（中國‧北京）北京市公安局週一（9月28日）通報，國慶安保工作已全面就緒。
北京市公安局新聞辦介紹，立足於“平安北京”、“平安國慶”總體目標的國慶60週年慶典安保工作，借鑒奧運安保工作成功經驗，經過精心組織、周密部署，已全面就緒。
北京市公安局局長馬振川表示，目前北京民警、交警、消防官兵已全面進入停休實戰狀態，北京警方將堅守崗位，盡職盡責，全力確保國慶60週年安全。
中新社探悉，10月1日當天，北京將啟動一級加強巡邏防控方案，織嚴織密社會面防控網絡，在參演人員、受閱部隊集結疏散涉及路線等重點區域、路段，將結合車巡、自行車巡和步巡等方式，確保絕對安全。
在繁華地區和重點部位，還將部署武裝巡邏車，提高街面見警率。
此外，首都數十萬安保志願者，將佩戴“紅袖標”上街，加強值班巡邏、看門護院、護廠護店。
（新加坡）新加坡航空一架空中巴士A380型客機，週日（9月27日）因其中一個引擎出現故障，被迫中途折返法國巴黎。
這架編號SQ333的航班，於巴黎時間週日中午12時30分從起飛，準備飛往新加坡樟宜國際機場，飛機上有444名乘客。
新航發言人表示，飛機在起飛2小時45分鐘後，機長發現其中一個引擎已經停止操作。
他說：“儘管飛機的另外三個引擎還能正常操作，但機長還是決定折返巴黎，以保障乘客的性命安全。”
將在巴黎更換引擎
他透露，這架故障的客機將會在巴黎進行檢驗以及更換引擎的工作。
飛機於當地時間下午5時45分（大馬時間週日晚11時45分）在巴黎安全降落，乘客被安排到酒店休息，等待航空公司安排另外的航班。
被稱為“空中巨無霸”的A380是世界上最大型的客機，載客量最高可達853人。不過，新航基於安全考量，將乘客人數的上限規定在471人。
新航為全球首家使用A380的航空公司，新航A380的航線包括墨爾本、悉尼、倫敦、東京、香港以及巴黎等。
（新加坡）6人10分鐘內狂毆胖妹70巴掌，還將過程全錄下，上載到網絡上。
這10分鐘的錄像也能在YouTube錄像網站找到。
根據錄像可看出，數名男女將身穿紅衣的胖女拉到一個客廳的神台前，將她團團包圍，而胖妹也絲毫沒有反抗，反而低著頭，委屈地靠牆站著。
畫面開始時，一名身穿紅衣的少女，先用三根手指指著胖妹破口大罵，之後揚起左手，連摑胖妹3巴掌。
紅衣少女動手過後，一名白衣少女過後就上陣，同樣是一輪謾罵，之後就動手。6名男女，過後就輪流上場，朝胖妹臉上不停掌摑，還有人在旁邊唱歌配合，非常囂張。
錄像顯示，一群將近6人，比胖妹矮小的男女，不停地掌摑，毫不留情，記者計算，10分鐘下來，胖妹起碼被摑了70巴掌。
他們一邊賞她耳光，一邊以粗話辱罵她。
聽他們的口音，這些人似乎來自馬來西亞，而拍攝地點也像是馬來西亞的房子。
邊打人邊大罵
惡女邊打人邊頻頻大罵︰“我是不是很好騙？”與“為甚麼要講騙話？”，甚至還一邊打她，一邊喊︰“我跟你講甚麼，你就聽甚麼！”，硬要她有反應。
此外，他們還以福建話說︰“敢敢給她掃、敢敢打！”
一群惡女不停地掌摑之後，最後還傳出一句︰“不要打了，打到手酸了”，過後一群人才停手，將胖妹留在原地默默流淚。
其中一名惡女還拿了一把小刀，強迫胖妹將她的劉海剪掉。
從畫面上看來，惡少惡女們卻對胖女的委屈視而不見，其中一名身穿黃色吊帶背心，看來不過十三四歲的女生，還是對著胖女破口大罵。
黃背心惡女還大聲嚷嚷地說︰“為甚麼要這樣騙我？後悔嗎？後悔是嗎？我從5月25號忍你到現在了！”
（菲律賓‧馬尼拉）熱帶風暴“凱薩娜”為菲律賓帶來42年來最嚴重的洪災，首都馬尼拉80%面積水浸，死亡人數增至最少83人，另有23人失蹤、近34萬人流離失所。
向國際求援
國防部長兼災難協調委員會主席特奧多羅宣佈，馬尼拉及鄰近25省進入“災難狀態”。菲政府也向國際求援。
菲政府並為救災緩慢向國人道歉。
特奧多羅指出，上週六（9月26日）吹襲呂宋島的“凱薩娜”在短短12個小時內，便降下了一個月的充沛雨量，是自從1967年以來的最大降雨量。
他透過電台呼吁被困居民冷靜，留守屋頂等候救援。逾6萬人已疏散到庇護中心暫避。
天氣在週日（9月27日）轉晴，當局加緊救援受困民眾，美軍也派出直升機和船艇救援。
多個城鎮被洪水淹沒，並引發多宗山泥傾瀉。
馬尼拉巿內多處斷電，國際機場一度關閉數小時，逾千旅客滯留。另外，連結馬尼拉與南部諸省的南呂宋高速公路積水及胸，車輛受困。
電視台和電台連夜接到受困居民和親友的求救電話和電郵。軍方首長伊布拉多乘坐直升機在馬尼拉市郊上空視察，發現很多災民仍被困屋頂，等待救援。
