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  • Bradford MP criticises ‘malicious’ flyer

    Bradford MP criticises ‘malicious’ flyer

    Parliamentary candidate for Bradford East Terry Rooney withdrew from a hustings in the constituency at the weekend because of a “malicious” leaflet campaign designed to target Muslim voters.

    Rooney

    The event on Saturday at the Karmand Centre,Barkerend Road, was attended by the Liberal Democrats’ David Ward and the Conservatives’ Mohammed Riaz.

    Mr Rooney, who has been an MP since 1990, told the Telegraph & Argus he became suspicious about the event after seeing the leaflets which brand him a warmonger and a Twitter campaign encouraging Muslims to vote for a Muslim candidate.

    He said: “They are trying to legitimise voting on religious grounds through third party campaigning.”

    Councillor Ward said the group had identified his record on political issues, and accused Mr Rooney of bottling it.

    Bradford Voice, an organisation which is calling for voters to be active in the forthcoming elections, organised the event. One member said the leaflets were unconnected to the event and they were disappointed that Mr Rooney felt he was unable to attend. She added that if he had contacted them, they could have clarified the position.

    The leaflets, headed Operation Muslim Vote, were written by the organisation Muslim Public Affairs Committee, who were unavailable for comment.

    Telegraph & Argus

  • Noah’s Ark ‘discovered’ 4,800 years on… 4,000m up a mountain in Turkey

    Noah’s Ark ‘discovered’ 4,800 years on… 4,000m up a mountain in Turkey

    According to tradition, Noah’s Ark set sail, carrying his family and pairs of the world’s animals to save them from the great deluge.

    Now, 4,800 years on, a group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers claim to have found the vessel’s remains – 4,000 metres up a mountain in Turkey.

    The explorers said specimen samples taken from the structure on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey were proven to date from the time the boat was said to be afloat after undergoing carbon testing.

    The team made the announcement of their find yesterday (April 26) – the same day the bible says the flood waters abated and the ark came to rest.

    Yeung Wing-cheung, a Hong Kong documentary filmmaker and member of the 15-strong team from Noah’s Ark Ministries International, said: ‘It’s not 100 per cent that it is Noah’s Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it.’

    He said the structure had several compartments, some with wooden beams, which were believed to house animals.

    The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds that one had never been found above 3500m in the vicinity.

    Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected and pave the way for a major archaeological dig.

    The biblical story says God decided to flood the earth after seeing how corrupt it had become, and told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal species.

    After the flood waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest on a mountain.

    Many believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark and her inhabitants came aground.

    The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds that one had never been found above 3500m in the vicinity.

    Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected and pave the way for a major archaeological dig.

    The biblical story says God decided to flood the earth after seeing how corrupt it had become, and told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal species.

    After the flood waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest on a mountain.

    Many believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark and her inhabitants came aground.

    Noah's Ark

    This shows racks found on a wall inside a compartment of a structure found on Mount Ararat, where the Bible says the Ark came to rest

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1269165/Noahs-Ark-discovered-4-800-years–4-000m-mountain-Turkey.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0mKPk6va9

  • Using fuel cells with underground coal gasification

    Using fuel cells with underground coal gasification

    Fuel Cells, Apr  23  2010 (The Hydrogen Journal)

    – Sir David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the British government and now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, says he sees an important application for alkaline fuel cells with underground coal gasification, making previously uneconomic coal mines economic, and keeping the carbon dioxide underground.

    The idea is that coal is gasified underground to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide, by blowing oxygen and hot steam through it. The hydrogen can be directly used to make electricity in a fuel cell, and the carbon monoxide reacted again with water to form carbon dioxide, and put back underground.

    “I think the alkaline fuel cell is virtually there and there’s an immediate niche which is coal gasification,” Sir David said during a recent visit to AFC Energy, a UK manufacturer of alkaline fuel cells.

    “In North Wales and Leicestershire there are coal mines that are have been closed down that are inefficient for coal mining but all that coal is still there to be gasified.”

    “The biggest single challenge we’re faced with globally is to move from a fossil fuel-based economy to fossil fuel less-society,” Sir David said during his visit. “To me, this challenge is the most wonderful technology, innovation, wealth creation possibility. What I’ve just seen at AFC is an exciting example of this. The alkaline fuel cell has the possibility to create power stations with megawatts of electricity.”

    The UK could access an estimated 17 billion additional tons of coal using this process.

    AFC Energy has an agreement with Linc Energy of Australia, to use the technology in Linc’s global UCG projects.

