| Philippines' Duterte ordered murders: ex-police aide Posted: 20 Feb 2017 02:08 AM PST  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ran a death squad that killed many people, including a journalist and a pregnant woman, when he was mayor of a southern city, a retired policeman who claimed to be part of the group said Monday. Arthur Lascanas, sitting alongside three prominent human rights lawyers, broke down in tears as he listed a series of murders in Davao city that he alleged Duterte ordered either to eliminate critics or fight crime. Lascanas said he even killed his two brothers, who were involved in drug trafficking, due to "blind loyalty" to Duterte as well as cash rewards.
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| A controversial executive order leads to internment camps Posted: 19 Feb 2017 08:00 AM PST  On this day in 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued his most-controversial executive order, an act that sent more than 100,000 people to government-controlled facilities because of their ethnicity.
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| Atlanta, other cities eye test tracks for self-driving cars Posted: 20 Feb 2017 08:27 AM PST  ATLANTA (AP) — Self-driving vehicles could begin tooling down a bustling Atlanta street full of cars, buses, bicyclists and college students, as the city vies with other communities nationwide to test the emerging technology.
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| Democrat member of FEC to make early exit: NYT Posted: 19 Feb 2017 12:05 PM PST ![Democrat member of FEC to make early exit: NYT]( "Democrat member of FEC to make early exit: NYT") A Democrat who sits on the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) is planning to resign before her term expires amid frustrations about partisan gridlock, the New York Times reported on Sunday. FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel told the Times in an interview she intended to submit her letter of resignation this week, a move that would open the door for President Donald Trump to make his own appointment to the panel. "The ability of the commission to perform its role has deteriorated significantly," Ravel told the newspaper.
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| Explosive blog post details ‘abhorrent’ sexism at Uber Posted: 19 Feb 2017 04:46 PM PST 
In a blog post published Sunday, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler Riggetti details her experiences working for the company. Sadly, given she's a female engineer working at a thrusting, big-name Silicon Valley startup, the experiences are exactly what you'd expect.
In the post, Riggetti details numerous instances of overt sexist behaviour. She reportedly sent evidence, including email and chat logs to HR, but ran into a brick wall multiple times. In the end, she says that her attempts to quietly report sexist behaviour were turned against her: I forwarded this absurd chain of emails to HR, and they requested to meet with me shortly after. I don't know what I expected after all of my earlier encounters with them, but this one was more ridiculous than I could have ever imagined. The HR rep began the meeting by asking me if I had noticed that *I* was the common theme in all of the reports I had been making, and that if I had ever considered that I might be the problem. I pointed out that everything I had reported came with extensive documentation and I clearly wasn't the instigator (or even a main character) in the majority of them - she countered by saying that there was absolutely no record in HR of any of the incidents I was claiming I had reported (which, of course, was a lie, and I reminded her I had email and chat records to prove it was a lie). She then asked me if women engineers at Uber were friends and talked a lot, and then asked me how often we communicated, what we talked about, what email addresses we used to communicate, which chat rooms we frequented, etc. - an absurd and insulting request that I refused to comply with. When I pointed out how few women were in SRE, she recounted with a story about how sometimes certain people of certain genders and ethnic backgrounds were better suited for some jobs than others, so I shouldn't be surprised by the gender ratios in engineering. Our meeting ended with her berating me about keeping email records of things, and told me it was unprofessional to report things via email to HR.
Beyond the reports to HR, Riggetti also details a company overrun with internal politics and management problems: In the background, there was a game-of-thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization. It seemed like every manager was fighting their peers and attempting to undermine their direct supervisor so that they could have their direct supervisor's job. No attempts were made by these managers to hide what they were doing: they boasted about it in meetings, told their direct reports about it, and the like.
Shortly after the blog post was published, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick issued a statement promising a (secret, internal) investigation into the matter, and reaffirmed Uber's committment to a equitable workplace where everyone isn't trying to stab each other in the back: "I have just read Susan Fowler's blog. What she describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in. It's the first time this has come to my attention so I have instructed Liane Hornsey our new Chief Human Resources Officer to conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations. We seek to make Uber a just workplace and there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber -- and anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired."
