Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

Ex-F1 champ Schumacher shows 'surprising' improvement

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 31 Desember 2013 | 21.48

Michael Schumacher underwent a second surgery after a brain scan showed small, "surprising" signs of improvement, but grim doctors said Tuesday they could offer no insight into the prognosis for the Formula 1 champion.

Schumacher, who turns 45 on Friday, suffered critical head injuries when he fell and struck a rock Sunday while skiing on a family vacation in the French Alps. His manager confirmed that the accident cracked his helmet, which doctors credited for giving him a chance at survival.

Schumacher's condition stabilized somewhat after the second surgery, but he remains in a medically induced coma — and doctors gave no prediction on how long that would last.

"We cannot tell you any more about the future," said Gerard Saillant, a surgeon and friend of the family who is in Grenoble. Saillant said it would be "stupid" to make any predictions about Schumacher's recovery.

Schumacher and his 14-year-old son were skiing in the French Alpine resort of Meribel, where the family has a chalet, when he fell and hit the right side of his head on a rock. He was taken first to a local hospital, then to Grenoble University Hospital, which is recognized as having one of France's best neurology teams.

Dr. Emmanuel Gay, the hospital's chief neurosurgeon, said a brain scan performed late Monday showed bruising "a little bit everywhere" in Schumacher's brain — but also an unexpected easing of pressure.

"The brain scan was, I must say, surprising," he said.

But he and other doctors cautioned that Schumacher's condition was still grave after the successful surgery to eliminate the largest and most accessible bruise, on the left side of his brain.

"We cannot say he is out of danger," said Dr. Jean-Francois Payen, head of the hospital's intensive care unit. Payen said any neurological evaluation was "out of the question" for now.

Schumacher earned universal acclaim for his uncommon and sometimes ruthless driving talent, which led to a record 91 race wins. He retired from Formula 1 last year after garnering an unmatched seven world titles.

Schumi, as his fans affectionately call him, was famously aggressive on the track and no less intense off-hours. In retirement, he remained an avid skier, skydiver and horseback rider.

Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm, offered more details on the accident, confirming that his helmet cracked on impact.

"It looks like probably that initiating a corner, he was hitting a stone which he had not seen and was catapulted down on a rock," Kehm said in English. "That is extremely and very unfortunate ... really very, very bad luck. Michael was not at high speed."


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

The top 10 Canadian newsmakers of 2013

Embattled politicians, a misbehaving pop star and a Nobel Prize-winning author — the top Canadian newsmakers of the year span young and old, esteemed and controversial.

Rob Ford

Toronto's beleaguered mayor has endured a wave of scandals this year since news reports surfaced in May about a video that allegedly shows him smoking from a crack pipe. His troubles have garnered international media attention, and have prompted city council to restrain his powers as chief magistrate of North America's fourth-largest metropolis.

Ford has withstood the pressure to step aside, vowing to remain in office and seek "professional help" after he admitted to having smoked crack cocaine and drinking to excess. He has also refused to speak with police, who have interviewed a number of former staff in his office as part of an investigation dubbed Project Brazen 2.

In recent months, Ford's troubles have become fodder for a growing list of comedians in Canada and abroad, including U.S. late night talk show hosts like Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien.

Senators

The Red Chamber has made headlines for the wrong reasons throughout 2013. Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau face allegations of misspending and are under investigation by the RCMP. Brazeau has also been charged with assault and sexual assault, while Senator Colin Kenny has been accused of sexual harassment.

The RCMP probe into Duffy's spending has reached the highest echelons of power with Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, under investigation.

An 80-page court filing by the Mounties sheds light on a trail of emails that suggests Harper's staff and his top senators helped to manipulate a Senate committee and its report into Duffy's contested living expenses. The group also allegedly tried to quash an independent audit commissioned by the Senate.

Naheed Nenshi

Calgary's popular mayor achieved something akin to rock-star status this summer in the days after the city suffered extensive flooding, which caused more than $1.7 billion in damage.

tp-naheed-nenshi-cbc-306-020911

In 2013, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi become the sympathetic public face of the Alberta floods. ((CBC))

Nenshi became the most visible public figure in the wake of the disaster, holding a flurry of press briefings and interviews, attending private events with emergency personnel and visiting flood-struck areas of the city.

After being elected as a relative unknown in 2010, Nenshi won a second term in October by taking three-quarters of the vote.

Rehtaeh Parsons

Parsons was 17 years old when she was taken off of life support in April, days after a suicide attempt.

According to her parents, four boys sexually assaulted their daughter at a house party when she was 15. They said the Cole Harbour, N.S., teen then endured relentless harassment and humiliation after a digital photo of the alleged attack was circulated at school and on social media.

Parsons' suicide garnered national headlines. It happened months after B.C. teen Amanda Todd took her own life after posting a video on YouTube describing how she was tormented by bullies, including one person who captured a freeze frame of the teen topless and used that photo to try to blackmail her.

In an attempt to combat such tragedies, the federal government tabled legislation in November that would make it illegal to distribute intimate images without the consent of the person in the photo. (The legislation would also give police new powers to track terrorism suspects and individuals who use computers to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service – measures that have drawn criticism.)

Chris Hadfield

Hadfield spent five months on the International Space Station earlier this year and was the first Canadian to command it.

During his stay, he attracted more than one million Twitter followers and captured the imagination of people around the globe with his often-poetic online updates, breathtaking photography, educational question-and-answer sessions and fun musical performances.

As part of his personal farewell to the space station, Hadfield released a video of his version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, which NASA said is the first music video made in space.

Thorsten Heins

Last month, BlackBerry's largest stakeholder announced it would lead a group that will lend the troubled smartphone maker $1 billion US as the company seeks to revamp its operations.

As part of the deal, both BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins and the chair of its board of directors, Barbara Stymiest, left the company.

Heins took over as CEO in 2012, faced with the daunting task of turning around a struggling Waterloo, Ont.,-based firm in an increasingly competitive global smartphone market. Instead, BlackBerry continued to run into trouble, including repeated delays in releasing a new operating system and new generations of handsets, less than stellar sales, staff layoffs, and a stock price that stubbornly continued to decline.

As part of the terms of his severance agreement, Heins may be awarded up to $55 million.

Dellen Millard

Millard is one of two men charged with first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Tim Bosma, who lived in Ancaster, Ont., with his wife and small child. Bosma was last seen leaving his home on May 6 with two men who wanted to take a test drive in a truck he had advertised for sale online.

On May 14, police announced they had found Bosma's body, which had been burned beyond recognition, at a Waterloo area farm.

Ontario Provincial Police are probing two other deaths they say are linked to Millard. In early October, investigators said the disappearance of Millard's ex-girlfriend Laura Babcock and the death of his father, Wayne, are connected to the Bosma slaying.

Alice Munro

On Oct. 10, Munro became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature since the award was launched in 1901.

Alice Munro

In 2013, Alice Munro became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

The 82-year-old was lauded by the Swedish Academy during the Nobel announcement in Stockholm as the "master of the contemporary short story."

"It just seems impossible – a splendid thing to happen," Munro told CBC News the day the award was announced. "I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art, not something you play around with until you've got a novel written."

Two of Munro's titles – her latest collection, entitled Dear Life, and a compilation called My Best Stories — vaulted into Amazon's top 20 sales list just hours after news of the Nobel award was announced. Neither title had ever appeared among the retailer's top-selling titles in the past.

Cory Monteith

Monteith, a Canadian actor who played the quarterback Finn Hudson on the Fox TV series Glee, was found dead in his hotel room in July at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in downtown Vancouver.

Monteith, who had struggled with addiction problems, died from mixed drug toxicity involving heroin and alcohol, according to a report from the Coroners Service of British Columbia. He was 31.

His death sparked tributes from celebrities and fans of the high school musical drama in which he starred.

Glee said goodbye to Monteith's character and paid tribute to the Calgary native in a much-anticipated episode that aired in early October.

Justin Bieber

It has been a tough year for the golden boy of Stratford, Ont.

Among his trials and tribulations, the teen pop singer had his pet monkey confiscated by German authorities. More recently, Bieber made headlines when local media in Rio de Janeiro were tipped off to his purported visit to the Centauros private members club, widely considered a brothel. Meanwhile Brazilian police were investigating whether the 19-year-old had illegally spray painted graffiti on a local hotel.

To make matters worse, Bieber was unseated as the unofficial king of Twitter when pop singer Katy Perry surpassed Bieber's total of 46 million followers in November.


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Officials warn of toxic smoke near North Dakota derailment

Many residents evacuated a southeastern North Dakota town overnight after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, and officials warned that acrid smoke could blow into the area.

No one was hurt in Monday's derailment of the 1.6-km-long train that sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward about 1.6 kilometres from the small town of Casselton. The fire had been so intense as darkness fell that investigators couldn't even get close enough to count the number of burning cars. Some burned through the night. The National Transportation Safety Board was preparing to investigate.

The Cass County Sheriff's Office called on the 2,400 people living in Casselton, about 40 kilometres west of Fargo, to leave their homes, citing a shift in winds blowing smoke toward the town. Health experts were testing the quality of the air but did not yet have results early Tuesday.

