Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant..[ 313 ]

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Posted August 5, 2009

download large image (4 MB, JPEG) acquired April 28, 2009

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On April 26,1986, Reactor Number Four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the Ukraine-Belarus border exploded, and the reactor burned for days afterwards. It was the worst accident in the history of nuclear power, releasing radionuclides over parts of what today are Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. The accident affected hundreds of thousands of people, including forcing the evacuation of 116,000 residents from a highly contaminated area, and causing some 4,000 confirmed cases of childhood thyroid cancer. The Soviet Union built a shelter, commonly referred to as a sarcophagus, around the reactor, and the Russian Federation permanently closed the site in 2000.

On April 28, 2009, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite took this true-color picture of the nuclear reactor. The large body of water in the right half of the image is the northwestern end of a 12-kilometer- (7.5-mile-) long cooling pond, and water channels run through the network of reactor-related buildings west of the pond. Reactor number four appears on the west end of a long building northeast of an L-shaped water channel.

Mixing with the network of abandoned buildings, water channels, and roads, areas of green appear—a testament to the vegetation that was growing around the site some 20 years after the accident. After the evacuation of the region affected by Chernobyl, satellite imagery revealed widespread abandonment of agricultural fields, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That did not, however, halt vegetation growth near the site. A wider view of the area acquired by Landsat in 2004 showed green fields around Chernobyl. In fact, plants and animals appeared to have made something of a comeback, according to some studies. Residents who defied evacuation orders and remained in the region described wildlife encounters in a 2007 article from The Washington Post, although experts debated the health of the wildlife in the region.

Παναθηναϊκός - Σπάρτα Πράγας 3-0 ... [ 312]

THIS WAS NOT SPARTA
SPARTA IS IN GREECE

ΕΛΛΑΣ - ΕΥΡΩΠΗ - ΠΑΝΑΘΗΝΑΙΚΟΣ

Κατάθεση όχι μόνο ψυχής αλλά και καρδιάς και άλλων εντοσθίων..αλλά και άλλων..... αδένων

_________________________________
ΟΤΙ ΈΠΡΕΠΕ........ να γίνει....Τελικά ΈΓΙΝΕ

__________________________________________________ ____________________

• Παναθηναϊκός-Σπάρτα Πράγας 3-0 και πρόκριση

• Την Παρασκευή στην ΚΛΗΡΩΣΗ !!!!!!

• τα γκόλ Σαριέγκι, Κατσουράνης, Σαλπιγγίδης
• και ο Σισε ακόμα δεν έχει μιλήσει
  
• Πολύ Καλός ο Λέτο.....

Συνημμένα Thumbnails

The Washington Post's article[ 311 ]

Click here to read the 5 parts of what wrote the ''Star_Of_Macedon''

A copy of Professor's Karatzios letter to
Washington Post

Part 1 out of total 5

Dear Mr. Whitlock,

Thursday, July 30, 2009
I am sorry to see that your article “Another Rift Between Greece, Macedonia” published online on The Washington Post’s website on July 28, 2009 is completely off mark, biased, and reflects a generally unprofessional attitude on your part. This is not what international reporting is supposed to be like, in my opinion.

The article’s tone smacks of political lobbying... and not of investigative journalism. You have taken a very sensitive political, and historical topic and have trivialized it in such a way that paints Greece as a spoiled bully who needs to be “corrected” by the United States and the rest of the West. You conjure up romantic images of “Indiana Jones” and “Santa Claus” which are endearing to the average American reader (who by the way knows very little about European history and politics) and as a result you portray Skopje as the underdog who should be winning the hearts and minds of the West because it is being threatened by Greece.

I respectfully would like to inform you that this is propaganda and not unbiased journalism. I would
like to analyze many of your erroneous points and back up my arguments with references and facts: 1) Your point: “The Greek government refuses to recognize its neighbor's constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, which it sees as a thinly veiled bid to lay claim to three of its northern districts, a region known as Greek Macedonia. After Macedonia declared independence in 1991, Greece prevented it from joining the United Nations and imposed an economic blockade that nearly strangled the fledgling country.”

This is correct however you seem not to know why Greece did this. Skopje’s original constitution mentioned its right to intervene on behalf of its people to protect “Macedonians” living in the general area of Macedonia. In the constitution, this land-locked country mentioned it has the right to a navy. This idea has continued to this day: http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/5747/45/.

May I also remind you that the new country’s first state flag showcased the star of Vergina, an ancient Greek emblem and the Ancient Macedonian royal family emblem?Considering the recent historical conflict Greece had with Yugoslavia and Josip Tito’s plan to annex Greek Macedonia after World War 2, this was seen as continued irredentism by Skopje. There have been multiple examples of official maps published in this new country (especially after 1991) showing a fictitious “United Macedonia”.

The US State Department recognized the threat to Greece by Skopje and Yugoslavia back in 1944 and warned all of its missions abroad to be aware of such irredentism against its Greek ally in the war against fascism and then communism [1]. Why has this piece of information evaded you? The United States tried to invade Cuba (another poor and defenseless country), and has imposed a decades long crippling economic blockade on it when it was found out that Havana courted the USSR militarily and politically.

