New Year’s Riot at Open Prison

A West Sussex prison 1) has have had was were suffered extensive damage after inmates started fires and smashed windows and furniture during a New Year riot.

Police, fire-fighters and prison officers in riot gear were called into HMP Ford, an open prison near Arundel, after around 40 inmates 2) has started have started started was started were started rioting just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, activating fire alarms before setting the building 3) burning fire igniting flammable alight , the Ministry of Justice said. A Prison Service spokesman said fires had been started in a small 4) part amount quantity number portion of buildings at the site.

A small compound of buildings made up of the gym block and two side buildings were severely damaged, with smoke 5) always still already yet rarely coming off them today. Extensive harm was caused to the two buildings, with the roofs having buckled because of the fire.

Prison officers with guard dogs are patrolling the perimeter of the site. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said there had been no reports of 6) wounds damage incidents accidents injuries to prisoners or staff. "Specialist teams of prison officers have been called in to deal with the incident," he said. The prison specialises in housing non-violent offenders with a 7) major minor high low important risk of absconding who are nearing the end of their sentences.

Prison watchdogs have 8) accused judged praised criticised investigated Ford for its lax security in recent years. A report by the prison’s own independent monitoring board in March 2009 found that an outdated CCTV security 9) protection system team precaution observation and a staffing shortage were contributing to burglars breaking into the jail to steal equipment from workshops. It also found that drugs, alcohol and mobile phones were being 10) infiltrated hidden concealed tranported smuggled into the prison for inmates.

Australian floods: Prime Minister Pledges Aid Payments

Military aircraft dropped 11) demands letters crops plants supplies to towns cut off by floods in north-eastern Australia as the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, promised new assistance to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined. Residents were 12) picking stocking collecting conserving storing up on food or evacuating their homes as rising rivers inundated or isolated 22 towns in the state of Queensland.

Gillard toured an evacuation centre in Bundaberg and announced that families 13) who which what whose whom homes had been flooded or damaged would be eligible for disaster relief payments of A$1,000 (£650) per adult and A$400 per child. A day earlier, she 14) have has had was were pledged A$1m in federal aid to match a relief fund already set up by the state government. Sandy Kiddle, a Bundaberg resident, told Gillard she had lost cherished items after floodwaters surged 15) through behind in front of next to beneath her house. She said she 16) can could must may ought not be able to return home for a week.

"It was just a sea of water, and I thought the beach would never come to our house," Kiddle told Gillard, who gave her a hug. Officials said half of Queensland’s 715,305 square miles was affected by the flooding, which began last week after days of rain caused rivers to 17) drown overflow sink tip over rise up . The rain has stopped but the rivers aie still surging to new heights and overflowing into low-lying towns as the water makes its way to sea. There is a shortage of drinking water and fears of mosquito-borne disease.

"This is without a doubt a tragedy on an unprecedented 18) scale dimension factor range measurement ," the Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Cleanup efforts 19) have has had was were expected to cost billions, she said. The department of community safety said supplies of food and bedding were delivered by road and by military aircraft to the towns of Rockhampton, Emerald, Springsure and Blackwater in central-east Queensland. North-eastern Australia often sees heavy rains and flooding during the southern hemisphere summer, but the scope of the 20) harm damage injury accident ruins from the recent downpours is unusual.

Looking at Eclipse Directly Could Damage Eyes, Experts Warn

The partial eclipse in the New Year 21) will would must should could cause permanent damage to the eyes if looked at directly, a top doctor said. The moon will pass between the sun and the earth 22) at between from until around 8am and 9.30am on 4 January.

Dame Sally Davies, the government’s interim chief medical officer, said: "Under no 23) conditions states events rules circumstances should people look directly at the sun during a partial eclipse. The risks of doing so are very real and could lead to 24) irregular irreversible invisible impossible unchangeable damage to eyesight and even blindness." She said children were particularly vulnerable. "We would 25) persuade convince urge dare order parents to explain the danger to their children. We would not wish to see another case like the young boy who lost his central vision back in October 2005 through looking directly at a partial eclipse in his school 26) backyard corridor assembly playground subjects ."

