Today on New Scientist: 9 February 2010

Today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: the hunt for the world’s missing whales, how bright the stars really are, and how to make your food more filling

Airliner landing gear not fit for all emergencies

An investigation into an airliner brought down by ice in its fuel tank has thrown up a design problem that may affect many aircraft

South African Unemployment Rate Remains Virtually Unchanged

BuaNews (Tshwane)

South Africa: Unemployment Rate Remains Virtually Unchanged

9 February 2010

Pretoria — South Africa’s unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2009 remained virtually unchanged at 24.3 percent, says Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force survey showed that in the third quarter of 2009, 24.5 percent people were jobless.

The number of people employed in the labour force increased by 61 000 between quarter three and four.

The survey showed that though there was a slight improvement in job creation from the two quarters this did not necessarily translate to a big decrease in the number of unemployed people at 27 000. It said that rather there was a slight increase in the number of discouraged work seekers at 54 000.

“This resulted in the unemployment rate remaining virtually unchanged between quarter three and four,” said the statistical body.

On a year-on-year basis there was an annual decrease of 6.3 percent in employment and an increase of 292 000 in the number of unemployed people.

There was also an increase of 947 000 in the number of persons who were not economically active of which 518 000 were discouraged work-seekers.

Between the third and fourth quarter, 89 000 jobs were created across all industries with most of the job gains in the finance industry which accounted for 77 000 jobs. This was followed by the construction and trade industries.

When coming to industries that lost the most jobs year-on-year trade accounting, manufacturing, private households and agriculture. “There was an overall decline of 870 000 in employment between quarter four 2008 and quarter four 2009,” said Stats SA, adding that job losses were experienced in all industries.

In comparison to 2008 the number of unemployed persons increased by 292 000 in quarter four of which 227 000 were job losers.

NATO Warns Afghans Before Military Offensive

Tuesday, February 09, 2010
14:52 Mecca time, 11:52 GMT

Nato warns Afghans before offensive

Thousands of US Marines, Nato and Afghan troops are believed to be massed near the town of Marjah

Afghan civilians have been warned to “keep their heads down” when US-led Nato forces launch a planned military offensive in southern Helmand province.

Mark Sedwill, Nato’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistanm, admitted on Tuesday that fighting around the town of Marjah was likely to prompt an exodus from the area, but said that authorities were prepared to deal with it.

The offensive in the area, which is currently under the control of Taliban fighters, is expected to be one of the largest since the Taliban were forced from government in 2001.

Thousands of US Marines, Nato and Afghan troops are massed in the region, about 20km south of Lashkar Gah, for Operation Mushtarak which aims to drive Taliban out of the region, which notorious for its part in the drugs trade.

Military leaders hope that the fact the offensive has been widely publicised will persuade Taliban fighters to lay down their arms before the fighting begins.

Military phase

“We very much hope that the military phase of this operation will go ahead swiftly and with as little incident as possible,” Sedwell told reporters in a briefing at Nato headquarters in Kabul.

“The success of the operation will not be in the military phase.

“It will be over the next weeks and months as the people … feel the benefits of better governance, of economic opportunities and of operating under the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan,” he said.

Gulab Mangal, the regional governor, said a commission has been formed to handle the flow of displaced and any other fallout from the military action.

“The commission is fully prepared. We have got tents. We’ve got food. We’ve got everything in place,” he said at the joint news conference with Sedwill on Tuesday.

“So far we have had two waves of displaced people from the area - 72 and 92 families,” Mangal said.

Up to 100,000 people are believed to live in the area.

‘Stay inside’

Authorities have not advised people to leave the Marjah area but have warned them to stay inside and avoid road travel once the operation begins.

“The message to the people of the area is of course keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead,” Sedwell said.

The military operation is the first phase of a plan to push out the anti-government fighters and return the area to civilian governance, Mangal said.

“The main purpose is to have Afghan sovereignty in the area and expand the sovereignty of the republic of Afghanistan,” he said.

“We have to clear the area of the opposition enemies in order to be able to stabilise the area.”

Source: Agencies

South Africa: Violence Continues During Balfour Protests

Violence continues during Balfour protests

JENNI O’GRADY | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Feb 09 2010 17:09

The library in Balfour’s Siyathemba township went up in flames on Tuesday afternoon during a protest that appears to have shifted from labour recruitment demands to an insistence the local mayor resign.

