueled a sharp increase in the amount of mined phosphorus used to produce the food consumed by the average person over the course of a year, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill University. Between 1961 and 2007, rising meat consumption and total calorie intake underpinned a 38% increase in the world's per capita "phosphorus footprint," the researchers conclude in a paper published online in Environmental Research Letters.

The findings underscore a significant challenge to efforts to sustainably manage the supply of mined phosphorus, a non-renewable resource widely used as fertilizer.

When phosphorus is lost through agricultural runoff or sewage systems, it can pollute waterways downstream. In addition, because deposits are heavily concentrated in a few countries, global supplies and prices for the resource are vulnerable to geopolitical tensions.

In recent years, many researchers have explored how human activity has altered the phosphorus cycle in the environment and how management of phosphorus could be altered to ensure long-term sustainability. This new study sheds more light, in particular, on how diet choices have affected the intensity of phosphorus use around the world.

"Our results demonstrate that changes in diet can be a significant part of the strategy for enhancing sustainability of phosphorus management," says lead author Genevieve Metson, a doctoral student in McGill's Department of Natural Resource Sciences. "In particular, reduced consumption of meat, and especially beef, in countries with large phosphorus footprints could put a big dent in demand for mined phosphorus - since it takes many kilograms of feed, which is fertilized, to produce a kilogram of meat."....

Illustration from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890—1907)

Study finds severe climate jeopardizing Amazon forest

Terra Daily: An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study. These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.

An international research team led by Sassan Saatchi of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., analyzed more than a decade of satellite microwave radar data collected between 2000 and 2009 over Amazonia. The observations included measurements of rainfall from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and measurements of the moisture content and structure of the forest canopy (top layer) from the Seawinds scatterometer on NASA's QuikScat spacecraft.

The scientists found that during the summer of 2005, more than 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers, or 70 million hectares) of pristine, old-growth forest in southwestern Amazonia experienced an extensive, severe drought. This megadrought caused widespread changes to the forest canopy that were detectable by satellite. The changes suggest dieback of branches and tree falls, especially among the older, larger, more vulnerable canopy trees that blanket the forest....

Bamboo and ferns in the Amazon, shot by Tadd and Debbie Ottman, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Obama sworn in to second term as US president

US President Barack Obama was on January 20 officially sworn in for a second four-year term by the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at a small White House ceremony.  

Surrounded by family, friends and staff, in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama placed his hand on the historic Robinson family bible, selected specifically for the occasion, and recited the 35-word presidential oath written in the Constitution.

"I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," he said.
Obama's first term ended at noon under the Constitution.
First Lady Michelle Obama held the bible with daughter Malia standing alongside. The Robinson Family Bible was selected specifically for the occasion.
The bible was a gift from the First Lady's father, Fraser Robinson III, to his mother, LaVaughn Delores Robinson on Mother's Day in 1958.
Mrs Robinson was the first African-American woman manager of a Moody Bible Institute's bookstore and she used the Bible regularly.
As per the 20th amendment to the US Constitution, which changed the beginning of a presidential term from March 4th to January 20th, the term of the newly-elected president begins at noon on 20th January.
However, historically, inaugural ceremonies are not held on a Sunday because courts and other public institutions are not open.
As a result, in accordance with the requirements of the US Constitutions, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were officially sworn in on Sunday, but the ceremonial swearing in, which is open to the public, will take place on the west steps of the US Capitol on Monday.
This would be only the seventh time in the US history that a president will take the oath ceremonially on Monday following an Inauguration Day that fell on a Sunday.

22 children to get bravery awards

15-year-old Ramdinthara from Mizoram, who sacrificed his life while trying to save his friend from drowning, is the only child to get the National Bravery Award posthumously this year.

Twenty-one others, including four girls, will receive their awards from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of 63rd Republic Day.

The youngest among them is seven-year-old Koroungamba Kuman from Manipur, who showed outstanding bravery and saved his younger sister from devastating fire which broke out in his house.

The names of 22 bravehearts were announced by Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) in New Delhi on Friday. The award is given every year to children who show exemplary courage in difficult situations.

