CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin: Mega-Container Ship Will Slip Into Port Of LA

CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin: Mega-Container Ship Will Slip Into Port Of LA, The biggest ship to ever call at a North American port has arrived in the port of Los Angeles, in an event that trade experts say signals a new era in transocean shipping.

Over the weekend, the CMA-CGM Benjamin Franklin arrived in the busiest deepwater port on the West Coast.

Recently delivered to the French shipping line CMA-CGM, the ship is nearly 400 metres long and 53 metres wide and has the capacity of nearly 18,000 containers.

The Benjamin Franklin is about a third larger than the biggest container ships that currently call at the twin ports of Los Angeles and adjacent Long Beach. Together, the ports process about 40 per cent of all the container ships that arrive in the United States, moving more than $290 billion US worth of goods last year.

Ports in Asia and some in Europe are optimized for the latest class of giant ships, but those vessels are not yet prominent in North American waters.

The Port of Los Angeles and numerous other West Coast ports were plagued by congestion and shutdowns earlier this year, caused in part by a dispute with various workers’ unions. But L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti says the arrival of the Benjamin Franklin heralds a new era for trade.

“The arrival of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin sends a powerful message that our port stands among the world’s greatest, and that we are prepared to continue growing and adapting to the demands of our global economy,” the mayor said.

Katy Perry & Burn Victim

Katy Perry & Burn Victim, It’s a Christmas dream come true. Safyre Terry, 8, is just a little girl who loves Katy Perry. Tragically, she lost her family members in an arson fire that left her severely burned and without a hand or a foot. Her Christmas wish was to receive a card from the “Firework” singer, but the 31-year-old pop star responded in an even bigger way.

Perry sent Terry a sweet care package that included a hoodie with ears, a backpack, a DVD of Perry’s Prismatic tour, a DVD of her film Part of Me, an iPhone 6 case and a black kitty cat purse. The best part, however, was the handwritten note Perry included in the box.

“Safyre, I heard about your Christmas wish and and am so honored that you saved the top of the tree for me!” the card read. “I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. I’ll be thinking of you on Christmas Day. Special girl.”

Quake On Major Fault Line Rattles Reno; Experts Monitoring

Quake On Major Fault Line Rattles Reno; Experts Monitoring, A series of more than 30 earthquakes that rattled the Reno area over the past two days occurred on the most significant fault structure in the area, and scientists are monitoring for potentially bigger shock waves to follow, experts said Wednesday.

The quakes began Tuesday evening and continued into Wednesday morning. The largest – a magnitude-4.4. late Tuesday – shook homes and businesses in a 300-square-mile area near the Nevada-California line.

No significant damage was reported.

Graham Kent, director of the Nevada Seismological Lab at the University of Nevada, Reno, was at home when the biggest quake hit and described it as “quite a jolt.”

“I was basically right on top of it,” he told The Associated Press. “In scientific terms, it was a 4.4. But for us, it was one heck of a kick in south Reno.”

Scientists are paying close attention because it happened near a fault structure that has the potential for the largest earthquakes in the Truckee Meadows, along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front.

“We are monitoring it as we speak to see if it slows down or kicks back up,” Kent said.

The largest temblor’s epicenter was about 7 miles south of downtown Reno, the lab reported. It was felt as far as 50 miles east, near Silver Springs; 80 miles northeast in Quincy, California; and 100 miles southwest in Grass Valley, California.

Two magnitude-3.1 quakes bookended that quake.

“No, it’s not the wind,” the National Weather Service in Reno tweeted at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. “There have been 3 earthquakes this evening all centered on the south side of Reno.”

Crews were on scene Wednesday at Galena High School about 3.5 miles from the epicenter but found no obvious damage, Washoe County school officials said. Police had no reports of significant problems, and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority said there was no sign of any harm caused to water mains.

“It was right on the borderline of where you’d be expecting to see some damage – just underneath the level where you start cracking a lot of plaster work and things start moving,” Kent said.

The fault structure links five individual fault lines that begin at Lake Tahoe, about 40 miles southwest of Reno.

“In 2005 we had just shy of a magnitude-5,” Kent said. Since then, the same fault structure produced a magnitude-4.2 in Spanish Springs in 2013, and one as large as 4.9 in Mogul in 2008 that caused an estimated $1 million in damage.

“People ask me if there is going to be another one,” Kent said. “In our own decadal history here, Spanish Springs didn’t have another one, but Mogul had a larger one after the initial force. So we’re basically batting .500 right now. After this, we will either be batting .333 or .667.”

Laced with faults, Nevada is the third most seismically active state, behind California and Alaska. A magnitude-6.0 temblor near the northeast Nevada town of Wells in 2008 was the biggest in the state in four decades, causing nearly $10 million in damage.

Fire at Saudi Hospital Kills 25, Injures 107

Fire at Saudi Hospital Kills 25, Injures 107, A pre-dawn fire at a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern port city of Jazan on Thursday killed 25 people and injured 107, the Saudi civil defense agency said in a statement.

The fire at Jazan General Hospital broke out on the first floor, in the intensive care unit and the maternity ward, the agency said.

The injured were transferred to private and general hospitals in the area. The fire was brought under control and an investigation into its cause was under way, the agency added.

Photographs published on Twitter by the agency showed intense black smoke and an intense blaze which appeared to have severely damaged the interior of the hospital, a white-walled building of about three stories.

Next GOP Debate Stage Could Shrink

Next GOP Debate Stage Could Shrink, As few as six candidates could make the next GOP presidential debate stage in January, as Fox Business Network’s new criteria could drastically shrink the field less than a month before the Iowa caucuses.

Fox Business Network announced three separate avenues to make the main stage, but those pathways are more restricted than in previous debates. Participants in the main stage debate on Jan. 14 must hit the top six in an average of five recent national polls, or top five in an average of recent polls from Iowa or New Hampshire.

The rest will qualify for another undercard debate, provided that they earn at least 1 percent in one of the qualifying polls.

Last month’s CNN debate also relied on early state polling, but set a 4 percent threshold instead. Nine candidates made the network’s main event.

Fox Business Network, as in the past, hasn’t announced which polls it would use. But using current RealClearPolitics averages, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ben Carson, former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.), and Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) currently sit in the national top six.

Those six candidates also make up the top five in Iowa in New Hampshire, in a different order. So depending on which polls would qualify, no other candidates would make the main stage as of now.

That would relegate Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Carly FIorina, and Gov. John Kasich (Ohio) to the undercard debate weeks before the first votes of 2016 are cast. Candidates may get one more shot on Jan. 28, when Fox News hosts a debate just days before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus.

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