World News : Channel Tunnel face some disruption for months for repairs damage??

Overview

In 1802 French mining engineer Albert Mathieu put forward a proposal to tunnel under the English Channel, with illumination from oil lamps, horsedrawn coaches, and an artificial island mid-Channel for changing horses.In the 1830s Frenchman Aimé Thomé de Gamond performed the first geological and hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover. Thomé de Gamond explored several schemes, and in 1856 he presented a proposal to Napoleon III for a mined railway tunnel from Cap Gris-Nez to Eastwater Point with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank at a cost of 170 million francs, or less than 7 million pounds sterling.

World News : Channel Tunnel face some disruption for months for repairs damage??
Freight and passenger traffic resumed on Saturday in the Channel Tunnel linking Britain to continental Europe after a fire on Thursday that completely halted traffic and caused chaos for thousands of people.
Eurostar, which runs passenger trains through the undersea tunnel, said it would run up to 12 trains each way on Saturday between London and Paris and up to six each way between London and Brussels.

That represents about half the usual traffic through the tunnel, normally used by 40,000 people every day.

”Trains are operating through the single tunnel that is unaffected by the fire,” Eurostar said in a statement, advising ticket holders to turn up at the scheduled time.

”Eurostar will seek to accommodate them on the first available train. This is likely to mean longer than normal waiting times before departure. Journey times will also be longer than normal,” the company said.

Services will, nevertheless, face some disruption for months as Eurotunnel repairs damage from the fire which started at 3pm on Thursday, burned until 9am on Friday and destroyed a truck-carrying Shuttle train. Temperatures reached as high as 1,000°C, according to the French interior minister.

The test train followed checks by Eurotunnel staff on the southern tunnel, which was not used by the affected train, to ensure there was no smoke or other damage. Staff were then due to check sections of the northern tunnel away from the main fire site to check for damage caused before the fire was spotted.

Services will initially use only the southern tunnel, with batches of Eurotunnel car and truck Shuttles, Eurostar passenger trains and cross-Channel freight trains taking it in turns to head in each direction.

The tunnel’s closure caused chaos for travellers and, given the uncertainty over the reopening schedule, Eurostar warned passengers holding tickets for weekend travel to find alternative transport.

The fire broke out on a truck on board the train 11km before it reached the French end of the 50km tunnel, forcing the evacuation of 32 drivers and the train crew. French newspapers reported it had been caused by overheating of a truck’s brake system. At its peak, hundreds of firefighters from both sides of the Channel were tackling the blaze.

French police on Friday remained in charge of the tunnel section around the fire site. However, when control is handed back to Eurotunnel, repairs are bound to take months. The only previous serious tunnel fire, in November 1996, destroyed only half a train and the latest fire seems to have reached similar temperatures to that one. It took six months for repairs because so much of the concrete tunnel lining was damaged.

After an initial period using only the southern tunnel, Eurotunnel will gradually bring back into use the unaffected two-thirds of the northern tunnel, with trains using a crossover into the southern tunnel to avoid the damaged section. The closure of the last section of the northern tunnel will cause most problems at the tunnel’s busiest times, such as Friday evenings.

“We will have disruption, but we do lots of planned maintenance where we close a tunnel segment without having a major impact on the timetable,” said ­Eurotunnel.

World News : Channel Tunnel face some disruption for months for repairs damage??

World News : Firefighters struggled to save people on Channel Tunnel disaster??

Channel Tunnel overview.
Proposals for a fixed-link to cross the English Channel go back to Albert Mathieu's 1802 plan involving horse-drawn carts and a constructed mid-Channel island. For over 150 years, British political and press pressure over compromised national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. In 1974, French and UK government-funded construction commenced on both sides of the Channel, but the project was cancelled by the UK government over financial concerns. In 1985, the UK and French governments invited submissions for a fixed link. Eurotunnel, a group of ten construction companies and five banks, was awarded the project, a triple-bore railway tunnel based on the 1974 attempt. Tunnelling commenced in 1988, and the tunnel began operating in 1994. In 1985 prices, the total construction cost was £4650 million (£10,153 million inflation-adjusted to 2007), an 80% cost overrun. At the peak of construction 15,000 people were employed with daily expenditure over £3 million. Ten workers died during construction.

World News : Firefighters struggled to save people on Channel Tunnel disaster??

CALAIS, France- Firefighters struggled Friday to put out a blaze on a freight shuttle in the Channel Tunnel that injured six people and forced the closure of the undersea link, officials said.

Rescuers evacuated dozens of truck drivers from the tunnel after an explosion and fire on the shuttle Thursday.

