Israel-Lebanon border deadly clashes ..[ 1569 ]

Israel-Lebanon border clash kills five people

 

Israel's army was working over a fence when the shooting started but say it was within Israeli territory

BBC., 3 August 2010 Last updated at 17:08 GMT 

Three Lebanese soldiers, a senior Israeli officer and a Lebanese journalist have been killed in an exchange of fire in the border area.

The Lebanese say they opened fire after Israeli troops entered Lebanon. The Israelis deny crossing the border.
It is the first serious clash there since the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
Lebanon's prime minister condemned the "aggression". But Israel warned of "consequences" if violence continued.
In a statement, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Lebanese sovereignty had been violated.

The Lebanese army says Israeli soldiers crossed the border to uproot a tree which was blocking their view near the Lebanese village of Adaysseh.

End Quote Maj-Gen Gadi Eisenkot Head of Israel's northern command

A Lebanese army spokesman said it had fired warning shots and Israel had responded with fire from artillery positions and helicopters.

The army confirmed to the BBC that three of its soldiers had been killed and four wounded. The al-Akhbar newspaper confirmed that one of its journalists, Assaf Abu Rahhal, had also been killed.
Restraint urged The Israel Defense Force (IDF) said its troops had been working on its side of the border near the town of Kiryat Shemona, when they received warnings to leave the area.

"The soldiers were on routine activity in Israeli territory, in an area that lies between the 'Blue Line' (the UN-drawn but commonly accepted border between Israel and Lebanon) and the security fence, thus within Israeli territory," the IDF said in a statement.

Israel-Lebanon border

People in Lebanese army uniform then opened fire on the troops. The Israelis first said two officers had been seriously wounded, but then later confirmed that a senior officer had died.
He was named as 45-year-old Lt-Col Dov Harari from Netanya, a reserve commander in the engineering corps.

The army said an Israeli captain had been "critically wounded". Israeli media reported that he was in a stable condition in a Haifa hospital.
Maj-Gen Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Israeli military's northern command, told reporters he believed the incident was "a one-time event".

Speaking at a base near the Lebanese border, he said: "We received requests and demands from the highest ranks in the Lebanese army to cease fire."
However, he described the incident as a "deliberate ambush".
The UN peacekeeping force stationed in southern Lebanon, Unifil, has urged both sides to show "maximum restraint" following the clash.
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the clash is an indication of the tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the incident could have been caused by one of the sides misidentifying the correct location of the border.
The exchange comes a day after rockets were fired at the Israeli resort of Eilat, with a stray rocket killing one person in the nearby port of Aqaba in Jordan.

NASA Image of the Day, Aug 3rd....[ 1568 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Smoke over Western Russia

Hundreds of fires burned across western Russia on August 2, 2010, but it is the smoke that conveys the magnitude of the disaster in this true-color image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. 

 

Dense gray-brown smoke extends across the width of this image, a distance of about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles). 

 

The smoke clearly continues both east and west beyond the edge of the image, and is visible in both previous and successive orbits of the Terra satellite. 

The smoke is so thick that it is not possible to see the ground beneath it. 

 

Image Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response

Τρίτη, 3 Αύγουστος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Solar flarew in pictures..[ 1567 ]

Solar flares, coronal mass ejections and aurora borealis in pictures

 Telegraph co.uk

In this X-ray photo provided by NASA, the sun is shown early in the morning of Sunday, August 1, 2010. 

The dark arc near the top right edge of the image is a filament of plasma blasting off the surface - part of the coronal mass ejection. 

The bright region is an unassociated solar flare. When particles from the eruption reach Earth on the evening of August 3-4, they may trigger a brilliant auroral display known as the Northern Lights

 Picture: AP / NASA

Looking for fresh food, natural settings..[ 1566 ]

'Farmers' restaurants' popular with city slickers looking for fresh food, natural settings

An example of the chef's recommendation of the day at farmers' restaurant Roshi in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) August 1, 2010

An increasing number of farmers nationwide are running their own restaurants, offering both fresh local vegetables and beautiful rural landscapes to city-dwelling customers.

Farmers' restaurants are especially popular among young women, who are becoming more aware of health and food safety today.