“They are burning the library down,” said police spokesperson Sergeant Sam Tshabalala on the third day of violence in the Mpumalanga township.

Earlier, police fired rubber bullets when between 800 to 1 000 people became “irritated” during a meeting outside the Siyathemba community hall.

Zakhele Maya, who says he is a community leader, told the South African Press Association he had been called to address a large crowd outside the hall, and was then told to go to the mayor’s office and ask him to resign.

However, the mayor, Mabelane Tsotetsi, did not give an immediate answer.

Maya said when he returned to the hall he was told people became “irritated” and started burning tyres and police fired rubber bullets.

Tshabalala confirmed that rubber bullets were fired as people ran away and regrouped. Nobody was injured, he said.

Earlier in the day, people had made pyres of poles that Eskom had planned to use in the area. On the previous two days, foreigners’ shops were looted and a municipal office burnt down.

Mpumalanga’s minister of education, Reginah Mhaule, pleaded with local residents to allow schooling to continue unhindered. Pupils were preparing to rewrite some of their matric exams. The province got one of the lowest matric pass rates.

“On Thursday 11 February 2010, the supplementary examinations for grade 12 learners will commence and my view is that every community should be obliged to ensure that school activities progress without any hassle,” Mhaule said in a statement.

“I am making a humble call to the community of Balfour to allow teachers, learners and non-teaching staff to be in schools so that teaching and learning can progress unhindered.”

Criminal elements

Maya blamed “criminal elements” for the violence, saying they had actually helped the foreigners remove their merchandise to safety before criminals moved in.

He complained the criminals were detracting from the real issues — that the local Burnstone Mine hire half its workforce in the local community.

But Maya said the community had now changed strategy and decided they would for now focus on having the mayor removed.

“People have lost confidence in him,” said Maya.

“These are issues that resonate from the previous service delivery protests [of last year]. The mayor seems to not assist our people in dealing with the issues.”

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said a service delivery summit was needed to resolve the issues that communities such as Balfour were trying to raise.

However, they condemned the targeting of foreigners.

Twenty-two people were expected to appear in the Balfour Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday to face charges of public violence related to the protests. Police expect to make more arrests.

The protests come two days before the State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma, who visited the area last year during similar protests. — Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-09-violence-continues-during-balfour-protests

Chadian President Deby Urges Darfur Rebels in Sudan to Abandon Violence

Chadian president urges rebels in Sudan’s Darfur to abandon violence

Feb, 09, 2010 09:08 AM - Xinhua News Agency (China)

KHARTOUM, Feb 09, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno Tuesday urged rebels in the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur to abandon violence, saying that the peace talks currently underway in Doha, Qatar, were the ideal platform to resolving the Darfur conflicts.

Addressing a gathering of Sudanese politicians and representatives of the Chadian community in Sudan, and with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir standing beside him, the Chadian president said “the Darfur crisis can not be resolved through military ways, and I urged the armed men in Darfur to stop the hostilities.”

The visiting Chadian leader also urged the rebel groups in eastern Chad to choose peace, saying that “It is no longer possible to reach power through gun, it can be achieved through voting boxes.”

Deby asked the Sudanese government to exercise “sufficient flexibility” in the peace negotiations, saying that “the Doha track, which is supported by Chad, is the most suitable choice for realizing peace in the region.”

He also said “those (Chadians) who live in Sudan should return to their homeland and I promise to provide them all opportunities. ”

Meanwhile, the Chadian leader stressed his country’s desire to overcome differences with Sudan, saying “I have willingly come to Sudan, with my hands extended for peace. I came to transform the calmness in our relations into a comprehensive peace. I have no doubt that President al-Bashir feels the same.”

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, for his part, said Sudan and Chad had put aside the differences and the two leaders decided to work together to achieve peace and development in their respective countries.

“Today we affirm that we have folded the page of troubles. Our will make joint efforts to achieve peace and development and to provide services for our peoples,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of coordination between the two countries’ leadership to overcome all difficulties, saying “there are enemies for peace in Sudan and Chad. These enemies may move again to undermine the two countries’ relations, therefore, we agreed to maintain direct contact between the two countries’ leadership to tackle any difference or problem.”