This year, 17-year-old Tarang Atulbhai Mistry from Gujarat has been chosen for the coveted 'Bharat Award' for saving the lives of four people who were drowning in the 20-25 feet deep waters of Narmada river after being swept away in the current while taking bath on the occasion of Dhuelti.

The prestigious 'Geeta Chopra' award has been conferred on a 17-year-old girl who was instrumental in exposing the physical and sexual abuse of the inmates of a children's home in Delhiby the owner and staff.

Unable to take on more abuse, she managed to escape and approached an NGO, who presented her before the Child Welfare Committee.

Her plight forced the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to send a team which learnt of the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of children, selling of babies, forced labour and other inhumane acts inflicted upon the hapless destitute children.

11-year-old Gajendra Ram from Chhattisgarh is being felicitated with 'Sanjay Chopra' award, for saving a child from drowning in a 22-feet deep well.

Vijay Kumar Saini (17) of Uttar Pradesh, Akanksha Gaute (16.5) of Chhattisgarh and Hali Raghunath Baraf (16.5) ofMaharashtra have been given the 'Bapu Gaidhani' Award.

Saini saved three persons from drowning in the Ganges. Gaute, a black belt holder in Karate with nine years of martial arts training, valiantly fought three of the four miscreants who attacked her and her father when they were returning home, while Baraf saved her sister from the jaws of a tiger by attacking it with an iron rod when they had gone in jungle to collect firewood.

Sapna Kumari Meena (14) from Rajasthan is being felicitated for protesting against her father, who was forcing her to get married like her minor sisters.

She wrote to District Magistrate and appealed him to stop her wedding. Taking prompt action, the District Magistrate directed the Sub Divisional Magistrate to stop her family members and prevent her marriage.

The other awardees include Devansh Tiwari and Mukesh Nishad (Chhattisgarh), Lalrinhlua (Mizoram), E Suganthan (Tamil Nadu), Ramith K, Mebin Cyriac and Vishnu M V (Kerala), Koroungamba Kuman (Manipur), Samip Anil Pandit (Maharashtra), Vishwendra Lohkna, Satendra Lohkna and Pawan Kumar Kanaujiya (Uttar Pradesh), Stripleaseman Mylliem (Meghalaya) and Suhai K M (Karnataka).

Kasturi Mohapatra, Secretary General of ICCW while introducing the children to media, said they were selected by a high powered committee comprising representatives of various Ministries and Departments, non-governmental organisations as well as members of ICCW.

SSPI to honour Prof. U R Rao by inducting him as a Member to the Satellite Hall of Fame

The Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) would honour, the Former Chairman of ISRO and Secretary Department of Space, Professor U R Rao by inducting him as the member of the prestigious Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington. 

His induction to the Satellite Hall of Fame is scheduled for 19 March 2013 in a gala function that is to be organised at Washington, D.C. USA. After being inducted into the hall of fame, Prof. Rao would be joining the list of illustrious space scientists like Dr. James A. Van Allen, Dr. William Pritchard, Dr. Harold Rosen, Dr. Joseph V. Charyk, Arthur C Clarke, Santiago Astrain and others. 

58th Idea Filmfare Awards

58th Idea Filmfare Awards were given away on 20 January 2013 at YRF Studio, Andheri, marking 100 years of the Indian Cinema. At the 58th Idea Filmfare Awards, Barfi!, the much-acclaimed film grabbed seven Black Lady awards while, Kahaani bagged five awards. The award for the Best Actor was given to Ranbir Kapoor for his deaf-mute performance in Barfi.

Vidya Balan, on the other hand was adjudged as the Best Actress for Kahaani. Barfi! was awarded with the Best Film award, while Kahaani’s director Sujoy Ghosh won the Black Lady for the Best Director. Thelifetime achievement award was given away to Yash Chopraposthumously. Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela collected this award on his behalf. 

