tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43762755982694374362024-03-13T08:14:06.898-07:00flareneld's ovenhello everyone! flareneld's oven is a display of various issues concerning everything but does not allow vulgar and pornographic materials or media on this site. Rest assured that everything on this site is newsworthy,reliable,fresh and hot from the oven.flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-74168879752440477902011-12-06T04:34:00.000-08:002011-12-06T04:34:54.081-08:00flareneld's oven: Kepler 22-b: Earth twin planet<a href="http://flareneldsoven.blogspot.com/2011/12/kepler-22-b-earth-twin-planet.html?spref=bl">flareneld's oven: Kepler 22-b: Earth twin planet</a>: The planet, shown here in an artist's conception, circles its host star in 290 days Continue reading the main story ...<br /><br /><!-- Begin: adBrite, Generated: 2010-11-04 22:10:30 --><script type="text/javascript">var AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF';var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000';var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF';var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC';var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000';try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';}</script><script type="text/javascript">document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=1799617&zs=3330305f323530&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62));</script><div><a target="_top" href="http://www.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/purchase_form.php?opid=1799617&afsid=1" style="font-weight:bold;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Your Ad Here</a></div><!-- End: adBrite --><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-77624877580865502802011-12-06T04:33:00.000-08:002011-12-06T04:33:36.484-08:00Kepler 22-b: Earth twin planet<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header" style="clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 2.461em; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 34px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 623px;"><br />
</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width" style="clear: both; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="Artist's conception of Kepler 22-b" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57141000/jpg/_57141085_57140831.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; width: 304px;">The planet, shown here in an artist's conception, circles its host star in 290 days</span></div><div class="story-feature related narrow" style="clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 144px;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655#story_continues_1" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; line-height: 16px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><br />
<h2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 11px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Related Stories</h2><ul class="related-links-list" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: initial; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 8px;"><li style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15863549" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Most liveable alien worlds ranked</a></li>
<li style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12354390" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Hunt closes in on 'another Earth'</a></li>
<li style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12990213" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Strangely silent star system seen</a></li>
</ul></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">During <a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov/Science/ForScientists/keplerconference/" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">the conference at which the result was announced</a>, the Kepler team also said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets - nearly doubling the telescope's haul of potential far-flung worlds.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Kepler 22-b was one of 54 exoplanet candidates in habitable zones reported by the Kepler team in February, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">More of these "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48. Ten of those are Earth-sized.</div><span class="cross-head" style="color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">'Superb opportunity'</span><br />
<div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.</div><div class="story-feature wide " style="clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 304px;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655#story_continues_2" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; line-height: 16px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><br />
<h2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 11px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Kepler Space Telescope</h2><div class="caption body-narrow-width" style="clear: both; color: #505050; display: block; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="Infographic (BBC)" height="250" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51081000/jpg/_51081777__45486596_kepler_inf226-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 17px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -9px; position: relative;" width="304" /></div><ul style="clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="background-image: url(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/view/2_0_8/cream/hi/shared/img/story_sprite.gif); background-position: -1200px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Stares fixedly at a patch corresponding to 1/400th of the sky</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/view/2_0_8/cream/hi/shared/img/story_sprite.gif); background-position: -1200px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Looks at more than 155,000 stars</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/view/2_0_8/cream/hi/shared/img/story_sprite.gif); background-position: -1200px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Has so far found 2,326 candidate planets</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/view/2_0_8/cream/hi/shared/img/story_sprite.gif); background-position: -1200px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Among them are 207 Earth-sized planets, 10 of which are in the "habitable zone" where liquid water can exist</li>
</ul><ul class="links-list" style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 7px;"><li style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/videos/exclusives/bang_borucki/page=3" style="color: #174f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">William Borucki talks about Kepler</a></li>
</ul></div><div id="story_continues_2" style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Kepler 22-b lies 15% closer to its sun than the Earth is to our Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, the planet's host star puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">As candidates for planets similar to Earth are confirmed, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) has a narrower focus for its ongoing hunt.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"This is a superb opportunity for Seti observations," said Jill Tarter, the director of the Center for Seti Research at the Seti Institute.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems - including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analogue in the habitable zone around its host star.</div><div class="caption body-width" style="clear: both; color: #505050; display: block; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="Kepler 22-b infographic" height="335" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57140000/jpg/_57140840_57140839.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; position: relative;" width="464" /></div><br />
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<div id="yn-story-related-media" style="border-top-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-top-style: double; border-top-width: 3px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 12px; margin-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 213px;"><div class="primary-media" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="ult-section yn-style1" id="yn-story-main-media" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; zoom: 1;"><div class="" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="media " href="http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Undated-image-Earth39s-city-lights-released-NASA-growing-more-affluent/photo//110220/photos_ts_afp/3aabe570f30ca2e673adddf2fc6eb442//s:/afp/20110220/ts_afp/scienceuspopulationfood;_ylt=AjJM_VU30F5S2raJyZJ4bbSGOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTE5aHVicW90BHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9yX3RvcF9waG90bwRzbGsDcGxhbmV0Y291bGRi" style="color: #0058a6; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Planet could be &#39;unrecognizable&#39; by 2050, experts say" height="107" src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20110220/capt.photo_1298232304945-1-0.jpg?x=213&y=107&xc=2&yc=1&wc=408&hc=205&q=85&sig=t9CEbg3WDytDrQji6MyVzw--" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block;" width="213" /></a><cite class="caption" style="clear: both; color: #777777; display: block; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; padding-top: 3px; zoom: 1;">AFP/NASA/GSFC/NOAA – Undated image of Earth's city lights released by NASA. A growing, more affluent population competing …</cite></div></div></div></div><div class="byline" style="color: #777777; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><cite class="vcard" style="color: #777777; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"></cite></div><div class="yn-story-content" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">WASHINGTON (AFP) – A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable" if current trends continue, Clay said.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion, said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But incomes are also expected to rise over the next 40 years -- tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations -- and add more strain to global food supplies.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">People tend to move up the food chain as their incomes rise, consuming more meat than they might have when they made less money, the experts said.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It takes around seven pounds (3.4 kilograms) of grain to produce a pound of meat, and around three to four pounds of grain to produce a pound of cheese or eggs, experts told AFP.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"More people, more money, more consumption, but the same planet," Clay told AFP, urging scientists and governments to start making changes now to how food is produced.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Population experts, meanwhile, called for more funding for family planning programs to help control the growth in the number of humans, especially in developing nations.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"For 20 years, there's been very little investment in family planning, but there's a return of interest now, partly because of the environmental factors like global warming and food prices," said Bongaarts.</div><div style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"We want to minimize population growth, and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning," said Casterline.</div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-33748196856216644792011-02-17T05:19:00.000-08:002011-02-17T05:19:38.329-08:00Vietnam tourist boat sinking kills 12<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header" style="clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 2.461em; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 34px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 623px;">Vietnam tourist boat sinking kills 12 in Halong Bay</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width" style="clear: both; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="Ha Long bay in northern Quang Ninh province " height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51302000/jpg/_51302015_000160216-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; width: 304px;">Halong Bay is a popular tourist area and a World Heritage Site</span></div><div class="story-feature related narrow" style="clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 144px;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12490523#story_continues_1" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; line-height: 16px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><h2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 11px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Related Stories</h2><ul class="related-links-list" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: initial; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 8px;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243338.stm" style="color: #1f4f82; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Country profile: Vietnam</a></li>
