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Note: The following text is a quote: 09 July 2009 EGYPT ARRESTS TERRORIST CELL OF 25 MEMBERS CAIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) The Egyptian authorities have arrested a terrorist cell of 25 members, 24 Egyptians and one Palestinian, for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Suez Canal, Egyptian Interior Ministry said in statement issued on Thursday. According to the statement, the members of the cell who believe in Jihad (Holy War) were located in Cairo, Alexandria and Daqahlia governorates and communicated through internet with other terrorist groups outside Egypt. The cell's members, mostly engineers, were developing high-tech and electronic devices...

While the Erie Canal in New York may be more famous, the Illinois and Michigan Canal (I&M Canal) was just as significant argued Vickie Speek in her presentation "Mormons and the I&M Canal" last Saturday at the Mormon History Conference. And for some 19th century Mormons, this canal was triply significant as it provided economic, transportation and missionary opportunities. How did the I&M help the Mormons economically? One does not often consider the interim time between leaving Independence/Far West and the settling of Nauvoo. As converts streamed out of Ohio traveling to Missouri in 1838 they encountered those leaving...

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, April 20, 2009 – Joined by government and local leaders, the provincial reconstruction team here celebrated the completion of the Grand Canal repair project during an April 12 ribbon-cutting ceremony in Jalalabad. Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team commander Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Cabosky take turns cutting the ribbon for the Grand Canal repair project during a ceremony in Jalalabad, April 12, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Dustin Hart  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The repairs took about nine months to complete and cost $2.8...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces, local leaders and Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers participated in a ground breaking ceremony marking the widening of the Bawi Canal Jan.18 in the Salman Pak region, southeast of Baghdad. The ceremony is one of a series of ground breaking projects to improve the infrastructure of the Mada’in and Marquez Qadas to improve the quality of live for the citizens. Maj. Jason Joose, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad executive officer, welcomed Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Hussein, 45th Brigade Iraqi Army commander, Shaykh Qais, Mada’in tribal...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 2, 2008 – Iraqi civilian and military dignitaries broke ground on the Army Canal Rehabilitation Project in Baghdad’s Sadr City district yesterday. Gen. Abud Kanbar-Hashim, commander of Iraqi Operation Baghdad, shovels the first bits of dirt Dec. 1, 2008, to mark the beginning of a project to dredge and refurbish the Iraqi capital’s Army Canal. U.S. Army photo by Scott Flenner  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The ceremonial groundbreaking marked the beginning of a commitment by the Iraqi government to spend $50 million during the next three years in reconstruction efforts along the al-Kanat Road and...

Regeneration of the Biblical Dead Seaby Leslie J. Sacks Amid the constant turmoil and angst boiling over in Israel and the West Bank, at the center of the Middle East, lies the Dead Sea. [3] This salt-laden desert sea is rapidly diminishing in size as its source, the Jordan River, dries up: the Syrians (via the Yarmuk, a source for the Jordan), Israelis and Jordanians all draw an ever-increasing amount of water from this biblical tributary. [1] We think of the Dead Sea as a tourist haven for spa treatments and beauty products, as a relief for psoriasis sufferers;...

CAMP TAJI — Traffic builds while a truck struggles to make it up a sandy on-ramp as the vehicle’s driver navigates an alternate route in an attempt to bypass a damaged bridge. After some time, Iraqi Police and locals give the driver a push. The scene replayed every few minutes, frustrating military and civilian drivers alike near the city of Taji. A steep slope on the on-ramp, coupled with a lack of a hard surface, were making it hard for traffic to travel the road and causing traffic to regularly back up for half a mile. This is where the...

ON THE website of the Tennessee Republican Party is a short video in which residents of Nashville talk about the pride they feel for their country. One man, for example, mentions his esteem for the First and Second Amendments. A Vanderbilt graduate student says he was proud when Ronald Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall - "and I was prouder when it came down." A young professional woman extols the "academic and job opportunities that women have in this country." A police officer named Juan says he is proud of having immigrated to the United States,...

