EU budget freeze....{ 1927 ]

France, Germany, UK, others urge EU budget freeze

European Union flags are seen outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels ahead of an EU heads of state summit, October 27, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

PARIS | Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:25am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands called on Saturday for the EU budget to be frozen until at least 2020, in a joint letter to the European Commission.

The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint budget should not grow faster than the rate of inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget.

"European public spending cannot be exempted from member states' considerable efforts to get their public spending under control," the letter, which was released by the French presidency, said.

The EU's 27 countries will start talks in mid-2011 on the long-term budget, which runs from 2014 until 2020 or longer.

Next year's budget is worth 126.5 billion euros ($166.8 billion), with more than 40 percent of it going on agriculture and a third on aid to poor regions.

The joint letter was signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi.

Cameron used an EU summit in Brussels on Friday to drum up support for a leaner budget, telling reporters that the bloc "needed real budgetary restraint."

However, efforts to agree a tighter budget are likely to run up against stiff opposition from poorer eastern European countries that currently benefit most from EU largesse and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would resist cuts.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by John Stonestreet)

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 15th..[ 1926 ]

   The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.  

Soyuz Heads for the Space Station
The Soyuz TMA-20 rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 (Dec. 16 in Kazakhstan), carrying Expedition 26 Soyuz Commander Dmitry Kondratyev of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman of the U.S. and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli to the International Space Station. They're set to dock at the orbital outpost on Friday, Dec. 17.

 

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Τετάρτη, 15 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 13th..[ 1925 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Rollout

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, in Kazakhstan. .

The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft with Expedition 26 Soyuz Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA Flight Engineer Catherine Coleman and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 16. 

Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Δευτέρα, 13 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Israeli wildfire..[ 1924 ]

3,700 acres consumed by Israeli wildfire

From Kevin Flower, CNN

December 3, 2010 4:29 a.m. EST

Strong winds have bolstered a fire in Israel's Carmel forest region.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• New: At least 41 killed in the fire, police say
• New: More than 3,700 acres are burned
• Netanyahu calls it one of the worst fires in Israel's history
• Countries are sending aircraft to help fight the fire

Jerusalem (CNN) -- A wildfire raging across northern Israel has killed at least 41 people and injured 17 more, Israel Police said Friday.

The Israeli Cabinet was meeting Friday in Tel Aviv to formulate a response.

Shifting winds have made the inferno harder to control as flames neared a neighborhood in Haifa and the Hai Bar nature reserve, according to police.

Smoke blanketed Haifa, Israeli's second-largest city, Friday. It was not clear how the 3,700-acre fire started, but police were investigating if the blaze started in an illegal dumping ground.

More than 15,000 people have been evacuated from villages and towns in the area as authorities scrambled firefighting equipment, emergency officials said.

Fire-fighting aircraft pledged by various countries began to arrive in Israel Friday morning as more offers of help from around the world came in.

Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense since last spring, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.

In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said. Jordanian firefighters and British helicopters were also assisting, police said.

Spain was sending four aircraft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The necessary means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, adding that he planned to request more planes from Russia.

The United States is sending a Boeing 747 filled with chemical retardants to help fight the flames.

The wildfire erupted Thursday near Haifa and has consumed thousands of acres in Carmel Forest.

Many of the deaths appear to be the result of a bus accident.

A bus carrying up to 50 people overturned "allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke" as it was traveling between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, the IDF website said.

It was not clear from the IDF website how many of the deaths attributed to fire occurred in the bus accident, but the newspaper Haaretz reported that all 40 of the dead were on the bus.

Inmates of the prison were evacuated to temporary jails nearby.

Netanyahu's office called it one of the worst fires in Israel's history and ordered the military to assist rescue and firefighting efforts.

He urged people, including the news media, to stay away from the blaze, which he called "a fire on an international scale."

He predicted that the fire would take time to douse and called for calm. "I think that together, we will surmount this."

"We must achieve two goals -- saving lives and putting out the fire, " Netanyahu said Thursday night at the forward command center, according to his media adviser.

NASA Image of the Day, Nov 24th..[ 1923 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Harrat Khaybar

 

Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia lies in the western half of the Arabian peninsula and contains not only large expanses of sand and gravel, but also extensive lava fields known as haraat (harrat for a named field). 

 

According to scientists, the volcanic field was formed by eruptions along a long north-south linear vent system over the past 5 million years; the most recent recorded eruption took place between 600-700 A.D. 

 

The presence of tuff cones -- formed by eruption of lava in the presence of water together with other volcanic features indicative of water -- in the Harrat Khaybar suggest that the local climate was much wetter during some periods of volcanic activity. 

 

Today, however, the regional climate is hyperarid -- little to no yearly precipitation -- leading to an almost total lack of vegetation. 

The image was taken by the Expedition 16 crew aboard the Inernational Space Station in March 2008. 

 

Image Credit: NASA

Τετάρτη, 24 Νοέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