President Obama Firing of U.S. Supreme Commander in Afghan

General Stanley McChrystal loses job after a meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office that was brief, only 20 minutes. According to Obama is the right decision for national security.

McChrystal made controversial comments in a profile in Rolling Stone magazine titled Runaway General. The article claims Gen McChrystal has seized control of the war 'by never taking his eye off the real Enemy: The wimps in the White House'.

He said that the first time he met Obama he found the President 'unengaged' and 'disappointing'. He is dismissive of Vice President Joe Biden, and either the general or aides Some of his openly criticise other senior political and military figures. He underestimated Vice President Joe Biden, and the common good or some senior aides openly criticizing other political and military figures.

McChrystal will of not even get a chance to return to Afghanistan and will of his personal items have shipped back to Washington. McChrystal will not even get a chance to return to Afghanistan and will have personal items sent back to Washington.

READ MORE - President Obama Firing of U.S. Supreme Commander in Afghan

Sales in the United States House Down

Sales of newly built, single-family homes declined dramatically in May following the expiration of a popular home buyer tax credit program in the previous month, according to newly released figures by the U.S. Commerce Department."

While today's numbers are sobering, they were to be expected at the conclusion of the tax credit program and are in keeping with the results of our latest home builder surveys," said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "Clearly the tax credits were very successful in drawing potential buyers back to the market.

"The big drop-off in new-home sales this May emphasizes how effective the tax credit program was in bringing home buyers back to the market while it was in existence," agreed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

Sales of new homes declined across every region in May. The Northeast registered a 33.3 percent decline, the Midwest a 23.9 percent decline, the South a 25.4 percent decline, and the West a 53.2 percent decline.

READ MORE - Sales in the United States House Down

How is the fate of France in the World Cup?

France were 90 minutes away on Tuesday from completing their worst ever performance at a major tournament, or restoring their tarnished reputation and performing a miraculous turnaround.

The 1998 champions, responsible for one of the biggest dramas in World Cup history, need a win with plenty of goals against hosts South Africa in their final Group A match and must hope that Mexico and Uruguay do not draw at the same time.

However, after boycotting a training session in support of Nicolas Anelka, sent home in disgrace for insulting coach Raymond Domenech at halftime of a 2-0 defeat by Mexico last week, it remains doubtful whether the France team can regroup. "Words would not help now, we need action," Domenech said before the uncertain battle at the Free State stadium.

South Africa, too, have plenty to fight for and can count on the wholehearted support of the crowd and an entire nation. All hope is not lost for France, however. French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot, who was dispatched on Monday to address the warring parties and galvanise wobbly troops, said she could feel another French revolt coming, but a positive one this time.

READ MORE - How is the fate of France in the World Cup?

U.S. Department of Energy Asks, Is Cloud Computing Fast Enough for Science?

With cloud computing gaining acceptance in the business world, the U.S. Department of Energy wants to know if cloud computing can also meet the needs of the scientific computing. The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) has launched Magellan, a cloud computing testbed to explore this question, with facilities that will test the effectiveness of cloud computing for scientific projects.

Magellan is built to meet the special requirements of scientific computing using technology and tool sets unavailable in commercial clouds, including high-bin processors, high-bandwidth parallel file systems, high-capacity data archives, and pre-installed scientific applications and libraries.

But will cloud computing be fast enough?

According to a report in Federal Computing Week, preliminary results suggest that commercially available clouds operating Message Passing Interface (MPI) applications such as weather calculations suffer in performance. "For the more traditional MPI applications there were significant slowdowns, over a factor of 10," said Kathy Yelick, NERSC division director.

Performance isn't the only factor the Magellan cloud is testing. It's also looking at cloud computing's efficiency and its suitability for various research projects. Magellan is a two-year $32 million project involving about 3000 NERSC scientists. The goal, in part, is to help inform the DOE, scientists, and the tech industry what is needed in terms of configuration and management of scientific cloud computing resources.

source : readwriteweb.com

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Israel sets out changes to Gaza blockade curbs

Israel has given details of its plan to ease the blockade of Gaza, with all civilian goods now expected to be let into the territory.

