BAA says December's cold weather cost it £24m

 

 

The heavy snow in December cost UK airports operator BAA £24m, the company has said.

Many thousands of air passengers were affected in December as Heathrow and other airports closed temporarily.

BAA said it had handled 7.2 million passengers at its six UK airports in December, down 10.9% from a year ago.

Earlier this week, Virgin Atlantic said it was withholding the fees it pays to BAA because of its "slow reaction" to the heavy snow.

Sloan data yields biggest colour #night-sky #image ever #galaxy #camera

Sloan data yields biggest colour night-sky image ever

 

  

Successive zooming in on the image of the Southern Galactic Cap (lower left) shows the Messier 33 galaxy (upper left; a further magnification at centre), and even the NGC 604 "stellar nursery"

Astronomers have released the largest-ever colour image of the whole sky, stitched from seven million images, each made of 125 million pixels.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey's latest effort tops its own record, published publicly for professional astronomers and "citizen scientists" alike.

Data from Sloan have helped to identify hundreds of millions of cosmic objects.

The release was announced at the 217th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, US.

New #James #Bond film starring Daniel Craig approved #mgm #hollywood

New James Bond film starring Daniel Craig approved

 

 

 

A new James Bond film has been given the go-ahead and is due to be released on 9 November 2012, film studio MGM and EON Productions have announced.

Producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and MGM said the 23rd Bond would go into production in late 2011.

The latest 007 adventure, starring Daniel Craig for the third time, will be directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes.

The franchise had been on hold amid financial troubles, with MGM filing for bankruptcy protection last November.

A rescue deal and restructuring plan put US firm Spyglass Entertainment at the helm of MGM, which had struggled due to several box office flops and a DVD sales slump.

Work on the 23rd film was suspended in April 2010 because of uncertainty over the company's future.

James Bond is one of the longest running franchises in film history.

Its return marks a four-year gap since Bond's last outing in 2008's Quantum of Solace.

Daniel Craig - who made his Bond debut in Casino Royale in 2006 - is the sixth actor to play the British secret agent on the big screen, after Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

Craig's debut, in Casino Royale, was the most successful instalment in the franchise's 48-year history, taking $594m (£385m) at the global box office.

The latest Bond screenplay has been written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.

 

Australia floods: Fears worsen for Brisbane

 

 

 Up to 20,000 homes are now at risk in Brisbane, the Queensland state premier has said, as deadly floodwaters surge towards Australia's third-largest city.

Central Brisbane is a ghost town, with electricity cut and thousands urged to either evacuate or stay at home.
West of Brisbane, the city of Ipswich is being swamped by flood waters in a situation described as "total chaos".
The death toll from the flash floods in Queensland is 12 so far, with many others reported missing.
State Premier Anna Bligh told Australian television that the number of missing west of Brisbane in the Lockyer Valley had risen.
"The police now are searching for more than 90 people," she said. "These are people who their families can no longer contact or find."
She added: "The one good news is the rain has cleared, so we've now got a number of search and rescue teams all ready to deploy into the valley to really start what might be a very gruesome search this morning for bodies and our police and emergency workers there are going to have a very tough day.
"I think we will all be shocked by what they will find."
'Serious event' The central business district in Brisbane was almost totally deserted on Wednesday, hit by a power cut that was intended to prevent generators becoming a fire risk if flooded.

 

An inundated sports ground in the severely-hit Ipswich

Shops put up signs that they would not open.
The Brisbane Courier Mail said 50 of the city's suburbs would be hit by flooding during the day, and it quoted Mayor Campbell Newman as saying some areas would be completely submerged.
He said that Thursday would "be devastating for the residents and businesses affected".
The Brisbane river had burst its banks at Yeerongpilly and Indooroopilly, flooding streets. The paper quoted city council flood modelling as predicting that 40,000 properties would be affected.
More than 6,500 Brisbane residents are expected to take refuge in three evacuation centres.
Local media said the peak for Brisbane could be in the early hours of Thursday and the level would remain until Saturday. It is predicted to be higher than the 5.45m reached in the devastating 1974 floods.

