Hundreds of delegates to a UN conference on disasters put the final touches on a pact yesterday that was to reflect strong support for the world body to create a tsunami alert system and help poor nations gird against cyclones, floods and other natural calamities.
But disputes over the wording of the document have underscored differences over just what causes such disasters.
PHOTO: AFP
The five-day meeting that wraps up today in Kobe had been reorganized to focus on finding money and sketching out details for a tsunami warning system for southern Asia, following the Dec. 26 earthquake and killer waves that hammered the Asian and African coastlines. Figures for the number of dead vary widely, from 157,780 to 221,110.
On Thursday, officials from the richest nations pledged roughly US$8 million to begin work on a new tsunami alert network in the Indian Ocean, expected to cost US$30 million and be operational by the middle of next year. A tsunami network in the Pacific, set up in 1965, now protects some 26 nations.
Scientists and officials have agreed on the merits of an Indian Ocean system, which could have allowed coastal residents to flee to safety had it been in place last month. Many support setting up a network that also monitors the Mediterranean, Caribbean and other parts of the globe.
However, they have disagreed about other issues on the conference agenda.
The 25-nation EU has backed poor island nations threatened by storms and rising ocean waters in pushing for a UN action plan -- expected to be adopted at the Kobe conference -- that would refer to climate change as a possible cause of future natural disasters.
But the US delegation, along with officials from Australia and Canada, has demanded that those references be deleted. Negotiations late on Thursday lasted into the early morning hours of yesterday.
"Climate change has become a very political issue," said Maryam Golnaraghi, who heads disaster-prevention at the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization.
A UN-organized group of scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in a recent assessment of climate science that rising global temperatures could lead to more extreme weather patterns that trigger cyclones and droughts.
Scientists attribute the trend to higher levels of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases that occur naturally but have been boosted by factories and cars that burn fossil fuels.
The Kyoto Protocol, which takes effect Feb. 16, aims to limit emissions of those gases, which can trap heat in the atmosphere. US President George W. Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, however, citing economic concerns.
Salvano Briceno, who heads the UN action plan for preventing disasters, played down the battle over the "framework for action." The draft document had cited climate change as a factor in natural disasters and called for officials to identify "climate-related disaster risks."
"It is not the intention of the US or any of the other nations to delete reference to climate change. The issue was whether it [climate change] should be referred to so many times," Briceno, director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, told reporters on Thursday.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS