Climate change to bring more floods: World Bank

 

A girl reacts as she gets hit with a wave of flood water while walking with her family in Bangkok November 9, 2011. - Photo by Reuters

HANOI: Climate change will bring more floods and extreme weather to Southeast Asia, a World Bank official said on Thursday on a visit to the region, where hundreds have died in severe inundation.
“What we are seeing is there are more floods, more extreme weather events, higher temperature, more variable rainfalls and we believe that is caused by the climate change.
And we should expect this to increase, sadly,” Andrew Steer, the World Bank’s special envoy for the climate change, told reporters in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
Thailand’s worst floods in half a century have killed 533 people and damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions around the country.
In the neighbouring Cambodia, the deadliest floods since 2000 have killed at least 247 people while more than 100 have died in Vietnam, mostly in the southern Mekong Delta.
Steer, who cancelled plans to visit Thailand on his regional tour because of the disaster, said the floods there were “consistent with what we know to be true about climate change.”
The United Nations says climate change, fuelled by hydrocarbon-based energy systems, is the world’s most pressing environmental issue.

Read more »

Award shows and reunions- entertainment this week

A collection of images from concerts and award shows that took place this past week. -Photos by agencies

The audience watch Reyli perform “Al fin Me Arme De Valor” at the 12th annual Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada November 10, 2011.

Read more »

Bopanna-Qureshi Reach First ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Final

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi advanced to their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles final on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Masters.
The seventh seeds defeated in-form third seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-3, 7-6(7) in 89 minutes.
Bopanna and Qureshi, who form 'The Indo-Pak Express', took a 6-3, 3-1 lead before Mirnyi and Nestor won four straight games to lead 5-4 in the second set.
Bopanna and Qureshi could not convert two match point opportunities at 6-4 in the tie-break and were forced to save one set point at 6-7, before making it third-time lucky at 8-7 to record their 37th match win of the season (37-23 record).
The duo have lifted two ATP World Tour titles at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle (d. Haase-Raonic) and the If Stockholm Open (d. Melo-Soares) this year. Nestor and Mirnyi dropped to a 42-19 season mark, which includes a 3-3 record in finals.
Bopanna and Qureshi will meet Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut in Sunday's final after the French wild cards broke serve three times from 12 opportunities to defeat Santiago Gonzalez and Christopher Kas 6-1, 7-6(3) in 80 minutes.
Benneteau and Mahut are through to their first ATP World Tour doubles final together since 2009 Lyon, where the duo won their second team title.

Read more »