Rest of the awards was as follows:

•Critics’ Award for Best Actor: Irrfan Khan for Paan Singh Tomar
•Critics’ Award for Best Film: Gangs of Wasseypur 
•Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female): Richa Chadda for Gangs of Wasseypur
•Best Lyricist: Gulzar for Challa (Jab Tak Hai Jaan)
•Best Music Director: Pritam for Barfi!
•Best Background Score: Pritam for Barfi! 
•Best Production Design: Rajat Podar for Barfi! 
•Best Playback (Female): Shalmali Kholgade for the song ‘Pareshaan’
•Best Playback (Male): Ayushmann Khurrana for the song ‘Pani da Rang’
•Lifetime Achievement Award -Yash Chopra
•Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Anushka Sharma (Jab Tak Hai Jaan) 
•Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male): Annu Kapoor (Vicky Donor)

BJP okays nine candidates for Meghalaya elections

Shillong: BJP on Saturday approved the list of nine candidates out of 30 names sent for central leadership's approval for the February 23 elections in Meghalaya, officials said in Shillong.

"Chaired by Nitin Gadkari, the Central Election Committee of the party which met today in the national capital approved the names of nine candidates," state BJP Secretary D Chakraborty said.

"BJP is fielding candidates for city constituencies of East Shillong, West Shillong, Nongthymmai and Pynthorumkhrah segments," Mr Chakraborty said.

According to the party officials, BJP has approved Andy Lyngwa as its candidate to contest against Water Resources Minister A L Hek, who joined the Congress even as he was elected on party tickets in the 2008 poll.

In keeping with the reservation for women, the party has also allotted ticket to a female candidate, Veecare Nicia Lamare, who is contesting from Nartiang constituency in Jaintia Hills district.

Romeo Phira Rani is contesting against two cabinet ministers- Deputy CM B M Lanong (UDP) and Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh whose constituencies were delimitated.

Augustine Lakiang would be the party candidate from Shillong South constituency and he would have to compete with Deputy Speaker Sanbor Shullai (NCP) and journalist-turned politician Manas Choudhury (Congress).

The party has also approved the names of Ehkupar Nongrum (Nongthymmai), Fairly Bert Kharrngi (Nongkrem), Philip Sangma (Rajabala), Bhupendra B Hajong (Salmanpara) and Sisir Marak from Dalu.

Among those who attended the party meet today were L K Advani, Chairman, BJP Parliamentary Party, Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha), Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) and all the members of the Central Election Committee of the BJP.

Melt ponds cause the Artic sea ice to melt more rapidly

Alfred Wegener Institute: The Arctic sea ice has not only declined over the past decade but has also become distinctly thinner and younger. Researchers are now observing mainly thin, first-year ice floes which are extensively covered with melt ponds in the summer months where once metre-thick, multi-year ice used to float. Sea ice physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have now measured the light transmission through the Arctic sea ice for the first time on a large scale, enabling them to quantify consequences of this change. They come to the conclusion that in places where melt water collects on the ice, far more sunlight and therefore energy is able to penetrate the ice than is the case for white ice without ponds. The consequence is that the ice is absorbing more solar heat, is melting faster, and more light is available for the ecosystems in and below the ice. The researchers have now published these new findings in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Melt ponds count among the favourite motifs for ice and landscape photographers in the Arctic. They are captured glistening in a seductive Caribbean sea blue or dark as a stormy sea on the ice floe. “Their colour depends entirely on how thick the remaining ice below the melt pond is and the extent to which the dark ocean beneath can be seen through this ice. Melt ponds on thicker ice tend to be turquoise and those on thin ice dark blue to black”, explains Dr. Marcel Nicolaus, sea ice physicist and melt pond expert at the Alfred Wegener Institute.

In recent years he and his team have observed a strikingly large number of melt ponds during summer expeditions to the central Arctic. Virtually half of the one-year ice was covered with melt ponds. Scientists attribute this observation to climate change. “The ice cover of the Arctic Ocean has been undergoing fundamental change for some years. Thick, multi-year ice is virtually nowhere to be found any more. Instead, more than 50 per cent of the ice cover now consists of thin one-year ice on which the melt water is particularly widespread. The decisive aspect here is the smoother surface of this young ice, permitting the melt water to spread over large areas and form a network of many individual melt ponds”, explains Marcel Nicolaus. By contrast, the older ice has a rougher surface which has been formed over the years by the constant motion of the floe and innumerable collisions. Far fewer and smaller ponds formed on this uneven surface which were, however, considerably deeper than the flat ponds on the younger ice.

