Demis Roussos sings Rain And Tears (Live In Bratislava)

Demis Roussos - Rain And Tears (Live In Bratislava) from the DVD Great Successes - 40 Years of Music . This is arguably his best version of the song.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and media sharply critical of Al Jazeera

YNet reports that

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave an interview Monday (29/12/08) to Arab television network al-Jazeera in which she harshly criticized Hamas, saying the organization was to blame for the civilian casualties in Gaza...

However she also lambasted Al Jazeera:

[She] sarcastically noted during the interview that "when you show one-sided images from Gaza you're not helping peace. I understand that pictures which create provocation lead to anger and hostility among the citizens, but we want a better future for this region"

Al Jazeera and PressTV have been showing wall to wall coverage of the Israeli invasion from an Arab perspective. These channels are available internationally. This has angered many Israelis. I am not aware of any Israeli TV channels which perform the same function.
YNet also carries an article by Dr. Mordechai Kedar who is a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University’s department of Arabic. In it he calls for the closure of Al Jazeeras offices:

........What matters is that this is not a media channel, but rather, a jihadist terrorist channel that aims to eliminate the State of Israel. It is for good reason that Osama Bin Laden hands over his audiotapes to this channel, which cooperates with him fully.
Israeli citizens are paying with their blood for the media freedom enjoyed by al-Jazeera.
There is only one conclusion here: We must immediately shut down al-Jazeera’s Israel offices and prevent its employees from working for it. Once Israel does it, many other countries will follow suit, particularly in the Middle East, for their own reasons. They are waiting for Israel to put an end to the recklessness of this non-media channel....

Al Jazeera English is streaming live on Livestation with coverage of Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Al Jazeera English is streaming live on Livestation (A free player) with coverage of the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Admittedly Al Jazeera English looks at the Israeli incursion from an Arab perspective. Other TV channels are available on Livestation including BBC World News, Bloomberg, C-Span, Euronews, France 24, ITN, RT (Russia Today) and NASA TV. Radio stations include the BBC World Service and DW-Radio.

Livestation viewers have also bookmarked 2911 channels like Discovery Channel, CNN, and FOX 8 USA. You can add these streams to your player after you download it. Some channels may be subjected to geographical restrictions,especially in the USA. Details here

Israel fears Hamas rockets may destroy Dimona nuclear power plant

Israel has harboured fears for sometime that Iran might target the Dimona nuclear power plant. It is suspected that nuclear station at Dimona is used by the Israeli military to make atomic bombs. Such a missile attack by Iran would obliterate Israel. Now Israel is facing a second threat to the security of this facility.
PressTV carries the following:

Hamas retaliatory attacks have alarmed Israel with officials anticipating that the Dimona nuclear complex might become the next target......................Israeli officials were quoted by the Times Online as saying on Friday that Hamas may have acquired longer range rockets, which would enable the group to target the sole Israeli nuclear plant in Dimona.

It is time for a ceasefire and negotiations. Hamas must cease its rocket attacks on Israel. A strike on Dimona could cause a second Chernobyl. The Israelis must end the aerial bombardment of Gaza. The US, Britain, France and Russia must pressurise both sides to pull back from the brink of disaster.

The Price of Sight in Rwanda only 30 Euro

View this TV3 video . In it journalist Sinead recaps the moving story of one man getting his sight back with a simple operation in Rwanda in March 2008.

A cataract operation in Rwanda costs just 30 Euro. This is sufficient to restore sight. The video tells the story of Fidel a 90 year old who is living in a mountainous area and has been blind for 20 years. The cataract operation took just 20 minutes and was successful. This has helped to economically empower the family.

Russia Cuts off Gas to Ukraine in Dispute over Payment and Price -Western European Supplies Under Threat

Gazprom (Russian state gas monopoly) has stopped its gas supply to Ukraine at 10:00am January 1 Moscow time due to unpaid debt, though 300,000 cubic metres is still passing through Ukraine, as Gazprom has promised to maintain supplies to Europe. Ukraine’s Naftogaz (state gas monopoly), claims that it sent 1.5 billion dollars to settle its debt. Gazprom claims to have received no money. The talks over the contract for the 2009 supply have collapsed with no agreement.

Ukraine according to Vladimir Putin had been offered a price for gas of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres, a large increase on the $180 it had been paying but significantly lower than the free market price of $418. Ukraine is believed to have offered US$201 per 1000 cubic metres. Ukraine's currency the hryvnia has halved in value in the the past six months. This increases repayment costs for gas to Gazprom. Kiev has however three to four months supply of gas in storage-17 billion cubic metres.

There are a number of possible implications. The cut off could cause a drop in pressure in the transit pipelines or the Ukraine could halt the flow to Western Europe as a negotiating tool. The largest consumers are Italy, Germany and the UK. The Ukraine has stated that it cannot fully guarantee the transit of gas through its country. However it appears today to have modified its position and guaranteed supplies to Western Europe. In January 2006 gas supplies destined for the EU were disrupted for several days in a similar dispute. EU countries must expedite measures to increase self -sufficiency in energy supply. This will involve the construction of more nuclear power stations and a greater concentration on renewable energy.

SSL broken! Hackers create rogue CA certificate using MD5 collisions-ZDNet reports

Using computing power from a cluster of 200 PS3 game consoles and about $700 in test digital certificates, a group of hackers in the U.S. and Europe have found a way to target known weakness in the MD5 algorithm to create a rogue Certification Authority (CA), a breakthrough that allows the forging of certificates that are fully trusted by all modern Web browsers.The research....effectively defeats the way modern Web browsers trust secure Web sites and provides a way for attackers to conduct phishing attacks that are virtually undetectable.

The research is significant because there are at least six CAs currently using the weak MD5 cryptographic algorithm in digital signatures and certificates. The most commonly used Web browsers — including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox — whitelist these CAs, meaning that a fake Certificate Authority can display any site as secure (with the SSL padlock).“We basically broke SSL,” Sotirov said in an interview........

Source ZDNet