</ul></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">At least 12 people, many of them foreign tourists, have drowned after a tour boat sank in Halong Bay in north-east Vietnam.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The wooden boat was touring in the Unesco World Heritage Site, in Quang Ninh province, when it went down.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Fifteen people, including nine foreigners, have been rescued.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">It is not yet clear why the boat sank, although a local government official said initial information suggested part of the boat had broken without warning.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"So far the rescue team has rescued 15 people, including nine foreign tourists and six crew, and pulled out 12 bodies," Ngo Van Hung, director of the Halong Bay Management Department, told Reuters by telephone.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The bodies have been sent to a nearby hospital for formal identification.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Officials said the foreigners on board were believed to have come from 11 countries including Britain, Sweden, Australia and Japan.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The survivors were pulled from the water by people on other tour boats anchored close by and taken to hospital.</div><div class="caption body-narrow-width" style="clear: both; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: -160px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="Map" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51302000/gif/_51302529_vietnam_halongbay.gif" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; position: relative;" width="304" /></div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Halong Bay, renowned for its hundreds of tiny islands and freshwater swamp forests, is one of Vietnam's most popular tourist destinations.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The boat, reported to be a traditional junk, appears to have gone down before dawn near Titov island.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Many visitors choose to stay overnight on boats with sleeping cabins, so it is likely those on board were asleep when the accident happened.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Those rescued reported seeing a plank of the wooden boat ripping, followed by a gush of water that overwhelmed it, pulling the vessel down, local government official Vu Van Thin said.</div><div style="clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"Crew members tried to stop the water from coming in and alerted the tourists who were sleeping, but the water came in and the boat sank quickly. All of the 12 people who died were in the cabins," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-3059216725601758382010-12-29T19:10:00.000-08:002010-12-29T19:10:04.600-08:00'No Anorexia' model Isabelle Caro dies aged 28<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">'No Anorexia' model Isabelle Caro dies aged 28</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Anorexic French actress Isabelle Caro" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50609000/jpg/_50609228_anor.jpg" width="400" /> <i><b> <span style="width: 304px;">Posters featuring Isabelle Caro were eventually banned in Italy</span></b></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12091475#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><b>A French model who posed nude for an anti-anorexia campaign while suffering from the illness herself has died at the age of 28, her colleagues confirm.</b></div><br />
Isabelle Caro died on 17 November after being treated for an acute respiratory illness, Swiss singer Vincent Bigler told journalists.<br />
He added that he did not know the exact cause of death.<br />
Ms Caro appeared in posters for an anti-anorexia campaign in 2007, but the ads were banned in several countries.<br />
It was not clear why it took so long for her death to be made public.<br />
The anti-anorexia campaign came amid a debate among fashion circles on the use of "ultra-skinny" models on the catwalk.<br />
The AFP news agency reported her as saying at the time: "I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get a message across, and finally put an image on what thinness represents and the danger it leads to - which is death."<br />
The model, who was 5ft 4in tall (1.65m) at the time of the poster campaign, reportedly weighed 32kg (five stones).<br />
Ms Caro's acting instructor, Daniele Dubreuil-Prevot, told the Associated Press news agency that Ms Caro had died after returning to France from a job in Tokyo.<br />
She said family and close friends had held a funeral ceremony in Paris last month.<br />
Mr Bigler, who was a friend of Ms Caro, told Swiss media: "She was hospitalised for 15 days with acute respiratory disease and was recently also very tired, but I do not know the cause of her death."<br />
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<h1 class="story-header">Pedophile guide author Greaves arrested in Colorado</h1><div class="caption"> <img alt="Philip R Greaves II" height="400" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50508000/jpg/_50508282_50508281.jpg" width="299" /> <i><span style="width: 224px;">Mr Greaves has not yet responded to the charge against him</span></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <i><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12044339#story_continues_1"><br />
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</span> </div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">Colorado police have arrested the author of a guidebook that gives advice to pedophiles, and charged him with violating obscenity laws in Florida.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Philip R Greaves II sparked controversy last month after selling the Pedophiles Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct through the online retailer Amazon.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He was arrested after selling his guide to a detective, officials said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The online retail giant removed the book from its website in November.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Authorities in Colorado arrested Mr Greaves on behalf of police in Florida after he sold and mailed a copy of the self-published guidebook to an undercover detective in the southern US state, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Greaves has not yet responded to the charge and it remains unclear whether he has appointed a lawyer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The book argues that pedophiles are misunderstood and purports to offer advice to help them abide by the law.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head">'Obscene material'</span></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Mr Greaves gained public notoriety last month after Amazon.com initially defended selling his book on its website - saying Amazon did not promote criminal acts but also avoided censorship - despite angry comments and threats of boycotts from thousands of the site's users.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Greaves has been charged in Florida with distribution of obscene material depicting minors.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Laurie Shorter, spokeswoman for the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department in Colorado, said Mr Greaves would be held in jail in the state on the Florida charge. It is unclear how soon, if at all, he could be extradited to Florida.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"If he will waive extradition, it's my goal for him to eat processed turkey on Christmas Day in the Polk County Jail," said Mr Judd.</span><br />
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<h1 class="story-header">Skywatchers set for lunar eclipse</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Total eclipse of the Moon in 2007 (AP)" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50511000/jpg/_50511483_004411429-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">The Moon could turn pink or blood red during the eclipse</span></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12042984#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">Skywatchers around the world are gearing up to observe a rare total </span><span style="font-size: large;">l</span><span style="font-size: large;">unar eclipse.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The best viewing conditions for the eclipse are from North and Central America, parts of northern Europe and East Asia.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Astronomers say the Moon could turn a pink or blood red hue during the eclipse, which begins early on Tuesday morning GMT.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It will be the first total lunar eclipse in three years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Moon is normally illuminated by the Sun. During a total lunar eclipse, the full Moon passes through the shadow created by the Earth blocking the Sun's light. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Some indirect sunlight will still manage to pierce through and give the Moon a ghostly colour.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The west coast of America will see the eclipse start on Monday night; observers in North and Central America will be able to view the whole event. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Total eclipse begins at 0741 GMT on Tuesday (0241 EST on Tuesday; 11:41 PST on Monday).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Western Europe will only see the start of the spectacle while western Asia will catch the tail end.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The totality phase - when the moon is entirely inside Earth's shadow - will last a little over an hour.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"It's perfectly placed so that all of North America can see it," said eclipse expert Fred Espenak of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-14216242907750226612010-12-19T12:00:00.000-08:002010-12-19T12:00:47.760-08:00US gay soldier ban lifted<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">US Senate lifts 'don't ask, don't tell' gay soldier ban</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Activists rally for the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in Washington, DC, 10 December" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50485000/jpg/_50485433_010825083-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i> <span style="width: 304px;">Activists have urged President Obama to deliver on the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'</span></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The US Senate has approved landmark legislation allowing openly gay people to serve in the military.</b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Senators voted 65-31 to overturn the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" law, which bars gay people in the military from revealing their sexual orientation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The House of Representatives had already approved the repeal bill. President Barack Obama says he is looking forward to signing it into law.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Opponents argue that the change will damage troop morale at a time of war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">More than 13,000 service members have been dismissed under the "don't ask, don't tell", policy enacted under President Bill Clinton in 1993 as a compromise. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Saturday's vote was along broad party lines, with a few moderate Republicans joining the Democratic majority in favour of lifting the ban.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head"> </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head">'Discriminatory'</span></b></span><div class="story-feature narrow"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="quote-credit-title"></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">The BBC's Iain Mackenzie in Washington says the vote is a major victory for Mr Obama, who had made overturning "don't ask, don't tell" a key policy objective.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The president said it meant "thousands of patriotic Americans" would not be forced to leave the military "because they happen to be gay".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">President Obama is expected to sign the bill next week. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The repeal will take effect after a 60-day period allowing the defence department to consider how to implement the new policy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Defence secretary Robert Gates also welcomed the Senate vote. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Once this legislation is signed into law by the president, the Department of Defense will immediately proceed with the planning necessary to carry out this change carefully and methodically, but purposefully," he said.</span><br />
