Turkey says Syria downed jet in international airspace

Turkey on Sunday accused Syria of shooting down one of its warplanes in international airspace, as a watchdog said the Damascus regime suffered new setbacks and violence reached new heights.

"According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told TRT television.

Syria has said it downed the F-4 phantom jet on Friday after it violated its airspace, and on Saturday Turkey acknowledged the plane may have done so in comments seen as a bid to cool tensions between the former allies.

Meanwhile, at least 20 people were killed, including 16 troops, in clashes with rebel fighters in Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

"The clashes happened almost simultaneously at dawn," in the northern province of Aleppo bordering Turkey, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman of told AFP.

The fighting took place in the town of Dara Aza, and at military checkpoints near the town of Al-Atarib and the village of Kafr Halab, the Britain-based watchdog said.

It reported that following an attack on an artillery battalion, a number of soldiers defected, taking with them a large quantity of weapons.

And, in another setback for the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad, rebels captured 11 government soldiers in the central province of Damascus, it added.

"This is one of the bloodiest weeks in the conflict," Abdel Rahman said.

According to the Observatory's figures, 94 people were killed in Syria on Monday, 62 on Tuesday, 88 on Wednesday, 168 on Thursday, 116 on Friday and 116 on Saturday.

"It's like we are in a war," Abdel Rahman said. "Sometimes when two countries are at war, not even 20 people are killed a day. But now in Syria it has become normal to have 100 killed each day."

The mounting death toll was a result of the international community's inability to agree on a way to resolve the crisis, he said.

"The UN observers have suspended their mission and this is a very bad decision. They are just staying in Syria and not going out to observe," said Abdel Rahman.

"Either go out and observe properly or leave," he said, his frustration palpable.

Sunday's developments come after a bad week for the Assad regime.

On Thursday, a Syrian pilot was granted asylum in neighbouring Jordan after flying his MiG-25 fighter across the border.

Meanwhile, Iran, Assad's staunchest ally, called on Damascus and Ankara to show restraint after the shooting down of the Turkish warplane by Syria.

Tehran "asks both sides to show calm and restraint, and hopes that with tact and tolerance and dialogue this issue will be evaluated and through a peaceful resolution, tranquillity and stability will be preserved in the region," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying.

He made the appeal in a telephone conversation late Saturday with Davutoglu.

Anti-aircraft batteries hit the jet as it flew low and fast about a kilometre (less than a mile) from the coast over Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian military spokesman said, adding it was unidentified at the time.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had expressed his "deep concern" over the incident in a telephone conversation with Davutoglu, a spokesman said.

NATO member Turkey acknowledged one of its warplanes may have violated Syrian airspace, but its muted response has been seen as a bid to take the tension out of the latest rift between the former allies.

Turkey-Syria relations have already been strained by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's outspoken condemnation of the Assad's regime's bloody crackdown, which rights activists say has killed more than 15,000 people since March 2011.

Meanwhile, a Russian ship that tried to deliver attack helicopters to Syria entered the northern port of Murmansk on Sunday after being forced to turn back when news of its mission was leaked.

An unnamed Russian diplomatic source said the ship would soon try again to make the highly controversial delivery under the Russian flag.

The switch appears to be an attempt to avoid security inspections that come when sailing under the flag of a third country.

Russia says the Soviet-era Mi-25 helicopters are being returned to Syria after undergoing repairs under a contract that could not be breached.

The Alaed was forced to turn back after its mission was initially mentioned by the US State Department and then reported in the British press.

Those reports prompted the ship's British insurer to withdraw coverage, effectively barring it from entering any other ports on its journey.

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Princess Tea and Parade perfect

Published: June 18, 2012 10:00 AM
Updated: June 18, 2012 10:28 AM

Cydney Baylis plays the part of royalty in fur and satin Saturday at the Princess Tea and Parade hosted by Elder Citizens Recreation Centre seniors.

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Union defends public education

Published: June 23, 2012 11:00 AM

To the Editor,

Re: Taxpayers deserve better treatment, Opinion, June 19.

I could not agree more with the title to Chris Bush?s article.

But Bush needs to understand that it is not productive to damn his daughter?s teachers with faint praise for their ?dedication and professionalism? and then go on to villainize the teachers? federation for the disruptions caused by Christy Clark?s unconstitutional legislation.

Without the B.C. Teachers? Federation, Bush needs to consider who exactly would defend his daughter?s right to a fully funded public education system.