Six people suffered smoke inhalation after the blaze took hold on a truck being transported from Britain to France, officials said. Earlier reports of a further eight people slightly injured were incorrect, they added.

"The fire is under control but it is still burning. Working conditions are very difficult due to the heat" which had reached 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 Fahrenheit), a spokesman for the local prefecture said at 5:30 am (0330 GMT).

Two hours later two wagons were still on fire , nearly 15 hours after the blaze broke out.

"Two shuttle wagons are still on fire which is hard to put out," the spokesman said.

"Firefighters made some progress but they're working in difficult conditions because of the flames and the heat which is still around 1,000 degrees. It slows them down."

About 40 French and 20 British firefighters are involved in the operation.

Eurotunnel, which operates the tunnel, and Eurostar, which runs high-speed passenger rail services, said the tunnel suffered serious damage and would not reopen on Friday.

It took about three hours to bring 32 people -- mostly truckers who moved from the burning train into a parallel service tunnel -- to safety.

Thousands of people were stranded in London, Paris and Brussels, and huge traffic tailbacks built up on either side of the Channel after the tunnel was closed.

Eurostar said on its website that it "does not expect to operate a service" Friday, with a question mark placed over Saturday and Sunday schedules too.

It is the third major fire in the tunnel since it was opened in May 1994.

The train was about five kilometres (three miles) from the Calais exit on the French side of the 50.5-kilometre tunnel when it caught fire, according to Francois Malhanche, director of the regional prefect's office.

"The fire appears to be accidental. It started in a truck brake system that overheated and spread to a tyre and then to two other trucks," Malhanche said.

One of the other trucks on the shuttle was carrying phenol acid, but this did not catch fire, officials said.

Helicopters and ambulances were waiting at the French entrance to take the injured to hospital.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie went immediately to the site in northern France.

"Two of the drivers said they heard an explosion and this was followed by flames," she told reporters. "They tried to get out and could do so because of the structure of the tunnel which allows a rapid evacuation."

"It is probable that the damage is major, as the firemen told me that the heat from the fire probably reached 1,000 degrees Celsius," she added.

The multi-billion-dollar tunnel carries Eurostar high-speed trains between London, Paris and Brussels, as well as freight and passenger shuttles between Folkestone in England and Calais.

There are two tunnels for passenger trains and shuttles and a service tunnel for maintenance and safety operations.

In the first serious incident on November 18, 1996, a fire broke out on a late-night shuttle train carrying trucks. Eight people were injured and the service was disrupted for several months.

On August 21, 2006, the tunnel was closed for several hours after a truck engine caught fire, sending smoke through the tunnel.

Long traffic tailbacks rapidly formed on the British end after the latest closure.

Kent Fire and Rescue service, on the British side, said it sent seven fire engines to help French counterparts at the scene. A spokeswoman called it a "serious incident."

Kent police implemented "Operation Stack," which allows trucks to park along the main M20 motorway running down to the tunnel terminal from London.

The SNCF French state rail firm said four high-speed express trains had to return to Paris or London because of the tunnel closure.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at the Gare du Nord rail station in Paris and the new St Pancras station in London.

There was a rush for any remaining plane seats between London and Paris and for available hotel rooms.

World News : Firefighters struggled to save people on Channel Tunnel disaster??

World News : Channel tunnel caused serious damage???

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche), also known as Chunnel or Eurotunnel, is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking the United Kingdom and France, running beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. The tunnel connects Folkestone, Kent in England to Coquelles near Calais in northern France and at its lowest point is 246 feet deep ^[1]. It has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world (Japan's Seikan Tunnel is longer overall (33.49 miles) and reaches a depth of 787 feet).

The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger railway services, Eurotunnel Shuttle RORO vehicle transport and international rail freight trains. In 1996 the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

World News : Channel tunnel caused serious damage???

PARIS: The Channel Tunnel that links Britain and the Continent was closed Friday after an overnight blaze that reached temperatures as high as 1,800 degrees.

The fire, which broke out on Thursday on a France-bound freight shuttle train carrying trucks, may have started on one of the trucks, safety officials said. The fire was not extinguished until Friday, said Mady Chabrier, a spokeswoman for the operator, Eurotunnel.

The closing raised new questions about how such incidents could occur, especially after previous fires in the tunnel. The fire threatened to disrupt services for several weeks in the tunnel, which is used by truckers as well as by tens of thousands of tourists and business people every day.

Reports on Thursday afternoon suggested that damage and disruption were not heavy. But by Friday morning, officials said it had taken firefighters most of the night to douse the flames, and a truck driver told French news media that he and others had narrowly escaped.

