Free Republic

Concluded Thursday in Jeddah, experts and specialists from the countries of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden a regional meeting to prepare a regional plan to keep the sharks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from extinction Meeting prepared by the regional body to maintain the environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, whose membership includes countries bordering the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and take the city of Jeddah-based. He warned the Secretary General of the Professor Ziad Bin Hamza [Abu Ghararah] to the sharks in the region has been in recent decades...

In January 2009, ICR received a copy of a recent ministry letter published by television personality Dr. John Ankerberg. For many years, Dr. Ankerberg has skillfully tackled tough issues related to the church, society, the Middle East, and other topics of interest to believers. Christians everywhere need to be informed, challenged, and also taught sound doctrine—there is no substitute for the Bible. However, the January letter from Dr. Ankerberg’s television ministry reveals a dangerous trend toward subjugating the accuracy, understandability, and authority of the Bible to the foolish musings of men—namely, scientists who deny that God’s revelation in the book...

AN Iranian freighter carrying weaponry for Hamas has been blocked by Egypt from entering the Suez Canal, amid concerns that Tehran is trying to supply the Palestinian militant group with missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv. Reports yesterday said Israel was closely tracking the ship, which is docked in the Red Sea outside the Suez Canal after Cairo refused to permit it to cross the waterway to the Mediterranean. The stand-off comes after a report to the Israeli Defence Ministry from the Pentagon said the US Navy had boarded another Iranian vessel and said it was carrying artillery shells and...

"Sir, you have done India proud." That was how the anchorman of a television channel in Delhi addressed the Indian navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, on the victorious sea battle by warship INS Tabar with would-be hijackers as dusk was falling on Tuesday evening in the Gulf of Aden. Those words would have made Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century British navigator and slaver-politician of the Elizabethan era, truly envious. Sir Francis had bigger claims to fame in a life cut short by dysentery while attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1595. Unsurprisingly, the patriotic Indian media dutifully expressed its gratitude...

<p>Some of the high-tech, gadget-loaded planes that could be used in a campaign against Iraq include the EA-6B Prowler (above).</p> <p>August 13, 2002 -- The U.S. Navy is seeking to charter a large ship to carry military helicopters and ammunition from the United States to two ports in the Red Sea, shipping brokers said yesterday.</p>

Osama Bin Laden's brother plans Africa-Arabia bridge By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent Last Updated: 5:52pm GMT 24/02/2008 Osama bin Laden's half-brother is planning to build the world's second longest bridge to connect Africa and Arabia with a six-lane motorway and a railway. Click to enlarge: The bridge would span the 18 mile stretch across the narrowest part of the Red Sea Tarek Bin Laden has been wooing the governments of Djibouti and Yemen with his £35bn idea to bridge the 18 mile span across the narrowest stretch of the Red Sea. Djibouti's prime minister said there was growing excitement...

TORONTO: A volcano has erupted on a tiny island off the coast of Yemen, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air, a Canadian naval vessel near the island in the Red Sea reported. The Yemeni government asked NATO to assist in searching for survivors. Ken Allan, a Navy Public Affairs with the Canadian Armed Forces, said a NATO fleet just outside the territorial waters of the island Jazirt Atta-Ir reported seeing a "catastrophic volcanic eruption" at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) Sunday. The 2-mile-long (3-kilometer-long) island is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) off the coast of...

The US has issued Eritrea with its strongest warning yet over its alleged support for terrorism. A senior US official said the presence of an exiled Somali Islamist leader in Asmara this week was further evidence Eritrea gave sanctuary to terrorists. The gathering of further intelligence could lead to Eritrea being named as a state sponsor of terrorism - followed by sanctions, the official said. The Eritrean government has accused the US of deliberate distortion. A full scale war of words is now going on between Eritrea and the United States. The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs,...

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...

Eritrea aims to become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone to ensure balanced and sustainable development, officials said Tuesday. The Red Sea state intends to protect all of its 1,350-kilometer (837-mile) coastline, along with another 1,950-kilometers (1,209-miles) of coast around its more than 350 islands, according to a draft coastal policy document. "Eritrea will be the first country in the world to declare its entire coastline a protected area," said Dr Michael Pearson, an environment management specialist working with a group that has pushed the proposal. He and the Eritrea...

THE greatest story ever told has acquired a Hollywood twist. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, is the executive producer of a new documentary that claims to have uncovered fresh evidence confirming one of the most dramatic episodes in the Old Testament — the parting of the Red Sea and the Jewish exodus from Egypt. In The Exodus Decoded, a 90-minute documentary that will be shown in America this month, Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, the Canadian film producer, claim a volcanic eruption on the Greek archipelago of Santorini triggered a chain of natural catastrophes recorded in the Bible as the...

THE Red Sea is parting in a way that could create a new ocean basin and redraw the map of Africa and Arabia. A huge rift that appeared last year along a fault in the Afar desert in Ethiopia, where the African and Arabian tectonic plates meet, has provided the strongest indication yet of how the plates are separating to create a new sea. Geologists believe that they are witnessing a tectonic process similar to the one that formed the Atlantic Ocean, as adjacent plates push apart over millions of years to alter the shape of the continents. While the...

The Red Sea is parting again, but this time Moses doesn’t have a hand in it. Satellite images show that the Arabian tectonic plate and the African plate are moving away from each other, stretching the Earth's crust and widening the southern end of the Red Sea, scientists reported in this week's issue of journal Nature. Last September, a series of earthquakes started splitting the planet's surface along a 37-mile section of the East African Rift in Afar, Ethiopia. Using the images gathered by the European Space Agency's Envisat radar satellite, researchers looked at satellite data before and after these...

THE captain of a sister ship rejected a plea for help from the Egyptian Red Sea ferry that sank with the loss of about 1,000 lives in order to avoid a “second catastrophe”. Salah Jomaa said that the crew of the stricken Al Salam Boccaccio 98 had radioed his vessel, which was plying the same route in the opposite direction, to ask if he could turn back and mount a rescue effort.

06 February 2006 20:15 The sinking of an Egyptian ferry in the Red Sea three days ago is continuing to have violent repercussions. This morning relatives of some of the 1,400 people on board set fire to El Salam Maritime's offices in Safaga. Police used tear gas to drive away the people who had congregated outside the offices.

Survivors of the Red Sea ferry disaster said its captain fled the burning ship by lifeboat and abandoned them to their fate, as hopes faded on Saturday of finding some 800 missing. Some passengers plucked alive from the sea or from boats after the ferry caught fire and sank early on Friday said crew had told them not to worry about a fire below deck and even ordered them to take off lifejackets.

Most of 1,400 on Doomed Ferry Feared Lost By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer An aging ferry sank in the choppy waters of the Red Sea on Friday with more than 1,400 people on board, mainly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia. Most were feared lost but officials said at least 314 made it to safety. A spokesman for President Hosni Mubarak said the ferry did not have enough lifeboats, and questions were raised about the safety of the 35-year-old, refitted ship that was weighed down with 220 cars as well as the passengers. "It's a roll-on, roll-off ferry, and...

The pictures I've seen of this ferry make it look to me like it has had the addition of three or four decks behind and above the wheelhouse. If this is in fact true, the ship would have higher windage and potentially a higher center of gravity as well. this would greatly increase the danger of capsizing in rough seas or strong winds. The apparent additions are not of the same style/design as the lower parts of the ship.

CAIRO, Egypt -- An Egyptian passenger ship carrying about 1,300 people sank in the Red Sea overnight during bad weather, and rescue ships arriving at the scene Friday pulled dozens of bodies from the water, an official said. At least 12 survivors were rescued, some in lifeboats. The ferry "Al Salaam Boccaccio 98" in Suez in this Nov. 25, 1999 file photo. The Egyptian Maritime Authority said that the "Salaam 98" passenger ship carrying 1,300 people sank 40 miles off the Egyptian port of Hurghada. Helicopters have spotted bodies as well as one lifeboat carrying three people in the vicinity...

A cruise ship carrying 1300 passengers in the Red Sea has been reported disappeared from radar by Egyptian authorities. No other details....

The early morning news anchor on CBS in Boston read a breaking news report, just off the wires, that a Red Sea cruise ship with 1300 people had vanished off radar....

KFI Los Angeles reported in its 2 a.m. newscast that an Egyptian cruise ship carrying 1300 persons has "disappeared from radar screens" in the Red Sea. No other details were available.

I hope that you all enjoy reading about my family's trip as much as I enjoyed the trip itself. Most of all I would like to emphasize how important it is that we as human beings must continue to travel in order to better understand one another and have a greater appreciation for the gift of life. Travel is where we truly meet ourselves. We remember what we must in order to endure, says the philosopher Henri Bergson. That is why so much of commonplace existence is forgotten, while our journeys never are. Now that I got that out...