The Chadian president arrived in Khartoum on Monday on an official tow-day visit, during which he and his Sudanese counterpart held closed-door talks in Khartoum and vowed to overcome differences between their countries and normalize bilateral ties to achieve security along their joint borders.

Since the eruption of the Darfur conflicts in 2003, Sudan and Chad had been trading accusations that the other supported rebel groups and interfered in internal affairs, but last October the President Deby considered Khartoum’s offer to end hostilities and stop support for rebel movements based on both sides of the borders.

Last month, the two countries inked a technical protocol on the establishment of the 3000-strong joint border force that will be led by a Sudanese commander during the first six months.

As the April general elections are approaching in Sudan, an improvement of relations between Sudan and its western neighbor Chad could help ease tensions in Darfur and the re-election of the incumbent President al-Bashir.

Sudan has ‘turned the page’ on Chad conflict: Beshir

by Guillaume Lavallee

KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said on Tuesday that Sudan had “completely turned the page” in its conflict with Chad and was ready to fully normalise relations with its neighbour.

“I say to our people in Sudan and in Chad, we have completely turned the page on problems between us,” Beshir said, as Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno made his first visit to Sudan since 2004.

“This visit has put an end to the problems between Chad and Sudan,” he further added during a joint news conference with Deby.

“We have agreed to work together to achieve peace and stability,” he said.

Deby said he was also willing to work for a new start with Sudan.

“I have come with an open heart and my hand stretched out to write a new page in our relations,” Deby said.

“I have no doubt that my brother Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Beshir has the same sentiments and will,” Deby told over a thousand people gathered in Khartoum.

Chad and Sudan have had strained ties over the past five years, with Chad accusing Sudan of supporting rebels seeking to oust its government and Khartoum charging Ndjamena with backing ethnic minority rebels in western Darfur.

In March 2008, the two states signed the Dakar agreement in the Senegalese capital, but it crumbled months later when a key Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, launched an unprecedented assault on Khartoum.

This was followed by a surprise rebel attack on Ndjamena which came close to overthrowing Deby before government forces managed to rally and rout the insurgents.

But in mid-January, Sudan and Chad agreed to deploy a joint force on their border, in order to end the presence of rebels on each other’s territory and halt their activities as part of normalisation efforts.

“When we were told that President Deby was coming to Khartoum it was a surprise, but a pleasant surprise,” Beshir said.

Beshir said joint projects would be set up in the border area between both countries in order to help those affected by the Darfur conflict.

“A calm is not enough. Agreements and protocols alone cannot bring back confidence if politics are not included. It is time to outdo ourselves in order to seal this peace,” Deby said.

“If I am with you today, it’s not purely for an accolade, I have come so that we can transform the current calm into definitive peace,” he said.

The Sudanese leader has accepted an invitation to visit Ndjamena, but no date has yet been set, Sudanese officials said.

In Jeddah, the Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed “great satisfaction” with Deby’s visit.

“The landmark visit to Sudan by President Deby reflects the genuine commitment of the two leaders to work together towards settling all the differences and strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, members of the OIC,” Ihsanoglu said.

In Kenya, UN partners with MTV to dramatize stories of love - and HIV infection

The United Nations and MTV are reaching out young Kenyans to highlight that HIV is not a death sentence though a new three-part television series exploring the lives and love of a group of friends in Nairobi.

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution on the April 10 National Marchfor Jobs

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution – Adopted Feb. 8, 2010

Commemorate the 75th anniversary of the WPA on April 10, 2010!

We need the same kind of bold sweeping public jobs program today!

Whereas, 75 years ago, on April 8, 1935, Congress passed legislation creating the largest public works program in U.S. history. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s; and

Whereas, organized labor and all working people and communities need to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the WPA by telling the government that today’s jobless crisis is as bad today as it was back then. We need the same kind of bold, sweeping jobs program that the people demanded in the 1930s; and

Whereas, Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated the final months of his life to starting a movement for the right of all to a job or a guaranteed income – and we need that movement now more than ever; and

Whereas, what we have now is at best a jobless recovery… an economy based on permanent high unemployment and low wages… a political and economic system that provides trillions of $ for Wall Street, and trillions of $ for war but nothing for large numbers of workers and the poor, who are facing joblessness, foreclosures, evictions, layoffs, low wages, hunger and homelessness; and

