September 2, 2013
Russia has announced that its missile early warning system (click here) had detected the launch of two missiles from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea fired towards the sea’s eastern coastline.
The launches took place at 10.16am Moscow time (1616 AEST) on Tuesday and were detected by the early warning system in Armavir in southern Russia, the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
It said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had already reported to President Vladimir Putin about the event, which comes amid growing expectations of Western military action in Syria.
"The launch was detected by the early warning radar in Armavir," the Interfax news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying....
When the USA missiles into Syria has been made mute, maybe then the USA military will want to target a Russia city itself, right? Bunch of jackasses.
Does anyone stop to realize how many people live along the Mediterranean Sea?
More notable in terms of employment (250 000 fishermen) than production (about 1 million tonnes declared in 2007), fishing is mainly on a small scale. Various different species are caught: sardine, anchovy and hake dominate.
The Mediterranean is a key world maritime route with 30 % of worldwide traffic, 25 % of oil transport, and 450 ports and terminals. The largest port, Marseilles (France), is ranked fourth in Europe. Oil and natural gas are transported from small specialised ports on the southern shores, such as Arzew (Algeria) and Sidi Kerir/Alexandria (Egypt) to Marseilles and Augusta, Trieste and Genoa (Italy). Container traffic is experiencing particular expansion, notably in Algeciras (Spain), a large hub at the entrance to the Mediterranean that now faces competition from Tanger-Med (Morocco).
Hey, I've got a great idea, let's park warships in the Mediterranean Sea and provide permission for Israel to have a tirade. That should do wonders for a peace treaty with Palestine.
The largest port is that of Piraeus (Greece) which transports 11.5 million passengers each year to the Greek islands, followed by the port of Reggio de Calabria (Italy) which transports 10.5 million passengers to Sicily, and Barcelona and Alicante (Spain) with 5 million passengers to the Balearic Islands (2006). The main routes for links between the north and south shores are Spain-Morocco (6.5 million), France-Algeria (1.8 million) and Italy-Tunisia.
If I were a shipping company or a union of fisherman, I would definitely let my government know exactly what I thought about them now. I think it is time for the United Nation's General Assembly.
Governance
The majority of Mediterranean waters are under the high seas regime. Territorial waters, established by coastal States over a width of 12 nautical miles (6 nautical miles for Greece) represent 16 % of the total surface area. Few states have asked for an exclusive economic zone, but some have declared new types of zones, which are not covered by the law of the sea, such as fishing zones or ecological protection zones. These specific zones cover 31 % of the surface of the Mediterranean.
