The Hellenic Navy (HN) (Greek: Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the naval force of Greece, part of the Greek Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independence. During the periods of monarchy (1833–1924 and 1936–1973) it was known as the Royal Navy (Βασιλικόν Ναυτικόν, Vasilikón Naftikón, abbreviated ΒΝ).The total displacement of all the navy's vessels is approximately 150,000 tons.The motto of the Hellenic Navy is "Μέγα το της Θαλάσσης Κράτος" from Thucydides' account of Pericles' oration on the eve of the Peloponnesian War. This has been roughly translated as "Great is the country that controls the sea". The Hellenic Navy's emblem consists of an anchor in front of a crossed Christian cross and trident, with the cross symbolizing Greek Orthodoxy, and the trident symbolizing Poseidon, the god of the sea in Greek mythology. Pericles' words are written across the top of the emblem. "The navy, as it represents a necessary weapon for Greece, should only be created for war and aim to victory."...............The Hellenic Merchant Marine refers to the Merchant Marine of Greece, engaged in commerce and transportation of goods and services universally. It consists of the merchant vessels owned by Greek civilians, flying either the Greek flag or a flag of convenience. Greece is a maritime nation by tradition, as shipping is arguably the oldest form of occupation of the Greeks and a key element of Greek economic activity since the ancient times. Nowadays, Greece has the largest merchant fleet in the world, which is the second largest contributor to the national economy after tourism and forms the backbone of world shipping. The Greek fleet flies a variety of flags, however some Greek shipowners gradually return to Greece following the changes to the legislative framework governing their operations and the improvement of infrastructure.

This is a bilingual blog in English and / or Greek and you can translate any post to any language by pressing on the appropriate flag....Note that there is provided below a scrolling text with the 30 recent posts...Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο blog στα Αγγλικά η/και στα Ελληνικά και μπορείτε να μεταφράσετε οποιοδήποτε ποστ σε οποιαδήποτε γλώσσα κάνοντας κλικ στη σχετική σημαία. Σημειωτέον ότι παρακάτω παρέχεται και ένα κινούμενο κείμενο με τα 30 πρόσφατα ποστς....This is a bilingual blog in English and / or Greek and you can translate any post to any language by pressing on the appropriate flag....Note that there is provided below a scrolling text with the 30 recent posts...Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο blog στα Αγγλικά η/και στα Ελληνικά και μπορείτε να μεταφράσετε οποιοδήποτε ποστ σε οποιαδήποτε γλώσσα κάνοντας κλικ στη σχετική σημαία. Σημειωτέον ότι παρακάτω παρέχεται και ένα κινούμενο κείμενο με τα 30 πρόσφατα ποστς.........

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Northeastern Egypt... [ 653 ]

Alluvial Fans in Northeastern Egypt

Posted February 17, 2010

acquired November 13, 2009

In northeastern Egypt, roughly 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Gulf of Suez, rugged hills give way to flat terrain. This abrupt landscape transition is obvious from the perspective of a satellite, thanks in part to an arid environment that minimizes plant cover that might blur the transition. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image of the region on November 13, 2009.

Bare rock ranges in color from pink-beige to tan. Vegetation appears red. The Sun’s relatively low angle in this autumn image leaves the north-facing slopes in shadow. Immediately northwest of the hills are a collection of alluvial fans. When fast-moving rivers exit steep terrain, the water often fans out over flat land. Wavy lines of blue-gray and white show where rivulets once ran through mountains and spread out over flat land.

Although little plant life thrives in this region, underwater springs give rise to isolated oases, and one such oasis became the site of one of Egypt’s oldest Coptic Christian monasteries, that of St. Anthony. Two dots of bright red near the base of the hills indicate vegetation associated with the monastery.

NASA image by Michon Scott.

British troops and Afghan villagers [ 652 ]

British troops struggle to win trust of Afghan villagers

A town which suffered vicious Taliban repercussions after British troops briefly occupied it a year ago has refused to endorse the military's presence until security is guaranteed.

Telegraph co.uk, By Thomas Harding in Naqilebad Kulay
Published: 10:15PM GMT 17 Feb 2010

British troops struggle to win trust of Afghan villagers: A member of the Afghan army and British ISAF forces question a local man while on patrol around Showal

A member of the Afghan army and the British ISAF force question a local Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS

Initially the population of Naqilebad Kulay welcomed the large force of British and Afghan soldiers when they landed outside the town at the start of Operation Moshtarak nearly a week ago. More than 200 people walk them down the high street in scenes reminiscent of liberation.