This isn't the first time that Uber has run into human resources problems within its internal teams and management. In 2014, an Uber exec famously suggested digging up dirt on journalists to discredit them. That statement came in response to a journalist who had accused Uber of sexism once again. More recently, #DeleteUber trended on Twitter after Uber removed surge pricing at JFK airport during a taxi strike -- a strike that was in protest of President Trump's Muslim travel ban. The same hashtag is trending again tonight following Riggetti's blog post.
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| Bouche à Oreille: Michelin mixup makes modest French café a star Posted: 20 Feb 2017 12:40 PM PST ![Bouche à Oreille: Michelin mixup makes modest French café a star]( "Bouche à Oreille: Michelin mixup makes modest French café a star") Last week, Bouche à Oreille, a café in Bourges, central France, found itself suddenly in possession of a Michelin star. The eatery, which serves hearty dishes of beef bourguignon and lasagna to its clientele of locals, was taken aback by the arrival of swarms of new visitors. Thanks to their identical names, and eerily similar street addresses, the Michelin website had listed the Bourges café on its website by mistake.
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| ‘That’s how dictators get started’: McCain, critics blast Trump’s view of the media as ‘the enemy’ Posted: 19 Feb 2017 09:56 AM PST  Critics on both sides of the aisle are blasting President Trump's assertion that the media is "the enemy of the American people" — and comparing his escalated attack on the press to that of a dictator. "That's how dictators get started," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in an interview that aired on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. McCain stopped short of calling Trump one.
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| Kim Dotcom Eligible For US Extradition Posted: 20 Feb 2017 03:07 AM PST  The New Zealand High Court said, however, that the extradition is not based on copyright grounds, and Dotcom's legal team is "confident" the decision will be reversed.
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| Gambia celebrates Barrow's inauguration Posted: 19 Feb 2017 03:41 AM PST  Thousands celebrated Saturday as new Gambian President Adama Barrow retook his oath of office, a month after he was sworn in across the border in neighbouring Senegal during a tense power struggle. February 18 is also the anniversary of The Gambia's independence from Britain, but many are also calling the day the birth of a third republic following the ousting of Yahya Jammeh at the ballot box. Tens of thousands packed the venue, singing and dancing, an AFP correspondent said.
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| Senators look to new sanctions against Iran for missile development Posted: 19 Feb 2017 12:06 PM PST ![Senators look to new sanctions against Iran for missile development]( "Senators look to new sanctions against Iran for missile development") U.S. Republican senators plan to introduce legislation to impose further sanctions on Iran, accusing it of violating U.N. Security Council resolutions by testing ballistic missiles and acting to "destabilise" the Middle East, a U.S. senator said Sunday. "I think it is now time for the Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what they've done outside the nuclear program," Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Munich Security Conference. Graham said he and other Republicans would introduce measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions.
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| Man dies after breaching security at Honolulu airport Posted: 18 Feb 2017 09:51 PM PST ![Man dies after breaching security at Honolulu airport]( "Man dies after breaching security at Honolulu airport") HONOLULU (AP) — A man is dead after he breached security at Honolulu International Airport and stopped breathing, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
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| SpaceX celebrates successful launch from historic NASA launch pad in Florida Posted: 20 Feb 2017 01:35 AM PST  The private company's newest rocket was sent with supplies to the International Space Station.
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| Shocker! World’s first self-driving car race ends in a crash Posted: 20 Feb 2017 11:40 AM PST 
The world's first race on a professional track involving self-driving cars ended, not surprisingly, with a crash. As part of the Roborace competition held in Buenos Aires over the weekend, one of the two self-driving Devbot vehicles involved in the race slammed into a wall after miscalculating a particularly sharp turn.
