LONDON — The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said on Wednesday. Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 10 meters (32 ft). ‘The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle,’ he wrote in the science journal Nature. A sudden lateral movement of 7 to 10 meters would be among the largest ever recorded. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco in 1906 was produced by a sudden movement of the northern end of the fault of up to 21 ft. Fialko said there had been no recorded movement at the southern end of the fault — the 800-mile long geological meeting point of the Pacific […]
It may have been sold as a tax cut package, but the document that President George W. Bush signed into law on May 17 will mean an extra tax bite for many Americans who live abroad. Those expected to feel the most pain are expatriate workers who earn comfortable, but not lavish, livings and semi- retired workers earning some foreign income while drawing U.S. Social Security, pensions and other income from U.S. sources. Many of these expatriates will be pushed into higher U.S. brackets, as will employees and independent professionals in no-tax and low-tax areas like much of the Middle East, some Caribbean nations and Hong Kong. As Steven Horton, a certified public accountant practicing in Paris, put it: ‘The middle class will get hammered.’ Senior employees who collect generous expat benefits, like housing allowances and reimbursement for their children’s school fees, also are expected to have bigger U.S. tax liabilities – but their companies probably will pick up the costs as part of their benefit packages, tax experts said. The new law, however, does contain some good news. The foreign earned- income exclusion, which was under threat of extinction just three […]
BETHESDA, Md. — Almost every Thursday during the academic year, a bus carrying a dozen or so Naval Academy midshipmen leaves Annapolis for the 45-minute drive to Bethesda, where Navy doctors perform laser eye surgery on them, one after another, with assembly-line efficiency. Nearly a third of every 1,000-member Naval Academy class now undergoes the procedure, part of a booming trend among military personnel with poor vision. Unlike in the civilian world, where eye surgery is still largely done for convenience or vanity, the procedure’s popularity in the armed forces is transforming career choices and daily life in subtle but far-reaching ways. Aging fighter pilots can now remain in the cockpit longer, reducing annual recruiting needs. And recruits whose bad vision once would have disqualified them from the special forces are now eligible, making the competition for these coveted slots even tougher. But the surgery is also causing the military some unexpected difficulties. By shrinking the pool of people who used to be routinely available for jobs that do not require perfect eyesight, it has made it harder to fill some of those assignments with top-notch personnel, officers say. When Ensign Michael Shaughnessy had the surgery […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The increasing ease of becoming a millionaire became clear Tuesday, with the announcement that the ranks of world millionaires had swelled to 8.7 million last year _ half a million more than the population of New York City. Millionaires also invested more aggressively, pouring cash into emerging markets and pulling it out of fixed income holdings, as their wealth reached $33.3 trillion, more than double U.S. economic output, a study by Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini found. The red-hot Middle East saw nearly 10 percent growth in millionaires _ the world’s fastest rate _ with record oil revenues and soaring stock markets pushing 300,000 people over the million-dollar mark. ‘This is becoming a very attractive place to invest,’ said Mones R. Bazzy, Merrill Lynch’s head of Middle East private banking, based in the Gulf boomtown of Dubai. Bazzy spoke in a hotel conference room overlooking the world’s newest international stock market, the futuristic arch-shaped Dubai International Financial Center. One factor in the Middle East’s growth in millionaires was the stock markets that spiked by more than 100 percent in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year. Thus far 2006, […]
HAZLETON, Pa. — With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what the mayor calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants in the United States. ‘Illegal immigrants are destroying the city,’ said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. ‘I don’t want them here, period.’ Last week Barletta introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants; and make English the city’s official language. As Congress debates changes to the nation’s immigration policy, some cities are taking matters into their own hands, saying they have no choice but to crack down on illegal immigrants themselves. Barletta said he had to act after two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged last month with shooting and killing a man. Other recent incidents involving illegal immigrants have rattled this former coal town 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, including the arrest of a 14-year-old boy for firing a gun at a playground. ‘This is crazy,’ said Barletta, who took office in 2000. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