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, Aug. 18, 2005 – Call it the prototype for a new method of warfare. The Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, headquartered here, is fighting the global war on terror with good deeds, not weapons. Task force commander Marine Maj. Gen. Timothy Ghormley very proudly tells one and all that no one in his command has "fired a shot in anger," but the command may have prevented hundreds of young men and women in the region from embracing the terrorist philosophy. "My combat forces are doctors, veterinarians, engineers and dentists," Ghormley said during an interview at...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has issued an alert of a strike against Western shipping in the Red Sea. The State Department has posted a warning for Americans to avoid cruises or travel in the Red Sea. The department has raised the prospect of piracy near the coast of Yemen or Somalia. "This Public Announcement is being updated to alert Americans to ongoing security concerns in the region, including for seaborne vessels traveling in the southern Red Sea," the Aug. 4 announcement said. "U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps...

Amateur historian Su San has created an enormous controversy with claims of Chinese ancestors were from the Red Sea area and human civilization began in the Middle East and North Africa. These two stunning conclusions have been put forward in two recently published books, and critics and readers have wasted no time in their attack. "They call my books nonsense," says 40-year-old Su, a Henan Province native. "They just can't bear to think there's a Western ancestor for Chinese." With a bachelor's degree on English literature and a master's degree on economics, Su previously worked for a foreign company and...

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- Saudi Arabia has concluded a naval exercise with Pakistan. Saudi officials said the two Islamic allies ended their Naseem Al Behr maneuvers on March 2 with a live fire exercise in the Arabian Sea. The annual exercise included the firing of missiles from naval frigates and fighter-jets. A Pakistani naval statement said the missiles fired during the exercise hit their targets. The statement said unspecified Saudi naval vessels and all units from the Pakistani Navy participated. Officials said the naval exercise included the Saudi naval vessel Jalalat-Al-Malek as well as mine-sweepers and patrol boats from the...

Study: Red Sea Parting Possible By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Feb. 2, 2004 ? The parting of the Red Sea and the subsequent escape of thousands of Jewish slaves, which is described in the Bible's book of Exodus, can be explained by science, according to two Russian researchers. The study, published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is one of the first to examine the event using oceanography, weather patterns, and mathematical calculations. Naum Volzinger, senior researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of Oceanology, and colleague Alexei Androsov of Hamburg, determined that a reef runs from Egypt...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Russian mathematicians have determined the legendary parting of the Red Sea that let the Jews flee Egypt was possible, the Moscow Times reported. The study, published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, focused on a reef that runs from the documented spot where the Jews escaped Egypt, which in Biblical times, was much closer to the surface, according to Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanology, and a colleague based in Hamburg, Alexei Androsov. The mathematicians calculated the "strong east wind that blew all that night"...

A Russian mathematician says he's come up with a logical explanation for Moses' parting of the waves. Naum Wolzinger says it had more to do with the changing of the tide than divine intervention. The scene where Moses parts the waves and leads the Israelites across the Red Sea is one of the most well known stories in the Bible. But Mr Wolzinger, from St Petersburg, said it was not a miracle. He says there is a riff six or seven metres under the water that runs from one bank of the Gulf of Suez to the other at the...

French Find Possible Egypt Crash Black Box Signal By Opheera McDoom SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - French divers may have detected a signal from the flight recorder of an Egyptian plane which crashed into the Red Sea, but French sources could not confirm an Egyptian report that the device had been found. Reuters Photo (Reuters Video)   The "black boxes," which record technical data about the flight and conversations between pilots, should help explain what caused the crash, which killed all 148 people on board, including 133 French tourists. Once they are sure of the location, French salvage experts plan...

France sends submarine to aid Red Sea search January 04 2004 at 12:21PM Sharm El-Sheikh - France sent a submarine robot and a warship to join an Egyptian-led search for the remains of a Paris-bound plane that plunged into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard. Egyptian navy ships, aided by Italian warships in the area, pursued their search of a broad area off the resort at Sharm el-Sheikh where the charter plane crashed before dawn on Saturday. On Sunday, the Egyptian police closed a popular tourist bay to all vessels other than those involved in the search. France's naval...

A charter jet full of French tourists returning home after vacations in Egypt crashed into the Red Sea early Saturday, killing all 148 people aboard after an apparent mechanical failure, officials said. Searchers spent the day circling the waters in small boats looking for survivors but found only bodies, body parts and debris, including suitcases, shoes, life preservers and small bits of plane wreckage. Swimsuit-clad tourists watched the search efforts from the beach. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Moshe Katzav, and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz sent their condolences to the Egyptian and French governments. In France and Egypt, distraught family...

