Watches this New threat from Hungary reservoir

New threat from Hungary reservoir


Rescue workers have evacuated a Hungarian village due to a heightened threat of a second flood of toxic red sludge from a broken reservoir at an alumina plant.

A weakened wall in the reservoir from which one million cubic metres of sludge flooded several nearby villages, fields and waterways skirting the Danube river earlier this week is in danger to collapse.

Authorities evacuated 800 inhabitants from the village of Kolontar to the town of Ajka, Hungarian disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson confirmed and Kolontar has been sealed off.

Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties after sludge from the alumina plant flooded three villages on Monday about 160 km (100 miles) west of Budapest, killing seven people and injuring around 150.

"Last night the interior minister informed us that cracks have appeared in the northern wall of the reservoir, whose corner collapsed, which make it likely that the entire wall will collapse," Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference.

"Thank God, we have managed to rescue the large majority of people after the dam burst on Monday, but the region has been practically destroyed," Mr Orban said.

Speaking in Ajka, he said another 500,000 cubic metres of sludge could escape the reservoir but this substance would be thicker than the initial tide of the corrosive, caustic waste material.

The spill from the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant could have been avoided and there will be "the toughest possible consequences" to ensure such a disaster does not recur, Mr Orban said.

In remarks carried by private broadcaster HirTV, he said a decision on whether to allow the plant to resume bauxite refining would not be made before Monday.

Mr Orban said the government was ready to foot the entire bill of the rescue and recovery effort, but it was too early at this stage to make precise estimates about the size of the damage.

Earlier today, Gyorgy Bakondi, head of the National Disaster Unit, told the daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview the final bill could top 10 billion forints (€36.25 million).

He said checks were made of all similar reservoirs in Hungary. Mr Orban said Hungary had launched a disaster relief fund, which accepted contributions from Hungarians across the world.

Mr Orban, who called the spill Hungary's worst ecological disaster to date, said there was now a high risk of up to 500,000 cubic metres of even thicker sludge escaping the reservoir due to a deterioration of a wall in the stricken part.
coppied by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1009/breaking2.html

Watched Toxic sludge no longer poses threat to Danube, says Hungary

Toxic sludge no longer poses threat to Danube, says Hungary


DANIEL McLAUGHLIN

SLUDGE RELEASED by a deadly industrial accident is no longer a danger to the river Danube, according to Hungary.

However, environmental groups have challenged that claim and questioned whether the disaster could have been prevented.

Some 700,000 cubic metres of toxic mud burst from a waste pool at an alumina plant in southwest Hungary on Monday, devastating nearby villages and about 40sq km and killing all life in the river Marcal, which flows into the Danube.

One of about 120 people injured by the wave of caustic filth died yesterday and two bodies were found, bringing the death toll to seven. One person is still missing.

Workers poured tonnes of neutralising agents into the Marcal to reduce the acidity before it reached Europe’s second longest river. Although dead fish were spotted in the Danube on Thursday, officials said yesterday that the emergency was easing.

“The good news is that we have succeeded in bringing it under control and very probably waters threatening the environment will not enter the Danube, even on Hungarian territory,” said prime minister Viktor Orban.

The government said drinking water supplies had not been affected and that the acidity level of the Danube near the site of the spill was almost neutral.
Coppied by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1009/1224280699449.html

conference IMF meets amid threat of currency war

IMF meets amid threat of currency war


WASHINGTON (AFP) – The specter of a damaging global currency war is set to dominate a meeting of economic powers in Washington Friday, amid bleak hopes for a deal between China, the United States and other powers.
Finance ministers and central bankers from 187 countries will convene for an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund amid warnings that beggar-thy-neighbor policies could wreck the global recovery.
With the recovery still painfully slow, recent weeks have seen a range of countries from Japan to Colombia intervene to stop their currencies from rising to levels that would make exports prohibitively expensive.
But the summit is set to be dominated by a long running and increasingly antagonistic dispute between the United States and Beijing -- whose weak yuan policies are accused of slowing the global recovery and hurting American jobs.
While the US Congress moves toward slapping retaliatory sanctions on Chinese goods, Washington has ratcheted up the pressure by hinting that China may not be allowed a bigger say at the IMF unless the currency issue is resolved.
US officials are adamant that the IMF meetings should address the need for "market oriented exchange rates" and a fundamental "rebalancing" of the global economy.
On the eve of the meeting IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there was no "formal" link between the two issues, but the United States was "right" to call for reform.
"I think it is right to insist on the fact that the more an emerging country will have a voice and representation in the fund, the more they have a responsibility in the stability of the system."
"You can be at the center of the system, or you can be at the border of the system. But if you want to be at the center of the system... it goes with having more responsibility."
China has rebuffed pressure to lift the value of the yuan, fearing it would put Chinese businesses at risk.
Meanwhile European officials said a rapidly rising euro, victimized by an undervalued US dollar and Chinese yuan, could threaten eurozone recovery and vowed to press both Washington and Beijing to take action.
India warned that imbalances in the global economy have become "unsustainable" but called on major economies to avoid confrontation to avert a feared currency war.
On Thursday Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, speaking ahead of a meeting of top economic policymakers in Washington, said that building an international consensus was the best way forward.
But reaching that consensus appears to be an uphill struggle.
Youssef Boutros-Ghali, who heads the International Monetary Fund's steering committee, said a quick agreement on currency exchange rates was unlikely.
When asked if action before next month's G20 summit in Seoul was feasible, Boutros-Ghali said "this late in the game, no. But in the coming three to six months, yes absolutely."
Some are pressing for quicker action. The IMF has warned that rich and emerging economies must dramatically change the way they trade with each other or risk throttling the recovery.
In its latest economic outlook, the IMF said growth would slow more than previously expected in 2011, as the United States, Europe and Japan continue to struggle and China remains overly dependent on exports.
Wading into sensitive political waters, the IMF said China must allow its currency to strengthen to boost domestic demand and reduce its reliance on exports.
"To the extent that a stronger Chinese currency eases this process, other surplus countries in the region could follow suit, which would facilitate the needed shift towards domestic sources of growth."
As part of that rebalancing IMF members are also expected to discuss how to reform decision-making at the fund, giving more say to emerging and developing economies.
Europe, seen as a major loser from the reshuffle, has been reluctant to reduce its voting share or representation on the IMF's decision-making board.
European finance ministers last week agreed to review representation at the Washington-based international lender, but attached significant conditions.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101008/bs_afp/imfeconomyforex