"Is it highly hazardous or did most of it burn off in the fire?" Sheriff Paul Laney said of elements in burning crude that could be risky for health. "We just don't know."

Laney said much of Casselton's water tower was covered in soot and that he expects to see a lot of the black powder around town as the day progresses.

"Wait until you see the footprints in the snow later on," he said. "That's the stuff coming out of the sky."

Sheriff's Deputy Joe Crawford said about two-thirds of the town's residents had heeded the recommendation to evacuate their homes. Officials were waiting for daybreak before making new attempts to investigate the scene. The fire died down overnight, "but we've still got plenty of smoke and plenty of fire and plenty of heat," Crawford said.

Terry Johnson, the manager of a grain dealer about a kilometre from the derailment, said he heard at least six explosions in the two hours following the derailment.

"It shook our building and there was a huge fireball," he said.

Official estimates of the extent of the blaze varied. BNSF Railway Co. said it believed about 20 cars caught fire after its oil train left the tracks about 2:10 p.m. local time Monday. The sheriff's office said Monday it thought 10 cars were on fire. Officials said the cars would be allowed to burn out.

Authorities haven't yet been able to untangle exactly how the derailment happened. BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth said another train carrying grain derailed first, and that this knocked several cars of the oil train off adjoining tracks.

BNSF said both trains had more than 100 cars each.

The incident will likely prompt discussion about the safety of transporting oil by cross-country rail. Fears of catastrophic derailments were particularly stoked after last summer's crash in Québec of a train carrying crude from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch. Forty-seven people died in the ensuing fire.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Monday night it has launched a "go-team" to investigate this latest derailment. Jeff Zent, a spokesman for Gov. Jack Dalrymple, said the National Guard was on alert if needed.

Ryan Toop, who lives less than a kilometre away, said he heard the explosions and drove in frigid temperatures until he was the equivalent of about two city blocks from the fire.

"I rolled down the window, and you could literally keep your hands warm," Toop said.

The rail tracks run straight through Casselton, and Cass County Sheriff's Sgt. Tara Morris said it was "a blessing [the derailment] didn't happen within the city."

A shelter was set up in Fargo and Casselton Mayor Ed McConnell said he didn't want anyone sleeping in their vehicles as temperatures dipped to –28 below overnight.

"All the experts say it can be a hazardous situation to their health," McConnell said. "We're going to try to get everybody out of the town."

The North Dakota Department of Health warned that exposure to burning crude could cause shortness of breath, coughing and itching and watery eyes. It had said those in the vicinity with respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis or emphysema should minimize outdoor activity.

North Dakota is the No. 2 oil-producing state in the U.S., trailing only Texas, and a growing amount of that is being shipped by rail. The state's top oil regulator said earlier this month that he expected as much as 90 per cent of North Dakota's oil would be carried by train in 2014, up from the current 60 per cent.

The number of crude oil carloads hauled by U.S. railroads surged from 10,840 in 2009 to a projected 400,000 this year. Despite the increase, the rate of accidents has stayed relatively steady. Railroads say 99.997 per cent of hazardous materials shipments reach destinations safely.


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hockey mom brutally beaten outside arena not expected to survive

A 53-year-old hockey mom who was brutally assaulted while waiting to pick up her son in an arena parking lot in Surrey, B.C., Sunday night, is not expected to survive the attack, police say.

The woman was discovered unconscious in the Newton Arena parking lot around 9:30 p.m. PT Sunday.

"The investigation revealed a female had been attacked and suffered serious injuries and is not expected to survive," RCMP said Monday in a release.

A Surrey hockey coach who knows the family told CBC News the attack was an attempted robbery gone wrong and the woman is in hospital on life support with her husband at her side, but she is not expected to survive.

"This woman is so nice it's just ridiculous. So many people in our association know this family and what this family is all about," said coach Darwyn Shawara.

"This is crazy, whoever did this, this is ridiculous, this is just crazy," he said.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over the investigation on Monday morning and blocked off a large area of the parking lot while they search for clues.

"Due to the circumstances of this tragic incident,we are asking the public to be extra vigilant," RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said in a news release.

"It is important that people are aware of their surroundings when they are out and that they keep their valuables concealed. Walk with a friend whenever possible, particularly after dark."

The recreation facilities remain open to the public while the investigation is underway.

Google Maps: Newton Arena


View Larger Map
21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Helicopter set to rescue passengers stranded on vessel in Antarctic ice

Passengers aboard a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice for a week are expected to be rescued by helicopter, after three icebreakers failed to reach the paralyzed vessel, officials said today.

The 74 scientists, tourists and crew on the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, had been hoping the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis would be able to crack through the thick ice and allow them to continue on their way. The Aurora came within 20 kilometres of the ship on Monday, but fierce winds and snow forced it to retreat to open water.

On Tuesday, the weather remained bleak, and the crew on the Aurora said their vessel would also be at risk of getting stuck if it made another rescue attempt, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is co-ordinating the rescue.

A helicopter aboard the Chinese icebreaker the Snow Dragon will be used to collect the passengers. The Snow Dragon, which is waiting with the Aurora at the edge of the ice pack, was also unable to crack through the ice, as was France's L'Astrolabe.

Bad weather still a challenge

But the helicopter must wait for a break in the weather before it can attempt a rescue, and conditions aren't expected to improve before Wednesday, the maritime authority said. The passengers will be flown back to the Snow Dragon in groups of 12, and then transferred by barge to the Aurora.

All 52 passengers will be evacuated, but the crew on the Akademik Shokalskiy will stay behind with the ship and wait for the ice to break up naturally, expedition spokesman Alvin Stone said.

A simple shift in the wind could free the ship. Winds from the east have been pounding the ship and pushing the ice around the vessel. A westerly wind would help break up the ice, Stone said. The trouble is, no one knows when the wind will change.

Expedition cut short

The Akademik Shokalskiy, which left New Zealand on Nov. 28, got stuck after a blizzard pushed the sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place about 2,700 kilometres south of Hobart, Tasmania. The ship isn't in danger of sinking, and there are supplies onboard that would last week, but the vessel cannot move.

The scientific team on board had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's century-old voyage to Antarctica, and expedition leader Chris Turney had hoped to continue the trip if an icebreaker managed to free the ship.

The looming helicopter rescue means the expedition will have to be cut short, Stone said.

Still, those onboard appeared to be taking it all in stride.

"Surprisingly, all the passengers seem to be considering it the adventure of a lifetime," Stone said.


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Toronto mayor says all of city should have power restored today

Written By Unknown on Senin, 30 Desember 2013 | 21.49

About 725 customers are still without electricity in Toronto, but everyone's power should be fully restored today, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said, more than a week after an ice storm hit Eastern Canada and knocked out electricity to about 300,000.

Ford and Toronto Hydro officials gave what would be their final daily update on the power outages that came in the wake of a powerful ice storm two weekends ago. 

All power, with the exception of some unforeseen individual cases, is expected to be back Monday.

"I want to thank the residents of the city for their patience during this terrible storm," Ford said. "We have never had a storm like this in Toronto's history and hopefully we will won't have one like this again.

"It's truly remarkable, what people have done in this city to help each other … sacrificing and giving up family time over the holidays."

Four warming centres remain open Monday as crews continue to work. 

An emotional Anthony Haines, CEO of Toronto Hydro, thanked all the crews who worked round the clock.

"We were all tired, but we never stopped," Haines said.

He also urged anyone still without power to call Toronto Hydro. 

Earlier Monday, emergency response officials said the influx of calls they began receiving after the storm has not stopped.

More than a week after the ice storm, emergency calls remain at 10 times the normal volume.

EMS emergency medical dispatcher Rocky Ruffalo said the challenge is prioritizing those calls.

"One of the toughest calls to field was people that were on home oxygen and with the power being out, they knew that they only had a specific period of time left for their home oxygen," Ruffalo said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said that after all power is restored and it's business as usual in the city, a debriefing on what was and wasn't done efficiently will be required.

In Sunday's briefing, Ford said restoring power and repairing damage from the ice storm costs the city approximately $1 million per day.

"So it's going to cost Toronto Hydro $10 million on the high side," he said, "The very low side is about $8 million."


21.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Husband of Ontario politician George Smitherman found dead

Christopher Peloso, the husband of Ontario's former deputy premier George Smitherman, has been found dead after being reported missing for the second time this year.

Smitherman released a statement saying Toronto police confirmed to him they had found the 40-year-old Peloso dead.

"We will celebrate his life and we will find comfort somehow in knowing that he has found peace from the depression that has wreaked havoc on his mind," wrote Smitherman.

Peloso, who is survived by three children, was last seen on Sunday, Dec. 29, at approximately 11 a.m. ET

Smitherman served as the province's deputy premier, health minister and energy minister before he stepped down to run for Toronto mayor in 2010.

On Sunday evening, Smitherman tweeted: "Freedom from depression has been elusive for Christopher and once again he is missing and we fear for his safety."

Peloso was also reported missing in September and was found two days later by a police K-9 unit, curled up and lying near a fence that runs along the railway tracks near Lansdowne and Dupont avenues.

"We will find strength going forward from the legions of people in our extended family who loved him so," wrote Smitherman.


