Madeira Floods [ 673 ]

An answer to FOCUS [ 672 ]

The FOCUS in the recent publication offends the Greek flag ,
and plays at a cheap way with the ancient statue of Venus,
thus it gives me the right to attribute at the same way, and
herein after is my similar answer ..

(to the FOCUS only ! )
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Arms Delivery to Iran is delayed[ 671 ]

Russia delays Arms delivery to Iran

In this photo taken on Aug. 5, 2005, an S-300 surface-to-air missile blasts off at the Ashuluk firing range, in Astrakhan region, 1,280 km south of Moscow, Russia. The S-300, similar to the U.S. Patriot missile, is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of over 145 km and at altitudes of about 27,000 m. /AP 

VOA News / Feb. 18, 2010 10:39 KST
 Russia is delaying delivery of its S-300 air-defense system to Iran and is also calling for Tehran to adhere to International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines for enrichment of nuclear fuel. The moves follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's two-day visit to Moscow.
The Interfax News Agency quotes the deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Alexander Fomin, as saying delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Iran has been delayed by technical problems.

Fomin, whose service controls Russian arms exports, made the comment during a defense exposition in New Delhi. He did not indicate the nature of the technical problems or how long repairs would take.

As recently as Sunday, the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Nazarov, said the S-300 contract must be implemented. It was signed in 2005.

Israel and the United States have opposed the sale of the system, which Iran could use to defend a possible attack against its nuclear facilities.

Announcement of the delay was made a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow. The Israeli leader told Russia's Kommersant business daily he would not confirm whether he discussed delivery of any specific weapons systems in his talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.

The S-300 is a Soviet-era surface-to-air system designed to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles. Independent Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told VOA the missile would complement the longer-range S-200 and the TOR M1 system that operates at medium to very low altitudes.

Felgenhauer says the fact that Iran does not have the S-300 means it has a big hole in its air-defense system, which makes it impossible to defend against an attack, even by Israel.

Tel Aviv is concerned that an Iranian nuclear weapon could pose a direct threat to Israel.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reminded Iran it should stop its nuclear enrichment activity in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution. Lavrov, currently on a tour of Latin America, also urged Tehran to accept an international offer to provide fuel for its nuclear-research reactors.

Lavrov says the International Atomic Energy Agency proposed a plan in October of last year with France, the United States and Russia that would provide fuel for Iran's research reactor, because its current supply is being used up.

In Moscow, Prime Minister Netanyahu called for crippling sanctions against Iranian imports and exports, including such refined oil products as gasoline.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said the international community must be certain Iran's nuclear program is peaceful. She added that if such obligations are not fulfilled, no one can rule out the use of sanctions against Iran.

Madeira floods kill 42...[ 670 ]

Madeira floods kill 42, divers hunt for missing

Miguel Pereira

FUNCHAL, Portugal

Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:35pm EST

View Full Size

FUNCHAL, Portugal (Reuters) - Portuguese rescuers used excavators and their bare hands on Sunday to sift through mud and debris for victims of violent floods and mudslides that killed at least 42 people on the resort island of Madeira.

World  |  Green Business

Officials said they feared more bodies had been washed away into the ocean after Saturday's deluge, and flew in divers from the mainland to search for those drowned. Rescue work carried on late into Sunday.
Regional Tourism and Transport Secretary Conceicao Estudante told a briefing four people were still missing.
Miguel Albuquerque, the mayor of Madeira's capital Funchal, said some areas above the city were particularly badly hit, likening the scene to Dante's Inferno:
"What happened in the higher parts of Funchal was Dantesque," he said in televised remarks. "People were swept away in their cars, houses were swept away."
Saturday's heavy rainstorm unleashed floods and mudslides on the Atlantic island, washing bridges and burying some houses under tones of mud.
Francisco Ramos, the regional secretary for social affairs, said there were 42 confirmed deaths on Madeira, which lies some 1,000 km (625 miles) southwest of Lisbon and is famous for its sandy beaches and fortified wine of the same name.
The government decreed three days of mourning and called an extraordinary cabinet meeting for Monday to discuss the worst loss of life in Portugal since a bridge over the Douro River collapsed in 2001, killing 59 people.
Many roads in Madeira were partially destroyed or blocked with rocks, trees and mud. It took civil protection services more than 24 hours to reach the village of Curral das Freiras, which had been cut off. Officials said one person had been killed and one was missing there.
Officials said about 120 people were injured and 300 spent the night in temporary shelters. Some 240 lost their homes.
HELP ARRIVING, ONE TOURIST KILLED
A military transport plane with rescue teams arrived in Funchal on Sunday and a navy frigate was heading for the island to help with the search effort and reconstruction.
Alberto Joao Jardim, the leader of the regional government, said there had been "no serious incident" involving the tourism sector on the island, but a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said later a British national had been killed. She would not provide details.
Many tourists on Madeira, which held its popular annual Carnival parades last week, were Britons visiting for the half-term school holiday.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates visited Madeira late on Saturday, pledging "all aid that the regional government requires in this serious situation." Jardim said he had also requested European Union funds.
Meteorologists said the amount of rainfall that fell in one day on Saturday exceeded the monthly average, but no heavy rainfall was expected on Madeira over the next few days.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Afganistan: Tough Fight in Marjah[ 669 ]

Outgunned Taliban Mounting Tough Fight in Marjah

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Feb. 21: A Marine takes runs through a field after igniting a smoke grenade to mark a landing zone for a U.S. helicopter in Marjah.

