Attack shuts Iraq's largest oil refinery, kills 1

(AP Photo/Samir Mezban, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2003 file photo, Iraqi firefighters battle an oil pipeline explosion along the main line from Iraq to Turkey near the northern Iraqi town of Beiji, Iraq. Gunmen attacked Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011, Iraq's largest oil refinery of Beiji, killing one guard and detonating bombs that sparked a fire and forced the facility to shut down, officials said.

BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked Iraq's largest oil refinery before dawn Saturday, killing a guard and detonating bombs that sparked a fire and forced the facility to halt operations, officials said.
A few hours later, a small refinery in the south shut down after a technical failure sparked a fire in a storage unit, an official said.
If not fixed swiftly, the two shutdowns could translate into long lines at fuel stations and longer electricity outages. The dearth of reliable electricity _ some Iraqis get just a few hours a day _ was one of the leading complaints of protesters during violent anti-government protests across Iraq on Friday.
The attack on Iraq's largest refinery, Beiji, began at about 3:30 a.m. Assailants carrying pistols fitted with silencers attacked guards and planted bombs near some production units for benzene and kerosene, said the spokesman for Salahuddin province, Mohammed al-Asi.
One guard was killed and another wounded, al-Asi said.
Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said an investigation would be launched and that he hoped operations could resume shortly.
The Beiji refinery, located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Baghdad, has two sections. The attackers targeted the installation's North Refinery that handles 150,000 barrels a day. The second section, the Salahuddin Refinery, is under renovation. It used to process 70,000 barrels per day.
At the height of the insurgency from 2004 to late 2007, the Beiji refinery was under control of Sunni militants who used to siphon off crude and petroleum products to finance their operations.
Hours after the Beiji facility was attacked, a small refinery in Samawa, a city on the Euphrates River about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, went offline due to a fire in the storage unit, according to a local official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release information, said the fire was caused by a technical failure, not foul play. He wouldn't say when work would resume at the plant which has the capacity of 30,000 barrels of a day.

WELL IT LOOKS LIKE OUR GUYS WILL HAVE TO STAY IN IRAQ TO PROTECT THE OIL AGAIN. GAS PRICES WILL SOAR AND WAIT WHAT'S NEXT RECESSION & DEPRESSION. EVERYBODY BETTER QUIT BUYING THINGS YOU DON'T NEED AND START SAVING YOUR MONEY FOR THE GAS PUMPS.

Old Coca Cola sign causes flap in San Francisco

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SAN FRANCISCO — A restored Coca Cola sign decorating the side of a San Francisco house that may date back to the 1930s has set off a surprising spat among neighborhood residents and city officials.
The city says the bright red painted sign on the side of Richard Modolo's home violates anti-billboard laws and must come down.
City Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Bernal Heights neighborhood, said he's received passionate e-mails from people on both sides of the debate. Some are concerned that the sign promotes a sugary drink, sending a dangerous message to students at a nearby elementary school.
"We're trying to fight childhood obesity," Campos said. "We don't want to promote kids drinking Coca-Cola."
But Campos said he's considering introducing legislation that would create a special "historic sign district" to preserve the 15-by-7-foot sign.
Modolo said he discovered it in 1991 when he removed asbestos siding from his home, which was a grocery store years ago. A friend touched it up and the sign remained.
"It's been this way for 20 years, so I guess it is part of the neighborhood," the 64-year-old Modolo told the San Francisco Chronicle.
But city planners came out to inspect the sign after receiving a complaint last month and deemed it illegal. Modolo was told he could face a daily fine of $100 until it was removed.
The identity of the person who filed the complaint has been redacted from city records.
"I think it is a neat-looking sign," Dan Sider, the city's sign expert, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "But the law is totally nondiscretionary. This is a residential district and an unpermitted general advertising sign."

LEAVE THE SIGN ALONE. COCA-COLA IS WHAT WE ALL GREW  UP ON AND IT IS A PART OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

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Johnson Family Vacation(whu know the song title?

YOU KNOW THIS JAM!!!!!!!!!

