George HW Bush: Condition Worsens In Hospital

The health of former US President George HW Bush has worsened and he is in intensive care with a "stubborn fever".

Mr Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit on Sunday and has been put on a liquids-only diet.

He has been battling bronchitis for the last month and has been in and out of hospital.

Spokesman Jim McGrath: "It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two. It's a stubborn fever that won't go away.

"He's had a series of setbacks now that have landed him in guarded condition in the intensive care unit."

Mr Bush had been making a good recovery early last week, he added.

Mr Bush, a Republican, served a single term in the White House from 1989 to 1993, despite sending US forces to victory in Iraq in the first Gulf War, expelling Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait.

He had previously served as Vice President to Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989. His son George W Bush became president of the United States in 2001, serving two terms.

Mr Bush Snr was first admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on November 7 for bronchitis treatment and released on November 19.

The 88-year-old was readmitted on November 23 after his cough flared up once more.

Doctors had initially hoped to be able to send the elder statesman home for Christmas, but instead he spent the holiday in hospital, where he was joined by his wife Barbara, son Neil and grandson Pierce.

Mr McGrath said: "I wouldn't say he was able to celebrate it in the traditional sense.

"His family was with him, and he's conscious and he's able to engage in humorous banter with his doctor."

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US Snow Storm Heads East After Hitting Midwest

A severe US snow storm is threatening more devastation as it heads east after pounding the Midwest, killing six people.

Up to 18 inches of snow is forecast inland on Thursday, from western New York to Maine, before tapering off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast.

It follows snowy gusts of 30mph and an outbreak of 34 tornadoes on Tuesday in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – causing travel chaos and power cuts.

More than 1,600 flights were cancelled or delayed on Wednesday while scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts. The storms left more than 100,000 in the region without power.

The storm has blanketed the Midwest

The major storm system, which spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day and an historic amount of snow in Arkansas, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and moved into the Northeast.

By Wednesday night, The National Weather Service said spotters had reported up to a foot of snow in some Pennsylvania counties.

And a mix of snow, sleet and rain accompanied by high winds had arrived in western Massachusetts.

"The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex," said John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

Snow and rain is expected to hit New York City

Two passengers in a car on a slippery Arkansas road died when the vehicle crossed the centre line and struck a sport utility vehicle.

In Oklahoma, a 76-year-old woman died when a truck crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the car she was in. A 28-year-old woman was killed in another crash.

The storm's winds were also blamed for toppling a tree onto a truck in Texas, killing the driver, and a tree onto a house in Louisiana, killing a man.

Cameras captured the approach of the large funnel cloud in Mobile, Alabama, the biggest city hit by numerous twisters.

A large section of the roof on the city's Trinity Episcopal Church was missing, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church.

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Netflix Blames Amazon For Xmas Eve Outage

The online film streaming service Netflix is blaming Amazon after millions of people were unable to access its service on Christmas Eve.

Netflix says a problem at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which rents out computing power in data centres in the internet "cloud", left more than 27 million of its members unable to get the films they wanted.

The Netflix issue began in California on Monday afternoon and lasted late into the night, according to the company.

No problems were reported with viewing offerings at Amazon's rival online film service.

In a message on Twitter, Netflix referred to the problem as "terrible timing". It noted that users in Europe were not affected.

"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices on Christmas morning could watch TV shows or movies and apologise for any inconvenience caused Christmas Eve," the company said in a separate statement.

"We are investigating the cause and will do what we can to prevent reoccurrence."

Netflix allows customers to access films online

Amazon told the AFP news agency that the Netflix outage was due to "issues with the Elastic Load Balancing service" that affected some AWS customers in the United States.

Reports in the US suggest the problem stretched from Brazil to Canada.

AWS began recovering late on Christmas Eve and was back in proper working order on Christmas Day, according to Amazon.

The outage exposed a risk inherent in the trend towards depending on "cloud" servers for services ranging from web-based email to digital news publications and business tasks which have traditionally been the responsibility of on-site IT departments.

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China: Shark Tank Explodes At Shopping Centre

Sixteen people were hurt when a 33-ton aquarium containing sharks, other fish and turtles exploded at a shopping centre in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

CCTV pictures captured the moment the giant tank burst, sending glass and fish flying into the crowd.

A man who was taking pictures of the aquarium when it broke was swept away by water.