Israel will allow items into Gaza unless they feature on a new list which specifies banned goods.

The move will let in humanitarian aid, food and building supplies.

Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2005, but has faced heavy criticism since the recent killing of nine people on an aid flotilla heading to Gaza.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a long list of previously banned items, which included some food, domestic equipment and building materials would be replaced by a shorter, specific list of "weapons and war materiel".

Read More

READ MORE - Israel sets out changes to Gaza blockade curbs

Armenia: Juries hurt our chances

The Head of the Armenia television Harutyunian has implicitly criticised the jury system of the Eurovision Song Contest: “If the winner of the contest would be chosen through public televote only, Armenia would’ve won or at least achieved another top position”. Armenia’s Eva Rivas reached 7th place in Oslo. Harutyunian also announced that in 2011 the Armenian entrant will be selected internally by the National television channel again.

The Armenian public will only be given the chance to choose the song. This selection process has already been used with Sirusho in 2008, when the Armenian public could choose between 4 different songs, resulting in the best result for Armenia ever. Whether this change of the preselection process has anything to do with a disappointment about the 7th place for Armenia remained unanswered.It has also yet to be seen whether this notion has any foundation at all, as the EBU still hasn’t released the separate jury and televoting results.

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Lena sells 1,4 million records in 4 months

Germany – Just 4 months ago Lena released her first single “Satellite” after she won the German preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest and shortly before the contest she also released her debut album “My cassette player” in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Now her label Universal announced, that Lena has sold over a million records in Germany already! Satellite has now been sold over 600.000 times (double platinum) and “My cassette player” over 500.000 times (5x GOLD). In the rest of Europe she has sold over 300.000 records to date.

READ MORE - Lena sells 1,4 million records in 4 months

Sexy TV presenter Sara Carbonero VS Spain World Cup defeat

Spain captain Iker Casillas lover Sara Carboner is blamed for the defeat of the Spanish team, after being accused of disturbing the goalkeeper during the game.

The beautiful 25 th of the world as a reporter terpilis sexiest by the magazine FHM-USA, stood behind the goal.And her presence there has angered many Spanish fans, who think Casillas' mind may have been on 'other things' during the game.

As well as the controversy over her placement by the pitch there was also an awkward moment after the match when she interviewed her fella to ask what had gone wrong.

Some commentators claimed she would have a destabilising influence within the camp, although Carbonero, when confronted with the accusations, dismissed them as 'nonsense'.

READ MORE - Sexy TV presenter Sara Carbonero VS Spain World Cup defeat

Switzerland beat Spain

Spectacular, the Swiss won 1-0 through a kick from spain Gelson Fernandes. It also provided a thrill at a tournament that has seen few surprises and just 25 goals after the first game for all 32 teams.

"To be fair, I'm not used to scoring goals, so I was a bit surprised," said Fernandes, who got just his second in international play. "It was a bit of luck."

Eren Derdiyok created Switzerland's big chance in the 52d minute by surging through the center of Spain's defense and rounding goalie Iker Casillas. Gerard Pique's desperate tackle stopped Derdiyok, but Fernandes pounced on the loose ball and forced it into the net.
Spain badly outshot the Swiss and held the ball 63 percent of the time, but could find no way through Switzerland's determined defense.

"Today wasn't our day," Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said. "We have two games ahead of us. We have to find a way to win them."

READ MORE - Switzerland beat Spain

Franz Beckenbauer's England criticize Matthew Upson

Upson was not keen to become embroiled in a war of words with Beckenbauer, who led his team to World Cup glory as a player in 1974 and a coach in 1990.

But he does not feel there is any reason for England to be deflected from their chosen path.

''We will play the football that suits us best,'' said Upson, who was speaking on a visit to an SOS Village in Rustenburg to spend time with local children, many of whom have been orphaned.

''We want to win matches, so we will play the style according to that.

''Whatever he thinks about our style of play is his opinion. If we are accused of kick and rush but win something, I don't think many people would complain.''

Upson did admit England had been working hard on the training ground attempting to iron out the problems that surfaced at the weekend.

