Australian Air Force top guns will test their air combat skills against six United States Air National Guard F-15C Eagle fighter aircraft tomorrow, said the Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon.
The aircraft, from Air National Guard elements in Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, will be based at RAAF Williamtown from 20 August to 20 September 2008 to support Number 30 Fighter Combat Instructor's course.
The course, which began on 30 June and will conclude on 22 December 2008, will provide participating Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 and F-111 pilots and Air Combat Officers with the highest possible level of fighter combat skills.
"The course represents fundamental training for experienced aircrew, providing the opportunity to engage in highly complex air combat training missions," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
"The involvement of the Air National Guard will provide not only vital training opportunities, but a chance to further strengthen our already strong ties with the US," he said.
The F-15C Eagle aircraft will provide Dissimilar Air Combat Training, with support provided by C-17 transports and a KC-10 air-to-air refueller from the Oregon Air National Guard, a KC-135 air-to-air refueller from the Washington Air National Guard, and C-17 transports from the Hawaii Air National Guard.
As part of the deployment, the Adjutant-General of the Oregon National Guard, US Army Major General Raymond Rees, will visit Australia with US Defence Attache, Colonel Andrew Britschgi.
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Sunday, August 31, 2008
Boeing Union Calls for a Strike...
Boeing Co.'s largest labor union called for a strike, setting up a battle that has the potential to derail the company's core commercial-airplanes unit at a time when customers are clamoring for fuel-efficient airplanes.
"The company had an opportunity to come to its employees with an offer that rewarded them for their hard work by offering a top-of-the-industry contract and some real job security, and it failed on all counts," said Mark Blondin, aerospace coordinator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Two-thirds of the members must vote against the proposal on Sept. 3 for a strike to occur. In 2005, the union struck for 28 days. In 2002, the union rejected the contract but failed to gain enough votes to strike.
The union leadership's condemnation of the proposed three-year contract, which would boost union members' wages by $34,000 on average over the period, came as a surprise to Boeing officials. They said they had hoped this year to deliver a contract that would avoid stirring up some of the tensions that had bedeviled previous negotiations.
A strike would be a severe blow to Boeing, which is running at full capacity to meet an unprecedented demand for more-fuel-efficient jetliners. A strike would also further delay development and deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner, which is already running roughly two years behind schedule with nearly 900 orders already on the books.
"The company had an opportunity to come to its employees with an offer that rewarded them for their hard work by offering a top-of-the-industry contract and some real job security, and it failed on all counts," said Mark Blondin, aerospace coordinator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Two-thirds of the members must vote against the proposal on Sept. 3 for a strike to occur. In 2005, the union struck for 28 days. In 2002, the union rejected the contract but failed to gain enough votes to strike.
The union leadership's condemnation of the proposed three-year contract, which would boost union members' wages by $34,000 on average over the period, came as a surprise to Boeing officials. They said they had hoped this year to deliver a contract that would avoid stirring up some of the tensions that had bedeviled previous negotiations.
A strike would be a severe blow to Boeing, which is running at full capacity to meet an unprecedented demand for more-fuel-efficient jetliners. A strike would also further delay development and deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner, which is already running roughly two years behind schedule with nearly 900 orders already on the books.
When Boeing officials delivered their so-called best and final offer Thursday, they said that the offer had been personally approved by Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Jim McNerney, as well as the board of directors and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Scott Carson.
Boeing officials have repeatedly said they want to avoid a strike, but they also insist that they won't do so at the expense of agreeing to a labor contract that hampers the company's ability to compete in what is increasingly a cutthroat sales environment.
Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company was "extremely disappointed" with the union's recommendation. He said Boeing believes the company's offer "rewards employees for the company's success and allows us to remain competitive."
Under the contract that will expire next week, the average Boeing machinists earned about $27 an hour, or $56,000 a year before overtime.
Mr. Blondin said union members were expecting a raise of at least 13%, rather than the 11% that the company offered. He also said the company's offer to raise the monthly pension multiplier by $10 to $80 was insufficient for a company that was as flush as Boeing is right now.
He slammed Boeing for refusing to insert language into the contract that would have given the union greater authority over some tasks that Boeing took back during previous contracts. Because of those changes, contractors now deliver parts directly to the airplanes, rather than passing through a union receiving station.
Boeing has said that such freedom is a key part of its attempts to speed up production and that it doesn't intend to go backward.
During the final negotiations, Boeing officials did abandon several hot-button proposals related to pensions, health care and job security after union officials said their inclusion in a final offer would guarantee a strike. The company said it believed it had delivered a proposal that "adds up to the best contract in the aerospace industry."
Mr. Blondin said in an interview that the proposal "fell far short" of what the union believed the Chicago aerospace company should have offered, considering it is making record profit. The union says that during the past three years the company has racked up more than $13 billion in profit, a figure Boeing doesn't dispute.
"We think they gave the bare minimum that they had to in order to try and win over just enough members to avoid a strike," he said. "Well, our members are smarter than that, and they've let us know they are angry."
Mr. Blondin said union officials had also filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint against the company, alleging that the company improperly tried to influence talks by "bypassing our negotiators and going directly to the media and our employees with every offer."
Boeing has insisted it did nothing wrong by posting daily updates and video messages on its Web site, but Mr. Blondin said the union believes the move was "a blatant attempt" to undermine the union's ability to obtain the best agreement on behalf of its 26,800 members at Boeing.
"The company can blame its negotiating committee for this strike, which we believe will happen," he said. "They thought they were communicating with the employees, but they were just making them angry."
Mr. Blondin said union negotiators notified Boeing on Friday that the company's proposal was insufficient and offered to return to the bargaining table through the Labor Day weekend to reach an agreement. "Boeing told us they weren't interested," he said.
Mr. Proulx said the company doesn't intend to revise its offer. "We have made what is truly our best and truly our final offer," he said.
Boeing officials have repeatedly said they want to avoid a strike, but they also insist that they won't do so at the expense of agreeing to a labor contract that hampers the company's ability to compete in what is increasingly a cutthroat sales environment.
Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company was "extremely disappointed" with the union's recommendation. He said Boeing believes the company's offer "rewards employees for the company's success and allows us to remain competitive."
Under the contract that will expire next week, the average Boeing machinists earned about $27 an hour, or $56,000 a year before overtime.
Mr. Blondin said union members were expecting a raise of at least 13%, rather than the 11% that the company offered. He also said the company's offer to raise the monthly pension multiplier by $10 to $80 was insufficient for a company that was as flush as Boeing is right now.
He slammed Boeing for refusing to insert language into the contract that would have given the union greater authority over some tasks that Boeing took back during previous contracts. Because of those changes, contractors now deliver parts directly to the airplanes, rather than passing through a union receiving station.
Boeing has said that such freedom is a key part of its attempts to speed up production and that it doesn't intend to go backward.
During the final negotiations, Boeing officials did abandon several hot-button proposals related to pensions, health care and job security after union officials said their inclusion in a final offer would guarantee a strike. The company said it believed it had delivered a proposal that "adds up to the best contract in the aerospace industry."
Mr. Blondin said in an interview that the proposal "fell far short" of what the union believed the Chicago aerospace company should have offered, considering it is making record profit. The union says that during the past three years the company has racked up more than $13 billion in profit, a figure Boeing doesn't dispute.
"We think they gave the bare minimum that they had to in order to try and win over just enough members to avoid a strike," he said. "Well, our members are smarter than that, and they've let us know they are angry."
Mr. Blondin said union officials had also filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint against the company, alleging that the company improperly tried to influence talks by "bypassing our negotiators and going directly to the media and our employees with every offer."
Boeing has insisted it did nothing wrong by posting daily updates and video messages on its Web site, but Mr. Blondin said the union believes the move was "a blatant attempt" to undermine the union's ability to obtain the best agreement on behalf of its 26,800 members at Boeing.
"The company can blame its negotiating committee for this strike, which we believe will happen," he said. "They thought they were communicating with the employees, but they were just making them angry."
Mr. Blondin said union negotiators notified Boeing on Friday that the company's proposal was insufficient and offered to return to the bargaining table through the Labor Day weekend to reach an agreement. "Boeing told us they weren't interested," he said.
Mr. Proulx said the company doesn't intend to revise its offer. "We have made what is truly our best and truly our final offer," he said.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
California Woman Marks First West Nile Death Of Year
Washington (dbTechno) - The West Nile virus has taken its first victim in the state of California this year. The Orange County Health Care Agency announced that a 72-year old woman has died of the West Nile virus.
The 72-year old woman is the first to die from the virus in 2008 in California.
Health authorities did not release any further information in regards to when she was infected, when she was brought to the hospital, etc.
This is the first time in a long time that a death has been linked to the West Nile virus ini this area.
This is causing authorities to step up the push against the West Nile virus.
The hope is that by stepping up efforts, they can raise awareness of the West Nile virus to stop it from spreading.
They were able to confirm that the woman died of West Nile virus following a series of tests.
The 72-year old woman is the first to die from the virus in 2008 in California.
Health authorities did not release any further information in regards to when she was infected, when she was brought to the hospital, etc.
This is the first time in a long time that a death has been linked to the West Nile virus ini this area.
This is causing authorities to step up the push against the West Nile virus.
The hope is that by stepping up efforts, they can raise awareness of the West Nile virus to stop it from spreading.
They were able to confirm that the woman died of West Nile virus following a series of tests.
A Look Back at Hillary's Year in Pantsuits
All eyes will be on former presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton when she speaks tonight at the Democratic National Convention.
Clinton's every word, inflection and facial expression will be dissected. The world will also be looking at what she's wearing. Specifically, what color pantsuit will the New York senator pull out of her closet for this crucial speech?
During Clinton's historic run for president, not only were her positions on big issues analyzed, so too, was her appearance. The media occasionally mocked her proclivity for the pantsuit, and even fashion mavens like Donatella Versace weighed in on Clinton's wardrobe choices.
Glamour magazine salutes Clinton this month with a photo spread featuring her wearing a rainbow of pantsuits from fire-engine red to light lilac. The headline reads: "Hillary, we loved your pantsuits!"
Glamour pokes good-natured fun at Clinton, but the spread is a tribute to the woman who won 18 million votes in the Democratic presidential primary. The real message is, "You go, girl. You made all of us proud."
During Clinton's historic run for president, not only were her positions on big issues analyzed, so too, was her appearance. The media occasionally mocked her proclivity for the pantsuit, and even fashion mavens like Donatella Versace weighed in on Clinton's wardrobe choices.
Glamour magazine salutes Clinton this month with a photo spread featuring her wearing a rainbow of pantsuits from fire-engine red to light lilac. The headline reads: "Hillary, we loved your pantsuits!"
Glamour pokes good-natured fun at Clinton, but the spread is a tribute to the woman who won 18 million votes in the Democratic presidential primary. The real message is, "You go, girl. You made all of us proud."
ATLANTA (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said a communication failure Tuesday at a Georgia facility that processes flight plans for the east
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 27, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Regulatory News:
Orc Software (STO:ORC), the leading global provider of technology for advanced derivatives trading and connectivity, today announced that BOC International Holding Limited (BOCI) has selected Orc Software's Algorithmic Trading solution for expanding its trading capabilities. The deal was booked Q2 2008.
BOCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of China Limited and has been an Orc customer since 2004. The additional function on Orc Algorithmic tool will enable BOCI to increase its market activities in warrants market-making and index options trading. Deploying Orc Algorithmic Trading will also enable BOCI to achieve its business objectives for increasing both warrant issues and the number of instruments, without incurring additional trader costs.
Founded in 1998 in Hong Kong, BOCI has a registered capital of US$1 billion and has subsidiaries in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, and a sales network covering most major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. With a team of experienced financial professionals, a broad institutional and retail sales network and a global management operation, BOCI is well-positioned to offer its clients a wide range of investment banking services, including securities underwriting, mergers & acquisitions, financial advisory, equity securities, equity derivatives, fixed income, asset management, private wealth management, private equity investments and leveraged & structured finance.
"BOCI is committed to seek out the best trading technologies to support our rapidly expanding business," says Alex Liu, Executive Director, Head of Application Development and Support at BOCI. "We are very pleased to be increasing our use of Orc's market leading solutions and benefiting from Orc Liquidator; a product with an excellent reputation for meeting advanced trading needs."
"Orc Software recognizes that BOCI is looking for trading technology helping it to drive the business. We are pleased to be working more closely with BOCI by applying our market knowledge, expertise and solutions," says Dennis Chen, Sales Director, Asia Pacific, Orc Software.
Orc Algorithmic Trading is a multi-threaded, server-based algorithmic trading solution capable of running thousands of complex trading strategies simultaneously and offered with ultra low latency, native connectivity to 100+ markets.
Orc Software is next exhibiting at Hedge Funds World Asia in Hong Kong and Derivatives World Singapore during September.
About Orc Software's revenue model This agreement follows Orc's licensing subscription model to give customers access to the software, new versions and support as long as the agreement is valid. Customers are invoiced quarterly in advance and revenue allocated to the invoicing period.
About Bank of China
Bank of China is one of China's four state-owned financial institutions. Its businesses cover commercial banking, investment banking and insurance. Members of the group include BOC Hong Kong; BOC International, BOCG Insurance and other financial institutions. The Bank provides a comprehensive range of high quality financial services to individual and corporate customers as well as financial institutions worldwide. In terms of Tier One capital, it ranked 18th among the world's top 1,000 banks by The Banker magazine in 2005.
BOCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of China Limited and is one of the largest securities brokers in Hong Kong, maintaining a top position in terms of equity underwriting and cash equities transaction volume in Hong Kong. Apart from that, among all international first-class industrial players in China, BOCI is the one which evolved into a cross border institution which offers the largest variety of products and services along with the most extensive geographical coverage and the most in-depth market knowledge.
About Orc Software
Orc Software (STO:ORC) is the leading global provider of powerful solutions for the worldwide financial industry in the critical areas of advanced derivatives trading and low latency connectivity. Orc's competitive edge lies in its depth of knowledge of the derivatives trading world gained by deploying advanced solutions for sophisticated traders for over 20 years.
Orc Trading and Orc Connect provide the tools for making the best trading and connectivity decisions... strong analytics, unmatched market access, powerful automated trading functionality, high performance futures and options trading capabilities, ultra-low latency, and risk management.
Orc's customers include leading investment banks, trading and market-making firms, exchanges, brokerage houses, institutional investors and hedge funds.
Orc provides timely sales and quality support services from its offices across EMEA, Americas and Asia Pacific.
Orc Software (STO:ORC), the leading global provider of technology for advanced derivatives trading and connectivity, today announced that BOC International Holding Limited (BOCI) has selected Orc Software's Algorithmic Trading solution for expanding its trading capabilities. The deal was booked Q2 2008.
BOCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of China Limited and has been an Orc customer since 2004. The additional function on Orc Algorithmic tool will enable BOCI to increase its market activities in warrants market-making and index options trading. Deploying Orc Algorithmic Trading will also enable BOCI to achieve its business objectives for increasing both warrant issues and the number of instruments, without incurring additional trader costs.
Founded in 1998 in Hong Kong, BOCI has a registered capital of US$1 billion and has subsidiaries in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, and a sales network covering most major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. With a team of experienced financial professionals, a broad institutional and retail sales network and a global management operation, BOCI is well-positioned to offer its clients a wide range of investment banking services, including securities underwriting, mergers & acquisitions, financial advisory, equity securities, equity derivatives, fixed income, asset management, private wealth management, private equity investments and leveraged & structured finance.
"BOCI is committed to seek out the best trading technologies to support our rapidly expanding business," says Alex Liu, Executive Director, Head of Application Development and Support at BOCI. "We are very pleased to be increasing our use of Orc's market leading solutions and benefiting from Orc Liquidator; a product with an excellent reputation for meeting advanced trading needs."
"Orc Software recognizes that BOCI is looking for trading technology helping it to drive the business. We are pleased to be working more closely with BOCI by applying our market knowledge, expertise and solutions," says Dennis Chen, Sales Director, Asia Pacific, Orc Software.
Orc Algorithmic Trading is a multi-threaded, server-based algorithmic trading solution capable of running thousands of complex trading strategies simultaneously and offered with ultra low latency, native connectivity to 100+ markets.
Orc Software is next exhibiting at Hedge Funds World Asia in Hong Kong and Derivatives World Singapore during September.
About Orc Software's revenue model This agreement follows Orc's licensing subscription model to give customers access to the software, new versions and support as long as the agreement is valid. Customers are invoiced quarterly in advance and revenue allocated to the invoicing period.
About Bank of China
Bank of China is one of China's four state-owned financial institutions. Its businesses cover commercial banking, investment banking and insurance. Members of the group include BOC Hong Kong; BOC International, BOCG Insurance and other financial institutions. The Bank provides a comprehensive range of high quality financial services to individual and corporate customers as well as financial institutions worldwide. In terms of Tier One capital, it ranked 18th among the world's top 1,000 banks by The Banker magazine in 2005.
BOCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of China Limited and is one of the largest securities brokers in Hong Kong, maintaining a top position in terms of equity underwriting and cash equities transaction volume in Hong Kong. Apart from that, among all international first-class industrial players in China, BOCI is the one which evolved into a cross border institution which offers the largest variety of products and services along with the most extensive geographical coverage and the most in-depth market knowledge.
About Orc Software
Orc Software (STO:ORC) is the leading global provider of powerful solutions for the worldwide financial industry in the critical areas of advanced derivatives trading and low latency connectivity. Orc's competitive edge lies in its depth of knowledge of the derivatives trading world gained by deploying advanced solutions for sophisticated traders for over 20 years.
Orc Trading and Orc Connect provide the tools for making the best trading and connectivity decisions... strong analytics, unmatched market access, powerful automated trading functionality, high performance futures and options trading capabilities, ultra-low latency, and risk management.
Orc's customers include leading investment banks, trading and market-making firms, exchanges, brokerage houses, institutional investors and hedge funds.
Orc provides timely sales and quality support services from its offices across EMEA, Americas and Asia Pacific.
AP Top News at 5:37 p.m. EDT
ATLANTA (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said a communication failure Tuesday at a Georgia facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. was causing flight delays around the country. An FAA web site that tracks airport status showed delays at some three dozen major airports across the country. The site advised passengers to "check your departure airport to see if your flight may be affected."Hosted by
Tropical Storm Gustav Bears Down on Haiti
MIAMI (Reuters) - The Atlantic hurricane season's seventh tropical storm formed in the central Caribbean on Monday and could strengthen into a hurricane before striking vulnerable Haiti, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Tropical Storm Gustav threatened the impoverished Caribbean nation of 9 million with up to 25 inches of rain in some place, which could trigger deadly floods and mudslides.
It strengthened late on Monday and was expected to become a hurricane and hit Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday.
Oil prices rose as Gustav stirred concerns about disruptions to U.S. oil and gas output in the Gulf of Mexico and served as another reminder that this six-month storm season is shaping up to be busier than usual. At least one computer forecasting model showed the storm could enter the Gulf.
Hurricane warnings were issued for the southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti west of Barahona.
Gustav was about 150 miles south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, at 11 p.m. on Monday (0300 GMT on Tuesday) and was moving toward the northwest at 12 mph (19 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said.
The storm's top sustained winds were near 70 mph (110 kph), and the center forecast the storm would become a hurricane on Tuesday, with winds of at least 74 mph (120 kph).
The storm was expected to be near or over southwest Haiti on Tuesday.
'INTENSE RAINS'
Haiti was still recovering from the passage of Tropical Storm Fay, the remnants of which were causing flooding across the U.S. southeastern states. Fay may have killed more than 50 people in Haiti last week, including dozens missing after floodwaters swept a bus down a river.
Forecasters said Gustav could produce rainfall of 5 to 7 inches over Hispaniola, with the possibility of 15 to 25 inches in isolated areas.
"These intense rains may produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the hurricane center said.
Live: China says goodbye to the Games
12.45pm: An Olympic Games that exceeded even the most optimistic expectations and enthralled billions across the globe is drawing to a close in Beijing.Seats in the breathtaking National Stadium are rapidly filing as excited Chinese and fans across the world prepare for an action-packed festival full of music, acrobats, spectacular light shows – and David Beckham.
The former England football captain is a central figure in the much-hyped eight-minute section of the show in which Beijing hands over the flag to London. Boris Johnson, mayor of the capital city, will also play his part when he mounts a stage in the middle of the field and accepts the standard from Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee.
You could watch all of this on the telly, of course. But why bother when you can enjoy commentary with Times Online – live and direct from the Bird’s Nest and starting at 1pm, UK time.
1.05pm: It’s like a fleeting and highly-physical love affair, the Olympic Games. You meet across a crowded stadium while drunk on anticipation of what lies ahead. Lights, music, laughter … oh! the romance of the occasion leaves you giddy as a lovesick schoolboy in the first throes of a relationship.
Then you get some action. You run around, jump up and down, work up a sweat and generally get a bit clammy, before someone decides you were either good, quite good, not bad or totally useless.
Then, when you are just getting used to the idea of having it around for a bit, you get one last bang and it moves to the other side of the world. Where’s the fun in that?
Well, we’re just about to find out. The closing ceremony of the Olympic Games is under way and it’s all gone quiet over here. Ninety-one thousand people are waving red light sabres, there are some real-life toy soldiers messing about in the middle of the field and two giant edams have just taken to the air.
Oooh! I think this could be a good one after all…
1.15pm: Oh I see … the edams are drums as well. They’ve got men attached to them, hammering away with big sticks. At first I just thought they had a hatred for Dutch cheese, but having now read the relevant page in my Guide To The Closing Ceremony, I realise that this first chapter of the event – entitled Reunion: Greeting the Guests – is based on drums.
There are eight drum carts in the stadium now, representing various drum styles of minority ethnic groups in China and with typical ethnic patterns as the creative elements.
That’s the educational bit. On the more interesting front, a load of aliens have just run in and started prancing about on the end of poles.
Then you get some action. You run around, jump up and down, work up a sweat and generally get a bit clammy, before someone decides you were either good, quite good, not bad or totally useless.
Then, when you are just getting used to the idea of having it around for a bit, you get one last bang and it moves to the other side of the world. Where’s the fun in that?
Well, we’re just about to find out. The closing ceremony of the Olympic Games is under way and it’s all gone quiet over here. Ninety-one thousand people are waving red light sabres, there are some real-life toy soldiers messing about in the middle of the field and two giant edams have just taken to the air.