But then memories returned to just over a year ago when the Royal Marines fought their way through the town to rid it of the Taliban. They only remained for a few days before leaving as there were not enough troops in the Helmand to contain the central area.

The Taliban retaliated against "collaborators".

"Before the British promised to bring in security but within two or three days they had left. The Taliban came back in and killed the people who co-operated with British troops," said Shah Mohammed, 40, on one of the landowners.

The news comes as reports from the Marjah area, where US Marines have experienced sustained Taliban resistance, have said civilians are being used as human shields to fight off the attack.

Insurgents are firing at troops from compound where women and children appear to have been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window, said Gen. Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander for Afghan troops in Marjah.

"They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians," he added.

Following the launch of 15,000 troops on the assault, a force of more than 300 British and Afghans, including national police, will remain in the area.

But the locals still remained unconvinced about promises until they see tangible evidence.

"If we see Isaf (International Security Assistance Force) staying here then we will join with you," Shah Mohammed said. "If there is security then our sons will join the police and army." During a meeting outside the main mosque the village elder wagged his finger at both British and Afghan officers saying the people could only "work together" if the military guaranteed security.

"They people are scared for their lives that you will leave again," he said.

The senior British officer present assured the elders that his force was "here to stay".

"We are here to keep the Taliban out. Our main aim is to protect the people of Naqilebad and as a demonstration of this we will build check points," said Major Shon Hackney, A Company commander of the Royal Welsh, the battalion protecting the northern Nad-e-Ali area.

Lt James Dott, 26, in charge of the Royal Welsh force that is securing the town, said it was a struggle to reassure people they would stay permanently.

"After what happened last time people are wary that we are not going to stay "They have been suggesting to us that now the Taliban will come back and hurt them for collaborating with Isaf.

"All the people want is security so that they can work in the fields without fear of being hit by exchanges of gunfire." A race is now on for the British forces to secure roads in order to allow in heavy engineer equipment to start building bases and checkpoints in the area.

Once they begin it is likely that the population will realise that this time the force is there to stay.

Israel: No proof for Hamas Dubai killing ..[ 651 ]

Israel says no proof it carried out Hamas Dubai killing

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Mr Lieberman said Israel never confirmed intelligence matters

BBC 22:28 GMT, Wednesday, 17 February 2010

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said there is no proof the Mossad spy agency carried out the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

But he did not fully deny that Israel carried out the killing, citing its "policy of ambiguity" on such matters.

Dubai believes 11 "agents with European passports" killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Seven foreign-born Israelis named as suspects say their identities were stolen and they were not involved. UK passports used were said to be fake.

France, Germany and the Irish Republic also said they believed the passports from their countries used by the alleged killers were false.

Britain has summoned the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Office on Thursday, to discuss the use of fraudulent British passports by the alleged assassins.

'Israel never confirms'

Hamas has accused Israeli agents of murdering their operative - a view shared by many commentators because Mossad has in the past used forged foreign passports in its operations.

ANALYSIS

Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

The operation was clinical. The hit-team successfully escaped Dubai. But they left telltale traces.

The false foreign passports used by the alleged team of secret agents have been identified and six of them are British. That is diplomatic problem number one.

Problem number two is identity theft. The passports used the names of real people, British citizens, with dual nationality, who happen to live in Israel, who had absolutely no knowledge of what was going on.

Nobody yet of course has any proof-positive as to who carried out the operation. There may be no "smoking gun".

Nonetheless what you might call the "smouldering passports" suggest that Israel has some questions to answer.

If Israel was indeed behind this assassination then some, even in Israel, may well suggest that they have scored a costly own goal.

But in Israel's first official comments on the affair, Mr Lieberman said there was no reason to blame Israel and Mossad.

"I don't know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports," he told Army Radio.

"There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief."

He did not outright deny Israeli involvement.

"Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies," he said. "There is no reason for Israel to change this policy."

A former officer with the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, said the killing "looks like an Israeli operation".

But Gad Shimron added: "I believe it will never be officially confirmed by any Israeli government."

Mr Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel room in Dubai on 20 January.

Reports have suggested he was in Dubai to buy weapons for the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas.

