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Philippines cleans up after
typhoon kills 14
MANILA: Philippine authorities yesterday
scrambled to restore power and repair damage
after Typhoon Mirinae smashed into the storm-
weary nation, killing at least 14 people.
A day after Mirinae brought heavy rains
and winds, crews were clearing roads of fallen
trees and power lines in the capital Manila and
nearby areas.
Efforts were being made to repair four
bridges that collapsed in urban areas south of
Manila, while power was slowly being restored
to most of the 22 towns that were blacked out at
the height of the typhoon, the Red Cross said.
“We have been told that power in most
areas has been restored and in terms of
flooding, the waters receded within hours,”
national Red Cross secretary general Gwen
Pang said.
She said a pre-emptive evacuation of about
115,000 people in the typhoon’s direct path
to safer ground days ahead of its landfall had
meant fewer casualties compared with two
recent deadly storms.
As of early yesterday, Mirinae had weakened
and was located 450km southwest of Manila in
the South China Sea, the weather bureau said.
In its latest update yesterday noon, Manila’s
National Disaster Coordinating Council said
the typhoon left “remarkably less damage to
lives and properties” compared to two recent
typhoons.
Tropical Storm Ketsana, which caused mas-
sive flooding on Sept 26, and Typhoon Parma,
which hit a week later, together killed more
than 1,100 people.
“People were more prepared and more or
Republicans eye revenge in off-year elections
NEW YORK: Republicans are looking to wound
President Barack Obama’s Democrats tomorrow
in three closely fought elections seen as barom-
eters of a vital battle for Congress next year.
In the governor’s race in Virginia – where
Obama caused a sensation last year in becoming
the first Democratic presidential contender to win
since 1964 – Republican Bob McDonnell looks set
to defeat Democrat Creigh Deeds.
New Jersey’s Democratic governor Bob Cor-
zine, meanwhile, faces a nail-biting finale in an
less knew what to do,” Pang said. “They did not
wait until it was too late to evacuate and were
quickly moved away from harm’s way to safer
ground.”
She said most of the more than 5,000 people
who had moved into temporary shelters as
Typhoon Mirinae lashed the main island of
Luzon had begun trickling back to their homes
as the weather cleared yesterday.
However, relief and rehabilitation efforts
Filipinos wade through flood waters in Santa Cruz town in Laguna province on Saturday.
ugly race against former Republican prosecu-
tor Chris Christie, who is vying to overturn
the state’s traditional Democratic form.
A smaller but intriguing contest takes
place in New York State’s 23rd congres-
sional district, where an outsider from the
tiny Conservative Party could win an upset
after campaigning to the right of the official
Republican candidate.
The results will be closely watched – and
spun – by both sides as a test of Obama’s
standing one year after his election and of
the Republican Party’s progress in returning
from the political cold.
While little depends directly on tomor-
row’s outcome, the races are an opening
salvo in 2010 midterm elections, when the
entire House of Representatives, a third of
the Senate and two thirds of gubernatorial
posts are up for grabs.
A solid Democratic performance – win-
Sweden’s far-right makes its mark
STOCKHOLM: With less than a year to go before
Sweden’s general elections, a small far-right party
has grabbed the headlines as it makes a strong
push to enter parliament for the first time.
The Sweden Democrats party has dominated
radio and television debates for more than a week,
as the country’s political establishment has vowed
in unison to fight the party’s rising influence.
Recent polls have suggested the Sweden
Democrats have enough voter support to enter
parliament in the September 2010 election,
surpassing the 4% required after slowly building
up a grassroots movement and trying to clean up
its image as a party with a purely anti-immigrant
platform.
But an incendiary piece written by the party
leader in Sweden’s highest circulating daily Afton-
bladet has stirred up a political storm, igniting a
debate about whether to marginalise the far-right
or expose it to scrutiny.
Jimmie Aakesson, 30, claimed “today’s multi-
cultural Swedish power elite is completely blind
to the dangers of Islam and Islamisation”.
Daycare centres banning pork and gender-
EARTHREPORT
Week Ending Oct 30
will continue for the 87,000 people still packed
into evacuation centres whose homes were
destroyed by Ketsana and Parma, Pang said.
Even before Mirinae hit, outlying districts
that are home to more than a million people
were expected to remain flooded into the New
Year, raising concern among health experts of
an outbreak of disease.
“We are moving into the early recovery
stage, looking at shelter requirements as well
as the medical concerns of these people.”
Cerge Remonde, a spokesman for President
Gloria Arroyo, said: “We thank our people for
cooperating and by being more disaster-con-
scious. Let us be henceforth more aggressive in
disaster preparedness.” – AFP
EPAPIX
ning in New Jersey and New York – would
steady Obama’s party at a time of bitter, par-
tisan debate over health care, the recession
and the war in Afghanistan.
