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Google Earth will be adding a new feature – undersea landscapes. These will include the habitats of threatened species that everyone with the program will be able to look at and explore.

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The new project will encompass video streams, photos and stories from marine protected areas all over the world.

Natural England has contributed information from about 43 marine sites around the UK, that offer protection to endangered species, such as the basking shark, seahorses, corals and algae.

Lundy Island will be a big feature on the new system. The island, off the North Devon Coast, is England’s only statutory marine reserve, where disturbing the marine life is banned and it is somewhere all marine life have the chance to thrive.

Dr Helen Phillips, Natural England’s chief executive, said she hoped the new Google Earth feature would bring the marine environment to life and raise awareness of the need to conserve and enhance it.

She said: “There needs to be a change in attitudes towards protecting our oceans. The diversity of marine wildlife around England’s coastline is exceptional; we have everything from whales through to microscopic phytoplankton.

“But we need an enhanced marine protection system to help conserve our undersea environment.”
[tags]google earth underwater, google earth undersea view, google earth new version, google earth water, google earth water view[/tags]
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Police arrested more than 180 people gathered at an illegal street racing site in an industrial area near Ontario International Airport early this morning, authorities said.

Among those arrested were two drivers and a “flagger,” who signals the start of the race, who were booked on misdemeanor charges, given citations and released, said Sgt. David McBride of the Ontario Police Department.

Politicians of almost all parties in Poland have kept denying whether the CIA illegally held terrorists in secret prisons in Poland.

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The first to report about secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons in Europe where alleged Al Qaeda members were held was the Washington Post on 2 November 205. The story was based on anonymous sources within the CIA.

From Press Reports to Official Inquiries

The history of the article’s publication (Dana Priest won a Pulitzer for it) is dramatic. President George W. Bush intervened when the newspaper was to go to print, asking for certain details – the names of the countries where the detention centres were located, and the names of the prisoners – to be withheld.

On 7 November, Human Rights Watch, the human rights organisation, said the prisoners had been held in Poland and Romania, among other places. In December, ABC News reported the names of twelve terrorists who had supposedly been held in Poland, among them Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the mastermind of the World Trade Centre attack.

At the same time, European press reported on a whole ‘global network of secret CIA prisons’, mentioning countries not only in Europe, but also in Africa and the Middle East. Newspapers wrote about EU governments cooperating with the Americans and handing terrorist suspects over to them. The whole story was presented in Ewa Ewart’s BBC documentary about secret landings of CIA airplanes in Europe. EU institutions started investigating the matter. Three reports were drawn up confirming the prisons’ existence in Poland and Romania: the Council of Europe’s (June 2006), the European Parliament’s (November 2006), and the European Commission’s (November 2007). All three were based on circumstantial evidence and anonymous sources.

President Bush’s Admission

In September 2006, President George W. Bush admitted that the US had indeed used facilities in countries – members of the anti-terrorist alliance. He refused to name the countries. He denied whether the detainees had been tortured.

Poland was named most emphatically by the New York Times in a June 2008 report that described in detail the interrogations at the military intelligence training centre in Stare Kiejkuty in north-eastern Poland. It even stated the name of one of the interrogators – Deuce Martinez. The report’s author, Scott Shane, talked to a number of former CIA officers. According to them, the Polish prisons was ‘the most important one’ for the CIA. ‘Many’ Al Qaeda terrorists were held there for months.

According to the report’s author, Khalid Sheik Mohammad was tortured. Special interrogation tactics, such as sleep deprivation, frigid temperatures, fear, pain, simulated drowning – were used about one hundred times on Mr Muhammad over two weeks.

Europe Reprimands Poland

In Poland, politicians from all sides consistently denied the existence of alleged ‘CIA prisons’.

‘This is groundless slander’, then PM Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (PiS) said in 2006.

‘No secret CIA prisons existed in Poland, whether during my term or before that’, President Lech Kaczyński stressed in June 2007.

‘Poland and the US have had long cooperated on intelligence matters. But the prisons never existed’, ex-president Aleksander Kwaśniewski reiterated last week.