Oooh! I think this could be a good one after all…
1.15pm: Oh I see … the edams are drums as well. They’ve got men attached to them, hammering away with big sticks. At first I just thought they had a hatred for Dutch cheese, but having now read the relevant page in my Guide To The Closing Ceremony, I realise that this first chapter of the event – entitled Reunion: Greeting the Guests – is based on drums.
There are eight drum carts in the stadium now, representing various drum styles of minority ethnic groups in China and with typical ethnic patterns as the creative elements.
That’s the educational bit. On the more interesting front, a load of aliens have just run in and started prancing about on the end of poles.
Boris Johnson's blond ambition key to London 2012
If London wanted to come over as informal, funny and self-deprecating, then Boris Johnson in an unbuttoned suit looking like a dishevelled sixth-former from The Dandy was the perfect contrast to the stiff-backed starchiness of his Chinese hosts.
The mayor followed up his flag-waving duties with an address that made Gordon Brown look as light on his feet as the 35-stone judoka from Guam. Chairman Mao gave wittier speeches than our Prime Minister.
When it came to presenting a friendly face of London, Bo-Jo had won the gold medal, but he returns from China to the dull grind of organising and administering the London Games. It is a four-year marathon for which we cannot yet know if he is fully equipped.
At a press conference last week, one journalist asked Johnson for his views on naming rights for the Olympic Stadium. He looked back blankly. In the front row, an adviser was vigorously shaking his head and making “don't go there” gestures with his hands. Johnson waffled his way around an issue that had clearly not come across his desk. Or if it had, he hadn't read the memo. Has he been terribly busy or did this expose a failure to grasp the detail?
The mayor followed up his flag-waving duties with an address that made Gordon Brown look as light on his feet as the 35-stone judoka from Guam. Chairman Mao gave wittier speeches than our Prime Minister.
When it came to presenting a friendly face of London, Bo-Jo had won the gold medal, but he returns from China to the dull grind of organising and administering the London Games. It is a four-year marathon for which we cannot yet know if he is fully equipped.
At a press conference last week, one journalist asked Johnson for his views on naming rights for the Olympic Stadium. He looked back blankly. In the front row, an adviser was vigorously shaking his head and making “don't go there” gestures with his hands. Johnson waffled his way around an issue that had clearly not come across his desk. Or if it had, he hadn't read the memo. Has he been terribly busy or did this expose a failure to grasp the detail?
What he did say on the stadium was that he had sent his people back to study how it should look beyond 2012. In this respect, Johnson has set himself a huge challenge that may just reveal how much more to him there is than a never-ending supply of bons mots.
Ah, stadiums. Football fans of every other nation would walk into the Bird's Nest and marvel at the breathtaking architecture. An Englishman would look at the running track and grumble: “You can't play football in here.”
This need to have the stands close to the pitch, sans track, is very much an English obsession. For the most part, it is to be encouraged on the grounds of the best views and the most raucous atmosphere.
But, perhaps benefiting from a cursory knowledge of sport, Johnson has asked the question: why should not football and athletics share the same arena? Are they really incompatible? It is a question worth asking, again and again, when we are spending £496million on an 80,000-capacity stadium that, as things stand, will be downgraded to a 25,000 athletics venue post-Olympics.
The organisers of the London Games call this downgrading “sustainability” when, to everyone else, it is the worst of all possible worlds to turn a vast, brand new construction into a small athletics venue to be used once every three decades for World Championships on top of a smattering of annual meetings.
Rightly, Johnson has demanded that the plans be looked at again to discern if football or rugby can share the venue. If not, he wants to discover how else can full value be extracted.
At a time when West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur are looking for new homes, Johnson wants to be satisfied that no stone has been left unturned before we start dismantling a stadium after a week of athletics. In this pursuit of value for money, he may have picked an interesting tussle with Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, who promised an athletics stadium to the IOC as part of the bid.
Johnson inherited the stadium plans and all the other headaches that are wrapped up with the London Games. But now that has recognised a failure of planning, we await to discover if he can find a solution.
If he can pull that off long before the Games, Johnson will have scored a significant victory for himself and the residents of London. Otherwise, we may be tempted to conclude that Johnson, with that blond mane, grin and eagerness to please, is best turned into an Olympic mascot.
“I am aware of the need to come up with some furry creature,” he said in Beijing. “I was thinking of a great-crested newt.” It was another nice line, but now that he has won gold for a charismatic Olympic debut, we watch to see how effectively he can deliver.
Sausages and cash
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is proposing cash for our Olympic medal-winners, which is nothing new and, it must be said, shows a certain lack of creativity.
The Belarussians, for example, were on a bonus of sausages for the rest of their lives if they ended up on top of the podium in a generous deal offered by a local company, Belatmeat.
Meanwhile, Greece offered a job in the Armed Forces as an officer to medal-winners, according to Tasos Papchristou, the team spokesman. Most at the 2004 Games in Athens took up the posting.
If it comes down to raw cash, the BOA's proposed £20,000 per gold is lagging behind the times. Russia has more than tripled medal bonuses since 1996, at the urging
of Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, according to Gennadi Shvets, a spokesman. Champions in Beijing received €100,000 (about £80,000), as well as payments from sports funds and sponsors.
“We're not in it for the money,” Chris Hoy, the Great Britain cycling triple gold medal-winner, said in Beijing at the weekend, when pushed on the idea of podium bonuses. But would he be in it for the sausage meat?
Hedge fund came up short
There is a scene in This is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner's brilliant spoof rockumentary, in which the band have commissioned a 12-foot high Stonehenge replica. To their grave embarrassment, a wrongly written instruction leads to a 12-inch prop appearing on stage midriff.
Was it the same admin error that led to London's skyline being represented by a knee-high hedge on London's 2012 bus? The Chinese did epic. We did a foot-high Millennium Wheel.
Basket cases
To the office of David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, to hear him predict that China could be challenging for Olympic medals in basketball by 2016. He is among the vast majority who view China's rise as a sporting superpower not only continuing post-Games, but quickening.
“There are 300 million basketball players here,” Stern said. “It is going to pick up and up at a rapid pace.” Let us be grateful that their football team remain pretty ordinary, for the time being
Ah, stadiums. Football fans of every other nation would walk into the Bird's Nest and marvel at the breathtaking architecture. An Englishman would look at the running track and grumble: “You can't play football in here.”
This need to have the stands close to the pitch, sans track, is very much an English obsession. For the most part, it is to be encouraged on the grounds of the best views and the most raucous atmosphere.
But, perhaps benefiting from a cursory knowledge of sport, Johnson has asked the question: why should not football and athletics share the same arena? Are they really incompatible? It is a question worth asking, again and again, when we are spending £496million on an 80,000-capacity stadium that, as things stand, will be downgraded to a 25,000 athletics venue post-Olympics.
The organisers of the London Games call this downgrading “sustainability” when, to everyone else, it is the worst of all possible worlds to turn a vast, brand new construction into a small athletics venue to be used once every three decades for World Championships on top of a smattering of annual meetings.
Rightly, Johnson has demanded that the plans be looked at again to discern if football or rugby can share the venue. If not, he wants to discover how else can full value be extracted.
At a time when West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur are looking for new homes, Johnson wants to be satisfied that no stone has been left unturned before we start dismantling a stadium after a week of athletics. In this pursuit of value for money, he may have picked an interesting tussle with Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, who promised an athletics stadium to the IOC as part of the bid.
Johnson inherited the stadium plans and all the other headaches that are wrapped up with the London Games. But now that has recognised a failure of planning, we await to discover if he can find a solution.
If he can pull that off long before the Games, Johnson will have scored a significant victory for himself and the residents of London. Otherwise, we may be tempted to conclude that Johnson, with that blond mane, grin and eagerness to please, is best turned into an Olympic mascot.
“I am aware of the need to come up with some furry creature,” he said in Beijing. “I was thinking of a great-crested newt.” It was another nice line, but now that he has won gold for a charismatic Olympic debut, we watch to see how effectively he can deliver.
Sausages and cash
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is proposing cash for our Olympic medal-winners, which is nothing new and, it must be said, shows a certain lack of creativity.
The Belarussians, for example, were on a bonus of sausages for the rest of their lives if they ended up on top of the podium in a generous deal offered by a local company, Belatmeat.
Meanwhile, Greece offered a job in the Armed Forces as an officer to medal-winners, according to Tasos Papchristou, the team spokesman. Most at the 2004 Games in Athens took up the posting.
If it comes down to raw cash, the BOA's proposed £20,000 per gold is lagging behind the times. Russia has more than tripled medal bonuses since 1996, at the urging
of Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, according to Gennadi Shvets, a spokesman. Champions in Beijing received €100,000 (about £80,000), as well as payments from sports funds and sponsors.
“We're not in it for the money,” Chris Hoy, the Great Britain cycling triple gold medal-winner, said in Beijing at the weekend, when pushed on the idea of podium bonuses. But would he be in it for the sausage meat?
Hedge fund came up short
There is a scene in This is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner's brilliant spoof rockumentary, in which the band have commissioned a 12-foot high Stonehenge replica. To their grave embarrassment, a wrongly written instruction leads to a 12-inch prop appearing on stage midriff.
Was it the same admin error that led to London's skyline being represented by a knee-high hedge on London's 2012 bus? The Chinese did epic. We did a foot-high Millennium Wheel.
Basket cases
To the office of David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, to hear him predict that China could be challenging for Olympic medals in basketball by 2016. He is among the vast majority who view China's rise as a sporting superpower not only continuing post-Games, but quickening.
“There are 300 million basketball players here,” Stern said. “It is going to pick up and up at a rapid pace.” Let us be grateful that their football team remain pretty ordinary, for the time being
Canon makes EOS 50D official
Over the last week some specifications and information has been popping up around the web about the Canon 50D DSLR camera. The images were met with welcome by some and as expected when things are leaked early — some called the camera a hoax.Canon officially announced its EOS 50D DSLR camera today. The camera features a 15.1-megapixel sensor, and a host of other items to make using a DSLR easier for new users. The camera uses Canon’s DIGIC 4 image processor and has an expanded ISO range of ISO 100 to ISO 12800. Several dust reduction features are included.
The camera has a .95x magnification viewfinder and features a 3-inch Live View LCD. The camera uses the high-performance autofocus system from the EOS 40D and has aperture settings of f/2.8 to f/5.6. A Creative Mode makes it easy for new users to get interesting images with plain worded settings like “blur background” and more. The 50D will sell for $1399 for the body alone or $1599 with an IF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
"Some of the victims of last week's plane crash"
Some of the victims of last week's plane crash in Madrid may never be identified, the government says.
Only 86 of the 154 people killed in the disaster have been identified. DNA analysis is being used to identify some bodies burned beyond recognition.
Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the process was taking longer than expected.
But he said Spain wanted to ensure that the bodies were properly identified before being released for burial.
"Will anybody remain unidentified? I can't say at this moment but the possibility exists," he said during an interview with news radio Cadena Ser.
"We are working day and night, and well, but since the process started it has become more difficult than we expected due to the bad state of some of the DNA samples," he said.
"If the sample can be matched to someone close like a brother or father it is easy but when there are only distant family members available it becomes much more complicated," he added.
One of the children known to have died was adopted, for example.
Identification is a sensitive issue in Spain, says the BBC's correspondent there, Steve Kingstone, following an embarrassing mix-up five years ago, in the wake of a military plane crash.