"Because it's a tunnel, it works like an oven," Chabrier said. "I guess the concrete has suffered and the iron inside of the tunnel, and we have to check now what the situation is."

Eurotunnel said 32 passengers on the train, most of them truckers, escaped after being evacuated into the maintenance tunnel.

Six people were taken to a hospital in Calais suffering from smoke inhalation. There were no reports of more serious injuries.

The temperature inside the north tunnel, where the fire occurred, remained high on Friday afternoon. French officials said the fire was probably accidental. The exact cause is under investigation.

The link consists of two tunnels that carry freight and passenger trains in opposite directions, and a third tunnel used for maintenance and evacuations.

So far, the closing of the tunnel is the longest since 1996, when a fire shut down freight and passenger services for two weeks and kept the tunnel partly closed for months.

That blaze resulted from a fire on a truck, as did another episode in 2006, according to safety officials.

"There are a lot of questions to be asked, particularly about whether the truck tipped over in some way, or whether it was carrying flammable chemicals," Christian Wolmar, a journalist and leading commentator on transportation issues, said of the most recent fire.

But he said there might be little more that British and French authorities could do to ensure safety on the undersea system without hampering cross-channel trade and transportation.

"There is a trade-off between safety and cost," Wolmar said. "I can't imagine there are easy-to-do measures that would enhance safety further without disproportionate cost."

The French ground-transportation accident-investigation bureau, known by its French acronym, Bea-tt, was taking the lead in the investigation into the fire, according to a spokesman for the British Secretariat to the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority.

In coming weeks, trains will probably run in both directions using only the south tunnel, Chabrier said.

The train was nearly seven miles from Coquelles, France, where the 31-mile tunnel ends, near the port of Calais, when the fire broke out.

Eurostar, the company that provides passenger rail service through the tunnel, said it hoped to be able to begin running a limited service starting Saturday. Freight trains began rolling again late Friday night, the Associated Press reported.

World News : Channel tunnel caused serious damage???

World News : The author "Infinite Jest," was found dead??

David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 - September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He was best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest.

Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York to James Donald Wallace and Sally Foster Wallace. James Wallace had recently finished his Ph.D. at Cornell University; the family soon relocated to central Illinois, where James found work as a philosophy instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1962. Sally attended graduate school in English Composition at the University of Illinois and eventually became a professor of English at Parkland College, a community college in Champaign, where she won a national Professor of the Year award in 1996. Wallace's younger sister, Amy, has practiced law in Arizona since 2005.

As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He attended his father's alma mater, Amherst College, and double-majored in English and philosophy, with a focus on modal logic and mathematics. His philosophy senior thesis on modal logic was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize, and he graduated summa cum laude in 1985. He next pursued an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona, which he earned in 1987.

World News : The author "Infinite Jest," was found dead??
CLAREMONT, Calif. - David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.

Wallace's wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.

Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College.

"He cared deeply for his students and transformed the lives of many young people," said Dean Gary Kates. "It's a great loss to our teaching faculty."

Wallace's first novel, "The Broom of the System," gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author "attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok."

Published in 1996, "Infinite Jest" cemented Wallace's reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Time Magazine named "Infinite Jest" in its issue of the "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."

Wallace received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997.

In 2002, Wallace was hired to teach at Pomona in a tenured English Department position endowed by Roy E. Disney. Kates said when the school began searching for the ideal candidate, Wallace was the first person considered.

"The committee said, 'we need a person like David Foster Wallace.' They said that in the abstract," Kates said. "When he was approached and accepted, they were heads over heels. He was really the ideal person for the position."

Wallace's short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper's, The New Yorker and the Paris Review. Collections of his short stories were published as "Girl With Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men."

He wrote nonfiction for several publications, including an essay on the U.S. Open for Tennis magazine and a profile of the director David Lynch for Premiere.

Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Wallace attended Amherst College and the University of Arizona.

World News : The author "Infinite Jest," was found dead??

Hot news : Vanessa Hudgens Nude Photos Scandal Leaked??

Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She made her debut in 2003 appearing in the Hollywood films Thirteen and Thunderbirds, before reaching fame in 2006 after appearing in the Disney Channel film High School Musical hit series. Hudgens began a music career and released her debut album, V, in 2006. Her sophomore album, Identified, was released July 1, 2008. She is currently a Neutrogena spokesperson.

