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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Oct. 26, 2009 – The road to economic success here is paved and has bridges linking both sides of the Kunar River. Left to right, Sarkani Subgovernor Hamish Gulab, Marawara Subgovernor Mer Azam Gujoorwall and Kunar Subgovernor Fazullah Wahidi cut a ribbon marking the completion of the Nawabad to Marawara road in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Oct. 26, 2009. The road represents a $2.7 million investment that paves the way for increased security and commerce in Kunar’s Marawara district. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Boisvert   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The provincial government,...

Bethea said federal officials tested the river and found the E. coli bacteria level was 42 times greater than the highest safe level. “There is no way you want to get in or even touch water [this dirty],” Bethea said. “I’ve never seen the water so filthy. It was just filthy, and it didn’t smell very good in some places.” The river tour also found massive shoreline damage, including collapsed banks and fallen trees. --snip-- The U.S. Park Service on Wednesday shut down use of portions of the Chattahoochee, citing the dumping of raw sewage from broken sewage lines in...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1249418627506&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull "Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged all the people as follows: 'Keep the entire commandment that I am commanding you today. On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up great stones and cover them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over." (Deuteronomy 27:1-3). Rubble on floor may have fallen from the ceiling during earthquakes since the cavern was fashioned. Built on the foundations of an ancient Byzantine church, the Greek...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi River Police (IRP) conducted operations here on the Tigris River to hone their skills in keeping Iraq’s waterways safe from terrorists, Sept. 1. The mission of the IRP is to provide search and rescue, safety patrol, and counter smuggling operations along the waterways of Iraq. Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq advisors, mentors and trainers help the IRP accomplish this mission. There are two advisors at the River Patrol. One is responsible for teaching waterborne operations, how to pilot the boats, and how to use the boats to conduct the operations found in the mission statement. The second advisor...

Today's dogs are all descended from a pack of wolves tamed 16,000 years ago on the shores of the Yangtze river, according to new research. It was previously known that the birthplace of the dog was eastern Asia but historians were not able to be more precise than that. However, now researchers have made a number of new discoveries about the history of man's best friend - including that the dog appeared about 16,000 years ago south of the Yangtze river in China. It has also been discovered that even though the dog has a single geographical origin it descends...

Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates River Dwindles By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON JUBAISH, Iraq — Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat. “Maaku mai!” they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. “There is no water!” The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it...

A toddler has miraculously survived after he drove his toy jeep into a river and then floated nearly eight miles downstream. Demetrius Jones, who turned three yesterday, let himself out of his grandmother's holiday trailer while his family slept and took his battery-operated truck down to the Peace River in British Columbia, where he was swept away by the current. The red miniature Chevrolet Silverado truck flipped over but the boy - who was only wearing a nappy and T-shirt - floated on it, along swirling waters. When his family woke up and realised he was missing police were called...

Survey: Most Economists See Recession End in '09 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS May 27, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 90 percent of economists predict the recession will end this year, although the recovery is likely to be bumpy. That assessment came from leading forecasters in a survey by the National Association for Business Economics to be released Wednesday. It is generally in line with the outlook from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues. About 74 percent of the forecasters expect the recession -- which started in December 2007 and is the longest since World War II --...

Click here for video. Crash happens at about 2:02 minutes into the video.

BASRAH — Three days after graduating a multi-week training course, the first Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics Tactical Response Team joined Coalition forces in a joint operation here. The river-focused force filled vital overwatch positions, and maintained active security and communications with Iraqi Police and Army units as well as with Coalition units. “This demonstrates the capability of this force, and how their training prepared them for real-world missions,” said a Coalition advisor to the TRT. The TRT is a new capability for Iraq allowing the Police to have a specially trained cadre skilled in the art of maritime and...

BASRAH, Iraq –Three days after graduating a multi-week training course, the first Special Weapons and Tactics Tactical Response Team was thrust into action December with Coalition forces executed a joint operation in Basrah, Iraq. The river-focused force filled vital over-watch positions, and maintained active security and communications with Iraqi Police and Army units as well as with Coalition units. “This demonstrates the capability of this force, and how their training prepared them for real-world missions,” said a Coalition advisor to the TRT. The TRT is a new capability for Iraq allowing the police to have a specially trained cadre skilled...

Trainees run ashore after practicing an insert technique during al-Anbar Iraqi River Police training, Lake Thar Thar, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2008. Photo by Cpl. Shawn Coolman, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs. LAKE THAR THAR -- Al-Anbar Iraqi River Police officers aced their final exam. Select Iraqi Policemen here with the Anbar Iraqi River Police force, which was established to patrol the local waterways independently from Coalition forces, finished a week-long certification course, Dec. 21. This was the first class taught by the Navy “River Rats� of Detachment 3, Riverine Squadron 1, Regimental Combat Team 5 on Lake Thar Thar.In this...

The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead on a proposal to determine whether parts of the Colorado River and Deep Creek are suitable candidates for inclusion in the national Wild and Scenic River System. The Colorado River Water Conservation District, however, is looking at ways to fend off such a designation. “We’re working on coming up with something that protects the values that make them eligible for wild and scenic designation without imposition of all the federal controls,” said Chris Treese of the river district. The river district is hoping to preserve flexibility and greater local control on the management...

Body found in Arkansas RiverLast Update: 11/13 9:21 pm In Pulaski County search crews found the body of man who died in the Arkansas River. The body has not been officially identified but it's thought to be that of a man who went missing Tuesday Pablo Ramos, 19, disappeared while mowing the Clinton library lawn. Ramos' mower was found tipped over at the bank of the river. The body will be taken to the state crime lab.

A couple of pictures of the White Cliffs of the Missouri Breaks. There aren't very many! Click the bottom one for full-size, but it actually looks better at this size.

6/19/2008 - GREEN BAY BOTTOM, Iowa (AFPN) -- The men and women of the 185th Air Refueling Squadron from Sioux City, Iowa, are teaming with local farmers to maintain the 20 miles of levees, keeping the flooded Mississippi from inundating the 14 thousand acres of homes and farmland here. The river is flowing 23 feet over flood levels and 20 feet over the corn fields that line it near the farming community of Burlington in Green Bay Bottom, Iowa. "It would have been devastating without the (Air National) Guard here," said local resident Robert Mozingo, a retired mechanical engineer who...

SPOKANE — The era of massive dam construction in the West — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across...

ATLANTA — Chattanooga city officials waded into the border war between Tennessee and Georgia Wednesday when they delivered about 2,000 bottles of water to lawmakers in the drought-parched Peach State. Dressed in a coonskin hat and 19th century frontiersman garb, Matt Lea, special assistant to Mayor Ron Littlefield, described the gesture as “a humorous political joke.” But Georgia Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, said lawmakers accepted the bottled water as “a small down payment on the billions of gallons of Georgia water that flows from our creeks and streams into the Tennessee River every year.” The trip was billed as a...

BEIJING - Pollution has turned part of a major river system in central China red and bubbly, forcing authorities to cut water supplies to 200,000 people and close schools, a government news agency reported Wednesday. Some communities along tributaries of the Hanjiang River — a branch of the Yangtze — in Hubei province were using emergency water sources, while at least 60,000 people were relying on bottled water and limited underground sources, Xinhua News Agency said. Five schools were closed in Xingou township, while others could not provide food to students, the report said without elaborating. Gao Qijin, head of...

“Give Our Georgia Friends A Drink Day” Proclaimed The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta. Mayor Ron Littlefield said the water will be delivered on Wednesday by his aide Matt Lea wearing a coonskin cap. The mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” The proclamation comes as a result of the Georgia Legislature passing a joint resolution that seeks to pursue reestablishing the boundary between Georgia and...

PHOENIX - For the third time since 1996, officials plan to unleash a manmade flood in the Grand Canyon next month in an effort to restore an ecosystem that was altered by a dam constructed on the Colorado River decades ago. The Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1963 upstream from the Grand Canyon, permanently changed the Colorado River, transforming it from a warm, muddy, unpredictable force of nature into a cooler, clearer, tightly controlled water-delivery system. Without spring floods to flush the system and help rebuild beaches and fish habitat, native species suffered even as non-native fish thrived. The shift...