...To find out the extent to which Arctic sea ice permits the penetration of the sun’s rays and how large the influence of the melt ponds is on this permeability, the AWI sea ice physicists equipped a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV “Alfred”) with radiation sensors and cameras. In the summer of 2011 during an Arctic expedition of the research ice breaker POLARSTERN, they sent this robot to several stations directly under the ice. During its underwater deployments, the device recorded how much solar energy penetrated the ice at a total of 6000 individual points all with different ice properties!...

Melt pond on Arctic sea ice, Photo: Stefan Hendricks, Alfred Wegener Institute

Climate change to profoundly affect the Midwest, new report says

University of Michigan News Service: Climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated.

Those are some of the conclusions contained in the Midwest chapter of a draft report released last week by the federal government that assesses the key impacts of climate change on every region in the country and analyzes its likely effects on human health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, forests, ecosystems and biodiversity.

...University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia was a lead convening author of the Midwest chapter. Dan Brown of the School of Natural Resources and Environment was a lead convening author of the chapter on changes in land use and land cover. Rosina Bierbaum of SNRE and the School of Public Health was a lead convening author of the chapter on climate change adaptation. Missy Stults, a research assistant with Bierbaum and a doctoral student at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, was a contributing author on the adaptation chapter.

... The report stresses that climate change is already affecting Americans, that many of its impacts are expected to intensify in coming decades, and that the changes are primarily driven by human activity. "Climate change impacts in the Midwest are expected to be as diverse as the landscape itself. Impacts are already being felt in the forests, in agriculture, in the Great Lakes and in our urban centers," said Scavia, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute and special counsel to the U-M president on sustainability issues.

In the Midwest, extreme rainfall events and floods have become more common over the last century, and those trends are expected to continue, causing erosion, declining water quality and negative impacts on transportation, agriculture, human health and infrastructure, according to the report....

The Boone River in Iowa, shot by Tim Kiser (Malepheasant), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Study provides new insights on drought predictions in East Africa

Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution: With more than 40 million people living under exceptional drought conditions in East Africa, the ability to make accurate predictions of drought has never been more important. In the aftermath of widespread famine and a humanitarian crisis caused by the 2010-2011 drought in the Horn of Africa—possibly the worst drought in 60 years— researchers are striving to determine whether drying trends will continue.

While it is clear that El Niño can affect precipitation in this region of East Africa, very little is known about the drivers of long-term shifts in rainfall. However, new research described in the journal Nature helps explain the mechanisms at work behind historical patterns of aridity in Eastern Africa over many decades, and the findings may help improve future predictions of drought and food security in the region.

“The problem is, instrumental records of temperature and rainfall, especially in East Africa, don't go far enough in time to study climate variability over decades or more, since they are generally limited to the 20th century,” explains first author Jessica Tierney, a geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Tierney and her colleagues at WHOI and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University used what is known as the paleoclimate record, which provides information on climate in the geologic past, to study East African climate change over a span of 700 years.

The paleoclimate record in East Africa consists of indicators of moisture balance—including pollen, water isotopes, charcoal, and evidence for run-off events – measured in lake sediment cores. Tierney and her colleagues synthesized these data, revealing a clear pattern wherein the easternmost sector of East Africa was relatively dry in medieval times (from 1300 to 1400 a.d.), wet during the “Little Ice Age” from approximately 1600 to 1800 a.d., and then drier again toward the present time.

Climate model simulations analyzed as part of the study revealed that the relationship between sea surface temperatures and atmospheric convection in the Indian Ocean changes rainfall in East Africa. Specifically, wet conditions in coastal East Africa are associated with cool sea surface temperatures in the eastern Indian Ocean and warm sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, which cause ascending atmospheric circulation over East Africa and enhanced rainfall. The opposite situation—cold sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean and warmer in the East—causes drought. Such variations in sea-surface temperatures likely caused the historical fluctuations in rainfall seen in the paleorecord...

