Adripati blog

Royal wedding, A to Z

Want a quick overview of the royal wedding hoopla? Here are the basics, from A to Z.

Anglesey: Remote island location of thein North Wales where Prince William is stationed and where Kate and William have been living together.

Bachelor party: To be planned by brother Prince Harry, the wilder one; location is unknown.

Carriage: Conveyance Kate will not use to travel to Westminster Abbey, but will use to travel with her new husband to Buckingham Palace.

Duke and duchess:on the couple on the occasion of their marriage.

Engagement ring: The oval sapphire-encircled-by-diamonds ring that was made famous by Princess Diana, recycled for a new generation.

Fascinator: Fluffy feathery headpieces worn by British ladies, including Kate Middleton, when she is not wearing a full-fledged hat with a brim.

Goring Hotel:where Kate, her family, and many of William and Kate's friends will stay and socialize prior to the wedding.

Harry: Prince and younger brother, who will undoubtedly serve as chief "supporter" for Prince William at his wedding.

Issa London: The middle brow andof the gorgeous deep blue dress Kate wore for the engagement announcement.

Klosters: Swiss ski resort whereand family, resulting in a much-photographed on-slopes kiss.

Lingerie: Garments being modeled at aat St. Andrews, where Kate definitely caught Prince William's eye.

Marlborough College: Exclusive co-educational prep school attended by Kate, where she excelled in academics and at field hockey and tennis.

Oldfield, Bruce:and couturier beloved by Princess Diana and one of the leading possibilities for the designer of Kate's wedding gown, which she is keeping secret until April 29.

Party Pieces: Mail order company owned by Michael and Carole Middleton, Kate's parents, and Kate's sometimes place of employment.

Queen Elizabeth II: Proud grandmother, hosting a post-wedding luncheon for William and his bride at Buckingham Palace.

Royal Knight of the Garter: Honor conferred on Prince William in a , with Kate attending her first official royal occasion in public.

St. Andrews: A small town in Scotland, and the universityas undergraduate students and fell in love -- not to mention the birthplace of golf.

Time: The wedding will begin at 11a.m. on April 29, which is 6 a.m. on the East Coast of the U.S. and even earlier across the country.

Vanity Fair: The magazine that named Kate Middleton to its .

Westminster Abbey: The historic Anglican church in central London, for 1,000 years the site of coronations, weddings, and funerals of royalty and notables, including the upcoming royal wedding, seats 2,000.

Zara Phillips: Blonde, horsey daughter of Princess Anne and first cousin of William, whoto her rugby player boyfriend just after William -- in a copy-cat vein.

"Doyle Drive" Road Construction Project in Marina District is Recipe for Disaster, According to San Francisco Attorney

Based on extensive experience investigating vehicle accidents on roads near Golden Gate Bridge, lawyer from Albert G. Stoll, Jr. | A Law Corp. sounds warning about imminent danger

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 13, 2010 - The $1 billion "Doyle Drive" road construction project through the San Francisco Presidio, which was resumed this summer, redirects traffic flow in a way that is a recipe for disastrous vehicle accidents, according to a former California Highway Patrol officer who was stationed in the area.

In July, Caltrans officials broke ground on the second phase of the project to replace the aging, seismically unsafe approach to the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marina district with anroadway.The first phase of the project began in September 2009.

"Doyle Drive was already a dangerous roadway, with narrow lanes and no center median, but the way that the traffic engineers have chosen to redirect and manage traffic flow during this construction project is particularly disconcerting," said , a San Francisco attorney who is a former member of the California Highway Patrol and whose beat included the Doyle Drive approach."When you add to those fundamental technical flaws the nightmares of transition roads and elevation changes, you have an absolute recipe for disaster.I commute through this area every day and I am sounding the alarms right now that we have a real imminent public safety hazard in the making."

Haynes was trained as an accident reconstructionist and investigated more than 3,000 motor vehicle accidents for both the Highway Patrol and allied agencies.

"Our firm assists clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area who have been in car accidents, bicycle accidents, motorcycle accidents, and trucking accidents caused by dangerous conditions on a road, so our attorneys are familiar with the specific issues at play in these kinds of cases," said , founding partner of San Francisco-based Albert G. Stoll, A Law Corp.

Since 1994, Albert G. Stoll, Jr., A Law Corporation has provided plaintiffs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with exceptional representation in serious personal injury andmatters.The firm's attorneys have helped clients recover from the disastrous effects of catastrophic injuries and insurance company deception.

