Major natural disasters in 2010 resulted in substantial losses, nearly 300,000 fatalities

MUNICH -- Major natural disasters resulted in substantial losses and nearly 300,000 fatalities in 2010, according to a report released by reinsurance company Munich Re on Monday.

Several earthquakes, the heatwave in Russia and the floods in Pakistan were the deadliest natural disasters last year. Altogether, a total of 950 natural disasters were recorded by the firm in 2010, nine-tenths of which were weather-related events such as storms and floods. This total makes 2010 the year with the second-highest number of natural disasters since 1980.

Munich Re estimated that the overall losses from the nearly 1,000 natural disasters amounted to around $130 billion, of which approximately $37 billion was insured. This makes 2010 among the six most loss-intensive years for the insurance industry since 1980.

"2010 showed the major risks we have to cope with. There were a number of severe earthquakes. The hurricane season was also eventful - it was just fortunate that the tracks of most of the storms remained over the open sea. But things could have turned out very differently," said Torsten Jeworrek, Munich Re's Reinsurance CEO. "The severe earthquakes and the hurricane season with so many storms demonstrate once again that there must be no slackening of our efforts to analyse these risks in detail and provide the necessary insurance covers at adequate prices."

Munich Re said the top natural disasters of 2010, based on definition criteria of the United Nations, were the earthquakes in Haiti on January 12, in Chile on February 27 and in central China on April 13. Other top disasters include the heatwave in Russia from July to September and the floods in Pakistan in the same period.

These five disasters accounted for the major share of fatalities in 2010, around 295,000, and just under half the overall losses caused by natural catastrophes.

After Hegemony: America is no longer the world’s only pivotal power. Americans are adjusting—but can their leaders?

by Nina Hachigian

One massive economic meltdown and a transformational American election later, three new books have come to warn us that even a more visionary president with a healthy respect for the rest of the world won’t be enough to put America back in the driver’s seat. The economic collapse has heightened our sense of anxiety at home. And challenging times lie ahead–not only are other powers still rising, as these volumes document, but America now has fewer resources and even less legitimacy to deal with an ever more complex global order.

These books accurately limn a multipolar world in which America can no longer dominate at will. But they underplay some crucial truths about the United States and the world that suggest a safe and successful future for Americans. America retains great strengths, and nations now depend on one another for their prosperity and security. And yet there’s little indication that most of our leaders recognize this new global reality–or that our politics is up to the task of steering the ship of state in the right direction.

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China: 11.000 porn sites shut down in 2010

The Chinese government on Wednesday said it had closed down over 60,000 pornographic websites in the first 11 months of the year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

During a press conference, China's director of the Information Office of the State Council Wang Chen said the country had eliminated around 350 million pornographic material, as well as indecent Internet content, such as texts, images and videos.

Since December 2009, China launched a nationwide campaign to increase Internet security and remove its pornographic and vulgar content. The campaign has led to the investigation of 2,197 criminal cases and the punishment of 4,965 criminals. As a result, some 58 offenders have been sentenced to prison terms of over five years.

U.S. revokes Venezuela amassador's visa

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (BNO NEWS) -- The Venezuelan government on Wednesday confirmed that its ambassador to the U.S. had his visa revoked by the U.S. State Department.

"I confirm. USA revoked the visa of ambassador Bernardo Alvarez," Temir Porras, Venezuela's Deputy Foreign Minister, said through his Twitter account.

Following the U.S.' decision to revoke the envoy's visa, State Department spokesman Mark Toner recalled that the department "said there would be consequences when the Venezuelan government rescinded agreement regarding our nominee, Larry Palmer."

Strong quake strikes off Vanuatu, no tsunami threat

A strong earthquake struck off the Vanuatu Islands on late Wednesday afternoon, seismologists said, but no tsunami warnings were issued.

The 6.6-magnitude earthquake at 5.54 p.m. local time (0654 GMT) was centered approximately 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Isangel, a city on the Vanuatu island of Tanna. It struck about 31 kilometers (19.3 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The agency estimated that approximately 9,000 people may have perceived 'moderate' shaking, which could result in light damage. Some 71,000 others were estimated to having perceived light shaking.

No tsunami warnings were issued by either local authorities or the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. "No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," the warning center said in an information bulletin.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, and the earthquake is believed to be an aftershock to a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake which struck the region on early Sunday morning. It generated a small tsunami, but caused no damage or casualties.

Vanuatu is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions also occur frequently in the region.

Most recently, on October 25, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck just off the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. As a result, a wall of water killed at least 435 people on the islands and impacted more than 20 villages.

And on December 26, 2004, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck off the west coast of Sumatra. The 9.1-magnitude earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami, striking scores of countries. In all, at least 227,898 people were killed.

China completes main parts for first homegrown large passenger jet

by DearEdward

SHAANXI, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Xi'an Aircraft International Corporation on Tuesday announced that it has finished the production of the main components which will be used in the first large passenger jet to be manufactured in China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

The C919 will be a single-aisle jet that will have a capacity of 168 passengers and will be China's first homegrown large passenger plane. The aircraft is being built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).


In May 2009, Xi'an Aircraft International Corporation (XAIC) was contracted to manufacture six major components of the C919. XAIC, a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), already finished producing wing flaps, wing boxes, spoilers, airfoils, slats and the fuselage mid-section.

Last month, COMAC announced that it reached deals with Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, CDB Leasing and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to construct one-hundred C919 jets.

COMAC also informed that it will first develop the 168-seat as well as the 156-seat models of the C919 jet. However, it is expected that additional versions will be manufactured in the near future, creating a new market for airplanes.

The first test flights are expected to take place in 2014 while the first deliveries will be in 2016 following a positive evaluation and certification from the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

Last month, Boeing projected that China is expected to become the world's number two plane market as it will require 4,330 new commercial airplanes valued at $480 billion over the 20 years. China's C919 will compete directly against the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320.

Boeing's Vice President of Marketing for the company's commercial aircraft division, Randy Tinseth, said the Chicago-based company may redesign the 737 to compete with the C919 but a decision on whether to build a new 737 or update the plane with new engines is not near to be taken.

Mozilla says 'minimal risk' after leaving addons database on public server

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Mozilla on Tuesday admitted to have accidentally left a partial database of addons.mozilla.org user accounts on its public server earlier this month.


Mozilla was notified by a security researcher about the incident on December 17, reporting the issue via its web bounty program. However, the company said the incident has a "minimal risk."

"We were able to account for every download of the database," Chris Lyon, Director of Infrastructure Security, said. "This issue posed minimal risk to users, however as a precaution we felt we should disclose this issue to people affected and err on the side of disclosure."

The database included 44,000 inactive accounts using older, md5-based password hashes, Mozilla explained, saying that they erased all the md5-passwords, rendering the accounts disabled.

Lyon explained that all current addons.mozilla.org accounts use a more secure SHA-512 password hash with per-user salts. SHA-512 and per user salts has been the standard storage method of password hashes for all active users since April 9th, 2009.

"It is important to note that current addons.mozilla.org users and accounts are not at risk. Additionally, this incident did not impact any of Mozilla's infrastructure," Lyon added. "This information was also sent to impacted users by email on December 27th."