The US Atlantic coast from the Space...[ 2749 ]

Image of the Eastern Seaboard at Night

Eastern Seaboard at Night

An Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the Atlantic coast of the United States. 

Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area are visible in the image that spans almost to Rhode Island. 

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Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the New York City area are visible in the lower right quadrant. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are near the center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground.

This image was taken on Feb. 6, 2012.
Image Credit: NASA

* German parliament endorses Greek bailout...[ 2748 ]

Merkel scrapes win on Greek bailout, rebels grow

Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:30pm EST

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By Stephen Brown and Hans-Edzard Busemann
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BERLIN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel scraped through a parliamentary vote endorsing a second bailout for Greece on Monday but faced a growing backbench revolt against pouring in more money in support of the euro zone.

The comfortable 496-90 victory, with five abstentions, was inflated by centre-left opposition support, but only 304 of Merkel's 330 centre-right coalition lawmakers backed the motion.

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Seventeen coalition rebels voted "No" this time, compared to 13 who defied her last September in a vote to boost the euro zone rescue fund.

Analysts said the outcome could weaken her politically and make it harder for her to agree to strengthen Europe's financial defences just when international pressure on Germany is rising.

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"Merkel is losing her powers to convince, and the members of the Bundestag are losing their belief that everything will go according to plan," said Gero Neugebauer, a politics professor at Berlin's Free University.

The world's leading economies in the G20 piled pressure on Berlin at the weekend to drop its opposition to a bigger European bailout fund, telling Europe it must put up extra money if it wanted more help from other countries.

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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso added his voice on Monday, saying he expected a decision on strengthening the euro zone's financial firewall during March, although not at an EU summit on Thursday and Friday.

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The chancellor, whose country provides the lion's share of the emergency funds, stood firm on the issue in an effort to ensure a convincing vote in favour of the 130-billion-euro ($175 billion) rescue programme for Greece, its second since 2010.

Opening the debate, she acknowledged there was no 100 percent guarantee that the bailout would work, but rebuffed calls from rebels to let Greece default and leave the euro.

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"Nobody knows what would be the impact of rejecting the second Greek aid package on the other bailout countries, Portugal and Ireland, or on Spain and Italy, or the entire euro zone and the world," Merkel said.

"As chancellor I have to take certain risks, but I cannot be reckless - my oath of office forbids that."

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She called for speeding up payments into a 500-billion-euro permanent euro zone rescue fund so that it is fully capitalised within two years instead of five, and said her government saw no need to debate a bigger overall safety cushion now.

"With the voluntary debt restructuring for Greece we are entering new territory. If it is a success, then the contagion risk for other countries will be further reduced. Now we need to wait and see what happens," she said.

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Merkel faces growing resistance to further bailout spending from public opinion and influential media.

"Billions for Greece -- Stop!" Germany's best-selling newspaper Bild screamed across its front page.

"Don't go any further along this crazy path," it said, quoting leading economists who argue Greece would do better to default on its huge pile of sovereign debt and temporarily leaving the single currency.

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HUMILIATION?

For the opposition, Social Democratic (SPD) former finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said Merkel's "strategy of buying time has failed, because things have got worse and worse.

"Nearly two years after the first Greek aid package in May 2010, we are back to square one regarding Greece, regarding the risk of contagion to the euro zone, and regarding Germany," Steinbrueck said.

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"Not only has the bill become more expensive but resentment and prejudice have grown considerably as well, with clichés about lazy Greeks running alongside images of ugly Germans."

Merkel has faced frequent sniping from critics of euro zone bailouts among her conservative Christian Democrats, the Bavarian Christian Social Union and the liberal Free Democrats.

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The backbench revolt, coming on top of a humiliating setback over the nomination of a new federal president, may raise questions about her coalition's survival until elections due in 2013, when she is expected to seek a third term.