Continue reading the main story

Brisbane's Major Floods

• 1841 - 8.4m
• 1844 - 7m
• 1864 - 3.8m
• 1887 - 3.8m
• 1889 - 3.8m
• 1890 - 5.3m
• 1893 - 8.3m
• 1907 - 3.5m
• 1974 - 5.45m

Ms Bligh said: "I want to reassure particularly the people of Ipswich and Brisbane that we have every available resource deployed to assist them over the next couple of days in what we expect to be a very serious event."

Brisbane is facing a combined surge of water from the flooded Lockyer Valley and the Wivenhoe Dam, which is so full it has been forced into controlled releases.
High, or king, tides on Thursday will exacerbate the problem.
Sandbags have been given out to residents in the city of two million people.
More rain The Queensland Times said 3,000 homes were under water and 1,100 people have gone to evacuation centres in the city of Ipswich.
It said the Bremer river in the city was now expected to rise to around 20.5m on Wednesday afternoon, higher than the 1974 peak.
The paper quoted councillor Paul Tully as saying the water was rising by one metre an hour. It was "total chaos", he said. Train services have been suspended to the city.

Toowoomba resident Jenny Mullholland on the flood aftermath

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said he expected flood levels to drop within the next 36 hours, allowing the clean-up to begin after.
Queensland's flooding has caused billions of dollars worth of damage and affected 200,000 people.
The most deadly floods so far hit Toowoomba, just west of Brisbane, on Monday.
Toowoomba mayor Peter Taylor told BBC Radio 4: "We're working 24 hours a day responding on a emergency number for people who need any assistance in terms of evacuation."
The forecast is for more rain to come for some areas, and there are reports of flooding in neighbouring New South Wales, with the Clarence River expected to peak at 7m.

 

Batsmen, Australians cash in during ground-breaking auction #ipl

Batsmen, Australians cash in during ground-breaking auction

 

 

 

At the end of the largest two-day sports 'auction' in the world, the Indian Premier League took the first clear, decisive step towards its fourth season. Ending months of controversy around the League's own financial deals and its teams' ownership holdings, the ten franchises finally shook hands with the 139 cricketers who will form the core of the high-profile domestic Twenty20 event that begins in India on April 8.

Auction weekend in Bangalore oscillated wildly between extremes of spending, lavish as well as careful, and general sloppiness around its conclusion. What began with the first of four $2m signings on Saturday morning ended with Mohammed Kaif's name finally pencilled into the IPL roster, after being met with silence across the floor not once, but twice on Sunday. Almost like a sudden afterthought, Kaif was hauled onto the IPL4 gravy train, the last cricketer aboard, concluding the 353-man auction used to reshuffle the League's overall player pool.

#US unemployment rate drops in December #inflation

US unemployment rate drops in December

 

 

 "Our mission has to be to accelerate hiring, and accelerate growth" says Barack Obama

The US unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% in December from 9.8% in November, the biggest one-month drop since April 1998, official figures show.

Some 103,000 jobs were created last month, the Labor Department said, although this was fewer than the 145,000 to 175,000 forecast.

The lower rate came not only because more people found jobs, but also because 260,000 had given up looking.

If people stop searching for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed.

Stubbornly high unemployment has hindered the US economic recovery.

'Invest now'

Flash floods hit Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia

 

 

 

Flash floods have hit Queensland, killing one person with several more missing, as heavy rains continue to pound the Australian state.

A massive deluge of water overwhelmed Toowoomba, a city west of the state capital Brisbane, without warning.
A rescue operation is under way to reach those trapped in cars and on the roofs of buildings, officials say.
Eleven people have died since the tropical storms began in November, the worst flooding in the state in decades.

Device 'cancels out the sound of the dentist's drill'

 

 

An invention which cancels out the noise of a dentist's drill could help people overcome their fear of a check-up, researchers say.

For many, the sound of the drill is a big cause of anxiety when it comes to visiting the dentist.
This new device allows patients to listen to music on an MP3 player, while the sound of the drill is blanked out.
Patients are, though, still able to hear the dentist's voice because not all sounds are filtered out.

