Tension remains high, with South and North Korea ..[ 1589 ]

North Korea 'detains fishing boat from South'

 

 Tension remains high, with South Korean exercises in the Yellow Sea

 

( BBC )8 August 2010 Last updated at 11:22 GMT 

A South Korean fishing boat missing in the Sea of Japan has been detained by the North, coastguard officials say.

The officials said the crew of the Daeseung was being investigated by North Korean authorities.

Tension remains high between the Koreas amid a naval exercise carried out by the South in the Yellow Sea.

The exercises were a show of force after the North was blamed for sinking a Southern warship in March.

'Physical retaliation'

Authorities in the boat's home South Korean port of Pohang said the Daeseung had stopped sending signals after a fishing trip in the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea, on Saturday.

The South Korean coastguard said in a statement: "We have found out that our fishing vessel is being investigated by North Korean officials in the presumed North Korea exclusive economic waters in the northern East Sea.

"The South Korean government, according to international law, wants the swift resolution to the matter and the safe return of its vessel and its fisherman."

The vessel has four South Koreans and three Chinese on board.

Media reports in the South say the Daeseung is being towed to the Northern port of Songjin.

North Korean media has so far made no comment on the latest reports.

There have been frequent incidents in recent years involving fishing boats of both sides in the disputed waters.

 

Wreckage of the Cheonan. Its sinking has caused huge tension

The North, which denied any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan warship in March with the loss of 46 sailors, had pledged "strong physical retaliation" for the five-day naval exercises.

The South also recently carried out massive naval exercises with US forces in the Sea of Japan.

The latest exercises, in the Yellow Sea, are the South's biggest-ever anti-submarine drills, with some 4,500 personnel taking part near the disputed maritime border.

The South said that although its ships would stay clear of the disputed boundary, marines stationed on islands close to the border would conduct live-fire exercises.

In North Korea's official media, a statement attributed to military leaders called the exercises a "direct military invasion aimed at infringing upon the DPRK's [North Korea's] right to self-defence".

Russia, Wildfires still raging across the country..[ 1588 ]

Wildfires still raging across Russia

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Residents walk amid the debris of their burnt houses, as they search for their belongings and remove burnt items, with heavy smog shrouding the village of Laskovo, about 250km southeast of the capital in Ryazan region, August 8 2010. Forest and peat fires by the highest temperatures ever registered in Russia have killed at least 52 people, made more than 4000 homeless, diverted many flights and forced Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter out foul air.
Photo: Reuters

 

( VOA ), Sun, Aug 08 2010 12:35 CET  

byJessica Golloher 256 Views

 

Wildfires are raging across Russia as the country experiences the hottest temperatures on record. Russia's Emergency Ministry officials say 52 people are dead, thousands of homes have been destroyed and crops across the country have been devastated. The Russian government has admitted that it can't get some of the blazes under control, as ordinary citizens are trying to save their property and belongings. 

Her face covered in soot, her clothes filthy and her hair slicked back from sweat, Anya Kirilova appears sad and exhausted as she looks out across her family's property as fires blaze about 91 meters away.

The only thing that separates her family's summer home from the flames, is a less than one-meter wide trench she and her father dug themselves.

The young woman's eyes water from the smoke as she describes her family's ordeal to try and get the fire department to come and help save what she calls an eight-year labor of love.

"We couldn't even reach them by the phone. Not the forest government company, not the fire company. They just didn't answer the phone. We called them 10 times, every half an hour. Then they just said they couldn't do anything. We have only two cars, bla, bla, bla," she said.

The family's dacha is near Pavlovo Pasad, in the Moscow region, just 68 kilometers away from Russia's capital.

Valarey Gevardarsky is with the 110th fire brigade. He says he understands Kirilova's frustration, but he's in charge of seven other regions and he's got outdated equipment. He says he only has four trucks and only two hold water. Making matters even more difficult, he says the trucks must drive to a well in order to get water.

He says the well is more than three kilometers away, there is nothing closer. He says the trucks have to spit out the water, and then go back and refuel, making putting out the fires even more difficult.

Gevardarsky also says Russia doesn't have enough qualified firefighters to even begin to tackle some 300 fires that have been sprouting up daily across the country,  since the blazes began.

He says, if we had more people, we'd get better results. He says his department has been rounding up about 10 workers a day, and that's just not enough to help.

The latest government statistics show that Russia only has some 10,000 firefighters. As a result, the Kremlin has recruited hundreds of thousands of untrained volunteers to help battle the blazes.

Valery Tarasav is one of them. He's wearing shorts, no shirt and flip-flops. Smoking a cigarette, he throws a bucket of water on one of the fires that is quickly encroaching on a home in Kirilova's neighborhood.

