Nearly 10,000 flights canceled since holiday blizzard began
Close to 10,000 total flights have been canceled since the beginning of a holiday blizzard that blanketed much of the U.S. northeast with snow and left thousands stranded.
Airline representatives from AirTran, American, Continental, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United, U.S. Airways, Spirit and Southwest reported a total of at least 9,726 trips were called off due to weather since Saturday.
Of those, at least 1,335 flights were canceled on Tuesday as major airports across the region slowly got back to normal.
"With all the cancellations and delays, it'll be two to three days before the airlines are at a regular schedule," said Thomas Bosco, general manager of New York's LaGuardia Airport.
By early Tuesday evening, LaGuardia was still operating well below its normal 70 flights per hour, he said.
John F. Kennedy Airport, in the New York City borough of Queens, and Newark Liberty International, in northern New Jersey, opened to incoming and departing traffic at 6 p.m. Monday, Port Authority spokeswoman Sara Joren said.
AirTran spokesman Christopher White said his airline didn't plan any more cancellations Tuesday after dropping 81 flights on Monday. Instead, White said, AirTran planned to operate additional flights out of LaGuardia, Boston's Logan Airport and White Plains, New York's Westchester County Airport to get people home.
Delta Air Lines canceled 300 flights on Tuesday and was still facing reduced operations at JFK and Newark because of runway issues, according to spokesman Trebor Banstetter.
"We're hoping to return to a full schedule at JFK by tomorrow morning, and at Newark by midday tomorrow," Banstetter said.
But the slow recovery left many passengers anxious to get home.
Zarmeen Hussain and her family knew their flight home to New Jersey -- scheduled for Monday evening -- might get canceled. But they didn't expect a four-day delay.
"We were very confused and like, 'Oh, my God,'" Hussain said from an Atlanta hotel Tuesday morning. She, her husband and daughter were in Georgia for a college reunion and were told the earliest available flight will be on Friday.
"We were thinking of the option of driving, but the car rental company gave us a quote of $2,000," Hussain said, laughing. She said many rental car companies are out of vehicles.
Julie Stratton is in a similar predicament. She was scheduled to fly from New York to Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sunday, and ended up sleeping at LaGuardia Airport. Stratton said Monday she was told she might not be able to fly out until Thursday.
"It's not the best of scenarios, no," she said. "But you just have to make the best of it. There's nothing else you can do."
The storm that has unnerved domestic and international travelers produced blinding snow and wreaked havoc from the Carolinas to Maine. By Monday night, more than 4,155 flights had been canceled, up to 32 inches of snow piled up in areas and wind gusts blew as strong as 80 mph.
Several dozen people were trapped and others were thrown to the ground Tuesday when a ski lift at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine came to an abrupt stop after a cable malfunctioned. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said wind gusts of up to 50 mph were blowing in the area at the time.
"I felt a jerk," said CNN employee Robb Atkinson, who was among those trapped on the lift. He described hearing "screams from skiers below" as he watched at least three chairs drop 20 to 30 feet to the ground. Atkinson said he and other trapped skiers were watching the injured being carried from the mountain.
"This storm was one of the most challenging storms we've had in a decade or two," Bosco said Monday.
Jeras said the onslaught of snow had stopped, but the storm's impact was still being felt. "The strong winds will be prevalent today," she said Tuesday morning.
And in another move back toward normalcy, New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney -- stepping in as acting governor -- rescinded the state of emergency in that state shortly after 10 p.m. Monday. Several emergency declarations were made in states and cities as the storm barrelled up the East Coast and officials executed emergency plans in an effort to expedite assistance.
On Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents not to dial 911 unless calling about a life-saving emergency as the city grappled with the fifth-largest storm in New York history.
Parts of Brooklyn had 24 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service -- shy of the 32 inches reported in Rahway, New Jersey. High winds were also a problem, including gusts as strong as 80 mph in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The Federal Transportation Security Administration has been coordinating with airports and airlines to bolster staffing as necessary as flights resume, according to spokeswoman Sterling Payne.
Authorities were also investigating an incident that occurred at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Tuesday when
the wing of an Airbus jet clipped the horizontal bar near the tail section of another jet while it was being de-iced, according to airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.
Both planes returned to the gate and were undergoing inspection, she said.
Stranded travelers in New York slept on cots and atop luggage carousels Sunday night, while less-fortunate people bedded down on airport floors.