21.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia on edge as new suicide bomb attack rips apart city bus

A blast that tore through an electric bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd during Monday's morning rush hour, killing 14, was probably carried out by suicide bombers from the same organization behind a railway explosion a day earlier, officials said.

Together more than 30 people were killed in the explosions, putting the city of one million on edge and highlighting the terrorist threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February's Winter Games in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin's pet project. 

While terrorists may find it hard to get to the tightly guarded Olympic facilities, the bombings have shown they can hit civilian targets elsewhere in Russia with shocking ease.

Volgograd, located about 650 kilometres northeast of Sochi, serves as a key transport hub for southern Russia, with numerous bus routes linking it to volatile provinces in Russia's North Caucasus, where insurgents have been seeking an Islamic state.

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's bombing at the city's main railway station.

"That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place."

Markin said that a suicide attacker was responsible for the bus explosion, reversing an earlier official statement saying that the blast was caused by a bomb that had been left in the vehicle's passenger area. At least 14 people were killed and nearly 30 were wounded, according to public health officials.

Confined to Caucasus

Officials did not name names and no one has claimed responsibility for either bombing, but they came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov threatened new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Olympics in Sochi.

Suicide bombings and other terror attacks have rocked Russia for years, but most recently have been confined to the North Caucasus region. The successive attacks in Volgograd signalled that militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region.

Russia Explosion

Volgograd, Russia, which was once known as Stalingrad, has been struck three times in two months. The most recent bombing killed at least 10 people. (Denis Tyrin/The Associated Press)

The city, formerly called Stalingrad, also serves as an important symbol of Russian pride because of a historic Second World War battle in which the Soviets turned the tide against the Nazis.

"Volgograd, a symbol of Russia's suffering and victory in World War II, has been singled out by the terrorist leaders precisely because of its status in people's minds," Dmitry Trenin, the head of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office, said in a commentary.

Monday's explosion ripped away much of the bus's exterior and shattered windows in nearby buildings. It virtually paralyzed public transport in the city, forcing many residents to walk long distances to get to work.

Sometimes not enough

Russian authorities have been slow to introduce stringent security checks on bus routes, making them the transport of choice for terrorists in the region. A few months ago authorities introduced a requirement for intercity bus passengers to produce ID when buying tickets, like rail or air passengers, but procedures have remained lax and some of the routes aren't controlled.

Even tight railway security is sometimes not enough. In Sunday's suicide bombing the attacker detonated in the crowd in front of the station's metal detectors.

A suicide bus bombing in Volgograd in October killed six people. On Friday, three people were killed when an explosives-rigged car blew up in the city of Pyatigorsk, the centre of a federal administrative district created to oversee Kremlin efforts to stabilize the North Caucasus region.

In Sunday's railroad station blast, the bomber detonated explosives just beyond the station's main entrance when a police sergeant became suspicious and rushed forward to check ID, officials said. The officer was killed by the blast, and several other policemen were among some 40 people wounded.

Series of attacks 

The Interior Ministry ordered police to beef up patrols at railway stations and other transport facilities across Russia. Putin on Monday summoned the chief of the main KGB successor agency and the interior minister to discuss the situation, and sent the former to Volgograd to oversee the probe.  

Russia in past years has seen a series of terror attacks on buses, trains and airplanes, some carried out by suicide bombers.

Twin bombings on the Moscow subway in March 2010 by female suicide bombers killed 40 people and wounded more than 120. In January 2011, a male suicide bomber struck Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people and injuring more than 180.

Umarov, who had claimed responsibility for the 2010 and 2011 bombings, ordered a halt to attacks on civilian targets during the mass street protests against Putin in the winter of 2011-12. He reversed that order in July, urging his men to "do their utmost to derail" the Sochi Olympics which he described as "satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors."

The International Olympics Committee expressed its condolences over Sunday's bombing in Volgograd, but said it was confident of Russia's ability to protect the Games.

Identity checks

Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov said Monday there was no need to take any extra steps to secure Sochi in the wake of the Volgograd bombings, as "everything necessary already has been done."

Russian authorities have introduced some of the most extensive identity checks and sweeping security measures ever seen at an international sports event.

Anyone wanting to attend the games that open on Feb. 7 will have to buy a ticket online from the organizers and obtain a "spectator pass" for access. Doing so will require providing passport details and contacts that will allow the authorities to screen all visitors and check their identities upon arrival.

The security zone created around Sochi stretches approximately 100 kilometres along the Black Sea coast and up to 40 kilometres inland. Russian forces include special troops to patrol the forested mountains flanking the resort, drones to keep constant watch over Olympic facilities and speed boats to patrol the coast.

The security plan includes a ban on cars from outside the zone from a month before the games begin until a month after they end. 


21.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Doctors working 'hour by hour' on Michael Schumacher's head injury

Doctors treating Michael Schumacher refused Monday to predict an outcome for the seven-time Formula One champion, saying they were taking his critical head injury "hour by hour" following a skiing accident.

Chief anesthesiologist Jean-Francois Payen told reporters that Schumacher was still in a medically induced coma and doctors were focusing only on his current condition.

"We cannot predict the future for Michael Schumacher," said Payen, who is also in charge of Grenoble University Hospital's intensive-care unit.

"He is in a critical state in terms of cerebral resuscitation," he added. "We are working hour by hour."

Schumacher, the most successful driver in Formula One history, arrived at the Grenoble hospital a day earlier already in a coma and immediately underwent brain surgery.

The German driver was skiing with his son Sunday morning in the French Alpine resort of Meribel, about 130 km southeast of Geneva, when he fell and hit the right side of his head on a rock. He was wearing a helmet, but doctors said it was not enough to prevent a serious brain injury.

Gerard Saillant, a trauma surgeon who operated on Schumacher when he broke his leg in a 1999 race crash, was at the hospital as a visitor. He told reporters that Schumacher's age — he turns 45 on Jan. 3 — and his fitness should work in his favor.

Top neurology team

But the Grenoble medical team was being very cautious about Schumacher's prognosis. Working to relieve the pressure on his brain, they lowered his body temperature to between 34 and 35 degrees Celsius as part of the medically induced coma.

Meribel Village skiing

Meribel Village, a ski resort in France, located about 130 km southeast of Geneva, Switzerland. Michael Schumacher was skiing with his son in the region when he fell and struck his head. (Igluski.com)

The neurology team at Grenoble University Hospital is recognized as among the best in France and the hospital, in a city that is the gateway to the French Alps, sees a large number of skiing accidents every year.

Schumacher has been seriously hurt before. He broke his leg in a crash at the Silverstone race course in 1999. He also suffered serious neck and spine injuries after a motorcycling accident in February 2009 in Spain.

The area where Schumacher was skiing is part of a web of trails that slice down through a vast and, in parts, very steep snowfield. Although challenging, the snowfield is not extreme skiing. The runs are broad and neatly tended, and the ungroomed area in between, known as off-piste — where the resort said Schumacher was found — is free of trees.

Local hospital then Grenoble

The resort said Schumacher was conscious when first responders arrived, although agitated and in shock. But Payen said Monday that after the fall Schumacher was not in a "normal state of consciousness." He was not responding to questions and his limbs appeared to be moving involuntarily.

He was airlifted to a local hospital and then later brought to Grenoble. Doctors said this stopover was typical and did not affect his condition.

His wife and other family members were by his bedside.

"The family is not doing very well obviously. They are shocked," said his manager Sabine Kehm, who added that the family still appreciated the outpouring of support.

As news of the accident spread, Formula One drivers and fans rushed to wish Schumacher a quick recovery.

Boyhood idol

"Like millions of Germans, the chancellor and members of the government were extremely dismayed when they heard about Michael Schumacher's serious skiing accident," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in Berlin.

Sebastian Vettel, for whom Schumacher was a boyhood idol, told German news agency dpa: "I am shocked and hope that he will get better as soon as possible."

Ferrari, which Schumacher raced for, expressed its concern in a statement.

"Everyone at Ferrari has been in a state of anxiety since hearing about Michael Schumacher's accident," it said, adding that company president, Luca di Montezemolo, and race team leader, Stefano Domenicali, were in contact with the family.

British former world champion Jenson Button said posted that his "thoughts are with Michael Schumacher at this tough time .… Michael more than anyone has the strength to pull through this."

During his career, Schumacher won seven drivers' championships and 91 race wins. After initial success with the Benetton team, Schumacher moved to Ferrari and helped turn the Italian team into the sport's dominant force. After initially retiring in 2006, he made a comeback in 2010 and raced for three years with Mercedes.


21.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

The major tech flops, fizzles and failures of 2013

It's been a harsh year for a number of the big names in consumer technology. While previous years have seen huge gadget successes such as Samsung's Galaxy S3 or Apple's iPad, 2013 seems more notable for fizzles than hits.

When even a company's own brass refers to a product as an unripened tomato, for example, chances are good it's a flop. Such was the case when David Eun, one of Samsung's executive vice-presidents, recently tried to defend the Galaxy Gear smartwatch that reportedly sold fewer than 50,000 units this fall.

"What you want to be sure of is that you don't pluck the green tomato too early, and you want to make sure that you don't criticize a small green tomato for not being a big, red ripe tomato," he told a conference in November.

It was perhaps as good a defense as could be mustered for what is likely to go down as the biggest gadget bust of 2013, a year that was filled with conspicuous flops.

