Free Republic

Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt's Government says. Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia. A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said. Egypt's transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged....

What is going on?? It appears that a fifth undersea communications cable has been damaged. The latest...an estimated 1.7 million Internet users in the UAE have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage. A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

Naval submarine Jimmy Carter christened at Connecticut shipyard GROTON, Conn. (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter was filled with emotion Saturday as the most advanced nuclear submarine in the U.S. Navy was named after him at a Connecticut shipyard. "This is a very wonderful day for me, to see my wife break the champagne on undoubtedly the finest and most formidable ship in the world," said Carter, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the only submariner to be elected president. Carter's wife, Rosalynn, blessed the Seawolf-class nuclear submarine and its crew, then hesitated for a moment before cracking...