While the Devbot vehicles weren't going all out, they weren't exactly driving at a leisurely pace either. At their best, both cars were driving in excess of 100 MPH, with one reaching a top speed of 115 MPH at one point. In addition to racing around the track at high speeds, it's worth noting that each car can communicate with the other as to prevent them from crashing into each other. Unfortunately, the racetrack wall proved to be an insurmountable foe. As for the software malfunction that caused the crash, Roborace's Justin Cooke explained what happened in an interview with the BBC: One of the cars was trying to perform a manoeuvre, and it went really full-throttle and took the corner quite sharply and caught the edge of the barrier. It's actually fantastic for us because the more we see these moments the more we are able to learn and understand what was the thinking behind the computer and its data.
Indeed, for as far along as self-driving software and hardware has progressed, it's clear that there's still a lot of work to be done before self-driving cars can replace human drivers completely across all driving environments. While the DevBot vehicles are designed such that they "can be driven by a human or a computer", the versions used in the race over the weekend did not have any humans inside. Photos of the crash can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSbSUeKEj00
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| Trump Needs to Make a Speech About Europe Posted: 20 Feb 2017 08:02 AM PST  Members of the EU are on the verge of moving past their grief and toward a constructive relationship with the new administration. Here's how Trump can help.
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| Nigeria urges AU to intervene over 'SAfrica killings' Posted: 20 Feb 2017 08:27 AM PST  Nigeria on Monday urged the African Union to step in to stop what it said were "xenophobic attacks" on its citizens and other Africans in South Africa. "This is unacceptable to the people and government of Nigeria," a senior presidential aide on foreign affairs, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said in an emailed statement. There was no independent verification of the claimed number of deaths, which may have been the result of wider criminal activities rather than anti-immigrant sentiment.
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| US Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Patroling South China Sea Posted: 19 Feb 2017 03:31 PM PST  China has warned against challenging its sovereignty in the region despite competing claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
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| Indonesia Islamists urge ouster of Jakarta governor, plan more protests Posted: 20 Feb 2017 12:04 AM PST ![Indonesia Islamists urge ouster of Jakarta governor, plan more protests]( "Indonesia Islamists urge ouster of Jakarta governor, plan more protests") Indonesian Islamist groups on Monday called on the government to suspend the Christian governor of the capital and for the courts to convict him of blasphemy, demands they will make again at a rally outside parliament on Tuesday. Islamist groups have held two big rallies since November against the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is on trial for insulting the Koran, and in the midst of an election in which he hopes to win a second term. "Our demands to parliament are that they urge the government to suspend Purnama ... and urge the Supreme Court and judges to detain him and impose the maximum sentence," said Muhammad al Khaththath of the Islamic People's Forum.
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| On frozen fields, North Korean farmers prep for battle ahead Posted: 19 Feb 2017 05:38 PM PST  PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Plug your noses and ready your "Juche fertilizer." It's time to prep the frozen fields in North Korea.
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| Fantasy league aims to lure US students to economics Posted: 18 Feb 2017 07:03 PM PST  Have you needed to use your high school chemistry recently? The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, part of the US central bank system, is on the forefront of trying to make economic and personal finance information accessible to the general public, and especially to students.
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| Police say newly freed gang member killed California officer Posted: 20 Feb 2017 05:35 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A gang member who was recently freed from jail killed his cousin and stole his car Monday then shot and killed a California police officer and wounded his partner before being wounded himself, authorities said.
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| Scuffles at Thai temple as police hunt for monk Posted: 20 Feb 2017 03:25 AM PST ![Scuffles at Thai temple as police hunt for monk]( "Scuffles at Thai temple as police hunt for monk") By Cod Satrusayang and Aukkaraporn Niyomyat BANGKOK (Reuters) - Monks and police scuffled on Monday at a Buddhist temple in Thailand where security forces are trying to arrest an influential former abbot on money-laundering charges. The standoff at the scandal-hit Dhammakaya Temple represents one of the biggest challenges to the authority of Thailand's junta since it took power in 2014. Police said they would try to avoid violence while threatening arrest for followers of the sprawling temple who have defied orders to leave and instead flocked there, hampering the search for 72-year-old Phra Dhammachayo.
