Seems strange that a rain forest could be devastated by drought, doesn't it? Well, it happened to the Amazon rainforest in 2005. Global warming may have been a factor, and scientists are trying to figure out what that could mean for the future.

Do you live in Vancouver but have a hankering for CTV Atlantic's supper-hour newscast? These days, with digital cable and satellite, you can do it! But by doing it, you're screwing up the ratings.

Paul Workman is CTV News' South Asia bureau chief. He is currently on assignment in Afghanistan. Here's some of what he had to say about this week's Taliban-for-a-journalist swap:

I'm very happy for Daniele Mastrogiacomo. He survived every correspondent's nightmare, except that the deal to win his freedom may have jeopardized my safety and that of every other journalist, aid worker, and private contractor now in Afghanistan.

Within hours the American government issued a chilling statement. It said U.S. intelligence had received "credible information" that the Taliban, buoyed by their recent success, "will undertake additional kidnappings of foreigners in southern Afghanistan."

A private contractor I know, was far more direct. And furious. He's one of a few foreign civilians who lives in Kandahar City, and depends on discretion, caution and luck for his safety.

"The Afghan government has capitulated," he says, "and it puts my life in danger."

Workman did an interveiw with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. Here's the headline: Karzai regrets prisoner exchange with Taliban

The Wall Street Journal's Lee Gomes holds forth on what happens when more traditional media organizations try to go all Web 2.0, social-network-y (thanks, Harvey!).

From the BBC:

A Tamil journalist detained for more than four months in Sri Lanka without charge has been set free.

The Supreme Court ordered the release of Maunasami Parameswaree on Wednesday after she had petitioned it.

The authorities said Ms Parameswaree had close links with the Tamil Tigers. She says they produced no evidence to support their claim.

Media groups say Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists to work in. ...

The media group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) hailed the release of Ms Parameswaree and called on the Sri Lankan authorities to release another media figure.

"It is worth reminding the government after this ruling that Dushantha Basnayake, the financial director of Standard Newspapers Private Limited (SNPL), the group that publishes Mawbima, is also being held under this anti-terrorism law," RSF said.

"He should be freed at once."

Blackwater USA is probably the world's biggest private army. These mercenaries contractors play a key role in the Iraq occupation. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill talks to Democracy Now! about his new book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Think we're the only country with an aging workforce? Guess again. China's starting to suffer a shortage of young, cheap workers. And that could have, er, consequences.

Two Manhattanites are trying to live a zero-impact life for a year.

From the AP story on CTV.ca:

In Big Media's latest attempt to combat Google Inc.'s YouTube, NBC Universal and News Corp. are banding together with AOL, MSN and Yahoo Inc. to form an ad-supported online video network for full-length TV shows, video clips and movies.

And the climate change deniers were there to greet him.

Earlier this week, a U.S. House of Representatives committee released more material showing the Bush administration's systematic efforts to weaken reports on climate change by playing down the human/causation link.

From the NYT:

Google is experimenting with a new proposition for advertisers: if you don’t get results, you don’t pay.

The company said Tuesday that it would expand a test of a system that allows advertisers to pay only when an ad spurs a consumer to take an action, be it purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or signing up to receive a quote from a mortgage broker or car dealer.

The vast majority of advertisers now pay Google when a user clicks on ads that are displayed alongside its search results or on other Web sites, while some are billed based on how many people view the ads.

“We’re optimistic that it will be something that will be very compelling for advertisers,” said Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google. Ms. Wojcicki said the system would also give participating Web publishers a wider choice of ad types for their sites.

Here's a tough moral problem: To possibly save Daniele Mastrogiacomo's life and preserve good relations with the Italian government, the Afghan government released five Taliban fighters.

Now, what if this leads to the kidnapping of more journalists?

From the Beeb:

Rabid cheetah bites BBC presenter

King said "all hell was let loose" during the attack. Enlarge Image BBC presenter Simon King, best known for the Big Cat Diary programmes, was attacked by a rabid cheetah while filming in Kenya, it has emerged. King was filming the story of orphaned cheetah cub Toki when a wild female ran at him, leaping up at his body. Both he and assistant Stephen Nangunye were bitten and scratched during the attack but were not badly hurt. The men were given rabies jabs after the incident last summer. The wild cheetah later died of the disease. "The attack was unprecedented - cheetahs just don't do this," said King in the documentary, Toki's Tale, which will be screened on BBC Two next month. "Having spent 20 years watching cheetahs in the wild, I was utterly shocked by this female's behaviour".

Italian journo Daniele Mastrogiacomo survived his time as a prisoner of the Taliban, but he had to witness the decapitation of one of the Afghan men with him.

The NYT's David Carr on Assignment Zero.

The Beeb reports that the Taliban has released Daniele Mastrogiacomo of La Repubblica newspaper. They had held him for two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Beeb's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston remains missing. His father has issued an appeal for his safe return. There was a demo on Saturday calling for his release.

