Haiti, Regional view[ 563 ]

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

download large image (5 MB, JPEG) acquired January 15, 2010

While not detailed enough to reveal earthquake damage to houses and buildings, this regional view of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on January 15, 2010, illustrates some of the physical obstacles that have complicated the job of aid workers in the aftermath of the recent earthquake along the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault south of the city.

The capital city is densely populated and densely built, with little open space apparent amid the gray pavement and buildings. With debris filling the streets, it has been difficult for supply trucks to maneuver, according to news reports. The single port through which large cargo ships can approach the city (image center) has been damaged, and the city’s only landing strip (top right) was overwhelmed by the number of flights trying to land and take off.

This image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

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January 13, 2010

7.0 Quake Near Port Au Prince

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January 15, 2010

Potential Landslides near Epicenter of Haiti Quake

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FBI and the telephones Law ...: [ 562 ]

FBI broke law in phone searches: report

WASHINGTON

Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:11am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The FBI collected more than 2,000 records on U.S. telephone calls by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or by persuading phone companies to provide them, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

FBI officials issued approvals afterward to justify their actions in collecting the phone records between 2002 and 2006, the newspaper said.

"This practice ceased in 2006 and never involved obtaining the content of telephone conversations. Additionally, steps have been taken to ensure similar situations do not occur in the future," FBI spokesman Michael Kortan told Reuters.

FBI officials issued approvals afterward to justify their actions in collecting the phone records between 2002 and 2006, the newspaper said.

The Post said it had obtained emails that showed how counterterrorism officials did not follow procedures aimed at protecting civil liberties.

FBI officials confirmed a Justice Department inspector general's report due this month is expected to conclude the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, the newspaper said.

FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni, in an interview with the Post, said the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

"We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she told the Post.

Caproni said FBI Director Robert Mueller did not know about the problems until the inspector general's investigation, which began in mid-2006.

"No FBI employee used informal methods to obtain telephone records for reasons other than a legitimate investigative interest," Kortan told Reuters.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; editing by Todd Eastham)

The Nigeria religious Riots....[ 561 ]

'Deaths mounting' in Nigeria religious riots in Jos

BBC at 15:58 GMT, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 At least 149 people have been killed during two days of violence between Christian and Muslim gangs in the Nigerian city of Jos, officials say. Mosque workers and Muslim clerics told reporters of the deaths as they prepared for a mass burial. The death toll has not been verified independently and it is not known how many Christians have died. The clashes broke out on Sunday and have continued since, with reports of gunfire and burning buildings. A 24-hour curfew has been enforced in the area, which has seen several bouts of deadly violence in recent years. At least 200 people were killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in 2008, while some 1,000 died in 2001. The current violence has forced at least 3,000 people from their homes. It was thought about 20 people had died in the violence on Sunday. But Balarabe Dawud, head of the Central Mosque in Jos, told AFP news agency he had now counted 192 bodies since Sunday. Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a mosque worker who was helping to prepare mass burials, told Reuters he had counted 149 bodies. "On Sunday evening, we buried 19 corpses and 52 yesterday. As of right now, there are 78 at the mosque yet to be buried," he said. Anglican Archbishop of Jos Benjamin Kwashi told the BBC that the situation was improving in the city centre, where security forces have been deployed. But the violence spread beyond the city boundaries on Tuesday to neighbouring areas. Jos is in Nigeria's volatile Middle Belt - between the mainly Muslim north and the south where the majority is Christian or follows traditional religions. Correspondents say such clashes in Nigeria are often blamed on sectarianism. However poverty and access to resources such as land often lie at the root of the violence.

The Boeing 787-Dreamliner..[ 560 ]

Boeing Happy with 787 Tests

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner

PARIS-(FOX) Tuesday 19-1-10

Boeing (BA) is happy with the progress of testing on its 787 Dreamliner, Yves Galland, President of Boeing France, said on Tuesday.

"We are extremely satisfied with the results of these tests. At this stage we have nothing to worry about -- quite the contrary in fact," he told a press briefing in France.

Boeing has carried out 15 test flights of the lightweight, fuel-saving passenger aircraft lasting a total of some 60 hours from its Seattle commercial aircraft base.

The 787 staged a long-delayed maiden flight in December.

Boeing said on Friday it had so far completed initial stall tests and other dynamic maneuvers and carried out an extensive check-out of the airplane's systems.

It said the plane had reached its initial airworthiness milestone, allowing the company to expand testing.

First delivery is due in the fourth quarter.

Epiphany, Orthodoxy customs[ 559 ]

Russians brave icy cold for Epiphany

A woman plunges into an icy pond to mark the upcoming Epiphany in Kuzminki park in southeastern Moscow, Monday, Jan. 18, 2010. Thousands of Russian Orthodox Church followers plunged Monday into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark the upcoming Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. Water that is blessed by a cleric on Epiphany is considered holy and pure until next year's celebration, and is believed to have special powers of protection and healing.

The Russian Orthodox Church follows the old Julian calendar, according to which Epiphany falls on Jan. 19. while the Greek Orthodox falls on Jan 7th Moscow temperatures on Monday morning dropped to -20 C (-4 F). (AP Photo)

The same custom on Jan 7th in cold but no icy sea waters in GREECE

January 19, 2010

MOSCOW—It's not exactly the Jordan River, but that isn't stopping Russian Orthodox believers from plunging into the icy Moscow River in their traditional Epiphany celebration.

Braving temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit), hoards queued overnight and into dawn Tuesday to dunk themselves into a hole in the ice in Moscow and rise again in a ritual symbolizing rebirth.

"After the Epiphany dive, all your illnesses, all your problems just fade away," film actor and stuntman Alik Gulkhanov told AP Television News as he came out of the water, his hair frozen into little icicles.

The scene, mimicking the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, was repeated from Vladivostok to Volgograd across Russia in a ceremony whose popularity is increasing with that of the Orthodox Church.

Typically a cross is carved out of the ice near the bathing spot, and a wooden dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit is thrown into the water.

Many of the stripped-down swimmers were blase about the frigid weather, and warmed themselves with another spirit -- vodka -- before submerging. State television showed images of people emerging from the water and saying they felt reborn as they scrambled for towels and coats.

While in western Christian traditions, Epiphany marks the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, in Eastern Orthodoxy the festival commemorates Christ's baptism.