2,800 Chinese evacuated from Libya to Crete

(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Britain Royal Navy HMS Cumberland carrying British citizens evacuating from Benghazi, arrives at the harbor in Valletta, Malta, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011.

ATHENS, Greece — Thousands of evacuees from strife-torn Libya reached ports across the Mediterranean on Saturday, with thousands more still scrambling to flee the North African nation by sea, air or land.
More than 2,800 Chinese workers landed in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete aboard a Greek ship Saturday. Further to the west, another 2,200 Chinese arrived in Valletta, the capital of Malta, on a ship from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi. Hours earlier, in the dark of night, a U.S-chartered ferry dropped off over 300 passengers in Valletta after a voyage from Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
The sheer numbers of foreigners leaving Libya as Moammar Gadhafi's regime attacks anti-government protesters has been staggering. As of Saturday, at least 16,000 Chinese workers and 10,000 Turks had been evacuated, most working in the construction and oil industries.
In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that some 22,000 people have fled across the Libyan border to Tunisia and another 15,000 crossed the border to Egypt.
"There are widespread reports of refugees being harassed and threatened with guns and knives," Ban said, adding that many people who managed to cross the border said their trip was "terrifying."
At the harbor in Valletta, women holding babies and other passengers walked down a ramp to solid land after 8-hour voyage across the choppy Mediterranean Sea.
"Oh, it was a long ordeal. We are glad it's over," said evacuee Sara Ali, a 30-year-old with dual Libyan-American citizenship. "We're just really tired and really happy to be out and safe."
The passengers had been stuck aboard the catamaran since Wednesday, but strong winds and high seas had prevented the ferry from leaving the Libyan capital of Tripoli for three days.
"It was pretty uncomfortable just because of the delay," said Lucile Usielmerazcerna, an evacuee from Santa Cruz, California. "It was really rough waters coming over here, also having to stay in the dock for 2 or 3 days."
The Chinese landing in Malta were expected to head to the airport for flights home. In Crete, the Chinese government chartered four ferries and 11 hotels, and was having special flights to China later Saturday aboard two Air China jumbo jets.

IF YOU ARE NOT LIBYAN THEN YOU BETTER GET OUT!!!!

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My cat stole my sunglasses.

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4 Amish children die when buggy flips in Ky. creek

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DUBLIN, Ky. — A horse-drawn buggy carrying an Amish family of nine who went to make a phone call toppled in a rain-swollen creek in rural Kentucky, killing four children who were swept away in the water, authorities said Friday.
The group was traveling in a downpour in the dark Thursday about 8:30 p.m. CST when the buggy flipped during a severe storm. The buggy was crossing a creek that is normally a trickle, but often floods during heavy rains.
Those killed were a 5-month-old; a 5-year-old; a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old. Three of the children were siblings and one was a cousin.
Two adults and three other children escaped. The horse that was pulling the buggy also survived.
The uncle of the 11-year-old who died said the family had used what is known as a "phone shack" and was going home when the buggy overturned.
"She was just an all-around good girl," Levi Yoder, 30, said of his niece.
The discovery of her body about 9:45 a.m. Friday dashed hopes that she might have been alive, clinging to a tree or rock through the night. The other three bodies were discovered shortly after midnight.
They buggy was traveling in the sparsely populated farming community of Dublin, heavily populated with Amish, in far western Kentucky near the Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois borders.
The apparently unnamed creek flows through farmland along a narrow, paved road.
"Whenever they crossed it, the water was so swift it just took the buggy and tipped it over," Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said.

2 arrested in Rio casino heist of $32K in chips

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LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas police have arrested two people and are searching for a third person allegedly behind the robbery of a Las Vegas casino where a suspect wearing a fake mustache and a fedora grabbed $32,000 worth of gambling chips and then pulled a gun on a dealer who tried to stop him.
Las Vegas Police said they would reveal new details about the arrests involving the early Thursday morning heist at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino during a press conference scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday. They declined to provide details about the arrest before then.
The robbery comes two months after $1.5 million in chips was stolen during an early-morning stickup at the nearby Bellagio hotel-casino. The suspect, 29-year-old Anthony Carleo, was arrested earlier this month.

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