Climate model simulations analyzed as part of the study revealed that the relationship between sea surface temperatures and atmospheric convection in the Indian Ocean changes rainfall in East Africa. Specifically, wet conditions in coastal East Africa are associated with cool sea surface temperatures in the eastern Indian Ocean and warm sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, which cause ascending atmospheric circulation over East Africa and enhanced rainfall. The opposite situation—cold sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean and warmer in the East—causes drought. Such variations in sea-surface temperatures likely caused the historical fluctuations in rainfall seen in the paleorecord.(Courtesy Jessica Tierney, et al, 2013)

Audit slams Sour Korea's $20 billion river project

Space Daily: South Korea's state auditor on Friday panned President Lee Myung-Bak's $20 billion effort to dredge, dam and beautify four major rivers, saying it was riddled with costly flaws. Revitalising the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers was the centrepiece of the outgoing president's "Green New Deal", a bold plan to create jobs after the 2008 global downturn.

Started in 2009, the 22.2 trillion won ($20.1 billion) project saw the construction of 16 weirs and dams along the four rivers that were straightened and dredged to improve water quality and prevent flooding. But a report by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) suggested the three-year effort had fallen far short.

"Due to faulty designs, 11 out of 16 dams lack sturdiness, water quality is feared to deteriorate... and excessive maintenance costs will be required," the report said. The government minister in charge of the project, Kwon Do-Youp, insisted that additional work to repair structural weaknesses was already close to completion...

Overlooking the Han River, shot by elaine ross baylon, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Planners need to allow for Coastal wetlands migration due to sea level rise, climate change

Indymedia.org (Australia): Coastal Wetlands are under pressure. They face rising seas from climate change, but their biggest obstacle to migrate naturally inland is human development with roads, houses and other infrastructure blocking their way. And our urban planners are largely unaware of this tricky situation.

We all love to live beside the sea, but coastal urban development and rising seas will increasingly threaten sensitive coastal wetlands with no room to move and imperilling the survival of their unique plants, birds and fish.

Our urban planners have taken a stable sea level for granted with development to date, often destroying wetland environments for coastal development, agriculture and aquaculture.

More recent urban planning incorporating sea level rise predictions places an emphasis on the threat to peoples houses, roads, railway embankments and other human infrastructure. But planning also needs to encompass the coastal wetland environments that share our coastlines. These ecosystems will also need to migrate inland as the ocean rises....

Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia, from NASA

Five Security Council members support Syria referral to ICC

UN Security Council members France, Britain, Australia, Luxembourg and South Korea voiced support Friday for an International Criminal Court investigation of human rights crimes in the Syria civil war.

The ambassadors of the five countries issued a joint statement supporting the call by Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC. The ambassadors said they were backing a petition by 58 countries demanding ICC investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.

“The Security Council should play a role in support of the petition,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said, pointing out that the council’s 15 member countries are divided over the ICC referral.

The council president, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Masood Khan, said the referral request was discussed in a closed—door Security Council meeting without a consensus to support the ICC referral.

World’s most complex 2D laser beam created

Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have demonstrated the most complex 2-D optical phased array ever that can generate high-resolution beam patterns.

The new 2-D optical phased array technology will enable advanced Light Detection And Ranging (LADAR) and other defence applications.

LADAR provides a more detailed level of information that can be used for applications such as rapid 3-D mapping.

The array, which has dimensions of only 576 micro metre x 576 micro metre, roughly the size of the head of a pin, is composed of 4,096 (64 x 64) nanoantennas integrated onto a silicon chip.

Key to this breakthrough was developing a design that is scalable to a large number of nanoantennas, developing new micro-fabrication techniques, and integrating the electronic and photonic components onto a single chip.

“Integrating all the components of an optical phased array into a miniature 2-D chip configuration may lead to new capabilities for sensing and imaging,” said Sanjay Raman, program manager for DARPA’s Diverse Accessible Heterogeneous Integration (DAHI) program.

“By bringing such functionality to a chip-scale form factor, this array can generate high-resolution beam patterns -- a capability that researchers have long tried to create with optical phased arrays.

