tsunami threat along Australia's east coast, but authorities are still warning people to keep out of the water

An outgoing tide has eased the tsunami threat along Australia’s east coast, but authorities are still warning people to keep out of the water.Rising sea levels have been recorded at Norfolk Island, Southport in Tasmania and Port Kembla in New South Wales.A tsunami alert, issued after a massive earthquake in Chile, remains in place for Queensland, News South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.Sea rises of 10 to 50 centimetres have spared coastlines, but officials warn there is still the risk posed by strong currents caused by accelerating tidal movements.

The Bureau of Meterology’s spokesman, Alasdair Hainsworth, says the threat is abating now the tide is on the way out.”We’re no longer talking about any kind of foreshore flooding. We’re simply now concerned about strong currents,” he said.Phil Campbell, from the NSW State Emergency Service, says beachgoers should not go swimming under any circumstances.”We’re advising people that they should not engage in any recreational boating in small boats, particularly as there are those strong currents that are likely to make that quite hazardous,” he said.

“For those people thinking of taking part in some rock fishing or fishing from beaches, we’d also recommend against those activites as well.”The weather bureau says the tsunami has not caused any measurable increase in wave movement in Queensland, but a marine alert remains current for the state’s waters north from the NSW border to St Lawrence.

South of Sydney, Port Kembla measured a rise of 10 to 15 centimetres above the water table, with water levels still increasing.The bureau says a second spike is being recorded at Norfolk Island, with the surge expected to continue towards Queensland.In Sydney, hundreds of people lined the promenade at Bondi Beach, waiting to see what impact the Chile earthquake would have on Australian shores.

Beachgoers were directed off the sand shortly before 8.30am AEDT and the beach was closed.But many people remained on the beach and in the water in defiance of the warnings.Surf Life Saving NSW says it is concerned several local councils have decided to open beaches despite the tsunami warning.Spokesman Steven Leahy says larger waves and stronger currents and rips are expected along the state’s coastline this afternoon.”Our advice is that the risk has not declined and in fact over the next couple of hours there is still every possibility that we will see some tsunami event,” he said.

TasmaniaElsewhere, the tsunami warning forced the cancellation of surf lifesaving activities on Tasmania’s east coast and southern beaches.The first signs of the tsunami in Tasmania were recorded at Maria Island off the state’s south-east coast, just after 8:00am (AEDT).

The weather bureau says the waves were expected to get bigger, and Marine Safety Tasmania says people should delay launching boats until the threat passed.It is considered unlikely the tsunami will have an effect on land.Much of Australia’s east coast was put on tsunami alert late yesterday with boats urged to return to harbour.The alert was issued after a massive 8.8 magnitude quake hit Chile, killing hundreds of people and sending giant waves speeding across the Pacific.Meanwhile, waves up to 1.5 metres high rammed into New Zealand’s east coast.

iceberg about the size of Luxembourg that struck a glacier off Antarctica and dislodged another massive block of ice could lower the levels of oxygen

SYDNEY  An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg that struck a glacier off Antarctica and dislodged another massive block of ice could lower the levels of oxygen in the world’s oceans, Australian and French scientists said Friday.The two icebergs are now drifting together about 62 to 93 miles (100 to 150 kilometers) off Antarctica following the collision on Feb. 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.”It gave it a pretty big nudge,” Young said of the 60-mile (97-kilometer) -long iceberg that collided with the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg. “They are now floating right next to each other.”

The new iceberg is 48 miles (78 kilometers) long and about 24 miles (39 kilometers) wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world’s annual total water usage, Young told The Associated Press.Experts are concerned about the effect of the massive displacement of ice on the ice-free water next to the glacier, which is important for ocean currents.

This area of water had been kept clear because of the glacier, said Steve Rintoul, a leading climate expert. With part of the glacier gone, the area could fill with sea ice, which would disrupt the ability for the dense and cold water to sink.This sinking water is what spills into ocean basins and feeds the global ocean currents with oxygen, Rintoul explained.As there are only a few areas in the world where this occurs, a slowing of the process would mean less oxygen supplied into the deep currents that feed the oceans.

