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Israel: Rocket defense system ready to go

JERUSALEM – A system that can shoot down incoming rockets has passed its last tests and will be ready for deployment in a few months, Israel's Defense Ministry said Monday. If effective, it could have far-reaching strategic implications for Israel's battle against militant groups on its borders.

The "Iron Dome" system uses sophisticated radar to track incoming rockets, intercepting and destroying them far from their targets. It is the only anti-rocket system of its kind in the world, according to experts.

Its aims to protect Israel from homemade and imported rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as well as the more sophisticated rockets in the hands of Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel's border with Lebanon.

The successful tests completed Monday involved destroying multiple incoming targets in coordination with other air force systems, Israel's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the first two Iron Dome batteries would be deployed by November. Defense officials said they would be posted near the town of Sderot, near the Gaza border, a favorite target of Palestinian rocket squads.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired thousands of homemade rockets at Israel's border settlements, often making life difficult there and traumatizing residents while causing relatively few casualties.

Israel launched a fierce three-week military campaign in Gaza in December 2008 to try to stop the barrages. During that war, Palestinian militants also fired longer range Grad missiles that hit Israeli cities, including Ashkelon and Beersheba.

Israel came under stiff international criticism after the war because of widespread destruction and death of about 1,000 civilians.

In 2006, Israel fought an intense monthlong war against Hezbollah, which fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel during the conflict.

The Defense Ministry statement Monday said the Iron Dome system is meant "to protect the state of Israel from short-range rockets and missiles."

Wide deployment of an anti-rocket system could significantly change the Mideast military equation.

Because of the superiority of Israel's military, its enemies consider hitting Israeli cities as the most effective strategy in a war against the Jewish state.

Also, Israel expressed concern that if a Palestinian state were created in the West Bank, Israel's main international airport would be in range of Palestinian rockets. An effective anti-rocket system like "Iron Dome" could reduce those concerns.

The Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were going beyond the ministry's statement, said it would take years to deploy enough batteries to protect both borders, because of budget constraints.

In the statement, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak pledged, "We will move toward operational deployment of the batteries in the field as soon as possible."

Development of the "Iron Dome" cost about $200 million. Critics say it would prove too expensive to fire advanced missiles at cheap, primitive rockets.

Several years ago Israel deployed the "Arrow" anti-missile system, designed to intercept and destroy missiles in the upper atmosphere.

The joint Israel-U.S. system is designed to give protection against missiles that could be fired at Israel from Iran.

My love story

Diana, born in Catalonia in 1993, was an extremely intelligent woman. She had inherited her mother’s passion for languages and her father’s abilities for maths. She had brown eyes and red red-cairly hair. Everybody said she looked like her mother and took after her father. At school she was the number one, however, she always wanted more and more. This ambition took her to study Chinese: her first-best decision in life. After having passed the First Certificate with 16 years old, Diana stopped studying English in her school academy. She focused in the first year of A levels, but she realised that she needed more activities to improve her skills and she took up the Advance Course: her second-best decision in life.

The first day of class, the 11^th of January, Diana had to introduce herself to the rest of students. As normal she said her name, age and the languages she was learning: “Hi, I’m Diana, I’m 16 years and I’m learning German and Chinese” she said a bit nervous waiting for their reaction. Suddenly the teacher got over and pointed out a boy that Diana hadn’t even noticed was there. He stood up and started introducing himself, “I’m Albert and I’m 19...”, and finished saying that he also studied Chinese. During the whole presentation, he was looking at Diana. She felt like time had stopped. It was magic moment, for both.

Before finishing the second term, Albert and Diana were almost all the time chatting. Classes finished at 22.00 o’clock, that’s why one night he decided to accompany Diana to her house. That was the beginning of the most beautiful romance and also the cruelest nightmare.

After the second term exam, Diana had been to Italy for two weeks and Albert was going to Menorca the following week from Diana’s arrival. During one moth they didn’t see each other. When they met in May, Albert was totally different. He would go and hug Diana; instead, he just passes through. She was so upset that she didn’t feel like going on with her life. Since that day, Diana had changed. The funny and enjoyable English class became boring and dull. Albert used to speak with her, but that magic relationship between them had disappeared. Albert different and Diana depressed, they changed from the happy couple to the sad couple. At the beginning of June, Diana found out why the magic had disappeared. They met in a well-known ice-cream shop. He told Diana that that relationship wouldn’t work because he was three years older and that she was too young. Diana couldn’t believe it; she just didn’t imagine her life without Albert. She said “Don’t you love me?” in the middle of tears. Albert explained her that he really felt in love with her but that it couldn’t be possible. He went with her until her house and just said goodbye.

Diana was convinced that Albert would come and tell her: “let’s try it again”. Days and nights were an eternity. Diana hadn’t slept well one single night sine the ice-cream day. She would wake up from a nightmare sweating and crying. That’s why she had to take tablets. She waited for three weeks and then learnt of that he was in Chicago. With any doubt, she caught a plane to the Windy City. Both of them love travelling and visiting new places, but Diana knew perfectly why she had gone there: she was going to demonstrate him that love had no age and that their lives belonged together, one to each other. The adventure had only begun. First she started looking at all the universities there. No more and no less than 35 in only one city. She found out that only 5 of them had contact with Albert’s university. The 29^th of July she visited the two universities that were nearer to a famous lake and asked for him. Unfortunately he wasn’t there. The next day she visited the other three with the same previous result. Diana couldn’t understand what was happening. Had she done anything wrong? NO, it couldn’t be! The problem was with Albert! He had moved. Diana went back to Catalonia. She didn’t know how to feel, why was that happening to her?

