NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Unlike the blast that led to the massive BP spill, the latest oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water.

The Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames Thursday was just 200 miles west of the spill site, but everything from the structures to the operations to the safety devices were different.

Yet when word of the latest mishap spread, residents along the coast could think only of the three-month spill that began after the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Sophie Esch, 28, a Tulane graduate student from Berlin. “They should finally stop drilling in the Gulf. They should shut down all the drilling out there and not give permission to do any more. They’ve shown that it’s just unsafe.”

The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread, but hours later said crews were unable to find any spill.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehmann in New Orleans said Friday morning that an 87-foot Coast Guard cutter patrolling the area has not reported any signs of leaks. A helicopter was to survey the site later in the day.

Houston-based Mariner did not know what caused the fire. The 13 workers who were pulled from the water told rescuers that there was a blast on board, but Mariner’s Patrick Cassidy said he considered what happened a fire, not an explosion.

Platforms are vastly different from oil rigs like BP’s Deepwater Horizon. They are usually brought in after wells are already drilled and sealed and the oil is flowing at a predictable pressure. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews on board.

“A production platform is much more stable,” said Andy Radford, an American Petroleum Institute expert on offshore oil drilling.

Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus, each spreads numerous pipelines and can tap into many wells at once.

The Deepwater Horizon was drilling a well a mile beneath the sea, which made trying to plug it after it blew out an incredible challenge, with BP trying techniques never tested. The platform that caught fire, meanwhile, was operating in 340 feet of water in a shallow area of the Gulf known as a major source of gas.

Responding to any oil spill in such a shallow spot would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles to access equipment on the sea floor.

Platforms do not have blowout preventers like deep water rigs that are supposed to shut down wells if there is problem. But they are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline.

Mariner Energy officials said there were seven active production wells on its platform, and they were shut down shortly before the fire broke out.

The platform was still intact and a small portion appeared burned, Cassidy said. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the company told him the fire began in about 100 barrels worth of light oil condensate.

Photos showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery, an image similar to when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Crews decided to let that blaze burn itself out, and the rig sank into the Gulf two days after the blast.

Read More >>

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DUBAI (Reuters) – A Boeing 747-400 cargo plane operated by United Parcel Service Inc crashed shortly after takeoff into a military compound near Dubai’s airport on Friday, killing two crew members, authorities said.

U.S. parcel delivery company UPS confirmed the crash of the plane, which was en route to Cologne, Germany.

“I saw the plane suddenly dive down into the base and heard a huge explosion,” said a nearby resident.

A government source familiar with the initial crash report said the plane had taken off from Dubai International Airport at 6:40 p.m. (1440 GMT) and was diverted to a military compound after reporting trouble.

The aircraft caught fire, hit a covered parking lot, then bounced and crashed, the source said, adding that there were no injuries on the ground. Smoke was billowing from the base, a Reuters witness reported.

The United Arab Emirates civil aviation authority said the bodies of the two crew members were recovered.

Saif al-Suwaidi, general manager of civil aviation, told Dubai TV that flights had not been affected at Dubai’s airport, the busiest in the Middle East.

“The pilot reported fire and smoke in the cockpit and was instructed to return to Dubai. After failing to land at the airport, the plane disappeared from radar screens and was found later (at the crash site),” Suwaidi said.

Boeing said on its website it would send a team to provide technical support to the investigation upon invitation from the authorities.

GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy said plane was running GE CF6-80C2 engines. GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric Co said it is sending investigators to the scene.

“It is unusual to lose an aircraft on take-off, particularly once airborne. Crashes in this phase of flight are not common. Without more information it is difficult to speculate what happened,” said Paul Hayes, director of air safety at UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend.

Both UPS and the Boeing 747-400 have relatively good safety records, he added.

Initially, Al Arabiya television had reported the plane had hit a busy highway, but later reports indicated it did not hit the road.

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Mexican cartel blockades streets inMonterrey

Police in Mexico say members of a drug cartel blocked off at least 13 major roads in Monterrey on Saturday.

Drivers were dragged out of their vehicles by armed men and their cars used to cut off the roads in the north-eastern city.

The blockade happened after a shootout between the Mexican army and alleged members of a drug cartel, in which four people were killed.

Police say the cartels blockade the streets as a show of force.

Security forces said the shootout happened in the south of the city, when soldiers on patrol chased two armoured cars they deemed suspicious.

One of the armoured cars crashed and its occupants opened fire on the soldiers.

Four of them were shot as they tried to flee on foot, a fifth escaped.

Local media say one of those killed was the man known as El Sonrics, the alleged leader of one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug cartels.

El Sonrics is said to have taken over as leader of Los Zetas in Monterrey after soldiers captured Hector Raul Luna Luna in June.

