British storms cause travel chaos...[ 3619 ]

British storms claim lives, cause travel chaos

Yahoo News / Sat. 155/2/20144 / 37 minutes ago

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London (AFP) - Transport networks suffered major disruption and more than 140,000 homes were without power across storm-battered Britain on Saturday after the country's latest severe weather claimed two lives.

With southern England the worst affected by Britain's wettest start to a year in two and a half centuries, London's Heathrow airport said some plane services had been cancelled.
Train services were also stopped and roads gridlocked after the storms uprooted trees.
Work was being carried out to restore power to more than 140,000 properties, said the Energy Networks Association, which added that electricity had been re-connected to 310,000 properties.
Police said that a woman had died and a man was in hospital after part of a building collapsed onto their parked car close to London's West End theatre district late on Friday.
Out on the English Channel, high winds sent a "freak wave" smashing through a window of a cruise ship causing the death of an 85-year-old man, the ship's operator said.

 

An amphibious rescue vehicle drives through floodwaters in Gloucester, western England, on February  …

More than 30 people were rescued from a flooded seafront restaurant in Milford on Sea, southern England, after wind-blown shingle shattered windows.
And with parts of the swollen River Thames expected to reach its highest level in 60 years over the weekend, Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday reiterated his promise to do "whatever it takes" to help stricken communities following criticism of the government's initial response to the flooding crisis.

More than 2,000 army, navy and air force personnel have now been deployed across Britain to help flood-hit communities, and 70 percent of England's fire and rescue services are working on the flood and storm effort.

Elsewhere, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that Britain's fragile recovery from recession would be affected as the bad weather hits farming and transport.

On the other side of the channel, some 70,000 French homes were without power as meteorologists registered winds of up to 150 kilometres per hour (90 miles per hour).

An 80-year-old woman died on board a cruise ship after falling, as the vessel rolled in rough seas.

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Related Stories

• Two killed as more storms batter Britain Reuters
• Homes without power as storm sweeps in AFP
• One dead as storms batter flooded Britain Reuters
• Severe weather cuts off rail links to southwest England Reuters
• Britain faces 'town or country' flood choice AFP

Deer rescued via hovercraft...[ 3618 ]

See stranded deer rescued via hovercraft

GoPro|Added on February 13, 2014

A father and son in a hovercraft use a GoPro to record the rescue of two deer stranded on a frozen lake.
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Venezuela dozens jailed..[ 3617 ]

Venezuela protests persist, dozens jailed

 By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore

REUTERS // CARACAS Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:50am EST

1 of 3. A demonstrator stands with a flag on his back as demonstrators block the city's main highway during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas February 13, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Christian Veron

(Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro's government kept dozens of student protesters behind bars on Friday as unrest still rumbled across Venezuela following this week's violence at political rallies that killed three.
Student demonstrators began gathering again in various cities after blocking roads and burning tires into the night to denounce repression of protests as well as a litany of complaints against Maduro from crime to shortages.
Despite a presidential ban on protests, about 200 people converged on Friday morning in Caracas' Plaza Altamira, a heartland of opposition protests in the past.
"We're going to stay out in the streets for the same reasons as yesterday and the day before: inflation, insecurity and a repressive state that refuses to release our colleagues," student Marcos Matta, 22, told Reuters.
Maduro, a 51-year-old former union activist and bus driver, accuses his foes of seeking a coup against him similar to one that briefly toppled his predecessor Hugo Chavez in 2002.
However, there is no sign the street demonstrations threaten to oust him, nor that the military, whose role was crucial to Chavez's 36-hour unseating, will turn against Maduro.
In a speech late on Thursday night, the president called supporters onto the streets for Saturday, but insisted no more protest rallies would be allowed.
"This is not Ukraine," Maduro said, in reference to months of anti-government protests there in which six people have died.
Opposition activists say 91 Venezuelan protesters remained in jail on Friday, awaiting trial on charges of violence. The government puts the figure at about 70.


Hardline opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, whom the government is calling the "face of fascism" and the intellectual author of the violence, remained in his Caracas home on Friday despite a judge's arrest warrant for him, party colleagues said.
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LOPEZ TAUNTS MADURO
He denies the accusations, saying peaceful protests have been infiltrated by provocateurs and attacked by militantly pro-government gangs known locally as "colectivos".
The 42-year-old U.S.-educated economist and leader of the Popular Will party taunted Maduro via Twitter: "@NicolasMaduro: don't you have the guts to arrest me? Or are you waiting for orders from Havana? I tell you, the truth is on our side."
Maduro's foes paint him as a stooge of Cuba's communist government who lacks Chavez's charisma and is leading the economy to ruin by sticking with failed socialist policies.
It was not immediately evident why police had not acted on the arrest warrant to visit Lopez's home, though such action could fuel further protests given the South American nation's current tense climate.
Congress head Diosdado Cabello Tweeted that the "fugitive" Lopez had tickets for a Saturday flight to Bogota, but gave no evidence of that. "You're not going to escape, coward," he said.
Lopez has for two weeks been urging Venezuelans onto the streets in a campaign dubbed "The Exit". He insists he only wants to promote legal change, such as Maduro's resignation or departure via a recall referendum, using peaceful protests.

