Six In The Morning

Danger from the deep: New climate threat as methane rises from cracks in Arctic ice 

 

Scientists shocked to find greenhouse gas 70 times more potent than CO2 bubbling from deep ocean

 Monday 23 April 2012

  A new source of methane – a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide – has been identified by scientists flying over areas in the Arctic where the sea ice has melted.

Click here to see 'The deadly depths - Methane release in the Arctic' graphic
The researchers found significant amounts of methane being released from the ocean into the atmosphere through cracks in the melting sea ice. They said the quantities could be large enough to affect the global climate. Previous observations have pointed to large methane plumes being released from the seabed in the relatively shallow sea off the northern coast of Siberia but the latest findings were made far away from land in the deep, open ocean where the surface is usually capped by ice.

Villager's dilemma on border where Georgia and Russia clashed

 The Irish Times - Monday, April 23, 2012
 DANIEL McLAUGHLIN

EVERY DAY, a few metres from the small house he shares with his grandparents, Malkhaz Kurtayev crawls under rolls of razor wire and into another country. Or at least that is what the Russian troops who observe his daily journey, and who created this jagged borderline, would call it.
Kurtayev lives in Bobnevi, a village divided by the boundary between territory controlled by the Georgian government 60km down the road in Tbilisi, and that claimed by the separatist South Ossetians in their capital Tskhinvali, a similar distance the other way.
In August 2008, a conflict that had been “frozen” since the early 1990s erupted into war between Georgia and Russia, as Tbilisi’s military launched an assault to reclaim control of the rebel region and Moscow responded by pouring troops across the Caucasus to drive it back.

Chinese media pressed to turn on fallen official

Edward Wong, Jonathan Ansfield

April 23, 2012 BEIJING: Bo Xilai, an ambitious Communist Party official, fuelled his political career by intimidating and courting Chinese journalists, shaping his public image and seizing the spotlight in a way no peer had done. But with his purge from the party's top ranks this month, Mr Bo has found himself the target of the same media apparatus that he once so carefully manipulated, and that now vilifies him in the name of the party's leaders.

Peacekeepers stay put in Western Sahara amid disappointment

LOUIS CHARBONNEAU NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - Apr 23 2012 08:00

 The UN Security Council has reached a deal on a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping force in the disputed territory of Western Sahara this week, envoys said, but the Polisario Front independence movement and South Africa are disappointed.

The renewal of the mandate of the peacekeeping force, known as MINURSO, marks an annual battle in the council between Morocco, backed by France, and African nations supporting Polisario.

 US, Turkey and Iraqi Kurds join hands

 By M K Bhadrakumar
 There was something very odd when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that Turkey was becoming a "hostile state" in the region. After all, Baghdad is supposed to be the "soul" of the Arab world and Turkey is supposed to be the role model for democratized Arab nations like Iraq.

"The latest statements of [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip] Erdogan are another return to the process of interfering in Iraqi internal affairs and it confirms that Erdogan is still living the illusion of regional hegemony," Maliki said, adding: "It is clear that his statements have a sectarian dimension, which he used to deny before, but have now become clear, and all Iraqis reject them

Shift on executive power lets Obama bypass rivals

President takes routes around congressional Republicans 

blocking his agenda

 By Charlie Savage

 

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism. 

 “We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”
For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.