"It looked like everybody was camping inside," said Jacob Chmielecki, who was stranded with his family at New York's LaGuardia airport.
Antonio Christopher said he spent two nights sleeping at Heathrow Airport in London, where snow caused major delays earlier this month. On Monday, he found himself in a similar situation across the pond.
"It's one of those things," he said. "You have to keep up about these things. It was a blizzard. There's nothing you can do about it."
Other travel -- by rail and road -- was snarled as well. Hundreds of people were left stranded at New York's Pennsylvania railroad station after Long Island Railroad canceled trains. Amtrak said it would resume normal service Wednesday between Boston and Washington, but passengers could see some delays.
By Tuesday, police had removed more than 1,000 abandoned vehicles from New York's Van Wyck Expressway and Cross Bronx Expressway, according to Bloomberg, who called the operation "the biggest effort to clear snow our city has ever seen."
"Because the snow fell so quickly and in such great amounts, and because the wind blew so forcefully -- creating whiteouts -- many motorists got stuck and abandoned their vehicles in the middle of streets," the New York mayor said Tuesday.
Bloomberg said the states of New York and New Jersey loaned the city 35 ambulances, helping reduce the backlog of emergency medical services requests.
The city has requested private tow companies to assist in cleanup efforts
Bloomberg noted that New York City is also facing blood-supply shortages and asked residents to donate, saying, "We need your help now more than ever."
According to Connecticut Light & Power's website, the number of its customers affected by the storm dropped dramatically from 33,712 on Monday to 753 by Tuesday afternoon. CL&P services 1.2 million Connecticut residents, so less than 1% of customers state-wide were affected.
Some 10,000 customers in Westchester County and New York City lost power due to storm and tree damage, according to a Consolidated Edison statement.
By Tuesday, 500 households remained without power, ConEd said.
CNN
African leaders meet with Gbagbo to deal with Ivory Coast crisis
Three African presidents met with their defiant counterpart in Ivory Coast Tuesday in an effort to defuse the country's political crisis.
No details of the meeting in Abidjan, the administrative center of the conflict-torn country, were immediately available. But incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo's ministers had already signaled that the man who believed he had won Ivory Coast's presidential election had no intention of stepping down.
Presidents Yayi Boni of Benin, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde were next meeting with Gbagbo's challenger, Alassane Ouattara, who also claimed victory at the polls and who has the international community's support as Ivory Coast's legitimate leader.
The three heads of state represent the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which held an emergency meeting last Friday in Nigeria and delivered an ultimatum to Gbagbo: Step down or face the threat of military force.
Gbagbo's Minister of Interior Emile Guirieoulou said Sunday the three leaders would be "received as brothers, friends."
"We will listen to them, listen to the message they are carrying," he said. "If they abide to our constitution, we're going to talk ... our constitution is not negotiable."
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Alcide Djedje said Gbagbo would not step down.
The ECOWAS delegation met earlier Tuesday with Young-Jin Choi, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy; and a representative of the African Union.
It's unclear if ECOWAS intends to make good on its threat or what kind of force would be used. It has intervened before in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Ivory Coast's Independent Electoral Commission, backed by the United Nations, declared opposition leader Ouattara the winner of a November runoff. But its Constitutional Council invalidated those results and declared incumbent Gbagbo the winner.
The international community, including the United States, the United Nations and the African Union, has recognized Ouattara as the winner and urged Gbagbo to cede power.
The incumbent government on Tuesday threatened to expel ambassadors of countries that recognize Ouattara's ambassadors, according to Ahoua Don Melo, the government spokesman.
Speaking on national television, he said the move would be a measure of reciprocity. The threat seems to take aim at France and Belgium. France has said it would review the credentials of an ambassador appointed by Ouattara, while Belgium has said it would recognize the Ouattara appointee.
The political stalemate has thrown Ivory Coast into crisis and scores of people have died in related violence.
A convoy of Bangladeshi peacekeepers came under attack Tuesday in Abidjan, the United Nations said. The U.N. peacekeeping mission said one soldier was slashed in the arm by a machete and a U.N. vehicle was burned.
The African Union has suspended Ivory Coast from the organization "until such a time the democratically elected president effectively assumes state power." And the World Bank has halted lending and disbursing funds to Ivory Coast and has closed its office in the country.
The U.S. Department of Defense currently has a group in Abidjan looking into the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens. State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed it was a "small DoD assessment team on the ground at the embassy in Abidjan to help with contingency planning."
