Archive for the ‘BBC NEWS’ Category
- In: Asia-Pacific | BBC NEWS | china | for | quake | Search | survivors
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A massive search and rescue operation is under way in south-western China after one of the most powerful earthquakes in decades.
Troops have arrived in Wenchuan county at the epicentre, which was largely cut off by the quake – but heavy rain is hampering rescue operations.
Elsewhere in Sichuan province, frantic efforts are being made to reach thousands of people under the rubble.
The death toll is now more than 12,000, officials say, and looks set to rise.
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In one city, Mianyang, near the epicentre, more than 18,000 people are said to be buried under the rubble and 3,629 have been confirmed dead, state news agency Xinhua reports.
In the nearby town of Mianzhu, at least 4,800 people are trapped under the rubble and massive landslides have buried roads to outlying villages, Xinhua says.
Premier Wen Jiabao was quick to reach the scene and urged rescuers to clear roads into the worst-hit areas as fast as possible.
“As long as there is even a little hope, we will redouble our efforts 100 times and will never relax our efforts,” he told crying locals through a loudhailer in the badly hit Dujiangyan city, south-east of the epicentre.
The health ministry has made an urgent appeal for people to give blood to help the injured.
- In: 746 | Asia-Pacific | BBC NEWS | china | for | Search | survivors
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A massive search and rescue operation is under way in south-western China after one of the most powerful earthquakes in decades.
Troops have arrived in Wenchuan county at the epicentre, which was largely cut off by the quake – but heavy rain is hampering rescue operations.
Elsewhere in Sichuan province, frantic efforts are being made to reach thousands of people under the rubble.
The death toll is now more than 12,000, officials say, and looks set to rise.
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In one city, Mianyang, near the epicentre, more than 18,000 people are said to be buried under the rubble and 3,629 have been confirmed dead, state news agency Xinhua reports.
In the nearby town of Mianzhu, at least 4,800 people are trapped under the rubble and massive landslides have buried roads to outlying villages, Xinhua says.
Premier Wen Jiabao was quick to reach the scene and urged rescuers to clear roads into the worst-hit areas as fast as possible.
“As long as there is even a little hope, we will redouble our efforts 100 times and will never relax our efforts,” he told crying locals through a loudhailer in the badly hit Dujiangyan city, south-east of the epicentre.
The health ministry has made an urgent appeal for people to give blood to help the injured.
- In: backlash | BBC NEWS | cosmetics | entertainment | in | row | Thurman
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US actress Uma Thurman is countersuing French cosmetics firm Lancome for $15m (£8m) over the use of her name and face in advertising campaigns.
Thurman, 38, claims the firm boosted its sales by allowing her image to be used on Canadian billboards and Asian web sites after her contract expired.
Thurman’s legal action follows Lancome’s on Wednesday in Manhattan.
The firm denied breach of contract and asked the judge to dismiss Thurman’s original claim for $1m (£512,000).
Until then, lawyers on both sides had been trying to come to an out-of-court agreement.
The actress’s legal case claims Lancome enhanced its “prestige, stature and bargaining power” by helping retailers and others use her in advertising after September 2004.
The company gave the “false impression” Thurman was still linked to Lancome, her case says.
It also failed to tell wholesalers and retailers to stop using the ads that feature Thurman, said her lawyer Bertram Fields.
“Celebrities will now be careful about doing deals with Lancome,” he told Reuters.
“They continued to use her photographs long after the contract was over.”
- In: 'staggering' | BBC NEWS | Food | on | scale | UK | waste
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People are needlessly throwing away 3.6m tonnes of food each year in England and Wales, research suggests.
The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) found that salad, fruit and bread were most commonly wasted and 60% of all dumped food was untouched.
The study analysed the waste disposed of by 2,138 households.
Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said the findings were “staggering” at a time of global food shortages and WRAP added it was an environmental issue.
‘Value of food’
The study found that £9bn of avoidable food waste was disposed of in England and Wales each year.
It is mostly food that could have been consumed if it had been better stored or managed, or had not been left uneaten on a plate.
Much of that food waste goes into landfill rather than into council food disposal and composting programmes, it said.
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 There are climate change costs to all of us of growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and refrigerating food that only ends up in the bin  Joan Ruddock, Environment Minister
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Based on the data for England and Wales, WRAP estimated that householders across the UK throw away £10.2bn of avoidable food waste every year.
Using the same extrapolation, they also estimated the average UK household needlessly throws away 18% of all food purchased. Families with children throw away 27%.
The study also suggested £1bn worth of food wasted in the UK was still “in date”.
Nearly a quarter, in terms of cost, was disposed of because the “use by” or “best before” date had expired.
Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, said food waste had “a significant environmental impact.
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“What shocked me the most was the cost of our food waste at a time of rising food bills, and generally a tighter pull on our purse strings,” Ms Goodwin said.
“It highlights that this is an economic and social issue, as well as about how much we understand the value of our food.”