Monterrey, the richest city in Mexico and its industrial capital, has seen a sharp increase in crime since Los Zetas extended their operations there

German weekly Der Spiegel says expert has confirmed the authenticity of photographs showing the bodies of rebel fighters apparently killed in chemical attack.

By Haaretz Service

German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Thursday that it has obtained photographs showing the bodies of fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) allegedly killed by chemical weapons used by Turkey.

	Turkish PM Erdogan with army officials in eastern Turkey
	Photo by: Reuters

The report claims German experts have examined and confirmed the photographs’ authenticity. German politicians and human rights experts are now demanding an investigation into the incident.

Read More http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/

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Historians have concluded that more than one million Armenians were killed in 1915 [EPA] A US appeals court has upheld a ruling that blocks schools in the state of Massachusetts from teaching literature that denies the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 was a genocide. The ruling came in response to a 2005 lawsuit filed by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, a US lobbying group. A lower court dismissed the suit in June, and the appeals court upheld that decision on Wednesday. State curriculum in Massachusetts requires schools to teach a unit about the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and other “recognised human rights violations and genocides.” The appeals court ruled that “law would not allow the genocide denial actions that the plaintiffs sought.” Turkish-American groups have lobbied schools to include materials that question whether the 1915 killings were, in fact, a genocide. Historians have concluded that more than one million Armenians were killed in 1915, and contemporaneous reports from newspapers and foreign embassies often called the killings “systematic.” The International Association of Genocide Scholars affirmed in 2005 that the killings were a genocide. The Turkish government claims the death toll is far lower, and that the killings were part of broader civil unrest, not a planned extermination. Labelling the Armenian genocide has long been a touchy subject in the US. The foreign affairs committee of the US house of representatives voted narrowly earlier this year to declare the killings a genocide, a move that prompted Turkey to recall its ambassador to the US. Massachusetts has one of the largest Armenian populations in the US. Source  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/201081234955257668.html

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HHamas armed forces ready to

take on rival Jihad Islami

Both have put their armed men on the ready for a showdown which could end in the carving-up of the densely populated, tiny (360 sq. km.) Palestinian enclave.

Our exclusive sources report that Saturday night, Aug. 7, Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam and Jihad’s Saraya al Qods-Jerusalem Battalions ordered a general mobilization.
Except for Israeli military units stationed near the Gaza border and certain intelligence circles, this brink-of-factional war went unnoticed in Jerusalem and Israel’s media, which are preoccupied with unending domestic political disputes.
debkafile’s military sources, however, call the situation in the Gaza strip “explosive” thanks to the extreme steps the two feuding Palestinian factions have set in motion:
1.  Their two armed forces have called up reserves, corralled them inside towns across Gaza and are holding them ready to step into flare-ups as reinforcements;

2.   The two armed groups are under orders not to rest: they must stay in uniform, hold their side arms ready and keep awake.
3.  Both Hamas and Jihad have broken open their weapons stores and are distributing arms around neighborhoods they regard as loyal bastions.
4.  Both threaten to use against each other the missiles they have stocked up for attacking Israel;

Our sources are holding tight in the hope that outbreaks of violence building up in the Gaza Strip do not spill over the border into Israel.

Source http://debka.com/article/8960/

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Karen Woo

Dr Karen Woo with dogs, California Photo: Facebook

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Karen Woo’s fiance identifies her body after Afghanistan murder

Family say Karen Woo was on ‘purely humanitarian’ aid mission, as William Hague denounces murder as

• Jon Boone in Kabul
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 August 2010 22.00 BST
• Article history

Karen Woo and her fiance Mark ‘Paddy’ Smith

The fiance of Karen Woo, the British doctor killed in the ambush of aid workers in northern Afghanistan, had the harrowing task today of identifying her body just two weeks before they were due to wed.

The remains of Woo and the bodies of nine other aid workers, including six Americans and a German, were flown back by helicopter to Kabul where many of them will be buried in the city’s only Christian graveyard.

Mark “Paddy” Smith said he wanted the chance to say goodbye to his 36-year-old fiancee, whom he had been due to marry this month at the Chelsea registry office in London.

“I just wanted to say goodbye to my baby bear,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure that she hadn’t been beaten or brutalised.”

The former army officer, who works in Kabul, said there were no signs that she had been mistreated. Medical staff said she had been shot twice.

Read More http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/

LONDON — The family of Dr Karen Woo, one of eight foreign medical workers killed in Afghanistan, denied on Sunday that she had been trying to spread Christianity.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings on Saturday, saying the workers had been carrying bibles in Dari — one of Afghanistan’s two main languages — and were targeted because they were promoting Christianity.

“Her motivation was purely humanitarian. She was a Humanist and had no religious or political agenda,” Woo’s family said in a statement.

“She wanted the world to know there was more than a war going on in Afghanistan, that people were not getting their basic needs met.”

Woo, who was due to be married on her return from Afghanistan, had joined up with a team from a Christian aid group which was attacked by gunmen as they returned to Kabul from the remote northeastern Nuristan province.