Shoppers, store assistants and security staff suffered cuts and bruises as they were hit by pieces of 15cm-thick acrylic glass.

Three lemon sharks and dozens of small fishes and turtles were killed, according to reports.

Police have begun an investigation after the tank burst without warning.

"I was just walking by and heard the explosion of this water tank. I heard a bang, then water flushed out," said an unnamed passer-by.

"A cosmetics counter collapsed. The shop assistant was pulled out by other people," said another unidentified witness.

A safety expert said: "According to experts' preliminary investigation, the main cause of the incident is that the material used to make the aquarium ruptured under low temperatures after long-time use."

The Orient shopping centre said it had no plans to rebuild the aquarium which had become a popular attraction since it was installed two years ago.

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Nelson Mandela Discharged From Hospital

By Emma Hurd, Sky News Correspondent

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has "not yet fully recovered" despite being discharged from hospital and will continue to receive medical care at home, a spokesman said.

The 94-year-old was released from hospital on Boxing Day after 18 days of treatment for a lung infection and gallstones.

President Jacob Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said Mr Mandela had had "ups and downs" in hospital but his doctors had decided to discharge him after observing "steady progress" over the past few days.

The anti-apartheid leader has extensive medical facilities at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, and his own medical team will remain with him.

Mr Maharaj said "pulmonary care" would be part of the "home based high care".

Mr Mandela has had recurring lung problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime.

The Nobel Peace Laureate had been due to spend Christmas with his family at his ancestral home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

But on December 8 he was flown to a hospital in Pretoria renewing fears over his health.

The South African government has been criticised for failing to provide sufficient updates on his condition to a worried public.

Mr Mandela - usually affectionately referred to by his clan name "Madiba" - is still revered as the founder of the "rainbow nation". He retired from public life several years ago and his known to be increasingly frail.

This was his longest stay in hospital he was released from prison in 1990.

On Christmas Day, President Zuma visited his bedside and declared him to be in "high spirits".

Announcing his discharge from hospital, Mr Maharaj said Mr Mandela now needed privacy as he continues his recovery at home, where he is surrounded by members of his family, including his wife Graca Machel.

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Spider-Man Lives As Peter Parker Is Killed Off

After 50 years of spinning webs and catching master criminals, student-turned-superhero Peter Parker has been consigned to Marvel Comics history.

Parker became the Amazing Spider-Man in 1962, the creation of Marvel's Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Issue 700 is the last of The Amazing Spider-Man series

He was turned into a human spider and superhero after being accidentally exposed to radioactive rays and bitten by a spider during a lab demonstration.

The character has spawned a series of hit movies, a stage show, toys and books as well the iconic Marvel comics.

The 700th and final issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was published on Wednesday and sees Parker killed off when his mind is forcibly swapped with rival Doctor Otto Octavius.

According to Marvel, while Parker dies his body lives on, although with Doc Ock, whose own body was dying, occupying his mind, so Spider-Man returns next month in a new title - Superior Spider-Man.

Title editor Stephen Wacker said: "The Amazing Spider-Man series ends with a defining death and birth meshed among the Spidey mythos."

He said the teen from Queens has been put in every possible situation, except this ultimate one.

Dan Slott, who has been writing the Marvel Comics character for the best part of the last 100 issues, called it "an epic turn" and has promised some surprises in the new comic.

The momentous event brought a flurry of angry comments on Marvel's Facebook site.

Ryan Gandara wrote: "Why, Marvel why would you allow this to happen to one of the most popular heroes of all time and a hero to everyday normal people!"

Kevin Fitzgerald said: "He'll be back because of protesters ... no one but Peter Parker should be Spider-Man ... He is Spider-Man. You can't have him dead.."

And Manuel Martinez added: "This actually made me tear up a bit. How could they do that to Spider-Man? How could they let it end that way for Peter? This "Superior Spider-Man" is some sick joke. Doc Ock masquerading around in Peter's body?"

He added: "I'm not even mad, just sad and sick."

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Indian Tea Plantation Boss Burnt To Death

Hundreds of disgruntled workers on a tea plantation in India have surrounded the owner's home before setting it on fire, killing him and his wife.

The bodies of Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya and his wife, Rita, were found by police at a tea estate in the Tinsukhia district of Assam on Wednesday.