“This chip is truly an enabling technology for a host of systems and may one day revolutionise LADAR in much the same way that ESAs revolutionised RADAR. Beyond LADAR, this chip may have applications for biomedical imaging, 3D holographic displays and ultra-high-data-rate communications,” said Raman.

Radio frequency (RF) waves travel through the atmosphere, reflect off of a target, and return to the RADAR system to be processed.

The amount of time it takes to return correlates to the object’s distance. In recent decades, this technology has been revolutionised by electronically scanned arrays (ESAs), which transmit the RF waves in a particular direction without mechanical movement.

Each emitter varies its phase and amplitude to form a RADAR beam in a particular direction through constructive and destructive interference with other emitters.

Similar to RADAR, laser detection and ranging, or LADAR, scans a field of view to determine distance and other information, but it uses optical beams instead of RF waves.

6th National Conference on Implementation of Protection of Women of from Domestic Violence Act (Pwdva), 2005

The National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) in collaboration with the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative (LCWRI), supported by UN Women is holding the Sixth National Conference on implementation of PWDVA, 2005 on 21^st January 2013. Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development will inaugurate the conference. TheHon’ble Chief Justice of India, Shri Altamas Kabir will also be present at the conference.

The Sixth Monitoring and Evaluation Report titled Staying Alive: Evaluating Court Orders will be released at the National Conference along with the release of the  ‘Best Practices Manual on the implementation of PWDV Act 2005’ and a ‘Resource Tool for Monitoring & Evaluation of PWDV Act 2005’. The Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Krishna Tirath,will release the Best Practices Manual PWDV Act 2005 & Resource Tool Monitoring and Evaluation PWDV Act 2005. TheHon’ble Chief Justice of India, Shri Altamas Kabir will release the 6^th Monitoring & Evaluation Report titled ‘Staying Alive: Evaluating Court Order’.

The Best Practices Manual sets out to acknowledge the exemplary efforts of some States in implementation of PWDV Act. The Resource Tool builds a normative framework which can be used by state and central nodal agencies to comply with obligations under the PWDVA. The Monitoring & Evaluation Report documents implementation of the Act and evaluates its functioning by analyzing the judgments and orders passed. It also presents the attitudes, knowledge and practice of stakeholders under the Act.

This meeting will be attended by representatives from the State governments, representatives from Ministries, protection officers, representatives from civil society organizations/ women’s groups, UN officials and representatives from the press.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Continuation of JNNURM

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 17 January 2013 approved the continuation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to sanction new projects and capacity building activities till 31st March, 2014 under Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) components of JNNURM.  

New Urban infrastructure projects in States / UTs would be approved till 31st March, 2014, and taking up new capacity building activities in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and States has also been approved. 

The proposal would enable provisioning of creation of urban infrastructure, particularly in small and medium towns, in all States and UTs. These projects would be subsumed in the next phase of the JNNURM for the 12th Five Year Plan.

President’s Rule Imposed in Jharkhand

Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India on 18 January 2013 imposed President’s Rule in Jharkhand. The decision came as a follow up of the approval made by the Union Cabinet of India on 17 January 2013 and fall of the state machinery in form of Government on 8 January 2013 after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha the supporting party to BJP led Coalition Government withdrew its support from it. 

The President imposed the Rule on the state following the provisions of imposition of President’s Rule on a state mentioned under Article 356 (1) of the Constitution of India, after the failure of Constitutional Machinery in the state. 

Madhukar Gupta, the former Union Home Secretary and K. Vijay Kumar, the former Central Reserve Police Force Director General has been appointed as the advisers to the Governor of Jharkhand, Syed Ahmed. 

Madhukar Gupta
•    He retired as the Union Home Secretary in June 2009.
•    He is a former Uttrakhand Cadre IAS Officer

K. Vijay Kumar
•    He is an IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu Cadre 
•   He has served as an adviser in the Ministry of Home Affairs for dealing with Naxal and internal security issues

A medical break

A little surgery has left me addled with anesthetic, so I'm taking a break today.  I should have my mental acuity back by Saturday.

