London mulls plans for a £600m floating bike path

In an inspired burst of think-outside-the-street strategy, a London consortium is floating an audacious plan to turn part of the River Thames into a nearly eight-mile-long, bikes-only pathway.

Aimed at reducing the ever-present risk of bike-meets-lorry encounters on the city’s traffic-choked streets, the so-called Thames Deckway would hug the south bank of the river between Battersea and Canary Wharf, with the midpoint at Millennium Bridge. The sleek, futuristic-looking bikeway – thinkBlade Runner meets Waterworld – was trial-ballooned by the River Cycleway Consortium Ltd. The group’s leaders are British architect David Nixon and entrepreneur/artist Anna Hill, working in conjunction with design/engineering firm Arup (of Sydney Opera House fame) and Hugh Broughton Architects.

The team has yet to reveal design details about just how the bikeway would float and what materials would be used, but the project, which reportedly will be privately financed, is expected to cost an estimated £600 million (about $965 million). Proponents say a flat-rate toll of £1.50 (around $2.40) per biker per journey will help fund maintenance expenses.

The Deckway would feature access ramps and refreshment kiosks, as well as on-board sensors that, via satellite, would relay data to bikers about things such as traffic density and flow, as well as river and weather conditions. The bikeway would rise and fall with the Thames’ tides, and solar, tidal and wind energy would supply power for lighting and other needs.

If approved, the bikeway – which would accommodate 12,000 bikers per hour and clip the time it takes to cross the city by 30 minutes – could be completed in as little as two years.

The proposal is the latest in a series of ambitious plans designed to make London – where population is expected to grow by 12 percent in the next decade – safer and easier to navigate by bike. Late last year, for example, British architect and ardent cycling proponent Sir Norman Foster (the founder of world-recognized Foster + Partners and the designer of theGherkin tower), along with landscape architects Exterior Architecture Ltd. and urban planners Space Syntax Ltd., unveiled a proposal for SkyCycle, an elevated bike path.

This 220-km-long (136-mile), three-story-high network of car-free bike paths, punctuated by 200 access points, would follow existing urban rail lines. While a total cost wasn’t announced, a short four-mile-long first leg reportedly carries a price tag of £220 million (about $353 million). But supporters say that’s cheaper than building more roads.

In addition, avid cyclist and London Mayor Boris Johnson, who’s pushing for a “cycling revolution” in London, is championing development of the “Crossrail for bike” project: 21 miles of bike paths that would be almost completely segregated from motor traffic.

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Strike over Ebola pay hits Liberia hospitals

Hospitals and health care facilities have been affected in Liberia as some nurses and medical professionals staged a walkout demanding better pay and safer working conditions in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

Sources told Al Jazeera that several hospitals and clinics were hit by the strike on Monday as health workers abandonded hundreds of patients, demanding higher hazard pay and protective equipment.

Health Minister, Walter Gwenigale, confirmed that staff had gone on strike in some parts of the country, but tried to reassure workers that hazard allowances would be paid in full.


Infographic: Just how deadly is Ebola?




"That money is available and is being paid. So please, please stay with your patients," he said.

A local journalist told Al Jazeera, that many facilities were "virtually abandoned", with "nurses afraid of touching patients".

"They refuse to take blood samples from patients or even take their temperature because these require them to touch patients," Terence Sesay said.

Staff at Monrovia's Island Clinic, the largest government-run Ebola clinic in the capital, had already been on a "go slow" in recent days in their battle for extra pay.

Dozens of patients in the clinic have died from Ebola since the go-slow began on Friday, staff representative Alphonso Wesseh said.

"We have slowed down our activities because the government refuses to satisfy our request. Last night tens of patients died," he said.

Liberia's healthcare workers are on the frontline of the worst outbreak of Ebola that has killed 95 care workers, according to the World Health Organisation.

With monthly salaries said to be as low as $250 a month, calls are mounting for pay to correspond to the risk of dealing with Ebola, for which there is no vaccine or widely-available treatment.

The Ebola outbreak has already crippled already poor health care systems across west Africa, and on Monday the UN warned of acute food shortages in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said up to 40 percent of farms had been abandoned in areas devastated by the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

Nwanze said there were already food shortages in Senegal and other countries in West Africa because regional trade has been disrupted.

The disease has killed more than 4,000 people, most of them in the west African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and the hardest-hit, Liberia.

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Palestinian worshippers barred from Al-Aqsa

Tensions remain high in the area surrounding the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem as Israeli police prevented dozens of Palestinian worshippers from entering the compound to perform dawn prayers a day after clashes between the two sides.

Many worshippers trying to enter the compound on Tuesday were turned away by police, who prevented all but those aged over 60 from entering the site, forcing many Palestinians to perform their dawn prayers in the street.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Jerusalem, said the police used stun grenades to disperse many of the younger worshippers who objected to being blocked from the site.