    Following the visit, Sir David invited AFC Energy to join leading global figures from the policy, business and academic communities at the 2010 World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, run jointly with The Times newspaper.

    AFC Energy

     Source:http://www.h2journal.com/displaynews.php?NewsID=416&PHPSESSID=o4et91fh79c02kijhor99drd40

  • Car bomb explodes outside NI police station

    Car bomb explodes outside NI police station

    A car bomb has exploded outside a police station in Northern Ireland, injuring two people, days after the final formal steps for the peace process in the province were put in place.

    Police northern Ireland

    The device blew up at the Newtownhamilton police station late Thursday night after a warning was telephoned to a Belfast hospital, police said.

    A car bomb was defused at the same spot in the county of Armagh 10 days ago. The Continuity IRA, which opposes the peace process and last year killed a police officer in the bloodiest three days in Northern Ireland for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for that bomb.

    A day earlier another republican group opposed to the peace process, the Real IRA, had detonated a bomb near the Northern Ireland offices of domestic spy agency MI5. The Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers last year, two days before the killing of the police officer.

    The latest attacks were apparently timed to coincide with the transfer of police and justice powers from London and the appointment of Northern Ireland’s first justice minister.

    The moves are the last formal steps under a process, launched by a 1998 peace deal, that has resulted in self-rule for the province by a government representing both Republicans and Unionists.

    Police said they were investigating reports of shots being fired before Thursday’s bombing, which shattered windows and forced homes to be evacuated and residents to be put up in a high school.

    “Those who planted this bomb want to drag Northern Ireland back to the dark days of murder and mayhem, they want to undermine the political process, they want politics to fail,” said David Ford, the newly-appointed justice minister.

    “I am determined that we will all continue to stand together so that they will not succeed,” Ford, the leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party, said in a statement.

    Northern Ireland’s political leaders, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, also condemned the attack.

    Analysts have warned that republican dissidents remain active, and police have said the risk of attack, chiefly on security forces, is severe.

    Police said the two wounded people had been taken to hospital but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

    In a separate incident, a pipe bomb exploded outside a house in Coalisland in County Tyrone, shattering windows but injuring no one, police said.

    (Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Dublin; editing by Kevin Liffey)

    Reuters

  • Flights between TÜRKİYE and UK are cancelled

    Flights between TÜRKİYE and UK are cancelled

    Flights across the north of Europe and  UK have been grounded for a second day as volcanic ash from Iceland drifts across Europe, posing a potential threat to aircraft. Flights between Turkey and UK are also grounded due to the potential threat to aircraft safety.

    Volcanic eruption

    Airports remain closed to passengers and air traffic control company NATS has warned restrictions are due to remain in place until 7pm at the earliest.

    In a statement, NATS said: “The cloud of volcanic ash continues to cover much of the UK and the eruption in Iceland continues.The statement continued: “In general, the situation cannot be said to be improving with any certainty as the forecast affected area appears to be closing in from east to west.
    “We continue to work closely with airports, airlines, and the rest of Europe to understand and mitigate the implications of the volcanic eruption.”

    These reports clearly indicate that volcanic eruption will continue to effect thousands of passengers around the world.

    Tolga Cakir

    email: tolga1cakir@yahoo.co.uk

  • Shangri-La, Tanriverdi to build seven-star hotel in Istanbul

    Shangri-La, Tanriverdi to build seven-star hotel in Istanbul

    Shangri-La, Tanriverdi to build seven-star hotel in Istanbul

    The hotel is estimated to cost $250 million
    Wednesday, April 14, 2010
    Tanriverdi Holding
    A Turkish business conglomerate and an international hotel chain signed a cooperation agreement on Saturday to build a seven-star hotel in Istanbul. Tanriverdi Holding andShangri-La Asia Ltd. signed the agreement in a ceremony, attended by Turkish State Minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan at the Dolmabahce Palace.

    Caglayan expressed hope that the agreement would lead the way for the Shangri-La Asia to make more investments in Turkey.

    The new seven-star Shangri-La Istanbul will be built on the spot of an old tobacco warehouse overlooking the Bosphorus in the Besiktas district. The 14-storey hotel, with seven of them below sea level, is planned to be opened in April 2012. The hotel is estimated to cost $250 million.

    Shangri-La Asia Ltd. runs 68 hotels worldwide and Shangri-La Istanbul is among the four hotels to be built in Europe besides Paris, Vienna and London.

    Travel Daily News