Whereas, there are more than 20 million unemployed and underemployed people in the country today. We need a real WPA-type program that is big enough to ensure that those who need work get work — work that is socially useful and paying union wages and benefits – a real jobs program fully funded by the government; and

Whereas, a national labor/community protest will take place on Saturday, April 10, 2010 in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 75th anniversary of the WPA and demanding enactment of a similar bold, sweeping public jobs program today; and

Whereas, the issue of jobs is on the front burner: all it needs is a flame. The April 10th commemoration of the WPA’s 75th anniversary is consistent with the AFL-CIO’s 5-point Jobs Plan. April 10th would be a great stepping stone for a possible labor-led Solidarity Day III march on Washington in the fall of 2010, demanding that a real jobs program like the WPA be enacted today; therefore be it

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorse the April 10, 2010 national demonstration in Washington DC, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the WPA, part of the largest public works program in history, which created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s, and demanding enactment of a similar bold sweeping jobs program today;

And be it further resolved, that copies of this resolution be sent to Bay Area labor councils, California Labor Federation, Change to Win, the AFL-CIO and key community allies, urging adoption.

Resolution adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council, February 8, 2010, in San Francisco, California, by unanimous vote.

UN seeks to restore Haiti’s quake-shattered weather services to prevent further disasters

With the rainy season and its flood risks due in April and hurricanes shortly after, Haiti urgently needs operational meteorological services to forestall further disasters after last month’s devastating earthquake, the United Nations weather agency reported today.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela: Profile of a Statesman

Profile of a statesman

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:26

Nelson Mandela walked out of an apartheid prison 20 years ago on Thursday, beginning South Africa’s march to democracy and reconciliation that made him one of the world’s great statesmen.

Now 91 years old and increasingly frail, he gives only occasional video addresses, most recently for the final draw of the World Cup, which he lobbied to bring to South Africa.

When he does appear in public, he leans on his wife Graca Machel or on aides to walk.

But in the popular consciousness, Mandela remains the towering figure who appeared on 11 February 1990, with arms outstretched on the balcony of Cape Town’s City Hall to greet the 50 000 people clamouring to see him after his 27-year imprisonment.

“I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all,” he said then, in a speech broadcast across the globe.

“Our struggle has reached a decisive moment,” he said. “We call on our people to seize this moment so that the process towards democracy is rapid and uninterrupted. We have waited too long for our freedom.”

Four years later, the prisoner became president, setting South Africa on a course toward reconciliation by restoring dignity to the black majority and reassuring whites they had nothing to fear from change.

“When he emerged from prison, people discovered that he was all the things they had hoped for and more,” said his fellow Nobel Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“He is by far the most admired and revered statesperson in the world and one of the greatest human beings to walk this earth.”

Affectionately known as ‘Madiba’

Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela, affectionately known by his clan name “Madiba”, was born in Mvezo village in one of South Africa’s poorest regions, the Transkei. He is the great-grandson of a Tembu king.

He was given his English name “Nelson” by a teacher at his school.

An activist since his student days at Fort Hare University College in the southeast, Mandela opened South Africa’s first black law firm in Johannesburg in 1952, along with fellow activist Oliver Tambo.

He became commander-in-chief of Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed underground wing of the African National Congress, in 1961, and the following year underwent military training in Algeria and Ethiopia.

After more than a year underground, Mandela was captured by police and sentenced in 1964 to life in prison during the Rivonia trial, where he delivered a speech that was to become the manifesto of the anti-apartheid movement.

“During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society…

“It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Mandela was jailed on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and later to Victor Verster prison in nearby Paarl.

As international sanctions mounted, hardline President PW Botha was replaced in 1989 by the more conciliatory FW De Klerk, who a year later ordered Mandela’s release. Both men were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Mandela embodied the hopes of his nation in April 1994 when he cast his ballot for the first time in his life.

In office, he used his keen sense of the power of symbolism to further his drive for reconciliation, famously having tea with the widow of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd, and donning the Springboks rugby jersey to congratulate the mainly white team’s victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

He served only one five-year term, but later devoted his energy to mediating conflicts, including the war in Burundi.

In 1998, on his 80th birthday, Mandela, after having divorced Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, married Graca Machel, the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel.

In 2005, he announced his only surviving son had died of Aids and appealed for openness about the disease, one of the few African leaders to do so.