The Fraser Institute? Not likely.

For this is exactly the government agenda: the more disruption it causes in the public system, the more attractive the privatized, for-profit system looks to disenchanted parents. After all, the privatized system offers everything a parent could desire: reasonable class sizes, modern technology and support for struggling students, and dedicated teachers who go the extra mile.

The last few months have clearly established that public school teachers already meet that last criteria; now if we could just convince government to be responsible and provide the rest, as is its duty.

Parents considering private school?

If so, please don?t blame the teachers? federation, for it believes you deserve those qualities in your public system, rather than paying twice to the taxpayer-funded private system.

The BCTF may be many things and may have many vested interests it supports.

But if it has a ?political agenda?, as Bush asserts, then this agenda is to defend and promote a fully funded public education system that has as its mandate the promoting of democracy, equality and tolerance for the rights of others and a fully literate and educated citizenry.

The federation has been very successful in meeting this challenge through the years, and if Bush cannot see this, then he needs to travel more.

Daniel Companion

Nanaimo

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Rhode Island judge denies bid to block pension reform

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Euro's big four agree growth boost, split on bonds

ROME (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel resisted pressure on Friday for common euro zone bonds or a more flexible use of Europe's rescue funds but agreed with leaders of France, Italy and Spain on a 130 billion euros ($156 billion) package to revive growth.

After four-way talks in Rome's Renaissance Villa Madama, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said the European Union should adopt pro-growth measures worth about 1 percent of the region's gross domestic product at a crucial summit next week.

But the three others made no perceptible progress in pushing Merkel, who leads Europe's most powerful economy and the main contributor to its rescue funds, towards mutualising Europe's debts or using existing bailout resources more flexibly.

"Growth can only have solid roots if there is fiscal discipline, but fiscal discipline can be maintained only if there is growth and job creation," Monti told a joint news conference after talks that lasted just an hour and 40 minutes.

The measures, already in the works in Brussels, include increasing the European Investment Bank's capital, redirecting unspent EU regional aid funds and launching project bonds to co-finance major public investment programs. No new steps were announced on Friday.

The four leaders did agree to move ahead on creating a tax on financial transactions even though not all EU members will be on board. About a dozen EU states support setting up the so-called "Tobin tax", more than the nine required to go ahead as a group within the EU, a French presidential source said.

Merkel made no mention, however, of any move towards mutualising past euro zone debt or new borrowing.

French President Francois Hollande voiced impatience with Berlin's reluctance, saying it should not take 10 years to create jointly underwritten euro bonds.

He said greater solidarity was needed among member states before they abandon more sovereignty to EU institutions.

"I consider euro bonds to be an option ... but not in 10 years," Hollande said in a direct challenge to Merkel. "There can be no transfer of sovereignty if there is not an improvement in solidarity."

The German position essentially amounts to the reverse. Merkel argues that members of the 17-nation currency union must transfer control over national budget and economic policies to Brussels before Germany would consider common debt issuance.

"Liability and control belong together," she said, citing as an example that EU treaties ruled out letting euro zone rescue funds lend directly to Spanish banks because only the Spanish state could enforce conditions on the banks.

The contrasting comments left much work for diplomats to produce a convincing blueprint for closer fiscal and banking union at a full EU summit next Thursday and Friday, which Monti called a defining moment in the crisis.

That plan is expected to include the first steps towards a banking union, starting by putting the European Central Bank in charge of supervising large cross-border euro zone banks.

Without progress on bank sector integration or other financial stability measures, France is not ready to commit to ratifying an EU budget discipline pact agreed earlier this year, French diplomatic sources said.

SPANISH BAILOUT?

Dangerously high Spanish borrowing costs eased a little on market hopes for policy initiatives at the Brussels summit.

The European Central Bank took a supportive step on Friday, relaxing its collateral rules to let financial institutions pledge a wider range of assets in exchange for cash. The move helps counter the impact of credit rating downgrades.

If it falls short, Madrid may be pushed closer to eventually needing a sovereign bailout.

Without a convincing result, "there would be progressively greater speculative attacks on individual countries, with harassment of the weaker countries", Monti said in an interview with several European newspapers ahead of the mini-summit.

"A large part of Europe would find itself having to continue to put up with very high interest rates that would then impact on the states and also indirectly on firms. This is the direct opposite of what is needed for economic growth," he said.