Experts said the 27) safer safest more safe most safe very safe way to watch the partial eclipse was via the television or live webcasts. Experts said only specially designed solar filters bearing the appropriate "CE mark" could be used to safely view the eclipse directly. Anita Lightstone, programme director of UK Vision Strategy at the RNIB, said: "It is 28) vital required relevant obligatory wanted that people take the issue of eye safety seriously. People who look directly at the sun, even for as little as five seconds, risk permanent eye damage, even blindness."

The advice was backed by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the College of Optometrists, the RNIB and incorporates advice from the Royal Astronomical Society. Seen from the UK, the eclipse will 29) always still yet already rarely have begun when the sun rises in London at 8.06am, in Manchester at 8.24am and in Glasgow at 8.46am. The eclipse will end at or 30) shortly nearly around before approximately after 9.30am for viewers in the UK.

No Web Access at Home for 2m Poor Pupils, Warns Charity

More than one million children in Britain live in homes without computers and 31) less than in addition an extra a further subtracting two million have no internet connection at home, a charity said yesterday. The e-Leaming Foundation said it feared the gap between rich and poor pupils’ performance at school 32) will would can should must widen unless more was done to ensure that eveiy child can use a computer at home.

The charity works with teachers and parents to 33) facilitate support enable recommend back up children without home computers to borrow them, or their families to buy them. It found that the poorest families in the country were two- and-a-half times 34) more less most least very likely to have an internet connection at home than the richest ones. The charity analysed a 35) poll calculation research survey questionnaire of family spending in Britain, published by the Office for National Statistics last year. The study found that 75% of households had a home computer and 71% had an internet connection, a rise of three and five percentage points respectively 36) by over after at on 2008.

In the 37) rich richer richest more rich most rich 10% of homes, 98% had a home computer and 97% had internet access, but in the poorest 10% of homes 38) rarely only barely solely simply 38% had a home computer and 30% an internet connection. Connection to the internet was lowest in Northern Ireland, where 57% of homes could log on, and highest in the south-east and London, where 72% of homes could access the internet.

Valerie Thompson, chief executive of the foundation, said children without computers and with no internet access at home were at a "tangible disadvantage" when it came to completing homework, pursuing their interests and researching topics 39) in on at during for school. "Without the use of a computer and the ability to go online at home, the attainment gap that characterises children from low-income families is simply going to get 40) better best worse worst over ," she said.

Russian Passenger Jet Explodes; 1 Dead, 10 Injured

A Russian passenger jet carrying 128 people caught fire and later exploded at a Siberian airport on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 10, officials said. The rest of the passengers and crew were safely 41) ejected boarded evacuated got off eliminated before the explosion in the Western Siberian oil town of Surgut.

42) Flight Security Carrier Company Emergency services spokesman Vadim Grebennikov said the fire, which began in one of the engines as the plane 43) flew landed taxied climbed descended for takeoff, caused a powerful blast that destroyed the Tu-154 aircraft and spread flames across an area of 100 square meters (1,100 square feet). The plane, 44) which who whose whom what belonged to the regional Kogalymavia airline, was flying from Surgut to Moscow.

45) Between Around Inside Among Surrounding the passengers were members of the Russian pop group Na-Na, who 46) told reported explained described related the panic on board the plane. "When the engines were started up, something went wrong and the outer covering of the plane caught fire," group member Vladimir Politov said by telephone, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. "We had trouble 47) open to open opening for open for opening the emergency exits and people began to really panic, with some of them running right through the flames." Politov said he and the other members of the group, which was popular in Russia in the 1990s, got out through an emergency exit over a wing and none of them was 48) hurt wounded casualty fatality damaged .

All three engines on the Tu-154 are located in the back of the aircraft. The Tu-154 has been the workhorse of the Soviet and post-Soviet civilian aviation industry, first entering service in the 1970s. But after a series of crashes involving the 49) new aging antique experienced exhausted fleet raised safety concerns, flagship carrier Aeroflot withdrew all of its Tu-154s from service, with the last flight a year 50) before ago previous away after .

Massachusetts Sets Targets to Slash Carbon Emissions

Massachusetts officials on Wednesday announced a plan to curb heat-trapping gases 51) ejected emitted outsourced exited polluted by homes, cars and businesses in the state by 25 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. The targets 52) set aimed decided fired enabled by the plan are the highest allowed under climate legislation passed by the state in 2008 and among the most stringent in the nation, placing Massachusetts in the company of California, New Mexico and other states that have taken strong action to 53) raise facilitate address action persuade global warming.

