A helicopter crashed Saturday into the sea off the northeastern coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing all six people on board, the Interior Ministry said. A fisherman reported the crash Saturday morning, about 2.5 miles off the heavily wooded coast of Anaga, ministry official Jose Segura said. The cause was not immediately clear.The U.S.-built Sikorsky S-61N had been chartered by the Environment Ministry, and the pilot was one of Spain's most experienced, he said.... http://www.foxnews.com censor News |
Editor - 10:08:00 07-08-06 |
Nigeria to cut thousands of jobs |
Some 33,000 Nigerian civil servants are to lose their jobs by the end of this year, a minister has said. This amounts to about 20% of Nigeria's 160,000 public workers. The minister in charge of civil service reform, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, said that those who did not lose their jobs would be given an unspecified pay rise. He said many of those to be sacked were unfit, guilty of serious misconduct or "ghost workers", inherited from the years of military rule. Many people had been employed without the proper qualifications after the recruitment of civil servants was decentralised in 1988, Mr Rufai said. "There was no monitoring mechanism such that ministers just went to their villages and packed everybody [to fill the public service]. That was the problem," he is quoted as saying in ThisDay newspaper. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5158890.stm
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Editor - 10:03:00 07-08-06 |
Hamas calls for cease-fire; Israel rejects offer |
The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short Saturday of offering to release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the soldier, officials in Olmert’s office said.Earlier, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Israel hopes the fighting, which has killed more than 40 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier, eventually will lead to a broader cease-fire deal. In fighting Saturday, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, and army bulldozers searched for militants’ tunnels near Gaza City. In northern Gaza, tanks pulled out of the town of Beit Lahiya, leaving a wide swath of destruction after trying to carve out a buffer zone against rockets there.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13707036/
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Editor - 10:00:00 07-08-06 |
Heavy Rains Flood Colorado, Washing Out Bridges |
Heavy rain Friday night flooded the area where the largest wildfire in Colorado history burned in 2002, washing out bridges and prompting authorities to urge residents to seek higher ground. Up to 2 inches of rain fell in some areas of central Colorado south of Denver, National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Fredin said. A flash flood warning was issued."Two or three bridges are knocked out," Fredin said. "We've gotten reports of furniture floating down the river."Search and rescue teams from Teller and Douglas counties were heading to the area to see if anyone was stranded, Douglas County sheriff's spokeswoman Cocha Heyden said.... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202650,00.html
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Editor - 09:58:00 07-08-06 |
Pope Decries Gay Marriage In Spain Benedict Touts Vatican's Vision Of Family Values During Spanish Visit |
Pope Benedict XVI hammered away at traditional family values Saturday during a quick visit to Spain, challenging a Socialist government that has angered the Vatican by instituting liberal reforms such as gay marriage and fast-track divorce. Benedict will be in Valencia for about 26 hours to close a Vatican-organized gathering on family issues, and he wasted no time in defending the Vatican's vision of marriage as a union of man and woman. "The family is a unique institution in God's plan, and the church cannot fail to proclaim and promote its fundamental importance," Benedict said on his arrival. In a city festooned with flags and balloons bearing the yellow and white colors of the Vatican and brimming with pilgrims from around the world, the pontiff also prayed for 42 people killed in a Valencia subway derailment on Monday, a tragedy that added a tinge of sadness to his first visit here as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. ... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/08/world/main1786404.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1786404
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Editor - 09:54:00 07-08-06 |
“I Was a Mouthpiece for the American Military” An embedded TV producer's frank assessment |
In an interesting interview published this week in Foreign Policy, Newsweek's Rod Nordland spoke about the difficulties of reporting from Iraq. He said that the Bush Administration has been largely successful in managing the news “to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made” and revealed that some embedded reporters “have been blacklisted because the military wasn’t happy with [their] work.” Many embedded reporters have managed to do fine work from Iraq, but there are significant obstacles for even the best and most determined journalists. I recently spoke with a former senior TV producer for Reuters who worked in Iraq between 2003 and 2004. The producer, who asked that she not be identified by name, arrived in Tikrit soon after the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, and was embedded with American troops for 45 days. She told ... http://harpers.org/sb-i-was-a-mouthpiece-1152219764.html
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Editor - 01:10:00 07-08-06 |
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