A woman weeps over the coffin containing the body Obama's exit strategy from Iraq under threat once again of her nine-year-old son

A woman weeps over the coffin containing the body of her nine-year-old son at his funeral in Najaf, south of Baghdad, Iraq. As the US winds up combat operations in Iraq this month, terror has returned to the country. Photograph: Alaa Al-Marjani/AP
Watches this Obama's exit strategy from Iraq under threat once again
Christopher Hill's departure from Iraq after a stint as US ambassador has eerie parallels with that of Paul Bremer, with both leaving the country at a tipping point
For the second time since the fall of Baghdad, America's main man in Iraq has ended a year-long stay by talking up a country on the wrong side of a tipping point. US ambassador Christopher Hill's departure last weekend was a much lower-profile exit than the dash to the airport in 2004 of unpopular post-invasion viceroy Paul Bremer, but it did have eerie parallels.

Bremer left claiming he had helped make Iraq sovereign and to establish the foundations of a functional state. His prophecy was in tatters long before George W Bush gave him America's highest civilian honour, for his role in running post-Saddam Iraq in the shambolic early days of the occupation.

Hill arrived in Iraq 16 months ago on a mission to turn things around. Sectarian chaos had ravaged the country in the interim. Bush's democratic project here looked stillborn, far from being central to the birth pangs of a new Middle East. And, more important for a US diplomat, America's standing both in the region and around the world had taken a pounding.

Like Bremer, Hill also claims to have made gains. But in mid-2010, it is difficult to find any trend or tangible evidence to support his optimism. Indeed, the country looks in worse shape than when Hill arrived.

Over the past month, US officials have been trying hard to push the incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and Iyad Allawi, the man who edged him out in a general election five months ago, into a power-sharing arrangement that would end a dangerous political deadlock.

Like a pair of bull walruses fighting, neither man has given ground as the fragile security gains of the past two years threaten to unravel. At the same time, the mood on the street has palpably soured.

Throughout this most brutal of summers (where the daytime temperature in Baghdad has rarely been below 48C), Iraqis have been getting by with around four hours per day of electricity (usually too weak to run more than one air conditioner). Even more concerning is the creeping return of terror; almost daily assassinations, a spike in bombings and rocket fire. This was not the way it was supposed to be when the conquerors left town.

The US-sponsored deal would mean Maliki could hang on to the prime minister's chair, but with diluted powers, while Allawi would take a newly formed position as head of a national security council, which would give him an executive overlord role across the security forces.

All stakeholders here were thought to have been satisfied. In Allawi, the restive Sunni centre of the country would get a strongman who had their interests at heart. His return to real power would also likely win over Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran, meanwhile, was believed to be appeased by the reinstallation of Maliki and his Shia Islamic backers.

Last week, however, the proposal somehow found itself back on the drawing board. Not for the first time had the machinations of power-sharing confounded those who come here to make sense of it all. All sides seem to have retreated to positions that are not far beyond the postures they struck shortly after the results of the 7 March poll, which gave Allawi a narrow 91 to 89 seat victory, but in need of a coalition to help him form a government in the 325-seat parliament.

After much post-poll jousting, the ballot was deemed to have been fair and transparent. Little since then has met the same standards. The intractable stalemate seems to point to far more than the stubborn wills of the two opponents. Neighbouring Iran is as much to blame; it wants to entrench Shia majority rule in the heartland of Arabia, and of Saudi Arabia, which remains horrified by such a prospect.

All of this, while Obama, his departed ambassador and a number of US generals continue to insist that their job in the land that the US has occupied for seven years is nearly done. There are many in Iraq who are far from convinced; the Sons of Iraq leadership, the chief of the Iraqi military and even Saddam Hussein's most loyal deputy, Tariq Aziz, who said Obama would leave Iraq to the wolves if he continued the pull-out.

In truth, the much-vaunted 31 August combat withdrawal deadline is largely about symbolism and emotional detachment from a war that Obama reluctantly inherited.
Coppied by http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/15/christopher-hill-iraq-obama