Yoghurts and chickens
The study also found that:
- Bakery goods made up 19%, by weight, of all avoidable food waste. Vegetables contributed 18%.
- Meat and fish also made up a large proportion – 18% – of the total money wasted on food. WRAP said 5,500 whole chickens were thrown away each day in the UK.
- “Mixed foods” like ready meals made up 21% of the total cost of waste, with 440,000 thrown away each day.
- The two most significantly wasted foods that could have been eaten were potatoes and bread
- Yoghurt was a commonly abandoned product, with an estimated 1.3m unopened pots disposed of each day.
- In: 'brain drain' | BBC NEWS | denies | Google | staff | technology
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Google has denied there is a brain drain of talent at the firm following the departure of its communications boss to social network Facebook.
Elliot Schrage’s departure as head of global communications and public affairs is the latest in a string of senior Google staff to have quit.
Google spokesman Matt Furman said: “Elliot was a valued member of the Google team and we wish him well.”
He added: “We have a deep management pool at Google.”
The Mountain View company says it gets 1,300 resumes every day. That adds up to nearly a half a million a year from people who want to come and work at the Googleplex HQ, famed for its free gourmet lunches and on site massages.
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg clearly sees its latest recruit as something of a coup, telling staff in an email: “Hey everyone. I am writing to you from India to share the really good news that Elliot Schrage will be joining our management team.”
“This is a really important role for us and one that we’ve been trying to find the right person for a while.”
“Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness and honest internal communications.”
Exodus
In the last few months those that have jumped ship to Facebook from Google include leading executives such as Sheryl Sandberg, who is now the network’s chief operating officer, following time as vice president of global sales at Google.
Is the Google campus losing its allure?
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Other hires from Google to Facebook include Ben Ling who is now director of platform product marketing and Ethan Beard, a former director of social media and now director of business development.
Gideon Yu was previously the chief financial officer (CFO) at YouTube who left shortly after Google acquired it in 2006 and has moved to Facebook to become its CFO.
Facebook has even managed to poach a Google executive chef, Josef Desimone.
A host of other senior engineers and managers have also left in recent months. Some have gone on to start up their own companies or join other early stage ventures such as Zillow, FriendFeed, Twitter and Xobni.
Such defections are being seen by some recruiters in a partially negative light.
John Pulsipher, president of Silicon Valley recruitment firm Wollborg/Michelson, told BBC News: “It does of course not look very good for Google.”
He added: “But for a start up company it’s great. They are always going to be attracted to the big names that helped take a start up like Google to the top.
“They are seen as stars given where they came from. They are like artists who have had a hit song and are also expected to have a hit song the next time out.”
The Google of yesterday
So why has Google lost something of its cachet among the technorati workforce?
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Facebook is hot just now but everybody knows that hot can get cold John Pulsipher, Silicon Valley recruiter
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Some commentators have noted that it is no longer the firm it once was.
Far from being a search engine firm with idealistic goals to ‘do no evil’, it has morphed into a behemoth that rivals other large tech companies.
It now has 16,800 employees worldwide. And the opportunities to strike it rich have diminished. Google’s stock option package is not as tempting as it once was now that shares are trading close to $600.
Perhaps more importantly for some, Google no longer has that “anything goes” approach that most start ups possess.
- In: aid | Asia-Pacific | BBC NEWS | Burma | effort | The
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As the scale of the devastation in Burma becomes apparent, several organisations are working to bring relief to the survivors. Below are details of some of the efforts both inside and outside Burma.
The UN has promised to release $10m from its Central Emergency Relief Fund. A four-person disaster assessment team has received visas for Burma.
World Food Programme
WFP has four aircraft ready to fly into Burma. Two contain a total of 25 tons of high-energy biscuits. A third is stocked with more biscuits and portable storage tents. A fourth is carrying UN emergency response equipment. They are awaiting permission to land in Burma.
WFP’s in-country staff have already distributed 90 tons of rice to victims of the cyclone. But WFP says many people do not have equipment needed to cook rice, which is why getting the nutrient-rich biscuits in is so important.
UNHCR
People are waiting across southern Burma for supplies to arrive
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The UN refugee agency plans to deliver supplies via the crossing at Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border.
Plastic sheets and tents capable of housing 10,000 people will be sent via truck to cyclone-hit areas, once permission for the border crossing is received.
Unicef
Personnel on the ground have been distributing pre-positioned supplies such as water purifying solutions, rehydration salts, tarpaulins and family kits, which include cooking equipment.
Red Cross
Twenty-seven thousand volunteers are already involved in the relief operation under the auspices of the Burmese Red Cross.
Many people have lost their homes and have no access to shelter
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A regional disaster manager is in the country and two more experts are due in. The first consignment of supplies – shelter kits – is due to be flown from Kuala Lumpur to Rangoon today. Eight tons of additional relief supplies – tarpaulins and jerry cans – are also to be sent on a commercial flight tonight.
