More heavy snowfall cripples Germany

Recent overnight snowfall in Germany has led to many transportation cancelations and inconveniences, leaving parts of the country covered in frost.

Germany's eastern Brandenburg state has reported that a Romanian lorry loaded with furniture skidded off a main highway and crashed into a guarding rail on Thursday. 

Brandenburg is one of Germany's 16 federal-states of Germany, located in the east of the country. 

The incident did not result in any casualties, only blocking the highway, causing heavy traffic for a few hours. 

The heavy overnight snowfall crippled transportation in Germany as hundreds of flights have been canceled at Germany's Frankfurt airport, while nearly all traveling by train has been canceled or delayed, AFP said. 

In the German capital of Berlin, city workers are on alert to clear out the snow near the city's main roads and tourist attractions such as the Brandenburg Gate. 

Many European countries such as Scotland and Switzerland have experienced their coldest temperatures in years. 

The cold wave is expected to continue across Europe, promising more snowfall and frost in Germany.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155690.html

Clashes kill 11 in Somali capital

At least 11 people have died in fresh clashes between al-Shabab fighters and government-backed troops in Somalia's war-torn capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say.

Fierce gun battle and shelling rocked Mogadishu's northern districts of Hodan and Bondhere, where fighters from al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam attacked positions of pro-government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers, a Press TV correspondent said. 

Witnesses said incessant shelling destroyed residential areas, causing civilian casualties. 

“On Wednesday evening, I have seen the dead bodies of at least 11 civilians lying on the street of Boondhere,” an eyewitness told our correspondent. 

The village was turned into a battle field with the fighting raging on for more than seven hours, witnesses said. 

The seaside city has been the scene of heavy clashes between rival forces, which killed more than 30 people last week. 

Somalia has been marred by years of civil unrest since 1991 when warlords toppled former warlord Mohammad Siad Barre.

Pakistan closes strategic NW highway

Pakistan's government has closed Torkham strategic highway in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for two days, provincial officials say.

Pakistani security officials said the reason for closing Torkham highway was maintaining security during Ashura mourning ceremonies marking the commemoration of the martyrdom of the third Shia Imam, Imam Hussein (PBUH), a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday. 

Torkham strategic highway links Pakistan to neighboring Afghanistan. 

According to the officials, no fuel trucks destined for US-led NATO troops in war-torn Afghanistan are allowed to pass through Torkham highway. 

Pakistani officials have also banned the entry of Afghan refugees to Pakistani cities. 

Meanwhile, unknown militants set a NATO fuel truck on fire in southwestern Balochistan province. 

Armed militants stopped a NATO fuel truck and its driver as hostage at gunpoint. Later, they torched the truck in Kalat district, some 145 kilometers from the provincial capital, Quetta, on Wednesday. 

The fuel truck was carrying fuel for the US-led NATO troops stationed in war-ravaged Afghanistan. 

Security forces cordoned off the area and started search operation for arresting the attackers. 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155717.html

Police mull banning all UK protests

The British police chief says he is weighing up an option to ask the Home Secretary to enforce a ban on any future protest gatherings altogether across the UK.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson referred to the level of violence in recent student protests against the rise in tuition fees, saying that he does not rule out banning all future student protests across the country, the daily Independent reported. 

Tens of thousands of student protesters from universities, colleges and schools have been marching across England in protests against the huge hikes in tuition fees, together with the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowance and proposed cuts in college funding. 

Police have arrested more than 180 people in London after four protests against the government's plan to increase the fees. 

The motion was voted on and approved last Thursday in defiance of the most violent protest scenes in and around Parliament Square where the clashes between police and protesters left 12 officers and more than 40 protesters injured. 

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner said banning students from marching was a power he had not ruled out using. 

"It is one of the tactics we will look at and something we will keep under review, and if we think it is the right thing to do then we will do it," said Sir Paul Stephenson. 

The head of the National Union of Students (NUS) dismissed the police chief's idea as in clear contrast to civil freedoms. 
"Peaceful protest is an integral part of our heritage and it is the responsibility of the police to help facilitate that", said the NUS president, Aaron Porter. 