READ MORE - Franz Beckenbauer's England criticize Matthew Upson

World Cup Recipe Apps for Good

Over the last couple of weeks I've used Twitter to ask for user recommendations on Hungarian, Recipe, and World Cup apps. It seemed unfair to keep the results to myself.

I also recently had the pleasure of working with a Apps for Good, a program from CDI Europe that teaches young people how to create apps that change the world - a philosophy I could not possibly agree with more. The class I was involved with recently graduated, and published 3 new apps to the Android Market in the process.

So, for your enjoyment (and with limited commentary) here are some of the apps I've been checking out recently.

Apps for Good

• Stop and Search: Really useful reference app that walks you through your rights and obligations when you're stopped by the police in the UK. Bonus points for providing a mechanism for rating and mapping the experience, as well as viewing a map of other reported stops.
• StudioPhly: For aspiring musicians, this app will let you find a local recording studio with the gear you need.
• StudentVoice: Lets prospective students find out more about the prospective Universities.

Some Hungarian Apps

• Ball Madness (by A-Droid): A satisfyingly difficult bouncing ball puzzle game. Recommended despite my difficulty in getting past level 3 :(
• VibraSeq (by A-Droid): Love this. A sequencer to create complex device vibration patterns. But wait! You can export the recorded vibration patters for use in 3rd party apps that support them.
• Names (by Elek, Márton): Simple widget that tells you what Hungarian name day it is. Bonus points for searching your contacts and triggering notifications to remind you of anyone's name day.
• GPS Status (by EclipSim): There's a few apps out there that will show you the position, strength, and details from the GPS - but from what I've seen this is the best of them. Nice UI, lots of information, perfect for the data obsessives amongst us.

Recipe Apps

• Cooking Capsules (by Smart Capsules): Recipes + shopping list + video of the recipe being made. An ADC1 winner, it's an oldie but a very goodie.
• Epicurious (by Condé Nast Digital): This seemed a popular choice, and with 28,000 recipes I can see why.

World Cup Apps

• Goal.com Mobile (by Handmark): Live scores, breaking news, good stuff.
• World Cup News Pro (by Mippin): All the World Cup news for all the teams you follow, presented in Mippin's familiar flip-card UI.
• Sun Football (by News International): Live scores, highlight videos, and world cup news from The Sun newspaper.
 source : http://blog.radioactiveyak.com

READ MORE - World Cup Recipe Apps for Good

Germany VS Australia Scores Updates

Watch Live Germany VS Australia Scores Updates – FIFA World Cup 2010 Live Streaming & TV Telecast Channel – Watch game 3 of Fifa World Cup 2010 which is scheduled between teams of Grpup D. In this exciting match Germany and Australia will be facing each other at 18:30 GMT or 2:30 pm ET at Durban Stadium. Michael Ballack is not playing from Germany so hope Germany will make good of this loss by putting more efforts. To cope the loss of Ballack veteran superstar International rookieMesut Ozil will be replacing him and hope he will compensate the loss by adopting the world’s football pace immediately.

Watch the live TV coverage through ESPN, Univision, ABC. You can also watch the Live Stream through ESPN3.com, Foxsports.com, ESPN and FIFA.com for live scores update. To See more live TV coverage based from your country, just visit Livesoccertv.com.

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Google Maps 4.2 Are Now Available With Voice Guidance

Google Maps 4.2 are the latest free update from Google. Google Maps 4.2 are now available with voice guidance.

Google has released it ’supdate of Google Maps 4.2 that goes to fill a gap for some time in the Italian version: the lack of turn voice guidance turn can give you information in real time (up to the previous release was only possible plan your route). Together with Italy, the service Google Maps 4.2 Navigation is made available in Spain, France and Germany (after the U.S. and Britain).

The Navigator is compatible with versions of Android 1.6 and newer allows map display in three-dimensional graphics or vision satellite and calculates the route to cheaper car, on foot or by public transport.

Among other features, to be reported (if you have the latest versions of Android) the ability to set the destination by voice, so no need to type addresses on the keyboard. You can also set the destination from the phone book.

