The Death toll rises to 11 in flooding in Europe

WARSAW, Poland  The death toll in flooding in central Europe rises to 11 as Poland’s interior minister said Sunday that two more people had died in the southwestern region of the country.The flooding has struck an area near the borders of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.Heavy rains in Poland caused flooding in the southwestern town of Bogatynia and one person was already reported dead on Saturday.In the northern Czech Republic, five people were found drowned over the weekend.

Another three people drowned in the eastern German state of Saxony on Saturday. Several roads and villages there were flooded by swelling Neisse river and hundreds of people were evacuated with rubber boats by rescue workers from their homes in the city of Goerlitz.Polish Interior Minister Jerzy Miller refused to give details about the three deaths in his country because he said he wasn’t yet sure if their relatives had all been informed.

The worst-hit town in Poland was Bogatynia, where a bridge was destroyed and many were left without electricity and running water.It is the third time this year that Poland has been affected by flooding. A first wave in May was the most severe. It caused widespread damage to homes and killed more than 20 people.

In the Czech Republic, at least a thousand people had to be evacuated Saturday, some from areas below two dams threatened by rising waters. People in the towns of Chrastava and Frydlant were rescued by police and military helicopters from the roofs of their homes.Three summer camps for children were evacuated.(AP)

Helen Thomas / bulldog 1950 – 2010 stop of journalists

For the ten leaders of the United States (U.S.) who have inhabited the White House including the current president, Barack Obama – Helen Thomas is the name of a journalist who dared to speak out frankly and critically ask. However, after about 50 years as a correspondent at the White House, Thomas’s sudden retirement. Journalist who has 89-year-old announced his resignation as a correspondent for the Hearst News Service in the White House, Monday, June 7, 2010. The resignation followed a scathing criticism of Thomas’s comments against Israel, which turned out to offend Jewish people.

“Tell them to get out of Palestine. Remember, the people in that country was conquered and their land,” Thomas said in a videotape aired Breitbart.tv pages. The incident occurred on May 27, 2010 in a Jewish community event outside the White House. According to the daily page of the Huffington Post, Thomas’s controversial remarks when asked for opinions by a rabbi. When asked again where the people of Israel must go, Thomas casually replied, “They must return to their places of origin, to Poland, Germany … American, or other places.” Later, descendants of Lebanese journalist was expressed regret at the same time apologizing for his comments about Israel and Palestine.

However, what is meretricious, comments Thomas already reaped a storm of criticism from many quarters, including from the White House. According to the Associated Press, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Thomas comments as an insult. Even his fellow reporters the White House said the comments were not worth Thomas brought up.

Thomas scathing comments about Israel soon spread on the internet. Offended parties canceled the contract a number of projects involving Thomas. Tail, he is mentioned to have to resign as a columnist for Hearst News Service. It was unclear whether the resignation was then made Thomas is no longer covering the White House or can be re-engaged in different media. Because, Thomas clearly was too senile to start a new career.

Nevertheless, the White House has become an integral part of Thomas’s career. His name was even printed permanently below normal stool she sat in the press room at the office of the U.S. presidency. Before retiring, Thomas regarded as the most senior journalists at the White House. He has covered the activities of the U.S. presidency since the days of the late Dwight Eisenhower in the late 1950s.

Thomas, who always sat in the front seat during a press conference and frequently asked questions that upset the leader of the United States, joined United Press International (UPI) in 1943 and began covering the White House in 1960. Thanks to its persistent and often ask critical questions, Thomas called a “bulldog” UPI. Through fierce competition, she became the first woman into the White House bureau chief for UPI in 1974.

In addition to being a pioneer of women in journalism, Thomas is also included in the management ranks of the National Press Club, which had banned women become members. Thomas joined Hearst in 2000. “Helen was like a vacuum cleaner of information,” says writer Kay Mills, who wrote the book “A Place in the News: From the Women’s Pages to the Front Page.”

“He always made sure already possess all the information,” said Mills. “Say he’s covered the Kennedy and Jackie’s birthday party one of their children. I tell you, he’s got every information needed.” During this time, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants was not conceal his view that the pro-Arab. During George W. Bush became president, almost all of the questions that Thomas always posed regarding the Iraq war.

Three people were killed and hundreds were evacuated in southern Poland after torrential rain led to flooding along the Vistula River

KRAKOW, Poland, May 17 Three people were killed and hundreds were evacuated in southern Poland after torrential rain led to flooding along the Vistula River, authorities said.Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski declared a state of emergency Sunday night as the river rose almost 30 inches above emergency levels, Poland.pl reported.Further upstream from the city, levels reached almost 50 inches above flood stage, the Web site said.