I am posting this important and breaking news ahead of Sacramento TV stations and The Sacramento Bee. The California Resources Agency this evening in Clarksburg, California held a meeting in which they presented their plans to "save" the vital agricultural heartland of California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. Option four of the presentation (which can be found here: http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/sdb/bdcp/bdcp_draft_scoping_meeting.pdf ) includes a PERIPHERAL CANAL starting south of Freeport in Scribner Bend and following the exact route of the proposed 1982 Peripheral Canal to the pumping stations of Clifton Court Forebay. But that's not all. Option four as presented this evening also...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2008 – U.S. 5th Fleet officials today expressed regret for the death of an Egyptian citizen who died the night of March 24, an apparent result of warning shots fired at a small boat approaching a ship chartered by the U.S. Navy. “We express our deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased,” Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, 5th Fleet commander. “We are greatly saddened by events that apparently resulted in this accidental death. This situation is tragic, and we will do our utmost to help take care of the family of the deceased.” The U.S. Navy’s...

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2008 – A ship on short-term charter to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command fired warning shots at a small boat approaching the ship as it was preparing to transit the Suez Canal last night, military officials reported. There were no reports of casualties from the ship, the Global Patriot. Officials said several boats approached the Global Patriot while it was preparing to transit the Suez Canal. The boats were hailed and warned by a native Arabic speaker on the Global Patriot to advise them to turn away. Other warning steps, including a signal flare, were used...

Canal Linking Ancient Egypt Quarry to Nile Found Steven Stanek in Cairo, Egypt for National Geographic NewsOctober 24, 2007 Experts have discovered a canal at an Aswan rock quarry that they believe was used to help float some of ancient Egypt's largest stone monuments to the Nile River. It has long been suspected that ancient workers moved the massive artifacts directly to their final destinations over waterways. Ancient artwork shows Egyptians using boats or barges to move large monuments like obelisks and statues, and canals have also been discovered at the Giza pyramids and the Luxor Temple. (Related: "Ancient Flowers...

Dubai: The city on Tuesday unveiled a 75-km canal that will reshape the southern part of Dubai and transform the massive Jebel Ali landmass into an island. New Dubai's latest mega-project, Arabian Canal, will be one of the world's biggest and most expensive engineering feats, costing $61 billion (about Dh224 billion). The giant project will be built in two parts - an $11 billion, 75km canal which will snake from the Palm Jebel Ali to the Palm Jumeirah and a $50 billion "city within a city" that will cover 20,000 hectares along the canal's southern flank. Developed by Limitless, the...

Section of ancient canal discovered northern Iran TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (MNA) -- A team of Iranian and British archaeologists have recently discovered a 50 kilometer section of an ancient canal near the Gorgan Great Wall in northern Iran’s Golestan Province. “The canal was used to transfer water from the Gorganrud River to the people who once lived in the vicinity of the wall, moats, castles, and brick kilns,” the team’s Iranian director Hamid Omrani told the Persian service of CHN on Friday. This section of canal was still in use, but for a different purpose, up until the 1979 Islamic...

Water woes in California awakened some elected officials to the need for a peripheral canal, an alternative to the state's existing water delivery system, where the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta pumps can be shut down at any time for any number of reasons. Congressman Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has become a proponent and has called for construction of an alternate water conveyance system - a peripheral canal - that would transport water supplies from Northern California to the southern regions of the state. Their unified stance intensified after the Department of Water Resources voluntarily shut down the pumps for 10 days...

New boost for planned canal between Red Sea and Dead Sea · Firms commissioned to study feasibility of link· 25-year project would ease region's water shortage Ian Black, Middle East editor Wednesday June 27, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Hopes of building a canal linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea have been given a fresh boost with 11 firms commissioned to produce feasibility studies. Their work will be submitted to an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian committee looking at ways to implement the huge engineering scheme, which could take as long as 25 years to complete. As well as reviving the rapidly shrinking...

PANAMA CANAL'S LESSON: U.S. MUST BUILD BRIDGES, NOT FENCES --- LA LECCION DEL CANAL DE PANAMA Last weekend's decision by Panama to embark on a $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal should teach a lesson to the new crowd of U.S. Latin America bashers -- often disguised as immigration control advocates on cable television networks -- about how wrong their predecessors were in one of Washington's biggest debates over Latin America ever. I'm talking about the 1977 Panama Canal treaties, which turned over full control of the canal to Panama in 2000. Read the full column here, and...