<div class="videoInStoryC"> <div class="emp" id="emp-12030211-162555"> <noscript> <div class="warning"> <img class="holding" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50486000/jpg/_50486696_jex_905055_de27-1.jpg" alt="Gay service veterans celebrate the repeal" /> <p><strong>Please turn on JavaScript.</strong> Media requires JavaScript to play.</p> </div> </noscript> <div style="height: 215px; margin: 0pt 0pt 3px; padding: 0pt; position: relative; width: 320px;"><div style="height: 180px; position: relative; width: 320px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="" height="180px" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50486000/jpg/_50486696_jex_905055_de27-1.jpg" width="320px" /></span><div style="background-image: url("http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/emp/10_17_10_17_301547/iplayer-overlay.png"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; cursor: pointer; height: 92px; left: 50%; margin-left: -54px; margin-top: -46px; padding: 0pt; position: absolute; text-indent: -5000%; top: 50%; width: 108px; z-index: 10;"><span style="font-size: large;">Click to play</span></div></div><div style="background-image: url("http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/emp/10_17_10_17_301547/emp-gradient.png"); background-position: left top; background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 35px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; position: relative; width: 320px;"><div style="background-image: url("http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/emp/10_17_10_17_301547/emp-gradient.png"); background-position: 0pt -35px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 35px; left: 0pt; position: absolute; top: 0pt; width: 67px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12028657#play" style="display: block; height: 20px; left: 5px; position: relative; text-indent: -5000%; top: 5px; width: 25px;">Click to play</a></span></div></div></div></div><div class=" bbccom-advert bbccom_visibility_hidden bbccom_companion" id="bbccom_companion_12030211"><div class="bbccom_text bbccom_companion_text"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/bbc_online/adverts_general"><br />
</a></span></div></div><div class="caption"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Julian Chang of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and retired US Navy Commander Zoe Dunning gave their reaction to the vote</i></span></div></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Aubrey Sarvis, head of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group, said: "Until the president signs the bill, until there is certification, and until the 60-day Congressional period is over, no-one should be investigated or discharged under this discriminatory law."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Earlier this month, a Pentagon report said that allowing openly gay troops would have little impact on the cohesion of US forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Democrats, who still control both house of Congress, have said they want to approve the repeal before the start of a new Congress in January.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-80611071683663474152010-12-19T11:47:00.000-08:002010-12-19T12:03:01.382-08:00UN security council holds crisis talks over Korea tension<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Korea tension: UN security council holds crisis talks</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"><img alt="South Korean marines on Yeonpyeong island, South Korea, 19 December." height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50491000/jpg/_50491462_010880274-1.jpg" width="400" /> <span style="width: 304px;">The exercises on Yeonpyeong island appear likely to be held on Monday or Tuesday</span> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12033330#story_continues_1"><br />
</a> </div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The UN Security Council is holding an emergency session to discuss escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. </b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Russia, which requested the talks, says it wants the UN to send a "restraining signal" to both North and South Korea.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The South insists that, weather permitting, it will go ahead with a controversial military exercise this week near a disputed maritime border.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The North condemned the drill - to be held on an island it shelled last month - and has threatened to retaliate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The issue threatens to divide permanent members of the Security Council, with China and Russia urging South Korea to put off the exercise but the US saying its ally is entitled to make sure it is "properly prepared in the face of... ongoing provocations".</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head"> 'Crisis'</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The South Korean military's determination to hold the drills remains unchanged, an unnamed defence ministry official said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"There is no plan to cancel the exercise. The factor we're looking at is the weather condition," the official said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pyongyang is threatening to retaliate if the South goes ahead with planned military exercises on Yeonpyeong island - close to the two countries' disputed sea border, the Northern Limit Line, and within view of the North Korean mainland.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It says it will deal an "unpredictable self-defensive blow" at the South Koreans, "deadlier" than when the North shelled the island during similar live-fire exercises on 23 November.</span><br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Map" height="250" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50149000/gif/_50149778_korea_n_s_dmz304.gif" width="304" /></span> </div><span style="font-size: large;">Four people - two civilians and two marines - were killed in that clash.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">An unofficial US envoy - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson - is in North Korea and has held several meetings with senior officials there. The situation is "very, very tense, a crisis situation", he told CNN.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He was speaking after meeting North Korean Maj Gen Pak Rim-su, who leads North Korean forces along the border with the South.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That meeting was "very tough", but "some progress" was made, Mr Richardson said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"They said there would be a response, but at the same time they hope a UN Security Council resolution would tamp down the situation. It was very clear they were very upset by the potential exercise," he told CNN from Pyongyang.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He suggested a military hotline be set up to address incidents along their border.</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head"> Tight rope</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the Obama administration in a tough spot, as the US has 28,000 troops stationed in the South and it would almost certainly be drawn in if hostilities erupt.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The US is walking a diplomatic tightrope, trying to avoid that unfavourable option while remaining a strong ally to the South, our correspondent adds.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Saturday that artillery guns on Yeonpyeong will be aimed south-west and away from North Korea for the drill, reported South Korean news agency Yonhap. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But the North claims any ammunition fired would inevitably land in its territorial waters.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the event of an attack from the North, the South's Air Force would put its F-15K and KF-16 fighters on emergency standby, Yonhap quoted the JCS as saying, adding the exact timing of the drill will be announced hours before it begins, depending on weather conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The island is normally home to some 1,300 residents along with hundreds of marines, but most civilians have fled to the mainland, leaving only about 100 remaining, Yonhap said.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-32171289575444512992010-12-13T17:09:00.000-08:002010-12-13T17:09:29.818-08:00the Millionaires' Squadron<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">The Millionaires who flew to war</h1><span class="byline"> <span class="byline-name">By Huw Jones</span> <span class="byline-title">BBC News</span> </span> <div class="caption body-width"> <img alt="Pilots from 601 Squadron" height="261" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50409000/jpg/_50409418_millionaires_group_640.jpg" width="464" /> <span style="width: 464px;">W<i>illie Rhodes-Moorhouse took colour footage of the Millionaires during the Battle of Britain</i></span> </div><div class="introduction"><br />
</div><div class="introduction"><span style="font-size: large;">They were called the Millionaires' Squadron, a dashing young group of well-heeled sportsmen and adventurers with a passion for danger and high jinks. But they were also a very effective fighting unit, placed in the front line of defence against German invasion in the Battle of Britain.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Born into high society in 1914, William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse was determined to follow a family passion for flying. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">His father had built and designed planes and flown in World War I, becoming the first airman to win the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in battle.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Flying at just 300ft (91m), William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse volunteered to drop a single bomb on a strategic rail junction near Ypres in the face of intense ground fire. He made it back to British lines, but died of his wounds shortly afterwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Young Willie, his son, was able to fulfil his dream, thanks partly to his school friend George Cleaver, whose family owned a plane. He had his pilot's licence by the age of 17 before leaving Eton.</span><br />
<div class="caption"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Amalia Rhodes-Moorhouse" height="224" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50354000/jpg/_50354239_amalia_224.jpg" width="224" /> <i><span style="width: 224px;">Amalia refused a screen test to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind</span></i></span> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After extensive travelling, he returned to settle in England where, so family lore records, he "fell head over heels in love" with his wife-to-be, Amalia Demetriadi. A strikingly attractive woman, she was approached in a London restaurant by a talent scout to be screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind. A private person, Amalia declined.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For Amalia and Willie, life must have seemed to be bursting with promise. They had a comfortable life and a very good lifestyle, including invitations to the south of France and skiing trips to St Moritz.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A keen sportsman, Willie was selected for the 1936 British Winter Olympics team, but an accident on the ski jump prevented him from competing. But war was looming and short of funds, the RAF had its eyes on amateur pilots like Willie, George and Amalia's brother Dick. It could not maintain a large peacetime force, but if war came, it would need to mobilise fast. </span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </div><div id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">As early as the mid 1920s, the first Chief of the Air Staff, Lord Trenchard, had come up with the idea of auxiliary squadrons, amateur pilots who could be rapidly recruited and deployed on the outbreak of war.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The first auxiliary squadron, 601, later to be known as the Millionaires' Squadron was, according to legend, created by Lord Grosvenor at Whites, the gentlemen's club and restricted to club membership.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Recruitment under Grosvenor involved a trial by alcohol to see if candidates could still behave like gentlemen when drunk. They were apparently required to consume a large port. Gin and tonics would follow back at the club.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Grosvenor wanted officers "of sufficient presence not to be overawed by him and of sufficient means not to be excluded from his favourite pastimes, eating, drinking and Whites," according to the squadron's historian, Tom Moulson.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The squadron attracted the very well-heeled, not just aristocrats but also sportsmen, adventurers and self-made men. There would be no time for petty rules or regulations. But Grosvenor was nonetheless intent on creating an elite fighting unit, as good as any in the RAF.</span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11951642#story_continues_2"><br />
</a></span> <h2><span style="font-size: large;">601 Squadron pilots</span></h2><ul><li> <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Roger Bushell</strong>, shot down and captured in France, 1940. As "Big X" (played by Richard Attenborough), would mastermind the Great Escape. Executed after recapture in 1944</span></li>