Then, 62 Spanish peacekeepers lost their lives, and some victims' families were given the wrong bodies to bury.
Eighteen survivors of Wednesday's crash remain in hospital.
Two are in a very serious condition - including a 44-year-old woman said to be in an irreversible coma.
The woman's eight-year-old son also survived the crash. He is being treated at a different hospital for a broken leg.
Engines under scrutiny
The Spanish government has promised a full investigation into the crash, which is the country's worst air accident in 25 years.
Spanair flight JK 5022, bound for the Canary Islands, crashed just after take-off last Wednesday.
Sources close to the investigation, quoted by the newspaper El Pais, say the plane may have lacked sufficient engine power during take-off.
Video footage showed the plane travelled much further along the runway than normal before getting airborne, the paper reported.
Only 86 of the 154 people killed in the disaster have been identified. DNA analysis is being used to identify some bodies burned beyond recognition.
Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the process was taking longer than expected.
But he said Spain wanted to ensure that the bodies were properly identified before being released for burial.
"Will anybody remain unidentified? I can't say at this moment but the possibility exists," he said during an interview with news radio Cadena Ser.
"We are working day and night, and well, but since the process started it has become more difficult than we expected due to the bad state of some of the DNA samples," he said.
"If the sample can be matched to someone close like a brother or father it is easy but when there are only distant family members available it becomes much more complicated," he added.
One of the children known to have died was adopted, for example.
Identification is a sensitive issue in Spain, says the BBC's correspondent there, Steve Kingstone, following an embarrassing mix-up five years ago, in the wake of a military plane crash.
Then, 62 Spanish peacekeepers lost their lives, and some victims' families were given the wrong bodies to bury.
Eighteen survivors of Wednesday's crash remain in hospital.
Two are in a very serious condition - including a 44-year-old woman said to be in an irreversible coma.
The woman's eight-year-old son also survived the crash. He is being treated at a different hospital for a broken leg.
Engines under scrutiny
The Spanish government has promised a full investigation into the crash, which is the country's worst air accident in 25 years.
Spanair flight JK 5022, bound for the Canary Islands, crashed just after take-off last Wednesday.
Sources close to the investigation, quoted by the newspaper El Pais, say the plane may have lacked sufficient engine power during take-off.
Video footage showed the plane travelled much further along the runway than normal before getting airborne, the paper reported.
London 2012 cannot match Beijing Olympics opening ceremony 'because of trade unions'
Western countries will never match the success of the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies because trade unions would never allow it, according to the man responsible for both spectaculars
China's most famous film director, Zhang Yimou, who directed both ceremonies, said only Chinese performers were skilled, disciplined and obedient enough to lay on the sort of song and dance display seen on Sunday night and admired around the world.
In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, he did not mention London by name but nevertheless hit the heart of concerns that Britain will find it difficult to match up.
He also showed little concern for the few critical voices who found the mass organisation of thousands of performers reminiscent of the Soviet era.
"I often joke with (foreign interviewers) and say that our level of human performance is second in the world," he said. "Number one is North Korea. Their performances are totally uniform, and uniformity in this way brings beauty. We Chinese can do it too. After hard training and strict discipline, Chinese achieve that as well."
By contrast, he found working in the west, where he has been artistic director for a number of opera performances, something of a shock.
"It was so troublesome," he said. "They only work four and a half days each week. Every day there are two coffee breaks, and no-one can suffer any discomfort because of human rights.
"This caused me no end of worry. One week, I thought everything had been rehearsed completely without any problems, but in fact they could not even stand in straight lines.
"You couldn't criticize them either. They all belong to organizations - some kind of institutions, unions. We do not have that. We can work very hard, and can put up with a lot of pain.
"We can achieve in one week what they can achieve in one month. That's the reason our performers give such brilliant performances. I think other than North Korea, no other country anywhere in the world can achieve this."
Zhang was once regarded as a subversive, celebrated for making gritty "real life" films about life in China's rural provinces or beautiful but bitter dramas such as "Raise the Red Lantern", which won numerous awards in the West.
His films were censored and banned, but in more recent years he has come back into favour with the Communist Party. His latest films have been historical blockbusters, which often seem to have messages supporting the idea of strong leaders and state power.
In his interview with Southern Weekend, he described how the opening ceremony rehearsals received repeated visits from "dozens" of state leaders who all demanded corrections and modifications, to the annoyance of other performers and directors.
"You do not have a chance to talk back. It is impossible to explain or reply, and you can't say, 'This opinion is not a good one, so let's not listen to it.' So what can you do? You must be clear-headed," he said.
The leaders, after all, were representatives of the audience, he said.
"I took notes on all of their suggestions," he said. "You can ask my team, when I came back to transmit these opinions, I always said that the leaders were right."
Among the more controversial decisions imposed by the politburo was the switching of the seven-year-old girl who sang the "Hymn to the Motherland" on the opening night with another girl who was thought to be prettier. This girl lip-synched to the first girl's voice.
Zhang said that although leaders said artistic considerations should come first, the important thing was that orders were orders.
"Like the moveble type cubes (at the opening ceremony), the performers follow orders," he said. "The actors listen to the orders, and can carry them out like computers. Foreigners admire this. This is the Chinese spirit.
"We can make our human performance reach the level it achieves through hard work and being smart. This many foreigners cannot achieve."
In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, he did not mention London by name but nevertheless hit the heart of concerns that Britain will find it difficult to match up.
He also showed little concern for the few critical voices who found the mass organisation of thousands of performers reminiscent of the Soviet era.
"I often joke with (foreign interviewers) and say that our level of human performance is second in the world," he said. "Number one is North Korea. Their performances are totally uniform, and uniformity in this way brings beauty. We Chinese can do it too. After hard training and strict discipline, Chinese achieve that as well."
By contrast, he found working in the west, where he has been artistic director for a number of opera performances, something of a shock.
"It was so troublesome," he said. "They only work four and a half days each week. Every day there are two coffee breaks, and no-one can suffer any discomfort because of human rights.
"This caused me no end of worry. One week, I thought everything had been rehearsed completely without any problems, but in fact they could not even stand in straight lines.
"You couldn't criticize them either. They all belong to organizations - some kind of institutions, unions. We do not have that. We can work very hard, and can put up with a lot of pain.
"We can achieve in one week what they can achieve in one month. That's the reason our performers give such brilliant performances. I think other than North Korea, no other country anywhere in the world can achieve this."
Zhang was once regarded as a subversive, celebrated for making gritty "real life" films about life in China's rural provinces or beautiful but bitter dramas such as "Raise the Red Lantern", which won numerous awards in the West.
His films were censored and banned, but in more recent years he has come back into favour with the Communist Party. His latest films have been historical blockbusters, which often seem to have messages supporting the idea of strong leaders and state power.
In his interview with Southern Weekend, he described how the opening ceremony rehearsals received repeated visits from "dozens" of state leaders who all demanded corrections and modifications, to the annoyance of other performers and directors.
"You do not have a chance to talk back. It is impossible to explain or reply, and you can't say, 'This opinion is not a good one, so let's not listen to it.' So what can you do? You must be clear-headed," he said.
The leaders, after all, were representatives of the audience, he said.
"I took notes on all of their suggestions," he said. "You can ask my team, when I came back to transmit these opinions, I always said that the leaders were right."
Among the more controversial decisions imposed by the politburo was the switching of the seven-year-old girl who sang the "Hymn to the Motherland" on the opening night with another girl who was thought to be prettier. This girl lip-synched to the first girl's voice.
Zhang said that although leaders said artistic considerations should come first, the important thing was that orders were orders.
"Like the moveble type cubes (at the opening ceremony), the performers follow orders," he said. "The actors listen to the orders, and can carry them out like computers. Foreigners admire this. This is the Chinese spirit.
"We can make our human performance reach the level it achieves through hard work and being smart. This many foreigners cannot achieve."
Israel has released 198 Palestinian prisoners
Israel has released 198 Palestinian prisoners in a move intended to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel is still holding about 8,500 Palestinians, according to official Israeli figures. The Palestinian Authority says 11,000 Palestinians are behind bars in Israel.
The prisoner release is controversial in Israel because it includes two convicted killers of Israelis.
Israel is still holding about 8,500 Palestinians, according to official Israeli figures. The Palestinian Authority says 11,000 Palestinians are behind bars in Israel.
The prisoners were released just a few hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel seeking to push forward peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The freed prisoners were greeted by friends and relatives at the Beituniya checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank.
The prisoner release is controversial in Israel because it includes two convicted killers of Israelis.Jump in measles outbreaks worries health officials
ATLANTA -- The number of measles cases in the U.S. is at its highest level since 1997, and nearly half of those involve children whose parents rejected vaccination, government health officials reported Thursday.The number of cases is still small, just 131, but that's just for the first seven months of the year and doctors are troubled by the trend. There were only 42 cases for all of last year.
"We're seeing a lot more spread. That is concerning to us," said Dr. Jane Seward, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pediatricians are frustrated, saying they are having to spend more time convincing parents the shot is safe.
"This year, we certainly have had parents asking more questions," said Dr. Ari Brown, an Austin, Texas, physician who is a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The CDC's review found that a number of cases involved home-schooled children not required to have the vaccines.
Measles, best known for a red skin rash, is a potentially deadly, highly infectious virus that spreads through contact with a sneezing, coughing, infected person.
It is no longer endemic to the United States, but every year some Americans pick it up while traveling abroad and bring it home. Measles epidemics have exploded in Israel, Switzerland and some other countries. But high U.S. childhood vaccination rates have prevented major outbreaks here.
In a typical year, only one outbreak occurs in the United States, infecting perhaps 10 to 20 people. So far this year through July 30 the country has seen seven outbreaks, including one in Illinois with 30 cases, said Seward, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Viral Diseases.
None of the 131 patients died, but 15 were hospitalized.
Childhood vaccination rates for measles continue to exceed 92 percent, but outbreak pockets seem to be forming, health officials said.
Of this year's total, 122 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Some were unvaccinated because the children were under age 1, making them too young to get their first measles shot.
In 63 of those cases -- almost all of them 19 or younger -- the patient or their parents refused vaccination, the CDC reported.
In Washington state, an outbreak was traced to a religious conference, including 16 school-aged children who were not vaccinated because of parents' beliefs. Eleven of those kids were home schooled and not subject to vaccination rules in public schools.
The Illinois outbreak -- triggered by a teenager who had traveled to Italy -- included 25 home-schooled children, according to the CDC report.
The nation once routinely saw hundreds of thousands of measles cases each year, and hundreds of deaths. But immunization campaigns were credited with dramatically reducing the numbers. The last time health officials saw this many cases was 1997, when 138 were reported. Last year, there were only 42 U.S. cases.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has made educating parents about the safety of vaccines one of its top priorities this year, in part because busy doctors have grown frustrated at the amount of time they've been spending answering parents' questions about things they read on the Internet or heard from TV talk shows.
In June, the CDC interviewed 33 physicians in Austin, suburban Seattle and Hollywood, Fla., about childhood vaccinations. Several complained about patient backlogs caused by parents stirred up by information of dubious scientific merit, according to the CDC report.
Questions commonly center on autism and the fear it can be caused by the mercury-based preservative that used to be in most vaccines. Since 2001, the preservative has been removed from shots recommended for young children.