Free Trade: If there was ever a referendum the whole world could celebrate, it might be Panama's huge canal expansion, expected to pass on Sunday. From Boston to Singapore, rarely have so many stood to gain so much. When Panama's 1.7 million voters hit the "yes" button for the $5.3 billion canal expansion, they'll put their fingers on a pivotal point that changes the course of history. President Martin Torrijos called the canal's biggest upgrade since its 1914 completion "vital" to his nation and energetically persuaded his cost-conscious countrymen to approve it. .... Panamanians were skeptical at first, but now...

William T. Love came to 1890s Niagara Falls, New York, with hugely ambitious plans. The landowner and entrepreneur envisioned the creation of an enormous utopian metropolis. His city would be home to enviable industry, and housing for more than a million people. Thousands of acres would become "the most extensive and beautiful [park] in the world". He planned to power the city using hydroelectric dams on a new 11-kilometer canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers. Within a year, however, Love's plans failed, and would quickly have been forgotten if it weren't for one problem. The one part of...

PANAMA CITY, Oct 20, 2006 (AFP) - The Panama Canal is set for a major overhaul if voters Sunday approve a 5.25-billion-dollar plan to widen the strategic waterway to accommodate modern mega-ships. Proponents say the canal will reach capacity in 2012 and that its expansion is critical in the face of competition from other maritime routes. The government says the work would be financed by a hike in tolls, worth 1.2 billion dollars in 2005. Polls predict a victory of more than 70 percent in favor of the expansion in Sunday's referendum. "We are optimistic," said Rodolfo Sabonge, the director...

PANAMA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - On Oct. 22, Panamanians will head to the polls in a referendum to decide the future and possible expansion of the Panama Canal, the main economic driver of this country of three million people. The canal is expected to generate 1.4 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year, of which 560 million will go to the state coffers. According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the proposed expansion would increase these revenues to 6.23 billion dollars by 2025, boosting treasury contributions to up to 4.19 billion. If to this year's 560 million are added...

PANAMA will hold a referendum in three weeks to decide whether the Panama Canal will be expanded. However, Enrique Sanchez, manager of the Contracting Division of the Panama Canal Authority said yesterday that polls conducted across the Central American country, have shown overwhelming support for its expansion. If the project gets the green-light, it will be self financed at an estimated cost of US$5.25 billion. Gross revenue generated by the Canal for fiscal 2005/6 (fiscal year ends September 30, 2006), reached US$1.4 billion, with the Panamanian Government netting approximately US$600 million of that figure. "The Panama Canal has turned out...

This view is expressed in a new study that has forecast North American container port demand nearly double in 10 years with most pressure falling on Pacific Coast ports. UK-based Ocean Shipping Consultants predicts demand to increase by up to 85 per cent to 85.7m TEU over 2005-15, and by a further 31 percent to 112.3m TEU over 2015-20. Even an increased-risk/protectionist scenario, incorporating a significant downturn in GDP expansion over 2011-15, would yield a container port demand increase of 55 percent to 71.8m TEU over 2005-15, with 25 percent growth over 2015-20, to 89.7m TEU In its report Containerport...

A late 19th century idea has been resurrected to build a new canal in Nicaragua, at the same time Panama is planning to widen its own canal. Nicaraguan officials say next week they will announce their $20 billion proposal to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use the Panama Canal, according to the Los Angeles Times. If it meets with the necessary approval by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, Lindolfo Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, told the...

Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami. In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a...

USS IWO JIMA , At Sea (NNS) -- USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and USS Nashville (LPD 13), both assigned to the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), successfully and safely transited the Suez Canal, Aug. 20. As part of Commander, Task Force 59, both ships, and Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)) provided crucial departure assistance to American citizens in Lebanon looking to leave the troubled region. USS Cole (DDG 67) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) remained on station off Lebanon, ready to provide additional assistance as needed. “Every Sailor and Marine...

