News is getting better and better every day

[csocsike]

Ne felejtsd, hogy a canadai katonak Tim Hurtons nelkul csatazni sem hajlandok Tavaj lattam egy riportot ahol az afganisztanba meno katonaholgyek meg macis pokrocot is vittek . Mit varsz a civilektol? Egyebkent ha melozni voltak ott, talan a munkahely is tehett volna ertuk valamit. Most van vita , legalabb is itt, hogy a tax fizetok szamlajara fizessek e mentest, vagy mindenki sajat maga alja a koltsegeket. Te mit gondolsz?

[Spanky]

Ne felejtsd, hogy a canadai katonak Tim Hurtons nelkul csatazni sem hajlandok Tavaj lattam egy riportot ahol az afganisztanba meno katonaholgyek meg macis pokrocot is vittek . Mit varsz a civilektol? Egyebkent ha melozni voltak ott, talan a munkahely is tehett volna ertuk valamit. Most van vita , legalabb is itt, hogy a tax fizetok szamlajara fizessek e mentest, vagy mindenki sajat maga alja a koltsegeket. Te mit gondolsz?

Nezd, az biztos hogy ezert az adofizetok fognak perkalni es talan??? ez igy is helyes, DE amikor valaki olyan hulye, hogy egy olyan helyre megy ahol a politikai helyzet nem eppen a legnyugalmasabbak koze tartozik a vilagon es utana szidja Kanadat, mert nem mentik ki otet onnan ahova sajat maga valasztasabol utazot, egy kicsit elkepeszto.
Szerintem oruljenek hogy luk van a segukon es lejmra viszahozak oket, akkor mikor tisztaba voltak vele, hogy hova mennek.

Neztem a hirekben, egy not aki 6 gyereket kuldott Lebanonba, nyari taborba. Nem vicc Gyurikam, NYARI TABORBA!!!
Most meg itt szapulja a kanadai kormanyt.
Az eszem megalt.

Szomoru iranyba haladunk, mikor a sajat hulyesegunkert nem valaljuk a feleloseget. Mindig kell egy bunbakot keresni ahelyet, hogy a tukorbe neznenek.

Na jo van, kiduhongtem maga.
Megyek a tengerpartra napoztatni a selyhajom.
Ott garantalom, hogy nem lessz beloves, habar ebben nem olyan biztos a parom.

[csocsike]

Azert csak ne hajolj melyet, ki tudja

[csocsike]