<li> <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Billy Fiske</strong>, an American bobsleigh champion, who pretended to be Canadian to join his friends in 601. First American combatant to die in WWII on 17 August 1940</span></li>
<li> <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Max Aitken</strong>, credited with shooting down 16 planes, later 2nd Baron Beaverbrook, followed his father as chairman of Express newspaper group, but always had time for 'Mouse' Cleaver and other injured veterans of 601</span></li>
</ul></div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">Under their next commander, Sir Philip Sassoon, the squadron acquired a growing reputation for flamboyance, wearing red socks or red-silk-lined jackets as well as driving fast cars.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">They also had a reputation for ridiculous games such as navigating around a room without touching the ground. Or a table calibration test in which the subject was distracted to the point at which beer could be poured down his trousers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There were other auxiliary squadrons such as 600, made up of stockbrokers and city bankers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And others sprang up around the country, 602 and 603 in Glasgow and Edinburgh and by 1939 there were 14 auxiliary squadrons made up of experienced, amateur pilots who would be equipped and deployed almost immediately on the outbreak of war, effectively adding 25% to the strength of RAF Fighter Command.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But while many of the auxiliaries were wealthy and had their own planes, no squadron was as exclusive or elitist as 601. And they certainly regarded themselves as every bit as good if not better than the regulars. "Tradesmen, RAF, etc, entrance at rear by order" read one sign at a 601 officers' mess. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Millionaires had a reputation for escapades and flouting the rules says Peter Devitt from the RAF Museum. "But they could not have got away with it without being an efficient and effective fighting unit. They were very serious about their flying and their fighting."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head">Battle of Britain</span></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Days before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, 601 squadron was mobilised including Willie, Amalia's younger brother Dick Demetriadi and their friend George Cleaver. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When war finally came to Western Europe in May 1940, Willie was part of 601 Squadron's A flight which was despatched to France under Squadron Leader Max Aitken, son of Lord Beaverbrook the newspaper magnate. It was the pilots' first action in their Hurricane fighters and they performed creditably, with Aitken being decorated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In July, as the Battle of Britain began, 601 Squadron was right on the front line at RAF Tangmere in Hampshire.</span><br />
<div class="caption"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Dick Demetriadi" height="224" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50354000/jpg/_50354238_dick_demetriadi_224.jpg" width="224" /> <i><span style="width: 224px;">Dick Demetriadi, killed in action at 21</span></i></span> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Luftwaffe was targeting Allied shipping in the Channel in an attempt to lure the RAF into combat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On 11 August 1940, in one of the opening skirmishes of the war, 21-year-old Dick Demetriadi was shot down off the Dorset coast.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Willie had lost his best friend, but he also had to break the news to Amalia that her brother would not be coming home.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The following weeks saw the most intense raids on southern England as the Luftwaffe attempted to destroy the RAF and seize control of the skies to allow an invasion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Willie Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse and the Millionaires of 601 Squadron were in the thick of the fighting. After heavy losses, the squadron was pulled back to Essex, only to find themselves in the front line again as the Luftwaffe targeted London.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">From an initial strength of about 20, they lost 11 men killed in action with others injured or posted to other squadrons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The replacements were more cosmopolitan. And while many of the Millionaires' traditions survived, they were no longer the band of aristocrats and adventurers who had started the war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Other squadrons were also suffering heavy losses but the RAF pilots were also destroying two German planes for every British loss. Willie was responsible for shooting down nine aircraft. </span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11951642#story_continues_3"><br />
</a></span> <div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Amalia and Willie" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50354000/jpg/_50354237_amalia+willie_304.jpg" width="304" /></span> </div><ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> Willie's body was recovered from his plane and his ashes buried alongside his father</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> The Victoria Cross was sold to raise money for the W.B. Rhodes-Moorhouse VC Charitable Trust which makes donations to RAF charities</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> He is pictured above with Amalia, who died in 2003</span></li>
</ul></div><div id="story_continues_3"><span style="font-size: large;">On 3 September, he and Amalia were invited to Buckingham Palace where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">It was to be one of their last times together. Just three days later he was shot down.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Other members of 601 squadron survived the Battle of Britain including Willie's friend George "Mouse" Cleaver who shot down seven planes before an eye injury which ended his flying career. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But by the time the Luftwaffe called off its assault and the invasion of Britain was canceled, the RAF had lost 544 pilots.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Churchill immortalised "the few", but for each man lost, there were wives, parents and sisters left behind, women like Amalia.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"It was very, very hard on Amalia, losing Willie and Dick," says Rupert Pyle-Hodges, who has helped preserve the family history - Willie and Rupert's grandmother were cousins and were brought up in the same extended family house.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Amalia was godmother to Rupert's father and he remembers visiting her for tea. It was not fashionable for women like Amalia to go to work and she lived within modest means, tending her garden and - like many of the wartime generation who had lived through rationing - recycling everything. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">She never re-married although there were certainly offers and she lived a quiet life until her death in 2003.</span><br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-18993640474361166872010-12-13T16:46:00.000-08:002010-12-13T16:46:52.422-08:00Chinese archaeologists discover 2,400-year-old 'soup'<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Chinese archaeologists unearth 2,400-year-old 'soup'</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="A Shaanxi Provincial Archeological Institute official displays the bronze vessel thought to contain the ancient soup" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50403000/jpg/_50403357_soup.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Experts say the 'bone soup' in the vessel turned green due to the oxidation of the bronze</span></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <b><br />
</b></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Chinese archaeologists have unearthed what they believe is a 2,400-year-old pot of soup, state media report. </b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The liquid and bones were in a sealed bronze cooking vessel dug up near the ancient capital of Xian - home to the country's famed terracotta warriors.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Tests are being carried out to identify the ingredients. An odourless liquid, believed to be wine, was also found.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The pots were discovered in a tomb being excavated to make way for an extension to the local airport.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"It's the first discovery of bone soup in Chinese archaeological history," the newspaper quoted Liu Daiyun of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology as saying.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"The discovery will play an important role in studying the eating habits and culture of the Warring States Period (475-221BC)."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The scientists said the tomb could have held the body of either a member of the land-owning class or a low-ranking military officer, the report said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Xian served as China's capital for more than 1,100 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1974, the terracotta army was found there at the burial site of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He presided over the unification of China in 221BC and ruled until 210BC.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-90351243942649433532010-12-12T16:16:00.000-08:002010-12-12T16:16:53.032-08:00Bloomberg rules out running for US president<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Michael Bloomberg rules out running for US president</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Michael Bloomberg on Meet the Press" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50398000/jpg/_50398027_010837657-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Mayor Bloomberg says rumours that he may run for the presidency are just media speculation</span></i> </div><div class="introduction"><br />
</div><div class="introduction"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has said there is "no way, no how" he is going to run for the US presidency in 2012.</b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Appearing on NBC television's Meet the Press programme, he said that those urging him to seek the presidency "should cease and desist".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Bloomberg, 68, said he intended to remain focused on being mayor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But he said he would continue to speak out on national issues that impact on New York, such as immigration.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Bloomberg, who is in his third term as mayor, said: "The bottom line is that I've a great job." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He added: "I want to go out being, having a reputation as, a very good, maybe the greatest mayor ever."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">While some of his backers have urged him to run, Mr Bloomberg said talk of a White House bid in 2012 came "because the press wants something to write about".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The founder of the Bloomberg news media empire, Mr Bloomberg is a former Democrat turned Republican turned independent.</span><br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-53109323623690606222010-12-12T15:00:00.000-08:002010-12-12T15:00:00.411-08:00Debates is on over learning English in India<script type="text/javascript">
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<div class="mxb"> <h1> India debates whether to learn English </h1></div><div class="mvb"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 466px;"><tbody>
<tr> <td valign="bottom"> <div class="mvb"> <span class="byl"> By Peter Curran </span> <br />
<span class="byd"> BBC News, Chennai (Madras) </span> </div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><img alt="" border="0" height="1" hspace="0" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/shared/img/999999.gif" vspace="0" width="466" /><br />
</div><b>Schools across India have been debating the rights and wrongs of Indians learning English. The debates themselves were conducted in English, as is much of this multilingual country's national life.</b><br />
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 226px;"><tbody>
<tr><td> <div> <img alt="A banyan tree grows next to the buildings of Indian Institute of Technology Madras" border="0" height="170" hspace="0" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50382000/jpg/_50382269_tree_building226.jpg" vspace="0" width="226" /> <div class="cap">The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has 250 hectares of woodland</div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Sitting there at the side door of the lecture theatre is a rhesus monkey. <br />