However, Republican victory in New
Jersey and the swing state of Virginia, as
well as possibly New York, would hand
the beleaguered GOP an important morale
boost, University of Virginia professor Larry
Sabato said.
Obama and the Democrats are in a popu-
larity slump 12 months after seizing control
of Washington in the 2008 general election.
But Republicans have yet to show they
have found a formula for their own future
– not just in 2010, but when it comes to the
grand prize of the White House in 2012.
An internal struggle over whether to focus
on the party’s conservative base or to move to
the centre has been laid bare in the New York
congressional race. – AFP
segregated swimming times were examples of
this “Islamisation”, he said, vowing to stop Swe-
den’s “greatest foreign threat since the Second
World War”.
The party, formed in 1988 and which Aakesson
has headed since 2005, has in the past few years
insisted that its platform is not solely focused
on immigration. And Aakesson argues he is not
against Islam itself or Muslim immigration.
“They can come as Muslims ... that is to-
tally okay. But they can’t demand that I, or other
Swedes, adapt to how they want to live. Muslims
have to adapt to how we live in Sweden,” he said
on a televised debate.
The country of nine million is home to an
estimated 350,000 Muslims. There are a total of
800,000 immigrants, and 20% of the population
is of foreign descent.
Sweden is the only Nordic country where no
far-right party is represented in parliament, a
strong contrast to neighbouring Denmark where
the minority government relies on the crucial
informal support of the Danish People’s Party.
– AFP
| MONDAY NOVEMBER 2 2009
Coral ark
SCIENTISTS are proposing a last-ditch scheme
to save the world’s coral from disappearing due
to climate change and freezing samples so that
reefs can be reseeded if and when the climate is
stabilised. Many marine biologists have warned
that the world’s coral reefs, and the biodiversity
they support, will disappear by the end of the
century if the predicted rise in temperatures
occurs. “Unless something very remarkable
happens during December’s climate talks, the
world’s reefs will be reduced to slime-covered
rubble by 2050,” Alex Rogers of the London-
based Institute of Zoology told The Observer.
Collecting coral specimens and preserving them
in cryogenic vaults was one of the ways to cope
with climate change discussed at a meeting in
Copenhagen by the group Global Legislators
Organisation for a Balanced Environment. Most
attending the gathering agreed that there is
little chance that the world’s governments will
agree to a plan stringent enough to prevent the
predicted rise in temperatures this century.
A choking comeback
SMOG levels in Hongkong have returned to
the same record high level registered in 2000,
prompting warnings from the city's Environ-
mental Protection Department for people with
heart or respiratory illnesses. Air pollution from
a cluster of factories in southern China had
dipped over the past year due to the global eco-
nomic slowdown. But the smog has returned to
Hongkong over the past two months as those
factories in neighboring Guangdong province
ramped up production to match an increased
demand for goods.
Wineries head south
A LEADING economic consulting firm says
that some of Chile's leading wine producers
may have to move their vineyards farther
south as climate change makes their current
locations too dry and warm. A Pricewater-
houseCoopers study warns that ideal climatic
conditions needed for grape growing will shift
to higher latitudes due to a 30% reduction in
rainfall and an expected temperature rise of
-18.3° C across established production areas.
The Santiago Times reports that famed brands
such as Vina Morande have already begun
planting vines around Lake Llanquihue, about
800km south of the country's primary grape-
growing region.
Taiwan ex-VP accuses
China of blocking Egypt trip
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s former vice-president has
accused China of blocking her visit to Egypt
for an international forum.
Annette Lu, of the pro-independence
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), now in
the opposition, was scheduled to speak at
the Liberal International congress in Cairo
over the weekend, the Apple Daily said.
But Lu, who had a visa to the country,
was notified by the Egyptian authorities that
she would not be allowed in, the report said
yesterday, citing unnamed sources.
“Of course this has something to do with
Beijing,” she told the paper. – AFP
Russian police detain 50
at human rights protest
MOSCOW: Russian police said they detained
at least 50 people on Saturday at an unsanc-
tioned human rights protest in central Mos-
cow, but protesters put the number higher.
Police dragged off dozens of people to
waiting buses and jostled scores of report-
ers towards metal barriers while protesters
continued to chant “Freedom!” and “Respect
the constitution!”
“I want Russia to be free, not to rot in a
policeman’s nightmare,” said a protester in
a black mask who declined to be name for
fear of reprisals.
Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryu-
kov said about 50 people had been detained
at the protest which he said was attended by
about 100 people and 100 reporters.
Opposition activists said about 70 people
had been detained and that 500 people had
showed up. – AFP