Spain, popular' mosque cloded..[ 1527 ]

Spanish mayor closes 'too popular' mosque

A Spanish mayor has told Muslim worshippers to "pray at home" and closed the town's mosque because it was too popular.

 

Photo: Heathcliff O'malley

Telegraph co.uk.,Fiona Govan in Madrid
Published: 5:35PM BST 23 Jul 2010

( Madrid )Angel Ros, the socialist mayor of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, complained that the mosque was too full and closed it on Wednesday until further notice.

The building, a former garage used to service trucks, was often filled with crowds exceeding a thousand people, the council said, when the authorised limit for the venue is 240.

A new mosque is under construction on the outskirts of the town but work had been stalled because of a lack of financing during the economic crisis.

"The municipality has no obligation to provide places of worship," Mr Ros said in response to complaints from the town's Muslim population over the closure. "Those that wish can pray at home, as I do," he added.

The move follows a recent ban on women wearing the burka or niqab in municipal building in the Catalan town. In June Lleida was the first town council in Spain to introduce a ban, which has since been adopted by half a dozen other councils, including Barcelona, the capital of the region.
Abdelwahab Houzi, the local imam, said the mosque closure had added to the Muslim community's sense of "persecution" by authorities.

S Korea-US military exercise ..[ 1526 ]

S Korea-US military exercise begins in the Sea of Japan

 

The US-South Korean military exercise, code-named Invincible Spirit, will last four days

BBC.,July 25,3010
The US and South Korea have begun a major military exercise in the Sea of Japan, despite threats of retaliation from North Korea.

The navy and air force manoeuvres involve 20 ships, 200 planes and 8,000 US and South Korean personnel.

Washington and Seoul say they want to send a clear signal to the North following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
An international investigation said a North Korean torpedo sank the ship.

However, the claim has been angrily denied by Pyongyang.

On Saturday, North Korea threatened to use its nuclear deterrent in a retaliatory, "sacred war" in response to the exercise.

The BBC's John Sudworth, who is aboard one of the warships, says the show of strength is intended to rattle Pyongyang's military and political elite.
But some observers are questioning whether the display of military power will simply galvanise the hardliners inside the isolated country, he says.
North Korea's inflammatory rhetoric is nothing new, he adds, but the rising tension is causing concern, with China urging all parties to show restraint.

The South Korean defence ministry said the manoeuvres had been relocated from the sensitive Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan following protests from China, North Korea's ally.
Border monitored Amid the rising tension, military officials in Seoul said they were closely monitoring the North's military in border areas but had not detected any unusual activity in the run-up to the exercises, code-named Invincible Spirit.

The North's National Defence Commission denounced the war games as "nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] by force of arms," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
"The army and people of the DPRK will start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," it added.

The US responded by saying it was "not interested in a war of words with North Korea".
The four-day drill includes the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and some 200 fixed-wing aircraft, officials said.

The sinking of the Cheonan warship claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors.

Map

Silly asses!...] 1525 ]

Silly asses! Britain loves the donkey

The donkeys are flying in Russia !!

Clik for Full story: The Independent

Here's a quiz question to start off the silly season: what do Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Karl Marx and Rupert Murdoch have in common? Apart, of course, from the wacky lifestyle and their influence on generations of literature lovers.



1 hour ego posted by  Robobloger

Wild caviar exports..[ 1524 ]

Caviar producers to restart wild caviar exports

Caviar producers have been granted permission to export 81 tonnes of wild caviar from the Caspian Sea.

Caviar producers have been granted permission to export wild caviarPhoto: AFP

 

Telegraph co.uk., By Richard Orange in Almaty
Published: 7:52PM BST 24 Jul 2010 

Russia and three former Soviet republics have agreed tight export quotas for the caviar for 2010, including three tonnes of prized beluga.

The accord, agreed at a meeting in Tehran, ends a de facto international trade ban on wild caviar and other sturgeon products from the five countries after their failure to reach agreement last year.

Under the new quotas, nearly 81 tonnes of the delicacy can be exported, including three tonnes of beluga, 17 tonnes of sevruga and 27 tonnes of osetra.

The sum is five tonnes less than in 2008, according to Juan-Carlos Vasquez, spokesman for CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

"They are not huge differences but the trend is going down," he said.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are the three other Caspian Sea countries, although Turkmenistan normally exports through Kazakhstan as it is not party to the CITES treaty.

The Caspian Sea, the source of four-fifths of the world's black caviar, has been hit by a vast decline in sturgeon stocks due to poaching and illegal trade.

The agreement covers six wild sturgeon species, including huso huso which produces beluga caviar, the most expensive. 

All six are listed on CITES' Appendix II which means they are not considered endangered species but international trade in them must be regulated on a scientific basis.

Iran's quota for beluga is to fall to 800 kilos from 1,000 in 2008, while Kazakhstan's quota falls to 1,500 kilos from 1,700 and Azerbaijan's drops to zero from 300 kilos previously. 

.

High levels of poaching and illegal trade in the Caspian led to a temporary ban on international trade in wild caviar and other sturgeon products in 2001. At the time CITES estimated that illegal trade was ten times greater than legal trade. 

This forced Caspian Sea countries to agree export quotas the following year, which they have done annually except for 2006 and 2009, Mr Vasquez said.

To have their proposed quotas published, countries with shared sturgeon stocks must agree among themselves on catch and export quotas based on scientific surveys of the stocks, according to CITES, a Swiss-based treaty body which regulates international trade in wildlife. 

"They must also adopt a regional conservation strategy, combat illegal fishing and provide details of the scientific data used to establish the catch and export quotas," it said.

Countries sharing the Black Sea and Lower Danube sturgeon stocks – Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia – and the Heilongjiang Amur River population (China and the Russian Federation) have yet to inform CITES about their quotas for this year, it said.

The new quotas run from March 1, 2010 to Feb. 28, 2011, reflecting the fishing season.

James Cracknell's life was saved by his crash helmet..[ 1523 ]

James Cracknell 'stable' after fracturing skull in road crash

James Cracknell, the adventurer and Olympic rowing champion, is in a “stable” condition in hospital following treatment for head injuries after a road crash in the United States.

 

Cracknell, 38, an Olympic rowing champion, was “sitting up in bed and talking” to his wife Beverly, his parents and Ben Fogle, his fellow adventurer, his spokeswoman said.

He was knocked off his bicycle by a truck while on an attempt to cross the United States.

Telegraph co.uk., By David Harrison
Published: 6:30PM BST 24 Jul 2010

Doctors and family were pleased with the progress James was making after suffering a fractured skull in the crash, she added.

“He continues to do very well but he has had head trauma and we are taking it step by step at the moment.

“It’s good that his family are with him, and Mum and Dad beeing there is always reassuring,” she added.

Cracknell’s life was saved by his crash helmet, which took the full force of the impact.

The accident happened just after sunrise at 5.30am on Tuesday near the city of Winslow, Arizona.

The Olympic gold medallist was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Phoenix.

Cracknell was attempting to break an endurance record by crossing the United States from Los Angeles to New York - running, cycling, rowing and swimming - in 16 days.

Doctors described his head injuries as “moderate to severe” but said Cracknell did not lose consciousness and was able to talk to paramedics.

They expect him to make a full recovery although it is not known when he will be released from hospital.

A 2,745-mile bike race he had planned to undertake from Canada to Mexico with Fogle next month, has been postponed because of the accident.

The pair have collaborated on a number of adventures, including as racing to the South Pole and rowing the Atlantic.