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israeli warplanes struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting Sunday in southern Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and two people were killed as about 90 Hezbollah rockets fell on northern Israel.
Syria, one of Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end the fighting — but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that would include the return of the Golan Heights. Israel was unlikely to accept such terms but the remarks were the first indication of Syria's willingness to be involved in international efforts to defuse the Lebanese crisis.
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the peace along the border.
The top U.N. humanitarian official, touring Beirut, said billions of dollars will be needed to repair damage from the 12-day offensive, which began July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid.
A member of the U.N. observer team in south Lebanon was wounded by guerrilla fire and a Lebanese photographer became the first journalist to die in the fighting when an Israeli missile hit near her taxi in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops continued to hold a Lebanese border village that they battled into on Saturday, but did not appear to be advancing, Lebanese security officials said. Its warplanes and artillery, meanwhile, battered areas across the south.
In talking about a cease-fire, Damascus warned that it will not stand by if the Israelis step up their offensive in Lebanon.
"Syria and Spain are working to achieve a cease-fire, a prisoners' swap and to start a peace process as one package," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal was quoted as saying by the Spanish daily newspaper ABC.
Bilal said Damascus would cooperate only within a broader peace initiative that would include a return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.
Asked about the comments from Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said, "It's hard to see."
"Syria doesn't need dialogue to know what they need to do," Bolton told "Fox News Sunday." "They need to lean on Hezbollah to get them to release the two captured Israeli soldiers and stop the launch of rockets against innocent Israeli civilians.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet that the current offensive is not an invasion of Lebanon, but rather a series of limited raids. He also said that Israel would accept a temporary international force, preferably headed by NATO, deployed along the Lebanese border to keep Hezbollah guerrillas away from Israel, according to officials in his office.
Asked about such an international force, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told CNN "it's very early to talk about this matter."
Israel hit the southern port of Sidon for the first time, destroying a religious complex linked to Hezbollah and wounding four people. More than 35,000 people streaming north from the heart of the war zone had swamped the city, which is teetering under the weight of refugees.
Israel also bombed a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and wounding two, Mayor Ali Rahal told The Associated Press.
The stricken minibus was carrying 16 people fleeing the village of Tairi, heading through the mountains for the southern port city of Tyre. A missile hit the bus near the village of Yaatar, killing three and wounding the rest, security officials said.
On Saturday, the Israeli military told residents to evacuate Taire and 12 other nearby villages.
An 8-year-old boy was killed in a strike on a village in the mountains above Tyre, and another missile hit a vehicle outside the Najem hospital, wounding eight, a hospital official said.
Hezbollah said three of its guerrillas were killed in fighting.
At least four other people were killed by strikes in the south, Lebanese TV said, but the deaths were not confirmed by security officials. About 45 people were wounded in Israeli air raids that targeted villages and towns around Tyre, security and hospital officials said.
The deaths brought to at least 380 the official death toll provided by Lebanese authorities. Israel's death toll stands at 36, with 17 people killed by Hezbollah rockets and 19 soldiers killed in fighting.
Saniora told CNN that one-third of the dead are under age 12.
A photographer working for a Lebanese magazine was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near her taxi, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Layal Nejim, 23, worked for the Lebanese magazine Al-Jaras, the officials said. Her driver survived.
A U.N. observer was wounded by Hezbollah gunfire during fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanon, said U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar. The Italian chiefs of staff office identified the wounded U.N. official as Italian Capt. Roberto Punzo, adding he was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Haifa and that his life was not in danger.
He was the second member of the U.N. monitoring team injured in the fighting.
Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombed Nabi Sheet, near the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek, wounding five people, witnesses said. Strikes in Baalbek leveled an agricultural compound belonging to Hezbollah and also targeted a factory producing prefabricated houses near the highway to Damascus, witnesses said.
Two civilians died in early morning air raids on border villages, witnesses said. A 15-year-old boy was killed at Meis al-Jabal, and a man was killed at Blida.
Hezbollah rockets badly damaged a house and slammed into a major road in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, killing two people and wounding five. The militants' rockets wounded at least 13 others.
In all, about 90 Hezbollah rockets fell Sunday across northern Israel. A similar number has hit the region almost daily since the Israeli offensive began.
Peretz said the campaign would continue as Israel tries to push Hezbollah guerrillas away from the border.
"The army's ground operation in Lebanon is focused on limited entrances, and we are not talking about an invasion of Lebanon. We are beginning to see the army's successes opposite Hezbollah," he told the Cabinet, according to a participant.
Peretz also met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, one of a series of diplomatic meetings aimed at ending the fighting. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was also on the schedule, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed to the region as well.
"The goal is to create a situation in which we have as broad a space for diplomatic movement as possible," Peretz said after meeting Steinmeier. "The goals we set for ourselves will be achieved. We certainly see a combination of a military operation that is fulfilling its role plus broad international activity to complete the process."
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by attacking Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
He didn't elaborate, but suggested Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers led by the United States.
U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, meanwhile, inspected the destruction from Israeli air raids on south Beirut and he stressed need for a halt to the hostilities.
"It's terrible, I see a lot of children wounded, homeless, suffering. This is a war where civilians pay a disproportionate price in Lebanon and northern Israel. I hadn't believed it would be block by block leveled to the ground," he said.
He said the "disproportionate response by Israel is a violation of international humanitarian law."
On Monday, the United Nations will make an international appeal for "more than $100 million" in aid for Lebanon, Egeland said.
Egeland also planned to travel to Israel to coordinate opening aid corridors. The number of displaced people has grown to 600,000, according to the World Health Organization.
Hours after he left, three heavy blasts were heard and smoke rose over the southern neighborhood of Dahiyah.
Some 35,000 refugees have swamped Sidon, which says it has yet to receive any aid shipments. The refugees were stretching already-tight supplies of fuel, food and medicines for Sidon's 100,000 people.
The Israeli military has said humanitarian aid could enter Lebanon through Beirut's port and determined a coastal route to Tripoli as a land corridor. But it did not define a safe passage route to the south — where the bombardment is heaviest.
Aid supplies arrived Friday and Saturday on ships carrying Europeans evacuees. The exodus of foreigners continues, with tens of thousands — including 7,500 Americans — taken out by sea the past week.