Education for all? Well, not quite. This is the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras - a university in the midst of a city yet with deer, snakes and monkeys moving freely around the sprawling campus. <br />
Huge banyan trees rise up between low concrete buildings - slowly overwhelming man's puny attempt to impose himself on this fecund landscape. <br />
At Chennai airport, rather than use trucks to pull luggage trailers around they deploy big-wheeled farm tractors - as if they believe tractors will always be needed for the perpetual business of working the land, if this air travel lark turns out to be just a passing fad. <br />
One of my fellow judges is the university's director, Professor Anath - a tall symphony of green cotton and graceful moves. <br />
He gives me a small book detailing the flora and fauna of the college he has taught at for nearly 40 years. <br />
As a student-filled car passes us, horn blaring, he confides: "We have 4,500 students and many other creatures here. It's a place of ecological dynamism." <br />
<b>Passionate debate</b><br />
We walk into the main lecture hall as the young debaters marshal their thoughts.<br />
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 226px;"><tbody>
<tr><td> <div> <img alt="Student's talking at the Debating Matters competition" border="0" height="282" hspace="0" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50381000/jpg/_50381865_nak_3781.jpg" vspace="0" width="226" /> <div class="cap">Eight schools qualified for the final series of debates in Chennai</div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Sunipa Dev goes to school in Calcutta and loves maths. She says she dreams of making it through to the Indian Statistical Institute. <br />
I ask her about the difference between this and normal school debating. <br />
"This is a shock. We usually stand up, make our speech and sit down. The debates are a bit like elocution exercises. <br />
"Here we get to argue and test our ideas and have our minds changed by people our own age - not teachers." <br />
Today's motion - "The importance of learning English in India is overstated" - is ripe for nuanced debate.<br />
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 231px;"><tbody>
<tr> <td width="5"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" hspace="0" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif" vspace="0" width="5" /></td> <td class="sibtbg"> <div class="mva"><br />
</div><div> <div class="mva"> <img alt="" border="0" height="13" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif" width="24" /> <b>The disastrous attempt to enforce Hindi as the national language of India in 1965 is cited as a reason why English could be the language of Indian unity</b> <img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="13" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif" vspace="0" width="23" /><br clear="all" /> </div></div><div class="mva"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>There are 22 constitutionally recognised languages in India and the debaters portray English as either the smouldering dog-end of colonialism or the passport to economic growth, as evidenced by the IT and service industry explosion. <br />
But there are unexpected angles. <br />
One team highlights the need for English to liberate Dalits - the Indian underclasses, formerly "untouchables" who can use English to vault over the social barriers of the officially banned caste system. <br />
The pressure on rural teachers not equipped to teach English to a sufficient standard is highlighted. <br />
The disastrous attempt to enforce Hindi as the national language of India in 1965 is cited as a reason why English could be the language of Indian unity. <br />
Some complained that as doctors were trained in English, they would either go abroad or into cities rather than struggle with local languages, thus denying some areas decent medical care. <br />
<b>Poetic road signs</b><br />
After lively interventions from the floor we run from the hall through a thunderstorm to minivans and on to lunch. <br />
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 226px;"><tbody>
<tr><td> <div> <img alt="Two men riding a motor bike in Chennai" border="0" height="170" hspace="0" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50379000/jpg/_50379835_motorbike_226afp.jpg" vspace="0" width="226" /> <div class="cap">Millions of people are injured on India's roads every year</div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Every inch of the interior of our minibus is lined with highly varnished pale wood panels, carved scrolls and brass handles - if you turned this van inside out, it would resemble a giant coffin. <br />
Perhaps a witty acknowledgement of the perils of travelling on the roads of Chennai. <br />
Even here amid the pinballing cars, trucks and bikes, English is not used as a blunt instrument. <br />
Whereas in the UK the phrase "Speed Kills" is a familiar sight on road signs, in Chennai official signs read "Speed Thrills, But Kills". Rhyme and reason. <br />
Back for the afternoon session I meet Mr Srinvas, a teacher who has brought four boys from The Army School Ramakrishna Puram in Hyderabad. <br />
He is quiet and watchful as his excited pupils ricochet ideas around the room after their debate. <br />
Mr Srinvas' father died when he was a toddler and his mother was illiterate, so his induction into a mission school - and particularly joining its library - was life-changing. <br />
He says with a smile that he could not learn to read English quickly enough to understand the big science books that he cradled in wonder, but his older sister tried to bring him closer to Einstein via the Jane Austen novels she read to him at home by tallow light. <br />
As a successful science teacher, what does he feel about the English language debate? He leans forwards, conscious of young ears nearby and says: <br />
"I love the English language and you know, we don't actually lose anything of ourselves by using it, because although we might speak in English, we think in our native tongues." </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-36989658285877769282010-12-10T18:39:00.000-08:002010-12-10T18:42:03.044-08:00Kate Middleton's Fashion Hits America<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Royal wedding: Kate Middleton fashion fever hits NY</h1><span class="byline"> <span class="byline-name">By Sima Kotecha</span> <span class="byline-title">US reporter, Newsbeat</span> </span> <br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"><img alt="Kate Middleton and Prince William" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50370000/gif/_50370808_t3hh9ye2.gif" width="304" /> <i> <span style="width: 304px;">Kate Middleton's fashion choices are likely to be closely followed and imitated, experts say</span></i> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11959566#story_continues_1"><br />
</a> <br />
<div class="hyperpuff"><br />
</div></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">It used to be Michelle Obama, but now women across America are looking to another fashion icon for inspiration - Kate Middleton.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Ever since her engagement to Prince William last month, US media have delved into her wardrobe with magazines and newspapers printing pictures of the future British royal in a portfolio of outfits.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In New York, where fashion is a necessity rather than an option, her feather hats, knee length dresses, and fitted tweed coats have already sparked interest. Ask locals to describe the Middleton look, and the words "beautiful", "elegant", and "sophisticated" are frequently among the responses.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But it's not just what she wears that is creating inspiration in this part of the world. Her hairstyle - chocolate, wavy, tumbling - is also starting to be emulated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At Cutler Hair Salon on 57th Street, stylist Kelsy Osterman says dozens of women have been coming in and asking for a Kate Middleton cut.</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head">'Tremendously sexy'</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"People get really inspired by all these big beautiful photos of her and I think the one thing they can try to obtain of that beautiful look is the hair," she said. "There could have been 20 women in a day that ask for it."</span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "><span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11959566#story_continues_2"><br />
</a></span> <br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="MacKenzie Doughtery, before and after the Kate Middleton makeover" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50376000/jpg/_50376390_beforeandafter.jpg" width="304" /></span> </div></div><div class="story-feature wide "></div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">MacKenzie Doughtery, 24, already has deep brown hair, but wanted a cut that would mirror Ms Middleton's after the man she is dating told her that it was tremendously sexy.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">"I love Kate Middleton's style appeal," she said. "She's going to be royalty which is exciting, and the hairstyle is user-friendly and good for a busy girl who's always on the run." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Twelve blocks south from Cutler Hair Salon is another business seeing a boom because of the bride-to-be. The Natural Sapphire Company operates on the 20th floor of an office building. A transparent bullet proof screen welcomes visitors as they enter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It has the air of an office in overdrive, with staff scurrying around answering phones and typing away on computers. CEO Michael Arnstein said the Middleton-effect - specifically demand for jewellery modelled on her sapphire engagement ring - was leaving him exhausted.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I've had four hours sleep," he said. "We're being pushed to the limits. We need more staff, we need more stones, more setters, we need more jewellers. It's fantastic but we just can't meet the demand. Kate Middleton has just created this massive market for us and its overwhelming".</span><br />
<div class="story-feature narrow"><span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11959566#story_continues_3"><br />
</a><span class="quote-credit-title"></span></span> </div><div id="story_continues_3"><span style="font-size: large;">Ms Middleton's ring consists of a large sapphire surrounded by small diamonds, and once belonged to William's mother, Princess Diana. Prince William said he gave it to his fiancee because "it was right to put the two together".</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head">Selling sapphires</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The design seems to have been revived more than 25 years after the Princess of Wales wore it. A style that fashion-conscious women in Manhattan may have considered quite orthodox now seems to be experiencing a resurgence.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"This time of year before Christmas, we're usually selling anywhere from three to 10 rings a day and now we're selling 50 to 75 rings a day," Mr Arnstein said. "We've sold hundreds and hundreds of sapphires. Within hours of the engagement we were just inundated with orders."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The rings range in price from $1,000 (£635.80) to more than $100,000, depending on the size of the stone.</span><br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Kate Middleton wearing her engagement ring which once belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50371000/jpg/_50371194_010706746-1.jpg" width="304" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Ms Middleton's engagement ring, once worn by Princess Diana, has also sparked interest</span></i></span> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As for Ms Doughtery, she has no plans to invest in a ring but she hopes her new hairstyle will bring her plenty of luck.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Oh I love it, it looks amazing!" she cried. "Hopefully now I'll find my prince!" </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So will these Kate inspired trends last - or are they a passing fancy of Americans ahead of the big day in April? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">American Vogue's European Editor Hamish Bowles believes Ms Middleton could have an enduring impact in Manhattan, and beyond.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I think she's extremely elegant and that idea of being manicured and groomed and effectively pulled together actually resonates with New York women," he says.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"There is a classicism in her choices that projects fashion but not outrageously so. I think what's remarkable is that so early in the process she has found an identity of her own and that is something that will enhance her authenticity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"This is someone we are going to be deeply compelled by for a long time to come."</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-46776818900897757282010-12-09T16:58:00.000-08:002010-12-09T16:58:37.153-08:00Facebook founder Zuckerberg to donate most of wealth to charity<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Facebook founder Zuckerberg to give away most of wealth</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50371000/jpg/_50371542_markzuckerberg,facebook.jpg" width="304" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Mr Zuckerberg is estimated to be worth almost $7bn</span></i> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <i><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11965656#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has become one of the latest billionaires to pledge to give away the majority of his wealth. </b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He is one of 17 new people to support a group, founded by Bill Gates and his wife along with Warren Buffett, which encourages America's wealthiest to publicly promise to donate to charity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At 26, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the youngest to sign up.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Earlier this year, he gave $100m in shares to schools in New Jersey.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" he asked in a statement.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Zuckerberg, estimated to be worth $6.9bn (£4.4bn), was placed 35th in this year's Forbes list of the richest people in the US. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Giving Pledge initiative was launched earlier this year. It was announced in August that 40 individuals or families had taken the pledge. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head">Encouraging others</span></span> <div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11965656#story_continues_2"><br />
