Terrorist suspect arrested at Schiphol airport..[ 1824 ]

British terrorism suspect arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport

Dutch police have arrested a terrorism suspect at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the local prosecutor's office said.

 

The British citizen, who is of Somali decent, was en-route from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda Photo: EPA

The man was from Liverpool, travellling via Schiphol, en route to Entebbe in Uganda. The Somali Briton was already on the plane when he was arrested by military police.

"He was arrested on the tip-off from British authorities," a Dutch spokesman said.

Telegraph co.uk., by Our Foreign Staff
Published: 4:49PM BST 19 Sep 2010

National police spokesman Rene Claessen said the man was arrested before a flight took off from the airport Sunday.

Amsterdam has a history of being used as a transport hub by suspected Islamic radicals

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a suspected al Qaeda member, is facing charges of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam as it prepared to land in Detroit with 278 people on board last December.

He is accused of trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. The explosives failed, though they burned Abdulmutallab, who was arrested.

The Somali-born British man was held on suspicion of terrorism as he transited through Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route from England to Uganda, prosecutors said.

"At this moment, an inquiry is trying to determine whether or not the man belongs to a foreign terrorist organisation," said a source in the prosecutor's office.

Amsterdam's airport has significantly beefed up its security meassures since Christmas Day, after it was a departure point for a Nigerian student, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to blow up a plane above the United States by setting off explosives hidden in his underwear.

He was tackled by passangers and crew, and is now charged in U.S. federal court in Detroit with attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard. Abdulmutallab insists on representing himself.

Last month, two Yemeni men were arrested at the Amsterdam airport after flying in from Chicago, on suspicion they may have been conducting a dry run for an airline terror attack. The two were held for several days then released without charge after an investigation turned up no evidence to link them to a terror plot.

Orthodox priests in the Russian army and navy..[ 1823 ]

Russia's Orthodox Church priests to appear in Russian army and navy

Russia's Orthodox Church priests to work in Russian army and navy

13:49 19/09/2010

© RIA Novosti. Vladimir Vyatkin

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKI, September 19 (RIA Novosti)

Russia's Orthodox Church priests will soon appear in the Russian army and navy to serve as military chaplains as Russian servicemen especially need spiritual support, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Sunday.

"By decision of the Russian president, the institution of military clergy is beginning to develop in Russia. So far we are making the first steps... But since a legal foundation has been laid, I hope that priests will soon appear in the army and the navy," Patriarch Kirill said.

The patriarch met on Sunday with the personnel of the 16th squadron of Pacific Fleet submarines in Kamchatka in the Russian Far East.

According to the patriarch, servicemen need spiritual support.

"This is because risks linked with military service are so great that they cannot be compensated by any material benefits," he said.

According to the Russian defense ministry, two thirds of the country's servicemen consider themselves religious. Some 83% of them are Orthodox Christians, about 8% are Muslims, and 9% represent other confessions.

Japan,Hydrothermal vents found off Okinawa,.[ 1822 ]

Hydrothermal vents that appear to be producing rare metals found off Okinawa

Mineral clusters projecting from the seabed. (Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo)

(Mainichi Japan) September 19, 2010

A few active hydrothermal areas found at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Okinawa Prefecture appear to be producing rare earth metals, which will likely draw interest to the area as a potential underwater mine.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo and other institutes. On Sept. 17, they announced that they had discovered three areas with hydrothermal eruptions at the bottom of the ocean about 100 kilometers northwest of the main island of Okinawa. The team had used an unmanned probe equipped with sensors they developed that can detect manganese and hydrogen sulfide contained in hot water released from vents, and over an eight-day period beginning on Sept. 4 used the probe to search an underwater area full of volcanic craters.

In their exploration, the team found three areas at depths of around 500 to 600 meters where water from 43 to 247 degrees centigrade was erupting. In one of the areas, there were chimney-shaped clusters -- about 50 centimeters in diameter and one to two meters in height -- on the seabed, which were emitting 121-degree water from their tips. The clusters are believed to consist of rare earth elements, such as manganese and antimony.

Such active hydrothermal metal deposits have recently been drawing researchers' attention as potential mines, spurring them to conduct explorations for them in the seas around Japan. The team has already collected the mineral clusters and plans to analyze the types and content of the metals contained in them.

(Mainichi Japan) September 19, 2010

Are wild monkeys aggressive toward humans?..[ 1821 ]

News Navigator: Are wild monkeys aggressive toward humans?

 (Mainichi Japan) September 18, 2010

The Mainichi answers common questions readers may have about recent monkey attacks on residents in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Question: There have been many people attacked by monkeys in Shizuoka Prefecture, and some have been injured. Are monkeys aggressive by nature?

Answer: Monkeys are not thought to be aggressive by nature. Monkeys may attack to protect themselves or their children if humans draw too close, but they do not show a habit of initiating violence against humans. There have been cases in the past of Japanese Macaques biting humans, but those cases have always been explainable as the monkey was defending its young or otherwise acting in defense.

Q: But it sounds like this time around, the monkeys are the ones approaching, and they're biting and scratching humans. What's different about these monkeys from those in past cases?

A: Some experts have suggested that the monkeys in Shizuoka may have been kept by humans. While kept at a facility or by an individual or individuals, they may have learned aggressive behavior. The fact that many of the victims have been female may indicate the monkeys are looking for weak targets to attack, or it simply is because from morning to evening, the time period when the monkeys have been sighted, there are generally more women outside than men.

Q: What type of monkeys attacked people in Shizuoka Prefecture?

A: Based on photographs and video taken of the monkeys, experts have said they appear to be macaques. Specifically, their builds and tail lengths resemble those of Japanese macaques.

Q: It seems like it must be difficult to capture monkeys. Is it?

A: Capturing monkeys with nets is indeed difficult, so tranquilizer guns or traps are usually employed. The city of Mishima, where victims of monkey attacks continue to appear, has set up traps and is prepared to use tranquilizer guns in an attempt to capture the monkeys. Experts, meanwhile, have called on the city to enlist the aid of researchers well-versed in primate behavior and to act in concert with local residents to limit any further attacks.

Q: Is there no way to make the monkeys stop attacking?

A: The only way would be to retrain the monkeys, teaching them that they mustn't attack humans. This would, however, require a large amount of time and effort. The monkeys may have to be kept in captivity rather than returned to the wild if they cannot be retrained.

Q: What should I do if a monkey bites me?

A: According to Tadashi Sankai, chief researcher at the Tsukuba Primate Research Center, National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, since monkeys and humans are both primates, viruses spread more easily from monkeys to humans than from other animals. Some viruses macaques can hold are potentially fatal. There is, however, no known example of one of these viruses spreading from a Japanese macaque to a human. Furthermore, if a wound is quickly disinfected and treated, the probability of infection is greatly reduced. If you are attacked by a monkey, even if you only receive a minor injury, it is important to be seen by a doctor.

(Answers by Etsuko Nagayama, Science and Environment News Department)

Click here for the original Japanese story

NASA Image of the Day, Sep 18th..[ 1820 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Cresent Moon

A last quarter crescent moon above Earth's horizon is featured in this image photographed by the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station. 

Image Credit: NASA

Παρασκευή, 17 Σεπτέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