ROME (AP) — Archaeologists have found five well-preserved Roman shipwrecks deep under the sea off a small Mediterranean island, with their cargo of vases, pots and other objects largely intact, officials said Friday.
The ships are submerged between 100 and 150 meters (about 330 to 490 feet) off Ventotene, a tiny island that is part [...]
Posts Tagged ‘island’
5 ancient Roman shipwrecks found off Italy coast
July 25th, 2009 |
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Gov’t Mule Island Exodus: 1/15-1/19 Negril, Jamaica
July 25th, 2009 |
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Gov’t Mule Island Exodus: January 15-19 Negril, Jamaica
 Gov’t Mule |
Gov’t Mule has announced The First Annual GOV’T MULE ISLAND EXODUS, taking place at The Grand Lido Negril Resort in Negril, Jamaica, January 15 through the 19 (4 nights).
Grand Lido Negril is a SUPER-INCLUSIVE resort, meaning that all meals and beverages (including top shelf liquor), as well as non-motorized water sports, scuba diving, airport to resort ground transportation & all gratuities are included.
This event will feature three full-length Gov’t Mule shows and a Warren Haynes solo show on the beach just steps from the ocean. The band will be bringing some special guests with them, such as long time collaborator Ron Holloway on saxophone, and DJ Logic will be spinning nightly in the Atlantis nightclub.
In addition, the long weekend will feature unique activities with Gov’t Mule and its extended family, such as:
-Poster Signing w/ Gov’t Mule
-The Gov’t Mule Invitation Golf Tournament Hosted By Danny Louis *
-True Roadie Stories w/ Brian Farmer
-Matt Abts Drum Clinic
-Farmer Sez
-The “Crew-lywed” Game featuring members of the GM road crew
-Gov’t Mule On Stage & Off Photo Exhibit – Featuring the photography of Chris Rushin & Lance Eubanks
* Will require an additional Greens Fee
Reservations will begin on Tuesday July 28, and early bird pricing will run through August 15. More information, including prices, cabin levels & payment options can be found at www.mule.net/islandexodus.
Wildfires rage in southern Europe
July 24th, 2009 |
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Thousands of firefighters are battling to bring under control summer wildfires that are spreading across parts of southern Europe.
At least seven people have died in the blazes that have struck Spain, France, Greece and the Italian island of Sardinia in the past few days.
Prisoners in Sardinia were reportedly moved to a beach when their penitentiary was threatened by fire.
Strong winds have fanned the flames during the hot dry weather.
Spain has suffered the heaviest death toll, losing five firefighters in the last four days.
Four were killed in Catalonia on Tuesday, and the driver of a firefighters’ truck lost his life in Teruel province on Thursday.
Parts of the Mojacar region in south-east Spain were being evacuated on Friday as fires continued to rage. Community halls were being used as makeshift shelters for residents at risk.
A series of bush fires across Sardinia claimed two lives there, including that of a shepherd who was trying to rescue his flock.
Helicopters and civil protection boats were used to rescue more than 120 people trapped on a beach at Capo Pecora in the south-west of the island.
The penitentiary complex of Is Arenas had to be evacuated, and the inmates temporarily transferred to the beach, Ansa news agency reports.
French inquiry
In Greece, firefighters continue to tackle blazes that have hit the southern Peloponnese region and the island of Evia.
Strong winds coupled with high temperatures had caused the fire to spread rapidly, fire officials in Evia said.
Five French firemen were injured battling flames from three fires on the island of Corsica, the AFP news agency reports.
The fires, which have destroyed some 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of forest and bush, are believed to have been started deliberately, the regional government said.
Meanwhile, an inquiry is under way in France after a military exercise sparked a major wildfire on the outskirts of Marseille.
The fire, which threatened homes and destroyed 1,300 hectares (3,211 acres) of brush, provoked an angry reaction from both officials and residents.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon called it a "professional mistake" and local prefect Michel Sappin accused the military of "imbecilic" actions.
The officer in charge when soldiers fired tracer bullets during a training exercise has been suspended.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Brendan DeMelle: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Acknowledges The Need To Clean Up Vieques
July 23rd, 2009 |
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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson acknowledged the need to clean up the island of Vieques in her address at the national convention of the League of…
Corsica police station car-bombed
July 22nd, 2009 |
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A car bomb has exploded outside a police station on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
"It’s a miracle there was only material damage. People could have been killed," a Corsican government spokesman told the AFP news agency.
He said attackers had rigged up a gas bottle in the car and detonated it at around 0600 local time (0400 GMT).
The car was blown to pieces by the force of the blast, which also knocked the son of a gendarme off his bicycle.
Corsica suffers infrequent small-scale attacks by separatists opposed to French rule.
Wednesday’s attack in the northern town of Vescovato was the first car bomb on the island since 2006, AFP said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux called a "totally irresponsible act."</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Corsica police station car-bombed
July 22nd, 2009 |
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A car bomb has exploded outside a police station on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
"It’s a miracle there was only material damage. People could have been killed," a Corsican government spokesman told the AFP news agency.
He said attackers had rigged up a gas bottle in the car and detonated it at around 0600 local time (0400 GMT).
The car was blown to pieces by the force of the blast, which also knocked the son of a gendarme off his bicycle.
Corsica suffers infrequent small-scale attacks by separatists opposed to French rule.
Wednesday’s attack in the northern town of Vescovato was the first car bomb on the island since 2006, AFP said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux called a "totally irresponsible act."</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
21st century’s longest eclipse
July 20th, 2009 |
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BANGKOK (AP) — Millions of people across Asia will witness the longest total solar eclipse that will happen this century, as vast swaths of India and China, the entire city of Shanghai and southern Japanese islands are plunged into darkness Wednesday for about five minutes.