Years ago a Georgia planner joked, half seriously, that the Peach State should just “stick a straw” in the Tennessee River to bring water to thirsty Atlanta. The analogy may turn out to be easier than anyone thought. Regional cavers are suggesting on their blogs that Georgia take advantage of Tennessee River water backed up years ago by TVA dams into Nickajack Cave and some connected caverns. They say water captured from the Tennessee River flows underground into Georgia and Alabama. If engineers could drill in, then courts might have to decide if the water is groundwater or impounded Tennessee...

New Mississippi delta would limit hurricane damage 13:20 18 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Phil McKenna The proposed diversion would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new delta by 2100 (Image: Science) Diverting parts of the Mississippi would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new wetlands between New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vital storm surge buffer against hurricanes, researchers say. The formation of new delta lands could also help stem ongoing coastal erosion without disrupting important shipping traffic. "The scientific and engineering barriers are easily overcome," says Gary Parker, a geologist and engineer...

This is one that I've actually seen in person; it's just off Highway 4 north of Jemez Springs (near Los Alamos). There's a small hot spring, certainly from the remnant heat of the Valles Caldera just up the road, that created the "soda" (limestone) that makes the dam that is cut through by the Jemez River.

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi River Patrol Police station is training their trainers to maintain and troubleshoot their river craft while underway with a 10-day basic engineering course taught by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Aldana, Naval Special Warfare Unit 3, Bahrain. Students are participating in the Basic Engineering course offered as a way to assist the river police in troubleshooting malfunctions of boat equipment and help them understand how the river craft operate. The topics taught within the Basic Engineering course are Internal Combustion; Basic Electricity; Marine Battery/Electricity; Backing Gaskets and Seals; Troubleshooting and Planned Maintenance System checks....

Dry, polluted, plagued by rats: the crisis in China's greatest riverShips stranded as Yangtze reaches a 142-year low Jonathan Watts in Beijing The Guardian, Thursday January 17 2008 A river bed is exposed as water levels fall along the Yangtze river near Wuhan, central China's Hubei province. Photograph: AP The waters of the Yangtze have fallen to their lowest levels since 1866, disrupting drinking supplies, stranding ships and posing a threat to some of the world's most endangered species. Asia's longest river is losing volume as a result of a prolonged dry spell, the state media warned yesterday, predicting hefty...

FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) - Rescuers are using everything from school buses to helicopters to reach about 3,500 people trapped in a Nevada town because of a levee break. One resident tells CNN that water is 3 to 4 feet deep in parts of Fernley, Nevada, which is east of Reno. Authorities say the frigid water has poured into about 800 homes.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2007 – Coalition forces detained 10 suspects today during operations targeting al Qaeda networks along Iraq’s Tigris River Valley. The forces conducted several operations targeting associates of al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, including foreign terrorist facilitators and planners of car-bombing attacks. During the operations, coalition forces captured two wanted individuals and detained eight suspects. During one of the operations, information gathered from local citizens indicated that terrorists were using a school as a meeting location and safe house. Coalition forces briefly entered the school, but did not do any damage and left the school as it was...

Deadly landslide raises more concerns about China's Three Gorges Dam Aileen McCabe , CanWest Asia Correspondent Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 SHANGHAI - A deadly landslide near China's controversial Three Gorges Dam has killed one construction worker and left two missing in central Hubei Province, near the dam's massive reservoir. The official news agency Xinhua said the tragedy occurred on Tuesday, the same day Chinese government officials pledged to step up measures to deal with environmental problems caused by the dam. Xinhua did not say what caused the fatal landslide, but in a story about the new environmental plan, Xinhua...

PALOMINAS — U.S. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva toured the ongoing border fence construction project at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area on Monday to raise awareness for his proposed Borderlands Conservation and Security Act. Grijalva, representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, and fellow Democrat Gabrielle Giffords of the 8th District are the only two of Arizona’s eight U.S. representatives whose districts abut the U.S.-Mexico border. Giffords’ district includes all of Cochise County. Grijalva observed portions of the border fence and listened to concerns voiced by host Bill Odle, a nearby landowner who is opposed to the construction because it will...

CNN reporting that there has been a train derailment in Washington, DC. 5 cars of a CSX freight train have fallen into the Anacostia River. No reported injuries at the moment.

