U.S. Sees Food Prices Rising From Severe Drought

By: Henrique A. Buzin.

WASHINGTON — The worst drought in the United States in nearly a half-century is expected to drive up the price of milk, beef and pork next year, the government said Wednesday, as consumers bear some of the brunt of the sweltering heat that is driving up the cost of feed corn.

Poultry prices are expected to rise more immediately, the government said in a report. It estimated that consumer price indexes for chicken and turkey would rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent later this year.

“The poultry category is the smallest animal category, and we expect to see more of an effect this year because they grow the fastest and will be first to be impacted by higher feed prices,” said Richard Volpe, an economist with the Department of Agriculture.

Figures released Wednesday by the department showed the largest percentage increase next year in its price indexes is expected for beef, a rise of 4 to 5 percent. The price of dairy products will increase 3.5 to 4.5 percent and eggs by 3 to 4 percent. Pork is expected to rise 2.5 to 3.5 percent.

The data is the first government estimate of how much prices could rise next year because of the drought that has gripped most of the country this summer, producing a lower-than-expected yield in corn, soybeans and several other commodity crops.

Corn is now selling at about $8 a bushel — up 50 percent from its price just a month ago. Soybeans are at a record price of almost $17 a bushel, up from $13 just two months ago. Food prices over all rise about 1 percent for every 50 percent increase in corn prices, because corn is used in dozens of products, according to the Agriculture Department. Corn can be found in everything from soft drinks to baby food, but nearly half of the crop is used to feed livestock.

“These are very corn-intensive operations,” said Bruce A. Babcock, an agriculture economist at Iowa State University, referring to raising livestock. “So customers will see an increase in the prices they pay for beef and dairy as the price of feed rises because of a drop in production.”

According to the government, 88 percent of the corn crop this year is now affected by the drought and 77 percent of the crop for soybeans, used in animal feed and some dairy alternatives, is affected.

The Agriculture Department slashed its estimate for what was supposed to be the largest corn harvest on record. The government cut its corn yield forecast to 146 bushels an acre for the year, the lowest corn yield since 2003; the outlook last month was for 166 bushels. The soybean yield is projected to be 40 bushels per acre, down from an estimate of 43.9 last month.

The most recent crop progress report shows that just 26 percent of the nation’s corn crop is rated either in good or excellent condition. About 45 percent of the crop is rated very poor or poor.  

Soybean conditions remain slightly better. About 31 percent of the soybean crop is rated good to excellent, while 35 percent is rated very poor or poor.

Because of the dry weather, cattle farmers in a number of states have already started selling off or culling cattle because the drought has ruined grass for grazing and the price for corn for feed has skyrocketed.

Daniel R. Glickman, the agriculture secretary for former President Clinton, said that as farmers started culling or selling their herds, meat prices could fall because of a glut of beef on the market. “So in the short term, that’s good for customers,” Mr. Glickman said.

But the prices of beef, pork, chicken, eggs and dairy are expected to rise significantly later in the year, most likely around November, agriculture economists say.

Ken Colombini, a spokesman for the National Corn Growers Association, a Washington trade group, said that not all of the rise in food prices could be attributed to a rise in corn prices. “A drop in corn production is a factor, but animals are under other stresses related to the drought as well,” Mr. Colombini said.

Ray Gilmer, a spokesman for the United Fresh Produce Association, said fruit and vegetable producers, for the most part, were not being affected by the drought. “Most of these operations are irrigated and the water is highly regulated so we are not having issues with our crops,” Mr. Gilmer said.

Despite the drought, many agriculture economists expect the farm economy to remain strong, mainly because most farmers participate in the federal crop insurance program.

Under the program farmers can obtain policies that cover drops in prices or yields.

In 2011, 265.7 million acres of crops were insured, with payouts of $10.8 billion because of weather-related damage in Texas, Kansas and a few other states.

For a few lucky farmers, there could be an upside to the drought, Mr. Babcock said. “By collecting insurance but selling the remaining crops at the now-record prices, they could see a larger increase in revenue then they did last year,” he said.

This text was based on information of the site: The New York Times.