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Facing huge domestic pressure to make sure Germany's euro zone partners get aid only in return for tough fiscal reforms - which Greece has failed to deliver - Berlin has sent conflicting signals on whether it will soften its stance.

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Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, meeting G20 colleagues in Mexico this weekend, appeared open to merging the euro zone's temporary and permanent bailout funds to create a 750 billion euro ($1 trillion) war chest. This would open the door to extra International International Monetary Fund (IMF) support as well.

Merkel's "wait and see" line did not rule out a change of course next month, but the vote makes that more difficult.

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GERMANS LOSING PATIENCE

Merkel's caution is driven partly by voter concerns and unease within her coalition, but also by a feeling in Berlin that market pressures are easing and there is no longer an urgent need to put up more money.

In fresh signs that the European Central Bank's move to flood banks with cheap three-year liquidity has helped stabilise bond markets, Italy and Belgium saw their borrowing costs sharply reduced at debt auctions on Monday.

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But safe-haven German Bund futures hit a five-week high with traders citing Merkel's doubts about the success of the Greek rescue and her forecast of years of toil for the euro zone.

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Ahead of a second injection of long-term cheap ECB money expected to total 500 billion euros on Wednesday, the central bank said it had kept its emergency government bond-buying programme dormant for a second straight week.

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An opinion poll published in a Sunday newspaper found 62 percent of Germans were against the second Greek rescue package while 33 percent were in favour. In a similar poll in September, 53 percent had been opposed and 43 percent in favour.

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich called on Greece to leave the euro zone, saying in a magazine interview its chances of recovery would be greater outside. It was the first time a cabinet member had publicly broken ranks.

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But Friedrich reverted to the official government line on Monday and voted for the bailout. "I have no doubts about the chancellor's rescue course," he said.

Merkel needs 311 votes to reach a so-called Kanzlermehrheit (chancellor majority), an absolute majority in the 620-member house. Her conservative parliamentary group said in a statement that Monday's smaller vote was due to the absence of several pro-government lawmakers.

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"This has never been about the Kanzlermehrheit," the statement said.

Germans are growing impatient with what Schaeuble has described as a "bottomless pit" in Greece.

Frank Schaeffler, the loudest eurosceptic among the Free Democrats, the struggling junior partners in Merkel's coalition, told parliament: "Greece has no chance of becoming competitive in the euro zone and it must therefore leave, and this must be accompanied by a real debt haircut worth of the name."

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At the same time, there is a growing awareness in Germany, Europe's leading economy, that its own prosperity is at risk as the debt crisis sucks in more countries and stifles demand within the currency bloc for German exports.

German criticism of Greece has reopened wounds dating from World War Two. Protesters in Athens burned a German flag earlier this month while Greek newspapers have portrayed Merkel and Schaeuble in Nazi uniform.

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Despite riding high in polls, Merkel has hit a rough patch - about 18 months before the next election - that has raised doubts about her grip on power.

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Related News

• G20 to Europe: Show us the money
  1:28pm EST
• Merkel torn by conflicting pressures in Greek vote
  9:51am EST
• CORRECTED-WRAPUP 3-G20 moves to line up huge rescue deal for April
  Sun, Feb 26 2012
• CORRECTED-WRAPUP 3-G20 inches toward $2 trillion in rescue funds
  Sun, Feb 26 2012
• Euro-zone deal on firewall awaits Germany
  Sat, Feb 25 2012

 

Canada, passenger train derailment ...[ 2747 ]

Burlington Via Rail train derailment kills three, injures dozens

Two locomotive engineers and a trainee are dead, and three passengers seriously injured, after a six-car Via Rail passenger train came off the rails on a straight track in good weather Sunday afternoon near Burlington, Ont.

Police shut down a major highway that passes over the tracks near the crash site to allow air ambulances to land and take off, ferrying two people to Hamilton General Hospital, which declared a code orange for an "external disaster."

The bodies of the three engineers were removed from the locomotive at 8 p.m.