The technocratic Italian premier, who needs a success to shore up his weakening domestic authority, sounded slightly more optimistic after the talks, saying next week's summit should "put at ease the financial markets' expectations", switching to English to add: "The euro is here to stay and we all mean it."

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, on the brink of requesting up to 100 billion euros in euro zone rescue funds to recapitalize struggling banks, said the four had agreed "to use any necessary mechanism to obtain financial stability in the euro zone".

An audit released on Thursday found Spanish banks would need up to 62 billion euros in extra capital to weather adverse circumstances.

After a meeting of euro zone finance ministers late on Thursday, IMF chief Christine Lagarde demanded rapid progress on a number of other fronts, raising the heat on Merkel.

Lagarde said a banking union was a top priority, alongside fiscal union and the principle of mutualising debt. Germany refuses to countenance common bond issuance and will not soften until economic union is complete. It is also opposed to the early introduction of a bloc-wide bank deposit guarantee scheme.

HIGH STAKES FOR MONTI

While Spain's needs are most pressing - its medium term borrowing costs hit a euro era high at auction on Thursday - the political stakes may be higher for Italy's Monti.

With his popularity sinking, the parties that back Monti in parliament are increasingly reluctant to support his reform proposals at home, but demand he get results in the European arena to ease the pressure on Italy's recession-bound economy.

"Monti knows he has to get his ducks in a row on the European side so he can tell the parties that he's sorted that part out, and now it's their turn to help sort out Italy," said James Walston, politics professor at Rome's American University.

Though hugely popular when he came to office in November, Monti's approval rating has halved as tax hikes and pension cuts exacerbated an already severe recession, and his labor reform estranged both unions and the business establishment.

But for the markets, Monti remains the man most likely to tackle Italy's debt mountain and uncompetitiveness. If he comes under serious threat, Italy could quickly supplant Spain as the euro zone's main flashpoint.

Monti's hand was weakened by comments on Wednesday by his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, who said the prospect of Italy quitting the euro was "not blasphemy" and that he failed to understand why it would hurt Italy's economy.

Berlusconi's People of Freedom party is one of the two main groups that guarantee Monti a majority in parliament.

Monti proposed on the sidelines of this week's G20 summit using the euro zone's rescue funds to buy the bonds of Spain and Italy to bring down their borrowing costs.

Hollande said after Friday's talks he supported the Italian idea. But Merkel has played down the notion, which investors said might be counter-productive by quickly burning through scarce rescue capital, unless the European Central Bank stepped in decisively in support.

Other proposals from Monti, such as stripping some forms of public investment from budget deficit calculations, or commonly issued euro zone bonds, are also broadly supported by France and Spain but opposed by Germany, at least for now.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Mangan in London; Philip Pullella, Emmanuel Jarry, Catherine Bremer and Andreas Rinke in Rome, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Water Garden Tour Stops In Town And Country | kplr11.com ? St ...

Posted on: 10:11 pm, June 22, 2012, by Patrick Clark, updated on: 10:48am, June 23, 2012

TOWN & COUNTRY, MO (KPLR) ? When Debbie Wilhelm wants to see a beautiful waterfall, all she has to do is walk out her backdoor.

?We just enjoy the peacefulness, listening to the water,? says Wilhelm.

The Wilhelm?s wound up with the idea for a waterfall after taking a long vacation a few years back.

?When we had moved in here 11 years ago? we just had this huge hill and we were like this can be a sledding hill or something that we enjoy more than a couple of times a year.? So we decided to put in a pond.?

Two years later, with the help of design company Nature?s Re-Creations, they came up with an outdoor oasis in Town and Country.? And you can take it in yourself as part of something called Pond-o-Rama.

?I think the idea behind it, and this is just my personal take, is to introduce people to the joys of ponds and water gardening and waterfalls.?

The St. Louis Water Gardening Society is sponsoring the weekend whistle stops of all things wet.? There?s 45 locations around the metropolitan area for St. Louisans to sample.

Not only can a pond provide a relaxing addition to your property but introducing water, fish and plants into your ecosystem can be enjoyable all year long.

?I love to listen to the water.? I just think it?s so calming and relaxing and sit up in the shade somewhere and listen to the water and see all the different paths that the water is taking.?

And sometimes that?s all we need, is a little nature, especially if it?s right outside your backdoor.

Website: Pond-O-Rama Tour

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