Brown said she wrote a 16-page, single-spaced document for parents that explains childhood vaccinations and why doctors do not believe they cause autism. She began handing it out this spring, and thinks it's been a help to parents and a time-saver for her.
"People want that level of information," she said.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Praise for Beijing organization, criticism over rights
LONDON (AFP) - China won praise Sunday for organising an impressive Olympics and Germany predicted the Beijing Games would have an "irreversible" impact on Chinese society, but rights groups remained critical.As the Games ended with a spectacular closing ceremony at the "Bird's Nest" stadium , the International Olympic Committee's pledge when it awarded Beijing the Games in 2001 -- that hosting the Olympics would open China up to the world -- came under scrutiny.
Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who also has responsibility for sport, said that aim had been met.
"China opened itself to the world community to an extent that would have been unimaginable at the time of the east-west division of Germany," he said in an interview to be published Monday with Bild newspaper.
That would lead to a change that would be "irreversible," he said.
But Schaeuble cautioned against an overly positive assessment of conditions in the world's most populous country.
When the Chinese leadership sees the system questioned, it does not respect basic freedoms as we know them. That is why I am strictly against saying it is all good," he said.
As the host country of the next Olympics, Britain chose its words carefully, with officials praising the way that Beijing organised the Games but staying silent on accusations from rights groups that pro-Tibet protests had been crushed by Chinese authorities.
Sebastian Coe, a former gold medal-winner in athletics who chairs the London 2012 organising committee, said ahead of the closing ceremony that "there wasn't a good deal wrong" with the Beijing Olympics.
"The city has opened up and people are mixing like they did in Moscow when I was there in 1980.
"t is the right place to be now. Sport has been the catalyst," he added.
The United States was still to comment after the closing ceremony, but on Saturday it showed signs of disappointment with the Chinese authorities as it urged Beijing to release eight American nationals detained after pro-Tibet protests during the Olympics.
"The US government encourages the government of China to demonstrate respect for human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion of all people during the Olympic Games," said Susan Stevenson, the US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing.
"We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness."
The American protesters were one of several small groups of foreign demonstrators detained during the Olympics for protesting about China's 57-year rule of Tibet, which has been under the spotlight this year.
Amnesty International accused the Chinese authorities of violating human rights by preventing protests during the Games and the group said the IOC had failed in its duty to hold the organisers to account.
"The Beijing Olympics have been a spectacular sporting event but they took place against a backdrop of human rights violations, with activists prevented from expressing their views peacefully and many in detention when they have committed no crime," said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy programme director.
"The Chinese authorities and the IOC had an opportunity to demonstrate human rights improvements but in most respects they failed to deliver. Forced evictions, detention of activists and restrictions on journalists should not blight another Olympics."
Amnesty urged the IOC to build human rights "indicators" into Olympic bids to ensure it did not "repeat its mistakes" at future Games.
The European Commission meanwhile merely praised the performances of European athletes and Culture and Youth Commissioner Jan Figel said he looked forward to the Olympics returning, in 2012, to "the continent where they were born."
Hu arrives for South Korea summit
SEOUL (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao, basking in the success of a spectacular Olympic Games, arrived in South Korea on Monday for talks set to focus on trade and North Korea's nuclear disarmament.Hu received a red-carpet welcome at the presidential Blue House, inspecting honour guards in traditional and modern dress and smiling and shaking hands with groups of schoolchildren.
He then began summit talks with his counterpart Lee Myung-Bak, who was expected to seek China's help in easing tense inter-Korean relations and persuading the North to make progress on scrapping its nuclear weapons.
The two leaders, meeting for the third time since Lee took office in February, were also to discuss broadening their relationship beyond economic issues and to witness the signing of a variety of cooperation deals.
"His South Korean trip, (coming) the very day after the closing of the Beijing Olympics, will demonstrate ever-closer bilateral relations," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan said.
China is a longstanding ally of the impoverished hard-line communist North and a crucial donor of food and fuel.
Inter-Korean relations are at their lowest ebb for a decade after Lee took office and promised to take a firmer line with the North. Official contacts have been cut off.
Six-nation nuclear negotiations chaired by China and including the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan have also hit a snag.
As part of a deal reached last year the North has handed over details of its plutonium-based nuclear programme, but cannot agree with the United States on ways to verify it.
The dispute is delaying efforts to move on to the final phase of the pact, under which the North is supposed to dismantle its atomic plants and hand over all nuclear weapons and material.
Several dozen protesters had both praise and censure for Beijing, displaying placards congratulating it on the Olympics alongside others denouncing its repatriation of North Korean refugees.
The North Korean defectors and rights activists gathered in the centre of Seoul with signs reading "Stop brutality!" and "No repatriation to North Korea!"
International rights groups have also criticized China's policy of treating the refugees as economic migrants, noting that they often face harsh punishment on their return.
"The Chinese government repatriates them, knowing very well how they will be treated in the North," said Han Chang-Kweon, chairman of the Association of North Korean Defectors, who came to Seoul in 1994.
China repatriates at least 100 North Korean defectors every week, with measures becoming stricter during the Olympic Games, demonstrators told Yonhap news agency.
Lee and Hu, at their first summit in Beijing in late May, agreed to upgrade relations to form a "strategic cooperative partnership." They also met on August 9 in Beijing after Lee attended the Olympics opening ceremony.
China is South Korea's largest trade partner with total trade worth more than 145 billion dollars last year. The two sides are studying a possible free trade agreement.
But Seoul presidential officials say Monday's meeting will aim to broaden ties into non-economic sectors.
The two sides were to sign memorandums on closer cooperation in energy conservation, the prevention of desertification, trade information networking, technology, food safety and education.
"Yellow dust," originating in China's Gobi Desert and coated with pollutants en route, is a frequent springtime irritant in South Korea, which has sent volunteers to plant trees in the desert.
Four-eared cat become Internet star
Yoda, a smoke-colored feline whose four ears give him the appearance of a horned devil, this week became the toast of several high-profile Web sites, including the popular gossip blog Dlisted, after his picture appeared in the British media. His star has risen so quickly that his owners say they're fielding phone calls from "Good Morning America," "Fox News" and "The Tyra Banks Show." He has an agency taking photo requests."It's amazing," said Ted Rock, who owns Yoda with his wife, Valerie. "For the past few days, our phone has just been ringing off the hook."Yoda's path to Internet stardom began after his owners' son, Glenn Olsen, posted the cat's photo on Flickr, an image and video hosting site. The picture caught the attention of English photo agency Barcroft Media.The agency bought the photos and sold them to British tabloids. Once the photos were published, the blogosphere quickly pounced on the story of a 2-year-old cat who had been a barroom oddity before he was adopted by a suburban couple."We're just blown away by all of this," Olsen said. "We didn't expect it, but Yoda is an Internet sensation."Ted and Valerie Rock found Yoda in 2006 while watching a Bears game at a Blue Island bar with fellow volunteers from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Patrons were passing the 8-week-old kitten around, mocking his appearance and calling him names such as "Devil Cat" and "Beelzebub."The Rocks took pity on the kitty and offered to adopt him. The establishment's owner, who kept the cat in a cage atop the bar to amuse patrons, agreed.Once home, the Rocks named the cat "Yoda" as a tribute to the pointy-eared Jedi master in " Star Wars." They took him to their veterinarian, who gave the cat a clean bill of health and said he had normal hearing.As the Rocks contemplate Yoda's next career move, the couple worry about the indoor cat being stolen because of its appearance and celebrity. The couple had a microchip placed in one of his four ears after adopting him to thwart would-be kittynappers."We have always had that concern because he is an unusual cat," Ted Rock said. "It could be more of a concern now, but I'm going to trust my fellow man."
Olympics to have lasting impact on "Bird's Nest Generation"
The Beijing Olympics have come to a close after 16 days of thrilling competition - with the home nation sat on top of the gold medal table.China has spent seven years planning for this event. It must be relieved that these Olympics are being hailed as both a sporting and an operational success.
Worries about air pollution, protesters and media freedom were eventually overshadowed by what went on in the sporting arenas.
At the closing ceremony the International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge, said they had been "truly exceptional games".
Best of the best
The ceremony to mark the end of the games, held in the Bird's Nest stadium, borrowed some of the grand style of the opening ceremony.
Hundreds of performers were deployed in dazzling sequences that took months of planning to execute to perfection.
The world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world
IOC President, Jacques Rogge
And this being China, there were more fireworks.
The Olympics is being seen as a success from the government all the way down to ordinary people on the streets.
"The best of the best - ever," said one compere, referring to this particular Games a few minutes before the closing ceremony started.
Positive legacy
There was certainly an attempt at this last event to shape the way the world should think about the controversial decision to award China this year's summer Games.
The Olympic flag was handed over to London Mayor, Boris Johnson (left)
Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organising committee, said the Chinese people had honoured the commitments it made when bidding for the games.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, he said: "The Beijing Olympic Games is a testimony of the fact that the world has rested its trust upon China."
The IOC President, Jacques Rogge, suggested this Olympics would have a positive legacy.
"Through these games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world," he said.
All-star cast
The closing ceremony is partly about handing over to the next host of the summer Games, which in 2012 will be London.
That gave the British capital the chance to stage its own mini-show within the closing ceremony.
It began when the Olympic flag was handed to recently-elected London Mayor Boris Johnson, who seemed to fumble to unfurl the banner before holding it aloft.
A red London bus than entered the stadium, out of which popped singer Leona Lewis and guitarist Jimmy Page, who together performed the rock classic "Whole Lotta Love".
Britain's most recognisable footballer, David Beckham, then appeared from inside the double-decker - surely no other London bus can have carried such an all-star cast.
To huge cheers, Beckham kicked a football into the crowd of athletes who had also paraded into the stadium.
As the bus left, pretend passengers clung to the sides holding up umbrellas.
It was an attempt to poke fun at Britain's rainy weather and its people's preoccupation with it.
Gold medals
But the Chinese still stole the show, with some sequences that were vast in scale and ambition.
After the event, one closing ceremony performer, Ying Ying, said her team of cheerleaders had been practising since last autumn.
"I feel very lucky just to be here. I've been moved to see so many athletes - and China has done really well," said the 20-year-old Beijing university student.
A successful Olympics, with 51 gold medals for the home country, is probably exactly what China's leaders had hoped would
America Debates Legal drinking Age
New York (ECN) - Earlier this week over 100 U.S. College and University presidents signed a petition urging that the legal drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18.”This is a law that is routinely evaded,” said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont whose organization, the Amethyst Initiative, launched the drive. “It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory.”Laura Dean-Mooney, the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, sees things differently.”As the mother of a daughter who is close to entering college, it is deeply disappointing to me that many of our education leaders would support an initiative without doing their homework on the underlying research and science. Parents should think twice before sending their teens to these colleges or any others that have waved the white flag on under-age and binge drinking policies,” she said.Somewhere in the middle of those two views is common ground.Supporters of the petition say that lowering the drinking age will curve "binge drinking" which is a huge problem on American campuses.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
In pictures: Madrid's plane crash
The jet crashed into a ravine alongside the runway and broke up, setting light to the surrounding dry vegetation.
More than 150 people have died after a plane veered off the runway during take-off at Madrid's international airport.
