The US National Weather Service has measured 39.45 degrees Celsius in Central Park in mid-Manhattan, breaking the previous 38.3C record set on July 6 1999 by 1.15 degrees.
![](https://minivannewsarchive.com/cmsMUIH10/wp-content/plugins/like-dislike-counter-for-posts-pages-and-comments/images/up.png)
![](https://minivannewsarchive.com/cmsMUIH10/wp-content/plugins/like-dislike-counter-for-posts-pages-and-comments/images/down.png)
The US National Weather Service has measured 39.45 degrees Celsius in Central Park in mid-Manhattan, breaking the previous 38.3C record set on July 6 1999 by 1.15 degrees.
British prime minister David Cameron has refused an increase in official annual income for the Queen and her family.
“It was revealed this week that in the last financial year the Queen spent $69 million – not including the costs of Royal security which are kept secret,” reports the Australian ABC’s Emma Alberici. “Money is spent on official functions, salaries for the Queen’s 1,200 staff, palace maintenance and travel.”
Robert Verkaik the legal affairs editor at the Independent newspaper has taken his quest for information about Palace expenses all the way to the High Court, she writes.
“There’s someone who lives rent free with two bedrooms, one reception room and their sole job is to look after the royal library,” Robert Verkaik said. What he discovered was that the Royal Family were either paying salaries or providing rent free accommodation to minor royals. They perform little to no public functions and are virtually unknown, even in their own country. Also, in one case, Mr Verkaik says the housekeeper was given a five-bedroom, five-living room apartment rent free within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Kulhudhufushi islanders have launched a charity fund box to help their elected MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed, an independent member of parliament, after he admitted it was his voice saying ”I need some cash” to Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Gasim ‘Buruma’ Ibrahim in a leaked audio clip.
Gasim is currently under house arrest while he is investigated by police for vote-buying and treason.
”We felt pity for our MP Mohamed Nasheed after hearing the leaked audio clip,” said Mohamed Naeem, a Kulhudhufushi islander who heads the group that opened the charity box.
”When he first asked Gasim about his financial condition, we thought that Nasheed was about to help Gasim. But then we heard he was running low financially himself and was in need of some cash.”
Naeem said the group of islanders did not wish their MP to be begging people for money, and had set up a charity box on the beach of the island for everyone to put money in to help Nasheed.
”We do not like the way he begged,” he added. “We heard him saying that he would send someone somewhere to pick up the money in case people might see.”
”We will keep the box open until 6:00pm on Saturday, and then we will open it and count the money,” Naeem said. ”Then we will hand all the money to Nasheed’s office, and if they refuse to deliver the money to him, we will send it to him directly.”
Many people on the island had already walked down the beach to the box and were putting money in it, Naeem said.
”We are not a NGO, not even anybody from the island office – we’re just normal islanders,” he added.
As an elected member of parliament, Nasheed receives Rf62,500 (US$4864) per month from the State.
Nasheed was not responding to calls at time of press.
Foreign minister of Sri Lanka Professor G L Peeris has visited former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s official residence Maafannu Aliwaage.
Leader of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and former foreign minister and leader of DRP women’s wing Dhunya Maumoon participated in the meeting.
Two senior officials of the Sri Lankan foreign ministry and MP Sajin Gunavarudhana also attended the meeting.
The Strategic Climate Fund, one of two funds under the Climate Investment Funds scheme, will grant US$20 million (Rf255 million) to develop renewable energy resources in Maldives, reports Haveeru.
Delivery of the grant is expected next month and will be invested in the carbon neutral plan announced by President Mohamed Nasheed, according to deputy environment minister Dr Mohamed Shareef. “We cannot do everything with this money. We can only carry out [projects] in some islands, which we have yet to determine,” he said.
“The Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries, approved in May 2009, is aimed at demonstrating the social, economic, and environmental viability of low carbon development pathways in the energy sector,” says the Strategic Climate Fund website. “It seeks to create new economic opportunities and increase energy access through the production and use of renewable energy.”
The President’s Office has announced a swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet at 2:45pm this afternoon.
Yesterday, Political Advisor Hassan Afeef said the new cabinet would only be proposed when the government had “reached an understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis.”
The new cabinet must be endorsed by the opposition-majority parliament, according to the Constitution. The executive has been deadlocked with the legislature following the arrest of two MPs and allegations of corruption.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in the Maldives this morning on a state visit.
President Rajapaksa will meet with President Nasheed, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Parliament Speaker Abdulla Shahid, and Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed.
The attitudes and social behaviour of men will have to change if they are to compete successfully against women in the modern global economy, claims Hanna Rosin in the latest edition of The Atlantic.
“With few exceptions, the greater the power of women, the greater the country’s economic success,” Rosin writes. “Aid agencies have started to recognize this relationship and have pushed to institute political quotas in about 100 countries, essentially forcing women into power in an effort to improve those countries’ fortunes…
“Last year, Iceland elected Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, the world’s first openly lesbian head of state, who campaigned explicitly against the male elite she claimed had destroyed the nation’s banking system, and who vowed to end the “age of testosterone”…
“Researchers have started looking into the relationship between testosterone and excessive risk, and wondering if groups of men, in some basic hormonal way, spur each other to make reckless decisions. The picture emerging is a mirror image of the traditional gender map: men and markets on the side of the irrational and overemotional, and women on the side of the cool and levelheaded.”
A new cabinet will be proposed when the government reaches an agreement or understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis, said the President’s political advisor Hassan Afeef at the daily President’s office news conference, reports Miadhu.
Afeef described the departing cabinet as ‘dynamic, brilliant and hard-working’, and said the government wants any new cabinet members to be endorsed by the opposition dominated Majlis.
Despite scientific evidence and dire warnings, developed countries are destroying the current controls on global warming, reports Indian magazine Frontline.
‘The “pledge and review” scheme was the handiwork of the U.S., which was against accepting any legally binding commitment on emission reductions,’ writes Frontline’s R. Ramachandran. ‘Acting behind the scenes since mid-2009 and with active help from other developed countries which did not want to commit to a second commitment period such as Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia, the U.S. succeeded in having the scheme formalised as a “political agreement” at Copenhagen.’