USS IWO JIMA, At Sea (NNS) -- The Iwo Jima (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) passed through the Suez Canal, July 4, entering the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO). The ESG will conduct maritime security operations (MSO) throughout the region and support further tasking from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). “We're ready to begin our taskings in support of [MSO],” said Capt. Sinclair M. Harris, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 4. “Our months of training will be used to support [U.S. Naval Forces Central Command].” MSO help set the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment,...

Sewage pumping Into canal A Honolulu man is near death after falling into waters contaminated by the massive sewage spill in the Ala Wai Canal. His friends said they are convinced the polluted water in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor made him sick. How the man went into the dirty Ala Wai Harbor is not clear. It happened last week. There may have been some kind of altercation. However, he is gravely ill now with a flesh-eating bacteria infection, according to his friends. Oliver Johnson, 34, was fit and healthy, a surfer and runner.Thursday night he was walking near...

A $59 million jail featuring art and flat screen TVs in Portland, Ore., has been sitting unused for more than a year as the city can't afford to open it. The Wapato Facility took two years to construct and can house 525 inmates at a cost of $20 million per year, .... The county spent more than $600,000 on art for the jail, including a sculpture out front by the circular driveway. There are 30-foot vaulted ceilings and private showers. "I love coming to an empty $59-million jail," Giusto told the Los Angeles Times. "I get tired of telling people...

The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu-Musa Islands are situated near the Straight of Hurmuz in the Persian Gulf, south of Iran. The Lesser Tunb is 22 miles from the mainland of Iran. The Lesser Tunb is 17 miles from the Iranian land. Both of them are not able to sustain living and they had never inhabitants. Abu- Musa is the home for a limited number of people (less than 50 households). The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu-Musa Islands have been part of Iran since the times immemorial. In the Nineteenth Century, they were parts of the "Lengheh Territory"...

Some of the trucks, front-end loaders, and giant back-hoes provided by the Non-Construction Sector for ongoing maintenance of the Sweet Water Canal in southern Iraq. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division photo. Canal Projects Deliver Water, Self-sufficiency Work to ensure the Sweet Water Canal water quality and reliability also provides local Iraqis the tools necessary to maintain this resource. By Denise CalabriaGulf Region DivisionU.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005 — Due to the desert-like climate and high salinity of water in southern Iraq, two million residents of Basrah have long relied upon the...

New Orleans Levee Failure Analysis - Part V Contents Introduction and Basic Levee Construction, Section and Elevation Details Section 1. Pre-Landfall Flooding in Kenner and Western Metairie of East Jefferson Parish Section 2. Analysis of the 17th Street and London Canal Breaches and Post Katrina Flood Sequence in Downtown New Orleans Section 3. Surge Sequence for the Industrial Canal Basin, Analysis of the Five Major Breaches and east Orleans Parish Flooding Section 4. Flood Sequence for St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward, MRGO Reach Failure Analysis Section 5. Contributory Causality, Political and Funding Issues Leading to Levee Failures...

This is part four of a five part series examining the Hurricane Katrina levee failures. Part 1 is a timeline sequence of who reported what flood events, to whom, and when it was reported. It can be found here: Part I: Hurricane Katrina Flood Report Sequence Part 2 is a discussion of the levee system's viability, or lack thereof, prior to Hurricane Katrina. It can be found here: Part II: Pre-Katrina Levee Assessment Part 3 is a discussion of the overall storm surge sequence, levee failure modes, and causal limitations relating to the 17th Street Canal and London Canal seawall...

I am trying to help a friend write an article, but we need a graphic that we both once saw. Does anyone know of a map that shows the location of Chinese owned ports in the western hemisphere that they have taken over in the last 10 years?

ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- Sheriff investigators have identified the body of a woman found in a suitcase floating in a ditch Saturday afternoon and have arrested a Fort Pierce man for allegedly killing his former girlfriend. Investigators identified the body as Joanne Banks, 45, of Port St. Lucie. Detectives arrested Francis Shevlin, 72, of Fort Pierce, less than 12 hours after her body was discovered, reports show.