Why ecologists should care about Idle No More

Canada has a disproportionately large share of the world’s accessible freshwater resources. 1100 fish species, hundreds of plant species, countless waterfowl species, and tens of thousands of invertebrate species live in Canada’s waters. Ultimately, all 140 000 species – including humans – estimated to make up Canada’s biodiversity are directly or indirectly dependent on water systems. Ecologists recognize the key role played by biodiversity in ecosystem functions and servicesand many ecologists believe that biological diversity has intrinsic worth. The people of Idle No More are protesting, among other things, changes brought about by Bill C-45 and C-38, which weaken Canada’s protection of its biodiversity and its waters. Idle No More is about more than just environmental legislation, but it is a key concern which the protesters share with most ecologists. Whether or not one agrees with the other arguments and demands of Idle No More, anyone who believes that biodiversity is important (i.e., the vast majority of ecologists) should care about Idle No More. 

What will changes to the Navigable Waters Protect Act (Bill C-45) and the Species At Risk Act (Bill C-38) mean for endangered wildlife such as the Spotted Turtle?

Idle No More is a protest movement led by Canada’s First Nations peoples which aims to “assert Indigenous sovereignty and begin the work towards sustainable, renewable development”. It was initiated by Nina Wilson and Sheelah Mclean in response to Bill C-45, the federal government’s latest omnibus budget bill. In particular, they take issue with changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA).

The NWPA, which existed since 1882 and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport, required that an extensive approval and consultation process take place before any kind of development occurred in or around any water deep enough to be navigated by canoe. Bill C-45 renamed the NWPA to the Navigation Protection Act (NPA), and drastically reduced the number of waterways which are regulated. The NPA protects only 97 lakes, 62 rivers, and the three oceans bordering Canada – this excludes 99.7% of lakes and more than 99.9% of lakes in Canada.

Many, including the leaders of Idle No More, have claimed that the changes in Bill C-45 are part of a broader move by the federal government to weaken environmental oversight. The spring omnibus budget bill, C-38, for instance, replaced the Environmental Assessment Act, modified the Fisheries act, modified the Species at Risk Act, repealed the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, and gave ministers more approval power for energy and pipeline projects. Of particular interest to ecologists is the imminent closure of the unique Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario, due to funding cuts included in Bill C-38. Omnibus bills such as Bill C-45 and C-38 have been criticized for pushing through dozens of bills simultaneously, which gives minimal time to debate each bill individually. 

Idle No More may be a movement led by First Nation peoples, but ecologists understand better than anyone that issues regarding biodiversity loss concern all people. If you’re living in Canada, consider contacting your local member of parliament to discuss your concerns with Bill C-38 and C-45. 

ISRO lines up SARAL for February, restored GSLV for April

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has slated its first launch of the year — ocean study spacecraft SARAL — for February 14.

It will herald the 8 to 10 missions, including satellites and launch vehicles, which ISRO has planned this year,

Flights of the GSLV rocket would be resumed and the first of the navigational spacecraft would be sent up, an ISRO official told.

Along with the 450-kg Indo-French SARAL, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit six small experimental satellites built by western universities for a fee.

SARAL would be one of the very few such ocean-centric satellites and a vital cog in studying sea surface heights and other aspects, the official said.

It would be similar to ISRO’s Oceansat-2, but with an altimeter (named ‘Argos’ here) to measure heights.

In October 2012, NASA relied on Oceansat-2 to get finer details of Hurricane ‘Sandy’ that wreaked havoc on the eastern U.S.

SARAL is short for Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa, the two main devices on it which have been provided by French space agency CNES. Besides building the spacecraft, ISRO will launch and operate it through its life.

SARAL will come up two months later than the earlier planned fancy date of 12-12-12.

The December launch was put off to complete a few tests and validations, the official said.

Around April this year, ISRO expects to resume flying the GSLV rocket. The GSLV-D5 will lift the communications satellite GSAT-14 into orbit.

ISRO had put the GSLV programme on hold after it suffered two successive failures in April and December 2010. The lapses were analysed and corrections made, the official said.