The Gear was savaged by reviewers in just about every respect – it worked only in conjunction with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 phone; it didn't do much beyond supplying notifications and text messages; it was big and bulky; and its $300 price was deemed high.

It wasn't a green tomato that needed time to ripen, according to Silicon Valley technology analyst Rob Enderle, who favoured a different analogy: "It was a complete train wreck."

The Gear was supposed to be the spearhead of the new wearable-computing wave, which began the year on a tsunami of hype. In 2013, pundits predicted, computing would flow off desktops and laptops, and even smartphones and tablets, to literally surround us with wearable high-tech gadgets.

In 2013 there here was a relative dearth of big tech hits, as well as a sales slowdown – or "maturing" – in several established markets, including smartphones and tablets.

Instead, the year saw a large number of lackluster product launches, both in wearables and in other categories. There was a relative dearth of big tech hits, as well as a sales slowdown – or "maturing" – in several established markets, including smartphones and tablets.

The record-breaking gadget adoption rates of the past three years have been replaced by moderate growth or slight declines in most product categories, including Apple's hugely successful iPhones and iPads, according to Toronto-based consultancy Solutions Research Group. Demand is soft in everything from cameras, e-readers and GPS units, to game consoles and televisions.

Tech flops can often be attributed to three factors, according to SRG president Kaan Yigit. A new technology can be too far ahead of the curve, where consumers simply aren't ready for it. It can be behind an alternative offered by competitors, missing its best window of opportunity. Or its timing may be right, but the execution isn't.

New BlackBerry devices and Microsoft's Surface tablets, both of which sold poorly this year, are excellent examples of the second two factors.

"Many times I think tech companies see the train wreck coming, but can't help themselves and still put out the product because of corporate ego," Yigit says. "As well, it's too late to pull the plug by the time it's obvious that they may have a flop on their hands."

'Consumers don't buy gadgets, they buy experiences. They buy access to ecosystems, content and services they desire, they buy brands that deliver status, they buy social acceptance and recognition.'- Krista Napier, IDC Canada

Products also fail because they're too focused on single functions or because they don't support a holistic offering of related apps or digital content, which is incredibly important these days in an environment where everything is connected.

"Consumers don't buy gadgets, they buy experiences. They buy access to ecosystems, content and services they desire, they buy brands that deliver status, they buy social acceptance and recognition," says Krista Napier, manager for mobile and consumer research at IDC Canada.

"If a company develops a device with all of this in mind from the start, I think there is less chance it will flop in the first place."

Price isn't always the determining factor, she adds, since premium devices from the likes of Apple and Samsung have indeed sold well. "Customers are willing to pay more for the experiences they are offering."

All things considered, product flops are a multifaceted phenomenon. Here are some of the year's biggest tech busts, besides the Galaxy Gear.

Windows 8

Windows 8

Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system received criticism for its new interface. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Officially released to the public in October 2012, it took some time before the full scope of the operating system's failure became known. By spring of this year, it was clear that Microsoft's Windows 8 – which featured a snazzy tile-oriented, touch-enabled interface that was completely different from prior experiences – was a giant turkey.

First-quarter computer shipments dropped 14 per cent from the previous year, according to IDC, which was almost twice as bad as what the tracking firm had expected. Worse still was the fact that the new operating system was originally expected to buoy PC sales, but it instead did the opposite.

The radical changes were simply too much for buyers, to the point where Microsoft was forced to revert to some older features – such as the prominent placement of a "Start" button – with its Windows 8.1 update this past October.

Surface tablets

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's Surface tablet has a detachable keyboard. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)

Similarly, Microsoft's initial foray into tablets landed with a resounding thud. The Surface RT, released in October of last year, managed to sell fewer than a million units by the end of the winter, or a third of what the company had expected. The beefier Surface Pro, intended as a laptop replacement, sold just 400,000 in the month after its release in February. In contrast, Apple sold about 42 million iPads between October 2012 and the end of March 2013.

Microsoft's tablets were generally criticized for being too big and heavy, with not enough battery life or app capabilities. The RT also didn't run a full version of Windows, meaning that users couldn't take advantage of all the programs available for the operating system.

"It had been crippled by the manufacturer, and that's often the case with a failed product," Enderle says. "Somebody brings out a product and is afraid it's going to cannibalize something that's more expensive, so they cripple it and it doesn't sell."

Wii U

Wii U

The Wii U features a controller with a built-in supplementary display. (Phil McCarten/REUTERS)

Also released in late 2012, Nintendo's newest video game console spent this year plumbing new depths of failure. The Japanese company chose to focus on casual gamers rather than the hard-core market and has been paying the price ever since, with non-core gamers proving to be fickle buyers.

Not only did the hardware contribute to big losses at the company, it was also outsold during portions of the year by its older cousin, the Wii, which launched in 2006.

Third-party developers abandoned the new console – designers at EA Canada, for example, proclaimed the Wii U to be "crap" and Nintendo to be "walking dead."

As if that wasn't bad enough, the Wii U is now facing additional competition from new Sony and Microsoft consoles, the recently released PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively. There simply wasn't any good news for Nintendo in 2013, and it's not looking like it will get better any time soon.

Ouya

hi-ouya

The small Ouya console comes with 8GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM and a wireless controller. (Ouya.tv)

Speaking of game consoles, San Francisco-based startup Ouya tried to shake things up with its inexpensive Android-based machine, which launched in June.

The initial idea – where all games would be free, with gamers paying only if they liked something – struck a chord with the public, raising more than $8 million through crowd-funding site Kickstarter. But the Ouya's execution left reviewers with much to be desired.

From a controller that lagged to a dearth of games – especially ones that couldn't be found already on other consoles or mobile devices – the slim, $100 system failed to live up to its intention of setting the gaming world on fire. Tracking firm NPD Group said sales of the device itself were "relatively light," while game developers reported poor returns for products sold through the console. So far, Ouya's promised revolution has fizzled.

iPhone 5C

iPhone 5c

Apple's iPhone 5C is essentially last year's iPhone 5 repackaged in a colourful shell. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

Not even mighty Apple, riding several years of record-breaking products, could withstand the forces of flop in 2013. Comparisons by several news outlets of the iPhone 5C, one of the two new phones launched by the company this fall, to Microsoft's Surface RT were certainly ignominious.

Moreover, analysts pegged sales of the 5C – which was essentially last year's iPhone 5 repackaged in a colourful shell – as lagging considerably behind the 5S, the other, more advanced phone launched at the same time.

Apple hasn't disclosed sales figures for the 5C, but with several prominent retailers including Best Buy and Target cutting the device's price in half after just a few weeks of availability, the signs of struggle were certainly there.

Facebook Home/HTC First

HTC First cellphone

The HTC First cellphone has a built-in Facebook interface. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Remember the Facebook phone? It's okay if you don't – it's one of those artifacts of 2013 that is sure to be quickly forgotten.

Unveiled in April, Facebook Home was a downloadable interface for Android phones that would overlay on the basic operating system. It essentially inserted Facebook as the core function of the phone, with everything else riding adjunct to it.

Not surprisingly, that freaked a lot of people out. While many Facebook users like the website for keeping in touch with friends and relatives and for sharing news and photos, there's also a palpable fear of its pervasiveness, developed and cultivated through years of questionable privacy policies.

The first optimized Facebook Home phone, the HTC First, was quickly pulled by AT&T in the United States after selling poorly.

Google Glass

Google Glass

Google Glass is a pair of glasses-like frames that function as a camera, display screen, touchpad, battery and microphone all built into one, so you can see a variety of information right in front of your eyes. (Flickr/Jean-Luc David)

While it has yet to escape its beta-testing stage to become a full commercial product, few gadgets have turned the public off like the greatly hyped Google Glass.

As a pair of eyeglasses equipped with a camera, it's another entry in the wearables category, which promises a future where everything its wearer sees can be turned into data that can then be crunched and used – and in Google's likely case, sold. But there's the question of whether it's a solution in search of a problem.

"It creates more problems than it solves," says Enderle.

Indeed, with bars and restaurants and even transport regulators pre-emptively banning Google Glass because of its privacy and safety implications, it's a technology that looks to be a long way away from mainstream acceptance. "Plus, it makes you look like a giant nerd," Enderle adds.

Wireless new entrants

sm-220-mobilicity-store-ho-30151-a-02

Mobilicity filed for credit and bankruptcy protection after Ottawa rejected a proposal by Telus to buy the struggling startup, and its future is now uncertain. (Mobilicity)

It's not just gadgets themselves that flop, sometimes their purveyors do too. In Canada, that's been the fate of several of the smaller wireless providers that were once the federal government's best hope for more competition in the sector.

Mobilicity filed for credit and bankruptcy protection after Ottawa rejected a proposal by Telus to buy the struggling startup, and its future is now uncertain. Telus did receive the green light from the Competition Bureau to buy Public Mobile, another new entrant.

Wind, the third member of the independent trio, is on the block with its Russian-based owner Vimplecom looking to get out of Canada. While noises were made this summer about U.S. cellphone giant Verizon coming in to buy the company and perhaps some of the other startups, that possibility has since fizzled.