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| 2017 Mercedes-Maybach S550 4MATIC Posted: 20 Feb 2017 12:15 PM PST  A perfectly restrained chauffeur-mobile.
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| Don’t Look Now, But There’s Another Greek Debt Crisis Brewing Posted: 20 Feb 2017 04:00 AM PST  Talks over Athens' debt burden threaten to spill into European election season.
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| ‘I am a Muslim too’ rally in Times Square Posted: 19 Feb 2017 11:34 AM PST !['I am a Muslim too' rally in Times Square]( "'I am a Muslim too' rally in Times Square") Russell Simmons and Rabbi Marc Schneier hosted a large demonstration in Times Square on Sunday in response to Trump's executive order barring travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries.
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| Philippines: Vietnamese ship attacked; 1 dead, 6 abducted Posted: 20 Feb 2017 04:53 AM PST ![Philippines: Vietnamese ship attacked; 1 dead, 6 abducted]( "Philippines: Vietnamese ship attacked; 1 dead, 6 abducted") MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Gunmen attacked a Vietnamese cargo ship off the Philippines' southern tip, killing a Vietnamese crewman and abducting six others including the vessel's captain, the Philippine coast guard and the ship's owner said Monday.
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| This new iPhone 8 feature might end up blowing our minds Posted: 20 Feb 2017 06:33 AM PST 
Amid rumors that the iPhone 8 will incorporate advanced facial recognition features, the Hebrew-language website Calcalist (via Times of Israel) is reporting that Apple recently acquired Realface, an up-and-coming Israeli startup with impressive real-time facial recognition software.
Lending credence to rumors that the iPhone 8 may forgo the use of Touch ID in favor of facial recognition, Realface's software is said to be sophisticated enough such that it can reliably be used as a foundation for mobile-based biometric authentication. As is often the case when Apple acquires a company, Realface's web presence has already been wiped from the web. Still, thanks to the magic of Google, we were able to poke around and dig up some intriguing nuggets of information about the company's promising technology. Realface boasts that it's AI software rests upon deep learning methods and is so reliable and quick that the end-result is an absolutely seamless user experience. "Our technology provides our customers and end-users with the highest level of authentication and security available on all platforms," says Realface. "We have proprietary IP in the field of frictionless face recognition and effective learnings from facial features." Incidentally, Realface's technology is also capable of filtering out photos of faces and advanced sculptures designed to trick the software into thinking that a device's camera is honed in on an actual human face. Further, Realface claims that its software can recognize faces with a 99.67% success rate, an impressive figure that is even higher than the average 97.5% success rate exhibited by humans. To this point, a profile on Realface from last year relays that the company's technology is so advanced that it can even distinguish between identical twins with alarming and impressive accuracy. Below is a quick and dirty demo of the software in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNlkxGmIgW0 What's particularly interesting is that Realface's technology is not only capable of discerning individual faces, but can also analyze specific facial expressions as a means to determine a user's mood. If this sounds somewhat familiar, Apple last year acquired Emotient, a company with similar AI technology of its own. Now as for what Apple is planning to do with its growing portfolio of AI-based facial recognition software, well, that's the million dollar question. While initial speculation centered on Apple rolling out augmented reality features, perhaps similar to what the beloved MSQRD app does, more recent rumblings suggest that Apple wants to position facial recognition as a means to identify users and securely authorize sensitive transactions. Again, there are even reports that facial recognition might ultimately serve as a replacement for Touch ID. While this seems far-fetched, Ming Chi-Kuo -- an analyst with the best track record regarding Apple rumors -- seems to think otherwise. In a recently issued research note, Kuo claims that the iPhone 8's rumored edgeless design cannot, for whatever reason, coexist peacefully with Touch ID. Consequently, Kuo relays that Apple wants to eventually replace Touch ID with a facial recognition solution. When it comes to Apple, the old adage that when there's smoke, there's fire is generally true. That being the case, it stands to reason that facial recognition will be a huge and incredibly exciting component of the iPhone 8 user experience.
