■ United States
FEMA slots filled
The Bush administration moved on Thursday to fill four senior management slots at the troubled Federal Emergency Management Agency. R. David Paulison, who has been acting director since shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit, was nominated for the top post. The nomination of Paulison, who must be confirmed by the Senate, came only after an extensive search for a successor to Michael Brown, who resigned in September after criticism of the agency's response to Katrina. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday that he is now convinced that Paulison, 59, is the right person to take over FEMA. Before joining FEMA in 2001 as the US fire administrator, Paulison had spent almost his entire career at the fire department in Miami-Dade, Florida, working his way up from rescue firefighter in 1971 to chief by 1992.
■ United states
Virus used for tiny machines
Researchers trying to make tiny machines have turned to the power of nature, engineering a virus to attract metals and then using it to build minute wires for microscopic batteries. The resulting nanowires can be used in minuscule lithium ion battery electrodes, which in turn would be used to power very small machines, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The international team of researchers, led by a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, used the M13 virus, a simple and easily manipulated virus.
■ Djibouti
Boat capsizes in harbor
A boat carrying passengers to a traditional festival capsized off the coast on Thursday killing at least 69 people, an adviser to the president said. Many more were missing and feared dead, Ismael Tani, an adviser to President Ismail Umar Guelleh, said. He said the boat overturned in a harbor at about midday and ``was probably overloaded.'' Tani said officials believed more than 200 people were on board the vessel. Djibouti, a Horn of Africa nation bordering Eritrea and Somalia, hosts the only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa. The US has offered Djibouti assistance, a US public affairs officer from the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa said on Thursday.
RSS