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Afternoon Edition

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

by Erica Berenstein, AFP

21 mins ago

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – Oil from a giant Gulf of Mexico slick washed onto Louisiana shores Friday, threatening an environmental calamity as President Barack Obama called for a “thorough review” of the disaster.

With up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured well, the accident stemming from a sunken offshore rig may soon rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

Strong southeast winds blew the first oily strands of the slick directly onto the coastal wetlands of South Pass near the mouth of the Mississippi river late Thursday, Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, where oil washed ashore, told AFP.

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Louisiana coast under threat as oil spill worsens

by Allen Johnson, AFP

Thu Apr 29, 7:45 am ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – A giant oil slick threatened Thursday to pollute the fragile wetlands of Louisiana, as officials warned that toxic crude was pouring from a ruptured well into the Gulf of Mexico five times faster than previously estimated.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal called on the federal government for emergency help to stave off an environmental disaster after a sudden change in the wind direction turned week-long response efforts on their head.

The dangerous slick early Thursday reportedly was just 16 miles (25 kilometers) from shore, but hundreds of miles of coastline were under threat in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Pressure mounts on Germany to aid Greece

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

2 hrs 40 mins ago

BERLIN (AFP) – Pressure piled on Germany to stop stalling a package to rescue Greece from crippling debts Wednesday as the International Monetary Fund warned confidence in the whole eurozone was on the line.

The euro hit a one-year dollar low with a downgrade of Spain’s credit rating accelerating its fall, escalating fears that the Greek debt crisis is spreading across Europe a day after Greek debt was slashed to junk status.

Greece meanwhile acted to stop speculators operating on the Athens stock exchange as the interest rate it has to pay to borrow money hit 11.1 percent, only trailing Pakistan and Venezuela in the world’s highest interest payers.

Worth reading.

But with the General Workers Confederation announcing a general strike for May 5 against “neo-liberal blackmail”, his government is still holding out against proposals by the EU and IMF to cut salaries.

“We have been asked for a cut which we do not accept,” Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos said.

The Flooding of the Bosphorus

Today there are more claims by Evangelical Christians that they have found Noah’s Ark.

Regardless of the many other counter factual elements in the Genesis myth (based in physics and genetics) you know, we have concrete archeological evidence of a major flood of the Black Sea area a mere 9,500 years ago.

About the same time as Niagra Falls was formed.

So you can believe your lying eyes or the infallible word of God.

Vote Democrat!

The Democratic Message For 2010

Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic

Apr 28 2010, 7:06 AM ET

“We have more accomplishments to run on than any Party in a long time,” Kaine’s expected to say.

  • We’ve gone from recession to recovery.
  • We’ve made more progress in the war on terror in the last eight months than was made in the preceding eight years.
  • We’ve strengthened our relationships with our allies around the world.
  • Two million people or more have jobs today who wouldn’t have without the bold action taken by this President and Democrats in Congress.
  • We have the first Latina and only the third woman ever on the Supreme Court.
  • We’re using science and fact in policy making instead of ideology and politics.
  • We have the most transparent Administration in modern history, with tough ethics standards, and we are wringing the influence of special interests out of the policy making process.

Oh, and Republicans == bad.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Fears grow over oil spill off US coast

by Allen Johnson, AFP

Tue Apr 27, 10:47 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – The Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster will develop into one of the worst spills in US history if the well is not sealed, the coast guard officer leading the response warned.

BP, which leases the Deepwater Horizon platform, has been operating four robotic submarines some 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) down on the seabed to try to cap two leaks in the riser pipe that connected the rig to the wellhead.

But the best efforts of the British energy giant have yielded no progress so far, and engineers are frantically constructing a giant dome that could be placed over the leaks as a back-up plan to try and stop the oil spreading.

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Chaos in Ukraine parliament as Russia deal ratified

by Anya Tsukanova, AFP

2 hrs 19 mins ago

KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine’s parliament erupted into chaos on Tuesday as deputies scuffled and hurled smoke bombs during a tumultuous session that ratified a bitterly contested deal with Russia extending a naval base lease.

Despite the extraordinary scenes that saw parliament — the Verkhovna Rada — filled with smoke, lawmakers ratified the deal to extend the stay of the Russian Black Sea fleet until at least 2042, denounced by the opposition as a sell-out for Ukraine.

The uproar started when the parliament speaker, Volodymr Lytvyn, was pelted with a volley of a dozen eggs, forcing him to duck for cover behind black umbrellas held by two aides.

Moonlight Sonata/Coffee Cantata

Almost a Fantasy

Be Still, Stop Chattering

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Subs sent to seal leaks as US oil slick spreads

by Allen Johnson, AFP

2 hrs 48 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Robotic submarines are on Monday racing to stop oil from a sunken rig streaming into the Gulf of Mexico, as BP warned that sealing the seabed leaks could take three months if the operation fails.

The British energy giant — which leases the stricken Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible platform — is desperately trying to prevent a massive slick from growing and spreading to Louisiana’s ecologically fragile coast.

Satellite images on Sunday showed the slick had spread by 50 percent in a day to cover an area of 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers), although officials said almost all the oil was just a thin veneer on the sea’s surface.

Drill Baby Drill.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Thai PM vows to retake Bangkok protest site

by Thanaporn Promyamyai, AFP

45 mins ago

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand’s embattled prime minister vowed to clear Bangkok’s commercial heart of anti-government Red Shirt protesters as he appeared on television Sunday in a show of unity with his army chief.

But Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did not say when security forces would retake the Red Shirts’ vast protest site, occupied for three weeks and fortified with barricades made from truck tyres and sharpened bamboo poles.

Adding to the tension, the rival Yellow Shirt group, who are backed by the country’s elite, plan to meet on Monday upon the expiry of a deadline they set a week ago for the government to deal with the Reds.

Weekend News Digest

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Thai PM rejects compromise deal to end protests

by Anusak Konglang, AFP

1 hr 48 mins ago

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand’s political crisis plunged back into deadlock Saturday after the government rejected a compromise offer from red-shirted demonstrators who said they were now braced for a crackdown.

Hopes for an agreement to end weeks of protests, which have been punctuated by deadly street clashes, evaporated as Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ruled out the “Red Shirts” offer to disperse if polls were called in 30 days.

“No, I reject it. Because they use violence and intimidation I cannot accept this,” Abhisit said of the proposal which would have seen a ballot held in 90 days and was a softening of earlier demands for snap polls.

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 58 dead as bombs sow mayhem in Iraq

by Marwa Sabah, AFP

1 hr 18 mins ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) – A wave of attacks across Iraq including five car bombs, three as prayers finished at Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killed 58 people on Friday just days after the government said Al-Qaeda was on the run.

The violence wounded dozens more and underscored the unrest that continues to plague a nation whose politicians are struggling to form a government almost seven weeks after a general election seen crucial to its long-term stability.

Two parked car bombs in the impoverished district of Sadr City killed 39 people and wounded 56, a security official said.

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