Police Begin Disarming Apartment of Colo. Suspect

By: Henrique A. Buzin.

AURORA, Colo. — Federal and local authorities on Saturday began disarming the booby-trapped apartment of a man suspected in the deadly mass shooting at a movie theater here, defeating the first of what appeared to be many sophisticated explosive contraptions in his apartment while trying to preserve evidence that might give them insight into the rampage.

Initial spasms of shock and anger turned to raw, open sadness here as police completed the grim task of informing families whose relatives were among at least a dozen people who died in the shooting early Friday during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Many people took to Facebook and Twitter to express their grief, a sign of the increasing importance of social media during mass tragedies.

More than 50 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting that upended an evening of excitement that brought families and many young people out for the highly anticipated Batman sequel.

The authorities had worked through the night to identify those killed, and by Saturday morning they said they had notified all the families of victims, including some who had been holding out hope that those missing had been spared. There were still 11 people hospitalized in critical condition, the authorities said.

The authorities did not immediately make public a list of the dead, but many family members came forward on their own to identify the victims.

Among those identified so far were a 6-year-old, two active-duty servicemen, a 23-year-old community collegestudent, a young man celebrating his 27th birthday, and a sports blogger who a month ago had narrowly avoided a shooting spree at a Toronto shopping mall.

Candlelight vigils were held across the city on Friday night. A shrine to the victims was set up outside the movie theater, and one of the local high schools planned another memorial Saturday evening.

“Cant believe your gone man,” Christopher Marmaro wrote on the Facebook page of Alexander Boik, who went by A.J., a 17-year-old who friends said attended the movie with his girlfriend. “It breaks my heart.”

The tragedy prompted a rare bit of bipartisan accord in Washington.

President Obama used his weekly radio address to again speak out on the shootings, saying, “Such evil is senseless — beyond reason.”

“If there’s anything to take away from this tragedy, it’s a reminder that life is fragile,” Mr. Obama said. “Our time here is limited, and it is precious. And what matters in the end are not the small and trivial things which often consume our lives. It’s how we choose to treat one another, and love one another. It’s what we do on a daily basis to give our lives meaning and to give our lives purpose. That’s what matters. That’s why we’re here.”

House Speaker John A. Boehner gave the Republican response to the president’s radio address, saying that he had planned to speak on the economy, but instead directed his attention to the shootings.

“Words cannot capture the horror, or make sense of something so senseless. So I won’t try,” he said.

Led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law enforcement agents began early Saturday securing the area around the apartment of the suspect, James Holmes, 24, where they found a complex maze of wires and chemicals that they feared could be explosive. The apartment is a few miles from the multiplex where the shootings occurred.

Residents in five buildings surrounding Mr. Holmes’s were evacuated on Friday. Sixteen of the evacuated were taken to shelter at Central High School, where 12 people joined them late Friday night after an unrelated fire at an Aurora apartment building forced them from their homes.

“We are confident this is a safe area with the evacuations in place,” Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, the public information officer for the Aurora Police Department, said during a news briefing, adding that they had the “best of the best bomb experts.”

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time, Sergeant Carlson said the authorities were successful in eliminating the trip wire and the first incendiary device. The wire was set up to detonate when somebody entered the apartment, she said.

“It was set up to kill that person,” she said. “This is some serious stuff that our team is dealing with.”

Residents in five buildings surrounding Mr. Holmes’s were evacuated on Friday. Sixteen of the evacuated were taken to shelter at Central High School, where 12 people joined them late Friday night after an unrelated fire at an Aurora apartment building forced them from their homes.

“We are confident this is a safe area with the evacuations in place,” Sergeant Carlsonsaid during a news briefing, adding that they had the “best of the best bomb experts.”

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time, Sergeant Carlson said the authorities were successful in eliminating the first trip wire and the first incendiary device. The wire was set up to detonate when somebody entered the apartment, she said.

“It was set up to kill that person,” she said. “This is some serious stuff that our team is dealing with.”

Throughout the afternoon, the authorities went about the delicate task of clearing dozens of other booby traps and improvised explosives.