On the BBC: Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis'

A Beeb crew decided to test the alleged new openness of the Chinese authorities to foreign journalists. They went to a town where there had been a recent riot over transit gouging. Here's some of what transpired:

From the BBC:

Two leading UK climate researchers have criticised those among their peers who they say are "overplaying" the global warming message.

Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures, are voicing their concern at a conference in Oxford.

They say some researchers make claims about possible future impacts that cannot be justified by the science.

The pair believe this damages the credibility of all climate scientists.

They think catastrophism and the "Hollywoodisation" of weather and climate only work to create confusion in the public mind.

They argue for a more sober and reasoned explanation of the uncertainties about possible future changes in the Earth's climate.

The two went on to attack a statement last month by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (that group's climate page can be found here).

Here's the link to the Making Sense of the Weather and Climate conference.

And here's the BBC's climate change portal.

I've seen this very amusing little Zombie flick and can highly recommend it!

Here's my post from back in the days of TIFF.

The film screens at 9:30 p.m. tonight at the Bloor Cinema. First-run theatres will start screenings on Friday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered al Qaeda's lead planner on 9/11, has reportedly confessed at a military hearing in Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Cuba.

Note this from the BBC story:

Mohammed, a Pakistan national, was said to be the third most senior al-Qaeda leader before his capture.

The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera says there is nothing new in Mohammed's admission and that there is a transcript of his interrogation over 9/11 available on the web.

Its significance lies in the fact that he made the statements at the hearing, which could now lead to a trial before a military tribunal, our correspondent says.

I wonder why the Beeb didn't link to said transcript to aid the lazy and technologically challenged. :)

More seriously

The Pentagon now alleges that Mohammed was involved in the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.

Amnesty International issued this caution:

"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 'confession' was not made in a court of law but in a secret screening process that bars lawyers," said Amnesty UK spokesman Mike Blakemore.

"Before his six months at Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was apparently held in a totally secret CIA-run prison for three-and-a-half years where he alleges torture."

This is curious:

The alleged admission of Pearl's killing had been blacked out in an earlier version of the transcript released by the Pentagon.

Department of Defense spokesman Bryan Whitman said the information was delayed so that Pearl's family could be informed of the news.

But Mohammed made his confession on Saturday. The Pentagon didn't release the transcript until Tuesday. They couldn't have told Pearl's family on Sunday or Monday?

It would be sad if the Pentagon is playing games and trying to get maximum publicity out of this confession by releasing the most dramatic bits in stages.

From the NYT:

American Electric Power, a major electric utility, is planning the largest demonstration yet of capturing carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant and pumping it deep underground.

Various experts consider that approach, known as sequestration, essential to reining in climate change by preventing the gas from being added to the atmospheric blanket that promotes global warming.

The project, to be announced Thursday by American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, will use a new process — so far tested only at laboratory scale — that uses chilled ammonia to absorb the gas for collection. The process was developed by Alstom, a major manufacturer of generating equipment, and aims to reduce the amount of energy required to capture the carbon dioxide.

Some experts have estimated that nearly a third of a power plant’s energy output might be needed to pull carbon dioxide from the waste stream. Alstom hopes to hold it to 15 percent.

The cost must be kept as low as possible if the technology is to be used on a wide scale. Congress is seen as unlikely to impose enormously expensive restraints on emissions. And under proposals to cap emissions nationally and let companies trade credits for extra reductions, only the cheapest methods of reducing greenhouse gases would thrive in the marketplace.

Opinion-page editors at major American newspapers say that up to 75 per cent of manuscripts come from men. Author and activist Catherine Orenstein wants to get more women writing.

From the NYT:

An unusual coalition of industrial and developing countries began pushing Wednesday for stringent limits on the world’s most popular refrigerant for air-conditioners, as evidence mounts that the refrigerant harms the earth’s ozone layer and contributes to global warming.

The coalition is pitted against China, which has become the world’s leading manufacturer of air-conditioners that use the refrigerant, HCFC-22. Most window air-conditioners and air-conditioning systems in the United States use this refrigerant, as well.

International pressure has grown rapidly this winter for quick action. “We scientifically have proof: if we accelerate the phaseout of HCFC, we are going to make a great contribution to climate change,” said Romina Picolotti, the chief of Argentina’s environmental secretariat.

An accelerated phaseout of the refrigerant could speed up by five years the healing of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. It could also cut emissions of global-warming gases by the equivalent of at least one-sixth of the reductions called for under the Kyoto Protocol.

Here's an earlier post: Just when you thought the ozone layer was healing ...

The scientists at RealClimate take issue with an NYT story about purported inaccuracies in Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth.

While the Irish may well toss back plenty of Guinness on St. Patrick's Day this Saturday, tastes in general are changing as Ireland becomes wealthier, busier and more diverse.

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