In the western German city of Koblenz, tens of thousands have left their homes as experts prepare to defuse a massive bomb from World War II discovered in the Rhine river.
City officials said Sunday that some 45,000 residents living within a 1.2 miles radius from the bomb site had to evacuate for the day. Officials say seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison are also being evacuated. It's one of Germany's biggest bomb-related evacuations since the war ended.
The RAF 1.8 ton bomb would cause massive damage if it exploded. It was found last week next to a 275-pound U.S. bomb after the Rhine's water level fell due to lack of rain. Both bombs are to be defused.
On Sunday, all road and rail connections to Koblenz will be blocked. Trains have not been able to stop at the main railway station since early Sunday morning and access roads into the city will be closed.
Shelters with 12,000 beds have been set up in schools. Hundreds of sandbags have been laid around the section of the riverbed where the bomb lies.
On Sunday morning the remaining water will be pumped out from the area. Once the bomb site is dry, the work to defuse the explosives will begin. The second, smaller US bomb will be defused at the same time.
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The US military has remembered Koblenz ever since its post-World War I occupation by General John J. Pershing.
Pershing was not a believer in "coddling" the troops, and he blamed the two epidemics his army had suffered, "clap" and influenza, on idleness and interacting with the local population while idle.
So, in the quiet of Koblenz, at the time called Coblenz, he ordered that all soldiers were to undergo 8 hours of close order drill daily.
This did not endear him to the soldiers.
Pershing was immortalized by the National Society of Pershing Rifles, that to this day, endeavors to teach ROTC cadets drill & ceremonies, with antiquated and inert rifles, so that they can perform decorative activities at civilian functions.
More militant cadets are encouraged to join a parallel organization based on US Army Ranger training, which teaches them to be deadly, not pretty. This more reflects the opinions of General Pershing's subordinate officers during the Philippine Insurrection.
[An Nahar] A French minister said there was no such thing as moderate Islam, calling recent election successes by Islamic parties in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia "worrying" in an interview published Saturday.
Jeannette Bougrab, a junior minister with responsibility for youth, told Le Gay Pareeien newspaper that legislation based on Islamic sharia law "inevitably" imposed restrictions on rights and freedoms.
Bougrab is of Algerian origin, whose father fought on the French colonial side during Algeria's war of independence, and said she was speaking as "a French woman of Arab origin."
"It's very worrying," she was quoted as saying. "I don't know of any moderate Islam."
"There are no half measures with sharia," she added. "I am a lawyer and you can make all the theological, literal or fundamental interpretations of it that you like but law based on sharia is inevitably a restriction on freedom, especially freedom of conscience."
She was reacting to electoral successes scored by the Ennahda party in Tunisia, the Justice and Development Party in Morocco and the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has called for dialogue with such parties as long as they respect certain criteria, including the rule of law and women's rights.
Bougrab conceded that ousted Tunisian and Egyptian rulers Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... had used the Islamist "threat" to win backing from Western countries, but she added, "We shouldn't go to the other extreme."
And she hit out at the 30 percent of Tunisians living in La Belle France who had voted for Ennahda in last month's polls. "I am shocked that those who have rights and freedoms here gave their votes to a religious party," she said.
A senior German official said Wednesday that the government has approved the subsidized sale of another Dolphin-type military submarine to Israel.
This, presumably, is the one previously said to be cancelled because of Germany's objection to building permits issued for East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The official said Germany has set aside 135 million ($180 million) in next year's budget to pay for about a third of its cost.
Israel already has three Dolphin submarines from Germany -- one half-funded and two entirely funded by Berlin.
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Well, it keeps the boat yards workings. Never know when you might need some U-Boats again to enforce paybacks on loans from people who have to import their oil someday.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A senior German official said Wednesday that the government has approved the subsidized sale of another Dolphin-type military submarine to Israel.