She started the second and last A level course with no evidence that Albert had even existed. She thought that maybe he was studying abroad, to make matters worse, his telephone number didn’t exist and his e-mail was deleted. Diana kept on living. She studied translation and marketing in Shangai and Beijing. Even though she just remembered him as an adventure in her teenager’s life, Diana wasn’t able to fall in love no more. Her heart had been broken and those types of scars have got no solution. When she was getting on for thirty years, she heard in the news that a Catalan man was making good money by having many offices in Song jiang, the Water World, just where Diana was living. Her heart began betting furiously when she had heard his name: Albert! She couldn’t believe it! It was him! All those feelings, that she once had, had flourished again in her heart. She wanted to see him, she needed it. Diana wanted to change her job and decided to apply for a job in Albert’s company as a translator. With her stunning curriculum, she could get anywhere. Finally she started working in his company. Diana wasn’t idiot and she had just assigned a mission to her. First of all she began to get up better positions inside her department. Two years later she was the boss of her own department, she had to do only the special translations and to prepare campaigns for the company to spread through the world. Being 35 years old, Diana had to go to her first general and most important meeting with the other big bosses and with Albert. Although she was preparing her speech for the meeting, she couldn’t get him off her mind. How would he look like? Did he marry? Did he have children? She would found out the next day.

When she opened the doors, she only saw Albert in a huge and enormous room, all alone. He explained her that this meeting would be only between him and her. His attitude was like nothing had happened. Firstly Albert thanked the work she was doing for his company, but, before he could finish Diana was handing in her resignation and leaving the room.

She had learnt that she could survive without him and that she wouldn’t go behind him like a dog anymore. That was the past.

Three years later Diana

created her own translation company, married to a Chinese man and had two beautiful daughters. Albert’s company started going down and finally bankrupted. That was the best way of killing her past and her pain.

Girl, 15, dies in amusement park ride accident

(CNN) -- A 15-year-old girl died and two other people were hospitalized with severe injuries after an amusement park ride in Barcelona, Spain, broke in midair, a city spokeswoman said.

A young boy who was on the ride suffered minor injuries, but walked away from the twisted metal on his own, Barcelona spokeswoman Rosa Diaz said.

The names of the victims have not been announced.

The mechanical arm of "El Pendulo" (The Pendulum) broke and the basket carrying the teens fell on top of the ride known as "The Golden Mine," said Sara Jaurriete, director of the Tibidabo amusement park.

The park's website describes El Pendulo as "the ultimate free fall and the first of its kind in Spain."

The ride has a "long articulated arm where passengers are taken up to 38 meters (124 ft). From here, you are dropped in a free fall reaching 100kph (60 mph) in 2.8 seconds. Once you reach the bottom, the arm takes you through a 50-metre arc," the park's website says.

The Pendulum has been in operation for the past four years, and it is billed as one of the park's main attractions.

About 4,000 visitors were in the park when the accident happened Saturday evening, Jaurriete said.

The park will be closed on Sunday as an investigation begins.

Madrid zoo bids to buy Octopus Oracle from Germany

MADRID – The Madrid Zoo said Thursday that it has made an offer to buy Paul, the octopus who became a pop culture sensation by correctly predicting the outcome of as many World Cup matches as he has legs - all seven of Germany's games plus the Spain-Netherlands final.

The zoo said it made the offer after receiving hundreds of requests from Spaniards for Paul's transfer from a German aquarium after Spain won the World Cup on Sunday.

Zoo spokeswoman Amparo Fernandez said an unspecified amount of cash was offered for the purchase of Paul, now a hero in Spain, which went wild after it won its first World Cup ever.

"We hope that within the next few days we will be able to confirm news that the admirable Paul will be part of the club of the most loved and charismatic animals of the Madrid Zoo," said a statement from the zoo.

Paul's owner - the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany - declined immediate comment and requested that a reporter send questions by e-mail.

The intuitive invertebrate was retired this week from predicting football game outcomes, and Madrid Zoo officials promised he wouldn't be used again for similar duties.

The Madrid Zoo also offered to exchange animals with the German aquarium in return for Paul or beat any other offers, and promised he would "receive the utmost attention, a reflection of the great affection that all Spaniards profess for him since he predicted that the Spanish squad would win the World Cup."

Paul is so popular in Spain that a northwestern Spanish town tried to borrow him. Officials in O Caraballino, population 14,000, declared that the octopus is their "honorary friend" and wanted Paul's presence to promote a seafood festival, the Faro de Vigo newspaper said.

A businessman from the town also offered to ?30,000 ($40,000) to buy Paul, but the newspaper said Sea Life declined.

Octopus is a delicacy in restaurants throughout Spain, but Fernandez insisted there was no way Paul would end up being served up on a restaurant plate if he is moved to the Madrid Zoo.

"For Gods sake no!" she said. "It's so people could see him here."

The annoying orange 2. TOE-MAY-TOE