16th Meeting of the Ganga Flood Control Board

The 16th meeting of Ganga Flood Control Board was held on January 16 under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Water Resources Shri Harish Rawat here in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion Shri Rawat elaborated the purpose of constitution of GFCB by saying that the Ganga Flood Control Board was constituted by the Government of India, for laying down broad policies, and directing concerted efforts, towards the management of floods in the Ganga basin, through preparation of integrated plans, for tackling the problems of flood, erosion and improper drainage. The National Water Policy, recommends that, there should be a master plan, for flood control, and management for each flood prone basin. 

The Union Cabinet Sanctioned Appointment of 2000 Judges for the Fast-Track Courts

The Union Cabinet, in its letter sent on 9 January 2013, to the high courts as well as the state governments asked them to enhance strength of the subordinate judiciary from 18000 at present to 20000. The Law Ministry approved 80 crore Rupees for recruiting these 2000 additional judges in the country for the fast track courts. 

The Law Ministry asked for an approval from the cabinet in the last week of December 2012 which was granted to it. This happened in light of the gang rape of the 23-year-old Para-medical student on 16 December 2012, after which lawyers, officials as well as jurists discussed how long trials put the victims at a disadvantage. 

The government additionally was also working upon the proposals to enable states for using the funds which were available for morning as well as evening courts, in order to increase the number of fast track courts even more. 

The morning as well as evening courts were set up by the law ministry in 2010. However, the scheme was not successful because only a few states availed it, which resulted in unused funds. The government now proposed to divert these funds for setting up the fast track courts. 

Inspite of all such efforts, there are over 3.20 crore cases pending in the various courts of the country. Out of these, a total of 2.76 crore cases were pending in the subordinate courts and 44 lakh were pending in the high courts, as per the Law Ministry.

Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended Entitlement of Food for 67 percent Population

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food and Consumer Affairs in January 2013 suggested the entitlement of the food under the National Food Security Act to the 67 percent population leaving behind the 33 percent people who are tax-payers and have pucca houses of their own. 

The Priority (BPL-below poverty line) and general (APL-above poverty line) are to be replaced with the exclusion and inclusion categories. The beneficiaries would be identified by the state government for the public distribution system of the subsidized rice and wheat. 

As per the plans of the standing committee the Union Government would be distributing the subsidized food grains to the 67 percent population that includes 75 percent rural and 50 percent urban population. 

This act was sent to the Parliamentary Panel for its reference in December 2011 after it was tabled in the Lok Sabha and was followed by the demands of the Food Security Bill. 

Parliamentary Committees 

The Parliamentary committees are constituted to take care of the legislative businesses of the Parliament and it comprises of several committees. 

Among these the two main committees are: 

•    The Ad hoc Committee 
•    The Standing Committee 

Ad hoc Committee – these are appointed for specific purpose and they are dissolved after the task assigned to them is completed and the final report is submitted. These committees are the joint and select committees over the Bills and are appointed for specific purposes like Committees on the Draft Five Year Plans, Railway Convention Committee, Hindi Equivalents Committee and more. 

The Standing Committee – Each house of the Indian Parliament are supported by standing committees, which includes the Committee on Petitions, the Business Advisory Committee, the Rules Committee, the Committee of Privileges and more.

India and Bangladesh Decided Increasing Rail Link Projects

India and Bangladesh decided in the third week of January 2013, to speed up its rail link projects in order to increase the contact among the people of two neighbouring nations. As of now, there are four ongoing rail link projects and these are Chilahati (Bangladesh)-Haldibari (India), Birol (Bangladesh)-Radhikapur (India), Akhaura (Bangladesh)-Agartala (India) and Shahbazpur (Bangladesh)- Mahishashan (India).

The senior railway officials from the two countries decided in the joint meeting to also examine feasibility of establishment of rail link between Feni (Bangladesh) and Belonia (India). Railway delegations from India and Bangladesh discussed about the operational, technical as well as financial matters as well. Discussions on reforming inter-country freight train operations, improving functioning of Maitree Express, upgrading the infrastructure as well as establishment of even more rail connectivity points, were held. 

Delegations from India and Bangladesh also agreed in the meanwhile to increase frequency of the Maitree Express as well as introduction of the system of return tickets. 

Working group which includes government officials from India and Bangladesh were formed in order to check the range of issues such as operational, financial, commercial as well as security of the Maitree Express.