</a></span> <h2><span style="font-size: large;">Billionaire pledgers</span></h2><ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Larry Ellison, Oracle</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Bill Gates, Microsoft</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> George Lucas, Film producer</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Ted Turner, CNN founder</span></li>
</ul></div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of the super rich prefer to give to charities anonymously, but the Giving Pledge stresses the importance of being open about donations.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">"Research shows that when people know that others are giving, they are themselves more likely to give," said Princeton University's Peter Singer in a statement released by the Giving Pledge.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who also signed up this month, said he had not previously considered going public. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"However, I certainly see the value of a project that encourages wealthy individuals to step forward and commit to use their wealth for the common good," he said. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I hope that by adding my voice with those who are supporting this project, we will all encourage others to participate."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There was also a sign that the founders may take the Giving Pledge outside the US. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Warren Buffett and the Gateses are talking to other billionaires from around the world to learn about their philanthropy efforts, a statement said.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-80210183492805832992010-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:002010-12-09T16:43:28.193-08:00Egypt shark attacks<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Egypt shark attacks: 'Multiple species' behind attacks</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="A couple in Sharm el-Sheik, 8 December" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50359000/jpg/_50359674_tv010808409.jpg" width="400" /> <span style="width: 304px;">The Egyptian authorities are concerned about the impact on tourism</span> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11958194#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sharks of different species are behind a series of attacks on tourists at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a US investigator says.</b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Marine biologist George Burgess said a single shark had carried out two of the attacks, while a different species was responsible for two others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Burgess told the BBC that environmental effects had caused the "highly unusual" spate of attacks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A German woman was killed and four people injured in last week's attacks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Many of the main beaches have been closed to swimmers and snorkellers since Sunday's fatal attack.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Egyptian authorities are concerned about the impact on tourism to the country, which provides a crucial source of foreign currency and jobs in the country.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head">'Rational' attacks</span></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Mr Burgess said the attacks were "undoubtedly" caused by environmental factors, as two separate shark species had been identified from photographic evidence provided to international investigators called in by the Egyptian authorities.</span><br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="A man holds the shark which was identified by Egyptian officials as the shark which attacked tourists off Sharm el-Sheikh. Photo: 2 December 2010" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50359000/jpg/_50359759_010768883-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Egyptian authorities say this mako shark was behind some attacks</span></i></span> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A shark hunt was useless, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, as the team had ruled out the existence of a so-called rogue shark that was acting like "a deranged human being taking lives". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"What you have here are rational attempts by a predator to find food," said Mr Burgess, of the International Shark Attack File based in Florida.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He said the dumping of animal carcasses in the area by a cargo ship last month might have contributed to the attacks by attracting the sharks nearer to shore, but said the investigation was ongoing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, he advised people to swim in groups in areas inside the reef, and to stay out of the water at night.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">An elderly German woman was fatally mauled just metres from the shore on Sunday, just a day after beaches were reopened following shark attacks that injured two Russian snorkellers on 30 November and another one on 1 December.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The governor of South Sinai, Muhammad Shousha, said on Wednesday that one of the sharks involved in the attacks - a mako - had been caught.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But an oceanic white tip, believed to have killed the German woman, was still at large, he added.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Egyptian government is keen to protect the tourism industry, which generated revenues of $11.6bn (£7.3bn) in 2009.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-81857535258210502192010-12-09T16:36:00.000-08:002010-12-09T16:36:01.225-08:00Royal car attacked in protest<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Royal car attacked in protest after MPs' fee vote</h1><h1 class="story-header"> </h1><h1 class="story-header"> </h1><div class="videoInStoryB"> <div class="emp" id="emp-11965681-197591"> <noscript> <div class="warning"> <img class="holding" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50371000/jpg/_50371985_camilla.jpg" alt="Amateur video showing attack on royal car" /> <p><strong>Please turn on JavaScript.</strong> Media requires JavaScript to play.</p> </div> </noscript> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFE8D9p2vF2TguVM1vSFqC5vqft-lHVLfZFoLtH1ADsBcwKwZOl8N6NLbnzNhzkQ1MC3hTrz6irGChNMf40zbGb0DjSoRghoByzXqEXJM1_49_lwdt1ZlbB2nTWJ8FI11M-tI4s3zJXFgG/s1600/tp-prince-attack2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFE8D9p2vF2TguVM1vSFqC5vqft-lHVLfZFoLtH1ADsBcwKwZOl8N6NLbnzNhzkQ1MC3hTrz6irGChNMf40zbGb0DjSoRghoByzXqEXJM1_49_lwdt1ZlbB2nTWJ8FI11M-tI4s3zJXFgG/s640/tp-prince-attack2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="height: 287px; margin: 0pt 0pt 3px; padding: 0pt; position: relative; width: 448px;"><div class="embedded-hyper"><i>Eyewitness chases royal car as it is surrounded by protesters, using mobile phone to capture the incident</i><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11954333#story_continues_1"><br />
</a> <div class="hyperpuff"> <h2> </h2></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"></div><div class="hyperpuff"><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A car containing Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall has been attacked amid violence after MPs voted to raise university tuition fees in England.</span></b></div><div class="hyperpuff"> <span style="font-size: large;">A window was cracked and their car hit by paint, but the couple were unharmed. </span></div></div></div></div></div><span style="font-size: large;">In angry scenes, protesters battled with police in Parliament Square. Hundreds were later contained on Westminster Bridge by officers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Police say 12 officers and 43 protesters have been injured, while 22 arrests were made. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "shocking and regrettable" that protesters had attacked the prince's car. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11965454" title="Royal car attacked in fees demo">Clarence House said the royal couple were safe</a> and attending the Royal Variety performance as scheduled.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said there would be a "very serious and very detailed investigation" into the disturbances, in which 10 police officers have been injured.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The vote will mean fees will almost treble to £9,000 a year. The government's majority was cut by three-quarters to 21 in a backbench rebellion. Three ministerial aides resigned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Only 28 Lib Dem MPs - less than half - voted for the government's plans for tuition fees. Six Conservative MPs voted against.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head"> </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head">Violent scenes</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There were angry clashes as protesters - some throwing missiles - fought to break through police lines. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Riot police had to force back protesters who were smashing windows of the Treasury and the Supreme Court.</span><br />
<div class="videoInStoryB"> <div class="bbccom_companion bbccom_visibility_show" id="bbccom_companion_11962910"><div class="bbccom_text bbccom_companion_text"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/bbc_online/adverts_general"><br />
</a></span></div></div><div class="caption"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div></div><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier, protesters had largely taken over Parliament Square and pressed against lines of police in front of the Houses of Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mounted police were used to control crowds, at one point charging a group of protesters, as thousands of demonstrators protested outside the Houses of Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Other reported actions taken by the protesters include: </span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> Setting the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square alight</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Smashing windows at shops in Oxford Street </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Vandalising statues in Parliament Square, including that of Winston Churchill</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> A sit-in by about 150 students at the National Gallery</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-size: large;">Superintendent Julia Pendry said officers had come under sustained attack and condemned "acts of wanton vandalism, wanton violence" by protesters.</span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">In violent scenes earlier, the BBC's Mark Georgiou said there had been injuries to both police and protesters near to Westminster Abbey.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The Metropolitan Police say there have been attacks using "flares, sticks, snooker balls and paint balls". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Students from around the UK gathered in London for a day of protests and a rally - with police expecting about 20,000 demonstrators.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The coalition government faced its first major backbench rebellion in the vote.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The BBC's Ben Brown, outside Parliament, said protesters shouted "shame on you" as news of the result filtered out to the crowd.