US supertanker to join battle against Israel forest blaze


HAIFA, Israel: Dozens of firefighting planes from around the world were in the skies over a blazing Israeli forest at dawn on Sunday as a giant US aircraft was set to join the battle against the deadly inferno. As fires swept through the hills around the northern city of Haifa for a fourth day, hopes were high that the arrival in Israel of a rented Boeing Supertanker, the largest aerial fire- fighting plane in the world, would finally tip the balance in the struggle to put out the flames.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-


yahu said that unlike aircraft already on the scene, the Supertanker was able to operate at night, a potentially decisive quality.


“The pilots and firefighters do exceptional work but night falls and the wind-fanned embers return to life, so the ability to operate at night is very significant,” Netanyahu told a news conference in Haifa. He added that ministers would hold their weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday in the Haifa suburb of Tirat HaCarmel, where some residents have been evacuated from the path of the flames.


The massive blaze ripping through northern Israel consumed yet more swathes of land on Saturday, flaring up at nightfall as the water bombers stopped working and high winds fanned the flames. The fire, which is racing through the pine forests on Carmel hill ridge, just south and east of Haifa, is the biggest inferno in Israel’s 62-year history. So far, it has claimed 41 lives and forced more than 17,000 people out of their homes.


As darkness fell and the planes stopped working, high winds fanned the flames, with reports of the blaze spreading toward the Druze town of Daliyat al-Carmel. However, in other areas where the


threat was believed to be contained, such as Tirat HaCarmel, police allowed some people to return to homes they had fled. As the massive operation conti- nued, police said that they had arrested two youths from the Druze village of Isfiya on suspicion of starting the fire “through negligence” by leaving behind burning embers after a family picnic.


On the ground, hundreds of firefighters worked round the clock—some 450 Israelis backed up by 92 firemen from Bulgaria and an undisclosed number from Jordan. More than 30 firefighting aircraft


were flying sorties over the forest and scrub early on Sunday, Israeli media reported. More were expected to arrive during


the day—five from Spain, three from the United States and one from Germany, Netanyahu’s office said. Help was also on its way from the other side of the world as Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that her government was sending firefighters.


world The Manila Times MONDAY


B 5


D ecember 6, 2010


Severe weather, air strike disrupt travel across Europe P


ARIS: An early cold snap in Europe claimed more lives on Saturday, while a wildcat strike by Spanish


air traffic controllers added to the travel chaos caused by snow, ice and in some countries, flooding.


Freezing weather killed nine more people in Poland over a 24-hour period, bringing the death toll there to 46 since the beginning of November, police said. Temperatures there dropped as low as minus 19°C overnight on Friday. In the neighboring Czech Republic,


it was minus 20°C overnight, dis- rupting rail traffic as the ice seized up signals at several junctions. In France, police blamed icy driving conditions for three deaths in the east of the country after a car slid off the road and into a canal near Plobsheim


on Friday night. Neither the driver nor the passengers had been drinking, police added. Weather forecasters warned of black ice in northern France that would make driving particularly dangerous. Officials in the French Alps,


meanwhile, warned of the risk of avalanches on Sunday in ski stations already open because of the early snow. The danger would increase on Monday with fresh snowfalls and a subsequent thaw, they added. Civil aviation officials asked airlines flying out of Charles de


Gaulle, Paris’ main airport, to cut back their flights by 20 percent during daylight to ease the pressure caused by the snow and ice there. In Spain, the disruption to air traffic came mainly from a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, which ran from Friday to Saturday evening, hitting an estimated 300,000 passengers over a long holiday weekend. The government there put the military in command of the skies and threatened to prosecute the strikers, who had called in sick en masse rather than staging a formal strike. By Saturday afternoon, they were returning to work.


In Britain, the wintry weather has disrupted road, rail and air travel over the past few days. In many parts of England and Wales, however, the snows were melting away. Ski resorts in Scotland warned of the risk of avalanches, but the thaw there was also helping rail traffic,


WikiLeaks faces donations blow as it fights for survival


LONDON: WikiLeaks faced a fresh threat to its survival on Saturday as the online payment service PayPal cut off the account used for donations to the whistleblowing website.


WikiLeaks is already fighting to


stay on the Internet. It switched its domain to Switzerland because its original web address was shut down by a US provider, as it continues to release thousands of classified US diplomatic cables. At the same time Sweden has issued an amended international arrest warrant for WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who is believed to be in Britain, and The Times newspaper reported that he could be arrested next week.


However, other reports said that police were unlikely to move to detain the 39-year-old Australian for at least 10 days. Assange’s London-based lawyer Mark Stephens told Agence France- Presse that he did not know if authorities in Britain had yet received the warrant, which was issued in relation to allegations of rape and sexual molestation in Sweden. However, Stephens confirmed


that any potential arrest of his client would take place by arrangement. In a new blow to the website, the US-based PayPal, which is owned by auctions group eBay, announced that it would stop taking donations for WikiLeaks, thus cutting off a key


worldinbrief


CHINA CAFÉ BLASTS KILLS SIX, HURTS 38 BEIJING: At least six people were killed and 38 injured when a powerful explosion hit an Internet café in southwest China on Saturday evening, reducing it to ruins, state media reported.


PYONGYANG LASHES OUT AT SEOUL’S PLANNED DRILL SEOUL: North Korea on Sunday denounced a planned naval firing drill by South Korea, the latest in a flurry of exercises by Seoul after Pyongyang’s deadly attack on a South Korean island last month.