“Her commitment was to make whatever difference she could. She was a true hero, whilst scared she never let that prevent her from doing things she had to do,” the family said.

Woo had written in a recent blog posting that she would act as the team doctor and run a mother-and-child clinic in Nuristan.

Read More http://msnbc.msn.com/id/38613818/ns/

Tributes paid to Dr Karen Woo killed in Afghan ambush

Tributes have been paid by the family and fiance of a British doctor who was shot dead along with nine colleagues on an aid mission in Afghanistan.

Dr Karen Woo, 36, from London was called a “true hero” by her family and “loving and caring” by her fiance.

Afghan police say those who died were victims of an armed robbery. One of the aid convoy’s drivers has been detained.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the killings were “a deplorable and cowardly act”.

Read More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10907188

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University of Miami president detained for questioning at Israeli airport

Donna Shalala, of Lebanese descent, says she was questioned 3 hours at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport during visit last month.

By The Associated Press

A former secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department says she was detained and interrogated at the Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel last month.

	Former U.S. President George Bush giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to University of Miami President Donna Shalala in 2008
	Photo by: AP

Donna Shalala, who is of Lebanese descent, is now the president of the University of Miami. She was visiting Israel in July as part of a delegation of university leaders invited by the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange.

Read More  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/

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Source tells Israel Radio that the president sent former minister Ramon to meet Erekat this month as his emissary, with that message in tow.

By Haaretz Service

Former justice minister Haim Ramon of Kadima met earlier this month with Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in an attempt to convince him to refuse direct Middle East peace talks, Israel Radio on Thursday quoted a source as saying.

The two met at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem on July 8 . The source wholeaked news of their talks to Israel Radio said he happened to be in the hotel for a separate meeting, and was close enough to hear every detail of the conversation.

Read More  http://www.haaretz.com/news/

	President Shimon Peres speaking in Hadera in May, 2010.
	Photo by: Itzik Ben Malki

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Lebanon: We fired first at IDF unit near Israel border

Israel submits official UN complaint over fatal border clash; UNIFIL official says IDF soldiers did not cross Lebanon border.

By Haaretz Service and Barak Ravid

The Lebanese Army was first to open fire in the recent fatal border clash with Israel Defense Forces soldiers, a Lebanese source told the Lebanese newspaper A-Nahar on Wednesday.

	A Lebanese soldier holding his rifle as Israeli troops patrol the border fence in the southern Lebanon village of Adeisa.
	Photo by: AP

An IDF reserve battalion commander was killed on Tuesday as Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, with Lebanon saying at least three of its soldiers and a journalist were killed in the resulting shelling.

Read More http://www.haaretz.com/news/

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Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari Photo: REUTERS

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IDF West Bank division commander, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon, has warned Israeli settlers to be on alert for possible abduction attempts across the territory.

By Chaim Levinson

The Israel Defense Forces West Bank division commander, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon, has warned Israeli settlers to be on alert for possible abduction attempts across the territory.

	Israelis waiting at a hitchhiking stand near the settlement of Ofra
	Photo by: Eyal Warshavsky

In a letter sent to Yesha Council leaders, Alon said that the warning is based on intelligence and interrogations of Palestinians arrested on involvement in plotting such kidnappings.

Read More http://www.haaretz.com/news/

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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (R) arrives to attend the opening ceremony of the Cinema Jenin in the West Bank city of Jenin, Aug. 5, 2010. (Xinhua/Ayman Nobani)

RAMALLAH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) reopened on Thursday a cinema house in the West Bank city of Jenin. The cinema, funded by Germany, was reopened after 23 years of closure with a film festival that will show documentaries on the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the well-known German film-maker Marcus Vetter attended the opening ceremony.

“This event reveals the strong desire of the Palestinian people to live,” Fayyad said in a speech during the ceremony. “We will struggle to build our institutions of our future Palestinian state. “

He also said that the opening of the cinema proves that the time of disorder that was about to undermine the national Palestinian project has ended once and forever.

The PNA started recently a campaign to reopen cultural centers, theaters and cinemas that were shut down during the first uprising which kicked off in 1987.

Source http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/06/c_13432147.htm

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UN: Israel did not cross border

Two Lebanese soldiers, one Israeli soldier and a Lebanese journalist were killed in the clash [AFP] The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has confirmed that Israeli troops did not cross into Lebanon during Tuesday’s deadly border skirmish. The clash started after an Israeli army unit tried to cut down trees near the Blue Line, the UN-administered border between Israel and Lebanon. Both countries said the trees were on their side of the line. At a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Alain le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping, confirmed that the trees were on the Israeli side of the border. “Unifil established… that the trees being cut by the Israeli army are located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side,” le Roy said, reading from a Unifil communique issued earlier on Wednesday. Read More http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/

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