一名叫做瑪莉亞的女子撥電DZBB電台說：“我那患病的兒子一個人在家，他沒有食物，有可能正在屋頂等待救援。”
ABS-C B N電視台播出的一個震撼性畫面顯示，逾12人擠在被拔起的屋頂隨洪水漂流，隨後又撞上一座橋樑的柱子而四分五裂，而這些人生死不明。
總統阿羅約呼吁人們向災區捐款，並保持冷靜。
黎剎省至少一個城鎮完全被洪水淹沒。
官員馬隆索指出，這次災情非常嚴重，許多地區是第一次遭遇水災。
中國啟動四級預警
對菲律賓造成重創的“凱薩娜”，已於週日凌晨5時增強為強烈熱帶風暴，目前正逼近海南，中國氣象局發佈四級災害應急預報，國家減災委、民政部亦啟動救災預警。
“凱薩娜”預料未來3天將對華南沿海地區，帶來影響劇烈的風雨天氣。中央氣象台週日早上已發出颱風橙色警報。當局已向浙江、福建、廣東、廣西、海南等省區發出通知，緊急部署救災工作。
（韓國‧首爾）官員表示，吸引上萬人參與的韓國國際博覽會，週日（9月27日）發生輕型飛機墜毀事故，導致兩名機師中有一人死亡，地面11人受傷。
仁川世界城市慶典活動發言人金珠熙表示，飛機墜落地面時，擊中一輛展覽的巴士。
他表示，兩名機師都立即被送往醫院，但其中一人死亡。據悉，11名傷者包括一些事發時在巴士內參觀的民眾，他們都被飛機殘骸擊中，但只蒙受輕傷。
警方披露，另一名機師的傷勢不嚴重。
據指，博覽會現場有許多裝飾風箏飄揚，很可能是飛機墜毀的主因。
金珠熙表示，事故發生時，共有大約2萬人在現場參觀。據稱，飛機當時為另一項活動進行飛行。
An average global temperature rise of 7.2F (4C), considered a dangerous tipping point, could happen by 2060, causing droughts around the world, sea level rises and the collapse of important ecosystems, it warns.
The Arctic could see an increase in temperatures of 28.8F (16C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18F (10C).
Britain's temperature would rise by the average 7.2F (4C) which would mean Mediterranean summers and an extended growing season for new crops like olives, vines and apricots.
However deaths from heat waves will increase, droughts and floods would become more common, diseases like malaria may spread to Britain and climate change refugees from across the world are likely to head to the country.
The Government-funded study, which has been sent to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, included new figures on increased emissions from fossil fuels and considered the effect global warming will have on the ability of the oceans and rainforests to absorb carbon dioxide.
More than 190 countries are meeting in Bangkok this week for the latest round of UN negotiations to try to prevent catastrophic climate change. It is hoped a global deal to limit emissions will be made in Copenhagen this December.
Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, said the new study showed how important it was to try and reduce emissions.
The global picture shows rainfall could decrease by 20 per cent in Central America, the Mediterranean and parts of coastal Australia, causing mass drought. Temperature rises in the Amazon would cause the rainforests to die, while Alaska and Siberia would see the melting of the permafrost causing more carbon dioxide to be released.
"Four degrees C of warming averaged over the globe translates into even greater warming in many regions, along with major changes in rainfall," said Dr Betts. "If greenhouse gas emissions are not cut soon then we could see major climate changes within our lifetimes."
The study is being presented today (Monday) at a conference at Oxford University, which consider problems for Britain, such as water shortages in the South East, die back of tree species like beech in the south of the country and the need to build coastal defence around counties like Norfolk.
Dr Mark New, of the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment, said scientists now have a better understanding of the recent increase in carbon emissions because of developing countries like China and India building coal fired power stations.
There is also more information on the affect global warming will have on certain "carbon cycles". It is thought more carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere by organic materials in the soil decomposing at a faster rate, while warmer oceans are less able to absorb the greenhouse gas.
He said: "The eventual temperature we reach is a result of the carbon we put in the atmosphere so if we do not reduce emissions faster, the timing is much sooner. The faster the rate of change in getting to four degrees, the less time we have to adapt. Four degrees by the 2050s compared to four degrees by 2100 gives us half as much time to adapt to a new climate and that must have massive implications."
World leaders have agreed to try to keep global warming less than 2C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. However temperature rises have already gone above 1.3C and are likely to meet 2C because of carbon dioxide that is locked into the atmosphere.
Dr New said the world must now concentrate on keeping the rise below 4C to try to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
"Two degrees is important politically but in terms of what is going to happen, I think a lot of people think it is a lost cause already," he said. "Four degrees is highly plausible given the evidence and it is different enough from two degrees that we can start exploring the difficulties and what the world will look like."
DECC said ministers will use the new study to push for a tough deal at Copenhagen calling for rich countries to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and poor countries to limit carbon dioxide in return for financial help.
A spokesman said: “A four degree rise in global temperatures would have serious consequences for mankind with food security, water availability and health all being adversely affected. This report illustrates why it imperative for the world to reach an ambitious climate deal at Copenhagen which keeps the global temperature increase to below two degrees.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the United States should not take the dollar's status as the world's key reserve currency for granted because other options are emerging.
In excerpts released on Sunday from a speech that he is to deliver on Monday, Zoellick said global economic forces were shifting and it was time now to prepare for the fact that growth will come from multiple sources.
"The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency," he said. "Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options."
Zoellick said that a meeting of Group of 20 rich and developing countries in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday had made "a good start" toward increased global cooperation but they will have accept global monitoring of their activities.
"Peer review will need to be peer pressure," he said.
Zoellick said that the G20, as the new chief forum for international economic cooperation, also must not forget the 160 countries left outside its structure and should try to open opportunity for them.
"We need a system of international political economy that reflects a new multi-polarity of growth," Zoellick said. It needs to integrate rising economic powers as 'responsible stakeholders' while recognizing that these countries are still home to hundreds of millions of poor and face staggering challenges of development.".
(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Diane Craft)
Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.
And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.
The dearth of jobs reflects the caution of many American businesses when no one knows what will emerge to propel the economy. With unemployment at 9.7 percent nationwide, the shortage of paychecks is both a cause and an effect of weak hiring.
In Milwaukee, Debbie Kransky has been without work since February, when she was laid off from a medical billing position — her second job loss in two years. She has exhausted her unemployment benefits, because her last job lasted for only a month.
Indeed, in a perverse quirk of the unemployment system, she would have qualified for continued benefits had she stayed jobless the whole two years, rather than taking a new position this year. But since her latest unemployment claim stemmed from a job that lasted mere weeks, she recently drew her final check of $340.
Ms. Kransky, 51, has run through her life savings of roughly $10,000. Her job search has garnered little besides anxiety.
“I’ve worked my entire life,” said Ms. Kransky, who lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment. “I’ve got October rent. After that, I don’t know. I’ve never lived month to month my entire life. I’m just so scared, I can’t even put it into words.”
