Nasa, Image of the day Apr. 5th,,,[ 840 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day"

3-2-1 Lift Off
Space shuttle Discovery's engines ignited at 6:21 a.m. EDT Monday, April 5, for liftoff of the STS-131 mission from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The seven-member crew will deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station's laboratories.

The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior. STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the station and the 131st shuttle mission. Image Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

Discovery Lifts Off on the STS-131 Mission

The STS-131 crew will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks and perform three spacewalks at the orbital outpost. ›

Flooded mine in P.R.of China....[ 839 ]

China rescues 114 from flooded mine

By Jo Kent, CNN

April 5, 2010 3:51 a.m. EDT

Mine workers carry pipes to the entrance to the Wangjialing coal mine during rescue efforts on March 31, 2010.

Beijing, China (CNN) -- More than a week after their coal mine in northern China was flooded by a rush of underground water, 114 miners were pulled out alive Monday, China's state-run TV reported.

Rescuers worked to reach another 39 believed to be still trapped inside. CCTV, which carried the rescue efforts live, showed the miners being brought out in stretchers to loud cheers.

CCTV, which carried the rescue efforts live, showed the miners being brought out in stretchers to loud cheers.

The workers were wrapped in blankets and rushed to ambulances where they were in stable condition, local media said.

The miners were part of a larger group of 261 working in the Wangjialing mine when it flooded March 28.

Rescuers were able to reach 108 miners immediately after the flooding.

Monday's rescue, which began shortly after midnight, comes two days after tapping was heard from within the mine.

Late Sunday night, rescuers noticed swaying lamp lights inside the mine -- indicating signs of life, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Some of the miners attached their mining belts to shaft walls as water first rushed in. They remained suspended for three days until a mining cart floated by and they jumped in, CCTV said.

Two hundred people, as part of 50 rescue groups, were working around-the-clock to drain water, monitor gas and pull out miners, said Wang Jun, governor of Shanxi province where the mine is situated.

"So far the coordination is in order, the effect is obvious," he told CCTV.

Mine accidents are common in China. In 2009, 2,631 people were killed in such accidents. The figure, while high, is down from 2002 when 6,995 people died.

On Monday, the country launched a two-month campaign to inspect safety regulations in mines and other industries that have had serious accidents.

Earthquake 7.2 hits Mexico-Baja California..[ 838 ]

Earthquake rocks western Mexico

BBC ,,Monday, 5 April 2010 03:46 UK A 7.2 magnitude earthquake has hit the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, killing at least one person and causing tremors as far away as Nevada. The quake struck at 1540 (2240 GMT), 26km (16 miles) south-west of Guadalupe Victoria in Baja California, at a depth of 32km, said the US Geological Survey. Mexican media report that a number of people are still trapped in their homes in the town of Mexicali. It was the worst quake to hit the region for many years, officials said. The US Geological Survey said some 20 million people felt tremors from the largest quake to hit the area since 1992. Bridge checks Mexican civil protection officials said a man had died when his home collapsed outside Mexicali, near the earthquake's epicentre. There was some structural damage in the town of Mexicali Rescue teams with digging equipment and sniffer dogs have been despatched to the worst-affected areas of Mexicali from the nearby city of Tijuana. The quake caused buildings to sway in Tijuana, where Easter celebrations were interrupted as families rushed for open ground. Some parts of Baja California had seen power cuts, officials said. The BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles says the shaking lasted for about a minute and US firefighters were called out to inspect roads, bridges and power-lines. The LA Fire Department had also responded to a number of automatic alarms and people being stuck in lifts, reports said. Rides were temporarily suspended at the Disneyland theme park in California. Many readers who contacted the BBC spoke of the "surreal" swaying of buildings for up to a minute, although Steve Rider from Palm Springs in California said it was "the most powerful earthquake I have ever felt". Kyle Stockburger, in Los Angeles, said: "Everyone stopped talking in the restaurant and the overhead lights started swaying back and forth. It wasn't violent, just unreal. It felt like the whole earth was swaying."

Himalaya: The world’s tallest peaks.,[ 837 ]

Himalayan Glacier, Southern China

Posted April 4, 2010

download large image (4 MB, JPEG) acquired December 25, 2009

Besides the world’s tallest peaks, the Himalayan Mountain Range holds thousands of glaciers. In southern China, just north of the border with Nepal, one unnamed Himalayan glacier flows from southwest to northeast, creeping down a valley to terminate in a glacial lake. On December 25, 2009, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image of the glacier.