Samsung Electronics - Globally Hit For Mobile Phones
The Samsung mobile phone comes with huge storage capacity that can be extended with a microSD card slot. The capacity may differ depending on the model of the handset. The handsets from the house of Samsung are loaded with highly functional digital music player that can play various formats of music.You can balance your professional life with your personal life with the Samsung mobile phones. The powerful technologies provided with the handsets allow you to perform on the go. You can easily open your documents with the Document viewer and even explore the World Wide Web as well as download games, songs, wallpapers, videos and a lot more. Either it is technology, style or functionalities, Samsung mobile phones always deliver the best of all multimedia services.Visit the World Wide Web to get detailed information regarding the varieties of Samsung mobile phones. You may also be able to purchase them at affordable rates and also avail with various other benefits.Here we describe about the highly technological features that you can get from a Samsung mobile phone & about the various features that are offered by its handsets.
...and Google Extends Its Search Lead
Comscore has released search engine rankings for July 2008, and guess what? Google extended its lead to almost 62 percent of all U.S. Internet searches.
Media metrics outfit comScore has released its search engine rankings for July 2008—and, would you believe it? Google has extended its lead in the U.S. search marketplace again, now accounting for 61.9 percent of all searches. The new figures represent a 0.4 percent increase for the company over June 2008. Also showing month-to-month gains were Ask.com and AOL sites, seeing a 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent increase in their search traffic, respectively. According to comScore, Ask.com now accounts for 4.5 percent of search traffic, while AOL captures 4.2 percent of the market.
Those month-to-month increased can only mean one thing for competitors Yahoo and Microsoft: both saw their search traffic decline during July 2008, by 0.4 and 0.3 percent, respectively. Yahoo now controls 20.5 percent of the U.S. search market, while Microsoft's search efforts (including MSN search and Live Search account for 8.9 percent of the market.
The search figures include search queries brought in by channel partners and partner sites, but do not include mapping, directory, and video searches generated outside the sites's main search engines.
Overall, comScore estimates Americans conducted 11.8 billion Internet searches during July 2008, which represents a 2 percent increase over June 2008
Media metrics outfit comScore has released its search engine rankings for July 2008—and, would you believe it? Google has extended its lead in the U.S. search marketplace again, now accounting for 61.9 percent of all searches. The new figures represent a 0.4 percent increase for the company over June 2008. Also showing month-to-month gains were Ask.com and AOL sites, seeing a 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent increase in their search traffic, respectively. According to comScore, Ask.com now accounts for 4.5 percent of search traffic, while AOL captures 4.2 percent of the market.
Those month-to-month increased can only mean one thing for competitors Yahoo and Microsoft: both saw their search traffic decline during July 2008, by 0.4 and 0.3 percent, respectively. Yahoo now controls 20.5 percent of the U.S. search market, while Microsoft's search efforts (including MSN search and Live Search account for 8.9 percent of the market.
The search figures include search queries brought in by channel partners and partner sites, but do not include mapping, directory, and video searches generated outside the sites's main search engines.
Overall, comScore estimates Americans conducted 11.8 billion Internet searches during July 2008, which represents a 2 percent increase over June 2008
Argentina beats Nigeria 1-0 for Olympic gold
Angel di Maria provided the finish to another piece of magic from Lionel Messi on Saturday, helping Argentina win its second straight Olympic football title with a 1-0 victory over Nigeria.
Di Maria collected Messi’s expertly timed through ball in the 58th minute and nonchalantly lobbed it over the Nigeria goalkeeper to give defending champion Argentina another gold medal and leave the 1996 champions with silver.
"This group deserved this,“ Messi said. "We knew coming in that we may never have this experience again, so we are lucky that everything went well and we got what we wanted.“
"This group deserved this,“ Messi said. "We knew coming in that we may never have this experience again, so we are lucky that everything went well and we got what we wanted.“
Brazil, which has never won Olympic gold, earned the bronze medal Friday by beating Belgium 3-0 in Shanghai. After the final, Ronaldinho and his teammates stood on the field to collect their bronze medals and see the title go to their biggest rivals. Messi, however, almost didn’t play in the tournament because FC Barcelona won a ruling that it could pull him from the tournament. The Spanish team still allowed him to play. "I think he has played very well in the Olympic tournament,“ Argentina coach Sergio Batista said. "He’s played very well today as he normally does in his position and I knew that he could probably be the deciding factor.“ Di Maria’s strike was a goal to lift a final that was badly hit by searing temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks. "Maybe the heat was a factor,“ Batista said. "I think it the game had been played in another part of the day it would have been very different.“
The game was the only one to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, and it was watched by a crowd of 89,102 that included former Argentina great Diego Maradona. But the fans had to wait a long time to be entertained.
Not surprisingly in the searing heat, the game was poor quality in the first half with too many mistakes, misplaced passes and players trying to move slowly around the field to conserve energy.
"We tried to make sure that we didn’t get uptight, just too play our own game,“ Batista said. "We wanted to play with intelligence and move the ball around and not run around so much. We wanted the ball to do the work.“
After Peter Odemwingie’s free kick forced Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero to make a diving save in the sixth minute, Juan Roman Riquelme sent one over the bar.
Messi had a penalty appeal turned down when he tumbled over Dele Adeleye’s challenge.
Nigeria almost went ahead shortly after the first drink break when Odemwingie crossed from the left and Promise Isaac just missed the ball in front of goal. The ball came back and Isaac’s looping header was saved by Romero.
"No team has actually played at noon since we started this tournament,“ Nigeria coach Samson Siasia said when asked about the heat. "It affected both countries and most players didn’t perform to their level because of the heat. But we didn’t make the rules. They said play the game at 12 o’clock which I don’t think wasn’t a good idea.“
The game was the only one to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, and it was watched by a crowd of 89,102 that included former Argentina great Diego Maradona. But the fans had to wait a long time to be entertained.
Not surprisingly in the searing heat, the game was poor quality in the first half with too many mistakes, misplaced passes and players trying to move slowly around the field to conserve energy.
"We tried to make sure that we didn’t get uptight, just too play our own game,“ Batista said. "We wanted to play with intelligence and move the ball around and not run around so much. We wanted the ball to do the work.“
After Peter Odemwingie’s free kick forced Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero to make a diving save in the sixth minute, Juan Roman Riquelme sent one over the bar.
Messi had a penalty appeal turned down when he tumbled over Dele Adeleye’s challenge.
Nigeria almost went ahead shortly after the first drink break when Odemwingie crossed from the left and Promise Isaac just missed the ball in front of goal. The ball came back and Isaac’s looping header was saved by Romero.
"No team has actually played at noon since we started this tournament,“ Nigeria coach Samson Siasia said when asked about the heat. "It affected both countries and most players didn’t perform to their level because of the heat. But we didn’t make the rules. They said play the game at 12 o’clock which I don’t think wasn’t a good idea.“
Husband of Slain Pakistani PM Bhutto to Run for President
The widower of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto has decided to run for president.The ruling Pakistan People's Party leader Asif Ali Zardari speaks during the party's central executive meeting in Islamabad, 22 Aug 2008Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) officials Saturday announced their leader, Asif Ali Zardari, has accepted their nomination to replace former President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned earlier this week rather than face impeachment. Federal and provincial lawmakers will elect a new president on September sixth.Earlier Saturday, Zardari's coalition partner, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with PPP leaders in the eastern city of Lahore to discuss the presidential race. After the meeting, Sharif told reporters he would support Zardari's bid, if he vows to do away with the presidential power to dismiss parliament.Mr. Sharif and Zardari have been deadlocked over the restoration of judges whom President Musharraf fired. The former prime minister said Friday a resolution to reinstate judges will be presented to parliament for a vote on Monday. He said he expects the judiciary to be restored two days later.Mr. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party earlier threatened to pull out of the government unless an agreement on the matter was reached by Friday.Zardari has been reluctant to restore the judiciary and the chief justice. If reinstated, the justices could take up challenges to a legal amnesty granted to PPP leaders on corruption charges.
Google and Verizon join forces
New York City- Google and Verizon have apparently come very close to a joint partnership that could join the wireless unit and the services of both in broadband, search and TV services.The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and Verizon are discussing actively a partnership, and that it would bring the search giant and the wireless network together and they would split the ad network revenue from such a partnership.
Verizon would seek a generous split because Google is seeking to gain a foothold in the wireless network marketplace, and such a partnership could be a positive success for both companies if constructed correctly.
The deal could be go either way, either a fantastic success or it could blow up into something that becomes very messy.
The partnership could open the door for Android OS on Verizon phones, and Verizon has previously refused to participate in Android participation.
AT&T has previously started a partnership with Yahoo and it has been a catalyst to boost the Google –Verizon partnership talks further along.
The Mobile phone landscape is an open land grab for many companies right now, and for the biggest carrier to be joined with Yahoo, Google is feeling a lot of pressure.
Porn not the most popular thing on the web
DESPITE the old truism, pornography is not the most popular thing on the internet, according to Google's new search analysis tool.More Australians use the web to find games than adult content, even in Queensland where searches for "porn" and "sex" are the most popular.
Comparisons of search terms over time and broken down by region have been made available on Google's latest data tool Insights, allowing users and advertisers to see which subjects are in demand and where.
For example, web searches including the terms "art" and "politics" are popular in the Northern Territory and Tasmania – but only "politics" is of interest in the ACT, where searches for "art" trail every other region.
The Veronicas saw a spike in interest this month after nude photos allegedly showing Jess Origliasso surfaced on an adult website, but overall searches for the band have been in decline since 2006.
Again, web searches for "veronicas" and "nude" were most popular in Queensland.
Google searches for "news" are most popular in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, while those for "shoes" usually come from Victoria and "the beatles" from South Australia.
The top Australian search terms so far this year are: "games", "youtube", "myspace", "ebay", "google", "facebook", "weather", "hotmail", "yahoo" and "real estate".
Insights data can also be grouped by area of interest, such as travel or sports, and compared across countries.
According to Google, the Great Barrier Reef is the most searched-for holiday spot in Australia by users in the US, UK and Japan, taking out the top three search terms. It is followed by "ayers rock", "cairns", "tasmania" and "blue mountains".
Insights data is available for the years 2004 to 2008 and is updated daily. A Google Australia spokesperson said the company had not censored adult-themed keywords from the results.
A report from traffic monitoring service HitWise this week revealed almost 9 out of 10 Australians use Google to search the web. The search giant accounted for 88.14 per cent of searches, with MSN and Yahoo! sharing 10 per cent, it said.
Interesting things you probably didn't need to know
Slightly more people in Western Australia search for "icecream" as one word than anywhere else in the country.
Searches for The Ramones are concentrated in South America, and those for The Sex Pistols in eastern Europe.
Searches for "porn" are most popular in Queensland and New South Wales and least popular in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
The only three regions where "news" is a more popular search term than "porn" are the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Australians and Britons have difficulty spelling the title of the Kama Sutra properly, while people in the US seem to be on top of it.
Victoria appears to be the state most interested in film, dominating the searches for "cinema", "cinemas" and "movie".
New South Wales is the only state where more people search for Germaine Greer than Andrew Bolt.
There weren't enough searches on this reporter's name to come up with any funny statistics.
Facebook is currently searched for more often in the ACT and NT, while MySpace dominates everywhere else.
Searches for "scrabulous" are microscopic in comparison to those for "scrabble", in Australia and everywhere else.