Mumtaz Qadri admits killing Governor Salman Taseer

 

 

The bodyguard accused of shooting Pakistani governor Salman Taseer has confessed in court to the killing.

Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri told the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi that he had acted alone in the attack.

He was whisked into court a day earlier than scheduled to prevent supporters showing up, correspondents say.

It comes a day after 50,000 protesters marched in Karachi against proposed amendments - backed by the slain Punjab governor - to the blasphemy law.

 

Iran rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh 'gets 11 years jail'

 

 

 

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to 11 years in jail, her husband has said.

She has also been banned for 20 years from working as a lawyer and from leaving the country.

She was arrested in September, accused of acting against national security.

Rihanna makes history in UK chart

 

 

 

Rihanna has set a new record as the first female solo artist in UK chart history to achieve number one singles in five consecutive years.

The Official Charts Company announced her record after What's My Name? rose from number two to the top spot.

The last solo artist to achieve the feat was Elvis Presley, who had number ones in each year from 1957 to 1963.

Rihanna's album Loud also holds on to its number one slot, giving her the second UK chart double of her career.

TOP FIVE SINGLES

• 1 What's My Name - Rihanna ft Drake
• 2 When We Collide - Matt Cardle
• 3 The Time (Dirty Bit) - Black Eyed Peas
• 4 Lights On - Katy B featuring Ms Dynamite
• 5 Do It Like A Dude - Jessie J

In 2007, her album Good Girl Gone Bad and single Umbrella topped both charts simultaneously.

Loud has now sold nearly 900,000 copies since its release in November last year.

As well as her number one, Rihanna, who is 22 and from Barbados, also appears on two other songs in the top 10 - Only Girl (In The World) and Who's That Chick.

Only Girl (In The World) was a number one last year and followed other number ones for Run This Town (2009), Take A Bow (2008) and Umbrella (2007).

Other albums which have re-entered the top 10 are Plan B's The Defamation of Strickland Banks, Rumer's Seasons Of My Soul and Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer which climbs to its highest chart position yet at number four.

In the singles chart, the BBC's Sound Of 2011 winner, Jessie J, climbs to number five from last week's 18 with Do It Like A Dude.

Detroit #auto show hails recovery. #ford #cars #benz #bmw

Detroit auto show hails recovery

 

 

 

Up to 40 global motor firsts will be unveiled this week as the most important auto show in the US gets under way in Detroit.

Many of them will feature electric motoring solutions, at times combined with internal combustion engines.
Conventional 4x4 vehicles and US "muscle cars" will also be on show, alongside many smaller cars.
To Detroit's carmakers - General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler - the show marks a new future after a long crisis.
"This is an industry that's on the mend," according to Sergio Marchione, chief executive of Chrysler and its alliance partner Fiat.
"I'm really positive about what 2011 will bring."
In 2010, sales rose 11% in the US to about 11.6 million vehicles and this year sales are expected to come in at about 13 million vehicles, according to carmakers herein Detroit
"We have a solid foundation to deliver more sales and improved results in 2011," said Ford sales and marketing executive Ken Czubay.
"The seeds of growth have already taken hold."
Big trucks and electric cars Last year saw a revival in demand for so-called "light trucks", or 4x4 vehicles, with sales rising 18% - well ahead of a 5% rise in demand for cars.
So Detroit's "Big Three" are hoping their new sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickup trucks will hit home with drivers.
GM is unveiling a large pickup concept, the GMC Sierra, Chrysler will display its new Jeep Compass, a luxurious 4x4, while Ford will show a 4x4 named Escape.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

No question electric vehicle programs are moving forward”

End Quote Erich Merkle Industry analyst

But the companies are also heading in new directions that they say point the way to a future where electric or fuel-efficient low-emission cars will become ever more popular.

GM has taken a lead in the US with its Volt, an electric car with a petrol powered range extender, while Ford will show off its electric Focus that will be produced near Detroit.
"As we continue to improve the electrical grids around the world... having a complete battery-powered vehicle is going to be a very important part of our strategy," said Ford Motor's chief executive, Alan Mulally.
Electric subsidies Electric car production in the US is attracting billions of dollars in subsidies, including tax breaks for customers, and the carmakers are more than happy to go along with the government's wishes, according to analysts.