</span><br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Mounted police" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50371000/jpg/_50371021_mountedpolice304.jpg" width="304" /> <i> <span style="width: 304px;">Police clashed with protesters in the streets around the Houses of Parliament</span></i></span> </div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The package of measures will see fees rising to an upper limit of £9,000 per year - with requirements for universities to protect access for poorer students if they charge more than £6,000 per year.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-64557681869542449272010-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:002010-12-07T13:47:18.345-08:00US scraps Israel settlements freeze bid<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">US scraps Israel settlements freeze bid to revive talks</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="breaking news" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48333000/gif/_48333893_bn-304x171.gif" width="304" /> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11943599#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The United States is abandoning efforts to persuade Israel to renew a freeze on settlement-building as part of efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.</b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Washington had been negotiating with Israel to try to meet Palestinian conditions for restarting direct talks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Palestinians suspended talks in September after a 10-month freeze on Israeli building in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, expired.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The US says it will continue to explore ways to bring the two sides together.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A senior US official told the BBC that attempts to get Israel to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in occupied territory had failed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But he said this did not meant the end of Washington's efforts to revive the peace talks, which resumed in September after a break of almost two years ago but were suspended almost immediately when Israel decided not to extend the ban on settlement building in the West Bank. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table while settlement building continues. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A second official said the administration had determined that the moratorium extension was not the best basis to resume talks. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Last month, the Obama administration offered Israel a sizeable package of incentives, including jet fighters and security guarantees, in return for a 90-day extension of the previous moratorium. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to renew the freeze if the Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state, but the Palestinian Authority dismissed the idea. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It is unclear how the US is planning to proceed, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas at the state department in Washington. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will be in Washington next week and Hillary Clinton will make a speech about the Middle East on Friday. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.</span><br />
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<h1 class="story-header">UK snow cover viewed from space</h1><div class="caption full-width"> <img alt="UK covered in snow (Pic courtesy of NEODAAS/University of Dundee)" height="1300" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50335000/jpg/_50335932_snowsat.jpg" width="976" /> </div><span style="font-size: large;">The University of Dundee has published another image captured by its satellite receiving station showing much of the UK covered in snow.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The picture was received at 1203 GMT on Thursday.</span><br />
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<div><a href="http://www.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/purchase_form.php?opid=1799617&afsid=1" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;" target="_top">Your Ad Here</a><br />
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<h1 class="story-header">Russian satellites fail to enter orbit after launch</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Russian Proton-M rocket carrying the three Glonass satellites is carried to the launch pad - 2 December 2010" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50302000/jpg/_50302714_50302713.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">One Russian aerospace source said the carrier rocket veered off course after launch</span></i> </div><div class="introduction"><br />
</div><div class="introduction"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Three Russian satellites have failed to enter orbit after they were launched on a rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.</b></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Russian aerospace experts said the satellites and the upper stage rocket carrying them probably fell into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Officials said the satellites went off course after separating with a booster rocket from the main launch rocket.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The satellites were to be part of a navigation system meant to rival GPS.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They were being carried on a Proton-M rocket launched earlier on Sunday.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A source in Russia's aerospace industry told Ria-Novosti news agency that the rocket had veered off course by eight degrees after its launch.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Russia has already successfully launched a number of the Glonass satellites this year. The navigation system is meant to be in place next year.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-8347391802546395322010-12-05T16:15:00.000-08:002010-12-05T16:15:36.112-08:00Seven cyclists killed in collision in Italy<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Seven cyclists killed in collision with car in Italy</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Medics inspect the bodies of eight cyclists killed in a collision with a car near Lamezia Terme in Italy (5 December 2010)" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50303000/jpg/_50303220_010789822-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">The Sunday-morning cyclists were affiliated with a gym in Lamezia Terme</span></i> </div><div class="introduction"><br />
</div><div class="introduction"><span style="font-size: large;">Italian police have arrested a man after his car ploughed into a group of cyclists, killing seven of them.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The driver was overtaking on a two-lane road near Lamezia Terme in the southern region of Calabria when he hit the oncoming cyclists, officials said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Four people were also injured in the collision, including the driver, who is a Moroccan national.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He is being held under police guard in hospital on suspicion of manslaughter, according to the Ansa news agency.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Earlier reports had put the death toll at eight.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Police said the arrested man had been driving without a licence, having had it withdrawn seven months ago for dangerous driving, and that blood tests showed he had been driving under the influence of marijuana.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Visibility and driving conditions were reportedly good at the time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ansa reported that the dead men were members of a local amateur racing team affiliated with a gym in Lamezia Terme. They were aged between 35 and 58, it added.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The head of the Italian Cycling Federation, Renato Di Rocco, has denounced the violent "massacre".</span><br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-78126170118780663962010-12-05T01:43:00.000-08:002010-12-05T01:43:52.023-08:00North Korea warns South<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">North Korea warns South against 'provocations'</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="North Korean soldier - file photo" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50300000/jpg/_50300646_50300637.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">The border between the two Koreas is heavily fortified and guarded</span></i> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11921008#story_continues_1"><br />
</a></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">North Korea has warned the South against "provocations", including planned military live-fire drills near the disputed maritime border.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">A North Korean statement said the South was causing "extreme" tension.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It is Pyongyang's first response to South Korea's new defence minister, Kim Kwan-jin, saying Northern attacks would be met with air strikes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He spoke following North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island that killed four people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In a statement carried by North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, Pyongyang blamed the South's government for ratcheting up tension.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"The political situation on the Korean peninsula is reaching an uncontrollable level due to provocative, frantic moves by the puppet group," said the statement.</span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">The shelling of Yeonpyeong island on 23 November killed two South Korean civilians and two soldiers, and shocked Seoul into reviewing its rules of engagement for such incidents.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">The island lies south of the Northern Limit Line, the maritime border declared by UN forces at the end of the Korean War in 1953, but not recognised by Pyongyang.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The bombardment of the island came after Southern naval drills in the area.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The shelling, and the tough statements from both sides that have followed it, have stoked tensions in the region.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At a parliamentary confirmation hearing on Friday, incoming Defence Minister Kim said: "If North Korea provokes again, we will definitely use aircraft to attack North Korea."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The South has also engaged in a flurry of military preparations, including a forthcoming live-fire drill along its coast, naval manoeuvres with the US and plans for further exercises with the US.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The just-completed naval manoeuvres were planned long before the shelling of Yeonpyeong. The live-fire exercise, a routine training drill, was also scheduled before the bombardment, military officials said.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-68389367426865701902010-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:002010-12-05T00:00:27.073-08:00Wikileaks files reveal secret US-Yemen bomb deal<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Wikileaks files reveal secret US-Yemen bomb deal</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50295000/jpg/_50295288_010527890-1.jpg" width="400" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">The cables suggest Yemen's president insisted on taking responsibility for US air strikes</span></i> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"> <div class="hyperpuff"><br />