Their deaths come two weeks after some of the plantation's workforce were reportedly suspended.

The deaths occurred in the Indian state of Assam

Around 700 workers armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows surrounded Mr Bhattacharyya's house, trapping him and his wife inside. The building burned down by the time police arrived.

Speaking to local television channel News Live, one female worker, who was not named, said: "They deserved to be killed as the planter has exploited us for a long time and tortured us for petty things."

Police Superintendent P.P. Singh said officers are investigating, although no arrests have been made.

The plantation is about 310 miles (500km) northeast of Assam's capital, Gauhati.

More than half of India's tea production comes from the region's 800 tea estates.

Plantations, also known as gardens, employ thousands of women to pick the leaves from tea bushes.

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Antarctic Lake Drilling Attempt Abandoned

An attempt to melt a borehole through the continental ice sheet to reach a hidden Antarctic lake has been abandoned by a team of British scientists and engineers.

The freshwater Lake Ellsworth, which has been sealed off by the ice 3km (2 miles) down for up to half a million years, could hold life forms not seen before.

But in the early hours of Christmas Day the mission for this Antarctic season ended after running into problems with the drilling.

Professor Martin Siegert, principal investigator, said: "We took the decision to cease our efforts to directly measure and sample Subglacial Lake Ellsworth. 

"Although circumstances have not worked out as we would have wished, I am confident that through the huge efforts of the field team, and our colleagues in the UK, we have done as much as we possibly could have done, and I sincerely thank them all."

Drilling stopped after the team was unable to form properly the water-filled cavity 300 metres beneath the ice. 

Hot water was used in the drill to penetrate the ice

This cavity was to link the main borehole with a secondary borehole used to recirculate drilling water back to the surface.

The delicate drilling operation used water heated to 90 degrees Celsius and pressurised to 2,000 PSI - 20 times more powerful than a car jet-wash.

Engineer Andy Tait, from British Antarctic Survey, said before drilling started: "This will be the deepest borehole ever made this way. It is the most effective way to obtain rapid, clean access to Lake Ellsworth."

The purpose built equipment (Pic: www.ellsworthlive.org.uk)

The project began 16 years ago and will continue with further attempts to drill though the ice where the team hope to find previously unknown clues to ice and climate history.

Prof Siegert said: "I remain confident that we will unlock the secrets of Lake Ellsworth in coming seasons."

The project statement said: "For reasons that are yet to be determined the team could not establish a link between the two boreholes at 300m depth, despite trying for over 20 hours.

"During this process, hot water seeped into the porous surface layers of ice and was lost. 

"The team attempted to replenish this water loss by digging and melting more snow, but their efforts could not compensate.  

"The additional time taken to attempt to establish the cavity link significantly depleted the fuel stocks to such a level as to render the remaining operation unviable.

"Reluctantly the team had no option but to discontinue the programme for this season."

Lake Ellsworth's location in Antarctica

Prof Siegert said: "This is of course, hugely frustrating for us, but we have learned a lot this year. By the end the equipment was working well, and much of it has now been fully field tested."

The mission is a consortium of the British Antarctic Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and nine universities. It is funded by the National Environment Research Council.

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India Protests: Rapists To Be Named Online

The names, addresses and photographs of convicted rapists will be posted online by police in India to publicly shame them for their crimes.

Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, the country's junior home minister, said the measure would begin in New Delhi, where a 23-year-old woman was assaulted by six men as she travelled on a bus in the city.

"We are very serious about dealing with the problem and taking all possible action as early as possible," he said.

The victim of the gang-rape in New Delhi on December 16 has been flown to Singapore for treatment for severe internal injuries.

Police said six people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack.

Meanwhile, the son of the Indian president has been criticised by his sister, after he described women who took part in mass protests in the wake of the assault as being middle-aged and covered in makeup.

Abhijit Mukherjee said some of the demonstrators were "dented and painted" - a phrase used by mechanics who mask damaged bodywork and rust on second-hand vehicles with a thick coating of paint.

"These pretty women ... have no contact with ground reality," Mukherjee, who is also a member of parliament, told a regional television news channel.

Mr Mukherjee's critics included his sister Sharmishtha, who described his comments as "a bit of a shocker" and said her father, President Pranab Mukherjee, also disapproved.

"It is definitely something that we as a family don't agree with," she told the NDTV network.