“There may be regions of the world’s oceans that lose oxygen, and then of course most of the life there will die,” said Mario Hoppema, chemical oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.The icebergs, weighing 860 billion tons and 700 billion tons respectively, are located in water over the Antarctic Continental Shelf, Young said.”We expect them to head west along the Antarctic coastline,” he said.Young said it was not likely they would reach as far north as Australia, and noted icebergs are very slow movers.

We now have a situation where oxygen levels being fed into the world’s ocean currents have changed “and the overturning circulation currents will respond to that change,” Rintoul said. Observing what happens “will … allow us to improve predictions of future climate change,” he added.(AP)

SYDNEY Energy giant PetroChina Co. Ltd. has pulled out of a $40 billion deal to buy natural gas from a project off Australia

SYDNEY Energy giant PetroChina Co. Ltd. has pulled out of a $40 billion deal to buy natural gas from a project off Australia, leaving Woodside Petroleum Ltd. looking for new customers.Reasons for letting the preliminary agreement lapse were not given, but analysts said Tuesday it was probably because PetroChina had become dissatisfied with the cost in the two years since the deal was signed.Woodside informed Australia’s stock exchange on Monday that an early stage agreement for the Browse Basin liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia state had not been settled by a Dec. 31 deadline and had now lapsed.A spokesman for PetroChina Ltd. in Beijing, Liu Weijiang, said on Tuesday he had no information on the deal and asked a reporter to call again later.Under the September 2007 agreement, PetroChina would potentially buy up to three million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of LNG per year from the project for up to 20 years.At the time, it was one of Australia’s largest export deals with an estimated worth of AU$45 billion ($40 billion).Since then, deals between prospective developers of the massive gas reserves on Australia’s so-called Northwest Shelf and customers have accelerated, with companies in China, Japan and South Korea signing on to multibillion dollar, two-decade agreements last year.The lapse of the PetroChina deal means that the terms, including price, for a large chunk of the Brown Basin gas are once again fully open to negotiation.

“The deal was good at the time, but in the past two years things have been changing rapidly,” said Peter Kopetz, energy analyst with Western Australia-based State One Stockbroking.PetroChina would probably look for other sources of gas, said Yang Wei, an oil industry analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.”I think it’s probably that the price is not right. It’s too expensive,” he said.PetroChina in August reached a $41 billion deal to buy natural gas from another project in the same region, that is being developed by Chevron.Chinese energy companies have signed a multibillion-dollar string of deals to import oil and gas from the Gulf, Africa, Central Asia and elsewhere to feed the demands of the country’s rapidly growing economy.Woodside had hoped the Browse project would be in production by 2012, but the company said Monday this timeline was no longer realistic, and a final investment decision by partners including Woodside, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Royal Dutch Shell would not be made until mid-2012.

Woodside said an agreement for CPC Corporation Taiwan to buy up to three million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of LNG per year for up to 20 years from the Browse project was still in place, and the company was looking for more customers.”Woodside remains in ongoing discussions with other Asia-Pacific LNG customers in relation to potential sales from its portfolio of Australian LNG developments, including the Browse project,” Woodside said in a statement.Woodside shares closed just shy of 1 percent higher on Tuesday at AU$47.97.(AP)

