NEWS,22.6.2013

9/11 victim identified 12 years later

A 43-year-old woman killed in the 11 September attacks in New York has been identified, bringing the total number of identified victims to 1 636, authorities said on Friday.
"The identification was made by retesting of remains recovered during the original recovery" in World Trade Center debris, said Ellen Borakove, a spokesperson for the office of the chief medical examiner.
She said the office will not release the woman's name at the request of the family.
A total of 2 753 people were reported missing in the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, when al-Qaeda hijackers flew two airliners into the Twin Towers.
A third plane was flown into the Pentagon, while a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after its passengers tried to overpower the hijackers.
To date, only 59% of the New York victims have been identified and no trace has been found of the remaining 41%.
A new search for human remains was launched near the site in April after a piece of plane wreckage was found stuck between two buildings. But no new remains were found.

Snowden extradition could take years

Attempts to extradite ex-intelligence technician Edward Snowden, charged with espionage by US authorities, will result in a protracted legal battle in Hong Kong that could last years, experts said on Saturday.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that retained a separate legal system when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, has a long-standing extradition treaty with the US, but Beijing has the potential to veto any ruling.
However Beijing has appeared to distance itself from any decision on the possible extradition of Snowden, who is in hiding in the southern Chinese city after blowing the lid on vast US surveillance programmes targeting phone calls and Internet traffic.
Hong Kong officials remained tight-lipped on Saturday as to whether they will hold Snowden a day after Washington charged the former CIA contractor with espionage, theft and "conversion of government property".
Hong Kong lawmaker Alan Leong said that if local authorities proceed with extradition, it could result in a lengthy legal battle.
"If every appeal opportunity is taken, I suppose the process will last between three and five years" at the very least, he told AFP.
The case could possibly drag "through at least the magistrates' court, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal. So, at least three levels of (Hong Kong) courts," he said.
Snowden can claim fears of political persecution and ask for political asylum, which will buy him time, said Christopher Gane, the dean of law school of Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"If the court decides this man cannot be sent back, this is the end of it. He can't be sent back," he told AFP.
"But if the court decides he could be sent back, it is still up to the Hong Kong chief executive to decide whether to do so. This is when all kinds of possible considerations can come in," Gane said.
Experts have claimed that Snowden is testing Hong Kong's civil liberties under its "one country, two systems" framework by retreating to the former British colony.
Snowden has exposed details on vast US surveillance operations, leaking documents that appear to show huge quantities of private telephone and Internet data, such as emails and call records, have been scooped up with little or no judicial oversight.
The revelations have embarrassed US President Barack Obama's administration, which was forced to defend US intelligence agencies practice of gathering huge amounts of telephone and Internet data from private users around the world.
Snowden has warned more leaks were on the way, declaring: "Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped."

Brazilian president breaks silence

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed to battle corruption while improving government services as she acknowledged the anger that has led to vast, sometimes violent protests across Latin America's largest country.

Friday's nationally broadcast 10-minute address ended Rousseff's much-criticised silence in the face of demonstrations that have roiled the nation for more than a week, and were projected to continue on Saturday.
She said she planned to soon meet with leaders of the protest movement, governors and the mayors of major cities. But it remained unclear who could represent the massive and decentralised groups of demonstrators taking to the streets, venting anger over a range of grievances, including woeful public services despite a high tax burden.
Rousseff said that her government would create a national plan for public transportation in cities. Officials in many cities have already backed down from the hike in bus and subway fares that set off the protests. She also reiterated her backing for a plan before congress to invest all oil revenue royalties in education and a promise she made earlier to bring in foreign doctors to areas that lack physicians.
"I want institutions that are more transparent, more resistant to wrongdoing," Rousseff said in reference to complaints of deep corruption in Brazilian politics, which is emerging as a focal point of the protests. "It's citizenship and not economic power that must be heard first."
Marxist rebel
The leader is a Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, and she pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship.
"My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard," Rousseff said. "Many were persecuted, tortured and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can't be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers."
Edvaldo Chaves, a 61-year-old doorman in Rio's upscale Flamengo neighbourhood, said he found the speech convincing.
"I thought she seemed calm and cool. Plus, because she was a guerrilla and was in exile, she talks about the issue of protests convincingly," Chaves said. "I think things are going to calm down. We'll probably keep seeing people in the streets but probably small numbers now."
But Bruna Romao, an 18-year-old store clerk in Sao Paulo, said Rousseff's words probably wouldn't have an impact.
"Brazilians are passionate," she said. "We boil over quickly but also cool down fast. But this time it's different, people are in full revolt. I don't see things calming down anytime soon."
Some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets nationwide Thursday night to denounce everything from poor public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Protests continue
The protests continued Friday, as about 1 000 people marched in western Rio de Janeiro city, with some looting stores and invading a $250 million arts centre that remains empty after several years of construction. Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas as they were pelted with rocks. Police said some in the crowd were armed and firing at officers.
Other protests broke out in the country's biggest city, Sao Paulo, where traffic was paralyzed but no violence was reported, and in Fortaleza in the country's northeast. Demonstrators were calling for more mobilizations in 10 cities on Saturday.
With Pope Francis scheduled to visit Brazil next month, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops issued a statement expressing "solidarity and support for the demonstrations, as long as they remain peaceful."
"This is a phenomenon involving the Brazilian people and the awakening of a new consciousness," the Catholic leaders said in the statement. "The protests show all of us that we cannot live in a country with so much inequality."
Rousseff had never held elected office before she became president in 2011 and remains clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight. A career technocrat and economist, she was helped into the presidency by her mentor, the tremendously popular former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Marlise Matos, a political science professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, said before Rousseff spoke that officials need to take stronger action.
"The government has to respond, even if the agenda seems unclear and wide open," she said. "It should be the president herself who should come out and provide a response. But I think the government is still making strategic calculations to decide how to respond. What I'd like to see as a response is a call for a referendum on political reform. Let the people decide what kind of political and electoral system we have."
Social media buzzing
Social media and mass emails were buzzing with calls for a general strike next week. However, Brazil's two largest nationwide unions, the Central Workers Union and the Union Force, said they knew nothing about such an action, though they do support the protests.
A Thursday night march in Sao Paulo was the first with a strong union presence, as a drum corps led members wearing matching shirts down the city's main avenue. Many protesters have called for a movement with no ties to political parties or unions, which are widely considered corrupt here.
The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, with tens of thousands of foreign visitors in attendance.
Carlos Cardozo, a 62-year-old financial consultant who joined Friday's protest in Rio, said he thought the unrest could cost Rousseff next year's elections. Even as recently as last week, Rousseff had enjoyed a 74 percent approval rating in a poll by the business group the National Transport Confederation.
"Her paying lip service by saying she's in favour of the protests is not helping her cause," Cardozo said. "People want to see real action, real decisions, and it's not this government that's capable of delivering."