With each controlled detonation, a low thud could be heard from across the street, where dozens of television cameras remained pointed up at the third floor window, its glass smashed out and blinds blowing in the breeze.

There was fear that as they tried to disable the devices in the apartment, it might create a secondary explosion, damaging valuable evidence that might be inside the apartment. But the operation was initially successful, with no major explosions or fires.

By the afternoon, law enforcement officials said that many of the threats had been eliminated.

Officials did not release details about how they rendered the various devices safe, but law enforcement officials said that one method used was known as a “water shot,” where a robot placed a tube of water near a device and, after backing away, set off a detonation.

With most trip wires and explosives defeated, the police said they could soon enter the apartment and search for clues as to what spurred the gunman to go on his shooting rampage.

The second phase may include the detonation of a triggering mechanism, Sergeant Carlson said, and that would cause a loud boom. They would shut down the adjacent Peoria Street if they did that, she said.

Once the trip wires were rendered harmless, 30 aerial shells and about 30 other devices that had been observed inside the apartment would be loaded into a sand truck and detonated at an unidentified facility, Sergeant Carlson said. They then hoped to investigate the apartment like any other crime scene, she said. The authorities also planned to make reverse 911 calls to alert members of the community as to what was going on.

“We don’t need to rush anything,” Sergeant Carlson said, later adding: “There are still unknowns. We are not sure about everything that is in there.”

The shooting stirred memories of the Columbine High School shooting, which took place just 20 miles from here.

“People in Colorado have really been through a lot between the recent wildfires, and now this theater shooting,” said Patricia D. Billinger, a local spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

At the apartment of the suspect, Mr. Holmes, local law enforcement officers and firefighters were being helped by explosives experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as those from the A.T.F.

They faced a situation that the Aurora police chief, Dan Oates, said was unlike anything he had seen.

On Friday, he described an apartment littered with jars full of an unknown liquid, other jars full of ammunition and yet more filled with what he said looked like mortar rounds. A series of wires ran between the jars, evidently set to blow up should they be disturbed.

When the police arrested Mr. Holmes outside the movie theater where the shooting took place, he warned them that the apartment was rigged with explosives, the police said.

They swarmed his apartment complex around 2 a.m. Friday, evacuating neighbors and sealing off Mr. Holmes’s apartment. Residents from four other neighboring buildings were also evacuated.

The authorities said that in the last 60 days, Mr. Holmes had legally purchased four guns at local gun shops — an AR-15 assault rifle, two Glock .40-caliber handguns and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun — and acquired through the Internet more than 6,000 rounds of assorted ammunition.

Mr. Holmes is being held at the Arapahoe County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, social media was a tool that people used to update others on their situation and talk about the horror they had witnessed.

“So sorry for your loss,” Debbie Byers Phillips wrote in a post. “We all grieve with you.”

Less than three hours after the shooting, at 3:13 a.m. Friday, Tony Hoang posted on his Facebook page, “I almost died.” Hours later, he added, “i still cant believe i got out alive.”

This text was based on information of the site: The New York Times.

Unity Government in Israel Disbanding Over Dispute on Draft

By: Henrique A. Buzin.

JERUSALEM — The national unity government formed in Israel two months ago unraveled on Tuesday, when the head of the centrist Kadima Party, Shaul Mofaz, announced that he was withdrawing because of intractable differences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party over a proposed universal national service law.

A Kadima operative confirmed the breakup Tuesday afternoon, saying of Mr. Mofaz in an e-mail message, “Yes, he’s pulling out.”Another Kadima member, Yoel Hasson, said that 25 of the party’s members of parliament voted in favor of leaving the coalition, with three opposed.

Ynetnews.com, an Israeli news Web site, quoted Mr. Mofaz as telling Kadima Party lawmakers in a closed-door meeting, “It is with deep regret that I say that there is no choice but to decide to leave the government.” Earlier on Tuesday, Kadima released a statement announcing that "negotiations between Kadima and the Likud over the equal distribution of the burden have failed," a reference to the national service law.