A scheme to make the shallow strait between India and Sri Lanka navigable has upset environmentalists and the port of Colombo. To its supporters, it is a dream project, no less than the “Suez of the east”; to its opponents it is an environmental catastrophe. Either way, plans to dredge a channel in the seabed between India and Sri Lanka will be controversial, and could alter maritime and military operations in the Indian Ocean. The $400m project, called the Sethusamudram Ship Canal, involves digging a 152km, 300m-wide channel through the Palk Strait, a shallow stretch of sea separating the south...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...

LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. - An alien species of catfish has been caught in the Delaware Raritan Canal, prompting fears among environmental officials that the voracious predator could devastate native catfish, sunfish and some sturgeon populations the way it has in southeastern states. "The threat of the flathead is significant," Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell said in a statement Wednesday. "Anglers should report any catches or sightings of this fish to the Department." In the southeast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the flathead as its highest priority among invasive animal species, the DEP reported. Flatheads, which...

Europe - AP U.S. Criticizes Danube Canal Project WASHINGTON - The State Department criticized Ukraine on Monday for pushing ahead with a shipping canal project along the Danube River despite an international outcry over the possible environmental consequences. Spokesman Adam Ereli said the Bush administration had publicly criticized the project in May as it was getting under way. Since then, "construction has continued unabated on the canal," Ereli said, noting that protests have come from governments of Germany, Romania and the European Union (news - web sites), as well as the World Conservation Union and the World Wildlife Fund. "We...

Palestinian sources report large IDF forces in the southern Gaza Strip ahead of expected operations to widen the Philadelphia corridor, after the High COurt rejected petitions by 13 Palestinian residents in Rafah against the destruction of houses in Palestinian Rafah, reported channel one news Sunday evening. The IDF revealed plans Sunday to create a 60 meter wide underground canal, 20 meters deep that is aimed at preventing the forging of arms-smuggling tunnels from the Egyptian side of Rafah to the Palestinian side. This is one option to widening the Philadelphia Corridor, reported Channel 2 news Sunday. The army is considering...

NORFOLK -- All eyes are on the Panama Canal. The authority that oversees that system of locks and channels must decide in coming years whether to expand the canal, so ever-larger container ships can squeeze through. And if the answer is yes, the cargo business will be in for some big changes. Large ships that now make runs between Asia and the deep-water West Coast ports like Los Angeles and Seattle would suddenly have an efficient route to the Eastern Seaboard. Going through Panama would be much quicker than going around South America's Cape Horn or going the other way...

<p>COHOES, N.Y. — In its 19th-century heyday, pioneers, immigrants and cargo swarmed the Erie Canal, a bustling gateway that opened up the country's heartland and the West. When the canal faded from prominence at the turn of the past century, a myth arose that it had been destroyed.</p>

Nicaraguan dream to rival Panama's trade route Price of Central American ambition: $25bn and 10 years' construction over 175 miles Rupert Widdicombe in Managua Monday October 20, 2003 The Guardian (UK) Multi-billion dollar plans to create a rival to the 90-year-old Panama canal by linking a network of rivers and cutting through the jungle of central America are being backed by the goverment of Nicaragua. The new waterway - being proposed by a public private partnership called the Grand Canal Foundation - will cost an estimated $25bn (£15bn) and take 10 years to build. Its proponents say it would turn...

Marine who drowned in helicopter crash in Iraq was from Beaver Dam Associated Press Last Updated: May 20, 2003 A Marine who died Monday after he jumped into a canal trying to reach victims of a helicopter crash in Iraq was from Beaver Dam, Wis. Kirk Straseskie, 23, died Monday after a Sea-Knight helicopter crashed into a canal shortly after takeoff in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Four Marines on the helicopter were killed, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. Two Marines on the canal's banks jumped into the water to help, and one died trying, the...

Archaeologists unearth 1,700 year-old canal system near Lake Okeechobee By Rhonda Miller sun-sentinel.com Posted June 6 2002, 6:17 PM EDT ORTONA – Archaeologists on Thursday said they have uncovered a sophisticated 1,700 year-old canal system and a huge pond dug by ancient Indians near this tiny town, located west of Lake Okeechobee. The canal site is so important that it could rival the discovery four years ago of the mysterious Miami Circle ruins near downtown Miami, one expert said. Ortona, population 500, is located on Route 78 and is 13 miles west of Moore Haven. The town is sited just...