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US SECRETARY OF STATE Hillary Clinton was in Istanbul for talks on the Syrian conflict today, as fighting for control of the strategic city of Aleppo raged just 30 miles from Turkey’s southern border.
Clinton was to discuss with Turkish leaders boosting support for the Syrian opposition after Washington gave up on securing action at the UN Security Council against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a US official said.
Turkey has given shelter to hundreds of defecting Syrian soldiers, including more than 30 generals, who have formed the kernel of the rebel army which is now boosted by many more civilian volunteers and is battling government troops in Aleppo and other cities.
Fierce clashes in the commercial capital since Wednesday, when the army launched a ground offensives to retake rebel-held neighbourhoods, have exacted a mounting toll on civilians in the city of some 2.7 million people.
Yesterday, a shell crashed into a bakery in the eastern Tariq al-Bab district of the city as hundreds of desperate residents queued for bread. A dozen people were killed, three of them children, and 20 more wounded.
Troops backed by artillery stormed the nearby Salaheddin district on Wednesday in the first stage of its offensive to recapture areas of the city taken by the rebels since July 20, prompting the insurgents to retreat under heavy fire.
A rebel commander said on Saturday that his fighters were still putting up strong resistance around Salaheddin.
“Fierce fighting has continued without respite for the past 24 hours as the army tries to push us out of the neighbourhood,” Abdel Qader Saleh told AFP by telephone.
State media said the army repelled a rebel attack on Aleppo’s international airport yesterday.
“Mercenary terrorists” had tried to attack it but the “army hit back and killed most of them,” the official SANA news agency reported.
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Lot of delays on shipments of online orders I assume are associated with this. But not being fed back to the customer.
Just being told there is a delay.
Some saying January delivery on orders from mid november.
I’d say quite a few waiting on crimbo presents If caught in this delay
@Brian Martin: I have amazon stuff tracked from Manchester now in northern France, they are adapting
@Tony Humphreys: me too, from Manchester to France. Tracking to be here on Monday. Amazon orders
@Tony Humphreys: hope you didn’t get me anything big
@Brian Martin: wgaf?
@Ger: thanks for shopping local lads
I went through Holyhead port in October on a breezy day and a piece of the roof in the customs check area flew off and hit my car, so I’m not a bit surprised that this storm has caused considerable damage. Parts of the port are in rag order and need upgrading.
@Stephen Heffernan: I hope they paid for the damage.
@Tony Humphreys: it wasn’t trying to dock, it was docked and the wind pushed it into the berth, an inspection on the berth was done and it was deemed safe, the James Joyce had no damage and set sail as it’s safer for the ships to be in open water rather then tied up at the berth. The Ulyssess arrived at the same berth a couple of hours later, unloaded and loaded and just after it departed the berth collapsed with 3 workers on it, they jumped off it to safety just in time.
Holyhead port is in bits, it’s been neglected for years so they can/could get government funding to build new berths, instead of Stens paying for it themselves as the owners/operators of the port. So even though the James Joyce hit the berth (through no fault of it’s own), the blame is mainly down to Stena and the storm
@John Doe: Stena, not Stens
@John Doe: I’ve been using it for 30yrs and it’s the same last week as 30yrs ago. I suppose it was a serious wind,and a big ship banging off the port not helping. Thankfully no one died
Could they not re-route through Liverpool?
@Brian Hunt: not enough capacity. I’m here in Stranraer with your parcels in a stack operation. This is a major mess for parcel companies.
Amazon is not shipping till the new year. local business will do well from this
@Alan Hickey: I bought on amazon this morning..will get the 18th
@Clare Power: you’re lucky that’s from the Irish depot. Anything coming from England is 30th December the earliest
@Alan Hickey: How do you know, though…I bought a large item 3 days ago, and ill get before Xmas…..
@Alan Hickey: I purchased an item on Monday – received today. 3 other items passed Irish customs yesterday evening are en route by tomnorrow. Not sure your info is correct.
@Alan Hickey: they are rerouting through france
@Alan Hickey: I bought on Amazon on Sunday. The tracker shows it cleared customs in the UK it is now in France and is due to be delivered on Friday.
@john murray: check today and I’m a prime member.. nothing is coming till 30th December
@Alan Hickey: talking shite again alan
@Alan Hickey: not true I ordered from amazon UK 5 days ago and it arrived yesterday
Could do with a channel tunnel ourselves
@Andy Preneur: A previous UK Prime Minister wanted one!
Announced tonight that Holyhead Port will not reopen until Fri Dec 20th at the earliest.
Will be expecting supermarkets to run very low on a lot of stuff in the build up to Christmas
Anybody know exactly what damage occurred?
@Me Me: There’s 2 berths, side by side.
During the Storm Stena correctly decided to cancel all sailings as they deemed it too dangerous.
Irish Ferries carried on, as they have done many times in bad weather, when trying to dock, their ship James Joyce smashed into the berth sinking part of it.
Part of the berth, a lot of steel and concrete, is now on the sea bed in the berth area
That’s another reason why I’ll never travel with Irish Ferries, a disaster waiting to happen.
As a passenger that was supposed to sail on Sunday they kept moving me to the next day’s sailing that would then be cancelled. Booked a flight in the end. People have said the sailings between Liverpool and Belfast are full for car passengers and the drive to the south Wales ports is a long one (not easy by public transport – have to go into England and then back into Wales). It’s been very badly handled.
@Ann Kennan: ìf a foot passenger, there is no public transport from the port into Belfast
Thanks for letting us know. The relief.
Supermarkets are now warning that some shelves maybe empty in the run up to Christmas which translates as Carte Blanche to increase prices
Buy Local and save Jobs
All my amazon purchases stuck on UK. Delivery date unknown.
Climate change affects us all, just like AIDS
have your say