U.S. tests powerful laser weapon
Ria Novosti-NOV.2009
18:16--16/10/2009
On October 13, an airborne laser weapon was tested in New Mexico
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The death penalty in Russia [ 496 ]
Russia enshrines ban on death penalty | |
BBC 10:40 GMT, Thursday, 19 November 2009 Russia's ban on the death penalty will remain when a current legal suspension expires on 1 January, the country's Constitutional Court has ruled. It said the use of the death penalty was now impossible because Russia had signed international deals banning it. Russian announced the moratorium in 1996 when it joined the Council of Europe, although it retains capital punishment in its criminal code. Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Russians back the death penalty. One recent survey showed that two-thirds of Russians backed the measure. It said that one in four was against it, mainly because of the possibility that judges would make mistakes. Chechnya jury trials The court's head Valery Zorkin said that the end of the moratorium "does not make it possible to apply the death penalty on Russian territory". He cited a number of international accords signed by Moscow, which banned the use of the capital punishment. Mr Zorkin also said Russia must extend the moratorium on executions until it ratified Protocol Six of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of the death penalty in peaceful times. Russia's pledge to sign the protocol was a key condition of its membership in the Council of Europe in 1996. However, the country's parliament is yet to officially outlaw executions. In 1999 the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty could not be used until jury trials had been introduced in all of Russia's 89 regions. Thursday's ruling was its response to the country's Supreme Court request, which had sought to clarify the future of the moratorium because the first jury trials would take place in Chechnya on 1 January. Chechnya is the only remaining part of the Russian Federation where trials by jury have never been held. Last week, President Dmitry Medvedev's representative at the Constitutional Court, Mikhail Krotov, said that the Kremlin was in favour of the gradual abolition of the death penalty. | |
Traffic controllers problem across USA.[ 495 ]
FAA: System back up after causing flight delays
Air traffic controllers work at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this year.
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -November 19, 2009 10:51 a.m. EST-
The failed computer system that caused flight delays across the country has been restored, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.
WSI Inc. -- a company that provides CNN weather and other information -- said earlier the computer outage started at 5:10 a.m. ET and service was restored at 8:22 a.m. ET.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said air traffic controllers had to enter flight plans manually, a process that caused delays. The problem appeared to be across the nation.
The FAA said the information in the network is data required to launch planes expeditiously. Airplane safety was not affected, the FAA said. For planes in the air, there was radar coverage and communication, according to the FAA.
Carmen McDonald, a passenger in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was among those delayed at one point Thursday.
McDonald said she thought her Spirit Airlines flight would leave on time -- around 7 a.m. ET. But the 39-year-old model sat for an hour and 15 minutes amid the noise of loud kids before the plane was ready to leave a logjammed runway and take off to Boston, Massachusetts.
"I'm frustrated," she said, distracted by using Twitter and calling on her cell phone as her plane sat planted on the runway. "I have somewhere to be."
McDonald said the pilot at first announced that air traffic control computers were down across the country.
iReporter records video from tarmac
AirTran Airways spokesman Christopher White said the airline had canceled 22 flights around the country as of 8 a.m. ET and had delayed dozens more because of a flight plan filing system problem.
He said most of the canceled flights were in Atlanta, AirTran's hub of operations, and others are spread throughout the country. White said the problem will have "a pretty major impact on operations" and the cancellations will have a ripple effect.
"We will be a mess all day," he said.
AirTran, which operates about 700 flights a day, asked customers to check airtran.com before showing up at the airport.
Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott said the airline was not providing numbers on how many flights were affected. But she said that Delta will give travelers some flexibility in rescheduling.
The system -- the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, or NADIN -- appears to be the same one that failed in August 2008. The FAA said flight plans were processed through the network's Salt Lake City, Utah, office "due to the Atlanta NADIN outage."
When McDonald's plane was cleared for takeoff in Fort Lauderdale, she said she had to turn off her cell phone and get ready to go.
"Now I'm happy," she said, "because nobody likes to be delayed."
CNN's Mike Ahlers, Jeanne Meserve and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.
Russia : The Powerful Proton-M[ 494 ]
The Powerful Proton-M
PRAVDA -(ENGLISH )
The Proton-M features several modifications, which were designed to increase payload and reliability of the vehicle, compared to the previous version of the rocket, known as Proton-K. For the first time, a digital flight control system replaced traditional analog hardware onboard Proton. It allowed more efficient propellant consumption during the flight and, as a result, the delivery of bigger payloads into orbit. It can launch 3 to 3.2 tonnes (6600 to 7050 lb) into geostationary orbit or 5.5 tonnes (12,100 lb) into a geostationary transfer orbit. It can place up to 22 tonnes (48,500 lb) in low Earth orbit with a 51.6-degree inclination, the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS).
The rocket has become even more powerful thanks to a new version of the RD-253 engines on its first stage. Moscow's Energomash development center increased the trust of the engine from 151 to 160 tons. With these two improvements the Proton-M was able to deliver 22 tons of cargo into the low Earth orbit compared to 20.7 tons for the standard Proton-K booster.
The Proton M's improvements include modifications to the lower stages to reduce structural mass, increase thrust, and fully utilize propellants. Generally a Breeze-M storable propellant upper stage is used instead of the Block D or Block DM stage, eliminating the need for multiple fuel supplies and oxygen top-off due to boiling; however, the Proton-M has also flown with a Block-DM upper stage.
On 7 July 2007, ILS launched the first Proton Breeze M Enhanced vehicle, which carried the DirecTV-10 satellite into orbit. This was the 326th Proton mission, the 16th Proton Breeze M mission and the 41st ILS Proton mission.[8] The Proton-M Enhanced features more efficient engines on the first stage, updated avionics, improved tankage and more powerful vernier engines on the Briz-M upper stage, and weight reduction throughout the rocket.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Piracy : ship fended off by firing back.....[ 493 ]
U.S. ship fends off second pirate attack
U.S. Navy personnel help tow a lifeboat in April after snipers killed three pirates and rescued a cargo ship's captain.
The U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama, which played a central role in a bloody hijacking drama last spring, was attacked again Wednesday.
But this time, the container ship fended off the attack by firing back, the European Union's anti-piracy force said.
Pirates fired automatic weapons at the ship as it sailed about 350 nautical miles east of Somalia, the EU naval force said.
Private security guards aboard the Maersk Alabama ship fired back and used loud sounds to repel the attack, the U.S. Navy said.
No casualties were reported.
In April, the Danish-owned ship was attacked in the Indian Ocean.
The pirates seized the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, and held him hostage on a lifeboat after their failed attempt to hijack his ship.
Five days later, U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates, rescued Phillips and arrested a fourth pirate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)