Record for S Africa rhino killing

3 November 2011 Last updated at 06:01 ET

The demand for rhino horns has lead to record poaching this year in South Africa, wildlife charity WWF has said.

Figures from South Africa National Parks show 341 rhinos have been killed so far in 2011, already outstripping last year's record total of 333.

WWF says the spike in poaching in Africa and South Asia is largely caused by increased demand for rhino horn in Vietnamese traditional medicine.

Poachers saw off a darted rhino's horn, leaving the animal to bleed to death.

In the five years up to 2005, an average of 36 rhinos were killed each year in South Africa.

The WWF said law enforcement efforts were increasing, but were not sufficient to stop the smuggling and sale of their horns by organised crime rings.

South Africa has been the focal point of poaching because it has the largest population of rhinos in the world, with 1,916 black rhinos and 18,780 white rhinos, the conservation group said.

The rhino horn trade is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and at present South Africa only allows the export of horns as hunting trophies.

WWF said improvements were needed in the regulation of hunting permits and the management of rhino horn stock piles in the country.

"Since armed protection for rhinos in South African national parks is strong, poaching syndicates are likely to shift to countries with weaker enforcement power, including possibly Asian countries that may be caught off-guard," Carlos Drews, global species programme director at WWF, warned in a statement.

South Africa's government has commissioned a study into whether legalising trade in rhino horn could help to bring down poaching.

In Vietnam many believe that ground rhino horn can be used to cure cancer - although there is no scientific proof of this - and horns taken to the the Middle East are used to make handles for ornamental daggers.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-15571678

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Canada toughens tone on Keystone approval (Reuters)

HOUSTON (Reuters) ? Canada is toughening its tone on the Keystone XL pipeline, warning the Obama administration that rejection of TransCanada Corp's $7 billion project could prompt Ottawa to concentrate on selling its oil-sands-derived crude to Asian customers instead.

"What will happen if there wasn't approval -- and we think there will be -- is that we'll simply have to intensify our efforts to sell the oil elsewhere," Joe Oliver, Canada's natural resources minister, told Reuters on Monday.

In the face of rising environmental opposition to the planned pipeline, which would carry 700,000 barrels per day of supply from Canada's oil sands projects to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Obama administration has signaled that it may miss a year-end target for approval.

Oliver said a delay by the Obama administration would not be fatal to the project, and that TransCanada has multiple options -- including customers in Asia.

"It may be other parts of the United States, it may be a rerouted pipeline, and then, of course, there's Asia," Oliver said in an interview.

The increasingly heated debate pits environmental groups and some politicians raising fears over ecological destruction against other lawmakers and TransCanada, who say the project will create jobs and bolster energy security.

"While we still hope to make a decision by the end of the year, we are first and foremost committed to a thorough, transparent and rigorous review process," a U.S. official said last week on condition of anonymity.

The ruling falls to the State Department because the line crosses national borders. The decision has already been pushed back once.

Following Environmental Protection Agency complaints about its initial analysis, the State Department said it would undertake a supplemental review.

ENERGY SUPERPOWER

Oliver said delay or disapproval of the U.S. segment would not change the fact that Canada is "a global energy superpower" with 174 billion barrels of oil reserves, the vast bulk of it in the oil sands of northern Alberta.

He argued that thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines already cross the Ogallala aquifer, the focus of environmental concern, and that Keystone would have more safeguards and newer technology than all of them.

He noted Enbridge Inc has proposed a $5.6 billion pipeline from northern Alberta to Canada's Pacific Coast to export oil to Asia, and regulatory approval is a year or a year and a half away.

That proposal is also controversial. Several native groups in British Columbia have said they will not support the line crossing their lands under any circumstances.

"What we want to do in respect to Asia, that objective is not mutually exclusive with the Keystone pipeline. We have a lot of oil and we want to get it to welcoming markets and open markets," Oliver said.

"And there are also possibilities of moving it east as well. We just have to look at the whole picture. But there would be a delay, and that wouldn't be positive for either country in our view," he said.

There have been no private assurances between the U.S. and Canadian governments that the pipeline will be approved, although analysts have suggested the Obama administration will eventually back the project.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, editing by Chris Baltimore and Dale Hudson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_keystone_oliver

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Android Market v3.3.11 APK now available, adds auto-update by default and other new settings

The latest revision of Google's Android Market app is hitting handsets now, and while it doesn't bring any new tabs for music, Android Police mentions a few changes you might find notable. Among them are the ability to select auto updating for apps as the default option, as well as a setting to auto update only when connected via to the internet via WiFi. One change stolen from Honeycomb is a setting to automatically add homescreen shortcuts for new apps, while the UI has also been tweaked with a smaller font, new app drawer icon, and voice search button. As usual, it will probably automatically appear on your device eventually, but those who can't wait can hit the source link and download the ripped APK of v3.1.11 right now.

Android Market v3.3.11 APK now available, adds auto-update by default and other new settings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena  |  Android Police  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/01/android-market-v3-3-11-apk-now-available-adds-auto-update-by-de/

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China spacecraft make first successful docking (AP)

BEIJING ? China moved one step closer to setting up its own space station early Thursday, with two spacecraft docking successfully above the earth.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said the unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 module now in orbit as China moved ahead with its most ambitious space project to date. Shenzhou 8 launched Tuesday from a base in far western China.