For more information about Albert G. Stoll, A Law Corp., please go toor call 415.576.1500.

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Albert G. Stoll, A Law Corp.Al Stoll415.576.1500

British oil firm hits major new find off Ghana

LAGOS (AFP) – British firm Tullow said Tuesday it has found what could be among the largest recent oil discoveries in Africa off the coast of Ghana, with the field holding a potential 550 million barrels.

The new find in Tullow's deepwater Tano licence comes just three months before Ghana is expected to start pumping crude from the Jubilee field, discovered three years ago and one of the biggest finds in west Africa of the last decade.

Owo field is estimated to hold between 70 million and 550 million barrels of light, sweet and high quality crude.

The Owo field "is potentially the largest light oil discovery in Africa since our own Jubilee oil field discovery three years ago," Tullow's head of investor relations Chris Perry told AFP.

The Jubilee field, discovered in 2007, is believed to hold some 1.8 billion barrels of reserves.

Tullow has a 50 percent interest in Tano, where it operates alongside several other global oil giants and Ghana's state-run oil firm Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

Cocoa and gold-rich Ghana is expected to start commercially producing oil by year's end.

Government officials have vowed to carefully manage the country's oil reserves and revenue, vowing to avoid the mismanagement that has plagued nearby Nigeria, among the world's largest producers.

Ghana's recent oil discovery has however sparked a row with Ivory Coast over the border, with Accra accusing Abidjan of claiming part of its maritime space.

Israeli FM: Settlement slowdown will end

JERUSALEM – Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Monday that his party will try to block any extension of Israel's settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the recently launched Mideast peace negotiations.

Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli government must keep its promise to voters that the 10-month slowdown, declared last November under U.S. pressure in order to draw the Palestinians to the negotiating table, will end as scheduled at the end of the month.

The Sept. 26 deadline is a challenge for the fragile talks launched in Washington last week. The Palestinians say they will quit the talks if the slowdown ends, but extending it could potentially bring down the Israeli government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to say how he will handle the deadline.

"A promise is a promise," Lieberman told Israel Radio. "We will not agree to any extension."

"I promise that if there's a proposal that we don't accept it will not pass," he added.

Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party is a key member of Israel's governing coalition, which is led by Netanyahu's Likud party. It holds 15 seats in parliament, making it the second largest member of the coalition.

In a sign that compromise was possible, however, Lieberman told the daily Yediot Ahronot that he would not quit the coalition even if he does not get his way.

"We will not leave or bring down the government. We will fight from the inside for what we believe," he told the paper.

At the summit marking the relaunch of peace talks in Washington last week, Netanyahu used unusually warm language about the Palestinian leadership and the chances for peace. But the Israeli foreign minister has been vocal in his pessimism.

In another interview Monday with Army Radio, Lieberman said the new talks were creating too many expectations and that the declared goal of a peace deal within a year was impossible.

The Israeli government says construction in settlements continued during previous rounds of peace talks and that building does not compromise a future deal. Many members of Netanyahu's own party oppose any extension.

Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, a prominent member of Netanyahu's party, said extending the slowdown would pose a "huge danger" to the coalition.

"Within the coalition, there is a huge majority against it," Shalom told reporters late Sunday. He said the issue could only be resolved through negotiations.

Netanyahu is seeking a way to get through the Sept. 26 deadline without dismantling his coalition, alienating the Palestinians or angering the U.S. administration, which is backing the talks and has invested time and political capital in their success.

Netanyahu is slated to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a second round of talks next week in Egypt and Jerusalem. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also scheduled to attend.

About 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, among the territory's some 2.5 million Palestinians. The Palestinians and the international community say the settlements are obstacles to peace because they eat up land the Palestinians want for a future state. Almost 200,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem — the section of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians.

The slowdown has cut the construction in the settlements, though the extent of the drop is the subject of disagreement.

According to official government statistics released last week, a total of only five new building projects were begun in settlements in the first half of 2010, compared to 673 in the first half of 2009.

Israeli advocacy groups tracking settlement construction dispute those numbers.

The group Peace Now says building has begun on around 450 new housing units since the slowdown went into effect last November, around 300 of them in violation of the terms of the freeze. Peace Now says those numbers mark a drop of about 50 percent in new projects.

Settlement expert Dror Etkes said government statistics show the number of units under construction overall in the first quarter of this year was 2,517, a drop of only 15 percent compared to the last quarter of 2009.

Groups critical of settlement building say if the slowdown is revoked now it will have had nearly no effect on settlement construction in the long term.

(This version CORRECTS day in 1st paragraph)