Also Civic Platform deputies familiar with Polish-US intelligence cooperation joined in the denials. ‘This is an attempt to challenge the very basis of the fight against terrorism with lies’, deputy Paweł Graś said in 2006. PO-recommended MEP Barbara Kudrycka (presently the Minister of Science) successfully lobbied for the information about a ‘secret detention centre’ in Stare Kiejkuty to be removed from the European Parliament’s report. Some Polish officials refused to testify before the Parliament’s committee of inquiry. The Polish government also refused to hand over a list of CIA-operated aircraft that landed in Szymany near Kiejkuty in 2002-2005.

The European Parliament committee said the Polish government had been ‘grossly’ uncooperative, and the delegation of the committee members had been ignored by both cabinet and parliament. The Polish press joined in the politicians’ denials, not doing much to find out whether the allegations were true, and in some cases actually defending the government’s position.

Siemiątkowski’s Secret

Both the politicians and the press were acting under the pressure of the argument that investigating the matter more closely could expose Poland to a terrorist attack.

Today, they repeat the argument in unofficial conversations, but they admit that, following the Europarl and global media reports, continuing to hide the truth makes no sense.

Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, head of the Intelligence Agency in the SLD administration in 2002-2004, as one of few Polish politicians, has inside knowledge about what went on in Kiejkuty. He appeared before the Europarl committee, but testified that the agency he headed has done nothing illegal.

Today he also says he is sworn to secrecy. ‘And that’s what I’ll tell the prosecutors too’, he tells Gazeta.
[tags]polish cia camps, poland usa cia prisons, poland cia secret prisons, secret polish prisons usa[/tags]
Source: wyborcza.pl

Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country’s bloody conflict — and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

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The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, has been involved in four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, says the source.

The talks — the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan — mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.

They also mark a sidestepping of key “war on terror” ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan.

According to the source, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar — high on the U.S. military’s most-wanted list — was not present, but his representatives were keen to stress the reclusive cleric is no longer allied to al Qaeda.

Details of the Taliban leader’s split with al Qaeda have never been made public before, but the new claims confirm what another source with an intimate knowledge of the militia and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past.

The current round of talks, said to have been taken two years of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations to come to fruition, is anticipated to be the first step in a long process to secure a negotiated end to the conflict.

But U.S.- and Europe-friendly Saudi Arabia’s involvement has been propelled by a mounting death toll among coalition troops amid a worsening violence that has also claimed many civilian casualties.

A Saudi source familiar with the talks confirmed that they happened and said the Saudis take seriously their role in facilitating discussions between parties to the conflict.

A second round of talks is scheduled to take place in two months, the Saudi source said.

The Afghan government believes the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, and the Taliban believe that they can’t win a war against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Saudi source said.

The involvement of the Saudis is also seen as an expression of fear that Iran could take advantage of U.S. failings in Afghanistan, as it is seen to be doing in Iraq.

Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. Learn more about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia »

The Afghan sources wish to remain anonymous due to their political roles.

Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace.
[tags]taliban split al queda, taliban quit al queda, taliban saudi arabia, taliban King Abdullah[/tags]

Source:CNN.com

Ford announced today a new technology called MyKey that will be standard on the 2010 Focus Coupe and quickly spread to the rest of the Blue Oval’s lineup. MyKey can do three basic things: allow parents to limit a vehicle’s top speed to 80 mph and/or the stereo’s volume up to 44% of its max, and set a sustaining chime if the seatbelts aren’t being used.

Wall Street tumbled Monday, joining a selloff around the world, as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The credit market remained under strain, and investors piled into government bonds. The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 300 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years.

The core of the Senate financial bailout bill is the Bush administration’s plan to buy troubled assets from banks, but the proposal includes a number of new provisions aimed at Main Street.

The changes are intended to attract more votes in the House, which defeated an earlier version on Monday. In particular, they are designed to attract more House Republicans, two-thirds of whom voted no.

The U.S. and its allies should rush more troops “as quickly as possible” to Afghanistan, the top American commander in that country said Wednesday, warning that the fighting could worsen before it get better.