Speaking about the suggestion that water cannons could be used to control crowds in the future, Sir Paul said that the force had ruled that option out three years ago but that officers were taking advice from colleagues in Northern Ireland about its efficacy in London. 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155603.html

US airport attack plotter sentenced

John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York

A Guyanese national has been sentenced to life in prison for allegedly masterminding an attempt to blow up the fuel system at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.

Former Guyanamese lawmaker Abdul Kadir, 58, was handed a life term on Wednesday for involvement in a 2007 plot to explode fuel tanks and the fuel pipeline under the airport, according to a statement from the US Eastern District Court of New York, CNN reported. 

US District Judge Dora Irizarry said Kadir has been captured in surveillance video recordings while discussing plans with Russell Defreitas -- a US citizen born in Guyana. 

She said the footage proved Abdul Kadir played a key role in the plot. 

Defreitas, also convicted and arrested for co-plotting the attack, still awaits his sentencing. 

During a four-week trial back in August, a federal jury had found Kadir guilty of conspiring to explode the fuel tanks and pipelines at the international New York airport. 

Prosecutors alleged that Kadir and Defreitas planned to cause a massive explosion by igniting the fuel tanks. 

Defreitas allegedly provided information on the facilities and layout matters while Kadir, an engineer, contributed in technical aspects. 

The two were arrested on charges of multiple counts of conspiracy back in 2007. Kadir has denied the charges.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155694.html

Pakistan condemns Chabahar bombing

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has expressed Islamabad's sorrow over the deaths of dozens of people in the Wednesday terrorist attack in southeastern Iran.

During a telephone conversation with Iran's Ambassador to Islamabad Mashallah Shakeri late on Wednesday, Malik offered his country's sympathy to the families of the victims from the deadly bombing in the Iranian city of Chabahar. 

More than 33 people died in the massive explosion that targeted a mourning procession marking the anniversary of the third Shia Imam Hussein's martyrdom in the port city in Sistan-Baluchestan province. 

The Pakistani official said his country's intelligence services are ready to cooperate with their Iranian counterpart to help track down the perpetrators behind the terrorist move. 

Bilateral intelligence and security cooperation would help the two nations fully prevent such incidents, Malik said. 

The remarks come amid reports showing the elements involved in the Chabahar attack had received terrorist training in Pakistan. 

The Iranian envoy, for his part, highlighted the significance of a joint campaign against terrorism in the region, adding that failure in taking serious measures to tackle the issue could destabilize the region. 

“It is natural that none of the governments and nations will be immune from the repercussions of such conditions,” Shakeri warned. 

Iranian lawmakers on Thursday called on Islamabad to do more to wipe out terrorism the country nurtures in its lawless regions.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155723.html

USA News Port: Nato In Afghanistan

This US Army In Afghanistan

USA Today: Unions protect bad teachers

Little Rhode Island is taking a big step in improving its public schools--by allowing failing schools to clean house and fire its teachers. Which leads USA Today to explore the issue of teachers unions in an editorial.

At this time of high unemployment, one group of professionals has no shortage of job security: bad teachers. Few public school principals in the country are able to dismiss an incompetent teacher without a protracted, expensive struggle, and therefore firings rarely happen. Yet researchers agree that hiring good teachers, and ditching bad ones, is the best way to improve education.

Nationwide, 2% or fewer teachers are ever fired or fail to have their contracts renewed because of poor performance. Among tenured teachers — those who get job security, typically after two or three years of satisfactory performance — there are often no dismissals at all, according to the U.S. Education Department.

In Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont — states in which fewer than half of fourth-graders are proficient at reading or math — the average school district did not remove a single tenured teacher in 2007-08. It's no wonder: Dismissing one teacher can cost upwards of $100,000, and the legal struggle can drag on for years.

A prime example of the irrationality is in New York City, where teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence can spend years in "rubber rooms" — doing nothing, collecting their full salaries and accruing benefits while their cases crawl through the arbitration process.

As Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty suggested last week, USA Today thinks the time has arrived to eliminate tenure for teachers.
http://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/2010/03/usa-today-unions-protect-bad-teachers.html

Egypt Plans To Construct First Nuclear Plant By 2019

Egypt's minister of electricity says the country plans to construct its first nuclear power plant and have it fully operational by 2019.

The state-owned MENA news agency quotes Hassan Youniss as saying that Egypt also plans to construct three more nuclear plants by 2025. Youniss said Egypt will release international bidding for the plant's construction at the end of the year. The facility is probable to cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion.

President Hosni Mubarak first announced plans to build a number of nuclear power plants in 2007, stimulating a program that was publicly shelved in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident at a Soviet nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine.
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Law Student Crowned Great Britain 2010

A law student proved she had both brains and beauty when she was crowned Miss Great Britain 2010. Gorgeous Amy Carrier, 20, from Liverpool, was given the name at the finals which broke 65 years of tradition as the crown was not passed on by her predecessor.

Amy Carrier, 20, was awarded the honor at a ceremony at the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare. She says she wants to use the title to assist raise money and support charities and hopes to be a good ambassador and role model for all young women.

First runner-up was given to Lisa Lazarus, 23 and second runner up to Gina Basham, 22, who holds Miss Birmingham City.





















60 women from across the UK competed for the crown in front of a board of celebrity judged including Gary Cockerill; Chris de Burgh's daughter and former Miss World, Rosie Davison.

The winner of Miss GB's is given a modeling agreement to be the face of Powershot organic energy drink, a part in a movie, £5,000 cash and a photo shoot and 5-star stay on the Amalfi coast.
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France Produces Two Beauty Queens

It was for the first time ever, France produced two main beauty queens from rival contests.

On Saturday, 19-year-old business school student Laury Thilleman of Brittany was chosen Miss France 2011 by viewers of television channel TF1 in the traditional competition. But the very next day, that contest’s long-time organizer, Geneviève de Fontenay was busy hosting her own spin-off: the "Miss Nationale-Geneviève de Fontenay 2011" pageant, in which Barbara Morel of Provence, also 19 years old and a student, was crowned by a jury.

Fontenay had been president of the Miss France committee since 1954, but newly sold the competition to French production company Endemol. “France deserves two winners”, Fontenay declared to the French press. “The French will decide the one they prefer. My winners have always adhered to the values I promote - dignity under all circumstances, respect of oneself and of others”.

Though she primarily remained involved in the contest’s organization, disagreements with Endemol led Fontenay to leave the contest entirely. According to widespread rumours, Fontenay felt that the company did not respect her standards for the contestants. She was said to be mainly unhappy with revelations that certain former participants had previously posed nude.

When she said that she intended to set up a rival competition, Endemol took the 78 year-old icon to court. The court ruled in Fontenay’s favour.

World's Largest Airship To Be Hosted By NASA

If you like big and green, NASA's Ames Research Center will shortly have something for you: the world's largest and greenest airship.

The space agency announced that the Mountain View, Calif., research center's Moffett Field will soon play host to a mammoth 265-foot-long and 65-foot-diameter airship from Kellyton, Ala.'s E-Green Technologies. The Bullet Class 580 will be developed and tested at Ames in 24,000 square feet of Ames' well-known Hangar 2.

The new airship, which has a planned first flight date of early 2011, is probable to run on algae-based biofuel, and fly at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet.

Ames and Moffett Field are becoming a hotbed for airships. Already, the capacity is the home of Airship Ventures, and its own giant zeppelin. And, of course, Moffett Field has a storied history of hosting airships, stretching back to 1933, when the U.S. Navy's Zeppelin ZRS-5 785-foot-long zeppelin resided there.

The E-Green Technologies Bullet Class 580 is expected to fly with "a joint NASA Langley Research Center and Old Dominion University payload, the Radar Oxygen Barometric Sensor Project, a remote sensing instrument for measuring barometric pressure at sea level-an important meteorological measurement in the calculation and forecasting of tropical 


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