Calgary to be shut for days after flood

Southern Alberta braced for more disruption on Saturday from floods that have killed at least two people, forced about 100 000 people from their homes and blacked out the centre of Canada's oil capital, Calgary.
Communities to the south and east of Calgary were put on high alert as the flood waters moved across the region. But with rainfall easing up, authorities were hopeful that the worst might now be over.
"It's morning in Calgary! Sunny, water levels are down, and our spirit remains strong," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said on Twitter. "We're not out of this, but maybe have turned (the) corner."
The floods followed some 36 hours of unusually heavy rainfall - some communities received six months of their normal rainfall in less than two days.
Evacuations started on Thursday, both in Calgary and in smaller cities across the south of the province. Utility Enmax switched off power to central Calgary late on Friday afternoon lest water damage its downtown facilities.
Calgary was unable to say how much it would cost to repair flooded homes and rebuild roads and bridges washed away by the murky brown floodwater.
But the floods are already shaping up to be significantly worse than those of 2005, which caused C$400 million in damage after three big storms struck in a single week.
The bulk of the evacuations were in Calgary, a city of 1.1 million that is home to Canada's biggest energy companies, with up to 100 000 people ordered to leave their homes. The city urged drivers to stay off the roads, and warned people not to get too close to the raging rivers.
Canada's oil producing region, way to the north of the city, was not affected, although some agricultural regions were flooded, with likely damage to crops that include wheat and canola.
"A lot of Albertans have faced disasters the likes of which the majority of us could never imagine," Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths told a news conference.
The bodies of two men were found near High River, Alberta, a town of 13,000 located about 60 km (37 miles) south of Calgary. Police said two other people were missing.
In Calgary authorities said the Bow and Elbow Rivers had crested and water levels were expected to drop over the next few days. But the Bow was still flowing at around five times its normal rate on Saturday.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place in more than 20 parts of Calgary including the downtown core.
Nenshi said downtown, where many of Canada's oil companies have their headquarters, could be off limits until Wednesday.
Moving home
A spokesman for Imperial Oil, Canada's second-largest producer and refiner, said the company was working on plans to maintain essential operations, including allowing employees to work from other locations.
Shorcan Energy Brokers, which provides live prices for many Canadian crude grades, operated out of Toronto on Friday rather than at its usual Calgary base, although no trades in either Western Canada Select heavy blend or light synthetic crude from the oil sands took place.
Net Energy Inc, the other main Calgary crude broker, was closed on Friday and no trading took place.
Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said there was still a chance of another surge in the Bow and Elbow rivers, but city authorities hoped people could move back to their communities as water levels fell.
Many roads and bridges remained closed, and residents were urged to conserve drinking water because treatment plants are taking more time to process the sludgy water.
The parts of Calgary under water included the grounds of the annual Calgary Stampede, which is due to start on July 5.
Burrell said the city would be working hard to restore Stampede Park in time for the rodeo, but it was not a priority.