Keywords :

Google Maps With Voice Guidance

The Phone Book

The Previous Release

Google Info

Google Hot Trends

Google Hot Searches

Google Hot Topics

READ MORE - Google Maps 4.2 Are Now Available With Voice Guidance

NCAA Sanctions

The NCAA threw the book at storied USC, imposing a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation and signficant scholarship losses that likely will damage the program's foundations. "So higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring."

With pointed language, the NCAA said in its report that USC's oversight of its top athletes ran contrary to the fundamental principles of amateur sports. The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds — football's Pete Carroll and basketball's Tim Floyd — left USC in the past year.

USC reacted with uniform outrage to the harshness of the sanctions, promising an appeal. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.

While no action would go into effect until USC's appeals are heard by the NCAA, Hancock said there would be no 2004 champion if USC's victory is vacated.
The NCAA says Bush received lavish gifts from two fledgling sports marketers hoping to sign him. Members of the Heisman Trust have said they might review Bush's award if he were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.

USC, which plans to appeal some of the football-related penalties, released details later Thursday of its defense arguments. The NCAA cited a 2 1/2-minute phone call in January 2006 between fledgling marketer Lloyd Lake, who allegedly provided many of Bush's illegal benefits and USC assistant coach Todd McNair, who said he couldn't remember the call. The NCAA took no further action against the men's basketball team, which had already banned itself from postseason play last spring and vacated its wins from Mayo's season. We're still going to play an extremely high level of football. USC is the first Football Bowl Subdivision school to be banned from postseason play since Alabama served a two-year ban ending in 2003. The NCAA condemned McNair's professed ignorance of Bush's dealings with sports marketers Lake and Michael Michaels.

READ MORE - NCAA Sanctions

Holloway urges transfer caution

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has warned other clubs and agents that the newly-promoted Seasiders will not be held to ransom over potential signings. Chairman Karl Oyston has a strict transfer policy in place - a stance that Holloway agrees with.

"I don't want Karl to change how he does deals because I agree with him," Holloway told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"Anybody who has ever tried to knock any sort of deal out of him, where do they get? Not very blooming far."

Oyston has built up a tough reputation within football circles of a no-nonsense approach when he is bringing in players to the club.

Blackpool broke their transfer record in August 2009 when they signed Charlie Adam from Rangers for £500,000.

But, despite receiving £90m for winning promotion to English football's top flight for the first time since 1971, Holloway is keen for the Seasiders to avoid being dragged into inflated deals.

And, in terms of having the strength of character not to automatically swim with the tide, he even likens his chairman to that stubborn old Blackadder character, Captain Redbeard Rum.

If these people think they can put an extra nought on with Karl Oyston they can think again

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway

'We won't be held to ransom this summer," said Holloway, "because we have a chairman who could be straight from Blackadder, one of my favourite ever television programmes.

"He was going to sail around the world and he found a captain with a ginger beard and no legs, who said 'All the other captains think you need a crew, I think you don't'.

"It's like that with Karl. I can hear him saying 'all the other chairmen realise they have to do this, but I say you don't and I'm not going to do it'.

"And what happened to the bloke with the ginger beard was that Nursie ended up wearing his beard because he was eaten by cannibals.

"I just hope my chairman doesn't get eaten by agents and all these people at other clubs.

"But do I think he will? Absolutely no chance. God help them trying to deal with him, I'm finding it hard enough myself.

Holloway believes other clubs perceive Blackpool as an easy target after their Championship play-off final victory in May.

"It's a huge problem because people think we have a huge pot of gold. But I can tell you they won't get any of that," said the 47-year-old Bristol-born manager.

"I've got to be really clever and ask lots of questions and get so much information to give to my chairman, who will be the one trying to do these deals. We've never been in this position and we don't know what's going to happen.

"But, if these people think they can put an extra nought on with Karl Oyston they can think again. And I wouldn't want Karl any other way.

"He'll quite rightly continue to do things as he has been and there's no doubt he will be a breath of fresh air in every Premier League meeting because he will not change - and that's the refreshing thing about it all."

