Moroccan villagers protect precious cave

The stunning Friouato Cave owes its upkeep to a band of locals determined to preserve its beauty.

By Anouar Hamama for Magharebia in Taza – 22/01/10

Moroccans have worked hard to preserve one of Morocco's most astounding gems, the Friouato caves, ever since Frenchman Norbert Castoret discovered the geological wonders roughly 80 years ago.

Villagers are still working to maintain the cave, even though the 1998 expansion of the nearby Tazekka National Park put the area under the oversight of the Department of Waters and Forests. The department has not taken over cave upkeep because of a lack of resources. Instead, the cave is administered by a co-operative located in the nearby village of Bab Boudir, which pays 10,000 dinars per year in rent.

"We want people to be able to explore this wonder of Morocco, and so people in my village took steps to open it up to tourism, while protecting its beauty," Youness Kassemi, who works for the co-operative, told Magharebia.

The largest geological formation of its kind in North Africa, Friouato Cave descends 272 meters underground. Only 3.8km of its as-yet-unknown total length have been explored. The cave dazzles visitors with an amazing array of sights, from a towering grotto lit only by fragmented rays of light, to a passage less than a meter wide that leads into huge underground caverns decorated with shimmering walls and surreal rock formations.

Villagers have given some of the most spectacular areas of the cave names, including "The Bison", "The Dragon's Jaw", "The Duck Pond" and "The Cemetery".

Since 1932, the village has extensively outfitted the cave, creating a blasted-through entrance granting easy access for visitors, along with concrete steps that line the first kilometer and a system of emergency lights.

"I've been a guide for six years, and it's still exciting every time I go into the cave," said Jamal 'Jambo' Bouabi, 20. According to him, the cave welcomes around 50 visitors each day. Because those tending the cave have no advertised contact information, each visitor is a surprise.

Still, the co-operative welcomes tourists who want to explore the caves. "We really need the tourists to help finance the upkeep of the cave, because the village doesn't have a lot of money," he told Magharebia.

The increased tourism has brought a number of problems to the caves. Vandals have removed many stalactites and marred cave walls with graffiti. Now, the co-operative requires that each visitor be accompanied by a guide to stop the damage.

Despite the difficulties in maintaining these geological marvels, Bab Boudir residents relish the chance to show tourists the local marvel.

"Sometimes it's hard," said Kassemi. "We wait around all day, and no visitors come, so money can get tight and guides go home with nothing. But we think it's worth it."

One recent visitor to the cave was driving from Oujda to visit family in Salé, but took a longer route just see the cave and the national park.

"I'm too old to go down into the small areas, so I just stayed at the top," the cave visitor told Magharebia. "But it's beautiful, and certainly worth the trip. It's truly a national treasure."

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2010/01/22/feature-01.

US estimates vast oil deposit in Venezuela, more than Saudi

CARACAS: Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt is one of the world's largest known oil deposits, and the U.S. Geological Survey says in a new estimate that it likely holds 513 billion barrels of recoverable heavy crude - nearly twice as much as the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

The USGS said in the assessment released Friday that it estimated how much oil could be recovered using existing technologies, and that the area has the largest accumulation it has ever assessed.

There was no immediate reaction from the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, which has said it hopes to eventually certify more than 235 billion barrels of crude in the Orinoco River basin in eastern Venezuela.

USGS geologist Chris Schenk, who led a group of researchers in preparing the assessment, said the team based its figures not on estimated reserves that could be certified, but rather on "what could be recoverable with the technologies that we're aware of today."

"We're saying they're technically recoverable but not necessarily economically recoverable today," Schenk said in a telephone interview from Denver.

The USGS team relied in part on data from PDVSA, which has said the Orinoco River basin could potentially hold 1.3 trillion barrels of extra-heavy crude - only some of which is feasible to pump from subterranean sandstone reservoirs.

The USGS team came up with a range of "technically recoverable" oil estimates in the Orinoco belt from 380 billion to 652 billion barrels - and determined a mean estimate of 513 billion barrels.

"Some of the recoveries that they've reported from pilot projects are pretty high. And it just shows that with time, technology just gets better," Schenk said.

He said the estimate is based on oil recovery rates of 40 percent to 45 percent.

