Japan tanker in a terror attack..[ 1579 ]

Japan tanker was damaged in a terror attack, UAE says

 

The M Star was carrying two million barrels of crude oil to Japan

BBC., 6 August 2010 Last updated at 11:35 GMT 

A Japanese tanker damaged last week in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman was the target of a terrorist attack, the United Arab Emirates state-run news agency has said.

It said remains of home-made explosives had been found on the hull of the M Star, which was damaged last week while travelling from Qatar to Japan.

Two days ago, an al-Qaeda-linked group said it was responsible.

Officials previously said the ship may have been involved in a collision.

The crew of the ship reported an explosion shortly after midnight on Wednesday last week. One person was injured.

Analysis 

Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent

---

This was an amateur operation using crude homemade explosives which did comparatively little damage and caused no fatalities.
It is in marked contrast to the well-planned al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Aden in 2000 which blasted a hole in the warship and killed 17 US sailors, and a further al-Qaeda attack on the tanker Limburg off Yemen in 2002.
A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades has issued an online statement claiming responsibility, but experts say this is a name of convenience rather than an actual organisation.
Their stated aim is the release of an ageing Egyptian cleric from a US jail for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center attack - not a cause that has widespread resonance these days.
Still, for a ship to be struck in the narrow waterway between Oman and Iran, through which 40% of the world's crude oil is exported, is a worrying development for merchant shipping. Security in the Gulf is likely to be reviewed as a result.

The BBC's security correspondent Nick Childs says the news is likely to raise concerns about security for shipping in the strait, a vital strategic waterway for oil supplies from the Gulf.
Minor damage "An examination carried out by specialised teams had confirmed that the tanker had been the subject of a terrorist attack," the news agency said, quoting an unidentified coastguard source.
"UAE explosives experts who collected and examined samples found a dent on the starboard side above the water line and remains of home-made explosives on the hull," it said.
"Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives," the source was quoted as saying.
The ship's owner, Mitsui OSK, said it could not confirm the reports. Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said the government was aware of the report but was yet to confirm its details, the Agence France Presse news agency said.
Previous theories about the cause ranged from a large wave to a US nuclear submarine. Part of the mystery surrounding the incident was the relatively minor damage to the tanker, which did not seem to conform to any particular explanation.

A statement signed by a "battalion" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which is linked to al-Qaeda, said one of its suicide bombers was responsible for the blast.

The claim, posted on a website used by Islamist militants, could not be independently verified, and the group has made false claims in the past.

The French-operated tanker Limburg was badly damaged off Yemen in an attack in 2002, as was the US Navy warship Cole in an incident in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, in which 17 US sailors were killed.

The worst floods in Pakistan's history ..[ 1578 ]

Pakistan floods 'hit 14m people'

BBC Aug 6, 2010

BBC's Adam Mynott: 'It's a catastrophe... and that's no overstatement'

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.

Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh.
In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.
Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing at least 1,600 people, according to the UN. And the worst floods to hit the region in 80 years could get worse, as it is only midway through monsoon season.

According to the federal flood commission, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of crop land has been flooded across the country and more than 10,000 cows have perished.
A UN official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that with crops swept away by floodwaters, some Pakistanis could be forced to rely on food aid to get through the winter.
He said the immediate priorities for survivors were clean drinking water and medical assistance.
Anger is growing at the absence of President Asif Ali Zardari, who left the country to visit Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.

With flood victims bitterly accusing the authorities of failing to come to their aid, the disaster has piled yet more pressure on an administration struggling to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis.
'Flood peaks'
Gen Nadeem Ahmed, of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said 12 million people had been affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, where 650,000 houses were destroyed.

 

Pakistan's meteorological department has predicted further downpours

The cost of rebuilding roads there was put at some 5bn Pakistani rupees ($59m, £38m), while the bill for fixing damage to power infrastructure and dams would come to another 2.5bn rupees.
"In my opinion, when assessments are complete, this will be the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan," the general said in Islamabad.
Along a 1,200km (750-mile) stretch of the River Indus in Sindh province, the government has evacuated one million people and is evacuating another half a million, provincial minister for irrigation Jam Saifullah Dharejo told the BBC.
About half a million people from the area left their homes earlier to stay with family and friends.
"The flood is at its peak right now, and we expect the waters following to start to recede once these torrents have passed," the minister said.
Pakistan's meteorological department has predicted further downpours for the country, especially in flood-affected areas.
In Kashmir's Ladakh region, mudslides swept through the town of Leh early on Friday, killing at least 113 people and injuring 400, local official T Angchok told the BBC.
The two main roads into the town were closed as was the airport, and medicines, blankets and tents were in short supply.
Controversial charity In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a charity with links to a group blamed for the Mumbai attacks has been providing flood relief, one of its leaders told the BBC.


