Fires rage on as Moscow suffers ‘hottest day ever’

The Russian capital Moscow has suffered its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching 39C (102F).

A month-long record-breaking heatwave has sparked nearly 50 fires in the Moscow region and the capital is sweltering under a thick layer of smog.

Health experts say pollution levels in parts of the city are 10 times higher than normal safety limits and advise locals to stay indoors or wear masks.

A state of emergency has been declared in more than 20 drought-hit regions.

It is estimated a fifth of the country’s wheat crop has now died due to the lack of rain in what is thought to be the country’s worst drought for more than a century.

Scores have died in the heatwave, some drowning having taken a swim after drinking too much vodka.
Fully-clothed bathers

Emergency aircraft have already dropped several hundred tonnes of water to extinguish the blazes.
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Court approves bail for media mogul Conrad Black

(CNN) — An appellate court on Monday ruled that jailed media mogul Conrad Black can be released on bail.

A judge will now set the bail conditions for Black, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year prison term for fraud. It was unclear when Black might be freed on bail.

Black formerly headed Hollinger International Inc., a media giant that published hundreds of newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, The Daily Telegraph of London and the National Post in Canada.

He was convicted in 2007 of fraud involving the sale of assets of Hollinger. However, the U.S. Supreme Court last month threw out the the law under which Black was convicted, setting up his appeal and request for release on bail while it is heard.
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Times Square bomb accused Faisal Shahzad pleads guilty

The main suspect in an attempt to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square has admitted weapons and terrorism charges.

Faisal Shahzad told a court in Manhattan he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more”.

The Pakistani-born US citizen admitted all 10 charges so there will be no trial. He will be sentenced in October.

The petrol and propane bomb was left in a sports utility vehicle near Broadway theatres on 1 May but failed to ignite.

Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, in Manhattan’s Federal District Court, asked Shahzad a series of questions to ensure he understood his rights.

She asked him if he understood he might spend the rest of his life in prison, to which he said he did.

Asked by Judge Cedarbaum if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty, he launched into a statement, saying he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more”.

He said he wanted to let the US know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop drone attacks and meddling in Muslim lands, “we will be attacking US”.
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Arkansas floodwaters hit campsites and leave 16 dead

At least 16 people have died in the US state of Arkansas after floodwaters hit campsites in a mountainous national park, state governor Mike Beebe says.

Two dozen people were taken to hospital and some 30 others remained unaccounted for.

Helicopters are taking part in the search in a remote, mountainous area in the state’s south-west.

The operation is focused on campsites along the Little Missouri and Caddo rivers in the Ouchita Mountains.

Mr Beebe said the deaths had occurred at about 0530, when the floodwaters reached their peak.

A river gauge at Langley, just south of Albert Pike in the Ouachita National Forest, showed the water rose 8ft (2.4m) in one hour, according to the US Geological Survey.

The National Weather Service said 7.6in (19.3cm) of rain had fallen overnight.

Some campers described how they had to cling to trees for hours to survive.

The remains of destroyed tents and damaged log cabins were later seen lining the banks of the swollen rivers.

The governor said damage to the area was comparable to a strong tornado.
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Why New Zealand is a lifestyle superpower

Nick Bryant reflects on New Zealand’s mix of controlled fury, subtle charm and social harmony, and asks why the rest of the world can’t be more like it.

What can you tell about a country from the people you encounter at its point of entry?

Alas, in this age of globalised uniformity, the truth is, probably not that much.

Most of the immigration and customs officials that you come across in those sunlight-starved arrivals halls aren’t very sunny themselves, as they mechanically stamp your passport or grudgingly wave you through.

But late the other night, I came across that rarest of bureaucratic beings – a middle-aged customs official with a sense of humour, a welcoming smile, blond dreadlocks which hung lazily over his shoulders, and a gloriously free spirit which he was delighted to share with a planeload of new arrivals from Australia.

He and his colleagues looked particularly kindly on us – a camera crew with almost as many bags as Imelda Marcos has shoes, which had arrived without one key item – the requisite paperwork to get us through customs.
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Italy to have married teacher as first woman priest

A married teacher is poised to become Italy’s first woman priest when she is ordained later this month in an Anglican church close to the Vatican.