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| Toughening penalties if pets are harmed during crimes Posted: 19 Feb 2017 02:53 PM PST  FLORIDA, N.Y. (AP) — When Denise Krohn came home to find her goldendoodle Kirby bleeding on the kitchen floor, she at first thought it was a terrible accident. But she soon realized that her home had been ransacked, and that her other dog, Quigley, was lying dead on his favorite blanket in the living room.
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| Turkish PM, U.S. vice president discuss improving ties: sources Posted: 19 Feb 2017 01:54 AM PST ![Turkish PM, U.S. vice president discuss improving ties: sources]( "Turkish PM, U.S. vice president discuss improving ties: sources") U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Washington was keen for a new start in relations between the two countries, sources in Yildirim's office said, after ties soured during the Obama administration. Pence and Yildirim met on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Germany, and discussed improving ties, boosting cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the need to work together to find a permanent solution in Syria. Yildirim told Pence that moves by the United States to meet Turkey's demands over Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed by Ankara for masterminding and orchestrating a failed coup last July, would pave the way for a fresh start in relations.
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| Debt-saddled Mongolia agrees $5.5 bn IMF bailout Posted: 19 Feb 2017 10:07 PM PST  Mongolia has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $5.5 billion bailout package, officials announced, as the debt-wracked country tries to stabilise its economy. The landlocked north Asian nation has been hit hard by a more than 50 percent fall over the past five years in the price of copper, its main export. Billions of dollars' worth of natural resources lie buried beneath Mongolia's sprawling steppes, but development has been delayed for years and slowing growth in its biggest customer China has hobbled the economy.
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| Police Build Kitty Condo for Stray Cat That Has Been Visiting Department For Years Posted: 19 Feb 2017 12:57 PM PST  One officer spent several nights working on the condo.
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| Global arms trade highest since Cold War: study Posted: 19 Feb 2017 03:11 PM PST  Worldwide arms trade has risen to its highest level since the Cold War in the last five years, driven by a demand from the Middle East and Asia, a study said Monday. Between 2012-2016, arms imports in terms of volume by countries in Asia and Oceania accounted for 43 percent of global imports, a 7.7 rise compared to the previous 2007-2011 period, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). "Transfer of major weapons in 2012-16 reached their highest volume for any five-year period since the end of" the Cold War, the independent institute said in a statement.
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| ICE arrests man who escaped Illinois prison in 2003 Posted: 19 Feb 2017 11:58 AM PST ![ICE arrests man who escaped Illinois prison in 2003]( "ICE arrests man who escaped Illinois prison in 2003") CHICAGO (AP) — A man who escaped from an Illinois prison in 2003 while serving an eight-year sentence on a drug charge has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his home in Atlanta.
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| The United Arab Emirates wants to build a city on Mars Posted: 19 Feb 2017 10:00 AM PST  Elon Musk isn't the only person who wants to build a city on Mars. Now the United Arab Emirates has announced that it wants to establish a "mini-city" on the red planet by 2117. UAE prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum explained the monarchy's Mars plans in a series of tweets on Feb. 14. SEE ALSO: Dubai is bringing the world its first rotating skyscraper "The project, to be named 'Mars 2117,' integrates a vision to create a mini-city and community on Mars involving international cooperation," Sheikh Mohammed said. "Mars 2117" is a seed we are sowing today to reap the fruit of new generations led by a passion for science and advancing human knowledge. pic.twitter.com/IExtnpiO2B — HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2017 "Mars 2117 includes a major space sciences focus in our universities. We're building a space pioneering passion among our young people." It makes sense for officials to use this project to inspire young people: They're the ones who will probably do the vast majority of the work. If the UAE wants to have a fully-functioning city on Mars in 100 years, it will have to be a multi-generational effort that will span many decades, given the incipient state of the nation's space program and current global capabilities as well. The "Mars 2117" project will develop an Emirati and international team of scientists to push the human exploration of Mars in years to come. pic.twitter.com/5ujxvyC8As — HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2017 