Last week, Ms. Kransky was invited to an interview for a clerical job with a health insurance company. She drove her Jeep truck downtown and waited in the lobby of an office building for nearly an hour, but no one showed. Despondent, she drove home, down $10 in gasoline.
Meanwhile, some businesses are in a holding pattern as they await the financial consequences of the health care reforms being debated in Washington.
As another G20 meeting rolls around, this time on home soil, the time comes once again for the economically curious but politically unconnected to wonder what is really happening behind closed doors. But while admiring the pageantry, chuckling at the awkward group photos, and parsing the joint communiqués like newly found Dead Sea scrolls, the overwhelming majority of observers will miss the meeting’s dominant theme: hypocrisy.
Everyone agrees that the principal agenda item in Pittsburgh will be the need to rein in the “global imbalances” that created the late economic crisis. Everyone also agrees that these imbalances involve too much spending and borrowing by Americans and too little of both by the Chinese and other developing nations. In his remarks this week at the United Nations, President Obama used his peerless rhetorical skill to frame the issues clearly and plainly. Noting that a return to pre-crisis economics is impossible, the president assured the world that his administration will pursue policies to increase savings and decrease spending at home and challenged his Chinese counterparts to enact measures with the opposite effect in their own country.
While this is roughly what needs to happen, President Obama is actually doing everything in his power to prevent it. In point of fact, every policy move undertaken by his administration has exacerbated the very imbalances he supposedly wants to curtail. To so seamlessly profess one goal while simultaneously undermining it is an impressive piece of political theater. Unfortunately, this particular drama is likely to have an unhappy ending – and the ticket price will be staggering.
What exactly are the federal fiscal stimuli other than deliberate, but clumsy, efforts to get people, companies, and governments to spend money they don’t have? Programs like tax credits for new homebuyers or “cash for clunkers” are intended to encourage consumers to spend money that they otherwise might have saved. Grants to municipalities allow them to hire workers and spend money locally that they otherwise would have forgone.
Federal intervention in the mortgage and credit card debt markets, where they are now nearly the sole buyer, has been specifically undertaken to keep interest rates low and financial firms solvent – so that Americans can keep buying homes and using their credit cards. While the Fed will continue to hand out free money to any and all borrowers for an “extended period,” the abysmally low interest on deposits that such a policy creates disincentivizes personal savings even further.
In 2009, despite the tilted playing field, the American people have heroically managed to increase their savings (although clearly not as much as they would have in a free market). But President Obama’s runaway deficit spending is undermining their efforts. The simple truth is that government debt is our debt. So if a family manages, at some cost to their lifestyle, to squirrel away an extra $1,000 in saving this year, but the government adds $20,000 in new debt per household (each family’s approximate share of the $1.8 trillion fiscal 2009 deficit), that family ends up owing $19,000 more than they did at the beginning of the year!
So much for our end of the bargain. How about on the other side of the Pacific? Will the Chinese restore balance by increasing their spending? How can they while they are lending us all their money? Remember, any money the Chinese spend is money they cannot loan to us. So, if China really wanted to spur domestic consumption, the best way to do so would be to stop buying our debt. Even better, they could sell Treasuries they already own and distribute the proceeds to their citizens to spend.
However, the Obama administration is heavily lobbying the Chinese to get them to step up to the plate and buy record amounts of new Treasury debt. Obama cannot have it both ways. He cannot claim he wants the Chinese to spend more, but then beg the Chinese government to take money away from Chinese consumers and loan it to the United States Treasury.
In the end, Obama will get precisely what he publicly claims to desire but privately dreads. The Chinese government will come to its senses and stop buying Treasuries. This will cause the U.S. dollar to collapse, but it will also allow Chinese citizens to fully enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Once the Chinese begin consuming more of their own products, those products will no longer be available to Americans. Once they start spending more of their incomes on themselves, those funds will no longer be available for us to borrow. Unfortunately, that is when our real economic crisis will begin. The worst part is that the longer these imbalances are allowed to continue, the larger they grow and the more painful the ultimate adjustment process becomes.
But for now, it’s all pomp, circumstance and hypocrisy in Pittsburgh. Why yes, Madam Finance Minister, I’d love another of those crab cakes!