Maria Longhitano, a member of the breakaway Old Catholic Church, says she hopes her ordination will break down “prejudice” in the Roman Church.

The event may energise the debate among Roman Catholics about the role of women, a BBC correspondent says.

Pope Benedict is implacably opposed to women as priests.

His predecessor, John Paul II, even banned official discussion of the issue, BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott notes.

Although Mrs Longhitano will not be a Roman Catholic priest, her ordination in the borrowed Anglican church will be acutely uncomfortable for the Vatican, he says.

When seven Roman Catholic women were unofficially ordained in 2002 they were promptly excommunicated.

Mrs Longhitano, who says she has always wanted to be a priest and played with communion wafers as a child, has accused the Vatican of preventing women from fulfilling their vocation.
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La vie en rose

French companies get serious about putting women in the boardroom

MOST French bosses have little time for a new law, now going through parliament, which would compel listed companies to lift the proportion of women on their boards to 40% by 2016. Xavier Fontanet, chief executive of Essilor, an eyewear firm, has quoted Charles de Gaulle as saying, “One may not command without having obeyed.” His point is that few women have had the 30 years or so of experience climbing the corporate ladder that a good director requires.

Nonetheless, the government is determined to make France the second country with a compulsory quota for women in the boardroom. (Norway was the first.) At the start of the year women occupied just 11% of the total of around 580 board seats at France’s biggest 40 firms. Now bosses will have to find as many as 170 new female directors in six years, according to OFG Research. “We are looking for women to fill every seat vacated by a man,” says Diane Segalen, vice-chairman of CTPartners, a headhunting firm in Paris.
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Taiwanese boat hijacked in Indian Ocean

(CNN) — A Taiwanese fishing vessel has been hijacked in the Indian Ocean, the European Union Naval Force Somalia said in a news release.

The fishing boat Tai Yuan 227 was hijacked last week about 700 nautical miles (1,300 kilometers) northeast of the Seychelles, the release said Monday. The Seychelles are an archipelago of 115 islands about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) east of Africa.

A skiff firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the boat, and a pirate crew climbed aboard the fishing vessel late Thursday, the EU naval release said.

The Taipei Rescue Command Centre reported the ship hijacked on Friday.

The ship has a crew of 28. All are believed well, the release said.

The fishing vessel was last seen heading toward the Somali coast.

Hijackings by Somali pirates are a common occurrence off the coast of Africa. Recently the pirates have been ranging farther into the Indian Ocean.

Would Chinese consumers ‘go green’ — if given the choice?

Qingdao, China (CNN) — In Qingdao city on the eastern coast of China, Tsingtao beer is the pride of the people.

The brewery is the central attraction. More than 3,000 wide-eyed tourists visit every day, filing off buses to marvel at the production site of their favorite beer.

What many do not know is that the Tsingtao Brewery Group was recently accused of violating environmental standards. It is just one of 20 companies named on a “polluters’ blacklist,” including major companies such as Hitachi, Philips and China’s most popular instant noodle maker, Master Kong.

The Green Choice Consumer Action list is backed by 34 different NGOs, including the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, Green Earth Volunteers, Friends of Nature and Wild China. They allege the companies either polluted or failed to disclose their emissions.

“This campaign is just beginning to let the public know that many brand name products damage the environment,” says Wang Yongchen, chairwoman of Green Earth Volunteers. “We shouldn’t be living a polluted life because of uninformed choices. Our goal, our hope is to take them off the market.”
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Oil ‘reaches’ US Gulf Coast from spill

The US Coast Guard is investigating reports that oil has started washing ashore on the Gulf Coast from a leaking offshore well.

Up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water after last week’s explosion on a BP-operated rig, which then sank.

President Barack Obama has pledged “every single available resource” to help.

The US navy has been deployed to help avert a looming environmental disaster.

The US Coast Guard said it had sent investigators to confirm whether crude oil had begun to wash up on parts of the Louisiana shoreline.

‘National significance’

“This is a very, very big thing,” said David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He told the Associated Press news agency: “And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”
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