(BEIJING) — The world's earliest irrigation system is being threatened by a hydroelectric project to be built in southwest China, state press said Friday, citing critics of the project. A series of 10 small hydro plants to be built on the Botiao river in Sichuan province will destroy the natural ecology of the Dujiangyan irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage listed site, the China Daily reported. "It is irrational to build such stations as they will destroy the natural ecology along the river," Chen Qingheng, a expert at the China Academy of Sciences, was quoted by the paper as saying....

(GENEVA) — Chinese and Swiss scientists said Friday the Yangtze River is less polluted than expected, but only because the vast amounts of water dilute farm and industrial waste that still pose a serious threat to animals and plants. Environmentalists warned the findings should not be seen as a clean bill of health for the Yangtze, where water quality has continually deteriorated. Because of its large size, the 3,900-mile-long Yangtze cannot be compared to other rivers, they said. Around 25 billion tons of waste is poured every year into the Yangtze, the world's third-largest river, said a joint Chinese-Swiss expedition...

Archeological Discovery in Ohio River September 27, 2007 It’s like a discovery channel special, a living history lesson and a heated border war all rolled into one. A recent river recovery of an eight ton treasure was followed by angry claims of archeological thievery. This sandstone scratching is far from another face in the crowd. After years of planning and weeks of effort, a Portsmouth, Ohio Volunteer Recovery Team pulled the prehistoric, legendary Indian’s Head Rock off the mighty Ohio River’s bottom. “It was tough to get straps around it,” recovery team diver Dave Vetter said. In the 18 and...

It was hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century. Now the Three Gorges Dam across China’s mighty Yangtze River threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. In an unprecedented admission of blame, Communist Party officials gave a stark warning yesterday of impending disaster in the vast area around the dam if preventive measures are not urgently introduced. For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom. An aerial...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2007 – Coalition forces killed six terrorists and detained 21 suspects during operations over the past two days in Iraq’s Tarmiyah area and Tigris River Valley to disrupt al Qaeda senior leadership. Several synchronized raids in Tarmiyah targeted the al Qaeda network operating in the northern belt around Baghdad, including its leaders. The network is responsible for car bombings, kidnappings, publishing extremist propaganda and operating an illegal court system in the area. As coalition forces cleared a building, three men inside reached for weapons in the room. Coalition forces engaged and killed them. A related assault force...

PATERSON - A New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists bought hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles in Chinatown to set them free in the Passaic River, hoping they would not only survive but also realize their karmic potential. Saving the animals, though, did not do anything for the karma of the state Department of Environmental Protection. DEP pfficials say the Buddhists did not have a permit and may be subject to fines up to $1,000. Releasing critters into the wild takes a permit - and because of fears of harm being done by nonnative species, New Jersey is reluctant to...

The Yangtze River dolphin enjoys a rare and depressing distinction, according to new research. The grey white, long-beaked animal is the world's first cetacean -the order of whales, dolphins and porpoises -to be made extinct by man, concludes an international team that has conducted comprehensive surveys of its habitat. The demise of the near-blind mammal also represents the first extinction of a large vertebrate (backboned animal) for more than 50 years, since overhunting claimed the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. A zoologist said it was a "shocking tragedy." The paper, lead-authored by Dr Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society...

FORT HUACHUCA — A longtime critic of Fort Huachuca’s impact on the San Pedro River claims the 2002 biological opinion between the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is badly flawed which has led to the errors being incorporated into the 2007 biological opinion. Phoenix physician Dr. Robin Silver said a 21-page study from the Center for Sustainable Economy, a Santa Fe, N.M., based organization, challenges the Army’s figures based on per capita instead of the more scientific economic model. Silver is chairman of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. Garrison Commander Col. Melissa Sturgeon said “the fort...

SIERRA VISTA — Fort Huachuca Garrison Commander Col. Melissa Sturgeon briefed the City Council and staff Monday, regarding the fort’s interpretation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion released last month. This new biological opinion, compared to the last one published in 2002 or the ones prior, better accounts for the post-9/11 military landscape and the ongoing war in Iraq, with regard to the fort’s mission in terms of personnel flux, Sturgeon said. Therefore, it can more accurately estimate and predict the fort’s water use, Sturgeon said. The new opinion consists of studies conducted by the U.S. Army...

