Aviation passengers would have a new bill of rights by Nina Gotzmannova

People whose flight has been delayed due to bad weather or other non-predictable conditions will have more rights than before, according to a new aviation bill approved by the House of Representatives. This comfort will cost more, but the most necessary is providing comfort for traveling public. Federal Aviation Administration should receive a $68 billion to cover all expenses of investing in airport improvements. Airlines and airports will be providing food, beverages, additional restrooms or medicine for passengers, whose flight has been delayed. They will be also allowed to deplane, which is highly unusual today. If the airlines wouldn't follow the act, they may face a high fine. The act is also editing several other things, such as advancing the retirement age of pilots or increasing the number of aviation safety inspectors. The only problem is the White House. There are several things they didn't like and therefore there is a possibility the bill would be vetoed. The most important thing that should be changed is raising aviation fuel taxes. Noncommercial planes used to pay the tax of 21.8 cents per gallon of jet fuel; the aviation gasoline tax was 19.3 cents. The new prices should be 30.7 cents for noncommercial planes; gasoline tax is increased to 24.1 cents. The result is that airports will charge the passengers more than in the past. The new act will also help to modernize air traffic control system. It would be upgraded to satellite-positioning one instead the old ones, which are used since 1950.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070920/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_air_travel;_ylt=AghcrqGD3I_k7RXU2z2VE0ys0NUE

by Nina Gotzmannova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Thai plane crash: Survivors' stories by Delia Cruceru

The official death toll of the plane that crashed Sunday in Phuket is 89. The Public Health Ministry announced that 38 survivors of the flight are now safe from harm and described their conditions as "stable" and other six will remain in the intensive care unit. Survivors speak with horror about the moments that passed and almost got them killed. Robert Borland remembers how he stood on the jet's floor with his trousers aflame: "Everything was upside down, or at least it felt that way," said Borland, recalling the screaming and fire. "My clothes caught fire, my trousers." One man dressed in a yellow shirt managed to pull him to a safety spot on the wing. Most of the dead passengers were found trapped to their seats, either knocked unconscious by the impact of the failed landing, suffocated by noxious fumes, or consumed by the flames that quickly spread through the plane. A young waitress from Prince George, British Columbia Mildred Anne Furlong said that the smoke was everywhere and flames were where the cabin used to be. She remembers that a man kicked the emergency exit until it opened, saving a lot of the people from the plane. "If it wasn't for him, nobody would have got out," Mildred said.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_re_as/thailand_plane_crash;_ylt=AtpLmwZ_h2eHn4jAK8JVqRqs0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Motorcycling can be a dangerous hobby by Nina Gotzmannova

Since the traveling has appealed more people than ever, they are constantly looking for a way how to make it even better. The unconventional means of transport are still more and more popular and there's nothing more interesting or romantic than a motorcycle. Motorcycle riders are not Hell's Angels anymore. Virtually everyone can own a motorcycle and the smallest one, called "moped" can be in most countries ridden by age 16. Scooters, motorcycles with smaller wheels, are popular in Europe and in the sixties no one could be caught without his or her Vespa. But this hobby can be more dangerous than anyone can think. In U. S. doesn't exist law forcing the motorcycle riders to wear a proper helmet. The number of deaths caused by not wearing a head protection is rising the ninth straight year. National Transportation Safety Board has approved the motorcycle safety recommendations, but since they are only recommendations, a stronger federal law is needed. According to NTSB numbers riders without helmet are three times more likely to suffer a serious brain injury in a crash accident than those who are wearing a head protection. This effort has stirred the motorcycle right groups, who object to the new law and suggest rider education program instead. Nowadays only 20 states required riders to wear a helmet and three states have no helmet laws. In 1970 every state required its riders to wear a protective helmet. It may be nice to ride a motorcycle while the sun is setting and hair is blowing in the wind. But it may be safer rather to wear a helmet.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070912/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_motorcycle_safety;_ylt=AmlbDxzzpyvtapXZyQ8hdhms0NUE

by Nina Gotzmannova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Beijing shows off new, expensive airport by Delia Cruceru

The world biggest airport will soon open in February 2008. The airport is in Beijing and it was build for impressing visitors in China's capital for the 2008 Olympics. The airport is designed to resemble with a Chinese dragon and its structural plan is homage to the architectural marvel that is the Forbidden City. Thursday it was opened for the first time for cameras and officials released statistics. The new terminal will have 10,600,000 square feet, or 244 acres, or 235 football pitches and will be even bigger than London's Heathrow, bigger than the Pentagon and a bit smaller than the Aalsmeer flower auction house in Amsterdam, currently the world's biggest building, with a cost for building of $2.8 billion. It would handle 48 million passengers a year and by 2012 it is expected to handle 90 million passengers. The building was designed by the British architect Norman Foster and it will have red columns with gold roof to evoke Beijing's imperial palaces and temples from the Forbidden City. A new baggage system designed by Siemens AG for $250 million will handle 19.000 pieces of luggage an hour. "We are now planning a second airport," said Zhang Zhigong, the general manager. "We expect to start work on that in 2010."