All this leaves the government's plans for more competition – and therefore lower prices for consumers – on the brink of flopping.

BlackBerry 10

hi-blackberry-q10-z10

The BlackBerry Z10 (left) and Q10 were launched with great fanfare in February, but haven't sold well.

They were supposed to be the saviors of the company, not to mention Canada's technology sector. But the long-awaited and repeatedly delayed BlackBerry 10 devices may be among the final nails in the company's coffin.

The all-touch-screen Z10 arrived in February, with the keyboard-equipped Q10 following in April. Despite relatively positive reviews, the poor sales that followed made it clear that smartphone users – once fiercely loyal to the Waterloo, Ont.-based market pioneer – had moved on.

BlackBerry, it turns out, suffered from all the elements of a flop. As SRG's Yigit points out, the company's devices lagged behind the advances made by competitors. And, as IDC's Napier suggests, BlackBerry's inability to match Apple and Android in apps and overall features made it tough for consumers to consider the new devices.

The company, which is now in limbo as it searches for a buyer, also forgot its core market and tried to be too much like competitors.

"They came out with an iPhone that wasn't. It was just too similar to what they were trying to replace," Enderle says. "They were so focused on going after Apple that they forget they have to be a better BlackBerry."


21.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Toronto hopeful about power repairs, but N.B. wary of new storm

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 29 Desember 2013 | 21.48

Officials in Toronto are sounding an optimistic note as crews continue to return power to people who have been without heat or light for eight days, but New Brunswick's power utility is worried a winter storm bearing down on the Maritimes will cause new problems.

The latest tallies show power is still out for about 16,000 customers in Toronto, 1,200 homes and businesses elsewhere in Ontario, 9,500 in New Brunswick, and 9,000 in Quebec. (In Quebec, the outages have fluctuated as crews turn off power in some areas to safely return it to others.)

Officials in both Toronto and New Brunswick have said they hope to have most customers back on the grid by Tuesday.

"We're still working to that plan to have most customers powered up by Tuesday; However, there are a couple of concerns [including] the upcoming storm," NB Power CEO Gaetan Thomas said.

There is a snowfall warning in effect for most of southern New Brunswick including St. Stephen and Rothesay, two of the communities that were hardest hit after last weekend's storm.

A winter storm will develop over the U.S. Eastern Seaboard this afternoon and track northeastward passing over the Maritimes, Environment Canada warns.

Total snowfall amounts of 10 to 25 centimetres are expected across southern New Brunswick. Some freezing rain is expected in the province, but not enough to merit a warning, the weather agency said.

NB Power spokesman Brent Staeban said the utility is preparing for the storm by moving additional crews, material and management to the affected areas in advance of the storm, and is co-ordinating with local communities and the Department of Transportation to make sure roads are cleared as soon as possible.

"It's simply going to slow us down and be an impediment, but we're going to do everything we can to push through it and keep the effort going," he said.

Staeben said if the storm's effects are "minimal," the vast majority of customers should have their power restored by 10 p.m. AT on New Year's Eve.

Even without the storm, Staeben described the restoration efforts as an "exceedingly complex and slow slog" that has included crews looking for outages on snowmobile, and some fixes requiring the removal of 50 to 60 trees on a section of line.

In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford says there's "light at the end of the tunnel" in his city.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines says he sees the finish line approaching, although he won't predict when that might happen.

Utility spokeswoman Tanya Bruckmueller said she hoped to have a new tally of the outages shortly after 9 a.m. ET. "We're close, we just don't know how close yet," she said.

Today's predicted high in Toronto is 3 C — the same as Saturday.

The warm weather caused ice to break off some tree branches and buildings, bringing down power lines.

On Saturday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said the concern she's heard most around the province is spoiled food. She said she's looking at providing help and would offer details over the next couple of days when a plan had been confirmed.

"We've reached out to food suppliers to try to come up with a way of compensating people and getting some extra food — or food vouchers, something to folks, so that's what we're working out over the next couple of days," she said.

Ford said Toronto won't be looking into any sort of compensation until the power has been restored. 

"I can't give any numbers or any assurances that we can reimburse anyone," Ford said.


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Most of Manitoba under extreme wind chill warning

Environment Canada has issued wind chill warnings for most of Manitoba after a wicked storm hit the province Saturday morning. A blowing snow warning for most of Southern Manitoba has since ended.

Meteorologist Mike McDonald told CBC news some roads have been down to zero visibility due to blowing snow during the storm. 

"That's a blizzard, here in the city because of the trees and buildings we're sheltered so visibility is quite variable across the city, well near zero in open areas about one kilometre, so not quite a blizzard in the city, but once you get outside the Perimeter Highway it gets pretty bad," said McDonald referring to the visibility in and surrounding Winnipeg. 

Due to the bad weather the City of Winnipeg has closed its three cemeteries: Transcona, St. Vital and Brookside until further notice.

City crews are currently out plowing major routes, and will do bus and collector routes after that.  Sidewalks will be cleared tonight starting at 7 pm.

According to Environment Canada an Alberta clipper will track through North Dakota causing storm-like conditions in southern Manitoba.

The heaviest snowfall was in Central Manitoba stretching from Dauphin through to Selkirk and through Whiteshell with a total accumulation of 10 to 15 centimetres. A winter snow storm warning was issued earlier today for Selkirk and Dugald due to heavy snow and blowing snow. 

A blowing snow warning has since ended for Winnipeg and the Portage region, after poor visibility on the roads. 

Temperatures are also expected to fall dramatically with a wind chill warning throughout most of the province. 

With the wind chill it's supposed to feel between -40 and -45 in most regions. Environment Canada is reminding people that exposed skin may experience frostbite in less than 10 minutes in these extreme cold conditions. 

It's also predicted that the freezing temperatures will continue for the remainder of the year. 

The only area not under a wind chill or blowing snow warning is the central part of Manitoba including The Pas, Westray, Norway House, Cross Lake, Oxford House and Gods Lake. 


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boy Scouts of America opens ranks to gay youth on Jan. 1

The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting on New Year's Day, a historic change that has prompted the BSA to ponder a host of potential complications — ranging from policies on tentmates and showers to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades.

Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year's Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded.

"My hope is there will be the same effect this Jan. 1 as the Y2K scare," said Brad Haddock, a BSA national executive board member who chairs the policy implementation committee.

"It's business as usual, nothing happens and we move forward."

Scouts Canada's inclusion policy

Since 2000, Scouts Canada has maintained a commitment to promoting diversity within its troops, with that commitment extending to gays and lesbians. Anyone, "regardless of gender, race, culture, religious belief, sexual orientation or economic circumstance," is welcome to be a member.

Scouts.ca

Some churches are dropping their sponsorship of Scout units because of the new policy and some families are switching to a new conservative alternative called Trail Life USA. But massive defections haven't materialized and most major sponsors, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, are maintaining ties.

"There hasn't been a whole lot of fallout," said Haddock, a lawyer from Wichita, Kansas. "If a church said they wouldn't work with us, we'd have a church right down the street say, `We'll take the troop."'

The new policy was approved in May, with support from 60 per cent of the 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council. The vote followed bitter nationwide debate, and was accompanied by an announcement that the BSA would continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership positions.

Under the new membership policy, youths can no longer be barred from the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts or coed Venturers program solely on the basis of sexual orientation. However, gay Scouts will face some limitations.

"Any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting," says one BSA document. "No member may use Scouting to promote or advance any social or political position or agenda, including on the matter of sexual orientation."

'Small pockets' of problems expected

Trying to anticipate potential friction, the BSA has distributed extensive explanations and question-and-answer documents related to the policy.

Some examples:

The Scout Law

A scout is:

  • Trustworthy
  • Loyal
  • Helpful
  • Friendly
  • Courteous
  • Kind
  • Obedient
  • Cheerful
  • Thrifty
  • Brave
  • Clean
  • Reverent

Could a Scout march in uniform in a gay-pride parade? No, says the BSA. "Each youth member is free as an individual to express his or her thoughts or take action on political or social issues but must not use Scouting's official uniforms and insignia when doing so."

How publicly active could a gay Scout be, in terms of gay-rights advocacy? The BSA's reply: "While a youth member may acknowledge his or her sexual preference, that acknowledgment may not reach the level of distraction, which may include advocacy, promotion, or the distribution of information of a sexual nature."

A frequently-asked-questions document anticipates that some objections might surface from parents — or Scouts themselves — in cases where a unit includes an openly gay boy.

Regarding shower and toilet facilities, the BSA says it is encouraging units to provide greater individual privacy, including moving away from the tradition of group showers.

"The adult leaders have the discretion to arrange private showering times and locations," the BSA says.

Sleeping arrangements also are addressed, with specific decisions left to unit leaders.

"If a Scout or parent of a Scout makes a request to not tent with another Scout, their wishes should be honoured," says the BSA.

Haddock says "isolated pockets" of problems are likely to surface, but overall he expects adult leaders will have the skills to defuse potential conflicts.

Most sponsors maintain ties

There are about 1 million adult leaders and 2.6 million youth members in Scouting in the U.S. Of the roughly 110,000 Scout units, 70 per cent are sponsored by religious organizations, including several conservative denominations that had long supported the BSA's exclusion of gay youth and gay adults.

