Preşedintele Traian Băsescu s-a alăturat, sâmbătă seară, soţiei sale, Maria Băsescu, şi uneia dintre fiicele lor, Elena, la nunta în Valea Jiului, la Uricani, elicopterul care îl transporta pe acesta aterizând în zona Câmpul Mielului, de unde a fost preluat de un convoi auto.

Potrivit unor surse din rândul organizatorilor, la întoarcea din nordul ţării, preşedintele s-a alăturat familiei, elicopterul în care era acesta aterizând în zona Câmpul Mielului, de unde a fost preluat de un convoi auto şi condus apoi până la cortul în care nunta se afla în derulare.

Locaţia în care se desfăşura nunta fiicei lui Ioan Firiza, patronul Complexului Turistic din Cheile Buţii, şi la care a participat şi familia Băsescu, a fost împânzită de forţe de ordine, poliţişti comunitari, agenţi de pază şi ofiţeri SPP.

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written by Andrew

Situaţia rămâne critică pe râurile Siret şi Prut în urma inundaţiilor din ultimele zile din nordul Moldovei, numărul persoanelor evacute ajungând, duminică după-amiază, la 12.862, a declarat secretarului de stat Victor Paul Dobre.

Directorul AdministraÅ£iei NaÅ£ionale “Apele Române”, Marius Postelnicescu, a spus, duminică, într-o conferinţă de presă la Ministerul Internelor ÅŸi Reformei Administrative (MIRA), că situaÅ£ia pe râul Siret rămâne critică, deÅŸi debitele de pe principalii săi afluenÅ£i, Suceava ÅŸi Moldova, sunt în scădere.

Postelnicescu a precizat că pe zona Lezpezi - Nicolae Bălcescu, lângă oraşul Roman se aşteaptă o nouă viitură, dar datorită scăderii debitelor Sucevei şi Moldovei este posibil ca, în aval, râul să nu iasă din matcă.

Vezi aici imagini ale dezastrului provocat de inundaţii

De asemenea, Prutul este în creştere în zona Rădăuţi şi înspre graniţa cu Ucraina, iar pe versantul Stânca Costeşti apa are un debit de 620 de metri cubi pe secundă.

Citeste toata stirea pe mediafax.ro

written by Andrew

SAN FRANCISCO - Anna Patterson’s last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

She believes her latest invention is even more valuable — only this time it’s not for sale.

Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.

The end result is Cuil, pronounced “cool.” Backed by $33 million in venture capital, the search engine plans to begin processing requests for the first time Monday.

Cuil had kept a low profile while Patterson, her husband, Tom Costello, and two other former Google engineers — Russell Power and Louis Monier — searched for better ways to search.

Now, it’s boasting time.

For starters, Cuil’s search index spans 120 billion Web pages.

Patterson believes that’s at least three times the size of Google’s index, although there is no way to know for certain. Google stopped publicly quantifying its index’s breadth nearly three years ago when the catalog spanned 8.2 billion Web pages.

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written by Andrew

NEW YORK - Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease who performed better on a treadmill test had less atrophy in the areas of the brain that control memory, according to a study released Sunday.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed less shrinkage in the hippocampus region of patients’ brains in the Alzheimer’s patients with higher fitness scores. In Alzheimer’s the hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to suffer damage.

Exercise and physical fitness have been shown to slow age-related brain cell death in healthy older adults.

The new study was released at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago. Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., studied the connection between cardiorespiratory fitness and regional brain volume in more than 100 people over 60. About half were healthy older adults and half were in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

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written by Andrew

NEW YORK - NBC News could rent a small plane just for the top news personalities going to Beijing to cover the Olympics: Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, Lester Holt, Richard Engels, Kevin Tibbles and the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore among them.

CBS considered sending Harry Smith, but decided against it and is sending Barry Peterson. Weekend anchor David Muir is ABC’s biggest name heading to Asia. Dana Lewis is Fox News Channel’s lone representative. CNN is largely handling the story through its Beijing bureau, keeping frequent-flier Anderson Cooper at home.

Guess which network’s sports division paid nearly $900 million for the rights to televise the Olympics?

The rapid change occuring in China means there’s likely to be more news beyond sports in Beijing than most Olympics. Television news organizations face many challenges, including the decision of how much money and personnel they should devote to an event where NBC has the insider’s edge.

“It makes our lives difficult,” said Paul Friedman, senior vice president of CBS News. “But what we’ll do is what everyone in this situation does. You go and look for the stories around the Olympics that you can get access to and this time around they may be as interesting as the Olympics themselves.”

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written by Andrew

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Missiles hit a religious school Monday in a village just inside Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, killing six people, officials and state media said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the incident follows a series of strikes apparently by U.S. aircraft in recent months against militant leaders holed up in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

The blasts occurred hours before President Bush was to receive Pakistan’s prime minister at the White House amid mounting pressure on Islamabad to act against Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in its territory.

According to state-run Pakistan Television, the missiles came down in Azam Warsak, a village in the South Waziristan region. It said six people were killed and several others injured.

PTV didn’t identify the source of its information or provide any other details.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press that the missiles hit an Islamic school in the village.

One of the officials, who is based in Tank, a town near South Waziristan, said initial reports indicated that the six dead included three children and three adults.

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written by Andrew