But their tactics have split Venezuela's opposition coalition, and a radical rump of masked demonstrators have been starting fires, throwing stones and damaging buildings.
Armed, pro-government "colectivo" groups have also joined the fray, with groups on motorbikes buzzing round Caracas and one of their leaders shot dead on Wednesday.
Sixty-six people have been injured in violence around the nation this week, authorities say.
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FOREIGN CONCERN
Venezuela's leftist allies around Latin America sent messages of solidarity to Maduro over what they termed "coup" intentions. The European Union called for calm and dialogue.
David Smilde, a sociology professor at the University of Georgia who has studied Venezuela for 20 years, said both sides deserved censure for their handling of this week's events.
"Leopoldo Lopez's calls for peaceful mobilization are disingenuous when his acts seem to be intentionally creating the conditions for unintended violence. He is effectively putting student protestors in the line of fire to further what he sees as the interests of the country," Smilde blogged.
On the other side, the government should be reining in violent groups, he added. "Public security is the government's responsibility and they are coming up tragically short."
Despite stable oil prices that keep dollars pouring into the OPEC member's economy, Venezuela's heavily traded debt has fallen steadily since mid-December on political tension and investor concern over lack of economic reforms.
Venezuelan bond prices have dropped 1.5 percent since Wednesday, when the violence flared up, and are near their lowest level since mid-2012, according to JPMorgan data.
The country's bond yields, which signal investor perception of default risk, are well above 15 percent. That is by far the highest of any major emerging market nation, above Ukraine and Argentina.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Bases in New York; Girish Gupta and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas; Editing by Brian Ellsworth and W Simon)

Δημοσκόπηση για το Δήμο της Αθήνας...[ 3616 ]

Προβάδισμα Καμίνη και γαλάζιο μπρα ντε φερ στη μάχη της Αθήνας

ΕΘΝΟΣ On Line
18:36 14/2

Προβάδισμα του Γιώργου Καμίνη και σκληρό, «γαλάζιο» μπρα - ντε - φερ μεταξύ Ν. Κακλαμάνη και Α. Σπηλιωτόπουλου στην δεύτερη και τρίτη θέση αναδεικνύει το πρώτο γκάλοπ για τη «μάχη των Αθηνών» το οποίο διενήργησε η Metron Analysis για λογαριασμό του theToc.gr

Ακολουθούν στην τέταρτη θέση ο Ηλίας Κασιδιάρης της Χρυσής Αυγής (11%) και ο υποψήφιος του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδης με 10% 
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Αναλυτικά, τα ποσοστά στην πρόθεση ψήφου είναι τα εξής:

• *Γιώργος Καμίνης 20%
• *Νικήτας Κακλαμάνης: 14%
• *Αρης Σπηλιωτόπουλος: 13%
• *Ηλίας Κασιδιάρης: 11%
• *Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδης: 10%
• *Νίκος Σοφιανός: 6%
• *Βασίλης Καπερνάρος: 5%
• *Γιώργος Αμυράς: 5%
• *Αλλος: 1%
• *Ακυρο-Λευκό: 3%
• *Αποχή: 3%
• *Αναποφάσιστοι: 7%
• *Δεν γνωρίζω/Δεν απαντώ

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Παρά το προβάδισμα Καμίνη, η παράσταση νίκης δίδει «ισοπαλία» ανάμεσα στο νυν δήμαρχο και τον Άρη Σπηλιωτόπουλο. Τα ποσοστά και για τους δύο είναι 17%, και ακολουθούν: Ηλίας Κασιδιάρης με 13%, Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδης με 10%, Νικήτας Κακλαμάνης με 10%...
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H γαλάζια μάχη
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Στη «γαλάζια μάχη» ανάμεσα σε εκείνους που δήλωσαν ότι ψήφισαν Νέα Δημοκρατία στις τελευταίες βουλευτικές εκλογές, το 32% επιλέγει Άρη Σπηλιωτόπουλο και το 23% Νικήτα Κακλαμάνη, ενώ ένα ποσοστό 16% προτιμά τον Γιώργο Καμίνη.
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Από τους ψηφοφόρους του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ το 42% επιλέγει τον Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδη, ένα ποσοστό 12% δηλώνει ότι θα ψηφίσει Γιώργο Καμίνη, ενώ το 9% προτιμά Νικήτα Κακλαμάνη.
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Ο Γιώργος Καμίνης συγκεντρώνει τις προτιμήσεις του 70% των ψηφοφόρων του ΠΑΣΟΚ, ενώ υψηλότατη είναι η συσπείρωση των ψηφοφόρων της Χρυσής Αυγής που σε ποσοστό 83% δηλώνουν ότι θα ψηφίσουν για δήμαρχο τον Ηλία Κασιδιάρη.

• Η έρευνα της Metron Analysis διεξήχθη από 12-13/02/2014 σε δείγμα 801 ατόμων ηλικίας 18 ετών και άνω, κατοίκους και ψηφοφόρους του Δήμου Αθηναίων, για λογαριασμό του theToc.gr

Γέφυρες για ζώα...[ 3615 ]

Γέφυρες για ζώα

  grizos gatos   0

Οι «διασταυρώσεις άγριας φύσης» ή «γέφυρες ζώων» κτίζονται σε διάφορους μεγάλους αυτοκινητόδρομους προκειμένου να αποφεύγονται οι θάνατοι ζώων από αυτοκίνητα σε σημεία που ο δρόμος χωρίζει μια περιοχή όπου ζουν ή περνούν από αυτήν άγρια ζώα.

otherside.gr