'I don't know whether we had Scouts who are homosexual. I don't inquire.... It's not a matter of concern.'- Bill Helfand, scoutmaster of Troop 55 in Houston

Among the major sponsors, the Southern Baptist Convention made clear its disappointment with the new youth policy, but left the decision on whether to cut ties up to local churches. An SBC spokesman, Sing Oldham, said it was not known how many churches have done so.

The biggest sponsor of Scout units — the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — commended the BSA for a "thoughtful, good-faith effort" to address a challenging issue, and said it would stay engaged in Scouting.

John Gailey of the Utah National Parks Council, the nation's largest council, said its youth membership had increased from 74,148 in December 2012 to 75,863 this month.

Like the Mormons, the Roman Catholic Church has generally accepted the new policy. Many parishes will continue to sponsor Scout units, though a few have considered cutting ties.

The National Catholic Committee on Scouting posted a question-and-answer document on its website, delving into the intersection of Scouting policy and Catholic teaching.

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that individuals who disclose a same-sex attraction are to be treated with the same dignity due all human beings ... and also teaches that engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage is always immoral," says the Q&A, concluding that the new BSA policy does not contradict Catholic teaching.

The ultimate decision on whether parishes would maintain or cut ties with the BSA was left to individual bishops. Several expressed cautious support for continuing in Scouting.

"As the new policy currently stands, I see no reason to prohibit our parishes from sponsoring Boy Scout troops," said Rev. Kevin Rhoades, bishop of Indiana's Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese. "At the same time, it is critical that we be vigilant on how this new policy is interpreted and implemented."

Membership remains steady

One likely target of such scrutiny will be former defence secretary Robert Gates, scheduled to take over in the spring as the BSA's next president. As leader of the Pentagon, Gates helped change the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning openly gay soldiers, and gay-rights groups hope he will try to end the BSA's ban on gay adult leaders.

Boy Scouts Gays

Bill Helfand, the scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 55 in Houston, said membership in his troop has remained steady in the wake of the Boy Scouts of America changing its policy to accept openly gay youths. (Pat Sullivan/Associated Press)

The new youth policy was approved during a BSA meeting in May in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, near the Scouts' national headquarters in Irving, Texas.

Texas has a long heritage of Scouting, with tens of thousands of youth members and many families claiming generations of Eagle Scouts. Among them is Gov. Rick Perry, who achieved Scouting's highest rank growing up in the small town of Paint Creek.

The membership debate was closely followed by local Scouts on both sides; some carried signs and held rallies outside the meeting place. But in subsequent months, the debate has quieted.

Bill Helfand, scoutmaster of Troop 55 in Houston, said membership in his troop has remained steady at about 225 boys.

"We never considered sexual orientation, and I don't think many troops really did," Helfand said. "I don't know whether we had Scouts who are homosexual. I don't inquire.... It's not a matter of concern."

Helfand said the membership debate, while closely covered in the media, did not extend into his meetings with leaders and parents, besides occasional discussion of the policy at camp-outs. He says he hasn't talked to any Scout about his sexual orientation and doesn't intend to.

Critics switch to alternative program

However, some Texas parents and leaders have decided to switch to Trail Life USA, an alternative which declares itself "a Christian adventure, character, and leadership program for young men." Among them is Ron Orr, a business consultant from the Fort Worth area who is signing up local units for the group.

So far, he said he has 25 groups "pre-chartered" for a Jan. 1 launch date in the territory covered by the BSA's Circle Ten and Longhorn councils. That's modest compared to the 39,000 Scouts served by the Circle Ten council alone.

Orr is part of a family with four generations of Eagle Scouts. His older son recently earned his Eagle rank and his younger son was on the verge of doing likewise. But Orr said he could not stand by after the policy change.

"As Christians, from a scriptural basis, we love all folks, but the scripture is very clear that being homosexual is a sin," Orr said. "We've got to be able to hold a strong line and set a consistent example for our young men."

Orr said his decision to cut ties with the BSA rested in part on the Scout Oath, which includes the admonition to remain "morally straight."


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Suicide bombing in Russia kills at least 14 as Olympics near

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 14 people in the second deadly attack within three days as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympics.

The bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of Volgograd station. Footage shown on TV showed a massive orange fireball filling the stately colonnaded hall and smoke billowing out through shattered windows.

"People were lying on the ground, screaming and calling for help," a witness, Alexander Koblyakov, told Rossiya-24 TV. "I helped carry out a police officer whose head and face were covered in blood. He couldn't speak."

A spokesman for Russian investigators said at least 14 people were killed. The regional governor put the toll at 15.

President Vladimir Putin ordered law enforcement agencies to take all necessary precautions to ensure security, his spokesman said. A federal police spokesman said measures would be tightened at stations and airports, with more officers on duty and stricter security checks.

But the attack, just over two months after a female suicide bomber killed six people on a bus in the same city, raised questions about the effectiveness of security measures which the Kremlin routinely orders to be increased after bombings.

It could add to concerns about the government's ability to safeguard the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The Games, which open in 40 days' time, are a major prestige project for Putin, who wants to show how far Russia has come since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

'The security measures were beefed up long ago around Sochi, so terrorists will strike instead in these nearby cities like Volgograd.'- Alexei Filatov, deputy head of the veterans' association of the Alfa anti-terrorism unit

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Female suicide bombers — known as 'black widows' because some are the relatives of dead insurgents — have carried out several attacks claimed by Islamist militants.

Volgograd lies just above Russia's restive North Caucasus region, a string of mostly Muslim provinces that includes Chechnya, where Russia has fought two wars against separatists in the past two decades.

The region is beset by near-daily violence. Interfax news agency cited a law enforcement source as saying the attacker may have come from Dagestan, the province adjacent to Chechnya that is now the centre of the insurgency. The October bus bomber was from the same region.

Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people, and a major transport hub in southern Russia, about 690 kilometres northeast of Sochi, where the Olympics will open on Feb. 7.

Insurgent leader Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord, urged militants in a video posted online in July to use "maximum force" to prevent Putin staging the Olympics. On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in Pyatigorsk, close to the North Caucasus and 270 kilometres east of Sochi.

"We can expect more such attacks," said Alexei Filatov, deputy head of the veterans' association of the elite Alfa anti-terrorism unit.

"The threat is greatest now because it is when terrorists can make the biggest impression," he told Reuters. "The security measures were beefed up long ago around Sochi, so terrorists will strike instead in these nearby cities like Volgograd."

Volgograd is one of the venues for the 2018 soccer World Cup, another high-profile sports event Putin has helped Russia win the right to stage, and which will bring thousands of foreign fans to cities around Russia.

Sunday's attack was the deadliest to strike Russia's heartland since January 2011, when a male suicide bomber from the North Caucasus killed 37 people in the arrivals hall of a busy Moscow airport.

Health Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai said 42 people were wounded and that some would be flown to Moscow for treatment.

Authorities said the woman detonated her explosives after police noticed she looked suspicious and one began to approach her. They said the toll could have been much higher if she had made it into the station waiting hall.

But Filatov said that the widespread practice of placing metal detectors at the entrance of airports and stations risked causing more casualties: "We are creating this danger ourselves by allowing a place for a crowd to gather."

The Investigative Committee said the bomb detonated with a force equivalent to at least 10 kilograms of TNT. A human head believed to be that of the bomber was found at the scene, Interfax cited a law enforcement source as saying.

Life News, a Russian website with ties to security agencies, showed graphic photographs of the head, with half the face visible and a tangle of long, matted hair.

The Volgograd station — a Stalinesque architectural monument with a clocktower, spire and martial statues flanking the central entrance where the attack took place - was busier than usual, with people travelling home for the New Year holidays


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vito Rizzuto funeral visitation a chance to 'gather intelligence,' says mafia expert

Visitation of Vito Rizzuto is scheduled for today ahead of the reputed Mafia boss's funeral on Monday in the Montreal neighbourhood of St-Leonard, and it's expected to draw a big crowd.

Montreal police said officers will likely be discreetly observing the Loreto funeral complex where the visitation will take place.

Montreal police spokesman André Leclerc confirmed that police officers will direct traffic at the funeral home, where a large crowd is expected.

A retired RCMP analyst said police often use funerals and visitations as an opportunity to update photos of persons of interest and establish any new allegiances within the Mafia.

And Mafia expert Pierre de Champlain said visitations can be an especially valuable place to gather intelligence.

He said they are more informal and often attract more people with ties to the underworld than the funerals themselves.

"It's not the front door they'll be watching, it's the back," ​de Champlain said, referring to the Loreto funeral complex, which belongs to a member of the Rizzuto clan.

"The most interesting people might arrive by car and enter by the underground garage to avoid being seen by the media and police," de Champlain continued.

Rizzuto returned to Canada in 2012 after spending six years in a U.S. prison on racketeering charges related to the 1981 murders of three alleged New York gang leaders.

Rizzuto, who died of natural causes in hospital last Monday, led a powerful criminal organization that stretched beyond Canada's borders.

His father Nicolo Rizzuto, Sr. — the patriarch of the Rizzuto crime family — was assassinated in his Montreal home in November 2010.

Rizzuto had three children. His son Nick, Jr. was assassinated in 2009.

