Free Republic

Dive team to scour Danube for Queen Mary's lost belongings By: All Hungary News 2008-05-08 09:25:00 The legend goes something like this: after the disastrous Battle of Mohács in 1526, the twenty-one-year-old Queen Mary of Hungary fled the encroaching Ottoman army on a caravan of ships headed to Vienna. But, on her way up the Danube a few ships sank along with their valuable cargo. It is said that to this day they remain hidden in the murky depths of the river. Soon, any truth to this story may soon be discovered, or disproved. According to inforadio.hu, a team of...

Mass evacuations in Romania, Hungary as Danube strains its banks BUCHAREST (AFP) - More than 10,000 Romanians faced evacuation from their homes as workers struggled to prevent the swollen river Danube bursting its banks. In neighboring Hungary and Bulgaria, troops and emergency teams also fought flood waters, and southeast of Budapest 4,500 people were told to leave their homes when a dyke 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the capital failed. Authorities in the southern Dolj region of Romania, where 12 areas have already been flooded, evacuated 5,400 people from villages near the river on Saturday morning. They said many...

The River Danube has risen to its highest level since 1895 in Romania, as flooding across the Balkans continues to worsen. Tributaries swollen by snowmelt have increased the volume of the Danube to more than twice its normal April level. The Romanian authorities have begun flooding farmland to ease the pressure. Serbia has declared a state of emergency in several areas, evacuating hundreds of people as the waters reached the roofs of their houses. The emergency follows devastating floods in the Balkans last year, which left dozens of people dead and farmland and infrastructure damaged or destroyed. "We must not...

FETESTI, Romania (Reuters) - Romania will submerge thousands of hectares of farmland on the banks of the Danube to prevent the swollen river from flooding villages, Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said on Friday. Soldiers stacked sandbags around towns as the water level in the river -- boosted by melting snow -- rose to its highest level in more than a century in some areas, flooding ports and villages on the southern bank of the river in Bulgaria. Rising water levels have caused flooding or the threat of flooding in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. "We decided to pursue controlled flooding...

The Danube last week flexed its muscles and demonstrated that it is not a tame river, bursting its banks in the centre of Budapest and leading to the closure of roads. The spring thaw was responsible for the rise in water levels, and riverside roads on both sides of the Danube were closed to traffic last Thursday. Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky put Budapest on the highest level of flood alert. Around 70,000 sandbags were installed around the most sensitive parts of the river, near Margaret Island and Római part. The flooding also caused some difficulty to the riverside restaurants that...

Europe's weather crisis eased on Thursday as fires were put out in Portugal and flood waters receded in central Europe, but the death toll rose in Romania and Austria after heavy rains. Since June, the flooding in central and eastern Europe has caused 103 deaths, while fires in drought-stricken Portugal, Spain and France killed 37, according to figures compiled by news agency AFP. Portuguese firefighters said on Thursday they had brought under control all blazes that have ravaged the centre and north of the country over the past two weeks, thanks to the arrival of cooler weather. A villager...

Does anyone know a URL to download the new Kerry windsurfing ad from the georgewbush.com web site? I checked the clip properties, hoping to download it, but it's streaming media only. Thanks.

Europe - AP U.S. Criticizes Danube Canal Project WASHINGTON - The State Department criticized Ukraine on Monday for pushing ahead with a shipping canal project along the Danube River despite an international outcry over the possible environmental consequences. Spokesman Adam Ereli said the Bush administration had publicly criticized the project in May as it was getting under way. Since then, "construction has continued unabated on the canal," Ereli said, noting that protests have come from governments of Germany, Romania and the European Union (news - web sites), as well as the World Conservation Union and the World Wildlife Fund. "We...

The History Channel is going to air a new historical series entitled DECISIVE BATTLES including some classic wars between ancient Persian armies and Roman and Greek ones. The History Channel goes on location to the actual battlefields and integrates cutting-edge videogame technology to bring history and imagination together in the new series DECISIVE BATTLES. The half-hour series DECISIVE BATTLES premieres Friday, July 23 at 9-9:30pm ET/PT. The series is hosted by Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) on location at the ancient battlefields and features expert commentary from the world©s foremost historians. DECISIVE BATTLES is unlike any series The History Channel...

Shrinking Danube Unveils WWII Relics Fri, Aug 22, 2003 By EUGENE BRCIC, Associated Press Writer Children play with the remains of a German Kubelwagen, a military vehicle from WWII, pulled out of the Danube river, in the village of Batina, northeastern Croatia, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003. Record-breaking droughts in Croatia are exposing bits of World War II history as receding Danube River waters reveal evidence of battles between the retreating Germans and the advancing Soviets. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic) BATINA, Croatia - As the mass of tangled iron emerged from the water, wide-eyed townspeople marveled at the catch, a World War...

PRAHOVO, Serbia-Montenegro -- Europe's worst drought in years has pushed the River Danube to its lowest level in more than a century, revealing German warships sunk to slow advancing Soviet forces in World War II. As the Danube's depth at this remote spot in eastern Serbia fell to levels not seen since records began in 1888, the wreckage of an old battleship slowly emerged last week above the surface by the Romanian border. "You see, when Germans make something it's for eternity," said fisherman Dragan Curovic, carefully navigating his boat down the river toward the rusty remains of the ship...

PRAHOVO, Serbia and Montenegro, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Europe's worst drought in years has pushed the mighty river Danube to its lowest level in more than a century, revealing German warships sunk to slow advancing Soviet forces in World War Two. As the Danube's depth at this remote spot in eastern Serbia fell to levels not seen since records began in 1888, the wreckage of an old battle ship last week slowly emerged above the surface by the Romanian border. "You see, when Germans make something it's for eternity," said fisherman Dragan Curovic, carefully navigating his boat down the wide...

The Danube Transformed: From River of Blood to River of Hope By RICHARD BERNSTEIN DONAUESCHINGEN, Germany — It begins here — or at least the people here say it does — as a spring bubbling up from beneath a stone urn beneath the walls of the white and yellow St. John's Church. After flowing for a short distance under the garden of the Fürstenberg Castle it pours, at a rate of about 20 gallons per second, into another stream, the Brigach, flowing nearby. Or perhaps it does not begin here. "There exists envy on the part of other locations," the...