River's abundance of corpses ruins Iraqis' appetite for carp REUTERS July 11, 2007 BAGHDAD – River fish are off the menu in Baghdad. Dead bodies frequently pulled from the River Tigris have dulled the Iraqi capital's appetite for masqouf, its popular dish of grilled carp, after it was reported that clerics had warned that the fish dined on rotting corpses. “They spread rumors about the fish, that they eat the bodies of drowned people, but this is just a rumor,” said fisherman Hussein Ahmed, 62, after setting his nets within sight of the heavily fortified Green Zone compound on the...

The country's economy may be growing apace, but pollution in India is quickly spiraling out of control and rivers are dying by the dozen. Fully three billion liters of waste are pumped into Delhi's Yamuna River each day. Beginning at dawn, beneath the belly of an old wrought iron bridge, 12-year-old Somnath Dantoso drops a dumbbell-shaped magnet from his trash-constructed raft into New Delhi's Yamuna River. The magnet sinks about 30 feet below the river's inky surface and on a good day clings to about 50 rupees -- about $1.22 -- worth of coins that commuters toss in for good...

The Black Knights of HMM-264 (REIN) return home to MCAS, New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina Sunday, 1 July 2007. (Daily News Video)

Amazon 'outgrows Nile' By Andrew Downie in Rio de Janeiro Last Updated: 1:09am BST 18/06/2007 Brazilian scientists claim to have found a new source of the river Amazon that extends its length to beat the Nile as the longest river in the world. Scientists discovered the new source at the top of the snow-capped Mismi mountain in neighbouring southern Peru, not in the north of the country as was previously believed. The discovery adds about 284km (176 miles) to the Amazon. This takes the river to 6,800km (4,225 miles) - 105km (65 miles) longer than the Nile - according to...

FORT HUACHUCA — The post’s environmental stewardship has led a federal agency to conclude the fort’s presence in the Upper San Pedro River Basin is “not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any federally listed species or adversely modify their critical habitat,” Garrison Commander Col. Jonathan Hunter said Friday morning. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its newest biological opinion about the post on Friday. While some see the new biological opinion as good news, Hunter and others also say the fort and civilian community that share the Upper San Pedro River Basin are not off the hook...

Coalition forces in Afghanistan say around 60 Taliban militiamen drowned while attempting to cross the Helmand river, one of the country's biggest. They were fleeing military forces in the Kajaki district and had constructed a makeshift raft of tyre tubes and wooden planks.

RIO VISTA – Two whales lost in the Sacramento River have made progress toward their ocean home, but rescuers were concerned Monday about encounters they might have with large ships as they near San Francisco Bay. The mother humpback whale and her calf were spotted Monday morning near the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, about 45 miles from the Pacific, said Carol Singleton of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. The pair had traveled about 24 miles in 24 hours, but their pace had slowed. They were first spotted May 13 and got as far as 90 miles inland to the Port of...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Cave divers in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula have discovered what may be the world's longest underground river, connecting two cave systems with a waterway at least 95 miles long. A group of foreign divers exploring the area near the Caribbean beach resort of Playa del Carmen have yet to name the stretch, but believe it could be connected to two other major systems, adding more than 125 miles to its length. "It's a bit of the Star Trek syndrome: the thrill of exploration, to go where no one has gone before," said diver Steve Bogaerts, who helped...

Irish river find may be first discovery of Viking ship by Andrew Bushe Fri Jan 26, 5:29 PM ETAFP/Scanpix/File Photo: A replica of a Viking ship sails off Oslo in 2006. An ancient boat discovered... " DUBLIN (AFP) - An ancient boat discovered in a riverbed north of Dublin may be the first Viking longship found in the country, Environment and Heritage Minister Dick Roche said. The wreck in the River Boyne, close to the northeastern port of Drogheda, was described by Roche as potentially an "enormously exciting discovery". The vessel, nine metres (30 feet) wide by 16 metres long,...

BAGHDAD — Keeping the Tigris River free from criminal activity is the mission of a unique group of Iraqi policemen. The policemen belong to the Baghdad River Patrol Station, located along the eastern banks of the Tigris River. From there, police conduct surveillance and establish a presence on fast patrol boats, said Iraqi Police Col. Alaa, the station’s commander. “Our primary mission is of a humanitarian nature,” Alaa said. To combat the transport of weapons and illegal contraband, the policemen take certain measures in their daily patrols. One critical tactic used by the river police to deter crime on the...