Zardari responds to criticism over his UK visit during the floods

Falah-e-Insaniat has close links to Jamat ud Dawa, an organisation linked in turn to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was banned by Pakistan after the 2008 attacks on the Indian city.
The head of Falah-e-Insaniat in Risalpur, Adil Mir, said his volunteers had helped thousands of people.
Jamat ud Dawa came to prominence through its relief work during the 2005 earthquake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
The BBC's Adam Mynott says the concern is that while the Pakistan government is being widely condemned for failing flood victims, Falah-e-Insaniat has responded quickly and is recruiting supporters right across the country.

Map

NASA, image of the Day, Aug 6th..[ 1577 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Great Ball of Fire

On August 1, 2010, almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. 

This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of the news-making solar event on August 1 shows the C3-class solar flare (white area on upper left), a solar tsunami (wave-like structure, upper right), multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. 

This multi-wavelength extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun's northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colors in the image represent different gas temperatures. 

Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from the solar flare impact on August 3, 2010, which sparked aurorae as far south as Wisconsin and Iowa in the United States. Analysts believe a second solar flare is following behind the first flare and could re-energize the fading geomagnetic storm and spark a new round of Northern Lights. 

Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
Παρασκευή, 6 Αύγουστος 2010 7:00

Moscow, Fire smog chokestown....[ 1576 ]

Smog from spreading Russia fires chokes Moscow

 

More Images »

Russian servicemen remove felled trees, which were cut down to prevent new fire outbursts, outside the town of Lukhovitsy, some 110 km southeast of the capital Moscow, August 6, 2010.

Photograph by: Denis Sinyakov, Reuters

MOSCOW, -By Stuart Williams, Agence France-Presse August 6, 2010 12:40 PM

A noxious smog from spreading wildfires choked Moscow Friday as Russia moved to protect military and nuclear sites from the relentless march of its worst ever blazes that have already killed 52 people.
The defence ministry ordered the evacuation of missiles from a depot outside Moscow as the authorities warned of the risk of fires reactivating contamination in an area hit by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Moscow residents and tourists, many wearing masks, wheezed as they made their way round the city in the thickest smog to hit the capital since Russia's worst heatwave in decades broke out in July.
The capital's most famous landmarks like the spires of the Kremlin towers or the onion domes of Orthodox churches were largely invisible from a distance. Some flights at its Domodedovo international airport were being diverted.
"I woke up this morning, looked out of the window and saw a monstrous situation," declared President Dmitry Medvedev. "We all want this heatwave to pass but this is not in our hands, it is decided above."
He called on Moscovites to show patience, although he acknowledged "we're suffocating, you can't breathe".
The emergencies ministry said the total area ablaze was down slightly at 179,600 hectares (444,000 acres) and for the first time it was putting out more fires than were appearing.
The fires have claimed the lives of 52 people, the ministry of health said Friday in an updated toll. The emergencies ministry called for volunteers to join the firefighting efforts.
NASA images have shown the fires are easily visible from space and the U.S. space agency said the smoke had at times reached 12 kilometres into the stratosphere.
A particular worry for the Russian authorities has been fires around the city of Sarov in central Russia which houses the country's main nuclear research centre. It is still closed to foreigners, as in Soviet times.
The Russian nuclear agency has said that all radioactive and explosive materials have been removed from the centre and the emergencies ministry has assured the public it has the situation under control.
The defence ministry meanwhile ordered weapons, artillery and missiles at a munitions depot at Alabinsk, about 70 kilometres southwest of Moscow, to be transferred to a secure site.
Military prosecutors said Friday that a fire on July 29 had destroyed a paratroops base outside Moscow, the second confirmed case of the wildfires hitting a major strategic site.
Medvedev has already warned Russia's top two naval commanders and sacked a string of officers for failing to halt a fire last week that destroyed 13 warehouses and 17 storage areas at a naval logistics base.
Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said his forces were also working flat out to prevent the fires spreading to the Bryansk region in western Russia where the soil is still contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
"The government should pay a great deal of attention to the protection not only of military bases and science towns but to these places as well," said Nikolai Shmatkov of the World Wildlife Fund, Interfax reported.
Russia's chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko said 78 children's holiday camps had been closed due to the heatwave and smoke and 10,000 children taken home to their parents.
The mortality rate in Moscow soared by 50 per cent in July compared to the same period last year, according to Yevgenia Smirnova, an official from the Moscow registry office.
Travel agents reported that all the package holidays abroad for the coming weekend had been snapped up by Muscovites desperate to escape their smog-filled city, the Interfax news agency reported.
The Russian Football Union (RFU) said it had decided to move Wednesday's friendly against Bulgaria to St. Petersburg as current conditions were dangerous for the players' health.
The country is also facing a severe drought that has destroyed 10 million hectares of its arable land and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday banned exports from the world's third wheat exporter until year end.

NASA image of Aug 3rd ..[ 1575 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers prepare External Tank-138, hanging vertically in the transfer aisle, for its lift onto a test cell where it will be checked out before launch. 

 

ET-138, the last newly manufactured tank, is designated to fly on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. 

 

Launch is targeted for Feb. 26, 2011. 

 

Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

Τρίτη, 3 Αύγουστος 2010 7:00:00 πμ