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Trying to meet Gen. David McKiernan’s urgent need for weapons and equipment, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked the military for additional surveillance drones and armored vehicles right now for Afghanistan, The Associated Press has learned. It is a short-term solution to a persistent shortfall of military assets in a seven-year war often overshadowed by the larger U.S.-led conflict in Iraq.

After an Oval Office briefing from McKiernan, President Bush said Afghanistan is “a situation where there’s been progress and there are difficulties.”

The U.S. is in a tough fight against determined killers, Bush said. He cited progress in health care, education and transportation, and said McKiernan relayed “what he’s going to need to make sure that we continue helping this young democracy succeed.”

McKiernan is in Washington this week meeting with top leaders and laying out his military requirements for a war that is just beginning to take on new prominence in the waning months of the Bush administration. U.S. troops are being killed there in increasing numbers.

A senior defense official said Gates asked aides to find both unmanned surveillance drones and mine-resistent vehicles to divert to Afghanistan in the coming months until a more coordinated effort early next year. One focus is protecting the strategic main highway.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the effort has not yet been made public, said the military is looking to nearly double the 24-hour aerial surveillance patrols, from 27 now to about 55.

A new Pentagon task force is supposed to speed weapons and equipment to Afghanistan beginning early next year.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced orders to deploy about 26,000 troops to Iraq beginning next summer, evidence of the struggle to shift troops and weapons. The deployments would allow the U.S. to keep troop levels largely steady in Iraq through much of next year. Military leaders have made it clear they cannot shift more troops to Afghanistan until they can further cut force levels in Iraq.

Bush announced this month that the U.S. will pull about 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by February, with about half leaving before the end of 2008. Pentagon officials say more reductions could be made by summer, possibly freeing up units to go to Afghanistan.

“The additional military capabilities that have been asked for are needed as quickly as possible,” McKiernan said. He said he is hoping to get units that will be able to both fight the insurgents and serve as trainers for the Afghan Army and police.

About 33,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan — 20,000 fighting insurgents and training the Afghan security forces, and 13,000 with the NATO-led coalition.

McKiernan’s immediate challenge is to coordinate a winter offensive by coalition forces. Commanders do not want to sit idle and give Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents that time to rebuild their forces.

Military leaders insist the retooled strategy is critical because they made the mistake of giving the enemy that break last winter and do not want to repeat it.

At the same time, defense officials are reviewing the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, working to draw a clearer picture for the next commander in chief of what needs to be done to stabilize the country, bolster international support and make the most of U.S. and allied military forces.

Violence in Afghanistan is up about 30 percent this year compared with 2007. The Taliban and associated militant groups such as al-Qaida have stepped up attacks. More U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year than in any year since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

“We’re in a very tough fight,” McKiernan said. “The idea that it might get worse before it gets better is certainly a possibility.”

Gates said last week he may be able to send thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan starting next spring. McKiernan said he expects some of his more urgent needs for additional helicopters and surveillance capabilities will be met in the next few months.

The general pointed to a significant increase in foreign fighters coming from neighboring Pakistan this year — Chechens, Uzbeks, Saudis and Europeans. He said he needs the 10,000-plus additional forces he has requested to help increase campaigns in the south and east where violence has escalated.

McKiernan told reporters he is encouraged by recent Pakistani military operations against insurgents waging cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but said it is too soon to tell how effective they have been.

He also endorsed the recent suggestion by Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak to try to create a joint force of Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. forces to secure what is a porous, mountainous, ungoverned border region.

“I think in the future I would certainly support the idea of combined patrolling along that border,” said McKiernan. If it’s handled the right way, he said he believes the Pakistanis would go along with the plan.

“There are mutual border security concerns that both the Afghans and the Pakistanis have,” he said. “So the more we can work together to approach those concerns, the better off we all are.”
[tags]afghanistan troops needed, troops needed in afghanistan, afghan troops needed[/tags]
Source: Yahoo.com

The Nasdaq Stock Market said it will cancel some of the late trades in Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose shares appeared to plunge as low as 1 cent at the close of North American markets on Tuesday.

No doubt – HAMANN knows how to refine luxury cars. And with the tuning programme for the V8 Vantage of the English luxury brand Aston Martin, the Laupheim-based company once again confirms its supremacy as a manufacturer of sport accessories and thrilling body design.