A number of Mafia experts have said that Rizzuto quickly reasserted control upon his return from prison.

De Champlain said there's no apparent heir to the Rizzuto family's organization, which means his death could bring about some tumultuous activity in the underworld as members of organized crime in Montreal, Toronto and New York jockey for the Rizzuto territory.

Rizzuto's funeral is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday at Little Italy's Notre-Dâme-de-la-Défense Church.

Loreto funeral complex:


View Larger Map

Notre-Dâme-de-la-Défense Church:


View Larger Map
21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boy, 9, youngest to reach Aconcagua summit

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 28 Desember 2013 | 21.48

A nine-year-old boy from Southern California has become the youngest person in recorded history to reach the summit of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, which at 6,962 metres is the tallest peak in the Western and Southern hemispheres.

Tyler Armstrong of Yorba Linda reached the summit on Christmas Eve with his father Kevin and a Tibetan sherpa, Lhawang Dhondup, who has climbed Mt. Everest multiple times. They were in fine spirits Friday as they left Aconcagua, whose sheer precipices and bitter cold have claimed more than 100 climbers' lives.

"You can really see the world's atmosphere up there. All the clouds are under you, and it's really cold," Tyler said, describing the summit to The Associated Press. "It doesn't look anything like a kid's drawing of a mountain. It's probably as big as a house at the summit, and then it's a sheer drop."

Only 30 per cent of the 7,000 people who obtain permits to climb Aconcagua each year make the summit, said Nicolas Garcia, who handled their logistics from down below. No one under 14 is usually allowed, so the family had to persuade an Argentine judge that Tyler could safely accomplish the feat. In their case, they took the "Polish Glacier" route, which doesn't require climbing, and roped themselves together only when crossing steep ice-covered slopes.

"Any kid can really do this, all they have to do is try. And set their mind to the goal," said Tyler, who worked out twice a day for a year and a half to prepare for the climb. He also held fundraisers, not only to defray the cost but to raise money for CureDuchenne, which funds muscular dystrophy research.

"I think Tyler's record speaks for itself and because I think he's doing it for a good cause, he's doing it to help other people, I think the judge recognized that," said his father, an emergency medical technician. Tyler's mother is a pediatric neuropsychologist, and they also have another son, Tyler's younger brother Dylan.

"Most people think we as parents are pushing Tyler to do this, when it's completely the opposite. I wouldn't climb it if I didn't have to, but my wife makes me do it to keep watch on him," he said.

"He's a great dad," Tyler said. "At 20,000 feet, he wanted to turn around but I kept him going. And the day we were getting off the mountain, he had a blister and it popped ... He made it to the summit and everything but that dang blister made him ride a mule."

Aconcagua's previous record-holder was Matthew Moniz of Boulder, Colorado, who was 10 when he reached the summit in 2008.

There was one younger boy who climbed the lower slopes of Aconcagua, Garcia noted: An Inca boy was sacrificed some 500 years ago at 5,300 metres on Piramide, one of the mountain's lower peaks. Scientific tests on the mummy, recovered in 1985, put his age at about seven.

Tyler had already climbed the 5,895-metre Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the age of 8, and with Aconcagua conquered, is determined to reach all "seven summits," the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

Luckily for Kevin Armstrong, who also coaches his kids in soccer, his younger son prefers a more earthly sport.

"I was not a climber. He got me doing this because he wanted to, and I wanted to experience it with him," Armstrong said.

Financially, these mountaineering expeditions have been difficult, Armstrong said.

"My wife and I have just kind of scraped everything we can together and put off family vacations and everything else so that Tyler can do this," he said. "I've had to charge half of this on my credit card. But he did what he needed to do, so I felt I needed to support him."

Asked to describe his most memorable moment of the climb, Tyler didn't hesitate: "Seeing my dad reach the summit."

"Tyler is a really happy kid, very open. And he's prepared for these climbs very carefully," Garcia said. "Neither he nor his father are in for `adventure.' Their project is pretty conservative, with a guide who is very experienced, so from my perspective, their climb wasn't imprudent."

His mother Priscilla Armstrong, back home in Southern California, was apparently worried nonetheless.

"Didn't sleep a wink thinking about you honey. Praying for you guys! Good luck and can't wait to hear from you!" she posted on his Facebook page while they were climbing down.

Next on Tyler's list is Mt. McKinley in Alaska, North America's tallest peak.

"I do want to be the youngest for that, but we don't have the money


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Head of railway in Lac-Mégantic disaster 'also a victim,' he says

The railway executive behind the company whose train smashed into Lac-Mégantic wants people to know he's been suffering, too.

Looking back at the year as it comes to a close, Ed Burkhardt said he's still troubled by the Quebec derailment and has thought about it every day since the July 6 catastrophe killed 47 people and destroyed part of the town.

The chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. also told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that he's sustained significant personal financial losses since the disaster.

"They had every reason to be very upset with what had occurred," Burkhardt said about the anger directed toward him by the people of Lac-Mégantic.

"But what they didn't know was that I was equally upset and I was also a victim of this whole thing."

Investment wiped out

hi-852-burkhardt-04708386

The chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. also told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that he's sustained significant personal financial losses since the disaster.

Burkhardt, who said he is the largest shareholder in the now-insolvent MMA, explained that he lost his entire investment after the crash forced the company to file for bankruptcy protection.

"That's a big pile of money, I might say," Burkhardt, the president of MMA parent company Rail World Inc., said in a phone interview from his Illinois office.

"It's reduced me from being a fairly well-off guy to one that's just getting by. But OK, that's what happens."

He added, however, that he wasn't complaining about the hit he took to his bottom line, insisting he didn't want to criticize the people of Lac-Mégantic because "they went through hell."

"[Financial losses are] not in the same category as the personal losses, the deaths and all of that, that people suffered in Lac-Mégantic," he said.

Burkhardt's frequently blunt remarks, often lacking public-relations massaging and sentimentalism, made him public enemy No. 1 last summer in Lac-Mégantic.

His brief stop in the town in the aftermath is perhaps best-remembered for his tumultuous news conference, during which he was heckled by irate locals.

Heavily criticized

Burkhardt, who also faced criticism for waiting more than four days before visiting the town after the crash, had anticipated the rough reception. He defended his delayed appearance, saying he was dealing with the crisis from his office.

Before travelling to Lac-Mégantic, Burkhardt even quipped that he'd probably have to wear a bulletproof vest during his visit.

Burkhardt displayed his straight-shooting style in the middle of the news conference when a reporter asked him how much he was worth, financially. He replied: "A whole lot less than I was Saturday [the day of the derailment]."

Reflecting on his reputation in Lac-Mégantic, Burkhardt believes local anger was directed at him because, as chairman, he was the voice of the company.

"I think I assumed too much of a personal role up there, so I guess I was the magnet for all of the people's unhappiness, which is not terribly surprising," the railway boss said.

He then repeated an allegation he first made publicly at that July news conference: the train driver didn't do his job properly the night of the disaster.

"They view me terribly, but I wasn't the guy who didn't set the brakes on the train," he said.

Burkhardt has alleged that the driver did not apply enough handbrakes before the train broke loose and barrelled about 10 kilometres down a hill into Lac-Mégantic.

Train driver did not respond

Tom Harding, the train's driver, was suspended by MMA following the accident. Harding's lawyer did not respond to a request to comment on Burkhardt's allegation.

Firefighters from the neighbouring town of Nantes have said they responded to a blaze on board the train hours before it came off the tracks in Lac-Mégantic. MMA has suggested the fire department's decision to shut off the locomotive to extinguish the fire might have disabled its air brakes.

Police and federal transport safety officials are conducting investigations into the crash.

In the months since the disaster, Burkhardt says he's questioned whether his trains should have ever been transporting crude oil.

"I've asked myself a number of times as to whether we should have been handling this oil at all," Burkhardt said.

"Hindsight is 20-20 vision, so at this point I wish we hadn't been handling oil. We would have obviously not been exposed to such a situation."

MMA stopped hauling oil after the crash, but Burkhardt noted that other Rail World operations in Europe have continued to transport other highly explosive cargoes, like propane.

Canadian authorities have indicated that the deadly oil in Lac-Mégantic proved to be as flammable as gasoline, though it had been improperly labelled as something less volatile.

"There's always going to be risks in handling dangerous commodities," he said.

"You try to minimize those risks, you try to manage your company well, so that those risks are low. But the risks are never zero."

Burkhardt said he welcomes the fresh debates over regulations for the rail industry, as long as any eventual changes are harmonized in Canada and the United States.

For example, he thinks tank-car construction needs to be improved, though due to the high costs he expects any transition to a more-durable tanker to take a long time.

He also encouraged more testing of operating employees, with particular attention placed on brake management and in preventing runaway trains.

Still, he thinks it should be up to railway managers to enforce any changes, rather than a heavier-handed approach by regulators.

"I put the pressure on the management, not on the regulator," Burkhardt said.

"I don't want the regulator telling me what to do. I want to figure this out within management."

MMA and Rail World executives, including Burkhardt himself, are among those named in pending lawsuits in Canada and the United States over the Lac-Mégantic​ crash.

The insolvent MMA has filed for bankruptcy protection and is now under trusteeship, though it continues to manage its day-to-day operations. MMA is expected to be sold off in the coming weeks.