The withdrawal of Kadima does not deny Mr. Netanyahu a governing majority in the Knesset. But it does take away the supermajority of 94 of the Parliament’s 120 members that led Time Magazine to dub him “King of Israel.”

The coalition has been in turmoil for weeks over the issue of how to draft more ultra-Orthodox Jews as well as Arab citizens into either the military or civilian service, an issue that has been brewing since February when Israel’s Supreme Court invalidated a law granting draft exemptions to thousands of yeshiva students. Mr. Mofaz and Mr. Netanyahu said when they formed their surprise partnership in early May that rewriting the law to ensure that all citizens would share the burden was a top priority of the coalition.

That deal stunned Israel’s political establishment and staved off early elections, which Mr. Netanyahu had announced only the night before. Now, even though Mr. Netanyahu can theoretically continue to the end of his term with the coalition he had before May, most analysts here expect elections to be scheduled in January, nine months early.

While Mr. Mofaz’s Kadima Party had drafted legislation that would have required 80 percent of ultra-Orthodox men to enlist within four years, many in Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud faction, as well as the religious parties with which it has long been aligned, insisted that was moving too fast. Another key coalition partner, Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, had made requiring Israel’s Arab citizens to do some kind of community service a priority, which also irked Kadima.

Mr. Netanyahu remains extremely popular in Israel, and most here see his re-election as all but assured. The key question is what will become of Kadima, a centrist party that broke away from the Likud in 2005 and has recently lost traction in public polls.

Tzipi Livni had been replaced by Mr. Mofaz as Kadima’s leader shortly before it joined the coalition with Likud, and some believe she will now make a comeback. Others are urging Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister acquitted last week in two key corruption cases, to retake the reins. Many others believe Kadima will disintegrate, with right-leaning members rejoining Likud and others forming a new center-left movement.

“It’s not the same Bibi or Likud as it was before the coalition with Mofaz, and it’s definitely not the same Kadima — they will be much weaker,” said Isaac Herzog, chairman of Parliament’s Labor Party faction, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname. “We are very sorry that Mofaz and Kadima have dragged the Israeli people for months with a futile effort on all fronts. Right now the only real option and the right thing to do is for Netanyahu to move to elections instantaneously without further delay.”

Jodi Rudoren reported from Jerusalem, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Gabby Sobelman and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

This text was based on information of the site: The New York Times.

Chimps bust out of Germany's Hannover Zoo, child hurt

By: Henrique A. Buzin.

Five chimpanzees broke out of their enclosure at Germany's Hannover Experience Zoo on Wednesday, terrorizing patrons and injuring a 5-year-old girl.

How exactly the chimps escaped from their enclosure is under investigation, according to the Hannover Allgemeine Zeitung.

The chimps may have used wood that had fallen into their area during gardening work to scale the wall of their pen, AFP reported. A zoo spokesperson told Die Welt Online that the apes utilized a tree that had fallen over in a recent storm to climb out.

About 2,500 people were visiting at the zoo at the time, and were evacuated once officials realized the apes were on the loose.

A 5-year-old girl was knocked over by one of the apes as it tore through the grounds of the zoo. The child escaped the encounter with cuts on her face, and was taken to the hospital for observation, according to Die Welt Online, where zoo officials sent her a large plush toy.

Most of the escapees didn't get very far. Four of them "had a quick look around and then jumped pretty quickly back into their compound," zoo spokeswoman Simone Hagemeyer told AFP.

"The fifth and oldest chimp went off to visit the head gorilla," she told the newswire service. "He's getting on a bit, so we offered him a ladder to get back into the enclosure."

The animal rights organization PETA criticized the Hannover Zoo, accusing them of "grossly negligent behavior."

"Chimpanzees possess incredible strength and can be completely unpredictable around humans. One chimpanzee on its own can injure or kill a human - five escaped chimpanzees could have led to a catastrophe,” zoologist and PETA organizer Peter Höffken said in a press release.

"Incidents of severe injury continually take place with chimpanzees in captivity,” Höffken added. “The practice of keeping intelligent great apes in captivity must be abolished."

                                                     This text was based on information of the site: Ny Daily News