world celebrations for the new years

Taipei 101

PARIS jazzed up the Eiffel Tower with a multicolored, disco-style light display as the world basked in New Year’s festivities with hopes that 2010 and beyond will bring more peace and prosperity.From fireworks over Sydney’s famous bridge to balloons sent aloft in Tokyo, revelers across the globe at least temporarily shelved worries about the future to bid farewell to “The Noughties” – a bitter-tinged nickname for the first decade of the 21st century playing on a term for “zero” and evoking the word naughty.In New York City, hundreds of thousands of revelers gathered in chilly weather in Times Square to usher in the new decade. Organizers were preparing 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) of confetti that will be scattered when the New Year’s Eve crystal ball drops at midnight.Fireworks were set off at about 6 p.m. and the gigantic ball was lowered into place in preparation for midnight. Many people wore conical party hats and 2010 glasses that blinked colorfully, and some were jumping up and down to keep warm – the National Weather Service said the temperature will be in the low 30s and forecast snow for around midnight.Las Vegas prepared to welcome some 315,000 revelers with fireworks from casino rooftops, a traffic-free Las Vegas Strip and toasts at nightclubs from celebrities including actress Eva Longoria and rapper 50 Cent.

Sydney Harbour

Even as some major stock market indexes rose in 2009, the financial downturn hit hard, sending many industrial economies into recession, tossing millions out of work and out of their homes as foreclosures rose dramatically in some countries.”The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody. No continent, no country, no sector has been spared,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on national TV in a New Year’s Eve address. “Even if the tests are unfinished, 2010 will be a year of renewal,” he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her people that the start of the new decade won’t herald immediate relief from the global economic ills. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was more ebullient, saying the World Cup is set to make 2010 the country’s most important year since the end of apartheid in 1994.At midnight in Rio de Janeiro, about 2 million people gathered along the 2.5-mile (4 kilometer) Copacabana beach to watch a huge fireworks display and listen to dozens of music acts and DJs.

The multitudes came mostly dressed in traditional white clothing, a nod to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomble but a custom followed by nearly everyone as it is thought to bring peace and good luck for the coming year.Officials said about 12,000 police were on duty during the New Year’s Eve party in and around Copacabana to provide security.Dressed in white and holding a glass of champagne in his hand, visitor Chad Bissonnette, 27, a nongovernmental group’s director from Washington, D.C., said, “This year was the toughest I’ve experienced – for the first time as an American I saw many friends lose jobs and businesses in my neighborhood close regularly.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hailed events in 2009 like the inauguration of the United States’ first black president, and international attempts to grapple with climate change and the global financial crisis.”The great message from 2009 is that because we’ve been all in this together, we’ve all worked together,” Rudd said in a New Year’s message.Australia got the some of the festivities rolling, as Sydney draped its skies with explosive bursts of crimson, purple and blue to the delight of more than 1 million New Year revelers near the harbor bridge.Concerns that global warming might raise sea levels and cause other environmental problems were on the minds of some as the year ended.

Venice revelers rang in the New Year with wet feet as high tide on its archipelago peaked just before midnight to flood low-lying parts of the city – including the St. Mark’s Square.The last year also offered its reminders of the decade’s fight against terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently, rising militant violence in Pakistan.Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, in a statement Wednesday, suggested that terrorism book-ended the decade, with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, and foiled plot by a Nigerian man to set off explosives on a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Eve.

“In late December we were reminded at this decade’s end, just as we were at its beginning, that there is a terrorist threat which puts our safety and security at risk and which requires us to take on al-Qaeda and the Taliban at the epicentre of global terrorism,” he said.

The American Embassy in Indonesia warned of a possible terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali on New Year’s Eve, citing information from the island’s governor – though local security officials said they were unaware of a threat.In a more upbeat theme, the Eiffel Tower was decked out for its 120th anniversary year with hundreds of multicolored lights along its latticework. It was seemingly retro in style, but decidedly 21st century as it showered the Iron Lady in a light show billed as more energy-saving than its usual sparkling lights.

Police blocked off the Champs-Elysees to vehicle traffic as partygoers popped champagne, exchanged la bise – the traditional French cheek to cheek peck – or more amorous kisses to celebrate the New Year.Spain rang in the start of its six-month presidency of the European Union with a sound and light show illuminating Sol square in Madrid and images from the 27 member states projected onto the central post office building.Partiers braved the cold – and a shower from sparkling cava wine bottles – in traditional style by eating 12 grapes, one with each tolling of the city hall bell.Despite frigid temperatures, thousands gathered along the River Thames for fireworks were fired from the London Eye attraction just as Big Ben struck midnight – an hour after continental western Europe.

