Watches this Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits

Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits


Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- There may be light at the end of a nearly completed tunnel for the 33 men trapped since August 5 almost half a mile below ground, with rescuers expected to reach them within a day, Chile's mining minister said Friday afternoon.
"Hopefully before that," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters about the time when a rescue drill is expected to pierce the roof of the mine. As of Friday afternoon, it was 40 meters (about 130 feet) away. "Maybe tomorrow morning, early Saturday. We have to wait and see."
Once the mine has been reached, the rescue process could begin within three to four days, Golborne told reporters. But mine engineers must decide first whether they need to encase the shaft with steel tubing to prevent rockfalls and further collapses during the extraction process. "If we do a full casing of the hole, those three to four days could go to eight to 10 days," Golborne told reporters.
One of the rescue coordinators, Rene Aguilar, an engineer for state copper company Codelco, said this week they may encase just the first 100 meters (328 feet) of the shaft, a process that could take just 10 hours.
Before anyone can be rescued, the hole must be widened so that the rescue capsule -- dubbed the Phoenix -- can land cleanly inside the tunnel without getting hung up on obstructions, Golborne said. To accomplish that, explosives will be lowered to the miners for use in widening the shaft, said Golborne, who expressed little concern that the subterranean pyrotechnics would pose any danger to the men.
"We have to take into consideration that we are talking here about miners that have experience, many of them are licensed to use explosives, they know how to manipulate them, they have already made the holes that they need to set the right quantities of explosives. ... So it will be a very controlled explosion that will be made after we break into the tunnel."
Then, authorities will lower a doctor and a rescuer into the chamber, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. Medical and rescue personnel will be in place to start extracting and treating the miners Monday night, he said.
Once the miners have been extracted, they will undergo about two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine.
Barring complications, it will take about 24 to 36 hours to remove all the miners through the 2,300-foot hole, Manalich said. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.
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Climate aid reaches $30 bln goal, but is it new?

Climate aid reaches $30 bln goal, but is it new?
OSLO (Reuters) - Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges.

A boy touches an ice sculpture of a polar bear as it melts to reveal a bronze skeleton in Copenhagen December 8, 2009. Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges. (REUTERS/Bob Strong/Files)
Officially, the promises total $29.8 billion, Reuters calculations show, apparently meeting a pledge of "new and additional" funds "approaching $30 billion" for 2010-12 made at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December.

But austerity policies to combat government debt problems and a re-labelling of past promises will undermine real funding that is vital to unlock a new U.N. climate deal by showing that the developed world is serious about taking a leadership role, analysts say.

"I'm afraid the pledges of Copenhagen will not be realised," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "It would be a little political miracle if it happened. I'm fairly pessimistic."

He said that Germany, the biggest European Union economy, was unlikely to fulfil its promises even though it had fewer economic problems than most EU nations, struggling to plug huge budget deficits.

Climate aid is widely seen as a key to build trust between rich and poor in the run-up to the 2010 U.N. meeting of environment ministers, in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10.

The cash was meant as a "fast start" for action to slow floods, droughts, heat waves and rising seas. Donors say projects are starting, from Nepal to Mali.

Many poor nations say "new and additional" means cash above an unmet 1970 U.N. target for rich nations to give 0.7 percent of their gross national product in aid -- OECD figures show that aid totalled $120 billion, or 0.31 percent of developed countries' combined GNP, in 2009.

Developed nations have varying definitions of what counts.

RENAMING AID

"It's hard to know what's really new and additional," said Clifford Polycarp of the Washington-based World Resources Institute, which tracks pledges by all nations. Some funds were "restated or renamed commitments already made."

Japan's pledge of fast start funds is by far the highest -- $15 billion -- but much of the money stems from a "Cool Earth Partnership" agreed several years ago to run from 2008-12.

Among other big pledges, the EU plans $9.6 billion for 2010-12 and U.S. President Barack Obama plans $3.2 billion for 2010-11. But some money was committed before Copenhagen to climate funds, for instance managed by the World Bank.
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Watched the Karzai reaffirms 2014 goal for Afghan-led security

We are see this Karzai reaffirms 2014 goal for Afghan-led security



KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security nationwide by 2014 and urged his international backers to spend their money on long-term Afghan priorities.

Karzai spoke at a one-day international conference on Afghanistan's future that comes at a critical juncture: NATO and Afghan forces have launched a major operation to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds, and the insurgents are pushing back. Rockets fired at the Kabul airport Tuesday forced the diversion of a plane carrying U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sweden's foreign minister.

Wearing a traditional striped robe and peaked fur hat, Karzai said that Afghanistan and its Western allies share "a vicious common enemy." But, he said, victory will come in giving Afghans as much responsibility as possible in combatting the insurgency within its borders. He was flanked by international diplomats including Ban and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"I remain determined that our Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014" - more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for the start of an American troop drawdown, Karzai said.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance will never allow the Taliban to topple the government of Afghanistan. He said that transition to Afghan-led security would be based on "conditions, not calendars."

"Our mission will end when - but only when - the Afghans are able to maintain security on their own," Fogh Rasmussen said.

Karzai also expressed his government's desire to take charge of more of its affairs. He asked his international partners to channel 50 percent of their foreign assistance through the government within two years. He also urged them to align 80 percent of their projects with priorities that have been identified by Afghans.

"It is time to concentrate our efforts on a limited number of national programs and projects to transform the lives of our people, reinforce the social compact between the state and the citizens," Karzai said.

While the international community recognizes that Afghans must increasingly take charge, corruption remains a major concern. Graft feeds frustration with the government that boosts support for the insurgency.

Clinton recognized that Karzai's administration had taken steps to fight corruption, but said more needed to be done.

"There are no shortcuts to fighting corruption and improving governance. On this front, both the Afghan people and the people of the international community expect results," she said.

Obama has said he wants to begin withdrawing American troops in July 2011. Though he has stressed the timetable is dependent on security conditions, it has raised concerns in Afghanistan and the region that the U.S. is eager to exit the war.

"The transition process is too important to push off indefinitely," Clinton said Tuesday as she sought to allay those concerns. "But this date is the start of a new phase, not the end of our involvement. We have no intention of abandoning our long-term mission of achieving a stable, secure, peaceful Afghanistan. Too many nations - especially Afghanistan - have suffered too many losses to see this country slide backward."

A military push in southern Afghanistan has seen violence and casualties rise in recent months. June was the deadliest month for U.S. and international forces with the deaths of 103 service members, including 60 Americans.

In the latest violence, a NATO service member was killed Tuesday in a bomb attack in the south. NATO said the dead service member was not American but did not provide the nationality or details on the death.

Security forces virtually shut down Kabul for the conference. Police added checkpoints throughout the already heavily fortified city and closed major intersections to traffic.

Even so, rockets fire prevented a plane carrying Ban and Sweden's Carl Bildt from landing at the airport Tuesday morning, officials said.

"Rockets hit the airport just as we were on our way to land," Bildt wrote on his blog. The plane was diverted to the U.S. Bagram base, outside Kabul, then the diplomats traveled aboard Blackhawk helicopters to the capital, Bildt said. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed the account.

NATO forces confirmed rockets hit around the city overnight but would not say where.

Afghan and international forces raided a compound on the outskirts of Kabul on Monday night, killing several insurgents who were believed to be planning an attack on the conference, NATO forces said in a statement.

The international military coalition said its forces came under fire from men who were barricaded inside buildings in the compound. The statement said two people were arrested in the operation but not how many were killed. Spokeswoman Lt. Commander Katie Kendrick also declined to say how many people were killed in the operation.

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