"This comes following a day of skirmishes in the compound on Monday after Jewish and non-Jewish groups entered the compound with the Israeli police for the Sakkout Jewish holidays," El-Shamayleh said.

"Among these visitors were far-right Jewish activists whose presence provokes Palestinians.

"That's because they have openly called on the Israeli government to practice more sovereignty and control over the Al-Aqsa compound, which is under Jordan's custodianship.

"Palestinians also feel their calls for Israeli control of the compound could eventually lead to the division of Islam’s holiest site among Palestinians and Jews.

"This is why Palestinians feel so strongly about protecting the compound."

The Al-Aqsa mosque is Islam's third holiest site, and the site is also sacred in Judaism.

'Repeated provocations'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday blamed "Palestinian extremists" for clashes at the site, denying Israel was behind the mounting tensions.

"Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo exactly as it's been for many decades," he said in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was visiting country, the AFP news agency reported.

"What we're seeing is Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement."

Ban said he was "deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem," which "inflame tensions and must stop".

The UN chief's remarks came hours after clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound as Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Orthodox Jews going to the esplanade.

There were similar clashes as youths threw stones and fired flares at police after Jewish visitors ascended to the compound on the eve of the week-long holiday of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles.

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Turkish jets 'bomb PKK targets in southeast'

Turkish media reports air strikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party fighters in Hakkari in retaliation for shelling

Media in Turkey has reported that Turkish warplanes have struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in the southeast of the country, in the first major air strikes against the rebel group since peace talks began two years ago to end a 30-year conflict.

The website of the Hurriyet newspaper said on Tuesday that the F-16 jets hit Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in in the village of Daglica in Hakkari province on Sunday.

The air strikes were launched in response to the suspected PKK shelling of a military outpost there, it said.

A military statement said on Tuesday that armed forces had responded "in the strongest way" to shelling by the rebels, without saying whether air strikes were launched.

The attack on the military post came amid accusations by Kurds that Turkey is standing idly by while Syrian Kurds are being slaughtered across the border in the besieged town of Kobane.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Urfa, near the Turkish border with Syria, said that Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, was expected to issue a statement on Wednesday that should indicate how the group would react to the attack.

"The back story is that last week the acting leader of the PKK said that effectively the two-year peace process with Turkey was over because of the Turkish military build-up along the Iraq and Syria border," said Smith.

"And it is over because the Turkish government has resorted to heavy-handed tactics in cracking down on Kurdish protesters."

Smith was referring to the protesters who took to the streets in several cities in the southeast over the past week because of frustration for what has been seen as Turkey's lack of action to stop the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in northern Syria where Kurds are under threat.

Scores died during a police crackdown on the demonstrations.

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MH17 crash: Dutch minister says passenger 'wore oxygen mask'

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans has said that one of the 298 people killed in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine was found wearing an oxygen mask.


He indicated that not everybody on board had died instantly when the plane was hit by a missile.


An initial report said flight MH17 broke up in mid-air after being pierced by objects at high velocity.


Mr Timmermans has now said he regrets the remark and upsetting families.


"The last thing I want is to add to their suffering in any way," he said in a government statement (in Dutch) released hours after he made the comment on the Pauw talk show on Dutch TV. "I shouldn't have said it."


'Australian victim'
The Dutch public prosecutor has confirmed that an oxygen mask was found, although a spokesman said it was around the passenger's neck rather than their mouth. It has been secured with elastic and tested for DNA and fingerprints.


The plane had been flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July when it went down over rebel-held territory. Pro-Russian separatist leaders deny shooting it down with a missile.


Although 196 of the passengers were Dutch, the passenger with the oxygen mask was not, the prosecutor said on Thursday. Dutch media said the victim in question was an Australian and the family had been informed about the development.




None of the other victims was wearing an oxygen mask, the public prosecutor added. The mask was from a Boeing 777 plane, but it was unknown how and when it had been put on.

Mr Timmermans is seen as one of the big hitters in the Dutch government.

He is due to leave his post shortly as foreign minister to take up a post as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's right-hand man.

He mentioned the oxygen mask during an interview with Jeroen Pauw, in which he was taken to task for an emotive speech he gave to the UN four days after flight MH17 was downed on 17 July.

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Air strikes 'stall IS advance' on Syrian border town

US-led forces have continued air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants near the besieged Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane.

A senior local official said IS had been pushed back towards the edge of the town as a result of the strikes and advances by the town's defenders.

Earlier reports said the militants had controlled almost a third of Kobane, on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkey has ruled out a ground operation on its own against IS in Syria.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also called for the creation of a no-fly zone along the Syrian side of the border after talks in Ankara with new Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg on possible Turkish action against IS.

Turkey - a Nato member - wants the creation of a border zone or safe haven enforced by a no-fly zone to stop militants moving across the border.

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