Europe and the Americas may have partied harder than Asia. Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan use a different calendar; China will mark the new year in February.Still, in Shanghai, some people paid 518 yuan ($75) to ring the bell at the Longhua Temple at midnight and wish for new-year luck. In Chinese, saying “518” sounds like the phrase “I want prosperity.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries where New Year’s Eve is not celebrated publicly. Clerics in the ultraconservative country say Muslims can only observe their faith’s feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. For them, any other occasions are considered innovations that Islam rejects.Unlike many Islamic countries where pigs are considered unclean, New Year’s in Austria just isn’t complete without a pig-shaped lucky charm – and stalls selling the little porkers did a good business Thursday. Some are made of marzipan or chocolate; others come in glass, wood, rubber or soap.

Herbert Nikitsch of the University of Vienna’s Institute of European Ethnology said the porcine phylactery may originate from the fact that pigs represented food and sustenance for farmers in preindustrial times.Some festivities went awry.In the Philippines, hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire during the celebrations. Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year’s celebrations drive away evil and misfortune – but some carry that belief to extremes.At Zojoji, one of Tokyo’s oldest and biggest Buddhist temples, thousands of worshippers released clear, helium-filled balloons to mark the new year. Nearby Tokyo Tower twinkled with white lights, while a large “2010” sign glowed from the center.

Tokyo’s Shibuya area, known as a magnet of youth culture, exploded with emotion at the stroke of midnight. Strangers embraced spontaneously as revelers jumped and sang.In Istanbul, Turkish authorities deployed some 2,000 police around Taksim Square to prevent pickpockets and the molestation of women that have marred New Year celebrations in the past. Some officers were under cover, disguised as street vendors or “even in Santa Claus dress,” Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.In Stonehaven, on Scotland’s east coast, the fireballs festival – a tradition for a century and a half – saw in the New Year. The pagan festival is observed by marchers swinging large, flaming balls around their heads. The flames are believed to either ensure sunshine or banish harmful influences.In contrast to many galas worldwide, the Stonehaven Fireballs Association warned those attending not to wear their best clothes – because “there will be sparks flying along with smoke and even whisky.” (AP)

The 2010 World Cup is going 3-D.Sony Corp

sony corp

The 2010 World Cup is going 3-D.Sony Corp. said Friday it has signed a deal with FIFA, the international football governing body, to record up to 25 World Cup games in 3-D – a technology that gives viewers an illusion of depth on the screen.The Japanese electronics and entertainment company is one of several electronics makers planning or working on 3-D technology for TVs and movies. Sony makes 3-D capable video cameras, and plans to sell 3-D TVs for homes next year.People wear special glasses to see 3-D footage because the illusion of dimension is created by sending different images to the left and the right eye, although manufacturers are working on upgrades that will show 3-D without glasses.Chief Executive Howard Stringer expressed his enthusiasm for watching a soccer game in 3-D in an interview this week.”I thought that was very cool,” he said at Tokyo headquarters.

Most 3-D releases so far have been animation films but the feature is gradually spreading to other genres, such as the soon-to-be-released sci-fi epic “Avatar.”Stringer said sports was definitely one area 3-D could display its strengths.He also said he wanted to see “thoughtful” movies someday being made in 3-D. He ruled out Michael Jackson videos and the next “Spider-Man” movie as 3-D possibilities.

For now, 3-D video of the World Cup in South Africa won’t be shown in TV broadcast for homes, according to Sony, which makes Bravia TVs, Walkman portable players and PlayStation 3 game consoles.They will be shown at Sony booths at FIFA events in Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Sydney in June and July. Highlights will be shown in Sony showrooms, and a video version will be sold through Sony Pictures.”It’s a great opportunity to get people to experience 3-D firsthand,” said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari.