Algarve golf courses' growing thirst

28 April 2014 Last updated at 11:48 By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, Vienna Southern Portugal's courses are a draw for both professional and amateur golfers The Algarve has some of the best and most popular golf courses in Europe, but they need a huge amount of water to stay in tip-top shape.

And now scientists have used satellite and weather station data to calculate just how much the greens and fairways of southern Portugal are consuming.

The study shows the Algarve's 40 courses are being irrigated with some 18 million cu m of water a year.

"The greenkeepers understand the challenges of using so much water and they are introducing efficiency strategies," Prof Celestina Pedras from the University of the Algarve in Faro told BBC News.

She was presenting her work here in Vienna at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly meeting.

Golf has boomed in the region since the 1980s when there were just a handful of courses.

The constant sunshine, the proximity to the beach, and the excellent local cuisine have all proven to be a big draw for tourists who also want to drive some balls.

But the Algarve’s perfect weather means the region needs also to conserve its water. Faro, the regional capital, receives about 500mm of rainfall per year. Most of this rain is concentrated in winter months, meaning that in summer, the courses must irrigate in order keep the greens and fairways from becoming parched.

Nearly all of this sprinkler water is being taken from boreholes.

Prof Pedras and colleagues looked back through three decades of meteorological data and the long time-series of images taken by the US Landsat spacecraft to complete their study. Landsat allows researchers to assess the state of vegetation.

The team could see that although the consumption of water had increased five-fold since 1980, the practices of golf courses had become less wasteful.

The latest grass technology is being used that requires less water; the soils are being managed in a way so that they hold more water; the agro-climatic parameters are being more frequently monitored; and water is being taken from a wider variety of sources. All of these practices work towards more efficient usage.

It is clear, too, says Prof Pedras, that "deficit irrigation strategies" are being implemented. That is, there is an acceptance of a reduction in quality: the greenkeepers and the players recognise that overly lush greens and fairways would be inappropriate.

"I think players who understand the issues and the need to conserve water will accept playing on courses that are a little yellow," she said.

Courses in the Algarve now cover about 2,500 hectares - almost 10 square miles

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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Driver seen FaceTiming behind wheel

28 April 2014 Last updated at 22:16 A lorry driver told officers he was driving while using his mobile phone because it was unlawful to stop on the hard shoulder A motorist was seen using video chat app FaceTime while driving, Surrey Police have revealed.

The unnamed car driver was using a tablet on their lap while at the wheel.

Officers spotted the incident during a three-month pilot scheme which used an unmarked HGV tractor to target lorry drivers breaking the law.

Insp Richard Mallett, of the Surrey Roads Policing Unit, said officers had also spotted a lorry driver texting with one foot on the dashboard.

"The person FaceTiming was actually a car driver, but because we were higher up, we could see down into the car," he said.

He said most of those stopped were lorry drivers, but that a significant number of car drivers were also driving "appallingly".

A total of 436 vehicles were stopped between February and earlier this month, 270 of which were commercial vehicles.

'Little knife'

Some 333 drivers were given fixed penalty notices, 44 were given words of advice, 27 got graduated fixed penalties - given to those who do not have UK addresses - and eight were summonsed.

Insp Mallett said a knife with a 6in (15cm) blade had been seized from a Dutch lorry driver, who said in Holland it was "a little knife".

"One chap admitted 'I haven't worn a seatbelt for 20 years - this is the first time I've been stopped'," he added.

Some 436 vehicles in total were stopped between February and earlier this month,

A petrol tanker driver "begged" officers not to tell his employer he was not wearing his seatbelt because he would lose his job, the force said.

A Lithuanian lorry driver said he was driving while using his mobile phone because it was unlawful to stop on the hard shoulder.

A driver who "hogged" lane three said: "It's your fault, officer, you shouldn't have been so close behind me".

Another, stopped for speeding, said: "How am I supposed to know my speed?"

The three-month pilot, called Operation Tramline, was led by Surrey Police and included officers from Sussex, Hampshire and the Thames Valley and Warwickshire, in partnership with the Highways Agency.

Insp Mallett said the force felt the scheme had been successful.

"Any incident we prevent prevents delays to the network and reduces the numbers of injuries and casualties on our roads," he said.

VIDEO: Paul Simon and Brickell in court

Paul Simon and his wife Edie Brickell have appeared in court charged with disorderly conduct.

Simon, 72, told a judge they were "fine together" while Brickell, 48, said her husband was "no threat to me at all".

The pair, who have been married for more than 20 years, were arrested after police were called to their Connecticut home, on Saturday.

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Mexico 'cartel ties' mayor detained

29 April 2014 Last updated at 12:37 Police last month confiscated an iron ore mining operation belonging to the cartel near Lazaro Cardenas The mayor of the Mexican port city of Lazaro Cardenas has been arrested on suspicion of taking part in kidnappings and extortion.

Arquimedes Oseguera is also accused of having ties to the Knights Templar drugs cartel, all of which he denies.

Lazaro Cardenas is one of the main port cities on the Pacific coast and a stronghold of the cartel.

The city's treasurer has also been arrested on suspicion of having links to the Knights Templar.

Smuggling hotspot

Lazaro Cardenas has a deepwater seaport, and police say the Knights Templar ship illegally mined iron ore from the city to China.

Tonnes of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illegal synthetic drugs have also been seized in the port over the past years.

The Knights Templar are one of the main suppliers of methamphetamines to the United States.