Source: BBC Sport

READ MORE - Holloway urges transfer caution

House works to remove liability cap for hazardous spills off our coast

Today, the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee took the first steps to remove a cap that limits the financial liability of corporations responsible for oil or hazardous waste spills off our coast. Currently North Carolina follows the federal cap which is placed at the cost of clean up, plus 75 million. The main provision of Senate Bill 836 completely removes the State's tie to the federal liability cap.

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of debate at the national level on whether or not the cap should be raised to 10 billion. Although the US Senate has not yet acted, its great to see the General Assembly moving quickly to insure North Carolina is capable of handling a potential spill.

The bill also requires that the Coastal Resources Commission review existing laws and regulations pertaining to offshore energy exploration and production and make recommendations to the Environmental Review Commission before October of 2011. Along those same lines the bill also directs the Department of Public Safety to review and update the State's oil spill contingency plan.

from http://sierraclubnc.blogspot.com/2010/06/house-works-to-remove-liability-cap-for.html

READ MORE - House works to remove liability cap for hazardous spills off our coast

Some oil spill events from Thursday, June 10, 2010

By The Associated Press

(AP) - A summary of events on Thursday, June 10, Day 51 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well.

COLLECTING OIL

BP plans to boost its ability to directly capture oil leaking from the well in the Gulf of Mexico by early next week. Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production, said a semi-submersible drilling rig should be set up early next week to capture and burn about 420,000 gallons of oil a day. Once on board, the oil and gas collected from the well will be sent down a boom and burned at sea. A drill ship already at the scene can process a maximum of 756,000 gallons of oil daily that's sucked up through a containment cap sitting on the well head.

DAMAGE CLAIMS

The Obama administration said BP has agreed to expedite the payment of claims to businesses and individuals whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Tracy Wareing, of the National Incident Command office, said administration officials raised a "pressing concern" with BP executives during a meeting Wednesday about the time BP has been taking to provide relief payment. She said the company will change the way it processes such claims. Among other things, it will drop the current practice of waiting to make such payments until businesses have closed their books for each month.

more

READ MORE - Some oil spill events from Thursday, June 10, 2010

NBA Finals: Lakers Excellence

Boston, Jun 9: Clinching 91-84 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3, the LA Lakers took a lead of 2-1 in the best-of-seven-series of the NBA finals.

While Kobe Brynt's elated energy caught on like a virus to the rest of the team. His brilliance helped the Lakers stay ahead in the first three quarters while in the fourth and final one veteran Derek Fisher jumped in with a whooping contribution of 11 points.

The return of Kevin Garnett bolstered the Celtics fight. The 34-year-old player may have scored just six points in Game 2 but in the third game, he scored the first six points and remained a force to reckon with through out the finals battle. The finals series will continue on Thursday, Jun 10 with Game 4 in the TD (Boston) Garden.

READ MORE - NBA Finals: Lakers Excellence

Sprint's EVO 4G Breaks Sales Record

HTC EVO 4G marked the largest quantity of a single phone sold in one day ever for Sprint -- the record was previously held by both Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre, Sprint said in a statement. "In addition, the total number of HTC EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined."

Of the recent rivals to the iPhone, perhaps no device has been ballyhooed as much as the EVO 4G, which runs Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. It is billed as the first 4G smart phone, but that won't be its most immediately striking feature for many -- Sprint still has to expand the high speed wireless network to several major cities.

Rather, consumers will be wowed by the huge display, powerful microprocessor and other cool features -- for example, the phone doubles as a WiFi hotspot. Early reviews were positive. "If you want the biggest, brawniest, most ridiculously muscular phone you can buy, it's the Evo," tech blog Gizmodo wrote.

The strong initial performance will give a boost to Taiwan-based handset maker HTC, which has emerged as a powerful new player on the smartphone scene, thanks to its partnership with Google. HTC also manufactures the Droid Incredible and the Nexus One, both of which run the Android OS.

READ MORE - Sprint's EVO 4G Breaks Sales Record

UN to Gaza

An Israeli official said Sunday that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international commission to investigate Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, a maritime law expert, to head the panel, which would include Israeli, Turkish and U.S. representatives, the Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Ban has not announced details of his proposal.

The push for an international inquiry puts Israel under further pressure to explain how its attempt to stop the aid ship from breaching a blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza turned deadly. It could also cast light on the motives and plans of some of the ship's passengers who Israel says were Islamic extremists intent on attacking its troops.