AFP


RIGHTS GROUP SLAMS THAI-MYANMAR REFUGEE ‘PING PONG’ BANGKOK: Thailand must stop treating refugees fleeing conflict in eastern Myanmar as “human ping pong balls” who are returned to their home


BY EUGENE SHEFFER


source of its income. “PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal acceptable use policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity,” it said in a statement. WikiLeaks blamed “US govern- ment pressure” for the PayPal ban, in a message on its Twitter feed. Also on Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she had contacted dozens of foreign leaders to smooth over any frictions caused by the releases and will continue to do so for “[in] the [coming] weeks.” The release of the cables marked


the third major publication of secret US files by WikiLeaks this year, after the site enraged Washington by publishing tens of thousands of US military files from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.


WikiLeaks was forced to turn to Switzerland for a new domain name after its original wikileaks.org address was shut down by an American provider, while Paris tried to ban French servers from hosting it. The Swiss domain www.wikileaks.ch—


was up and running again on Saturday after migrating to new servers, the group, which owns the name said. Assange broke cover on Friday to say in an online chat that he had increased security after receiving death threats. AFP


country prematurely, a top rights group warned on Sunday.


IRAN WILL ‘NEVER USE’ FORCE AGAINST MUSLIM NEIGHBORS MANAMA: Iran sought on Saturday to calm its neighbors’ fears, saying that it would never use force against them because they are Muslims, after Washington highlighted concerns over Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.


TWO ‘PRESIDENTS’ CLAIM POWER IN IVORY COAST STANDOFF ABIDJAN: Two men crowned themselves president in Ivory Coast’s bloody election dispute on Saturday as Laurent Gbagbo defied international calls for him to cede power.


REPUBLICANS BLOCK TAX CUTS FOR ONLY MIDDLE CLASS WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Barack Obama’s Republican foes in the Senate have blocked a move to let Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire, rejecting in the process Democrats’ efforts to extend those breaks just for the middle class.


12 12 6


44 1 13


11 14 21 11


6 Series no.06


MALAYSIAN PM LAUNCHES ATTACK ON ANWAR KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday launched a blistering attack on Anwar Ibrahim and his opposition alliance as he rallied his ruling coalition to prepare for early elections. AFP


»horoscope


badly disrupted by the recent snow, to slowly get back on track. In Switzerland, Geneva’s Uni-


versity Hospital cancelled non- urgent operations scheduled for Monday and Tuesday to cope with a massive flow of broken bones caused by people slipping and falling in icy conditions. Operating theaters were working overtime through the weekend.


In Carinthia, southern Austria, about 800 homes were still without electricity on Saturday and traffic was hit badly as trees were sent crashing on to roads by the weight of heavy snowfalls. Germany was enduring sub-zero temperatures with more snow forecasted on Sunday. Further east, officials evacuated thousands of people in Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia from their homes as days of heavy rain caused flooding.


TODAY’S birthday (12/06/10). This year your heart and mind chart your direction in unison. Be vocal about your plans so others know your intentions ahead of time. Challenge yourself to make your home more inviting and cheerful, according to your personal tastes and budget. Add some color.To get the advan- tage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging. Aries (March 21-April 19) — Today is a 6 — Don’t race or rush into your plans today. A little caution prevents an ankle or foot injury. With that in mind, you get a lot accomplished today. Taurus (April 20-May 20) — Today is a 9 — Change is demanded now, and you’re ready. Accept the challenge to move your plan to the next level of creativity. An elder strikes the balance. Gemini (May 21-June 21) — Today is


AFP


a 6 — People line up, us against them. The challenge is to work through disagree- ments quickly to take advantage of the creative elements of the conversation. Cancer (June 22-July 22) — Today is a 5 — Potential obstacles come into view due to a lucky advance revelation of information. Find a philosophical point on which to base your strategy. Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) — Today is a 6 — Obstacles arise as you bring compo- nents together. You won’t be finished until you explain your logic. What seems obvious to you may be less evident to others. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Today is a


6 — If you work closely with an associate, what you’ve perceived as challenges turn to opportunities or even moments of good luck. Work quickly to finish. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — Today is


a 9 — Try not to get too excited by new challenges. You need to exercise a bit of caution as you develop new skills. Practice and concentrate to advance faster. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — Today is


an 8 — Plans come together when you tackle the obvious problems head on. Once those are handled, move on to creative considerations, drawing on ancient wisdom. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) —


AFP


Today is a 9 — Internal dialogue leads to a good decision, if you allow it time to develop. Challenge your own creativity, and let others act on their own. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — Today is a 6 — Don’t overthink conversations you have today. Take what others say at face value, at least for the moment. Plan your questions carefully, for later. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Today is an 8 — Suddenly, bright ideas pop up everywhere. The group has studied relevant material and is ready now to forge ahead. Keep the concept temporarily under wraps. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Today is a 7 — An emotional associate tests your mettle by pushing the boundaries of a limited budget. Use the data you have to create a sound financial package. BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES INC.


CHALLENGEof The Times BY CELSO BINAMIRA-GO BERINGUELA


Solve and arrange five (5) consecutive numbers into the given figures. Every three (3) numbers lying on the two (2) diagonals [forming the multiplication sign; TIMES or X] should have the same totals. Four (4) arrangements are needed. Given as clues is the Common Total (CT) (at the center) and other numbers to help you solve the puzzle.


13 24


42 31


»Sudoku 55


55 10


Series no.05 BY MICHAEL MEPHAM


Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk.


Solution to today’s puzzle will be published tomorrow.


21 43


34 12


Solution for yesterdays puzzle.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14