MSNBC: McChrystal leaves White House after meeting

June 23rd, 2010 | National Security | | Leave a comment
Photo: Kevin Lamarque-Reuters
Photo: Kevin Lamarque-Reuters
General Stanley A. McChrystal finished a closed-door meeting with President Obama and has left the White House.

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NYT: McChrystal’s Fate in Limbo as He Arrives at White House

June 23rd, 2010 | National Security | | Leave a comment
Photo: Souza/The White House
Photo: Souza/The White House
General Stanley A. McChrystal, recalled to Washington over the Rolling Stone article in which he made contemptuous remarks about top administration officials, met with Obama Wednesday morning at the White House to learn whether he would keep his job as the top American commander in Afghanistan.

Continue reading NYT: McChrystal’s Fate in Limbo as He Arrives at White House

AFP: BP fought off two U.S. demands on oil clean-up

June 21st, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment

Despite high-profile concessions to the White House over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP successfully pushed back against two key potentially costly U.S. demands.

BP refused to give the White House a blank check for paying for the cleanup and instead brushed off U.S. demands to pay to restore the Gulf region, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to its condition before the oil began gushing in April.

BP also agreed to pay only $100 million for laid-off oil workers even though industry experts calculate rig workers are losing as much as $300 million a month. BP argued the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling off U.S. shores was a policy decision for which BP was not liable.

READ THIS STORY AT GRIST.COM

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BBC: Can painting a mountain restore a glacier?

June 17th, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment

The first experimental step in an innovative plan to recuperate Peru’s disappearing Andean glaciers involves returning an extinct glacier to its former snowy white color, not by falling snow but by whitewash.

There is debate between those who dismiss the idea as just plain daft and those who praise it as a simple yet brilliant solution.

The idea is based on the simple scientific principle that when sunlight is reflected off the painted white or light-colored surface, solar energy passes back through the atmosphere and out into space, rather than warming the Earth’s surface.

Eduardo Gold, the 55-year-old Peruvian inventor who came up with the scheme, said it would bring about a cooling of the peak’s surface, which in turn would generate a cold micro-climate around the peak producing conditions ripe for the glacier to re-grow.

READ THIS STORY AT BBC.CO.UK

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