 

  GM's Dan Akerson: Stated goal of not fighting change

"No question electric vehicle programs are moving forward," said industry analyst Erich Merkle.
Many non-US carmakers, in particular Germany's three leading luxury car companies Audi, BMW and Mercedes, will show off their latest diesel-powered cars, which they insist offer very fuel efficient alternatives.
After years of work to convince US drivers to switch from cars with petrol engines, they now expect diesel sales to take off.
Petrol-electric hybrids are also expected to be popular, according to the Japanese carmaker, Toyota, which is adding new models under its popular Prius banner.
Italian carmaker Fiat, meanwhile, believes light, frugal cars offer yet another way forward as it enters the US market with its small 500 model.
In recent years, the US carmakers have been slow to come up with such solutions, but they are prepared to go to great lengths to reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions and cut fuel consumption, according to GM's chief executive, Dan Akerson.
"We have a stated goal of not fighting change, but of embracing it and trying to achieve it as best we can," he said.

 

Virgin Atlantic withholds BAA fees over snow row

 

 

 

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic is withholding the fees it pays airport operator BAA because of its "slow reaction" to last month's heavy snow.

The airline says it will not pay any airport fees before the end of BAA's full inquiry, due at the end of March.
Hundreds of thousands of air passengers were disrupted in December as Heathrow and other airports temporarily closed, costing the industry million of pounds.
BAA says the conditions at Heathrow provided no basis to withhold charges.
Virgin - one of BAA's biggest customers - and other airlines have been critical of the length of time it took to clear planes for take-off following the disruption.
Bonus forgone BAA's new non-executive director, Sir David Begg, launched an inquiry just before Christmas into "what went wrong" at Heathrow where flights were grounded for days.
A panel of experts from different airports and airlines will judge BAA's "planning, execution and recovery".
Heathrow Airport's boss Colin Matthews announced in December that he was to forgo his bonus as he focussed on rebuilding confidence in the airport.
At the time, Prime Minister David Cameron said it was understandable there was extensive disruption given the amount of snow that had fallen.
But he added he was frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it was "taking so long for the situation to improve".
BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam said the fees Virgin were withholding were said to amount to less than £10m.
British Airways, meanwhile, said the part-closure of UK airports cost it in excess of £50m.
BAA, which theoretically could impound Virgin planes for non-payment of fees, said it would work with airlines during the Begg inquiry.

 

Brazil Finance Minister Mantega warns of trade war

 

 

 Brazil has warned that the world is on course for a trade war because of what it says is currency manipulation by China, the US and others.

Finance minister Guido Mantega said Brazil was preparing moves to prevent further appreciation of its currency.

He said his government would raise the issue at the World Trade Organization and the G20 group of rich and developing countries.

Mr Mantega was speaking in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper.

Giffords shooting: Suspect Jared Loughner charged

 

 

 US authorities have charged a 22-year-old man over Saturday's Arizona shooting in which a congresswoman was seriously wounded and six people died.

Federal prosecutors charged Jared Loughner with trying to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, 40, and killing two other government officials.

Mr Loughner, who is due to appear in court, could face the death penalty.

Ms Giffords is in a critical condition after being shot in the head at a public meeting in Tucson, Arizona.

She had been holding an open-invitation meeting with constituents outside a supermarket when a man holding a gun approached and opened fire.

David and Victoria Beckham expecting fourth child

 

 

 

David and Victoria Beckham are expecting their fourth child in the summer, it has been announced.

The Los Angeles-based couple already have three sons, Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight, and Cruz, five. The boys are said to be "very excited".

Former Manchester United and England star David has been married to ex-Spice Girl Victoria since 1999.

Experts claim to discover 'root cause' of male baldness #health #men

Experts claim to discover 'root cause' of male baldness.

 

Experts say they have discovered what they believe is the root cause of male pattern baldness.