More than 15,000 refugees have fled for neighboring Liberia, according to the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, a large number of them women and children.
CNN
Russia defends verdict against oil tycoon
Russia on Tuesday responded to international criticism over the conviction of a former Russian oil tycoon and his business partner on corruption charges.
A judge in Moscow found Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company, and his partner guilty Monday.
The United States in particular criticized the court proceeding, calling it a case of selective prosecution.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement dismissing Western criticism over the verdict.
"The attempts at pressuring the court are unacceptable," the statement said, adding that the case falls wholly within the Russian legal system.
Money laundering and tax evasion charges would similarly be criminally prosecuted in any other country, the statement said.
"Allegations about some kind of selective prosecution in Russia are groundless. Russian courts deal with thousands of cases where entrepreneurs are prosecuted," the statement said.
It concluded, "We are expecting that everyone will mind their own business, both at home and in the international arena."
Khodorkovsky's son, Pavel, told CNN that his father will appeal the verdict.
"Of course there will be an appeal," Pavel Khodorkovsky said. "What I'm hoping for right now is the shortest sentence possible, because I'm really hoping to see my dad as soon as possible a free man."
The trial on money laundering and embezzlement charges, which began in March 2009, was the second for the two men. Khodorkovsky, who is already imprisoned after being convicted on other charges, could be sentenced to prison until 2017.
"The trial was a charade of justice, the charges were absolutely false, but I fear the sentencing will be very real," lead defense lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said in a written statement.
Khodorkovsky and partner Platon Lebedev were accused of stealing billions of dollars' worth of oil from Yukos production subsidiaries from 1998 to 2003. Khodorkovsky has already been convicted of underpaying taxes on the oil and is serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
Ahead of the verdict, hundreds of supporters gathered outside the central Moscow courthouse.
Security officers, who maintained a heavy presence outside the building, whisked several people away while others stood in below-freezing temperatures chanting "Freedom" and "Russia without Putin" -- referring to the prime minister.
Khodorkovsky had expressed a desire to run for office at one time and funded opposition political parties. He has said the trial was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him and take the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s.
The Kremlin has denied any role.
Pavel Khodorkovsky said that he had been expecting a guilty verdict for his father, but also "had hoped that President (Dmitry) Medvedev's rhetoric about judicial system reform would actually bear some fruit."
"However, today, I realize that the judge is completely subservient and is a slave to the political will of Mr. (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin and other bureaucrats in the Kremlin," the younger Khodorkovsky said.
A White House statement Monday also criticized the case, saying it "appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends."
"The apparent selective application of the law to these individuals undermines Russia's reputation as a country committed to deepening the rule of law," said the statement from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs,. The statement added that the United States would continue monitoring developments in the case.
In a separate statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the conviction "raises serious questions about selective prosecution -- and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations."
"This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia's reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate," Clinton's statement said.
The court was originally scheduled to read the verdict in the trial on December 15, but it was unexpectedly postponed.
The Yukos oil company was once Russia's largest oil producer. It was later broken up and absorbed by the state.
Khodorkovsky previously told the Moscow court that its decision will have an impact far beyond him and Lebedev.
"There is much more than just the fates of two people in your hands," Khodorkovsky said. "Right here and right now, the fate of every citizen of our country is being decided."
In October, prosecutors asked for a 14-year prison sentence but said it should include the eight-year term that Khodorkovsky is already serving, which will end in October 2011.
The former oil magnate was previously incarcerated in a work camp near the town of Krasnokamensk, 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) from his native Moscow, but when the new charges were brought against the two men, both were moved to Moscow last year to stand trial.
The court also ordered Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to pay about $600 million in back taxes.
Few doubt that Khodorkovsky's prosecution has taken on a symbolism far beyond his own innocence or guilt. Critics say the embezzlement charges against him are absurd; analysts say Russia itself, and its commitment to the rule of law, is on trial.
"This verdict will be a verdict on whether Russia is a law-governed state, or whether it ever aspires to become one," said Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Endowment, "because currently it is not a law-governed state and the trial of Khodorkovsky and his partner Lebedev is the most striking example of it."
In his final address to the court, Khodorkovsky made a last impassioned appeal.
"For me, as for anybody, it is hard to live in jail, and I do not want to die there. But if I have to, I will not hesitate. The things I believe in are worth dying for," he said.
Chinese officials fired over deadly road accident
Six education and traffic officials were fired Tuesday, a day after 14 children died when a three-wheeled vehicle plunged into a creek in central China, according to state media.