• Click here to read the 5 parts of what wrote the ''Star_Of_Macedon''

The Washington Post - o7-30-2009, o:11:12 PM EDT

Μεγάλη Πυρκαϊά στη Λα Πάλμα των Καναρίων.[310]

Μάχη με τις φλόγες δίνουν οι πυροσβέστες στη Λα Πάλμα

( ΤΑ ΝΕΑ) -ΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΘΗΚΕ: Δευτέρα 3 Αυγούστου 2009-

Εκτός ελέγχου παραμένει μια μεγάλη εστία φωτιάς στην Ισπανία, στα ανατολικά της νήσου Λα Πάλμα του συμπλέγματος των Καναρίων.

Η εστία στα δυτικά του νησιού βρίσκεται πλέον υπό έλεγχο. Σύμφωνα με τις αρχές, τις ολονύχτιες προσπάθειες των πυροσβεστών βοήθησε η πτώση στη θερμοκρασία που από τους 45 βαθμούς Κελσίου, κατρακύλησε κατά 20 βαθμούς.Επίσης, οι ισχυροί άνεμοι κόπασαν και, σε ορισμένες περιοχές, ψιχάλισε.

Μέχρι στιγμής έχουν απανθρακωθεί 1.500-2.000 εκτάρια πευκοδάσους, σύμφωνα με τις τοπικές αρχές.

Περίπου 500 πυροσβέστες, δασοφύλακες και στρατιώτες επιχειρούν στην περιοχή.

Μία άλλη πυρκαγιά, στην Αραγώνα της βορειοανατολικής Ισπανίας, κοντά στο Καλαταγιούδ, εξακολουθεί και να μαίνεται για δεύτερο 24ωρο και έχει κατακάψει περίπου 700 εκτάρια δασικής έκτασης.

Περίπου 75.000 εκτάρια δασικής έκτασης έχουν πυρποληθεί στην Ισπανία από τις αρχές του έτους, με τα 45.000 από αυτά μόλις τις τελευταίες δύο εβδομάδες. Ήδη έχει καεί η διπλάσια έκταση δάσους από πέρυσι (39.900 εκτάρια), τόνισε η αντιπρόεδρος της κυβέρνησης Μαρία Τερέσα Φερνάντεθ ντε λα Βέγα.

Anders F. Rasmussen-new Nato head...[ 309 ]

Afghan priority for new Nato head

Rasmussen: 'We must focus more on the civilian side of this conflict' ( BBC ) -Monday, 3 August 2009 18:12 UK Nato's priority must be the war in Afghanistan, including negotiations with moderate members of the Taliban, the organisation's new leader says. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Nato must prevent Afghanistan from "becoming again a grand central station of international terrorism". He said his second priority would be improving ties with Russia, though he admitted there would be difficulties. One of his other ideas is to create a "standing anti-piracy" capability. He spoke on Monday, as a bomb attack in the western Afghan city of Herat killed at least 12 people and injured about 20. Insurgent attacks on security forces have been increasing in the run-up to the presidential election on 20 August. Nato's new leader replaces Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who repeatedly warned that efforts to subdue the Taliban in Afghanistan remained the alliance's greatest challenge. 'Lot at stake' Mr Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister, said he wanted Nato to work more with civilian organisations. "Nato is a strong military alliance and we need a strong military effort in Afghanistan," he said. I will not exclude the possibility that we will need more troops in the future. We have to do what it takes to prevail Anders Fogh Rasmussen Nato Secretary-General "But to win the peace and to win hearts and minds we need to provide Afghan people with better life opportunities and assist the government in the development of democratic institutions." To help achieve that, Nato needed to expand its capacity to work with the European Union, United Nations and other civilian groups, he added. While appreciating the increase in troops that Nato's allies had pledged, Mr Rasmussen said there was "a lot at stake", both internationally and for Nato in Afghanistan, and warned that reinforcements might be needed. "I will not exclude the possibility that we will need more troops in the future. We have to do what it takes to prevail," he later told the BBC. The launch in 2001 of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) for Afghanistan was the organisation's first and largest ground operation outside Europe. As of June 2009, Isaf had more than 61,000 personnel from 42 different countries including the US, Canada, European countries, Australia, Jordan and New Zealand. The largest contributing nations are the US and Britain. They provide about 28,850 and 8,300 troops respectively. US soldiers are among the thousands of Nato-led troops in Afghanistan Mr Rasmussen said that he would work with European Nato members to remove the "national caveats" on how their forces could be used. "I think we owe it to our commanders in the field that they have the greatest possible flexibility in pursuing their important goals." He also said that Afghans would have to take lead responsibility for security in most of their country during his four-year term. "We should develop a greater capacity within the Afghan National Army, and also within the Afghan National Police. The criteria of success will be to hand over gradually the responsibility for security to the Afghans themselves, province by province," he told the BBC. He said he would try to address public concern about increasing casualties, but that people had to realise the risks of inaction. "If Afghanistan once again becomes a safe haven for terrorists, then we can all be hit by terrorists again. This is not only a question about the United States - Europe could be hit as well," he said. 'Negative impact' As the first anniversary of a brief war between Russia and Georgia looms, Mr Rasmussen said the conflict had had a "very negative impact on relations between Nato and Russia". It erupted on 7 August last year as Georgia tried to retake control of South Ossetia. Russia quickly repelled the assault, and built up its military presence in both South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia. Nato's new leader said the differences between the alliance and Moscow should not overshadow common security concerns, such as terrorism. "I consider it a very important challenge for me to convince the Russian people and Russian leadership that Nato is not an enemy of Russia, Nato is not directed against Russia," he said. Speaking more broadly about Nato's role, Mr Rasmussen described Nato as "the ultimate insurance policy" for almost one billion people in 28 countries. "I want to see Nato reach its full potential as a pillar of global security," he said.