Russian fighter over Iran's sky [ 565 ][

Russian fighter jet allowed to fly over Iran

Now in Baku: 15:39 (GMT+04:00), Wednesday, 20 January , 2010

Iran has agreed to allow a Russian fighter jet to use its airspace to get to an international air show in Bahrain, Press TV reported with reference to a Russian website .

On Tuesday, RIA Novosti quoted an official of the Iranian Embassy in Moscow as saying that the Su-27 Flanker fighter had been cleared to fly to Bahrain via Iran's airspace.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had complained earlier in the day that Iran had refused to let the plane use its airspace to take part in the Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS) 2010.

It said permission had initially been granted, but when the plane approached Iran's airspace, the Islamic Republic's authorities banned it from entering "for unknown reasons."

However, according to some other media reports, the Su-27 was supposed to be transported to Bahrain by a cargo plane.

NASA : Haiti's earthquake analysis...[ 564 ]

Topography Along the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault, Haiti

NASA , Posted January 14, 2010

At 4:53 p.m. local time on January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Hispaniola Island, just 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Besides its strong magnitude, the earthquake’s shallow depth of roughly 8.3 kilometers (5.2 miles) ensured that the densely populated capital suffered violent shaking.

This map shows the topography and tectonic influences in the region of the earthquake. Lighter colors indicate higher elevation. Black circles mark earthquake locations determined by the U.S. Geological Survey, and circle sizes correspond with quake magnitudes. Dozens of aftershocks followed the main quake. Red lines indicate fault lines.

The epicenter of the quake appears just south of the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault, the southernmost of two major east-west-trending faults that bear the stress of the convergence of the Caribbean and North America tectonic plates in this location. Though faults are weak spots or fractures in the Earth’s crust below the surface, very often there are topographical clues to their presence. In this case, the presence of the fault is indicated by long, straight valley cutting through southern Haiti, just south of Port-Au-Prince. The Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault is a strike-slip type fault, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North America plate.

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.