วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 18 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2551

cross-border passport checks


# Ruins of an ancient Wari city are discovered in northern Peru.
# ASEAN meets in Jakarta, Indonesia, to launch the ASEAN Charter, which groups its 10 member states into a legal entity.
# The House of Representatives of Thailand selects Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democrat Party as the country's new Prime Minister.
# Bernard Madoff is arrested by the FBI in the United States, and charged with defrauding investors in a US$50 billion Ponzi scheme.
# Switzerland becomes the 25th European country to join the Schengen Agreement, whereby cross-border passport checks (pictured) will be abolished.
# The Channel Island of Sark, a British crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
# Anti-police riots break out in Athens and spread to several cities across Greece.
# Ireland issues an international recall of its pork products following the discovery of contaminated pig feed.

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 14 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2551

River New South Wales


The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions due to the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray and Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west. Home to Aboriginal groups for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was originally settled by Europeans in the mid-19th century as a pastoral region providing beef and wool to markets in Australia and beyond. In the 20th century, the development of major irrigation areas in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys has led to the introduction of crops such as rice and wine grapes. Major population and service centres in the Riverina include the cities of Wagga Wagga, Albury and Griffith. Albury and Wagga Wagga are home to campuses of Charles Sturt University, the only local provider of higher education for the region.