As of 9 p.m., only 50 of the train's 75 passengers had been located. It appeared numerous passengers had "self evacuated," said Halton Regional Police Chief Gary Crowell, speaking at a press conference.

Of 75 passengers, 42 were injured, including a child; they were taken to four hospitals in Hamilton and Mississauga

The three most seriously injured suffered a broken leg, a back injury and a heart attack. A crew member in the body of the train was also among the injured.

One passenger was reportedly ejected from the train through a broken window.

"It's very tragic for us," said Via spokeswoman Michelle Lamarche. "Of course Via is co-operating [with a Transportation Safety Board investigation]."

Passenger Deanna Villella, 40, of Welland, Ont., told the Canadian Press she felt a slight bump before luggage started flying and her car started to roll over.

"It was like a plane crash," she said. "The cars were completely twisted and on their sides. It was awful."

The rescue was complicated by some passengers who escaped the wreckage on their own and walked away, but a Via official said everyone had been accounted for. Uninjured passengers were taken by bus to Toronto's Union Station, their original destination.

"We are a small company. We are very close, and so we know everyone by name," said John Marginson, chief operating officer of Via Rail. The names of the dead have not yet been released.

Mr. Marginson could offer no explanation for the crash, but he ruled out the effect of weather, and said an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board would likely focus on the train's black box, which records speed and mechanical data.

In aerial views of the scene, the six rail cars can be seen still attached, to each other, but the second and third are jackknifed across the tracks at a right-angle to each other, and the first came to rest against a trackside building, lying on its right side.

It was in this car that the three deaths occurred.

Assassination Plots Against V. Putin...[ 2746 ]

FACTBOX: Assassination Plots Against Vladimir Putin

Putin has previously been targeted by assassins.//© RIA Novosti. Alexei Druzhinin/12:57 27/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti)

Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested a group of suspects over a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia's state television said Monday.
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The suspects were acting on the orders of Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, Channel One said. They were allegedly plotting to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after presidential polls on March 4, which the 59-year-old is widely expected to win. The group, the subject of an international arrest warrant, was arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa.

Putin has previously been targeted by assassins.

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In February 2000, Russian media quoted security sources as saying Chechen militants were plotting to kill Putin, then acting president, during his upcoming trip to St. Petersburg for the funeral of his mentor Anatoly Sobchak . The Federal Security Service (FSB) neither confirmed nor denied the information.

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In September 2000, the head of Ukraine's secret service SBU said it arrested four Chechens and several Middle Eastern citizens plotting to kill the Russian leader during a summit of the former Soviet states held in the Black Sea resort town of Yalta in August that year. SBU head Leonid Derkach said Ukraine had been tipped off by Russian intelligence.

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In October 2001, Azerbaijan's special services said they had foiled a plot to kill Putin during a planned visit to the capital Baku in January of the following year. 

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The suspect, Iraqi citizen Kianan Rostam, underwent training in Afghanistan and was linked "with people who were at Osama bin Laden's training camps," a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry said. Rostam was tried on terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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On October 19, 2003, British newpsaper The Sunday Times said two Russian nationals had been arrested in London over a suspected plot to assassinate Putin. 

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The unnamed men, said to be renegade KGB officers, were planning to have him assassinated while on a foreign trip. They were later released without charge. Police officers from SO13, the anti-terrorist branch, acted on a tip-off from Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer in the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Litvinenko, an outspoken Kremlin critic, was murdered by radioactive poisoning in London in 2006.

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On June 25, 2007, Turkish security services said they had held five men suspected of attempting to kill Putin during a summit of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Instanbul. The men were reportedly linked with al Qaeda.

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In October 2007, Russian media cited unnamed security sources as saying suicide bombers were plotting to kill Putin during a visit to Tehran later that month. In January 2008, Iran said it had detained a man accused of spreading rumors of a possible assassination attempt against Putin during the Tehran

Carnival Celebrations Across Greece...[ 2745 ]

Greek Carnival Celebrations Across Greece

 
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The Triodion is open… as they say in Greece, and along with it comes joy, fun and lots of kefi in each town of Greece. The Carnival is considered to be a hyper national celebration, since it has become an attraction for more and more people despite their financial status or age over the years.