The outrage over the deaths has also prompted calls from many nations, including the United States, for at least a partial lifting of a blockade that Israel says is necessary to isolate the Islamic

READ MORE - UN to Gaza

Rachel Corrie's Ship Captured Israeli Soldier

The Israeli military says its troops have risen to Rachel Corrie's Ship “with the full compliance” of the crew and passengers in a peaceful operation. It added that the ship and the 15 people on board, most of them Irish or Malaysian activists, were being escorted to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.

But the takeover prompted a furious response from the Dublin-based Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “For the second time in less than a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod port,” it said, also noting that those on board were believed to be unharmed.

Army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz said the Rachel Corrie had been commandeered in international waters some 21 nautical miles northwest of Ashdod after the vessel refused to respond to four requests to change course.

The operation began shortly after dawn on Saturday when activists on board the vessel spoke by phone with the Gaza-based welcoming committee and said they had been surrounded by Israeli naval boats.

The boat was carrying around 1,000 tonnes of aid and supplies, half of which was reportedly cement – a substance which Israel does not allow into Gaza, claiming it could be used for building fortifications.

Despite an international outcry over the deadly commando operation, Israel vowed to block all attempts to reach Gaza by sea in defiance of the tight blockade it has imposed on the impoverished territory since 2006.

Israel had warned it would stop the Rachel Corrie, named after a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home.

READ MORE - Rachel Corrie's Ship Captured Israeli Soldier

Is Hamas As a Terrorist Group ?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he did not view radical Palestinian group Hamas, Israel’s arch-foe, as a terrorist organisation.

“Hamas are resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land. They have won an election,” Erdogan said in a public speech in the central city of Konya, broadcast live on television.

I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The United States and the European Union blacklist Hamas as a terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian elections in 2006.
Erdogan made the remarks in an angry tirade against Israel after Monday’s raid on a flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of nine Turks and plunged already strained ties between the once-close allies into deep crisis.

He lashed out at Western powers for denying Hamas a chance to shift to a democratic platform.
Erdogan renewed criticism of Israel’s raid on the aid flotilla, whose main organisers included a Turkish Islamist charity, with the bulk of its passengers Turks. Our problem is with the oppressive Israeli administration which commits state terror,” he said.

The Israel government, he said, is “hypocritical,” “paranoid” and a “lier.”
Ankara has previously insisted that peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East if Hamas was excluded from the process. In February 2006, Ankara angered Israel when it hosted a delegation led by Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, following the Islamists’ victory in Palestinian elections, in what Turkish officials defended as an effort to press the militant group to lay down arms.

In January 2009, Turkish officials acted as mediators between Hamas leaders based in Syria and Egyptian officials seeking to hammer out a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Gaza. Israel has cut Gaza off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to pressure Hamas to end rocket attacks on southern Israel.

READ MORE - Is Hamas As a Terrorist Group ?

Talking Turkey

Just four years ago, Turkey was considered one of Israel's closest allies in the region. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was on the verge of losing its best friend in the region. He said Israel's decision to raid the Marmara was an unacceptable violation of international law.

The Turkish government has demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow an investigation into the raid. Israel has rejected those calls, saying the blockade prevents missile attacks on Israel from the Hamas-ruled territory.
Turkey has also called off planned military exercises with Israel, and some Israeli analysts fear military contracts between the two countries could also suffer.
Israeli analyst Anat Lapidot-Firilla, a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, says that Turkey-Israel relations were once prized by both countries.

Israel regards the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat.
Yaakov Katz, a military analyst for the Jerusalem Post newspaper, says Turkey's newfound closeness to Iran is ironic, considering Israeli air force pilots are widely reported to have simulated attacks on Iranian nuclear installations during training flights over Turkish territory.
Katz has observed Israeli and Turkish military exercises in the past.

"Israel is a very small country and the air force requires large places to be able to drill and exercise long-range flights — such [as] a potential attack on Iran," Katz said. "Turkey is a very large country [and] has enabled Israel to fly over its airspace, and that has allowed Israel to plan long-range flights, some of which it might have to carry out in the near future."