"I'm not here to think. I'm just here to do," he said. "Our president has asked for our help in protecting what's ours and that's why he's here, to protect his family." 

Meanwhile, for the first time since the blazes began, Russian authorities are now admitting that they can't get the fires under control.

Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu stopped short of admitting that the country lacked the proper equipment, infrastructure and manpower to combat the blazes, saying only that Russia will buy more equipment for the future.

He says the Kremlin will buy eight planes over the next two years, in addition to helicopters. He says squadrons will also be created across the country, so that things like this don't happen in the future.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has also urged Shoigu to create a separate program to finance technical equipment for all firefighters, saying that because the climate is changing, Russia may need more technical assistance in the future.

Back in Pavlovo Pasad, Anya Kirilova says the promise of equipment to stop future forest fires does her no good, because right now, she needs a system that works.

"In the United States, when I was there, I lived in some dormitory.  Some guys tried to cook popcorn in microwave; smoke indicators reacted and fire machines came in five minutes. They told us to leave the building. They did everything, they checked everything. I felt safe even though it's not even my country. Our country's government, it's not their forest. They don't care," she said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently criticized authorities for not doing more to stop the damage and promised to fire anyone who didn't do their part to combat the blazes.

Forecasters say temperatures are expected to remain near 40 degrees Celsius for at least the next week, with no rain in sight.
Source: VOANews.com

Proposed Ground Zero Mosque.,"reactions".[ 1587 ]

Politics in Play at Proposed Ground Zero Mosque

Click and see also relative post : * Place a burga to the Status of Liberty ???..[ 1570 ]

Lauren Torlone | August 07, 2010

 
Just days after a New York City commission refused to grant landmark status for the building slated to house a proposed "mega mosque" near the site of the September 11th attacks, debate over the mosque's construction continues. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, tells Fox News the ACLJ has filed a lawsuit against the commission, on the grounds that their decision ignores the feelings of many New Yorkers and those who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks. Among the clients represented by Sekulow is firefighter Tim Brown, himself a responder to the World Trade Center on September 11th.

Sekulow says "politics is leading the charge," and allowing plans for the mosque to move forward. From the perspective of the ACLJ, the commission tasked with determining whether or not the site met criteria for historic qualification did not do its job.

Sekulow said the commission made a decision based on the fact that they "liked the idea that a mosque would go there." The ACLJ is quick to point out they aren't against the construction of new mosques in any city, including New York, and that many Muslim leaders are also against the idea of building a mosque so close to Ground Zero, where Muslim extremists killed thousands of Americans.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has publicly stated his support for the mosque proposal, a move that has led some to question whether following the letter of the law is more important to him than honoring the wishes of those who lost loved ones at Ground Zero.

Photo Credit: AP Photo

NORAD, Russia. in joint air defense drills. .[ 1586 ]

NORAD, Russia to conduct first-ever joint air defense drills

Russian Air Force

11:20 08/08/2010

© Russian Air Force

WASHINGTON, August 8 (RIA Novosti)

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Russian Air Force are beginning on Sunday their first-ever joint air defense exercise, NORAD said.

The exercise, which is dubbed Vigilant Eagle and will last through August 11, involves Russian, Canadian and U.S. Air Force personnel operating from command centers at the Elmendorf airbase in Alaska, and in Khabarovsk, Russia.

Airborne warning and control aircraft AWACS E-3B and A-50 from Russia and the United States will be involved along with fighter-interceptor aircraft and refueling aircraft from both countries," NORAD said in a statement on Tuesday.

The exercise scenario, put together by NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, will create a situation that requires both the Russian Air Force and NORAD to launch or divert fighter aircraft to investigate and follow a U.S. flagged commercial air carrier on an international flight that has been taken over by terrorists.

The exercise will be carried out under a cooperative military agreement between Russia and the United States, which tasks NORAD, the bi-national U.S. and Canadian command, and the Russian Air Force to conduct a live-fly exercise for up to five days.

USA, Tarpon Springs,Fla., the World's sponge capital...[ 1585 ]

Greek traditions live on in Tarpon Springs, Florida

(BBC),by  Andy Gallacher

Nearly two million Greek-Americans live in large cities like New York and Chicago. 

Tarpon Springs, on Florida's west coast, has the highest concentration of Greek-Americans in the US.

The first Greek immigrants arrived during the 1880s, when they were hired to work as divers in the growing sponge harvesting industry.

 Sponge Diver

The town of Tarpon Springs now calls itself the sponge capital of the world.

Andy Gallacher reports on how the Greek language, traditions, and faith are being preserved in Tarpon Springs.