The celebrations of music, masquerade, dance and colors mark a unique three-week-long period in Greece that dates back to antiquity and the worship of the god Bacchus, or Dionysus, god of wine and celebration in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Today, there are many different carnival parades going on all over Greece. Hundreds of groups take part in those parades, and anyone who wishes to participate can just join a group.

 

Patras Carnival

The biggest festival has taken place in the city of Patras for the past 180 years, and the regular attendance of young people in the great parade is approximately 40,000. That’s why this festival is considered to be one of the greatest in Europe and is a meeting point for all carnival enthusiasts around Greece.

Just like in Rio de Janeiro, people in Patras spend the whole year preparing for the coming Carnival celebrations.

Bearing the strong influences of the Italian traditions, the carnival of Patras has already begun. With the “Treasure Hunt”, the restless dancing, the music bands strolling the city, the famous chocolate war in the city centre and the night parades, the Carnival will reach its peak on February 26 at 3pm, with the biggest chariots parade and the burning of King Carnival at night.

Xanthi Carnival

Xanthi’s Carnival is the biggest festival of Northern Greece, and has been taking place yearly since 1926. Approximately 20,000 visitors go there every year to get a taste of fun, imagination, creativity and music.

Among other common Carnival celebrations and games, Xanthi’s carnival participants burn the King of the Carnival on the Kosinthos river waters, while children have to grab a piece of the kris pudding pie with their mouths (their hands are tied behind their backs) before joining the celebrations.

Moreover, there is the famous Baldafun, which is actually a disco club just for kids, who eagerly wait for it all year.

Naousa Carnival

In Naousa, Northern Greece, Apokries are a time of enthusiasm, spontaneity and warm welcomes to all visitors with unorganized satiric carnival celebrations.

The custom of Giannitsaros and Boula is the most renowned happening in Naousa, which is only performed by young men. One of them plays the part of Giannitsaros and another man the female part of Boula, while the parade is accompanied by the music of traditional instruments.

During the custom a lot of famous Naousa wine flows in the cups of the participants and on the last Sunday a big feast is held at the Alonia Square.

 

Corfu Carnival

The famous Carnival of Corfu is 450 years old and has its roots in the Middle Ages, when the Venetian conquerors of the island brought this custom back from their homeland. Today, the Carnival of Corfu closely resembles the Carnival of Venice and includes many fun happenings.

The most famous happening of the Carnival is the Great Parade that takes place in Liston and Spianada square. People dressed in strange customs join groups and spread to the entire island a spirit of festivity. The parade is accompanied by local music and dancing.

At the end of the parade, there follows the burning of King Carnival, which is said to carry the sins of the locals. The King Carnival is burnt in a bonfire among great partying and dancing. An interesting custom associated with the Carnival is the enactment of the Corfu Petegoletsia, which means “the Gossip”. This is a form of a street theater, where actors sit in windows overlooking the alley of the Old Town and exchange gossip, in local dialect. This gossip might refer to political authorities or local scandals.

Rethymno Carnival

During the Carnival of Rethymno, Crete, the city gets in a festive mood with its young people dancing in the streets from dusk to dawn. The Carnival dates back to 1914 and reminds the residents of a former era, when the island used to welcome “the King”.

The King Carnival, however, is also surrendered to the flames on the last Sunday of the Apokries.

The Carnival of Rethymno includes the Treasure Hunt, night parades, chariots and dance groups joining the big parade on February 26.

On the following morning of Kathara Deftera, Greeks tend to go fly their kites in hills and beaches across Greece, while they enjoy the delicacies of taramas, lagana and beans.

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By Stella Tsolakidou on February 16, 2012 in News