Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog/Prestigious Financial magazine “Forbes” has published an article about Football – or Soccer in lots of Anglo-Saxon countries – analyising the Top 20 Clubs in Value in the World for 2009. Here is the link if you wish to read the original (World Football- Soccer).The magazine looks at the change from 2008 to 2009 & takes into consideration TV rights, merchandising,
Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog/News coming out from neighbouring country Portugal, concretely from their Sports daily “A Bola”, is that REAL MADRID has "intensified" their interest in Argentine 22 year old International & BENFICA player ANGEL DI MARIA. This piece of information has been picked up locally by Spanish daily “AS” who add that the also shown interest by English Premier League Club
The first German troops came to assist the Ottoman Army in 1914 and 1915 were Pioneers, who assisted in the construction of roads in Sinai. In December 1914, a Tropical Medical expedition was sent to work with Turkish sanitary units in Palestine to combat epidemics of typhoid, typhus, dysentery and cholera.
Once Serbia had been conquered, it became possible to send large quantities of equipment and munitions to the Ottoman Armies via the Danube River and Balkan railways. A detachment of specialist troops and officers, the Asia Korps, was assembled to increase the Ottoman Army's effectiveness in the use of equipment they hitherto lacked. In March 1916, the "Pasha I Expedition" set out for Palestine. The various units of the expedition included:
* Infantry Battalion 701
* Infantry support gun sections 701, 702, 703
* Machine gun company 701
* Asia Korps Cavalry squadron
* Pioneer detachment 701
* Pioneer company 205 (from the Hessian 11th Pioneer Battalion)
* Flying detachment (Fliegerabteilung) 300 ("Pasha")
* Mountain Signal detachment 27
* Survey section 27
* Medical section
Fortress Railway Construction Company No. 11 and Railway Operating Companies Nos. 44 and 48 were also deployed to assist the Turkish railway authorities on the lines of communication.
In April, the 300th Flying Detachment ("Pasha") was stationed in Beersheba with 14 Rumpler C.I aircraft. The other troops of the expedition joined them there in April. The Flying Detachment was subsequently stationed in El Arish and Bir El 'Abd. After Turkish defeats in the First Suez Offensive and Battle of Romani, they subsequently fell back to Beersheba and Ramallah.
On 11 March 1917, after the Fall of Baghdad to the British Army, the Ottoman Army assembled an Army Group codenamed Yilderim ("Thunderbolt", the nickname of Sultan Bayezid I) to recover Baghdad. The German Army increased the strength of the detachments with the Ottoman troops by despatching a second expedition, "Pasha II" under Major General Werner von Frankenberg zu Proschlitz, in August. Following Ottoman defeats in the Battle of Beersheba and Third Battle of Gaza in late October, the Yilderim group was diverted to prevent further collapse in Palestine. After the capture of Jerusalem in December, further reinforcements were despatched, including substantial fighting ground formations.
The German troops forming Pasha II, and subsequent reinforcements were under the administrative control of the 201st Infantry Brigade commanded by Major General Werner von Frankenberg zu Proschlitz, and included:
* Infantry Regiment No. 146 (Masurian)
* Infantry Battalions 702 and 703. Together with infantry 701
* A Jäger battalion, subsequently withdrawn to Germany.
* Flying detachments 301, 302, 303, 304 (Bavarian), 305
* Fighter squadron (Jagdstaffel) 55
* Mountain Signal detachment 28
* Pasha II Intelligence detachment (Nachrichtenabteilung)
German staff officers with signal and other personnel formed a Corps headquarters within the Ottoman Eighth Army in Palestine, which was also termed the "Asia Corps", although it is also referred to in Turkish histories as the "Left Wing Group", commanded by Colonel Gustav von Oppen.
The Jerusalem Railway Station, (sometimes called the Khan Railway Station, the Refai'im Valley Railway Station or the Old Railway Station), is the historic Station situate in the Bakaa Quarter of Jerusalem, close to the Jerusalem Khan. The Station is one of the first to have been built in what was then Palestine, having been inaugurated in 1892 as the final stop on the Jaffa - Jerusalem Line. This Railway Station is one of the few public buildings to have been built in Jerusalem during the Ottoman period.
The concept of laying a railway-line connecting the coastal lowlands with Jerusalem had already been aired in the middle of the 19th century by Dr. Konrad Schick, Moshe Montefiore and others. The Concession for laying the railway was obtained from the controlling Ottoman authorities by Yossef Navon, but due to financial and other difficulties he was obliged to sell the Concession to a French Company. In 1892 the building of the Jaffa - Jerusalem railway was finally completed, having been laid along the "Donkey Track" route, an ancient way going up to Jerusalem and taking in Sorek Brook and the Refai'im Valley. The Line was inaugurated with much celebration in Jerusalem on the 26th of September, 1892 in the presence of City Notables, both Jewish and Arab. Amongst those at the ceremony was Eliezer Ben- Yehuda, the reviver of the Hebrew Language, who gave the as yet unnamed "Iron Horse" its Hebrew name of "Rekeveth".
The Station operated almost without a break until 1948 when, due to the War of Independence, transportation on the Jaffa - Jerusalem Line ceased. The end of that War found sections of the Line in Jordanian hands. Under the Rhodes Agreements, Jordan transferred to Israel those areas of the railway which were under its control thereby allowing Israel Railways to operate the service to Jerusalem anew. On the 7th of August, 1949, the first official train to Jerusalem carried a symbolic consignment of wheat, "Nesher" cement and Holy Scrolls.
The hangar, which was built at a period a little later than the Railway Station itself, was used for goods storage. One can see that the hanger entrances are actually built in such way as to be square with the doors of railway carriages so that the unloading of goods into the hanger was much easier. The hanger floor is paved with ancient stones which had in the past served as road paving.