There are concerns in Lac-Mégantic that a new owner could eventually resume oil shipments in the area. MMA's train service recently returned to the community, though it will no longer carry dangerous freight through town.

Burkhardt said the railway's next owner will need additional traffic along the line for it to be profitable. It will be up to them, he added, to decide whether to start hauling crude oil again.

On that question, he doesn't think the door should be forever closed to moving oil on the MMA line.

Burkhardt said MMA's decision to stop handling oil after the derailment was made easy by the fact it was unlikely to be commercially viable under the circumstances.

"Obviously, the shippers were just as horrified as we were by what occurred and probably wouldn't have used our services anyway," he said.

"Although the risks of moving over some other railroad to destination are probably just as great."


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson reinstated by A&E

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson will return to work on A&E's reality show despite his comments about gay immorality, the channel said Friday, reversing its decision to suspend him after facing a backlash and threatened boycott.

In a statement Friday, A&E said it was bringing Robertson back after discussions with his Louisiana family featured in the reality series and "numerous advocacy groups."

Last week, the channel had put Robertson on what it called an indefinite "hiatus" because of his comments in a GQ magazine article that the Bible views gays as sinners akin to adulterers, prostitutes and swindlers.

A&E said it decided to drop Robertson from the show about a wealthy family that makes duck calls because it is part of a company whose core values are "centered around creativity, inclusion and mutual respect."

Robertson's remarks were quickly slammed by groups including GLAAD, the gay rights watchdog organization. But A&E's move against Robertson provoked a flood of support from those who share his views and others who defended his freedom of speech.

A petition calling for A&E to bring him back reached 250,000 signatures and counting in about a week.

Robertson's well-known supporters included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who complained that his free-speech rights were being trampled. Bobby Jindal, governor of the state of Louisiana, complained that Miley Cyrus got a pass for twerking on TV while Phil got shown the door.

While reiterating that Robertson's views are not those of the channel, A&E noted Friday that he has publicly said he would "never incite or encourage hate." The show itself is more than one man's views, it added.

"It resonates with a large audience because it is a show about family, a family that America has come to love. As you might have seen in many episodes, they come together to reflect and pray for unity, tolerance and forgiveness," A&E said.

The Robertson family said it had no immediate comment Friday.

Last week, the family said in a statement on its Duck Commander website that although some of Phil Robertson's comments were coarse, "his beliefs are grounded" in the Bible and he "is a Godly man." They also said, "as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm."

Duck Dynasty is on hiatus until Jan. 15, and the network has said that nine of next season's 10 episodes have already been filmed. That means Robertson likely wasn't needed in front of the camera before next March.

A&E said it intended to launch a national public service campaign "promoting unity, tolerance and acceptance among all people."


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

A year of hot air on MPs' and senators' expenses

Politicians' expenses are usually a sleeper issue because so little is known about travel and housing claims that are regulated in secret sessions by the politicians themselves.

But this year, the veil on politicians' expenses was pulled back - a bit - in what became the top Ottawa story of 2013: the gross abuse of public money by a few senators.

The year began with the revelation of Senator Mike Duffy's habit of claiming expenses for living in his long-time Ottawa home. It drew to a crescendo with the spectacle of  Duffy and three other senators — Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb — suspended or retired and under an RCMP microscope over their inappropriate travel and housing claims.

The scandal might have been the reason for MPs unanimously voting in what senators call "the other place" — the House of Commons — to consider replacing their own secretive administrative closed-shop with an independent body to monitor their expenses.

Suddenly, transparency for expense accounts was an urgent issue.

But by year's end, almost nothing has changed.

One small step, but little detail

There was one bit of movement: Liberal MPs and senators, under orders from new leader Justin Trudeau, began posting online their travel and hospitality spending, modelled on cabinet ministers' proactive disclosure, a step in the right direction to be sure, but with little detail. Conservatives say they will follow suit.

MPs already post expenses in broad categories covering their office budgets, printing, hospitality costs and use of travel points, but again, with almost no detail.

Yet in June, when the Senate expense scandal was near a boiling point, it seemed the House of Commons was ready to slay its own dragon. The NDP persuaded all MPs to turned their attention towards replacing their closed-door committee for monitoring expenses known as the board of internal economy. The board, or BOIE, is made up of MPs from each party.

The mission was to find some independent body to scrutinize and regulate MPs' expenses

In special hearings, MPs listened to Auditor General Michael Ferguson urge them to allow random audits, "at my discretion," as he put it, of their expenses.

MPs also heard from John Sills of IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in the U.K., set up in 2009 after a scandal revealed some British MPs were charging the public for expenses such as moat-cleaning, or were claiming second homes a few miles from their main homes, and then flipping them or renting them out.

Sills explained that IPSA, an organization independent of Parliament, approves MPs' expenses and sets members' pay and pensions. Then it publishes the information — all of it.

The 'exam question'

Some Conservative MPs asked Sills if the same system were adopted here, wouldn't parliamentary staff just have to move over to a new body modelled on IPSA and "basically replicate what they do now under a different organization."

Sills replied that query was what he always called "the exam question." And, he added, "Can you be truly independent if you're in-house?"

In the end, the Conservative majority on the committee recommended keeping the status quo.

MPs will continue having the final, undisclosed word on expenses. Meetings will be held in camera. The Auditor General was shown the door.

Not all MPs went along with preserving the secretive board of internal economy, or shutting out the Auditor General.  The Liberals agreed the board should continue to monitor MP expenses, but asked for an independent commissioner to set salaries and pensions. The NDP dissented, holding out for an independent body.

Neither suggestion was adopted.

Bigger steps taken in the Senate

In the Senate, with members wincing from being viewed as scandal-ridden and way too clubby, bigger steps were taken.

Most significantly, the Senate invited the Auditor General to conduct an audit of every senator's expenses. His first report is possibly a year or more away, but for some senators, inevitably, the iceman cometh.

No such fate awaits MPs. As the clerk of the House of Commons, Audrey O'Brien, reminded the committee debating opening up expenses, MPs have never been audited by the Auditor General. It's "something members have strongly resisted," she testified.

As the year ends, a public wanting to know what true transparency about expenses looks like is left to read the private websites of Conservative senators Doug Black, Bob Runciman and Linda Frum, or Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. These four have decided to publish details of every public penny they spend.

Readers will find that Frum doesn't charge for meals, that Black paid $5.50 for parking, that May has posted more than 300 pages of scanned receipts for everything from postage stamps to office cleaners.

Otherwise, it seems the matter of politicians' expenses has been put back in the closet until the next scandal.


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ice storm aftermath: warm weather brings more outages

About 40,000 customers in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick remain in the dark one week after a major ice storm blanketed Central and Atlantic Canada, and warming temperatures have caused new power outages in Toronto.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said early Saturday that melting ice falling from trees and other structures has led to fresh damage. At about 1 a.m. ET the number of customers without power had dropped below 20,000 for the first time, but by 8 a.m. it was back up to around 23,000.

"Over the morning hours we've been moving backwards, but I'm sure our crews will attend to those and we'll start moving in the right direction again over the next couple of hours," he told CBC News Network.

Roughly 28,000 customers in Ontario are still waiting for the lights and heat to be restored, seven days after the power went out. Haines couldn't provide a guess for when the power would be restored to everybody. He said computer simulations have shown three days, but that there are variables at work like the new outages and the arrival of more crews.

"I'm hopeful certainly by the early part of next week the vast majority of customers will be back," he said.

Haines, who noted that the average Toronto Hydro customer is equivalent to 2½ people, said his heart goes out to those without power but that crews are working as fast as they can.

"I understand the difficulties that not having electricity brings, but what we can do is work around the clock and we can bring extra resources in from far and wide, which is what we've done, and we will not stop until the power is on for everybody," he said. "What we can do is what we can do, I suppose."

Haines stressed the enormous scope of the damage:

  • Forty per cent of the city's power lines, which would cross Canada twice, have been affected by the storm.
  • Thirty-thousand pieces of equipment have been installed back into the grid and about 47,000 metres of cable have gone back up into the air.
  • The City of Toronto says about 20 per cent of the city's tree canopy has been damaged and it could take seven weeks to clean up all the fallen limbs, Haines said. 

About 12,000 customers in New Brunswick are in a similar situation. In Quebec, officials tweeted late Friday night that they were "almost there" with only about 400 customers left who needed power restored.

CANADA/

About 23,000 customers were still without power in Toronto on Saturday morning. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

Amid the rising anger and frustration of those still in the dark, utility companies are pleading for patience, saying crews are working around the clock and nothing else can be done to speed up the process.

That's little consolation for people who have been in the dark for a week, including Carmen Andronesu, who is one of more than 1,000 residents who live in a condo complex in Toronto's north end.

"No matter how much you try calling here and there, it's like you cannot find help from anywhere," she said.

In the rural southern New Brunswick community of Titusville, people without power have been heading to the generator-powered general store to buy kerosene, propane, candles and water. 

Owner Mark Carline said the storm and outage has caused him to reflect.

"I think we were all reminded and humbled by the fact that at any given time we could be set back to this state, where we're scrambling [to get] the basic necessities."


21.48 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger