Northern Ireland police warned that Irish Republican Army dissidents hope to overshadow the British election in the province with violence

DUBLIN  Northern Ireland police warned Friday that Irish Republican Army dissidents hope to overshadow the British election in the province with violence.Northern Ireland deputy police commander Judith Gillespie said officers would mount extra foot patrols and road checkpoints leading up to the May 6 vote amid signs dissident bombers might target polling stations, government buildings or economic centers.

“We are very alive to this possibility,” she said at Belfast police headquarters.Hours after she spoke, British Army experts dismantled a pipe bomb that had been abandoned in a hedge in an area divided between rival British Protestant and Irish Catholic districts of north Belfast. No group claimed responsibility.

Also, a road that runs past Belfast’s two main courthouses is being sealed off to traffic because of concerns that IRA dissidents could use it to plant a car bomb.Splinter groups opposed to the IRA’s 1997 cease-fire and the Catholic-Protestant government it inspired have detonated three car bombs this year, including two this month. The blasts have caused little damage and no serious casualties, but illustrate the dissidents’ growing bomb-making ability.Gillespie said the dissidents appeared most determined to kill police officers, but also hoped to mount any attack tied to the vote.”Obviously, with the election coming up, it is quite possible they will seek to maximize the impact of an attack in the run-up to that election,” Gillespie said.Northern Ireland has 18 seats in London’s House of Commons.

The British election in Northern Ireland in 2001 was marred by a drive-by shooting outside a polling station that wounded two policemen and a voter.Most IRA members renounced violence and disarmed in 2005 as part of a wider deal that propelled the IRA’s Sinn Fein party into a power-sharing government alongside the Protestant majority. The dissidents reject power-sharing because they continue to seek Northern Ireland’s abolition as a part of the United Kingdom.(AP)

Prince Charles visited Afghanistan. Charles came to the province in southern Afghanistan that the Taliban had occupied

Prince Charles visited Afghanistan. Charles came to the province in southern Afghanistan that the Taliban had occupied. One of these is a dangerous location where his son Prince Harry visited for 10 weeks in February 2008.

“When my youngest son to know at this location, as parents, we are constantly worried,” said Prince Charles, the British Army Base, Helmand, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 25, 2010.

When delivering the statement, Charles had just given a series of circular carnations in the largest British army headquarters that. Flower series dedicated to British soldiers who have died.Charles is wearing a uniform and looked exhausted several times expressed his worried for Harry. Especially when the existence of his son who had smelled the public.

With a backdrop that sense, Charles was also able to feel what the soldier’s family experienced in the UK. “Scary,” he said.Harry is supposed to be in Afghanistan for 4 months it smelled the press. Finally, only about 10 weeks, the heir to the throne of the British Empire was the third home.

Harry’s departure is the mission assignment in the front row of the conflict areas. Harry even go on foot patrol on the outskirts of town.

He also fired a few bullets as a warning to the people who are suspicious.

katrina hodge army pictures for ban on swimsuit competitions

Katrina Hodge has her way, the world’s major beauty pageants may start looking a lot different.A soldier in the British army, Hodge detained and disarmed a suspected rebel fighter with her bare hands while serving in Iraq. But she doesn’t wear combat boots and Kevlar 24-7. Lance Cpl. Hodge is also a lingerie model for La Senza and was a contestant in last year’s Miss England beauty contest. But don’t assume those two very different occupations are mutually exclusive.The soldier and model (nicknamed “Combat Barbie”) recently convinced the organizers of the Miss England pageant to drop the ever-popular swimsuit portion. In England’s Daily Telegraph, the multitalented woman remarked that posing in swimsuits just isn’t fair to the contestants.”I think it’s nerve-racking enough to girls to get up on a stage and speak, let alone in a swimsuit.”No argument here. Instead of strutting their stuff in swimsuits, the contestants will participate in a sports challenge, overseen by Hodge.The show’s organizers pointed to the change as proof that their contest is always evolving. Apparently, looking good in a swimsuit is also irrelevant, as winners are rarely asked to appear in swimwear for public events.News of the changes stirred up a lot of activity in the Yahoo! Search box. Online lookups for “katrina hodge pictures” and “katrina hodge army” both soared into breakout status. Additionally, searches on “miss world” surged an impressive 371% in just one day. Perhaps that will translate to more viewers.

Or maybe not. Back in 1994, when the Miss America contest asked viewers via a phone-in poll whether or not they thought the swimsuit portion should be discontinued, 73% of callers voted to keep it. In 2000, another poll was run, and 50% of viewers said they would no longer watch if the swimsuit portion was discontinued.

Charles Macintosh He Put the Mac in Mackintosh

Charles Macintosh

1766: Charles Macintosh, who has no connection whatsoever to the computer of the same name, is born in Glasgow, Scotland. He will be remembered in tech annals as the inventor of rubberized, waterproof clothing. He’s remembered more generally for the raincoat that bears his name.Macintosh, the son of a well-known dyemaker, developed an early interest in chemistry and science. By age 20 he was already running a plant producing ammonium chloride and Prussian blue dye. Around this time, he introduced some new techniques for dyeing cloth.In partnership with a certain Charles Tennant, Macintosh developed a dry bleaching powder that proved popular, making a fortune for both men. The powder remained the primary agent for bleaching cloth and paper into the 1920s.At the same time, though, Macintosh was experimenting with the idea of waterproofing fabric, using waste byproducts from the dye process. One byproduct he worked with was coal tar, which, when distilled, produced naphtha.

Macintosh found that naphtha — a volatile, oily liquid created in the distillation the aforementioned coal tar, as well as petroleum — could be used to waterproof fabrics. In 1823, he patented what was the first truly waterproof fabric, supple enough to be used in clothing. He produced the desired results by joining two sheets of fabric with dissolved India rubber soaked in naphtha.When this concoction of his was later used to make a flexible, waterproof raincoat, the garment quickly became known as the mackintosh. (The extraneous “k” has never been explained.) The coat came into widespread use, both by the British army and by the general public.Which is not to say it was all smooth sailing for Macintosh’s process. The fabric was vulnerable to changes in the weather, becoming stiffer in the cold and stickier in the heat. It was not especially good with wool, either, because that fabric’s natural oil caused the rubber cement to deteriorate.

Nevertheless, the waterproofing process was essentially sound and was improved and refined over time. It was considered effective enough to be used in outfitting an Arctic expedition led by 19th-century explorer Sir John Franklin.Although he enjoyed his greatest success and lasting fame for his waterproofing process, Macintosh was no one-trick pony. In his capacity as a chemist, he helped devise a hot-blast process for producing high-quality cast iron.