</div></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">US cables released by the Wikileaks website suggest that Yemen allowed secret US air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">President Ali Abdullah Saleh claimed raids were conducted by Yemen's military when they were in fact carried out by the US, according to the cables.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The files also reveal that Mr Saleh rejected an offer to deploy US ground forces in Yemen. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The US fears Yemen has become a haven for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The cables detail how Mr Saleh claimed responsibility for two US air strikes in December 2009, according to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-yemen-us-attack-al-qaida" title="Guardian Wikileaks coverage - Yemen">Guardian </a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A few days after the second attack on <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8429370.stm" title="BBC News Online on Yemen air strike">24 December</a>, Mr Saleh told the then head of US central command, General David Petraeus: "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On 21 December, US ambassador Stephen Seche reported in a dispatch that "Yemen insisted it must 'maintain the status quo' regarding the official denial of US involvement."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Seche quotes Mr Saleh as saying that he wanted operations to continue "non-stop until we eradicate this disease".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The messages are among more than 250,000 US cables obtained by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The files are released in stages by Wikileaks, and details are also being published in the Guardian, the New York Times and other papers around the world that investigated the material.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head"> </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="cross-head">'Bizarre'</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the files released on Friday, Gen Petraeus had flown in to Yemen's capital Sanaa to tell Mr Saleh that the US would also allow its ground forces to be deployed in Yemen on counter-terrorism operations. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Saleh rejected the offer, although he had told President Barack Obama's national security adviser, John Brennan, in September 2009 that he would give the US full access. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I have given you an open door on terrorism," Mr Saleh is quoted in a US cable after the meeting with Mr Brennan. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is suspected of having launched a number of attacks on targets in the West, including failed plots to bomb several cargo airliners in October. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The cables also reveal Mr Saleh to be an erratic partner in negotiations, the Guardian reports.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">US security officials who met Yemen's long-standing leader in the course of 2009 described him as "petulant" and "bizarre". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After one meeting with Mr Brennan, the US ambassador reported that Mr Saleh had been "in vintage form". Mr Seche wrote that the President was "at times disdainful and dismissive", while he was "conciliatory and congenial" on other occasions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr Saleh told Mr Brennan that should the US not help Yemen, "this country will become worse than Somalia". </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-20574680603855823882010-12-02T22:18:00.000-08:002010-12-02T22:18:04.677-08:00Wikileaks cables criticise UK military in Afghanistan<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">Wikileaks cables criticise UK military in Afghanistan</h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="British troops in Afghanistan" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50274000/jpg/_50274184_008068269-1.jpg" width="400" /> <span style="width: 304px;">Criticism in the cables of the British military effort in Afghanistan goes back to 2007</span> </div><div class="embedded-hyper"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11906147#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">The latest US diplomatic documents released by Wikileaks contain harsh criticism of the UK military effort in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009.</div>The cables say US officials and Afghan President Hamid Karzai believed UK forces were not up to the task of securing Helmand province on their own.<br />
A US general, Gen Dan McNeill, is quoted as saying that British forces have made a mess of Helmand.<br />
The details have been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/02/wikileaks-cables-afghan-british-military">published in the Guardian newspaper.</a><br />
Criticism of the British military effort goes back to 2007 when Gen McNeill was the US general in charge of Nato forces.<br />
He was said to be "particularly dismayed by the British effort" and is reported to have said "they had made a mess of things in Helmand, their tactics were wrong".<br />
He criticised a deal with the Taliban which allowed British troops to be withdrawn from Musa Qala in 2006, saying it "opened the door to narco-traffickers in that area, and now it was impossible to tell the difference between the traffickers and the insurgents".<br />
<b><span class="cross-head"> </span></b></div><div><b><span class="cross-head">'Not ready to fight'</span></b> <br />
A cable dated late 2008, from the US embassy, says "we and President Karzai agree that British forces are not up to the task of securing Helmand" without US support.<br />
In another cable, the then Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, expressed disappointment at the ordering of an extra 2,000 British soldiers to Helmand, saying: "They were not ready to fight as actively as American soldiers."<br />
At a meeting with Senator John McCain in December 2008, President Karzai said he was relieved that US marines were being sent to reinforce the British-led mission in Helmand and "related an anecdote in which a woman from Helmand asked him to 'take the British away and give us back the Americans'."<br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <br />
They reinforce a criticism made before of British forces that they have not been aggressive enough or present in sufficient numbers. <br />
This should not come as a huge surprise. President Karzai has been critical of British military efforts in the past. British commanders have long acknowledged that, until the recent US reinforcements, they did not have sufficient forces to stabilise the major population centres within Helmand. <br />
The blunt private comments are also contradicted by more recent public praise from US military commanders. <br />
US Marine, Major General Richard Mills said the UK's efforts in Sangin had been "simply nothing short of remarkable". <br />
And they need to be tempered by the realities on the ground. The US Marines who have now taken over Sangin have found it to be just as dangerous and deadly as the British.<br />
Yet these words could still cause hurt and offence - not least for the families of those 345 British servicemen who have lost their lives in Afghanistan. <br />
</div><div id="story_continues_2">According to the Guardian, criticism of the British operation in Helmand centres on its failure to establish security in Sangin.</div>Helmand governor Gulab Mangal told a US team led by vice-president Joe Biden in January 2009 that American forces were urgently needed as British security in Sangin was inadequate.<br />
He is reported to have said British troops "must leave their bases and engage with the people".<br />
BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said these criticisms related to a period in which British commanders themselves were making clear they wanted more troops and resources. <br />
Responding to the latest leaks, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "UK forces did an excellent job in Sangin, an area which has always been and continues to be uniquely challenging, delivering progress by increasing security and taking the fight to the insurgency.<br />
"That work is now being continued by the US Marines as part of a hugely increased Isaf presence across the whole of Helmand Province. <br />
"Both Afghan leaders, including the Governor of Sangin, and the US Marines have publicly recognised and paid tribute to the sacrifice and achievements of the UK forces in that area."<br />
A Pentagon spokesman said the contribution and sacrifice of UK troops to the war in Afghanistan was "certainly recognized and appreciated" in the US.<br />
"Marine commanders on the ground in Afghanistan have publicly recognized that British forces did an excellent job in Sangin, an area which has been and continues to be uniquely challenging," he said. <br />
Meanwhile, former defence secretary Geoff Hoon revealed he had written a paper at the time of the Helmand deployment - which took place under his successor John Reid - raising concerns about the manpower available for the operation.<br />
Mr Hoon told The Times that his paper "basically said that we could do this, but only once we had drawn down significant numbers in Iraq".</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376275598269437436.post-47218414104350940432010-12-02T22:04:00.000-08:002010-12-02T22:04:01.171-08:00European countries amid weather chaos<script type="text/javascript">
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<h1 class="story-header">European countries battle weather chaos </h1><div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img alt="Pedestrians in the snow in Gdansk, Poland (2 Dec 2010)" height="225" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50275000/jpg/_50275236_010771216-1.jpg" width="400" /> <span style="width: 304px;">At least 18 people have died in the cold in Poland</span> </div><div class="story-feature related narrow"> <a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11907045#story_continues_1"><br />
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</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-size: large;">People across northern Europe are still facing heavy snow and freezing temperatures, with more cold weather forecast for the weekend.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Up to 28 people are thought to have been killed by the cold or in weather-related accidents.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thousands of people have been left stranded after roads and rail networks were disrupted and airports closed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the Balkans, heavy flooding has forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Temperatures in Poland have fallen to as low as -33C (-27F) in the past few days. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Police in the country say 18 people are now known to have have died from exposure, most of them homeless people who had been drinking alcohol outside.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Russian media reported three deaths in Moscow and at least two people were also reported to have been killed in Germany.</span><br />
<div class="story-feature wide "> <span style="font-size: large;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11907045#story_continues_2"><br />
</a></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size: large;">They included a 73-year-old man in Lower Saxony who was said to have been hit by a train while attempting to clear snow.</span></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head"> </span></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="cross-head">Airports closed</span></span></b> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thousands of railway passengers in Germany had to spend the night in their trains after the snow forced high-speed inter-city routes to a halt. </span><br />
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="People wait to be evacuated from flooding in Gorazde, Bosnia (2 Dec 2010)" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50275000/jpg/_50275295_010769670-1.jpg" width="304" /> <i><span style="width: 304px;">Many people have had to flee flooding in the Balkans</span></i></span> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The authorities in Berlin kept underground stations, soup kitchens and heated buses open all night to provide shelter for the city's homeless.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There has been widespread disruption to international travel, with several major airports forced to close.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Significant flight delays were reported at London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol, Berlin Tegel and Duesseldorf airports.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">London's Gatwick airport re-opened on Friday morning after two days, but passengers have been warned to expect delays and cancellations. London City airport and Edinburgh airport in Scotland also suffered closures.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Eurostar says it expects to operate a significantly reduced service until Sunday, but that no more tickets will be available until Monday.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In other developments</span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> Denmark mobilized its army to help emergency vehicles make their way through snow in the south-east</span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> Snowfalls trapped hundreds of motorists in Brittany and Normandy</span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"> In Belgium, 650km (403 miles) of traffic jams were reported, with Flanders hit hard</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-size: large;">Cold air moving down from Siberia has contributed to the wintry conditions in northern Europe. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Temperatures are an average 5-10C below average in some major cities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, heavy rain has led to severe flooding in parts of Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">More than 1,000 people have fled their homes to escape rising waters and officials have declared a state of emergency in several affected areas.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flareneldsove-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003TVWNAM&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>flareneldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414396590690822286noreply@blogger.com0