In the time between now and 2117, the UAE, with an international partnership of researchers, will start trying to find a faster mode of transportation to the red planet, and figure out what food and shelter should be on the cold, dry world. "'Mars 2117' is a seed we are sowing today to reap the fruit of new generations led by a passion for science and advancing human knowledge," Sheikh Mohammed said. The UAE has already put the world on notice that the oil-rich nation has aspirations beyond our home planet, having previously announced its plan to send a robotic mission to Mars in 2015. That uncrewed spacecraft, called Hope, would fly to the red planet in 2020 and make it into orbit there in 2021. The project, to be named "Mars 2117", integrates a vision to create a mini-city and community on Mars involving international cooperation. pic.twitter.com/v27jA3K3pS — HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2017 Musk's SpaceX is also working toward creating a city on Mars, though the commercial space company's timeline isn't exactly clear. Musk claims that SpaceX is working toward sending its first people to Mars by 2024, about a decade before NASA is expected to send their first crewed mission to the vicinity of Mars. That said, the company's plans are still a bit murky when it comes to the timeline for actually creating its city, aiming for sometime in the 2060s. Musk thinks there will be plenty of people who want to leave Earth behind. We aspire in the coming century to develop science, technology and our youth's passion for knowledge. This project is driven by that vision. pic.twitter.com/4QibJjtiM2 — HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2017 "Not everyone will want to go. In fact, I think a relatively small number of people from Earth would want to go, but enough would want to go and who could afford the trip that it would happen," Musk said during a speech in September 2016. Neither SpaceX nor the UAE can get to Mars alone, however. Both need to have international and private partners that will help make a city on Mars a reality within their timeframes. It's unclear if the monarchy and the private company will team up on their Mars ambitions, but Musk did say that he's open to public and private partnerships for the mission. BONUS: Obama plans to send humans to Mars by 2030s
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| Ukraine rebels accuse OSCE of aiding Kiev forces Posted: 19 Feb 2017 03:23 AM PST  Ukraine's Russian-backed insurgents on Friday accused a top official in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) of aiding Kiev's forces in the 34-month war. A separatist leader made the accusation at a joint news conference in the rebel-controlled city of Lugansk with Alexander Hug -- the principal deputy chief of the group's special monitoring mission to Ukraine --- who denied the claim. The OSCE is a Cold-war era body drawn up to ensure peace in Europe.
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| Pence says US to hold Russia accountable, stand with NATO Posted: 19 Feb 2017 06:19 AM PST  MUNICH (AP) — U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday conveyed a message to jittery partners that the Trump administration will "hold Russia accountable" and maintain steadfast support for NATO, a military alliance the American commander in chief once dismissed as "obsolete."
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| ‘Pokémon GO’ Tips And Tricks To Maximize Gen 2 Pokémon Update Experience Posted: 18 Feb 2017 07:05 PM PST  There are a lot of things the Pokémon GO team said about the Gen 2 Pokémon Update, but these are the things they did not tell Trainers.
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| Turkey puts 47 on trial for 'coup plot to kill Erdogan' Posted: 20 Feb 2017 08:02 AM PST  One of the nearly 50 suspects in an alleged plot to assassinate Turkey's president admitted involvement in the botched July 15 putsch bid as the mass trial opened Monday. Forty-four suspects, mainly soldiers, are under arrest over the alleged plot to kill Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while three others still on the run are being tried in absentia at the court in the southern city of Mugla. Onlookers heckled the accused as they stepped out of the buses that took them from prison, shouting "we want the death penalty!" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest").
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| China names and shames cities over smog controls Posted: 19 Feb 2017 07:34 PM PST ![China names and shames cities over smog controls]( "China names and shames cities over smog controls") China's environment ministry has named and shamed several cities in the north of the country for not doing enough to cope with smog, state news agency Xinhua reported. Large parts of northern China have been blanketed in choking smog this winter, defying repeated government efforts to tackle the problem. Pollution alerts are common in northern China, especially during bitterly cold winters when energy demand, much of it met by coal, soars.
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