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.

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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.

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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.

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Bollywood actress Ashwarya's Pregnancy news hits the world

Aishwarya’s pregnancy is touching people in creepy ways. Whereas various are just glad with have a good time with the moment, nurses of the Seven Hills Hospital declared a strike, thinking that it’s a good time for this!

As Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan plan for their moment of joy, we discover someone else ‘cashing’ in on this moment too! Well, exactly. they say that the nurses at 7 Hills Hospital, where Aishwarya had spent for a check up previous night, have exposed to go on strike if their wants are not met. So, what precisely are these demands? It seems that the nurses were promised a 10 percent trek after joining, but in real term they were given a trek of only four percent. So, their demand from the administration is to fulfill their promise. Also this is not all, on November 9, 2011 the nurses went on a shutter down-strike, called the flash strike, now the management takes notice. While the officials of Eight Hills don’t really believes that the promise should be fulfilled, it looks like the nurses will probably keep theirs. Well, talk about mauke pe chauka! But we don’t blame the nurses, because in Mumbai & a bit of elegance does go a lengthy way! Anyway, we expect all this gets solved before Ashwarya goes into labor room. Also we wouldn’t want to see Ashwarya delivering her baby with the help of her husband Abhishek.

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Aishwarya's baby, Sachin century, bookies and the media

MUMBAI: Though thousands of depressed fans saw West Indies spinner Bishoo send away Sachin Tendulkar, 24 runs short of his target, the bookies had a meadow day riding far above the ground on fan fury.

Yet, bookies are even more satisfied as the maestro's next end is Eden Gardens five days from now. And bets will stay crutch up till then. But, before that, Big B's yet-to-be born grandchild is probable to take centre stage. "Over Rs 150 crores is riding on whether Aishwarya Rai will bring the child on 11. 11. 11 or on Children's Day, the day the Eden Test match kicks off. This in spite of the fact that Abhishek Bachchan has made it clear that wife Aishwarya is not going for a Cesarean operation, said a bookie.

Police are keeping vigil on the gambling scene for the two super actions. "We are awake there is also serious betting on whether the actress will deliver a boy or girl. This is unlucky situation and shows how we are still fanatical with a boy child, said a police officer.

The master blaster, while, can obtain heart. While it's still five days to go, punters are already insertion odds on him achieving the deed at Kolkata. Sachin seems to be in wonderful form. It will be fine if he achieves his ton on his home ground, Mumbai, during the 3rd test.
The betting mafia is pushing in crores to forecast the sex of Aishwarya Rai's unborn child. The news doing the rounds is that bookies are trying to call the Aishwarya's doctor to know the sex of the unborn baby.

The maximum bets are coming in for 11. 11. 11 as all astrologers & numerologist are declaring it to be a very lucky day. There are sufficient bets sited for Children's Day too.

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Musharraf: Mullah Omar has 'never been in Pakistan

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former president, has told HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar is not and has "never been in Pakistan".
He also agreed that the relationship between Pakistan and the US has "fundamentally broken down", saying it is at the "lowest ebb".

With his country racked by extremist violence, endemic corruption and deeply troubled relations with Afghanistan, India and the United States, Mr Musharraf is seeking a comeback. In the full interview Stephen Sackur asks why he thinks he is the solution to Pakistan's problems.

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