Venezuelan oil geologist Gustavo Coronel called that overly optimistic.

"I doubt the recovery factor could go much higher than 25 percent and much of that oil would not be economic to produce," said Coronel, an energy consultant and former PDVSA board member who lives in McLean, Virginia.

"It's beyond what's technically feasible at this time."

A PDVSA spokesman did not immediately return calls on Friday seeking comment.

Venezuela already boasts the largest proven reserves outside of the Mideast - 172 billion barrels according to the government - but still trails the world leader Saudi Arabia, which has proven reserves of more than 260 billion barrels.

President Hugo Chavez has made it a priority to gradually increase Venezuela's proven reserves, particularly in the Orinoco Oil Belt, or "Faja," as is it called in Spanish.

The heavy crude is costlier to upgrade than benchmark light, sweet crude, but is still attractive to major oil companies that have been working with Venezuela to explore for oil in the Orinoco region.

Foreign companies operating in Venezuela include U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC and others including state oil companies from allies China, Russia and Iran.

Source: Malaysian Star.
Link: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/23/business/20100123102115&sec=business.

Woman holds record for world's largest Pokemon collection

Pokemon-mad Lisa Courtney has earned a place in the record books with a memorabilia collection of more than 12,000 items.

Ms Courtney is listed as having the biggest Pokemon collection in the world - 12,113 items - in the new edition of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, published yesterday.

The 21-year-old, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, has spent 13 years building up the collection which she said has swelled to more than 13,400 since it was counted by Guinness record-checkers last year and fills most of the house she shares with her mum, Sharon.

"To be in the new Gamer's Edition and to hold a world record for something you feel so passionate about is just an indescribable feeling," she said.

"My family have been incredibly supportive considering the collection takes up the whole house, including my mother's room!

"I've even named the room where my main collection resides Pokemon Center Europe!"

Ms Courtney began her love affair with Pokemon when she saw a picture of Pikachu in a Nintendo magazine and started collecting even though she had no idea what the characters were.

"My favorite is a plush toy of the character Absol," she said.

"I fell in love with it."

Ms Courtney said she will never get bored of collecting: "There's always something new coming out in Japan. There's so much out there."

She has been to Japan five times and plans to go back this year for another "spending spree".

Ms Courtney, who is unemployed, is learning Japanese and hopes to one day become a Japanese teacher.

Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer's Edition is the third installment of the series.

Source: Times of Malta.
Link: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100122/world-news/woman-holds-record-for-worlds-largest-pokemon-collection.

Bishop Richard Williamson to face trial over Holocaust denial

A renegade British Catholic bishop summoned to trial for denying the Holocaust has appeared in an online video voicing anti-Israeli views and acknowledging he broke a German law on racial hatred.

In the video on the French site, Dailymotion, Richard Williamson responds to questions in French, saying: "Lots of people think that Israel is a legitimate state. That does not necessarily mean it is one."

Bishop Williamson was last month summoned to face trial on charges of inciting racial hatred for saying in an interview in Germany that "not one Jew" was killed in gas chambers by the Nazis.

The German court said he denied the charges against him and refused to pay the 12,000 euro ($18,800) fine that would enable him to avoid trial. He has kept a low profile since the controversial interview in January 2009.

In the Dailymotion video he appeared indoors sitting next to a Christmas tree, talking to Pierre Panet, a French anti-Zionist political activist.

He acknowledged he had "called into question the gassing of six million Jews" and to do so was a "crime, according to German law".

The bishop belongs to a Swiss-based Catholic fraternity which appointed him without the Pope's blessing after it broke away from Rome over reforms introduced by Vatican II in 1965. His comments last year sparked outrage in Germany, where it is illegal to deny the Holocaust.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to "clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial" that the Nazis killed six million Jews.

Pope Benedict XVI also drew strong criticism for canceling the excommunication of bishop Williamson and three other bishops of the ultra-conservative Saint Pius X Society.

Source: Perth Now.
Link: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/bishop-richard-williamson-to-face-trial-over-holocaust-denial/story-e6frg12u-1225822745831?from=public_rss.

UN: Haiti government calls off search and rescue

By VIVIAN SEQUERA and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti's government has declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, the United Nations announced Saturday, saying there is little hope of finding more people alive 11 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble.

The statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs comes a day after an Israeli team reported pulling a man out of the debris of a two-story home and relatives said an elderly woman had been rescued.

Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said the Friday afternoon decision does not mean rescue teams still searching for survivors would be stopped from carrying out whatever work they felt necessary.

"It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act," Byrs told The Associated Press. She added, however, that "except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading."

Starting now, the focus will be squarely on providing shelter and medical treatment, Byrs said. Some 132 people were pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams since the Jan. 12 disaster, she said.

With the local government essentially incapacitated, the U.N. has coordinated rescue efforts alongside the U.S. The global body is concerned that many Haitians are still homeless as the rainy season and the hurricane season is about to begin.

The 7.0-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. Countless dead remain buried in thousands of collapsed and toppled buildings in Port-au-Prince, while as many as 200,000 have fled the city of 2 million, the U.S. Agency for International Development reported.

About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital's metropolitan area, and the United Nations estimates that up to 1 million could leave Haiti's destroyed cities for rural areas already struggling with extreme poverty.

On Saturday, mourners gathered near the ruins of the shattered cathedral to pay final respects to the capital's archbishop and a vicar in a somber ceremony that doubled as a symbolic funeral for all the dead.

More than 1,000 people, many weeping and clutching handkerchiefs, joined dignitaries including President Rene Preval, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Vatican's ambassador to Haiti, Archbishop Bernadito Cleopas Auza, as classical music wafted over a small park.

"This is for everyone," Cleopas Auza said of the ceremony before it began.

Two closed white caskets covered with flowers sat side-by-side in the park, one holding the body of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and the other the remains of vicar Charles Benoit.

"I came here to pay my respects to all the dead from the earthquake, and to see them have a funeral," said Esther Belizaire, 51, whose cousin is among the dead.

Nepthalie Mior, a niece of the archbishop, choked back tears as she described the man who would have worked to comfort the nation after the disaster had he not been killed himself.

"He was a very compassionate person. He tried to help the poor," she said.

Only a small number of funerals have been held since the quake, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city, or burned in the streets.

"The hardest thing for us is the smell of all the dead bodies," said Josette Elisias, 45, wearing a red handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth on Saturday as workers cleared rubble and debris from streets with brooms, rakes and wheelbarrows.

Scores of aid organizations, big and small, have stepped up deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and other aid to the homeless and other needy in seaside city.

In the U.S., celebrities and artists made impassioned pleas for charitable donations during an internationally broadcast telethon Friday night.

"The Haitian people need our help," said actor George Clooney, who helped organize the two-hour telecast. "They need to know that they are not alone. They need to know that we still care."

More than a dozen Latin pop stars including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee and Juanes were to appear Saturday on a special live edition of a popular Univision variety show to raise money for the American Red Cross to help aid earthquake victims.

But in Haiti, obstacles remain at every turn to getting help into people's hands.

Byrs, the U.N. spokeswoman, said "hope is vanishing" that more people will be found alive despite two apparently miraculous rescues on Friday.

The Israeli team that rescued 21-year-old Emmannuel Buso said that after relatives approached asking for help, they pulled away the debris of a two-story home and called out. To everyone's surprise, Buso responded.

The slender student and tailor with deep-set eyes emerged so ghostly white that his mother told rescuers she thought he was a corpse. In an interview with The Associated Press, he described coming out of the shower when the quake hit.

"I felt the house dancing around me," Buso said from a bed in an Israeli field hospital. "I didn't know if I was up or down."

He told of passing out in the rubble, dreaming at times that he could hear his mother crying. The furniture in his room had collapsed around him in such a way that it created a small space for him amid the ruins of the house. He had no food. When he got desperately thirsty, he drank his urine.

Also Friday, an 84-year-old woman was said by relatives to have been pulled from the wreckage of her home, though doctors said her condition was critical.

Rescuers said they were encouraged but all too aware that few trapped people can survive for that long.

"Statistically you can say that the chances of survival is very low," said Fernando Alvarez Bravo, a representative in Mexico for rescue crews founded during the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, and still at work in Haiti on Friday. "But the hope it gives the population to recover and find their loved ones helps them to recover quickly. They don't feel abandoned."