It is not simply a lack of hair, but rather a problem with the new hair that is made.
A manufacturing defect means the hair produced is so small it appears invisible to the naked eye, giving the classic bald spot or receding hairline.
The US team told the Journal of Clinical Investigation the fault lies with the stem cells that make new hair.
It may be possible to 'cure' male baldness by restoring the normal function of these cells, the experts hope.
Ultimately, they hope to be able to develop a cream that could be applied to the scalp to help the stem cells grow normal hair.

Using men undergoing hair transplants as guinea pigs, the University of Pennsylvania team compared hair follicles in bald patches and hairy areas of the scalp.

Although bald areas had the same number of hair-making stem cells as normal scalp, there were fewer of a more mature type, called the progenitor cell.
This difference means that hair follicles in bald patches shrink rather than disappear and the new hairs made are microscopic compared to normal hair.
Dr George Cotsarelis who led the research said: "This implies that there is a problem in the activation of stem cells converting progenitor cells in bald scalp.
"The fact that there are normal numbers of stem cells in bald scalp gives us hope for reactivating those stem cells."
Until now it has been unclear what the exact cause of male pattern baldness is, but experts believe the male hormone testosterone is involved and baldness also tends to run in families.

Baker Street singer Gerry Rafferty dies at age of 63  

 

 

 

 

 Rafferty was reputed to have earned £80,000 a year from the royalties on Baker Street. Clip courtesy United Artists/EMI

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty has died at the age of 63 after suffering a long illness.

His career high came in the 1970s and included the anthemic Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle with You, recorded with his band Stealers Wheel.
Rafferty had battled a drink problem and spent time in hospital in Bournemouth with liver failure.
He was born in Paisley and began his musical career as a busker on the London Underground.
Solo career

World Bank issues bond denominated in Chinese yuan

 

The World Bank has issued its first bond denominated in the Chinese currency, joining a small but fast-growing market.

The yuan-denominated bond is being issued to promote the use of the Chinese currency in international markets.

It will raise 500m yuan ($76m; £49m).

'In Between:' Living as Both Male and Female #australia

'In Between:' Living as Both Male and Female

Australian Is the First Person Issued Gender Identity Papers Saying 'Sex Not Specified'

 

 

 

The 49-year-old walks through her gritty Sydney, Australia neighborhood barefoot and wearing a dress. She is flat-chested, has an Adam's Apple, medium-sized feet and sports a haircut that could be male or female -- short in the back and on the sides, with a mop of long hair on top. She wears little or no make-up.
Norrie goes by only one name and is a self-described 'spansexual.' She was the first person in the world ever to be issued identity papers that state: "Sex Not Specified."
"I see myself as male and female," she said. Norrie is happy to be referred to as "he" or "she" in conversation. But says she doesn't want her identity documents to be telling lies.
"In terms of M or F," Norrie said. "I'm not specifically M or F. You can't specify me as being male or you can't specify me as being female without committing a 'fudge' at the very least."
Two doctors examined Norrie and couldn't determine that she was one sex or the other, physically or psychologically. So the State of New South Wales issued her a document that states: "Sex Not Specified."
Watch the full story on "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET
"There are men, women -- most of us fall into one of those categories," said Professor Walter Bockting from the University of Minnesota Medical School, who has been researching gender identity development. "But then there is a minority who falls in between."
Norrie was born, anatomically, as a normal boy in a small Scottish town. Her family immigrated to Australia when she was seven, where she grew from an awkward adolescent into a glamorous gay man.
"At that stage, I was very androgynous," Norrie said. "That was the 1980s when Boy George was allowed to do it, but don't you do it in real life!"

Courtesy of Norrie

Norrie said that during the day, she was discriminated against at her job in a government office for her appearance and sexual orientation. At night, Norrie socialized with transvestites and transsexuals where she felt accepted.
Eventually, she started dressing in drag and came to believe she was a woman trapped in a man's body.

 

US man given 15 years for 1968 Cuba hijack

 

 

A US man of Cuban origin has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for hijacking a plane from New York to Cuba in 1968.

Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 67, boarded the Puerto Rico-bound plane with a pistol and a knife.
He forced the pilots to divert the plane, carrying 103 passengers and crew, to Havana.
Pena Soltren returned to the US from Cuba in 2009 reportedly to see his family. He pleaded guilty last March.

Shah of #Iran's younger son kills himself in #US #suicide

Shah of Iran's younger son kills himself in US

 

 

 The younger son of the Shah of Iran, Alireza Pahlavi, has killed himself in the US after a long battle with depression, his family says.

His brother, former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, said the family had been thrown into "great sorrow" by the news.
"It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our compatriots of the passing away of Prince Alireza Pahlavi," a family statement said.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted in Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Alireza Pahlavi was 44. He was found by police dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Boston Globe reported.
"Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life," the family statement read.
Alireza Pahlavi had studied philology and ancient Iranian studies at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He had also studied at Columbia University in New York.
Leila Pahlavi, the late shah's daughter, died in 2001 in a London hotel room aged 31. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died in Egyptian exile in 1980.

 

Punjab Governor Salman Taseer assassinated in Islamabad

 

 

 Salman Taseer was repeatedly at close range with a sub-machine gun

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Many were angered by his defence of a Christian woman sentenced to death.

“Start Quote

He was a very good friend, a politician and a businessman. He was a national hero”

Facebook investment 'values firm at $50bn

 

 

 

 

Facebook has reportedly raised funds from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal valuing the social networking site at $50bn (£32.3bn).

The New York Times said that Goldman was investing $450m in Facebook, and Digital Sky Technologies another $50m.

2010, the year that privacy died?

 

 

 For the twin pillars of the web, Google and Facebook, it has been something of an annus horribulus when it comes to privacy.

Facebook's attempts to make more and more of people's profiles publicly available and Google's seemingly laissez-faire attitude to data have made headlines across the world.
People hitherto gung-ho about their digital footprint, knowing little and caring less about the trail of information they leave, have been forced to think a little deeper about their online lives.
Facebook has made no secret of its desire to make the web more social but its increasingly complex privacy settings meant people were starting to give away more information than they wanted to more people than they intended.
"The environment of social networking is designed to encourage people to share. Often the default setting is privacy-unfriendly," said Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute.

 

 

Mark Zuckerberg wants a 'social' web

Facebook generation suffer information withdrawal syndrome #fb #facebook

Facebook generation suffer information withdrawal syndrome

Turning off mobile phones, avoiding the internet and tuning out of the television and radio can leave people suffering from symptoms similar to those seen in drug addicts trying to go cold turkey, researchers have found.

iPhone alarms hit by New Year glitch #iphone #apple #imac

iPhone alarms hit by New Year glitch.

A glitch on Apple's iPhone has stopped its built-in alarm clock going off, leaving many people oversleeping on the first two days of the New Year.

Angry bloggers and tweeters complained that they had been late for work, and were risking missing planes and trains.
Apple has acknowledged the problem and says it will be fixed by 3 January.
The reason has not been given but the glitch appears to affect single alarm settings on the iPhone 4 and earlier models with software updates.

Apple wakes up to iPhone alarm glitch on New Year's #iphone #apple #technology

Apple wakes up to iPhone alarm glitch on New Year's.

Jan 2 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) got a wake-up call on Sunday, as iPhone users complained the New Year got off to a slow start because built-in alarms on their phones failed to wake them.
"We're aware of an issue related to non-repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison told Reuters in an e-mail.
"Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3." She did not elaborate.
The British Broadcasting Corp reported the problem led many people to oversleep on the first two days of the New Year.
The anomaly appears to affect single alarm settings on the iPhone 4 and earlier models with software updates, the BBC said.
Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported that thousands of people were late for work, airline flights and trains, as a result of the malfunction.
Previously, the iPhone's alarm system had problems recognizing daylight savings time, making it go off at the wrong time, according to media reports. Apple had sold more than 1.7 million iPhone 4s as of last June.

2011: A year of substantial economic risks

 

 

 

Economic concerns rank high as we enter 2011, though the problems vary in different parts of the world.

Robert Ward, a director with the Economist Intelligence Unit, talks about risks that keep him awake at night and insists "they should keep you awake at night as well".

One major risk facing the world economy at the moment is related to a slow transition of economic power from the West to the East.

The rise of the emerging world, in particular China, and the coinciding weakening of the West, in particular the US, has resulted in a "collapse of consensus of how the global monetary system should be run", Mr Ward continues.

iPhone alarms hit by New Year glitch

 

 

A glitch on Apple's iPhone has stopped its built-in alarm clock going off, leaving many people oversleeping on the first two days of the New Year.

Angry bloggers and tweeters complained that they had been late for work, and were risking missing planes and trains.
Apple has acknowledged the problem and says it will be fixed by 3 January.
The reason has not been given but the glitch appears to affect single alarm settings on the iPhone 4 and earlier models with software updates.

Continue reading the main story

More than 1,000 blackbirds fall out of Arkansas sky

 

Officials are investigating why more than 1,000 birds - most of them dead - fell out of the sky in the US state of Arkansas on New Year's Eve.

The Arkansas Fish and Game Commission (AFGC) said it began receiving reports of the falling birds at about 2330.

By midnight, more than 1,000 red-winged blackbirds had fallen in one area of the city of Beebe.

The birds could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail, said AFGC ornithologist Karen Rowe.

About 65 dead birds have been sent off for scientific analysis to determine the cause of death.

ICC 2011 World Cup with Sharks at Dubai Aquarium at The Dubai Mall. 

 

 

Supplies flown into Queensland's flooded Rockhampton

 

 

Military aircraft are flying supplies into the Australian city of Rockhampton, where rising flood waters have cut off all but one access route.

Waters have been gradually submerging parts of the city of 77,000.
More than 20 towns in Queensland have been cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany, with more than 200,000 people affected.
Authorities have now confirmed three deaths caused by flood waters in the past few days.
Officials have said that the crisis could last another month.
"Given the scale and size of this disaster and the prospect that we'll see waters sitting for potentially a couple of weeks," said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
"We will continue to have major issues to deal with throughout January."
Rockhampton has already been badly hit, with many people being forced to flee.

Rockhampton's airport, a major regional hub, was closed to commercial traffic due to flooded runways

Rockhampton's airport, a major regional hub, was closed to commercial traffic due to flooded runways, while many main roads and railways into the town have been cut off, and power supplies disrupted.
"Today we'll see resupply of Rockhampton by military aircraft taking supplies into Mackay and then road transporting them down to Rockhampton," the state's emergency coordinator, police Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart, said on Monday.
"That will continue until such time as the road is cut."
Flood waters are expected to reach nine metres (30 feet) on Monday and peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday, threatening as many as 4,000 homes.
'Stocking up' One Rockhampton resident told the BBC there had been panic-buying in the city.

Continue reading the main story

QUEENSLAND

• North-eastern Australian state
• Largely tropical climate
• Area: 1.73 million sq km (668,000 sq mile)
• Coastal regions, including Great Barrier Reef, designated World Heritage Site
• Mining and cattle ranching important inland

"Lots of people have been stocking up on fuel. I also heard about one woman who brought 20 loaves of bread from a supermarket," said the resident, Petros Khalesirad.

Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter has said about 40% of the city could be affected, and warned the floods had swept snakes downstream.
"Snakes have been swimming at people's feet as they make their way through the waters," he said. "I know one guy who killed four snakes this morning, one of which was a Taipan - the more it bites, the more it injects venom that could easily kill."
Also on Monday, two more deaths from the flooding were confirmed.
One was a 38-year-old man whose boat was swamped near the mouth of the Boyne River, and the other was a woman whose car was washed off the road west of Emerald.
On Sunday, another woman swept from the road while trying to cross the Leichhardt River became the first confirmed death as a result of recent flooding.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that grants and low-interest loans would be made available to help local businesses recover from the flooding.
"This is a major natural disaster and recovery will take a significant amount of time," she said.
"The extent of flooding being experienced by Queensland is unprecedented and requires a national and united response."
However, forecasters cancelled a severe storm warning on Monday, saying the immediate threat had passed.