A number of visas for officials are pending in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
Save the Children
In-country staff have distributed basic necessities such as water, rice, salt and cooking oil to 50,000 people in Rangoon township, 9,000 of them children.
A convoy carrying food, water and plastic sheets is making its way on trucks and boats into the delta region – further decisions will be made on the basis of what that convoy finds.
The organisation is seeking permission to bring in supplies from Thailand and Indonesia. It also wants to increase its staffing capacity.
Medecins Sans Frontieres
In-country teams have distributed plastic sheeting, jerry cans and fuel for water pumps to some 5,000 people. Teams have also given food rations for one week to 1,000 people in the Twantey area west of Rangoon.
MSF is seeking visas for 20 international staff, and a cargo plane carrying 40 tons of first aid materials, plastic sheeting and other goods is ready to leave from Europe.
Merlin
The British medical aid agency is going to use a 180ft river cruiser to deliver medical supplies to areas of the delta.
The boat is due to dock in Laputta on Sunday and then function as a warehouse and a hospital, including emergency operation units. Supplies to stock the boat are being flown out.
Several countries have flown supplies in to Burma
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India has already sent in two aircraft loaded with food, tents, blankets and drinking water. Two ships carrying supplies have also reached Rangoon. The supplies will be handed over to Burmese authorities for delivery.
China has sent a plane carrying 60 tons of aid to Rangoon. Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh, Laos and Indonesia have all flown in emergency supplies.
Several other nations, including the US and France, say they are ready to act if the government gives its approval.
- In: Alarm | At | BBC NEWS | Google | partnering | technology | YAHOO
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Regulators in the US are being urged to investigate any potential online advertising and search partnership between Google and Yahoo.
The call by a coalition of 16 American civil rights and rural advocacy bodies comes despite the fact no firm deal has actually been announced.
“We all suffer in such mega mergers,” Gary Flowers of the Black Leadership Forum told BBC News.
The justice department is examining a trial the companies did in April.
It has been widely reported that it is looking into the anti-trust implications of last month’s two-week test.
However, the department says it has no comment on the coalition’s demands because there is no definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google at the moment.
But reports say that the two companies are presently hammering out the intricacies of a future potential advertising and search agreement, and are sharing their plans with antitrust regulators.
At Google’s shareholder meeting on Thursday, Chairman Eric Schmidt said: “If there were a deal [with Yahoo], we would anticipate structuring the deal to address the anti-trust concerns that have been widely discussed.”
‘Never positive’
This assurance is not good enough for the coalition which is made up of the League of Rural Voters, the National Black Chamber of Commerce and the American Agriculture Movement.
It also includes the Black Leadership Forum, an umbrella group of 36 civil rights organisations including the NAACP and the National Urban League.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thoma Barnett, head of the Justice Department’s anti-trust division, the coalition argues that such a deal would give Google almost 90% of the search advertising market and strengthen its influence over internet users’ access to information.
“We face a possible future in which no content could be seamlessly accessed without Google’s permission,” the letter states.
The effect Mr Flowers says of such large partnerships is never positive and would for the black community, as for other communities, “condense competition, increase prices and limit new business opportunity on the internet”.
‘Do no evil’
League of Rural Voters’ executive director Niel Ritchie claims that the do-no-evil mantra may no longer apply in today’s marketplace in which Google’s reach is apparently without bound, touching more and more aspects of our everyday lives.
“We believe the government should give this agreement very careful scrutiny,” he says.
Microsoft has appealed against a 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) fine given for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.
The penalty – the largest ever from the European Commission – came after it failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that it abused its market position.
The ruling said that Microsoft was guilty of not providing key code to rival software makers.
Microsoft said it was appealing to seek “clarity from the court”.
The Commission said that it was confident the fine was “legally sound”.
Freezing out rivals
The challenge has been lodged with the EU Court of First Instance.
When they handed down the punishment in February, EU regulators said Microsoft was the first to break an EU anti-trust ruling.
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DISPUTE TIMELINE
March 2004: EU fines Microsoft 497m euros and orders it to release key Windows code to rival software developers
September 2004: Microsoft tries to have the ruling temporarily suspended
April 2006: Microsoft appeals against the ruling in the European Court of First Instance
September 2007: Microsoft loses its appeal
February 2008: EU imposes 899m euros fine on Microsoft for defying sanctions
May 2008: Microsoft appeals the fine, “seeking clarity”
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The fines came on top of earlier fines of 280m euros imposed in July 2006, and of 497m euros in March 2004.
An investigation concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in products such as media players, while unfairly linking its Explorer internet browser to its Windows operating system at the expense of rival servers.
The European Court of First Instance upheld this ruling last year, which ordered Microsoft to pay 497m euros for abusing its dominant market position.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would open up the technology of some of its leading software, including Windows, to make it easier to operate with rivals’ products.
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