There are more searches for Call Of Duty 4 than Halo 3 in Australia and the UK, most likely because it is a far superior game.
More people search for Ed Kuepper than Chris Bailey in Australia, and more people for Chris Bailey in the UK (they're the songwriters from The Saints who had a falling out – see here).
Australia is leading the world for searches on "purple monkey dishwasher". I'm not making this stuff up.
The Family Guy is searched for more often the The Simpsons in the US, and the other way around in Australia.
"Lyrics" was the most searched-for term in Australia in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before mysteriously dropping out of the top ten altogether.
Boeing Stomps Feet, Demands Four Additional Months for Tanker Bid
The Air Force tanker drama continues...The ongoing saga between Northrop Grumman/EADS, Boeing, the Air Force, Congress, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) continues to languish on in the face of an aging tanker fleet. Northrop Grumman/EADS formally won the contract earlier this year -- the $35B contract would have given the Air Force 179 Airbus A330-based KC-45 aircraft to replace 531 KC-135 tankers.
Boeing filed an official protest of the deal with the GAO in early March and received redemption in mid-June when the GAO agreed that errors were made during the selection process. "We recommended that the Air Force reopen discussions ... obtain revised proposals, re-evaluate the revised proposals, and make a new source selection decision, consistent with our decision," said the GAO at the time.
It now appears that Boeing isn't quite satisfied with just having the competition reopened -- according to the Wall Street Journal, it now wants more time to design a suitable aircraft to meet the Air Force's needs or it is threatening to walk away from the competition altogether. Boeing now wants an additional six months to submit a proper bid that the Air Force would be willing to accept.
"I think the option we would have if we were not given the six months, there is a really high likelihood that we would no-bid the program," said Boeing defense unit head Jim Albaugh.
The Defense Department is already considering giving both Northrop Grumman/EADS and Boeing two additional months to submit new bids for the competition according to close sources, but Boeing's Albaugh said that is not enough. "This is an airplane that's going to be in the inventory 40 years. What we're asking for is an additional four months to have a meaningful competition."
For Boeing, the request for more time and the threat of a "no-bid" is somewhat of a payback to Northrop Grumman/EADS which performed a similar feat back in 2007. The maneuvering by Northrop Grumman/EADS forced the Air Force to make some changes to the requirements for the competition that put Boeing's entry at a disadvantage.
Boeing's current proposal is based around a 767-200 airframe -- it is simply too small and doesn't meet the fuel capacity requirements of the Air Force. Albaugh acknowledges that without the extra time to bid a larger version of the 767-200, it will lose the contract.
Many Feared Dead in Madrid Plane Fire
Plane Catches Fire on Takeoff at Madrid Airport; NTSB to Join Investigation
A Spanish passenger plane crashed on takeoff from Madrid's Barajas International Airport Wednesday.
Spanish government confirms 45 fatalities in plane fire at Madrid Airport.
According to the airport authority and local media reports, the Spanair plane shot off the runway near Terminal 4.
Officials told The Associated Press that 153 people onboard the aircraft had been killed.
A Spanish emergency rescue official told the AP that 26 people survived the crash, and the rest of those onboard had been given up for dead. The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of the crash.
Earlier today, Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported that 150 people had been killed in the crash, and another 20 were believed to be critically injured.
Spanair spokesman Sergio Allard told a news conference the plane was carrying 175 people and the cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Spanish government confirms 45 fatalities in plane fire at Madrid Airport.
According to the airport authority and local media reports, the Spanair plane shot off the runway near Terminal 4.
Officials told The Associated Press that 153 people onboard the aircraft had been killed.
A Spanish emergency rescue official told the AP that 26 people survived the crash, and the rest of those onboard had been given up for dead. The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of the crash.
Earlier today, Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported that 150 people had been killed in the crash, and another 20 were believed to be critically injured.
Spanair spokesman Sergio Allard told a news conference the plane was carrying 175 people and the cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Spanish newspaper El Pais said the the plane had been an hour late taking off due to technical problems. The plane eventually managed to get slightly off the ground but crashed near the end of the runway, El Pais said, quoting an employee of the national airport authority AENA.
Helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway. According to El Mundo, so far, between 20 and 30 people have been evacuated from the plane, some of them in critical condition. One of the people wounded is now believed to have died on the way to the hospital.
At La Paz hospital in Madrid, many of the wounded are said to be suffering third-degree burns. A hospital spokesman told ABC News that six people had been admitted to the hospital.
Ambulances are continuing to arrive at that hospital, and at the Ramon y Cajal hospital next door, carrying passengers who are seriously wounded.
The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez are both making their way to the scene.
Helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway. According to El Mundo, so far, between 20 and 30 people have been evacuated from the plane, some of them in critical condition. One of the people wounded is now believed to have died on the way to the hospital.
At La Paz hospital in Madrid, many of the wounded are said to be suffering third-degree burns. A hospital spokesman told ABC News that six people had been admitted to the hospital.
Ambulances are continuing to arrive at that hospital, and at the Ramon y Cajal hospital next door, carrying passengers who are seriously wounded.
The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez are both making their way to the scene.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
NASA/ATK Rocket Destroyed Shortly After Launch
At 5:10 a.m. ET this morning a developmental ATK ALV X-1 suborbital rocket carrying two NASA hypersonic experiments exploded off the coast of Virginia after being launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. 
Range Safety made the call to destroy the rocket 27 seconds into the flight. Rockets are equipped with self destruct mechanism to protect the public from misfiring or misguided rockets. No damage or injuries have been reported, but the cause of the problem is unknown.
The two-stage suborbital launch vehicle used solid rocket fuel for propulsion, just like the solid rockets that ATK also provides to NASA for the Space Shuttle and the future Ares I.
The rocket was carrying the NASA HyBolt Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition experiment and the SOAREX sub-orbital re-entry experimental package. The combined $17-million cost of the two payloads includes the processing, integration and range services.
NASA and ATK will create a joint team to investigate the cause of the anomaly. NASA said they expect to release the first video of the explosion later this afternoon, and we'll post it as soon as they do. Their primary concern is any potential public safety hazards. NASA is reminding people not to touch any debris they may find and to report pieces to Wallops Emergency Operations Center at (757) 824-1300.
UPDATE: Video now added. Thank you CollectSPACE! (My favorite part is when the guy standing nearby says, "Is that a bad thing?")
The two-stage suborbital launch vehicle used solid rocket fuel for propulsion, just like the solid rockets that ATK also provides to NASA for the Space Shuttle and the future Ares I.
The rocket was carrying the NASA HyBolt Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition experiment and the SOAREX sub-orbital re-entry experimental package. The combined $17-million cost of the two payloads includes the processing, integration and range services.
NASA and ATK will create a joint team to investigate the cause of the anomaly. NASA said they expect to release the first video of the explosion later this afternoon, and we'll post it as soon as they do. Their primary concern is any potential public safety hazards. NASA is reminding people not to touch any debris they may find and to report pieces to Wallops Emergency Operations Center at (757) 824-1300.
UPDATE: Video now added. Thank you CollectSPACE! (My favorite part is when the guy standing nearby says, "Is that a bad thing?")
HyBolt was a shaped like the end of a flat-head screw driver and was a bit taller than a man. It was designed to fly at MACH 8, eight times the speed of sound, and faster to test boundary layer conditions and help design next generation hypersonic vehicles.
After the end of the HyBolt mission it was to release the SOAREX experiments as they all fell back towards the Atlantic Ocean.
SOAREX was a set of suborbital re-entry experiments. The largest of the three was called SCRAMP -- a blunt ended cylinder attached to a slightly wider slotted compression ring that allows it to take advantage of the "badminton birdie" effect to come down blunt end first.
After the end of the HyBolt mission it was to release the SOAREX experiments as they all fell back towards the Atlantic Ocean.
SOAREX was a set of suborbital re-entry experiments. The largest of the three was called SCRAMP -- a blunt ended cylinder attached to a slightly wider slotted compression ring that allows it to take advantage of the "badminton birdie" effect to come down blunt end first.
The idea is to test this shape for use as a future return capsule.
SCRAMP was accompanied by an instrument that can measure atmospheric conditions at the point of release and a "Melonsat" which is designed to float on the ocean and transmit its Global Positioning System satellite coordinates for seven days to assist crews with locating capsules for recovery.
The rocket stood 53 feet tall and would have lofted the experiments to 200 nautical miles allowing them to stay aloft for over 10 minutes.
SCRAMP was accompanied by an instrument that can measure atmospheric conditions at the point of release and a "Melonsat" which is designed to float on the ocean and transmit its Global Positioning System satellite coordinates for seven days to assist crews with locating capsules for recovery.
The rocket stood 53 feet tall and would have lofted the experiments to 200 nautical miles allowing them to stay aloft for over 10 minutes.
Small plane hits house in Las Vegas; 3 dead
Experimental aircraft crashes into house near Las Vegas area airport; 3 killed
(LAS VEGAS) An experimental aircraft crashed into a house and exploded shortly after takeoff Friday, killing the pilot and two people inside the home, authorities said.
The pilot of the home-built plane radioed that he was in trouble shortly after taking off from the North Las Vegas Airport, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Hawthorne, Calif.
"He said he was unable to gain altitude and was going down," Gregor said.
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Firefighters quickly doused an intense fire in the single-family stucco home in a working-class neighborhood southeast of a main runway at the airport. No other homes appeared damaged.
The plane appeared to have crashed through the roof over the living room.
A deputy fire chief, Kevin Brame, said authorities believe three people lived in the home, but one was not home at the time of the crash.
The pilot of the home-built plane radioed that he was in trouble shortly after taking off from the North Las Vegas Airport, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Hawthorne, Calif.
"He said he was unable to gain altitude and was going down," Gregor said.
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Firefighters quickly doused an intense fire in the single-family stucco home in a working-class neighborhood southeast of a main runway at the airport. No other homes appeared damaged.
The plane appeared to have crashed through the roof over the living room.
A deputy fire chief, Kevin Brame, said authorities believe three people lived in the home, but one was not home at the time of the crash.
"Chain of faults in Madrid jet disaster: reports"
MADRID (AFP) — A video of the Madrid air crash contradicted witness accounts of an engine fire as the Spanair jet hurtled to the ground, and experts believe a series of faults caused the disaster, media said Friday.
As investigators pursued a painstaking operation to identify the 153 fatalities, the first funerals were scheduled Friday in the Canary Islands, the home of about half of the victims and where the plane was headed.
Authorities also announced that a national memorial service would be held in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral on September 1.
Video images held by the civil aviation authority, AENA, showed that the Spanair MD-82 took off and crashed moments later near the runway on Wednesday, the newspapers ABC and El Pais reported.
"The video shows that the plane caught fire only after it hit the ground," El Pais said.
Witnesses had been quoted as saying the left engine caught fire as the plane took off, but authorities have never confirmed this.
A total of 153 people were killed and 19 injured on the Canary Islands-bound flight. Health authorities Friday said the condition of three of the injured was "very serious", one was "serious" and four were "serious but stable".
Most of the dead were burned beyond recognition and the grim task of identifying the bodies continued at a makeshift morgue at a Madrid congress centre.
Authorities said 50 bodies have so far been identified using fingerprints, but DNA tests will be necessary to identify 94 of the most badly burned bodies.