The vehicle was carrying 20 children, according to the Xinhua news agency. Several others were injured in the Monday crash in China's Hunan province.
The cause of the accident was under investigation Monday, but a spokesman with the city government's information office said the weather was very foggy when the vehicle plunged into the body of water, Xinhua said.
The incident happened in the Songjiang Township of Hengnan County, a county education bureau spokesman told Xinhua.
Record flooding hits eastern Australia
Australians struggled to keep dry Tuesday after record flooding made many eastern towns look more like vast lakes than residential communities.
Half of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone, and more rain is forecast for the next few days, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The towns of Chinchilla, Dalby and Theodore are the worst affected.
Emergency workers called the situation dire and warned the worst is yet to come. The floodwaters were expected to submerge another 50 homes in Chinchilla, in Queensland's southern inland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday.
Flood warnings remained in effect for several rivers and some were expected to still rise 1.5 meters (about 5 feet).
In Theodore, residents sandbagged their homes. Hundreds of others were evacuated.
"Chinchilla and Dalby are also hot spots at the moment with large numbers of people in evacuation centers, but I think the situation in those two areas is much better than Theodore," Bruce Grady of Queensland Emergency Management told Australia's Seven Network.
Still, some were able to keep their spirits high.
"I'll be saving on bathwater tonight: just jump out here," a Theodore resident told Seven.
New York governor grants pardons to Caribbean nationals
New York Governor David Paterson has granted pardons to 24 immigrants, including Caribbean nationals, who were due to be deported because of prior criminal convictions.
Though he did not identify the nationalities of all the immigrants who had faced deportation, Paterson singled out Haitian, Edouard Colas.
The governor, the grandson of Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants, said Codas was brought to the United States from Haiti as a lawful permanent resident at the age of 10.
He said Codas was convicted in 1987 of attempted burglary in the third degree and sentenced to five years of probation.
"He has maintained gainful employment and is married to a United States citizen with whom he has two young sons," Paterson said.
Paterson indicated that over the course of the administration's review of more than
1,100 pardon applications, it has become "abundantly clear that the federal government's immigration laws are often excessively harsh and in need of modernisation."
"The individuals pardoned committed past offences but paid their debt to society.
They now make positive contributions to our state and nation, and I believe they should be protected from inflexible and misguides immigration statutes," Paterson added.
His latest pardons come on the heels of six he granted earlier this month, including four Caribbean nationals, who had faced a similar fate.
Those Caribbean immigrants were nationals of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.
Over the years, Caribbean leaders have blamed increased deportations of criminals, particularly from the United States, for the spiraling crime wave in the region.
Three Dominican Republic migrants arrested in Puerto Rico
Three citizens of the Dominican Republic appeared before federal District Magistrate Judge Marcos Lopez in Puerto Rico on Tuesday facing charges for violation of immigration law after entering illegally into the island.
The three defendants are Jesus Mambrux, 26, aka José R. Paulino-Ramírez; Maria Encarnación-Tejada, 40, aka Maria Encarnación- Castillo and/or Margari Nurys Castillo-Pujols; and Oscar Cordones, 27.
At the hearing, the defendants were charged with entering the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers.
Mambrux was also charged with the re-entry of a previously removed alien.
The defendants belonged to a group of 12 aliens that landed December 20 on Mona Island, on board a 22 ft. makeshift vessel or “yola”.
Park Rangers of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources contacted the US Border Patrol, ascribed to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for assistance and immigration processing.
A CBP helicopter from the Caribbean Air and Marine Branch transported Border Patrol Agents to conduct the appropriate immigration interviews.
The CBP helicopter transported all the migrants from Mona Island to the Ramey Border Patrol Station for further processing.
Border Patrol Agents interviewed the aliens, checked their fingerprints and verified their criminal and immigration history.
Defendants Mambrux, Encarnación and Castillo had previous immigration encounters and were previously removed to the Dominican Republic.
The immigration record for Mambrux revealed that an immigration judge formally removed him in 2007.
The remaining nine aliens were removed to the Dominican Republic.
Mambrux faces a fine or imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or both. The other two defendants face a fine or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
In other news, late Monday CBP officers seized 0.70 kilograms (1.54 pounds) of heroin from a United States citizen arriving at the weekend from La Romana in the Dominican Republic.
