News from the Cross

[Maurice]

in the midst of the cardinal cross for the weeks to come - this thread is bound to gather some new bits.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Acres of mud strewn with dead fish greeted hundreds of eastern Iowa residents Monday after a weekend dam break left their lakefront properties overlooking little more than a small stream.

The Lake Delhi dam in Delaware County gave way under the rapidly rising Maquoketa River on Saturday, decimating the nine-mile-long lake and adjacent property values.

"The water's gone, dead fish are laying there on the bottom — it's a pretty nasty looking scene," said Irv Janey of Marion, who owns a condominium on Lake Delhi. "It was a beautiful recreation area and to see it drained, it just makes you sick."

Heavy rains last week forced the river to unprecedented levels, causing earthen portions of the dam to collapse and sending a torrent of water rushing downstream. The concrete section of the dam remained intact, but the swollen river damaged about half the 1,000 homes and cabins above it. The lake quickly emptied.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Lufthansa cargo plane caught fire and split in half as it was landing Tuesday in the Saudi Arabian capital, injuring the German pilot and co-pilot, said local officials and the airline.

Lufthansa said in a statement that one of its MD-11 planes crashed and the pilot and co-pilot, aged 39 and 29, had to leave the plane by emergency chutes.

Riyadh airport official Fahd al-Hamoud said the German nationals were rushed to a military hospital near the airport.

"The plane was close to the airport when it caught fire," al-Hamoud said. "Its engines stopped working, then it crashed and split into two halves."

[Maurice]

AMAZING!

Spain's Catalonia bans bullfighting

Catalonia became the first Spanish mainland region to ban bullfighting after its parliament voted Wednesday to outlaw the tradition on animal cruelty grounds.

The vote was 68 in favor and 55 against, with nine abstentions.

Those who see the ancient tradition as animal cruelty were ecstatic about the vote, celebrating in the street outside parliament. Fans of bullfighting said the decision, however, does not mean it will disappear from other regions in Spain.



http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europ ... OEj00bH1rJ

on the other hand -

Look at that, the crash occurs with the Ascendant right on the cross!! and Moon sandwiched between Neptune and Chiron...

Plane with 152 on board crashes in Pakistan; no survivors

-- No one survived the crash of a Pakistani passenger plane that went down in the outskirts of the capital Islamabad Wednesday morning with 152 people on board, officials said.

Rescuers worked in heavy rains to recover bodies from the wreckage, as officials launched an investigation to determine why the accident occurred.

Crews combing through the debris have recovered a so-called "black box" -- which is actually orange -- that is either the craft's flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, according to Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Information from the recorder will help authorities determine the cause of the tragedy.

[Qidancer]

The energy is building

A tugboat hit another oil well head in the Gulf, about 105 km south of New Orleans, so we have another leak of oil and natural gas in the Gulf.

California wild fire in Tehachapi, 30 homes gone, 150 destroyed.

There are two inconjuncts in the chart that make a configuration like a distorted Mystic Rectangle--any thoughts about that?--Mercury inconjunct Jupiter Uranus, then Mars/Saturn inconjunct Chiron/Moon/Neptune--doubt the news will get much better with this.

[astraya]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... ns-missing

Audit reveals billions of dollars of Iraqi oil funds gone missing

The US department of defence has called in forensic accountants to help track $8.1bn (£5.2bn) of $9.1bn in Iraq's oil revenue entrusted to it after the fall of Baghdad, following an official audit that revealed the money was missing.

The funds were to be used for spending on reconstruction during 2004-07, a period when Iraq was under weak transitional rule.

The report was issued today by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which had previously criticised poor book-keeping by senior officials throughout the last seven years.

Iraqi officials said they knew nothing about the missing billions and had no means to find where they had been spent. "We will speak to the oil ministry finance committee tomorrow about this," said a spokesman for Iraq's oil minister.

The revelation was made against a backdrop of limited services nationwide made worse by a summer that has seen demand for electricity well exceed Iraq's meagre means to supply it through weeks of staggering heat.

[star]

Maurice post:
Catalonia became the first Spanish mainland region to ban bullfighting after its parliament voted Wednesday to outlaw the tradition on animal cruelty grounds.

Excellent accomplishment for Catalonia, " I still like to say Cataluña" , me very happyyyy too...

[Maurice]

star - this was already posted.

Here is ANOTHER Plane crash!

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska – The Alaska National Guard says a military cargo plane has crashed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.

Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes confirmed the Wednesday evening crash of a C-17.

[star]

Maurice wrote:
star - this was already posted.

Maurice, I was just replying to your posting, have a look at the first paragraph of your posting.