Two Palestinian suspects were being questioned about the murder. Police said they had "fled to Jordan" after the killing, without releasing their names.

Wigs and false beards

Officials in Dubai, who have issued arrest warrants, said the team appeared to be a professional hit squad, probably sponsored by a foreign power.

They released CCTV footage which they said showed some of the suspects in disguises, including wigs and false beards, in the hotel near Dubai's international airport.

The suspects allegedly trailed Mr Mabhouh when he arrived in Dubai from Syria, paid for everything in cash and used various mobile phones.

Some of the British-born Israelis whose names were on the passports used by the suspects have said they are shocked by the discovery.

"I don't know how they got my details, who took them," said Stephen Daniel Hodes, 37.

"I haven't left the country, I think, for two years and I've never been to Dubai ever.

"I don't know who's behind this. I am just scared, these are major forces," he said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a "full investigation" into what happened.

Hamas killing

: When Mr Mabhouh leaves the lift, the police say he was followed by one of the suspects, who appeared to be trying to establish which room he was staying in. He was later killed in his room.

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The Great Eastern Garbage Patch...[ 650 ]

TOXIC: Garbage Island

by Thomas Morton, Online Editor, Vice Magazine

February 17, 2010 4:16 p.m. EST

'Chemical soup' churns in ocean

Editor's Note: The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE, an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York. VBS.TV is Vice's broadband television network. The reports, which are produced solely by VICE, reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.

Brooklyn, New York (VBS.TV) -- Back in the mid-zeroes, I remember reading a lot of stories about a buildup of trash in the Pacific Ocean so massive that it had formed a floating island of waste the size of Texas. Its colorful nickname was the Great Eastern Garbage Patch, and what was even more mind-boggling than the purported scale was that pretty much the only places you could dig up any substantial info about it were in minor oceanographic and environmental publications. You also couldn't find a photo of it to save your life. It was like Garbage Brigadoon.

Anyhoo, the idea that one of the biggest environmental disasters of our age had been going on outside nearly everyone's awareness piqued our curiosity, so we decided to head out there (the middle of the ocean) and see it for ourselves.

The Garbage Patch is located at a natural collecting point at the center of a set of revolving currents called the North Pacific Gyre. The middle of the Gyre is more of a meteorological phenomenon than an actual place: a consistent high-pressure zone north of the Hawaiian Islands that, combined with the extremely weak currents, helps keep the ocean surface as placid as lake water.

Flotsam has been sucked into this area from the encircling currents for as long as the Pacific's existed, but up until the last century this process ended with the refuse safely biodegrading and being reabsorbed into the food chain as nutrients. With the advent of plastics, however, the Garbage Patch has transformed from a fertile feeding ground to the oceanic equivalent of a desert. And a particularly crap-strewn desert at that.

See the rest of TOXIC: Garbage Island

We chartered a trip through the middle of the mess with Capt. Charles Moore of the Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita. Capt. Moore is credited with discovering the Patch in its present, trash-choked state, and at the time was one of the few people studying the extent and effect of the pollution.

Our voyage into the center of the Gyre took eight days of round-the-clock sailing on a 50-foot catamaran with a crew of six (including VBS's three-man filming team). Personal tensions mounted. Humor got strange. By the time we got to the beginning of the Patch, anticipation and cabin fever had conspired to make our expectations of "Garbage Island" unreasonably high, but what we found still managed to surpass them.

To the naked eye it looked no different from any other part of the ocean, except that every few minutes something really strange would float by. For instance, one time it was a hard hat with Korean writing on it. Another time it was a motorcycle tire. Another time it was a child's life preserver with a cartoonish shark bite taken out of the side. Once it was an enormous telephone-pole-shaped thing that could have easily wrecked our ship if we'd been on a slightly different course.

Here we were in one of the most remote stretches of water in the world -- thousands of miles from land, hadn't seen another ship in days -- and everywhere around us was civilization's detritus.

It would have been some consolation to think that the Garbage Patch was simply the result of careless sailors, but researchers estimate up to 80 percent of the trash originates on land. That not only meant that the shampoo bottle or birthday balloon we scooped up had most likely spent years traveling around the currents of the Gyre before ending up in our path, but that there were countless others in the middle of the same journey. It was a colossal bring-down.

Then we started taking some samples of the water, and that's when we realized things were even worse than we thought.

Watch what the water samples showed