One such restaurant is Roshi, located in the midst of the paddy fields in the Gunma Prefecture city of Takasaki, about 15-minutes' drive toward Mt. Haruna from Annaka-Haruna Station on the Nagano Shinkansen bullet train line.

Reiko Takahashi, the owner of farmers' restaurant Roshi, is pictured in her vegetable garden. (Mainichi)

The restaurant is the 60-year-old former residence of a family of raw silk producers, remodeled as a quaint dining establishment. Inside the entrance with its indigo blue curtain, there is a spacious earth floor connected to a 22-tatami-mat living room. A refreshing breeze blows through the open window of the white-walled house with thick wooden pillars. Bird and frog calls from the garden will remind its customers of their childhood summer holidays.

Roshi offers only one menu item -- the chef's recommendation of the day (1,000 yen). As the restaurant uses different kinds of fresh vegetables available each day, customers will not know what they will be served until they actually sit at the table.

The menu of the day usually includes about 10 items using vegetables such as cabbage, egg plant, potatoes, olives and carrots, which come with salad, brown rice and a bowl of miso soup. All vegetables are either grilled or boiled, and seasoned mainly with salt or soy sauce. The recipes are simple, allowing customers to enjoy the natural flavor of the ingredients.

Farmers' restaurant Roshi. (Mainichi)

"Simple cooking is the best way to experience the real taste of local vegetables," says restaurant owner Reiko Takahashi, a former indigo dyeing teacher. She opened her own restaurant in 2005, encouraged by the voices of her students, who praised the miso soup and the rice balls Takahashi offered for their lunch.

While growing vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, and various kinds of herbs at a nearby farm, she also buys ingredients from two local organic farmers.

On weekends, people come to her restaurant all the way from the Tokyo metropolitan area.

"I hope a quiet time with fresh vegetables and a country view will help people refresh themselves in body and soul," Takahashi said. The restaurant is open during lunch hours and only accepts five groups of customers per day. Reservations are required by the day before the visit. The restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Reservations and inquiries can be made at (027) 374-4233.

A farmers' restaurant is defined as a restaurant which offers dishes using vegetables produced by the restaurant operator or local farmers. There are various types of such restaurants, including those run by guesthouse or farm stand operators. The number of farmers' restaurants has jumped over the past 10 years. According to a government survey conducted in 2005, there are 826 farmers' restaurants in the country, with a total of some 8.43 million customers per year.

"Today, more people are interested in the local food movement," says a public relations official at the Organization for Urban-Rural Interchange Revitalization.

In additions to the recommendation of the day, farmers' restaurants often offer a buffet-style menu, dishes with Italian or French twists or soba buckwheat noodles.

Information about farmers' restaurants nationwide can be found at the organization's website "Green Tourism"

(http://www.ohrai.jp/gt/restaurant/index.html).

Public Relations firm Gram 3 Inc. also launched the search site "Kokokichi" (http://www.cocokichi.jp/) for vegetable lovers in November last year, which currently introduces 225 farmers' restaurants across the country.

"Farmers' restaurants are attracting many people because they also allow visitors to see the local landscape, life and culture. I hope people will come to pay attention to Japan's agriculture through the experience of visiting farming villages," said a company official.

Click here for the original Japanese story

North Korean football team humiliated..[ 1565 ]

North Korean football team publicly humiliated for WC performance

The coach and the players have been humiliated in front of 400 government officials, students and journalists.

Sports News 30-7-10., telegraph co.uk

LONDON.-The entire team was forced onto a stage at the People’s Palace of Culture and subjected to criticism from Sports Minister Pak Myong-chol in front of 400 government officials, students and journalists.

The players were subjected to a grand debate on July 2 because they failed in their “ideological struggle” to succeed in South Africa, Radio Free Asia and South Korean media reported.

The coach was punished for “betraying” Kim Jong-un - one of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il’s sons and heir apparent, The Telegraph reports.

The country, in its first World Cup since 1966, lost all three-group games, including a 7-0 defeat to Portugal.
(ANI)

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NB:

The South Korea newspapers wandering why the North Korean regime dint not sent the players to the exile camps from which a few are returning alive

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