Their leader is believed to he hiding in or around Lazaro Cardenas.

Federal police officers have been combing the area in their search for the Knights Templar leader

Three of the cartel's top bosses have been killed or captured since the beginning of the year in a crackdown by the security forces.

Two weeks ago, the mayor of Apatzingan, another Knights Templar stronghold, was arrested on suspicion of extorting money on behalf of the cartel.

Farmers in western Michoacan state have long complained about the power of the Knights Templar and the corrupt nature of local officials.

Many have joined "self-defence" groups which have taken control of a number of small towns in the state.

On Monday, Mexican security forces started registering the weapons of the vigilante groups as part of a deal with the government to incorporate them into the official security forces.

The vigilantes have until 10 May to register their guns. Anyone found carrying weapons illegally after the disarmament would be detained, officials warned.

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Seized Nigerian girls 'taken abroad'

29 April 2014 Last updated at 14:19 Boko Haram has often targeted educational establishments Some of the schoolgirls abducted by suspected militant Islamists in northern Nigeria are believed to have been taken to neighbouring states, a local leader has told the BBC.

Pogo Bitrus said there had been "sightings" of gunmen crossing with the girls into Cameroon and Chad.

Some of the girls had been forced to marry the militants, he added.

Mr Bitrus said 230 girls were missing since militants attacked the school in Chibok, Borno state, two weeks ago.

The Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for the night-time raid on the school hostel in Chibok town. It has not yet commented on the allegation.

The girls were seized from their hostel late at night

Mr Bitrus, a Chibok community leader, said 43 of the girls had "regained their freedom" after escaping, while 230 were still in captivity. This is a higher number than previous estimates, however he was adamant it was the correct figure.

'Slavery'

The students were about to sit their final year exam and so are mostly aged between 16 and 18.

"Some of them have been taken across Lake Chad and some have been ferried across the border into parts of Cameroon," he told the BBC.

Mr Bitrus said there were also reports that the insurgents had married some of the girls.

"We learned that one of the 'grooms' brought his 'wife' to a neighbouring town in Cameroon and kept her there," he told the BBC.

Continue reading the main story

I'm crying now as community leader to alert the world to what's happening so that some pressure would be brought to bare on government to act”

End Quote Pogo Bitrus Chibok community leader "It's a medieval kind of slavery," he added.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau first threatened to treat captured women and girls as slaves in a video released in May 2013.

It fuelled concern at the time that the group is adhering to the ancient Islamic belief that women captured during war are slaves with whom their "masters" can have sex, correspondents say.

Mr Bitrus said everyone in the community felt as though their own daughters had been abducted.

Men were "braving it out", but women were "crying and wailing", he said.

"Whether it is my niece or whoever it doesn't matter. We are all one people," Mr Bitrus told the BBC.

"That's why I'm crying now as community leader to alert the world to what's happening so that some pressure would be brought to bare on government to act and ensure the release of these girls."

The government has said the security forces are searching for the girls, but its critics say it is not doing enough.

Boko Haram has staged a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in recent years, with an estimated 1,500 killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone.

A 60-second guide to Boko Haram

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What are the hazards facing a plane stowaway?

22 April 2014 Last updated at 01:28 Magazine Monitor A collection of cultural artefacts Looking into the wheel well of a plane on the tarmac in Wisconsin in 2007 A 16-year-old survived a flight from California to Hawaii, hiding in the wheel well. What happens to the human body under those conditions, asks Tara McKelvey.

Ninety-six people are known to have hidden under planes during flights around the world between 1947 and 2012, according to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in the US, and 23 survived.

During this five-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude of 11,600m (38,000ft), the teenager reportedly lost consciousness - unsurprising given the lack of oxygen supplied to the brain. "You'd get shortness of breath and then you'd just kind of doze off," says Peter Hackett, director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colorado. "It wouldn't be uncomfortable."

Continue reading the main story Lack of oxygen makes you unconsciousExtreme cold reduces heart functionDecompression sickness can be fatalLowering landing gear is another hazardBut more than 20 people - usually young - are known to have survived Another problem for plane stowaways is the extreme cold - as low as -62C (-80F). "In a cold state, the heart isn't pumping as much blood," says Hackett. "And what blood there is goes to the brain." At a certain point, individuals fall into a "poikilothermic condition", according to authors of a 1996 report for the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is similar to hibernation, when the body needs less oxygen than normal. The heart rate and breathing slow down dramatically.

Stowaways may also suffer from decompression sickness, caused by an abrupt drop in surrounding pressure. Gas bubbles form in tissues and blood vessels and slow down the flow of blood.

Young people are more likely to survive. The authors of the FAA report said a "youthful, thin" individual has a better chance of enduring this than someone who is "heavy-set and older".

In 2000, a man survived a seven-hour flight from French Polynesia to Los Angeles, "spattered with oil from the landing gear and with his clothes ripped to shreds", according to the Los Angeles Times. And last year, a teenage boy endured a short flight in a wheel well in Nigeria. Others have died when the landing gear is lowered.

"I would not have predicted survival," says Michael Yaron, a professor of emergency medicine at University of Colorado at Denver, when asked about the boy in Hawaii. "Miracles happen. Lucky kid."

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VIDEO: Education warnings 'six years ago'

Concerns raised earlier this month about a lack of long-term vision for education in Wales were highlighted over six years ago but the findings were not made public.

BBC Wales has seen a confidential document from 2007 which details weaknesses in strategy and teacher training.

Hywel Griffiths reports.

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