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MARJAH, Afghanistan —  Afghan officials say outnumbered Taliban fighters are mounting a tougher fight than expected in Marjah, as U.S.-led forces converge on a pocket of militants in a western section of the southern Afghan town.
Despite continuing fighting, Marjah's newly oppointed civilian chief planned to fly into the town Monday for the first time since the attack to begin restoring Afghan government control and winning over the population after years of Taliban rule.
SLIDESHOW: U.S.-Led Forces Launch Attack on Taliban Stronghold
LIVESHOTS: Major Taliban Operative Captured in Pakistan
With fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters roaring overhead, Marine and Afghan companies advanced Sunday on a 2-square-mile area where more than 40 insurgents were believed holed up.
"They are squeezed," said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That's the nature of this war."

U.S. officials signaled their intention to attack Marjah, a major Taliban supply and opium-smuggling center, months ago, apparently in hopes the insurgents would flee and allow the U.S.-led force to take over quickly and restore an Afghan government presence.
Instead, the insurgents rigged Marjah with bombs and booby traps to slow the allied attack, which began Feb. 13. Teams of Taliban gunmen stayed in the town, delivering sometimes intense volleys of gunfire on Marine and Afghan units slogging through the rutted streets and poppy fields.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the U.S. and its allies had expected the Taliban to leave behind thousands of hidden explosives, which they did. But they were surprised to find that so many militants stayed to fight.
"We predicted it would take many days. But our prediction was that the insurgency would not resist that way," Azimi told The Associated Press in Kabul.

In a statement Sunday, NATO acknowledged that insurgents were putting up a "determined resistance" in various parts of Marjah, although the overall offensive is "on track."
Marine spokesman Lt. Josh Diddams said Sunday that Marines and Afghan troops were continuing to run into "pockets of stiff resistance" though they were making progress. Diddams said no area is completely calm yet although three markets in town -- which covers about 80 square miles -- are at least partially open.
"Everywhere we've got Marines, we're running into insurgents," Diddams said. In many cases, the militants are fighting out of bunkers fortified with sandbags and other materials.
Before the assault, U.S. officers said they believed 400 to 1,000 insurgents were in Marjah, 360 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul. About 7,500 U.S. and Afghan troops attacked the town, while thousands more NATO soldiers moved into other Taliban strongholds in surrounding Helmand province.
It was the largest joint NATO-Afghan operation since the Taliban regime was ousted from power in 2001.
NATO's civilian chief in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said the military operation was moving slowly "because of essentially the ruthlessness of the opponent we face and the rules that we've set for ourselves" to protect civilians.
"We could have swept through this place in a couple of days but there would have been a lot of casualties." he said.
NATO said one service member died in a roadside bombing Sunday, bringing the number of international troops killed in the operation to 13. At least one Afghan soldier has been confirmed dead. Senior Marine officers say intelligence reports suggest more than 120 insurgents have died.
Two more service members were killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, though they were not related to the continuing offensive, NATO said.
The Marjah operation is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over routing insurgents quickly. It's also the first major ground operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan.
Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that Marjah was the opening salvo in a campaign to turn back the Taliban that could last 12 to 18 months.
In a setback to that strategy, the Dutch prime minister said Sunday that his country's 1,600 troops would probably leave Afghanistan this year. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende spoke a day after his government collapsed when a coalition partner insisted the Dutch troops leave in August as planned.
Most Dutch troops are stationed in Uruzgan province, which borders Helmand to the north. Afghan officials expressed concern that Taliban fighters driven out of Helmand could regroup in Uruzgan without a robust NATO presence.
During Sunday's fighting, Marines found several abandoned Kalashnikov rifles along with ammunition hidden in homes, suggesting that insurgents intended to blend into the local population and fight back later.
Sporadic volleys of insurgent machine-gun fire rang out through the day.
"They shoot from right here in front of a house, they don't care that there are children around," said Abdel Rahim.
Abdul Rahman Saber, chief of the local council for Marjah, said the situation in much of the town was improving -- that some residents had been able to return to their homes.
Anxious to begin the task of restoring government authority, Zahir, the new district leader, said he plans to meet Monday with community leaders and townspeople about security, health care and reconstruction.
"The Marines have told us that the situation is better. It's OK. It's good," said Zahir, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "I'm not scared because it is my home. I have come to serve the people."
Life in Marjah, however, remains far from normal. The price of food had soared, with the price of sugar and other staples doubling as the fighting continues.
"The Taliban are fleeing the area, but there is sporadic shooting," Saber said. "Two or three days ago, 12 civilians were wounded by bullets when they were escaping."