Streams of amateur stargazers and scientists are traveling long distances to [...]
Rep. Diane Watson: 35 Years Later: Hope for a Solution Of, By, and For the Cypriots
July 20th, 2009 |
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A solution to the Cyprus Problem is in the best interest of the Greek Cypriots, the Turkish Cypriots, and the greater global community — a fact that nobody understands better than the Cypriots themselves.
Taiwan returns Chiang to memorial
July 20th, 2009 |
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Taiwan has restored the name of the island’s former ruler, Chiang Kai-shek, to a memorial hall, less than two years after it was removed.
Chiang’s legacy is a contentious issue on the island, which split from mainland China when his Nationalist side (KMT) lost the civil war in 1949.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)took his name off the memorial hall in 2007 when they were in power.
The hall was built as a tribute to Chiang after his death in 1975.
The DPP removed his name from several landmarks and changed the name of the hall to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
The DPP said Chiang was a dictator who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Taiwan.
But others remember him as laying the foundation for Taiwan’s current economic prosperity.
On Monday workers protected by hundreds of police changed the name back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The ministry of education, responsible for the monument, said the DPP had changed the name of the hall in 2007 without parliamentary approval.
The memorial has become one of Taipei’s best-known landmarks and a popular tourist attraction.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hector E. Sanchez: Illegal People: An Island of Rationality
July 15th, 2009 |
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The hostility of globalization forces corporate management to compete for the cheapest possible products at the expense of exploited workers.
Basking Shark VIDEO: Huge Shark Washes Up On Long Island Shore
July 14th, 2009 |
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An enormous basking shark washed up on the shores of Long Island, New York today, causing quite a stir at Gilgo State Park, which is only a few miles from the very popular Jones Beach. The shark measured 20 feet and weighed a ton, but despite…
Monsoon watch
July 13th, 2009 |
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By Mark Dummett
BBC News, Bangladesh
This is an anxious time for the people of Char Atra, an island of silt, sand, paddy fields and huts in the middle of the Ganges.
The monsoon is drenching South Asia, and millions of gallons of water are heading towards the Char from as far away as the Himalayas.
By the end of August, the region will be completely inundated. Instead of walking to school or the market, the 10,000 inhabitants may instead have to swim or move about on banana-tree rafts.
Last minute work is now being done to get things ready; the river is too powerful and the island too low to prevent the floods, but homes and paths can be heightened.
A lot of this work has been sponsored by charity Oxfam and carried out by its local partner, the Shariatpur Development Society.
Shfiting sands
Hasina Begum’s tin-sheet and thatch home has been dismantled and a dozen women are piling up sand so that its base can be raised.
She says she is relieved because during last year’s floods, there was so much water in her hut that she had to tie her children to their bed at night to stop them from rolling off and drowning.
Now she will only have to do that if there is a freak flood, a one-in-50-year event. If this does happen then she can build a platform under the roof and sleep there.
Raising her home to a safe level is simple and cheap work, but Hasina, like most islanders, is too poor to be able to pay for it herself.
In the aid-workers’ jargon, they are the "hardcore poor" because they do not own anything and because of their intense vulnerability to the weather conditions and the river level.
Their homes are literally built on sand, and the fact is that one year soon, Char Atra, and everything on it, will be washed away in the floods.
Testing times
I met one old man there – a veteran of the river – who had been forced to move 22 times in his life as each of his homes was destroyed in turn.
Then there is the government school. It is by the far the largest and strongest building on the island. It doubles as a shelter for hundreds of families during floods and cyclones.
Its headmaster, Mohammed Abdur Rashid, says it has been rebuilt eight times since he was a pupil.
He says that his best students all dream of leaving the island, and getting a job in a big city like Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital.
Others hope to migrate, as many families in the area have relatives working in Italy.
Only a small fraction attend school. Despite government attempts to introduce family planning, there are lots of children on the island. It is impossible to imagine where they are all supposed to live.
They will face many of the same problems their grandparents encountered: floods, riverbank erosion and hunger.
For sure, they will receive more help from the government and aid agencies, but they also face a new set of challenges.
Because it is such a low-lying and heavily populated country, Bangladesh is one of the countries most exposed to climate change and faces a series of threats:
• By the middle of the century, sea level rises are predicted to wipe out much of its coastal belt, making millions homeless
• The water in the Ganges is already becoming more saline, as sea water reaches further inland
• As a result of its position at the top of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is already one of the countries most prone to tropical storms, and rising sea temperatures could lead to more frequent and more devastating cyclones
• There could be worse floods as the monsoon rains become more erratic, and meltwater from the disappearing Himalayan glaciers hits Bangladesh
• The demise of glaciers could also lead to droughts in the north of the country
The government here is pushing for extra funds from rich carbon-emitting nations so that it can help the people of Char Atra, and elsewhere, adapt to these changes before it is too late.
It, and groups like Oxfam, will be pushing their case later this year when leaders meet in Copenhagen to thrash out a new global deal on climate change.
BBC News will return to Char Atra in a few weeks to see how its residents are coping with the arrival of the monsoon season</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Gordon Brown: Green Revolution Will Power Britain’s Recovery
July 12th, 2009 |
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wo centuries ago, Britain was at the forefront of a new industrial age that transformed our small island into the workshop of the world and a global economic powerhouse.
Texting Teen Falls Into Manhole On Staten Island
July 12th, 2009 |
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A Staten Island teen trying to text while walking fell into an open manhole – and city officials have launched an investigation.