CHILE AFTERSHOCKS: Chile was rocked by another strong aftershock yesterday [Thursday], days after a devastating quake flattened swathes of the south and centre of the country and wiped out some coastal towns. Aftershocks had been felt regularly since the magnitude 8.8 earthquake on Saturday, one of the most powerful in world history. The latest was nearly magnitude 6 in Valparaíso, near the capital, Santiago, the Financial Times (London) reported. Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s outgoing President – her term ends on March 10 – has raised the official death toll to 802, and she said it could rise in coming days (Reuters). As aid started arriving in the south and central regions worst hit by the quake, the focus had began to shift to the massive reconstruction effort ahead, which officials expected could cost $US30bn, the Financial Times said.
UGANDA DEATHS: Soldiers and villagers in eastern Uganda hacked at mounds of thick mud with picks and hoes yesterday in a desperate bid to find more survivors from a landslide that killed at least 80 people. Waves of mud and rocks swept down the steep mountainside late on Monday night [local time] after seven hours of rain and engulfed the village of Nametsi, burying houses, people and livestock. The hamlets cling to isolated mountainsides with no proper road access, making rescue efforts difficult. Parts of Uganda and neighbouring Kenya have had sustained rainfall over much of the last two months, which is usually a dry period between rainy seasons, and floods are already plaguing large areas. – Reuters
KID CONTROL: Two weeks ago pilots at JFK International Airport in New York heard a tiny voice directing them from air traffic control. It was a boy, brought along by his father to despatch flights. CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson said the transmissions were simple. “JetBlue (garbled) 171 clear for take-off,” the boy said. “Clear for take-off, JetBlue 171,” the pilot replied cheerfully. To an AeroMéxico flight: “Amex 403 contact departure. Adios,” the boy said. “Contact departure, AeroMéxico 423. Adios,” the pilot replied. The boy was lauded by some of the seemingly amused pilots. He was apparently supervised by his father, a controller. The Federal Aviation Administration said the incident was a lapse in judgment that not only violated FAA’s own policies but common sense standards for professional conduct. The controller and his supervisor have been sent on leave.
PROBE 'A WASTE': A former Israeli senior investigator says that an Australian police probe in Israel into the use of forged Australian passports is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Boaz Guttman, a former officer with Israel’s National Fraud Unit, said that the Australian Federal Police team had ‘zero chance’ of making significant progress in its inquiry into the misuse of the passports of three Australians who live in Israel. The AFP team will try to speak to the three Australians with dual Israeli citizenship whose passport details were used with photographs of those allegedly involved in the assassination in Dubai on January 19 of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The killers also used forged British, Irish, French and German passports. A British team is in Israel. “Without belittling their capabilities, all of this is a show put on for domestic consumption by Britain and Australia, to show that they are doing something, Mr Guttman said. – The Australian
STORM SEARCH: Rescuers searched flooded houses on the western France coast this week for eight people missing three days after a storm that killed at least 61 people in Europe. Engineers struggled to restore power for tens of thousands of homes. French civil defence teams said 51 people were dead and eight missing after the storm, dubbed Xynthia, had unleashed gale-force winds and torrential rains on Sunday, destroying roads and houses along France's Atlantic coast. At least five people died in Germany, three in Spain, one in Portugal, and one in Belgium. France’s fiercest storm since 1999 made landfall early on Sunday. Winds reached hurricane-force speeds of 150km/h. – Agence France-Presse
NEW GM SPUD: The European Union this week approved the first new genetically modified crop for domestic growing in more than a decade, ending what has been a long stalemate over a backlog of GM crops awaiting cultivation approval. The decision by the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, will allow farmers to grow Amflora potatoes, a controversial GM crop developed by the German chemical giant BASF. The potatoes can be used solely for industrial or animal feed purposes. The potatoes, engineered to produce high levels of starch for use in paper production or textiles, are the first crop to be approved for farming since a strain of Monsanto’s insect-resistant corn 12 years ago. That decision set off a storm of protest from European countries, some of which, like Austria and Germany, have invoked science-based protection clauses to prevent the corn’s growth. – The New York Times
WAR CHANGES: The United States and its allies are working to create a new American-led military command in southern Afghanistan, a change that The Wall Street Journal says will greatly expand the Pentagon’s role in directing the future course of the Afghan war. Senior military officials say the new command, which will be led by a Marine major-general, will manage all military operations in Helmand province, including the continuing campaign in Marjah. The organisational change will allow the existing British-led command in southern Afghanistan to focus exclusively on the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, which the Obama administration has publicly identified as the site of the next major offensive of the war, the Journal says. Many of the 30,000 American reinforcements being deployed to Afghanistan will take part in the assault on Kandahar, the most-populous city in southern Afghanistan and the Taleban’s spiritual birthplace.
KID CONTROL: Two weeks ago pilots at JFK International Airport in New York heard a tiny voice directing them from air traffic control. It was a boy, brought along by his father to despatch flights. 
PROBE 'A WASTE': A former Israeli senior investigator says that an Australian police probe in Israel into the use of forged Australian passports is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Boaz Guttman, a former officer with Israel’s National Fraud Unit, said that the Australian Federal Police team had ‘zero chance’ of making significant progress in its inquiry into the misuse of the passports of three Australians who live in Israel. The AFP team will try to speak to the three Australians with dual Israeli citizenship whose passport details were used with photographs of those allegedly involved in the assassination in Dubai on January 19 of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The killers also used forged British, Irish, French and German passports. A British team is in Israel. “Without belittling their capabilities, all of this is a show put on for domestic consumption by Britain and Australia, to show that they are doing something, Mr Guttman said. – 
NEW GM SPUD: The European Union this week approved the first new genetically modified crop for domestic growing in more than a decade, ending what has been a long stalemate over a backlog of GM crops awaiting cultivation approval. The decision by the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, will allow farmers to grow Amflora potatoes, a controversial GM crop developed by the German chemical giant BASF. The potatoes can be used solely for industrial or animal feed purposes. The potatoes, engineered to produce high levels of starch for use in paper production or textiles, are the first crop to be approved for farming since a strain of Monsanto’s insect-resistant corn 12 years ago. That decision set off a storm of protest from European countries, some of which, like Austria and Germany, have invoked science-based protection clauses to prevent the corn’s growth. – 