© The Associated Press 2006

[csocsike]

Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service

Published: Monday, July 24, 2006 Another 1,500 evacuees from Lebanon are to arrive in Canada today, according to the latest figures provided by Canadian government officials on Monday afternoon.

At least four planes, possibly five, are due to land at Montreal’s Pierre Trudeau Airport before the day’s end.
An additional 1,187 evacuees left Beirut today on ships headed for Cyprus and Turkey. That brings the total number of people that the government has helped flee the violence in Lebanon to just over 7,900. The vast majority of them are Canadian citizens, but approximately 20 per cent of them are not.
Embassy officials on the ground in Beirut are changing their approach and no longer contacting Canadians by phone who have registered because they have found many they have called over the past few days have already left. Instead, they are trying to spread the message that those Canadians who want to leave should go to the transit centre in Beirut by 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Those who do not make it by then will not be left behind, however, government officials reiterated that the evacuation effort will continue until everyone who wants to leave has made it out.
Canadians trapped in the southern part of the country, which has virtually been cut off because of the destruction wrought by bombs, are being told to go to the port of Tyre on Wednesday morning to board a ship chartered by the Canadian government. It is considered an "extremely dangerous" rescue operation according to the Canadian ambassador in Lebanon, Louis de Lorimier.
Government officials refused to put a pricetag on the massive evacuation effort to date, saying only that a close eye is being kept on the expenses but it’s too early to release any figures.
"We’re not in a position to say how much this is all going to cost because we’re not finished the operation yet," said one government official.
The government of Canada is footing the bill for getting trapped Canadians out by chartered ships and planes, and overtime and travel expenses for government staff traveling to and from the region will also be part of the final total.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay visited the government operations centre in Ottawa on Monday for meetings and to talk to staff both at home and overseas. "I think he buoyed spirits and told everyone to work hard and keep up the good work," said a government official.
Fleeing the Fighting
Figures from Foreign Affairs concerning the evacuation effort in Lebanon:
Canadians removed yesterday: 2,488.
Canadian-chartered ships departing Beirut yesterday: Five, three bound for Cyprus, two for Turkey.
Canadians who have left since effort started: About 6,700.
Canadians returned to Canada to date: 2,500.
Canadians registered with embassy in Lebanon (as of July 19): 39,000.
Canadians believed in Lebanon when conflict began: Between 40,000 and 50,000.
Number of Canadians estimated to be stranded in the south, where fighting is heaviest: 2,000 to 3,000.

© CanWest News Service 2006

[Spanky]

Seattle Muslim shoots 6 at Jewish Centre

One of the women listed in satisfactory condition is 20 weeks pregnant and was shot in the arm.

Phuong Cat Le, Brad Wong and Amy Rolph, Seattle Post-Intelligencer; with files from Jonathan Fowlie, Chantal Eustace and Emily Chung.

Published: Saturday, July 29, 2006

SEATTLE -- Six people were shot -- one fatally -- Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle by a man who told a witness he was upset about "what was going on in Israel."
Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt said there was one shooter, who was apprehended without incident outside the Jewish Federation building at Third Avenue and Virginia Street.
"We believe it's a lone individual acting out his antagonism," said David Gomez, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism efforts in Seattle.
Vancouver's Jewish community was "in a state of shock and disbelief" at the violence targeted at its sister community in Seattle, said Michael Elterman, chairman of the Canada-Israel Committee for the Pacific Region.
"I think we are going to become far more vigilant than we have been, realizing it has hit very close to home," Elterman said, adding that security around Jewish institutions in Vancouver will most certainly be beefed up.
U.S. authorities did not release any details about the alleged gunman and would not discuss possible motives.
"There's nothing to indicate that it's terrorism-related," Gomez said. "But we're monitoring the entire situation."
The gunman forced his way through the security door at the federation after an employee had punched in her security code, Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a database coordinator for the center, told The Associated Press. "He said 'I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,' before opening fire on everyone," Meislin-Dietrich said. "He was randomly shooting at everyone."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle is a fund raising and fund allocation organization.
"Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick confirmed one person had died.
Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Pamela Steele said five victims were taken to her facility, all women ranging in age from their 20s to 40s. Each suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen, knee, groin or arm. Three were in critical condition and still in the operating room at press time Friday. Two were in satisfactory condition.
One of the women listed in satisfactory condition is 20 weeks pregnant and was shot in the arm. Doctors believe she will be okay.
Elterman said while the level of violence in Seattle was unusual, Jewish institutions around the world have been on alert since the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began. "We do see an increase in threats and in nasty phone calls whenever Israel is at war," he said.
But threats are not going to stop a rally in support of Israel from going ahead in Vancouver on Monday, said Adam Carroll, Director, Pacific Region Canada-Israel Committee.
"We can't be terrorized or intimidated. We're going to be sowing our solidarity and support with Israel and that's not going to change," he said.
Mira Oreck, acting regional director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific region, said the kind of violence seen in Seattle came without warning. "We are extremely saddened and frankly outraged by the event," she said.
U.S. authorities received a 911 call at 4:03 p.m. with reports of shots fired at the Jewish Federation and a possible hostage situation, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz said at an early evening news conference.