One of those killed was a fireman who suffered a heart attack during a mission to rescue another man who was reported missing after jumping into the river in an attempt to save his son, officials said.The heavy rain in the region is forecast to last through Friday. More than 8,000 troops are on standby with specialist equipment to aid in rescue efforts, Poland.pl reported.(UPI)

Soldiers from four NATO countries marched for the first time in Russia's annual Victory Day parade

MOSCOW, May 9 Soldiers from four NATO countries marched for the first time in Russia’s annual Victory Day parade marking the victory in World War II, observers said.Troops from Britain, France, Poland and the United States marched alongside 10,000 Russian forces while about two dozen world leaders attended the 65th anniversary, the BBC reported Sunday. The parade also featured tanks, ballistic missiles and a fly-over of 127 aircraft.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told spectators lessons from World War II “urge us to show solidarity.””Peace is still fragile and it is our duty to remember that wars do not start in an instant,” Medvedev said. “It is only together that we shall be able to counter modern threats.”

Victory Day parades involving more than 102,000 service personnel and more than 200,000 veterans were conducted in 36 Russian cities, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.Medvedev said the march on the Red Square “symbolizes our readiness to defend peace, to prevent the revision of the results of the war, to prevent new tragedies.”(UPI)

17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland

A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spread out across Europe on Friday causing air travel chaos on a scale not seen since the September 11 attacks.About 17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland, aviation officials said. Airports in Britain, France, Germany, and across Europe were closed until at least Saturday.”I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11,” said a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s aviation regulator.”In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11. The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve probably seen.”

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.

Vulcanologists say the ash could cause problems to air traffic for up to 6 months if the eruption continues, but even if it is short-lived the financial impact on airlines could be significant.The fallout hit airlines’ shares on Friday with Lufthansa, British Airways, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM, Iberia and Ryanair down between 0.8 and 2.2 percent.The International Air Transport Association said only days ago that airlines were just coming out of recession.

“LIMITED COMMERCIAL SIGNIFICANCE”

The flight cancellations would cost carriers such as British Airways and Lufthansa about 10 million pounds ($16.04 million) a day, transport analyst Douglas McNeill said.

“To lose that sum of money isn’t a very pleasant experience but it’s of limited commercial significance as well,” he told BBC TV. “A couple of days like this won’t matter too much. If it goes on for weeks, that’s a different story.”The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, hurling a plume of ash 6 to 11 km (4 to 7 miles) into the atmosphere.Officials said it was still spewing magma and although the eruption could abate in the coming days, ash would continue drifting into the skies of Europe.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverized rock that can damage engines and airframes.

In 1982 a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding toward the ground before it was able to restart its engines.The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds.

Of the 28,000 flights that usually travel through European airspace on an average day, European aviation control agency Eurocontrol said it expected only 11,000 to operate on Friday while only about a third of transatlantic flights were arriving.The British Meteorological Office showed the cloud drifting south and west over Europe. Eurocontrol warned problems would continue for at least another 24 hours and an aviation expert at the World Meteorological Organization said it was impossible to say when flights would resume.”We can only predict the time that flights will resume after the eruption has stopped, but for as long as the eruption is still going on and still leading to a significant eruption, we cannot say,” said Scylla Sillayo, a senior official in the WMO’s aeronautical meteorology unit.

AIRSPACE CLOSED

Britain’s air traffic control body said all English airspace would be closed until 8 p.m. EDT on Friday although certain flights from Northern Ireland and Scottish airports were being allowed to take off until 1800 GMT.”When the experts give us the all-clear we’ll get the operation back up and running,” Paul Haskins, head of safety at National Air Traffic Service, told BBC radio.

There were no flights from London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, which handles some 180,000 passengers a day, while officials at Germany’s Frankfurt airport, Europe’s second busiest, said flights would be suspended from 2 a.m. EDT.Around 2,000 people slept overnight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a spokeswoman said, adding they did not expect airspace in the Netherlands to reopen soon.

Eurocontrol said airspace was closed over Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of the Czech Republic, northern France including all Paris airports, and at airports in northern Germany, Austria and parts of Poland.

Polish officials said if the disruption continued, it might force a delay in Sunday’s funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife who were killed in a plane crash last Saturday.Airlines across Asia and the Middle East have also canceled or delayed flights to most European destinations.

However, as the ash plume drifted south over Europe, Irish officials said most of the airspace over Ireland had reopened.The air problems have proved a boon for rail companies. All 58 Eurostar trains between Britain and Europe were operating full, carrying some 46,500 passengers, and a spokeswoman said they would consider adding services if problems persisted.(Reuters)