Forces fighting wildfire at Hai-Bar nature reserve on Mount Carmel receive reinforcement after running out of water. ‘The flames are 15-20 meters high,’ their commander reports. Fire and rescue commissioner: It’ll take a day or two to contain fire
Continue reading …An anonymous donor and a 13-year-old boy became a couple of Santa’s helpers when they replaced some gifts that had be stolen from a 10-year-old boy who’s fighting brain cancer. (Dec. 4)
Continue reading …There’s just no two ways about it: what Lufthansa has managed to accomplish here is nothing short of incredible. While avid jetsetters have been enjoying in-flight WiFi on (select) domestic routes for a few years now, the in-flight fun has been coming to an abrupt halt when boarding a flight requiring a passport. The dream of long-haul in-flight internet has felt like a distant one, but it seems that the future is indeed happening today. The carrier’s FlyNet service has been relaunched this week, and with assistance from Panasonic and the 802.11n gods that be, it’s now offering broadband internet access on intercontinental routes. At first, the service will be limited to select North Atlantic routes, but access should be available on “nearly the entire Lufthansa intercontinental network by the end of 2011.” No specific performance figures are being released, but the company does call it “extremely fast” and quick enough to open large attachments “without delay.” Better still, the airline will be enabling cellphone data access (GSM and GPRS) in the spring of next year, giving highfalutin’ bigwigs the ability to send and receive the most expensive text messages of their life. Deutsche Telekom will be providing the actual internet service, with pricing set as such: €10.95 (or 3,500 miles) for one hour or €19.95 (or 7,000 miles) for a 24-hour pass that also allows patrons to access the web on “on all Lufthansa connecting flights equipped with a hotspot during the period of validity as well as after the flight in Lufthansa lounges.” Oh, and did we mention that it’s totally free through January 31st, 2011? It is. Gallery: Lufthansa FlyNet in-flight WiFi service Continue reading Lufthansa launches in-flight WiFi on intercontinental flights, ushers in ‘the future’ Lufthansa launches in-flight WiFi on intercontinental flights, ushers in ‘the future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court, conducting the trial of suspects charged with involvement in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, on Saturday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of two police officers for “failing” to protect the former premier. The warrants were issued for former Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz and senior police officer Khurram Shahzad, prosecution lawyers told the media. Both officers played a key role in security arrangements for the election rally addressed by Bhutto on the day she was killed in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. Prosecutors filed an application for the two police officers to be summoned as accused in the case…
Continue reading …VOJISLAV STJEPANOVIC Associated Press= BIJELJINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Three European nations struggled with harsh weather Saturday, as floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people in Bosnia and Albania, and snow caused part of the roof at a nuclear power plant in France to collapse. For the past four days, the Balkans have coped with the worst floods in a century, and western Europe has deal with subfreezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls that have led to fatalities and closed airports, highways and schools. In Bosnia, the army, police, volunteers and divers helped evacuate people about 2,000 people from their homes in the northeastern town of Bijeljina that was flooded…
Continue reading …Chris Matthews on Friday made the absurd claim the “compassionate” Left is too soft on Republican wrongdoers, and that by contrast the Right puts it's “heel into the back of the guy's head when he's down.” The “Hardball” host – with a straight face no less – said this to guests Ron Reagan and Politico's Roger Simon with reference to how the “right-wing press played up [Charlie] Rangel's censure” (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
Continue reading …Sure looks like a large and concerted intimidation campaign against WikiLeaks supporters. In addition to this, law students at Boston University were warned not to link to WikiLeaks, or even read it online, because it might keep them from getting a security clearance for a federal job. Oh, and soldiers trying to read from Iraq get a popup warning them they’re about to break the law . Can you say “whack-a-mole”, Mr. Constitutional Law Professor? From Democracy Now! with Glenn Greenwald: AMY GOODMAN: I’m going to interrupt, because I want to get to some memos that we’ve been getting from around the country that are very important and interesting. University students are being warned about WikiLeaks. An email from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, that we read in headlines, reads-I want to do it again-quote, “Hi students, “We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance. “The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government. “Regards, Office of Career Services.” That’s the email to Columbia University students at the School of International and Public Affairs. Now, I want to go on to another memo. Democracy Now! has obtained the text of a memo that’s been sent to employees at USAID. This is to thousands of employees, about reading the recently released WikiLeaks documents, and it comes from the Department of State. They have also warned their own employees. This memo reads, quote, “Any classified information that may have been unlawfully disclosed and released on the Wikileaks web site was not ‘declassified’ by an appopriate authority and therefore requires continued classification and protection as such from government personnel… Accessing the Wikileaks web site from any computer may be viewed as a violation of the SF-312 agreement… Any discussions concerning the legitimacy of any documents or whether or not they are classified must be conducted within controlled access areas (overseas) or within restricted areas (USAID/Washington)… The documents should not be viewed, downloaded, or stored on your USAID unclassified network computer or home computer; they should not be printed or retransmitted in any fashion.” That was the memo that went out to thousands of employees at USAID. The State Department has warned all their employees, you are not to access WikiLeaks, not only at the State Department, which they’ve blocked, by the way, WikiLeaks, but even on your home computers. Even if you’ve written a cable yourself, one of these cables that are in the trove of the documents, you cannot put your name in to see if that is one of the cables that has been released. This warning is going out throughout not only the government, as we see, but to prospective employees all over the country, even on their home computers.
Continue reading …Republicans have used a filibuster to deny Democrats the chance to cut taxes for those making less than $250,000 a year. A 53 to 36 vote in favor of the cut failed to overcome the stead Republican opposition to any selective tax breaks that didn’t include the mega-rich.. —JCL The LA Times: In a rare Saturday session, Senate Democrats and Republicans remained at loggerheads over whether to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts to all taxpayers, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to try to reach agreement before the tax cuts expire at the end of the year. With Republicans unified in opposition, Democrats, as expected, fell short of the votes needed to overcome a filibuster and extend the tax cuts for all but the very wealthy. An extension of the tax cuts to families earning less than $250,000 a year was defeated, 53-36, short of the 60 needed to limit debate. An extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to those earning less than $1 million annually was rejected, 53-37. Read more Related Entries December 3, 2010 Ailing Spanish Economy Seeks a Cure December 2, 2010 Those Dreadful Geico Commercials Are About to Get Quieter
Continue reading …During press conference at Haifa University, Netanyahu calls Carmel wildfire ‘a unique event,’ says foreign aid ‘heartwarming’. He vows to purchase fleet of firefighting aircraft, help restore damages caused by fire ‘without foot-dragging’
Continue reading …Police arrest two Usfiya brothers, aged 14 and 16, on suspicion of negligence which caused Carmel blaze. Relatives: Police have no proof they started the fire
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