[Maurice]

from bast

Also floods in China are raging and have killed more than 800 people with 400 missing.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/as ... 70934.html

[Maurice]

Jesus...

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Federal officials now estimate that more than 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled into a major river in southern Michigan, and the governor is sharply criticizing clean-up efforts as "wholly inadequate."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the update Wednesday night, shortly after Gov. Jennifer Granholm lambasted attempts to contain the oil flowing down the Kalamazoo River. She warned of a "tragedy of historic proportions" if the oil reaches Lake Michigan, which is still at least 80 miles downstream from where oil has been seen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/ap_ ... _oil_spill

[pogostick]

At least 138 killed in Congo boat accident....

At least 138 people have drowned in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a riverboat capsized in bad weather.

Local police say the accident happened Wednesday in the western province of Bandundu, about 300 kilometers east of the capital, Kinshasa.

Officials say the boat was overloaded with people and merchandise, and was unable to navigate through rough waters.

Fatal boat accidents are fairly common in the DRC, where a lack of paved roads forces people to travel by river, often on overcrowded, poorly maintained boats.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/At-Least-138-Killed-in-Congo-Boat-Accident--99544994.html

[pogostick]

Details emerge in French baby killing case

Eight candles were placed near the house where six babies' remains were found Details have emerged of the woman detained in France over one of biggest infanticide cases in the country's recent history.

People who know Dominique Cottrez, a nursing assistant, say she is a woman with a weight problem who played little part in the life of her village near Lille, Villers-au-Tertre.

Her husband, Pierre-Marie Cottrez, is a carpenter who, by contrast, has sat on the village council for years. He is a "decent, well-meaning type", according to Mayor Patrick Mercier.

The couple, in their 40s, have two grown-up children, both daughters now in their 20s, with children of their own.

Before news of their arrest, it was the common view that the Cottrez couple were "des gens sans histoire" , or "quiet people".

Mrs Cottrez has now confessed to killing eight of her own newborn babies, apparently because of memories of difficulties during her first pregnancy...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10803080

[kathryn]

Earthquake in Bogota, Colombia today...thank goodness my daughter is okay.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-new ... ombia.html

[pogostick]

Kathryn: Glad to hear that your daughter is safe!

Here's another breaking story:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g4rSxtb6hFEjzSiMFwAKeOSyEC9gD9H9BRM81

Wildfire explodes in rural hills near Los Angeles

PALMDALE, Calif. — Firefighters plan an aggressive air attack at first light Friday against a fast-moving wildfire that exploded in northern Los Angeles County, chewing through more than 7 square miles of dry brush, forcing thousands of evacuations and burning at least three structures.

There is zero containment, authorities said.

Three water-dropping helicopters and hundreds of firefighters worked through the night to get ahead of the blaze that broke out around 3 p.m. Thursday southwest of Palmdale. By early evening the winds picked up and pushed the flames north and east toward the suburbs of Los Angeles County's inland desert, authorities said.

Orange flames exploded through dry grasses, jumped roads and sped across the rural foothills that connect Los Angeles to the high desert.

The area is west of the 250-square-mile zone scorched by last summer's Station Fire, the largest wildland blaze in county history.

About 200 firefighters contained another blaze at 350 acres, Levesque said. A third fire was stopped at 30 acres.

Further north in Kern County, good weather helped firefighters build containment lines around two wildfires that destroyed homes in remote mountain communities earlier in the week.

A 2 1/2-square-mile blaze near Tehachapi on the western edge of the Mojave Desert was 44 percent contained after burning about 30 homes and other structures in a scattered community called Old West Ranch.

The community nonetheless remained evacuated, affecting about 150 people, said John Buchanan, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

[Maurice]

On the Mars/Saturn opposite Jupiter/Uranus head yesterday in Argentina it was the first gay marriage after it was legalized a couple of days ago (it was a very foul move from our psychopatic presidential couple to get even with the church total manipulation including taking senators to China "for shoping" not-to vote against it)...on the other hand many very violent crimes all over like the shooting of a 9 month pregnant woman in the face and chest to rob her at the door of a bank...extreme car crashes...

Luckily the baby and mother survived both.

wow!

[Maurice]

-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has deployed troops to areas near the Colombian border and says he is reviewing plans for a potential war as tension between the two nations rises.

"Three nights ago I told the vice-president. It makes me sad, I confess, that I'm reviewing war plans," he said during a phone interview on the state-run VTV network.

Special forces are moving to 10 districts near the Colombian border to be prepared in case Colombian President Alvaro Uribe issues an invasion order before he leaves office August 7, Chavez said Friday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... tml?hpt=T2