Lapidot-Firilla says Israel has already contacted a number of countries such as Azerbaijan and Greece to propose joint drills. Still, she says, the deteriorating relationship between Israel and Turkey will be felt acutely within the Israeli military establishment.

READ MORE - Talking Turkey

Russia's commitment to the Palestinian Liberation

Russia is one country that is committed to help the Palestinians get the right to independence. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said "Going forward, Russia will of continue to promotes a settlement in the region on the universally recognized international legal basis," Medvedev said. "Our approach on this issue Principled Remains unchanged - the result of this work Should be an independent Palestinian state will from That live in peace with Israel."

Israeli commandos on Friday stormed a Convoy of vessels in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea That Were en route to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with Some 10.000 tons of humanitarian aid and 700 human rights activists.
Nine activists are confirmed killed but the Arab media reports put the toll at close to 20. Were Dozens reported injured. The international community has widely condemned Israel, with Turkey recalling its ambassador.

The president said that Russia is fully satisfied with the good results of the coordination of its activities with Egypt with regards to the promotion of the Arab-Israeli peace process.
On Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered to open the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and open access for Those WHO need medical treatment.

READ MORE - Russia's commitment to the Palestinian Liberation

Rachel Aliene Corrie Human Rights for Palestinians

"I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive ... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with." (On March 14, 2003)

Who Rachel Aliene ?

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bulldozer while attempting to prevent IDF forces from demolishing the home of local Palestinian Samir Nasrallah. The IDF has claimed that the death has been due to restricted angle of view of the D9 bulldozer driver. The New York Times said Corrie and others were acting as "human shields." A student at the Evergreen State College, she had taken a year off and traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada.

Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in Olympia, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie, an amateur flautist. Cindy Corrie describes their family as "average Americans — politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".

After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College (TESC), also located in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years. In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah. Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.

Friends described her as "attractive in a plain-spoken way, the opposite of flashy, not working to call attention to herself. She was reserved in large crowds but intimate one-on-one". Colin Reese, Corrie's roommate, said she had wanted to become a writer and artist. Reese also said she was "not the most punctual or tidy person in the world," but that when it came to peace work, she "would work harder and longer than anybody else"

source : en.wikipedia.org

READ MORE - Rachel Aliene Corrie Human Rights for Palestinians

Investigations UN to The Gaza Strip

The UN Secretary General told reporters that he is ready to take "the necessary action" to start off a full investigation into the events. He however informed that he would progress slowly in a deliberate manner after he discusses with all the concerned parties.

Afterwards, he told reporters he is ready to take "the necessary action" to start a full investigation into the events on the Turkish flagged ship the Mavi Marmara. But he said he would proceed in a deliberate manner, discussing it with all the concerned parties, before making a decision on how to go forward.

"It [the investigation] should be one which can gain credibility and support from the parties concerned," said Ban Ki-moon. "This is a very sensitive and even difficult, therefore, I am still in the process of these consultations. I will try to make it as impartial, as credible, as transparent as possible."

He however, refused to get into the details of the available options for investigations.

He said that the Israelis authorities would have to support with a full and detailed accounting of the events surrounding the incident and also added that there were possbilities of the UN Council sending an international fact finding mission to the region to look into the possiblity of violations of international law.
He added that the violence could be avoided if Israel had earlier paid attention to the three year long blockade resulting in prevention of the supply of essential goods from reaching Gaza.

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Mr. Romanoff was recommended to the White House

When Romanoff told the White House he was committed to the Senate run, "that ended the discussion," Gibbs says. Obama had already endorsed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet. Republicans have accused the White House of trying to manipulate elections by offering administration jobs to politicians running against its preferred candidates.

The White House faced fresh questions over back-room dealmaking after a Colorado Democrat acknowledged he had been encouraged by one of President Barack Obama's top advisers to apply for an international development job instead of challenging the candidate whom the president favored in a Senate race.

The revelation again called into question repeated promises by Obama to run an open government that was above private political horse-trading. In appealing to voters this election year, Republicans charge that Obama's promise to change the ways of Washington has given way to the craven politics he campaigned against.

Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff on Wednesday night released a copy of an e-mail in which White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina described three federal international development jobs that might be available to him if he were not challenging Sen. Michael Bennet for the Democratic nomination.

"He added that he could not guarantee my appointment to any of these positions," Romanoff said in a statement. "At no time was I promised a job, nor did I request Mr. Messina's assistance in obtaining one."

Earlier in the day, a White House official said no formal offer was ever made and insisted there was nothing inappropriate in the contacts — a bit of rhetoric familiar after the White House admitted last week that it orchestrated a job offer to Senate candidate Joe Sestak in the Pennsylvania primary.

"Mr. Romanoff was recommended to the White House from Democrats in Colorado for a position in the administration," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. "There were some initial conversations with him but no job was ever offered."

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Gaza flotilla: Israeli-Turkish trade 'unaffected'

(http://www.reuters.com/)

Political tensions are high between Turkey and Israel after the Turkish prime minister called the Israeli commando attack on an aid ship heading for Gaza a "bloody massacre".

However, business relations between the two countries continue as normal. In terms of volume, Turkey ranks number eight for Israeli trade after the two sides signed a free trade agreement in 2000. "The business community is upset and a little concerned, but mutual trade is continuing," says the chairman of the Israeli-Turkish Business Council.

Mutual benefits

The total trade volume between the two countries in 2009 was $2.5bn, according to Turkey's state statistics institute. Trade ranges from agriculture to military equipment to energy.

Some Israeli companies have joint ventures with Turkish manufacturing facilities, which enables them to export from Turkey to the world. Those investments do not appear in the statistics on trade between the two countries, suggesting that economic ties between the two are possibly deeper than the figures indicate.

A lot of Israeli tourists also visit Turkey - although many have cancelled holidays because of advice from the Israeli government saying it is not now safe for them to travel there.

Trade unharmed

Menashe Carmon of the Israeli-Turkish Business Council says he does not envisage any major problems unless firms are dealing with a government company.

"But in private talks, people who were positive towards Israeli policies have difficulties in understanding and accepting what has happened," he says.

"We are now at the peak of contention. I believe in a few weeks, things will be clearer and people will have a more moderate reaction," he maintains.

He feels certain that current events will not adversely affect or influence existing projects.

By James Melik (BBC World Service)

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Thailand's class divide

Thailand is a deeply divided society. Its level of social inequality is stark even in comparison with some of its regional neighbours.

A recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) showed that the richest 20 per cent of the Thai population own 56 per cent of the country's wealth, while the bottom 60 per cent has less than 25 per cent.

This inequality is at the heart of the conflict engulfing Thailand at the moment.

Around five million Thais live below the official poverty line, which is equivalent to £23.60 per month. While the bulk of poverty-stricken Thais in the rural areas of the north and north-east, around 1.3 million of the total are the urban poor.

The past 20 years have seen an acceleration of urbanisation as rural inhabitants have migrated to the cities, such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai, as well as to the international tourist resorts of Phuket and Koh Samui, in search of jobs.

In 1980, around 70 per cent of the country's workforce was rural. Today the figure is just over 40 per cent.

However this urbanisation has not resulted in the creation of a stable working class and in turn accounts for the weak presence of an organised labour movement in the current struggles.

Figures show that out of 11 million workers in the private sector, less than 3 per cent were unionised. The labour movement is divided into as many as 10 different trade union congresses.

The private-sector unions are often only organised at a single factory level, therefore their average membership is just a couple of hundred per union, a figure well below the critical mass for effective struggle.

During 2008 and 2009, the Thai Labour Ministry registered only 133 labour disputes and six strikes across the whole country.

Around one-quarter of the entire urban Thai labour force is engaged in the so-called informal sector - in other words they have no stable employment, no contracts, no regular salaries and no social insurance protection.

The figure is even higher among the rural workforce.

Even in key sectors such as manufacturing and construction, informal workers make up 22.1 and 47.8 per cent of those engaged in these industries. In the transport and hotel industries (critically important to Thailand's tourism industry), the figures rise to 51 and 73 per cent respectively.

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