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070912/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_beijing_new_airport;_ylt=Ap0kggESRZFeM3ENVEYrmQWs0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Planes beware, high speed trains are the future of America's transport by Corina Ciubotaru

Oil prices are on the rise, things need to be done fast, streets are jammed and the planet is becoming ever more polluted. What better way to fight all this than changing our means of transport? Even though it gets little funding and has never made a profit, Amtrak is set to provide a solution to the transport problem through high-speed trains. A standard today in some European countries like France and also in other parts of the world, i.e. Japan, the high-speed train capable of exceeding 125 miles per hour is still a rare sight in America. An ambitious project to link San Francisco and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego is likely to be accepted by the general public after being rejected twice and might spark a nationwide revolution if more and more states adopt the idea. Current day trains are slow and have delays in almost one third of all rides, but ridership is on the rise as passengers prefer to spend less money and not be stuck in a traffic jam even though the trip takes longer. Some Amtrak lines are sponsored only by the state they run in and the company itself has $3.3 billion in debt even though it's constantly breaking its own records in terms of customer numbers. Between October 2006 and March 2007, the number of passengers was over 14.3 million, while the total in the last fiscal year numbered 24.3 million. Looks like a bright future ahead for trains in America, even though we shouldn't worry about planes and cars just yet.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070909/ap_on_bi_ge/high_speed_rail;_ylt=AtYJa.isSw5T16WxhbjDEx6s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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People of the Web: Playing Chicken by Delia Cruceru

Jason Atkins the owner of Web network, ToughSportsLive.com is caught among advocated of animal rights and amateurs of various cultural sporting events from around the world. On his network is featured cockfighting live from Puerto Rico where is legal, but in U.S. is banned in all 50 states. Atkins said: "Our ultimate goal is to be a cultural website. To produce and show the world's various cultural sporting events." On the site you can also see bare knuckles, no rules Brazilian jujitsu matches dubbed "Rio Heroes," and a show about he says that it's made for America "Girls and Guns" in which women are in bikinis and high heeled boots accessorized with dangerous weapons. The site has a documentary in English where you can find out that the battle will be held in the oldest ring of cockfighting and about the famous fans of this "sport" George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. But the Human Society oppose to Atkins saying in a statement: "The fact that animal fighting is permitted in other jurisdictions does not give anyone the Constitutional right to peddle animal fighting videos." "I would say [cockfighting is] essentially no different from the crush videos, except this is even more exploitative because it involves gambling," says Bruce Wieland an official from Las Angeles PETA. "Essentially as far as the animal is concerned it's the same deadly result."

related story: http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/41678/playing-chicken

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Twin storms pack dangerous winds by Delia Cruceru

Tuesday September 4 was a record day, but not a good one. It was for the first time when two hurricanes of great intensity have made landfall in the same season on Latin America, with Hurricane Felix forming just two weeks after Hurricane Dean. "Since our records began in the late 19th century, we have no record of two land-falling category five hurricanes in the same season," said Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "Nor do we have any record of the first two hurricanes of the same season developing into category five hurricanes." The two hurricanes, Felix and Henriette have been categorized as hurricanes of Category 5. Felix hit the Central America while Henriette was slamming in Mexico's Baja California peninsula. The Honduran government had to evacuate almost 10.000 people from high risk area before Felix arrived. At 5 p.m. EDT, Felix's center was 110 miles west of Puerto Cabezas, heading westwards at nearly 14 mph toward Honduras. Felix could dump up to 25 inches of rain in these mountainous areas, which could "produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the National Hurricane Center warned. Yesterday at 5 p.m. Henriette's eye was 25 miles inland over the Baja area, threatening Mexico's northern deserts and it might even rain on Arizona and New Mexico in the Southwest on Thursday night.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/tropical_weather;_ylt=ApRE3Gv3anmG57ehts9BkJ2s0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.