GAZA — Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second successive day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after 229 people were killed in one of the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state. ‘Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre,’ said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his Islamist group, which has controlled the coastal territory since June 2007, vowed revenge including suicide bombings in Israel’s ‘cafes and streets.’ Israel bolstered armored and infantry forces along the Gaza Strip border, and a military spokesman said on Sunday: ‘The (Gaza) operation is continuous. It is still taking place.’ The Jewish state said it was responding to ‘intolerable’ almost daily rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants that intensified after Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago. The militant attacks caused some injuries, raising the stakes for Israeli leaders ahead of a February 10 election which surveys show the right-wing opposition Likud party may win. Israel said its warplanes mounted about 100 strikes on Saturday and that Palestinian militants had fired some 70 rockets at the Jewish state, killing one Israeli man. ‘There is a time for […]
The Secret Service agent in Kansas City peered hard at a counterfeit $100 bill, ran a finger over it and grimaced in disgust. It was bad, ugly work. ‘Too slick, too, said Charles Green, special agent in charge. More counterfeiters are using today’s ink-jet printers, computers and copiers to make money that’s just good enough to pass, he said, even though their product is awful. In the past, he said, the best American counterfeiters were skilled printers who used heavy offset presses to turn out decent 20s, 50s and 100s. Now that kind of work is rare and almost all comes from abroad. Among American thieves, the 22-year veteran said sadly, ‘it’s a lost art. But as art fades, greed goes on. Ink-jet counterfeiting is thriving. Part of the problem, Green said, is that the government has changed the money so much to foil counterfeiting. With all the new bills out there, citizens and even many police officers don’t know what they’re supposed to look like. Moreover, many people see paper money less because they use credit or debit cards. The result: Ink-jet counterfeiting accounted for 60 percent of $103 million […]
Egypt made preparations Friday for an expected IDF operation in Gaza by reinforcing security along its border with the Strip. Egyptian security forces are concerned that an IDF operation would lead to an attempt by Gazans to break through the Rafah border crossing, AFP reported. Meanwhile, although Israel stepped up its threatening rhetoric against them, Gaza terrorists intensified their attacks, firing at least 25 mortar shells at the South overnight Thursday and early Friday, one of which hit a building in the Eshkol region. No one was wounded in the attacks, but the building was damaged. Despite the mortar shell fire, Israel allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza on Friday morning. The IDF said approximately 90 trucks delivered medicine, fuel, cooking gas and other vital goods into Gaza. The shipment included a large donation of goods from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s wife as well as more than 400,000 liters of fuel and 200 tons of natural gas, the military said. Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided Thursday to open the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings to allow the transfer of the humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The shipment was originally scheduled to enter Gaza on Wednesday but […]
MOSCOW and NEW YORK — Russia is bracing for further unrest as the rouble on Friday slid to a new low against the euro after a succession of moves to devalue its currency. A cut on Friday extended six weeks of devaluations by Russia’s central bank designed to offset the impact of the global economic crisis and falling oil prices as the country’s main export commodity approached its lowest level since 2004. Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, warned Russia faced ‘unprecedentedly difficult and dangerous circumstances and could be ‘heading into a black hole. ‘It is not clear what the fate of our rouble will be or if society has sufficient financial and moral resources, he said. After the depreciation, which was the eighth so far this month, the rouble declined as much as 1.2 per cent to Rbs29.06 versus the dollar on Friday, a four year low. The rouble has now lost nearly 20 per cent of its value against the US currency since August. Analysts at Barclays Capital said the best case scenario would see Russian policymakers, facing the mounting evidence of a recession, allowing a one-off depreciation of 10 per cent or more. […]
A new vehicle arrives to break an old record THE early days of motoring produced a three-horseless race, as it were. To start with, electric and steam-powered vehicles outsold those with newfangled internal-combustion engines. However, the invention of the starter motor and the longer range of the petrol- and diesel-powered models eventually gave those vehicles the edge, and electric and steam-powered cars drifted into obscurity. Now, with the benefit of advanced electronics and lightweight batteries, electric cars are staging a comeback. Could steam cars do the same? This week, a group of engineers known as the British Steam Car Challenge have been completing the initial test runs of a 7.7-metre (25-foot) steam car which they hope will travel at more than 274kph (170mph). Early next year they will ship it to America for high-speed testing. Eventually, they hope to beat the land-speed record for steam cars. The existing record, 205kph, was set in 1906 by Fred Marriott, driving a souped-up version of a production vehicle called a Stanley Steamer. To beat it, the Challengers have to make two high-speed runs within an hour, which means turning their vehicle around rapidly, refilling it with water and firing up […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