Egypt Plane Crash Kills 148; Technical Fault Blamed By Ruben Sprich Reuters Saturday, January 3, 2004; 7:15 AM SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - An Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner carrying 135 mostly French tourists crashed into the Red Sea off the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday and a rescue team member said there were no survivors. "The initial indications are that it was a technical fault, but that is only preliminary," Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary-General Hassan Abo Ghanima told Reuters. He had said earlier: "There is no sign of terrorism." The plane, operated by the Egyptian company Flash Airlines,...

Local news just flashed that an Egypt Airliner has crashed in Egypt... Reporting majority of ~135 passengers are French tourists....

MUCH ABOUT HISTORY Pharaoh's chariots found in Red Sea? 'Physical evidence' of ancient Exodus prompting new look at Old Testament -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 21, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joe Kovacs © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." (Exodus 14:21) One of the most famous stories of the Bible is God's parting of the Red Sea to save the Israelites from the Egyptian army and the subsequent...

Some of America's prickliest Arab allies, notably Saudi Arabia, gave much more support for the war in Iraq than was admitted in public, it was disclosed yesterday. Officially Saudi rulers merely permitted the US air force to use a command and control centre at Prince Sultan air base and allowed American aircraft to enforce the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq. In reality, official sources told the Washington Post, at least 10,000 US troops passed through Saudi Arabia. US special forces, ostensibly on standby for search-and-rescue operations, were allowed to cross from northern Saudi Arabia into western Iraq, where they seized...

Submarine USS Toledo Heads Home From Iraq .c The Associated Press GROTON, Conn. (AP) - The submarine USS Toledo is on its way back home to Connecticut after a two-month tour of duty in the Iraq war. Navy officials said the submarine, with a crew of 134 sailors, is scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Navy submarine base in Groton on Tuesday afternoon. It is the first submarine to return to the base since the beginning of the war with Iraq. The submarine and its crew left the base Feb. 10, and served in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sources say the Pentagon is ready to put U.S. troops massed around Iraq on "hair-trigger" alert -- essentially ready to begin a war if Saddam Hussein attacks U.S. troops, his neighbors or his people out of desperation.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Signaling impatience with the Turkish government, the Pentagon is moving about 10 Navy ships out of the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, where they could launch missiles on a path to Iraq that would not go over Turkey, officials said. The shift could be the first step in a larger redeployment of ground and naval firepower away from Turkey, which so far has refused to grant overflight rights for U.S. naval aircraft and cruise missiles like the long-range, low-flying Tomahawk. The Pentagon had hoped to base a 60,000-strong U.S. Army force as well as additional Air...

<p>The USS Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser, steams in the Persian Gulf as it protects the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.</p> <p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy may order about a dozen ships equipped with surface-to-surface missiles from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea as part of preparations for a possible war with Iraq, U.S. military sources said Thursday.</p>

Mar. 4, 2003 New $220m. Eilat airport approved By TAL MUSCAL The Southern District Planning Committee has approved the building of Eilat s new airport, expected to cost $220 million, the Airports Authority said on Tuesday. The airport will be constructed 19 kilometers north of the town, near Timna. Nestled in the heart of Eilat, the current airport will cease operations and be converted for commercial use, once the new facility is open. A target date for completion has yet to be given. In light of the approval, and green light given by the Eilat Municipality, Eilot Local Council, the...

Biblical plagues and parting of Red Sea 'caused by volcano' By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 11/11/2002) Fresh evidence that the Biblical plagues and the parting of the Red Sea were natural events rather than myths or miracles is to be presented in a new BBC documentary. Moses, which will be broadcast next month, will suggest that much of the Bible story can be explained by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC. Using computer-generated imagery pioneered in Walking With Dinosaurs, the programme tells the story of how...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is seeking to charter a large ship to carry military helicopters and ammunition from the United States to two ports in the Red Sea, shipping brokers have said. The request follows a recent order for a vessel to carry military hardware from Europe to the Middle East Gulf, heightening speculation that the United States is pre-positioning equipment for a possible strike on Iraq. In Washington, U.S. Navy spokesman Ensign David Luckett denied the Military Sealift Command had placed a request for a ship to carry helicopters and ammunition to the Red Sea. "The U.S....