[csocsike]

Olvastam, sajnos varhato volt. Mindig akad egy ket orult

[goyo]

A világ legnagyobb szupermarketlánca a Wal-Mart egyszerûen megbukott a legnagyobb európai piacon, ahol 1997 óta próbálkozott. A 95 áruházból a hajrára már csak 85 maradt, azt meg megette a Metro.

Walmart Leaves Germany: Blame Smiles, Love or Plastic Bags



Regardless of whether you are a Walmart basher or activating optimistically for Walmart leadership in environmental and sustainable philosophy, the news on Friday in Germany is of interest: Walmart has ended its long battle to survive in Germany's $370 billion retail market. So did the Germans' preference for shops run by local businessmen and stocked with organically grown food kill Walmart? Nice angle for TreeHuggers, but the fact is: probably not.

Competitors, like the low-cost chains Aldi and Lidl, continue to grow and succeed in Germany. In fact, the competition from a surge of low-cost chains is attributed with keeping average food costs as much as 40% lower in Germany than in France or Great Britain. Walmart entered the German market in 1997, at the outset of the upswing in discount retailers, taking over 95 stores and initiating a price war. Since then, that number has dropped to 85 stores which will now be taken over by a mega-competitor (Metro) happy to grab the supercenters at a discount price. So what is behind Walmart's struggle in Germany?

The main factor being cited by many analysts is the cultural philosophy. Walmart tried to relocate the American model: service with a smile from the bag-packer at the end of the band, employees chanting W-A-L-M-A-R-T to raise morale and an ethics code which included banning sexual relations between employees. The latter was overturned about a year ago by the German courts, which supported the German custom by which man and wife can often be found across the hall from each other in the same firm after romance blossomed in the workplace. And clerks ordered by supervisors to smile at customers are reported to have discovered their smiles often interpreted as invitations to unwanted social interaction in a country where smiles are exchanged between friends, but not between strangers. And raising morale? Well, in Germany that is the job of the works' council, a group of employees quite akin to a union, which ensures employee concerns are represented during management meetings on the one hand, and organizes employee activities such as the company soccer competition or discounted access to mind and body classes.
Where does this leave practical TreeHuggers looking for lessons in environmental sustainability which Walmart might take away from this experience? First, Germans do tend to shop frequently and locally. Although more and more often, local might mean the discount market chain rather than the friendly neighborhood grocer, the fact remains that Germans did not drive the extra miles to save a few euro cents. Second, Germans prefer to bag groceries themselves into reusable carriers, or at least to pay a small fee for the avoidable sin of needing a plastic bag. These are cultural misunderstandings as well, but one could say the cultural philosophy of Walmart could not survive in the context of a German culture with a Happy Planet Index significantly higher than America's.

But that is the "public interest" story. It remains a cold hard fact of the discount retailing world that critical mass was never reached. Blame the German building code, as some analyst do, which significantly reduces Walmart's ability to expand quickly. Blame the takeover of existing stores which were scattered and not particularly well located, in contrast with competition which has sprung up on every corner (Aldi has 550 retail locations competing with Walmart's stores). In the face of the analysis that will surely issue from the respected business commentors, it will be hard to draw conclusions that Walmart's exit from Germany is due to rejection of globalization, unsustainable business culture, or even disinclination towards buying American goods. Okay. But we hope that if Walmart regroups to return to the German market, they will do it with a message of sustainability leadership that German TreeHuggers will be happy to hear.

[Amigo]

Nagyhal a kicsit.

[goyo]

Nagyhal a kicsit.

He ??