Mountains on either side of the glacier cast long shadows to the north. From a bowl-shaped cirque, the glacier flows downhill. Where the ice passes over especially steep terrain, ripple marks on the glacier surface indicate the icefall. Northeast of the icefall, the glacier’s surface is mostly smooth for several kilometers until a network of crevasses mark the surface.

At the end of the glacier’s deeply crevassed snout sits a glacial lake, coated with ice in this wintertime picture. Just as nearby mountains cast shadows to the north, the crevassed glacier casts a shadow onto the lake’s icy surface. This glacial lake is bound by the glacier snout on one end, and a moraine—a mound formed by the accumulation of sediments and rocks moved by the glacier—on the other.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott based on image interpretation by Bruce Raup, National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Instrument: EO-1 - ALI

Calm after... the killing.. [ 836 ]

Terreblanche death brings Zuma appeal for calm

Eugene Terreblanche wanted a separate white homeland BBC,,11:18 GMT, Sunday, 4 April 2010 12:18 UK South African President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm after the killing of the white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche. Mr Zuma said South Africans must not allow anyone to take advantage of the "terrible deed" by inciting racial hatred. Police said Mr Terreblanche had been beaten to death in a dispute with two farm workers over unpaid wages. Mr Terreblanche's far-right movement urged its members to be calm. The 69-year-old was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. 'Must be condemned' Two males, aged 21 and 15, have been arrested and charged with his murder, said police. We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terreblanche's death Andre Visagie Afrikaner Resistance Movement Obituary: Eugene Terreblanche Terreblanche: Your comments Life in pictures His body was found with facial and head injuries on a bed, after he was apparently attacked with a machete and a wooden club. Mr Terreblanche came to prominence in the early 1980s, campaigning for a separate white homeland and championing a tiny minority determined to preserve apartheid. Mr Zuma's office said in a statement: "The president appeals for calm... and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred. "The murder of Terreblanche must be condemned, irrespective of how his killers think they may have been justified. They had no right to take his life." The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg says the murder comes amid growing anxiety about crime in South Africa. Opposition politicians linked the death to racially inflammatory sentiments from a minority of the ruling ANC party. ANALYSIS Martin Plaut, Africa editor For most South Africans, Eugene Terreblanche was a throwback to another era. But his death is a blow to the country's image of racial tolerance, fostered so carefully by Nelson Mandela. Some are likely to believe that the fact that his alleged attackers were arrested so rapidly smacks of a cover-up. Others, on the minority far-right fringe, will see his death as a vindication of their assertion that whites cannot live under black rule. It is a tragic fact that more than 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994. And it is possible that some people may seek retribution. Mr Terreblanche's funeral could become a rallying point for such sentiment. During a news conference in Ventersdorp on Sunday, South African Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa cautioned against stoking tensions. "We call on all South Africans across whatever divide - across the racial divide, across the political divide - to desist from making any inflammatory statements which are not going to help anyway on the case we are dealing with," he said. Meanwhile, relatives and friends of Mr Terreblanche gathered near his home to pay their respects. His Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement - AWB) echoed Mr Zuma's call for calm. AWB spokesman Andre Visagie said: "We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terreblanche's death," adding that next steps would await a party meeting in May. He earlier blamed the killing on the recent singing of an apartheid-era song by a firebrand ANC leader. 'Explosive situation' Last week, South Africa's High Court banned ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema from singing "kill the Boer". It ruled the song was hate speech, but the ANC is appealing. Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white in South Africa. A spokeswoman for the opposition Democratic Alliance party, Juanita Terblanche, no relation, said: "[Mr Terreblanche's killing] happened in a province where racial tension in the rural farming community is increasingly being fuelled by irresponsible racist utterances." The minority party Freedom Front Plus called on people to refrain from reacting emotionally. "The murder creates an explosive situation and is condemned in the strongest possible terms," party spokesman Pieter Groenewald said. TERREBLANCHE: KEY DATES 1941: Born on farm in Transvaal town of Ventersdorp 1973: Co-founds AWB to protect rights of Boers' descendants 1993: AWB vehicle smashes into World Trade Centre in Jo'burg during talks to end apartheid 1994: AWB invades tribal homeland of Bophuthatswana and is defeated; three AWB men die 1998: Accepts moral blame for 1994 bombings that killed 21 2001: Jailed for attempted murder of farm-worker 2004: Released from prison More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994. A committee of inquiry found in 2003 only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low. Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity. Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.