Unlike California’s plan, 54) although but additionally moreover however , which sets industry-by-industry regulations to achieve its mandated cutbacks, the Massachusetts plan relies largely on existing programs, 55) as for since like also renewable-energy mandates, energy-efficiency standards for building construction and curbs in the electricity sector that are already in place under a multistate agreement known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

In 56) announce announcing announced to announce announcement the new measure, Ian A. Bowles, the state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said most of the planned emissions cuts would result in net gains in jobs state-wide. The plan, he added, shows that a state can change its energy profile with minimal economic impact and "puts the lie to the Chicken Little-oriented debate on the national scene" that equates 57) reduction elimination increase creation mitigation of emissions with job loss and economic disruption.

"People who have studied this find you can get your first 20-30 percent of greenhouse-gas cuts without making 58) relevant large significant marked high economic trade-offs," he said. Debra Boronski, president of the Massachusetts Chamber of Business and Industry, said she was not 59) all much as so ever sure of Mr. Bowles’s contention, particularly when it came to switching from 60) normal usual ordinary realistic coventional fuels - like the natural gas that powers much of the state’s electricity grid - to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power.

Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests

In Li Zhen’s ninth-grade mathematics class here last week, the morning drill was geometry. Students at the middle school affiliated with Jing’An Teachers’ College were asked to 61) present relate outline explain tell the relative size of geometric shapes by using Euclid’s theorem of parallelograms. "Who in this class can tell me how to 62) illustrate demonstrate facilitate protract extrapolate two lines are parallel without using a proportional segment?" Ms. Li called out to about 40 students seated in a cramped classroom.

One by one, a series of students at this medium-size public school 63) lifted pointed held extended raised their hands. When Ms. Li called on them, they each stood politely by their desks and usually answered correctly. They returned to their seats 64) after that only when just before while during she told them to sit down.

Educators say this 65) varied dedicated disciplined control contrary approach helps explain the announcement this month that 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai outperformed students from about 65 countries on an international standardized test that measured maths, science and reading competency. American students came in between 15th and 31st place in the three categories. France and Britain also fared poorly.

Experts said comparing scores from countries and cities of different sizes is complicated. They also said that the Shanghai scores were not representative of China, 66) however since due to though but this fast-growing city of 20 million is relatively affluent. 67) Still Therefore Furthermore Although Despite , they were impressed by the high scores from students in Shanghai. The results 68) has seen have seen was seen were seen saw as another sign of China’s growing competitiveness. The United States rankings are a "wake-up call," said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education. 69) However Therefore Although Due to Despite it was the first time China had taken part in the test, which was administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris, the results bolstered this country’s 70) famous celebrity well-known knowledge reputation for producing students with strong maths and science skills.

South Africa Fears Millions More H.I.V. Infections

South Africa, already home to 5.7 million H.I.V.-positive people, more than any other nation, can expect an additional five million to become infected 71) while for between during before the next two decades even if the nation more than doubles its already considerable financing for treatment and prevention and gives prevention a higher priority, 72) citing following including containing according to a report presented here Friday to the country’s leading advisory body on AIDS policy.

South Africa has far and 73) wide away long further more the continent’s leading economy, but the study concludes that it nevertheless faces a "major and mounting financial challenge" to 74) confirm contradict confront context contact its AIDS problem, explaining that about $102 billion will 75) must should ought to need to not have to be spent over the next 20 years merely to keep the number of new infections at the projected five million mark. "The government doesn’t seem to have their heads around the numbers 76) still already yet always never , and they are going to have to do some thinking out of the box," Teresa Guthrie, an economist and one of the report’s authors, said in an interview. "It’s not an encouraging picture."

Actually, South Africa is in the midst of a rapid expansion of its AIDS programs, attempting to 77) manage win over gain over eliminate overcome years of denial and delay when former President Thabo Mbeki questioned whether H.I.V. caused AIDS. He 78) denied suggested negated proposed promoted that antiretroviral drugs were harmful and his health minister recommended remedies of beet root and garlic. Last year, the nation spent $2.1 billion on AIDS, according to the report, 79) though because due to for since about a third of that came from international donors, including $620 million from the United States.

"We would argue that the donors really need to stay with this, and the next five years are 80) fully totally completely absolutely hugely critical," said Robert Hecht, another of the report’s authors.