"It's not just one protest, it's accumulated rage over the way women are being treated, raped, molested ... my father is absolutely with me on this."

Mr Mukherjee later apologised, saying he had not intended "to hurt anyone".

The Indian government has set up two committees in response to the protests.

The first will look at speeding up sexual assault trials while the second will investigate what can be done to improve women's safety.

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Fiscal Cliff: Obama Cuts Holiday Short

Opinion: President Obama Must Find Diplomacy Skills

Updated: 3:58pm UK, Thursday 27 December 2012

By David Buik, Cantor Index

President Obama and his charming wife Michelle recently posed for Christmas holiday photographs in Hawaii – all chilled out, very avant-garde in their dress and without appearing to have care in the world.

Clearly his advisers were not in concert with his thinking and summoned him back to Washington in response to an uncomfortable poll, where 47% were of the opinion that a solution will not be found before 1st January 2013 to avoid the 'fiscal cliff!'

I do not subscribe to that intense feeling of uncertainty.  However this impasse with the Republican majority in Congress cannot prevail without serious consequences!

Falling off the Fiscal Cliff would mean that $600bn of tax increases would be immediately implemented affecting many from the US middle-class to the tune of $2,000 per annum plus expenditure cuts totalling $100bn, including austerity measures on an already stressed defence budget.

Measures of such magnitude could send the US economy into recession. Many feel that this frustrating level of prevarication or if you prefer political brinkmanship could take 0.5% off GDP in 2013.

There has always been some degree of posturing by Congress when the opposition holds the majority of votes.  However this time around there appears to be an excess of 'bad blood' between the warring parties. Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, senior majority leader in the Senate, would hardly qualify as candidates for a first class honours degree in diplomacy, always pouring oil on the flames of discontent on any negotiations which are not in line with their thinking.

John Boehner, the GOP's majority leader has not exactly excelled himself either in terms of presentation.  He preens himself like a peacock, without a hair out of place, when updating the media on the disappointing progress of the negotiations, thus irritating the Democrats for the perceived intransigence of the Republicans.

For the market place easily the most disappointing performance of all from these budget negotiations has come from the President himself.  Despite the fact that he has a larger majority than he gained at the Presidential election in 2008, he still has no majority in Congress.  That's a fact of life and unless the constitution is changed, and frankly 'hell has a better chance of freezing over,' an agreement has to be found within the framework of Congress – like it or not.

Let's not mince words.  There is an air of arrogant confidence about President Barack Obama's demeanour.  Unfortunately he has a lousy relationship with the Republicans in Congress, which is almost understandable; but what is unforgivable is the perception that his relationship with the Democrats in Congress is one of aloofness, irritation and indifference.

He may well protest at that allegation – no matter! As Commander-in-Chief it is the President's job to cajole and steer the acceptance of the US government's legislation and policies through Congress.

President Obama has a very strong case that those earning over $250,000 a year should shoulder more of the tax burden.  However what is terrifying to the market place is what seems to be the threat of abrogation of responsibility in dealing with the unacceptable and gargantuan levels of debt.

Objective people accept that in 2008 President Obama took an economic 'hospital-pass' from President George W Bush, which sent the economy in to recession.  Of that there is no doubt. TARP was a successful ruse!  Treasury Secretary Geithner and FED Chairman Bernanke's next little trick, which fell out of 'Pandora's Box' was quantitative easing!

It was a decent temporary solution and it bought time and restored confidence.  However there are only 4 aces in a pack of cards. Geithner and Bernanke may think there are six. Zero interest rates can only last so long.  Eventually someone has to pick up the tab!  Since 2008 the deficit has risen from $9tn to $16t. This is unacceptable.

In my humble opinion debt is the greatest threat to democracy! The US government cannot rely on China to keep buying Treasuries with an insatiable appetite, regardless of liquidity, if the US government does not attend to its responsibilities. 

Governments, banks and Consumers are all-over borrowed.  De-leveraging must be implemented.

If the market and China in particular decides that the debt burden is too great and consequently withdrew their automatic support with yields from 0.25% to 2% rising meteorically, that would send the cost of servicing debt in to orbit. The worst case scenario would be recession, massive unemployment and civil unrest!

President Obama, please avoid possible turmoil and 'go bang a few heads' together diplomatically!

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