China launched its own space station program after being turned away in its repeated attempts to join the 16-nation International Space Station. That was largely on objections from the United States, which is wary of the Chinese space program's military links.

Xinhua said China joins the U.S. and Russia as the only countries to master the space docking technique.

In terms of technology, the launch of the Tiangong-1 places China about where the U.S. was in the 1960s during the Gemini program. But space experts have said that China progresses farther than the U.S. did with each launch it undertakes.

Experts see no explicit military function for the Chinese space station.

President Hu Jintao praised the docking in a message from France, where he is ahead of the Group of 20 summit of economic powers. Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials watched the docking from an aerospace center in Beijing, Xinhua reported.

China plans two more space missions ? at least one of them manned ? to meet up with the Tiangong 1 module next year for further practice.

Plans call for launching two other experimental modules for more tests before the actual station is launched in three sections between 2020 and 2022.

At about 60 tons when completed, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the International Space Station, which is expected to continue operating through 2028.

China launched its first manned flight in 2003, joining Russia and the United States as the only countries to launch humans into orbit. The Chinese space program also calls for one day landing on the moon, possibly with astronauts.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_re_as/as_china_space

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Pets No Longer Worth It

Cover Miss Beasley's ears, because this might disturb her: pets simply are not affordable any longer. Dogs, cats?run free! And good luck out there.

The average household in the U.S. spent $655 on routine doctor and surgical visits for dogs last year, up 47% from a decade ago, according to the American Pet Products Association. Expenditures for cats soared 73% over the same time frame-on pace with human health-care cost increases.

I mean, we'll definitely pick up a pack of Milkbones and break you guys off some when we see you out there, but from here on out, you're on your own. This is what you've always wanted, isn't it? This is a celebration. Salud. And hey, if you find a job with health insurance, come back around. We'll talk.

[WSJ, photo via Miz Fiat/Flickr]

Source: http://gawker.com/5855646/pets-no-longer-worth-it

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PFT: Tomlin says Woodley 'questionable'

AP

When Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton said he?d call a special legislative session in November to tackle once and for all the issue of a new stadium for the Vikings, many interpreted the move as a sign that a stadium would indeed be constructed.? Now, Dayton and various leaders of the Minnesota legislature have thrown a major roadblock in the path of that outcome.

According to multiple media reports, Dayton and two key members of the legislative leadership (Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers) concluded last Friday that the Legislature as a whole does not support a plan that would exempt Ramsey County or Minneapolis from a public referendum on a sales tax.? The absence of such an exemption not only puts the $350 million local contribution for the stadium effort on track to fail, but it also delays the finalization of the plan until November 2012, the earliest date on which a public vote could occur.

The move comes after elected officials in Ramsey County decided to proceed with a sales tax that would not be subject to public vote.

?Last Friday?s meeting was very significant in eliminating one proposed source of financing for a People?s Stadium in either Ramsey County or Minneapolis, unless the Vikings are willing to endure the time delay and continuing uncertainty in obtaining voters? approval,? Dayton said in a statement.? ?Given this reality, we are now actively assessing and discussing with the team other financing options.?

Needless to say, the Vikings likely are actively assessing and discussing with itself other options, including relocation.? The fact that the Vikings have yet to issue a statement on the matter essentially confirms that the next announcement could be that the team will begin to openly entertain offers from other communities.

And so, when it?s time to write the story of why the Vikings left Minnesota, point to the legislature?s decision not to allow a community whose leadership is willing to embrace a sales tax for the privilege of hosting the stadium.? All that?s left to figure out is whether the logos and the colors and the name and the records will be put into mothballs when owner Zygi Wilf moves the team to Los Angeles in 2012, where they?d play at the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum while waiting for a stadium to be built downtown or at Grand Crossing in the City of Industry.

The Vikings? Metrodome lease expires on January 1, and the Vikings have said that a new agreement won?t be executed without a final plan in place for building a new stadium.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/01/tomlin-says-lamarr-woodley-is-questionable-report-suggests-hes-out/related/

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Peru quake destroys 134 homes, injures dozens (AP)

LIMA, Peru ? Peruvian authorities said Saturday that 134 homes were destroyed and 103 people treated at hospitals for injuries during a 6.9-magnitude quake just off the central coast.

Civil defense chief Alfredo Murgueytio told The Associated Press there were no deaths and most of the collapsed homes were of adobe.

Two adobe churches also were seriously damaged, including the 18th century cathedral of the provincial capital of Ica.

The cathedral, build by Jesuits, already was weakened by a 2007 earthquake as well as temblors in 1813 and 1942. Both it and another church in Ica were too damaged to safely enter, said Alberto Bisbal, a top civil defense official.

President Ollanta Humana said he was cutting short his stay in Paraguay for the IberoAmerican summit to head directly to the quake zone, where nearly 600 people were killed in an 8.0-magnitude quake in August 2007.

Friday's quake sent people running panicked into the streets in cities that were badly damaged then.

Authorities said many people slept outside Friday night.

"The people are tense and a lot of us didn't sleep," said Cristhian Rodriguez, a vendor in Pisco, which was mostly leveled in the 2007 quake.

Murgueytio said two army engineering battalions were joining police in supporting residents who lost homes or otherwise had property damage. He estimated the number at 1,220.

At least nine aftershocks followed the Friday quake. The most significant had a 5.5 magnitude, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111029/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_peru_earthquake

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