Ronny Rincon-Pineyro, 27, arrived on Saturday at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport on board an American Eagle flight, presenting himself for inspection by CBP.
Rincon-Pineyro was referred to secondary inspection, where he was further interviewed by CBP officers.
During the course of the interview by CBP officers, Rincon-Pineyro admitted that he had swallowed narcotics pellets but did not know how many or what they contained.
The defendant was transported to a medical facility where an X-ray was taken by a certified technician who verified the presence of foreign objects in the digestive tract.
Under medical supervision, the defendant expelled 49 pellets of suspected narcotics, which tested positive for heroin.
The custody of the defendant and the seized narcotics was transferred to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for further investigation and presentation of criminal charges.
The estimated street value of the seized heroin is $45,000.
Haiti faces spike in HIV/AIDS
After Haiti's devastating earthquake
nearly a year ago, volunteers and medical professionals scrambled to care for overwhelming medical needs.
In the chaos, those helping the sick and injured may have unwittingly contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, says Dr Marlene Dorismond, health programs manager for Food for the Hungry (FH).
Prior to the earthquake, Haiti had about 200,000 known infections of HIV. Dorismond believes it likely that even more people are infected today.
Following the earthquake, medical workers had huge numbers of medical emergencies to deal with and very limited resources for providing people proper care in the midst of the earthquake's devastation.
Sometimes, health precautions took a backseat to simply providing the care that people needed. Careful handling of blood did not always happen, and sanitary gloves were scarce. The AIDS virus is likely to have spread further as a result.
Now, FH and other non-governmental organizations are stretched even further to provide the same programs they did before, with even less infrastructure. FH began long-term development work in Haiti in 2008. It works with its Child Development office in the Dominican Republic, which is five minutes from the border of Haiti.
The ministry also works with over 150 Haitian churches to help them meet the physical and spiritual needs of their communities.
FH provides abstinence and faithfulness training to prevent transmission of HIV, especially among the youth.
It also cares for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS by providing home-based care, nutrition and hygiene education, counseling services, and the application of immunizations and antibiotics.
In addition, FH has special training, support, and emergency relief services for orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis.
SOURCE: MNN
Cuba to boost coffee, cocoa and honey production
Cuban Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez said the government will grant loans to cooperatives in an effort to increase the production of coffee, cocoa and honey, which at the moment are bought in the international market.
During the second meeting of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), Rodriguez explained that 244 agricultural cooperatives will take part in this initiative, and that they will receive a commercial loan, which the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture will pay gradually.
ANAP president Orlando Lugo noted the importance of investing in high yield areas.
At the meeting, farmers talked about boosting the production of pork meat, eggs, cow milk, sugar cane, and fodder and other products for animal consumption.
They also tackled the need to become more efficient on the commercialization, profitability, and the saving of energy, water and other resources.
Guyana rice industry records highest ever exports in 2010
The rice industry in Guyana recorded its highest export of 320,000 tonnes with a production of 360,000 for 2010, due to the input of farmers and technical and extension services, inclusive of water management by the Agriculture Ministry, despite the disruptions caused by climate change.
This is according to Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, while addressing media operatives during a year-end-press briefing on Tuesday.
“The rice sector has been one of the more exciting sectors in terms of performance, because at the start of the year we were very fearful about the performance of the rice industry in light of the El Nino condition; but we were able to minimise and ensure that the investments we made in water management gave us value for our money,” he said.
As the demand for the commodity increases, due to the shortfall on the world market, requests have been made for Guyana to support other countries apart from Venezuela.
However, Persaud has requested that exports be reduced to ensure that there are adequate quantities to supply the local market.
The Burma Rice Research Station has also been working tirelessly to employ technologies. Two new varieties of rice were released in 2009 (GRDB 9 and 10), while a flood-tolerant variety (flood-resistant rice), a collaborative effort with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will come on-stream shortly.
These varieties have already occupied approximately 30 percent of the acreages being sown for the current crop.
“These were done particularly with climate change in mind, to withstand long dry and wet periods. A lot of emphasis was also put in looking at other varieties, so that farmers can benefit,” he added.
The flood resilient rice has been successfully achieved in Asia (India, Bangladesh) and allows rice to survive complete submergence for up to 17 days. The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has already released 10 blast-resistant varieties, while focus is also being placed on the development of aromatic rice tolerant to salt and disease resilient.
These measures were taken to increase production and productivity and will continue in 2011, with the aim of stimulating greater food security, while increasing food production.