Hot news : Vanessa Hudgens Nude Photos Scandal Leaked??
Vanessa Hudgens nude photos taken for her boyfriend Zac Efron have been leaked the National Enquirer is reporting. The magazine reports that pictures that star Vanessa Hudgens took were intended only for costar slash boyfriend Zac Efron – but have recently surfaced, and their discovery could bring down the wholesome Disney blockbuster that's captivated millions of teen fans.
"Vanessa took some suggestive shots of herself in the buff as a surprise for Zac," a source told the Enquirer. Now the scandal is threatening to destroy the "High School Musical" phenomenon sweeping America, Enquirer reports.
The Enquirer reports that it has learned that a third party has obtained the sexy pictures that were meant just for Vanessa and Zac. "Vanessa's only 18, so she had no idea how her flirtatious act could threaten the future of the multimillion-dollar plans Disney has for the show," said the source. "She just wanted to keep Zac interested."

But the brunette beauty's naughty photos could throw Disney's massive marketing and production plans into complete turmoil.

"It's a kids' show, aimed a children, teenagers and their parents and starring a bunch of cute, wholesome youngsters," said a show insider. "Naked pictures of one of the stars would be catastrophic. "It could bring the whole 'High School Musical' franchise to its knees."



Hot news : Vanessa Hudgens Nude Photos Scandal Leaked??

Celebrity News : $4.4 Million for Kylie Minogue at Dubai Soiree

Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE (pronounced /kаɪliː mɪnoʊg/) was born 28 May 1968, is an Australian pop singer-songwriter and occasional actress. She rose to prominence in the late 1980s through her role in the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987.

Signed to a contract by British songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1988, she achieved a string of hit records throughout the world. Her popularity waned during the early 1990s, leading her to part company from Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992. During the mid to late 90s, Minogue distanced herself from her earlier work and attempted to establish herself as a credible and independent performer and songwriter. Her projects were widely publicised, but her albums failed to attract a substantial audience and resulted in the lowest sales of her career at the time. She returned to popularity as a pop artist in 2000, and became well-known for her elaborate music videos and expensively mounted stage shows.

In Australia, Europe and Asia, Minogue has become one of her generation's most recognisable celebrities. In Australia, after being dismissed early in her career by some critics, she has been widely acclaimed for her many achievements. Minogue returned to performing and recording in the late 2000s after a period of convalescence, and was awarded with an OBE in 2008 for services to music. She has sold in excess of 60 million records.

Celebrity News : $4.4 Million for Kylie Minogue at Dubai Soiree

Superstar Kylie Minogue is getting paid $4.4 Million to perform at the opening of the Atlantis Hotel on the man-made island of Palm Jumeirah. Not content with setting all kinds of records for tallest buildings, Dubai will be hosting the ‘most expensive private party ever staged’. The price tag for this party? A cool $35 million…

Marking her first ever performance in the Middle East, Kylie Minogue will be entertaining 2000 guests at the opening of the 1,539-room luxury Atlantis Hotel, which opens its doors to the public on September 24.

With the firework display alone costing over $6.5 Million, the guest list to this exclusive party includes actors, musicians, politicians, and members of the Dubai royal family.

Celebrity News : $4.4 Million for Kylie Minogue at Dubai Soiree

Celebrity News : Sarah McLachlan splitting from husband??

Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Grammy-winning Canadian musician, singer and songwriter .

She is known for the emotional sound of her ballads. Some of her most popular songs include "Angel", "Building a Mystery", "Adia", "Possession", "Fallen", "I Will Remember You", and "World on Fire". As of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won eight Juno Awards and three Grammy Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians in the late 1990s.

Celebrity News : Sarah McLachlan splitting from husband??

DETROIT (Billboard) - Canadian pop singer Sarah McLachlan is splitting from her husband of 11 years, and is sharing her grief with fans in two new songs.

"U Want Me 2" and "Don't Give Up on Us" both appear on her upcoming greatest hits album "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan," which comes out October 7 via Arista Records in both a single-disc version and a two-CD deluxe package.

"I'm separating from my husband, so these are the songs about that," McLachlan, 40, told Billboard.com.

McLachlan and her husband Ashwin Sood, who plays drums in her band, reside in Vancouver. They have two daughters, six-year-old India Ann Sushil and Taja Summer, 14 months.

"I wasn't planning on saying anything," McLachlan added, "but it's gonna come out at some point. I haven't said anything about it because I've been terrified to, but I figure ... there's no good time to say it, so I just said it."

McLachlan called the situation "pretty gross" but did not elaborate on reasons for the separation or the couple's future plans.

She described "U Want Me 2" as "about that really uncertain, confusing place at the end of a relationship when there's no communication or closure, everything's still up in the air and there's a lot of anger and sadness. It's sort of that working through 'How do we move forward ... with some dignity and grace."

"Don't Give Up," she said, is "pretty self-explanatory, basically just a plea to give it another chance and keep trying."

McLachlan wrote both songs with her longtime producer Pierre Marchand. The video for "U Want Me 2" premiered Wednesday on Amazon.com.

McLachlan is planning a series of TV appearances to promote "Closer." She said she's also working on more new material and hopes to have a new album out within the next two years.

Hot News : KFC shoring up security for secret recipe???

Hot News : KFC shoring up security for secret recipe???

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Pssst. The secret's out at KFC. Well, sort of. Colonel Harland Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices was to be removed Tuesday from safekeeping at KFC's corporate offices for the first time in decades. The temporary relocation is allowing KFC to revamp security around a yellowing sheet of paper that contains one of the country's most famous corporate secrets.

The brand's top executive admitted his nerves were aflutter despite the tight security he lined up for the operation.

"I don't want to be the president who loses the recipe," KFC President Roger Eaton said. "Imagine how terrifying that would be."

So important is the 68-year-old concoction that coats the chain's Original Recipe chicken that only two company executives at any time have access to it. The company refuses to release their name or title, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents.

Louisville-based KFC, part of the fast-food company Yum Brands Inc., hired off-duty police officers and private security guards to whisk the document away to an undisclosed location in an armored car. The recipe will be slid into a briefcase and handcuffed to security expert Bo Dietl for the ride.

"There's no way anybody could get this recipe," said Dietl, a former New York City police detective. His security firm is also handling the security improvements for the recipe at headquarters, but he wouldn't say what changes they're making.

For more than 20 years, the recipe has been tucked away in a filing cabinet equipped with two combination locks in company headquarters. To reach the cabinet, the keepers of the recipe would first open up a vault and unlock three locks on a door that stood in front of the cabinet.

Vials of the herbs and spices are also stored in the secret filing cabinet.

"The smell is overwhelming when you open it," said one of two keepers of the recipe in an interview at company headquarters.

The biggest prize, though, is a single sheet of notebook paper, yellowed by age, that lays out the entire formula — including exact amounts for each ingredient — written in pencil and signed by Sanders.

Others have tried to replicate the recipe, and occasionally someone claims to have found a copy of Sanders' creation. The executive said none have come close, adding the actual recipe would include some surprises.

Sanders developed the formula in 1940 at his tiny restaurant in southeastern Kentucky and used it to launch the KFC chain in the early 1950s.

Sanders died in 1980, but his likeness is still central to KFC's marketing.

"The recipe to him, in later years, was everything he stood for," said Shirley Topmiller, his personal secretary for about 12 years.

Larry Miller, a restaurant analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said the recipe's value is "almost an immeasurable thing. It's part of that important brand image that helps differentiate the KFC product."

KFC had a total of 14,892 locations worldwide at the end of 2007. The chain has had strong sales overseas, especially in its fast-growing China market, but has struggled in the U.S. amid a more health-conscious public. KFC posted U.S. sales of $5.3 billion at company-owned and franchised stores in 2007.

Hot News : KFC shoring up security for secret recipe???

Celebrity News : Daniel Jacob Radcliffe aspires to play a drag queen in the future??

Celebrity News : Daniel Jacob Radcliffe aspires to play a drag queen in the future??

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English film, television and stage actor. He is best known for playing Harry Potter in each of the first five films based on the best-selling Harry Potter book series, and will also appear in the final three films of the series.

Radcliffe has also made appearances in stage productions and a number of TV shows and films, including the ITV film My Boy Jack and the stage show Equus, which achieved much critical acclaim. He is believed to have a fortune of just short of £20 million, mainly earned from the Harry Potter franchise.

Daniel Radcliffe is not your average teenage idol. While he’s not playing the beloved boy-wizard Harry Potter, he’s prancing around the stage naked in a play about a young guy in love with a horse. Now Daniel Radcliffe tells Details magazine in its September 2008 issue that he aspires to play a drag queen in the future.

“I think part of me would love to play a drag queen, just because it would be an excuse to wear loads of eye makeup,” Daniel Radcliffe confessed to Details.

But Radcliffe noted that he uses his art to express his wild side, instead of being rebellious in the more traditional way.

“I don’t pretend to do anything particularly wild. People talk about rebellion and they say, ‘Where is the teenage angst?’ But I say I try to do it simply by the choices I make in the work I do,” Daniel Radcliffe explained. “I just like wrong-footing people. I write poetry and I love it. I like being different from most other people in my generation.”

Celebrity News : Daniel Jacob Radcliffe aspires to play a drag queen in the future??