Bodies of the victims began arriving Friday in the Canary Islands, the home of about half of the passengers on the flight.
A long inquiry is now expected into the crash -- Spain's worst aviation disaster in 25 years.
The head of the investigation team, Emilio Valerio, said the results would be known in about a month.
Spanair , Spain's second largest airline, reported on Thursday that an air intake valve was repaired just before take-off, but experts quoted by newspapers said that fault was not to blame for the accident.
"The fault fixed by Spanair's maintenance technicians could not have had an influence on the crash," Jose Maria Delgado, head of Spain's Association of Aeronautic Maintenance Technicians, told El Pais.
Experts said a chain of technical faults was probably responsible.
"There was more than one cause. An engine was not the cause of the accident," El Pais quoted AENA chief Manuel Battista as saying.
A representative of the airline pilots' association, Felipe Laorden, noted that failure of one engine could not on its own have caused the crash, as "the plane is prepared for that eventuality."
The newspaper El Mundo, quoting AENA sources, said the engine may have exploded and bits of it flew off and damaged the tail of the plane.
ABC newspaper, also quoting AENA sources, said the aircraft did not have enough thrust at take-off.
Spanair managing director Marcus Hedblom defended the company on Thursday, saying that "everything we did with the aircraft was by the rules."
Investigators have begun examining the two black box flight recorders.
Representatives of the Boeing company, which took over McDonnell Douglas in 1997, are helping with the investigation.
There were 162 passengers -- including two babies and 20 other children -- on the jet plus 10 crew, four of whom were travelling as passengers.
The government said most of the passengers were Spanish, but there were citizens of at least 11 other countries on board, including five Germans and two French.
Spanish newspapers said several concerned passengers had asked to leave the plane as it was being repaired, but were prevented from doing so.
The head of Spain's commercial pilots association rejected newspaper allegations that Spanair's financial crisis may have been to blame.
"To blame the accident on the situation at the company is an outrage," Jose Maria Vazquez wrote in an article for El Pais.
Spanair, owned by Scandinavian carrier SAS, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of fuel price rises and reduced demand. Its pilots had threatened a strike over conditions.
The accident was Spain's worst plane disaster since a Boeing 747 belonging to Colombian airline Avianca crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 180 and the deadliest in Europe since a Russian Tupolev crashed in Ukraine in 2006 killing 170.
As investigators pursued a painstaking operation to identify the 153 fatalities, the first funerals were scheduled Friday in the Canary Islands, the home of about half of the victims and where the plane was headed.
Authorities also announced that a national memorial service would be held in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral on September 1.
Video images held by the civil aviation authority, AENA, showed that the Spanair MD-82 took off and crashed moments later near the runway on Wednesday, the newspapers ABC and El Pais reported.
"The video shows that the plane caught fire only after it hit the ground," El Pais said.
Witnesses had been quoted as saying the left engine caught fire as the plane took off, but authorities have never confirmed this.
A total of 153 people were killed and 19 injured on the Canary Islands-bound flight. Health authorities Friday said the condition of three of the injured was "very serious", one was "serious" and four were "serious but stable".
Most of the dead were burned beyond recognition and the grim task of identifying the bodies continued at a makeshift morgue at a Madrid congress centre.
Authorities said 50 bodies have so far been identified using fingerprints, but DNA tests will be necessary to identify 94 of the most badly burned bodies.
Bodies of the victims began arriving Friday in the Canary Islands, the home of about half of the passengers on the flight.
A long inquiry is now expected into the crash -- Spain's worst aviation disaster in 25 years.
The head of the investigation team, Emilio Valerio, said the results would be known in about a month.
Spanair , Spain's second largest airline, reported on Thursday that an air intake valve was repaired just before take-off, but experts quoted by newspapers said that fault was not to blame for the accident.
"The fault fixed by Spanair's maintenance technicians could not have had an influence on the crash," Jose Maria Delgado, head of Spain's Association of Aeronautic Maintenance Technicians, told El Pais.
Experts said a chain of technical faults was probably responsible.
"There was more than one cause. An engine was not the cause of the accident," El Pais quoted AENA chief Manuel Battista as saying.
A representative of the airline pilots' association, Felipe Laorden, noted that failure of one engine could not on its own have caused the crash, as "the plane is prepared for that eventuality."
The newspaper El Mundo, quoting AENA sources, said the engine may have exploded and bits of it flew off and damaged the tail of the plane.
ABC newspaper, also quoting AENA sources, said the aircraft did not have enough thrust at take-off.
Spanair managing director Marcus Hedblom defended the company on Thursday, saying that "everything we did with the aircraft was by the rules."
Investigators have begun examining the two black box flight recorders.
Representatives of the Boeing company, which took over McDonnell Douglas in 1997, are helping with the investigation.
There were 162 passengers -- including two babies and 20 other children -- on the jet plus 10 crew, four of whom were travelling as passengers.
The government said most of the passengers were Spanish, but there were citizens of at least 11 other countries on board, including five Germans and two French.
Spanish newspapers said several concerned passengers had asked to leave the plane as it was being repaired, but were prevented from doing so.
The head of Spain's commercial pilots association rejected newspaper allegations that Spanair's financial crisis may have been to blame.
"To blame the accident on the situation at the company is an outrage," Jose Maria Vazquez wrote in an article for El Pais.
Spanair, owned by Scandinavian carrier SAS, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of fuel price rises and reduced demand. Its pilots had threatened a strike over conditions.
The accident was Spain's worst plane disaster since a Boeing 747 belonging to Colombian airline Avianca crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 180 and the deadliest in Europe since a Russian Tupolev crashed in Ukraine in 2006 killing 170.
Face transplants: In pictures
This 29-year-old male patient had a facial tumour called a neurofibroma, which was infiltrating the middle and lower part of his face.A year after a partial face transplant, the patient regained good movement and sensation in his face.
China-Tibet Propaganda Opera Staged During Olympics
A Chinese theater has staged a propaganda opera on China-Tibet history to coincide with the Olympics. The Beijing games have been dogged by protests against China's heavy-handed rule over Tibet. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950 but China's claims on the Himalayan Kingdom go back centuries.One historical reference is the 6th century marriage of Chinese princess Wen Cheng to the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo. A Peking Opera theatre in Beijing has chosen the last days of the Beijing Olympics to stage an opera depicting China's version of the marriage.The show portrays China as a selfless power bringing civilization to the area that would become Tibet. Tibetan and Chinese actors rejoice what the opera calls a "cementing of relations" by singing and dancing.Gao Mukun, the director of the opera, says after watching the show you will understand how artists of the two minorities treasure this hard-won harmony. He says they are brothers of a family and that no one can separate them
The opera is trying to spread a message of ethnic unity at a time when Beijing is still recovering from Tibetan anti-China protests in March that turned violent.China's harsh crackdown led to a series of international protests against Beijing's hosting the Olympics.The organization Students for a Free Tibet says, in the last three weeks, China has detained and deported 49 activists for participating in pro-Tibet demonstrations.Ginger Cassady is a volunteer with the group and spoke Friday to reporters in Beijing."They said, you know, by getting this bid, getting the Olympic bid, that they were going to clean up their human rights record," she said. "But, what we've seen is actually its gotten a lot worse. That's something that we're going to continue to put the spotlight on."
Chinese police have roughed up and detained foreign media trying to cover the pro-Tibet protests, despite promises of non-interference in reporting during the Olympics. Photographers have also been forced to erase their photos.Beijing's Olympic spokesman Wang Wei lashed out at reporters Friday for raising criticisms of China on Tibet and other issues."There's so many criticism in this room. It just reflects how biased some of the media are about China," he said. "And how little they understand China." China designated three parks for approved protests during the Olympics and officials say they received 77 applications. None were approved.
Obama speech: The hottest ticket in Denver
Organizers of the Democratic Convention said anyone could receive a ticket to see Barack Obama's historic nomination speech in Denver, not just party insiders. But that didn't turn out to be the case in Utah. The state Democratic Party received 43 "community credentials" to Obama's big speech on Thursday, all of which went to party activists and the spouses of the 28 state delegates who will attend the four-day convention next week. Earlier this month, the Democratic National Convention Committee announced that half of the 75,000 tickets to the speech at Invesco Field would go to Colorado residents, while nearly 10,000 more would go to the surrounding Rocky Mountain states. Convention organizers asked people throughout the nation, even Republicans, to apply for a credential. The Utah Democratic Party fielded hundreds of calls and received a flood of emails. Wayne Holland, chairman of the Utah Democrats, hoped he would get at least a few hundred credentials, but when the Obama campaign called they offered only 50. He said a week later it seemed that Utah would only get three. "It caused me some frustration," Holland concedes, but he doesn't disagree with the Obama campaign's decision to limit the tickets to Utah, even though the state is right next door to Colorado. "They got smart and
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decided they had to utilize these in key battleground states." That isn't Utah, a state that hasn't supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 and where recent polls show Republican John McCain with a huge advantage. Holland scraped together the 43 tickets by combining the 18 given to the Obama campaign office in Utah with the 10 held by the state party. He also corralled some provided to unions like the Steelworkers. He still hopes to secure a couple additional seats, but those would also go to Democratic insiders and Obama volunteers. Salt Lake City Councilman J.T. Martin and his wife received two of the community credentials. They have donated to the Obama campaign and even met the Illinois senator when he held a Park City fundraiser. "I was calling anyone and everyone who would listen to me," said Martin, who was just able to find a hotel room in Denver on Friday. "We just felt that despite the hassle to be there and the expense to be there that this is a really important point in history." States like Nevada, New Mexico and even Montana are expected to send much larger contingents to the big speech, because the race is tight there. Utah isn't the only western state disappointed with its number of tickets. California only got 300, prompting Bob Mulholland, a campaign adviser to the California Democrats to tell The Denver Post: "They are treating us like Idaho right now." The state, with more than 30 million people , and a whopping 55 electoral votes, expected a whole lot more. Holland said the Convention organizers need to stay pragmatic, even if that means upsetting some Democratic strongholds like California and conservative states like Utah. "This is about winning this election," he said.
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decided they had to utilize these in key battleground states." That isn't Utah, a state that hasn't supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 and where recent polls show Republican John McCain with a huge advantage. Holland scraped together the 43 tickets by combining the 18 given to the Obama campaign office in Utah with the 10 held by the state party. He also corralled some provided to unions like the Steelworkers. He still hopes to secure a couple additional seats, but those would also go to Democratic insiders and Obama volunteers. Salt Lake City Councilman J.T. Martin and his wife received two of the community credentials. They have donated to the Obama campaign and even met the Illinois senator when he held a Park City fundraiser. "I was calling anyone and everyone who would listen to me," said Martin, who was just able to find a hotel room in Denver on Friday. "We just felt that despite the hassle to be there and the expense to be there that this is a really important point in history." States like Nevada, New Mexico and even Montana are expected to send much larger contingents to the big speech, because the race is tight there. Utah isn't the only western state disappointed with its number of tickets. California only got 300, prompting Bob Mulholland, a campaign adviser to the California Democrats to tell The Denver Post: "They are treating us like Idaho right now." The state, with more than 30 million people , and a whopping 55 electoral votes, expected a whole lot more. Holland said the Convention organizers need to stay pragmatic, even if that means upsetting some Democratic strongholds like California and conservative states like Utah. "This is about winning this election," he said.
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