NASA Image of the Oct 5th..[ 1841 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Spiral Extraordinaire

Scientists have yet to discover what caused the strange spiral structure. Nor do they know why it glows. The glow may be caused by light reflected from nearby stars. 

 

As for the spiral itself, current supposition is that this is the result of a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when its outer atmosphere is ejected. 

 

Given the expansion rate of the spiral gas, a new layer must appear about every 800 years, a close match to the time it takes for the two stars to orbit each other. 

The above image was taken in near-infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope. 

 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, R. Sahai (JPL)

Τρίτη, 5 Οκτώβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Hungary: Toxic sludge flood ..[ 1840 ]

Crews struggle to clear toxic Hungary sludge flood

By PABLO GORONDI

The Associated Press.,06-10-2010

KOLONTAR, Hungary — Emergency workers and construction crews on Wednesday swept through the Hungarian towns hardest hit by a flood of toxic sludge, trying to clear roads and homes of acres (hectares) of deep red mud and caustic water.

A Hungarian woman cries in front of her toxic mud flooded home in the town of Devecser, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Monday's flooding was caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary and has affected seven towns near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

A Hungarian soldier wearing a chemical protection gear walks through a street flooded by toxic in the town of Devecser, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Monday's flooding was caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary and has affected seven towns near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Tunde Erdelyi is seen in her yard flooded by toxic mud in the town of Devecser, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Monday's flooding was caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary and has affected seven towns near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Tunde Erdelyi, left, saves her cat while Janos Kis, right, walks into their yard flooded by toxic mud in the town of Devecser, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Monday's flooding was caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary and has affected seven towns near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Hundreds of people were evacuated after the disaster Monday, when a gigantic sludge reservoir burst its banks at metals plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, the capital. The torrent inundated homes, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges, disgorging an estimated 1 million cubic meters (35.3 million cubic feet) of toxic waste onto several nearby towns.

Hungarian officials have declared a state of emergency, calling the spill "an ecological disaster" that could threaten the Danube River, one of Europe's great waterways. At least four people have been killed by the sludge, three were still missing and 120 injured, many with burns.

In Kolontar, the town nearest to the plant, mayor Karoly Tily said Wednesday he cannot give a "reassuring answer" to residents who feared a repeat of Monday's calamity.

A military construction crew was in Kolontar on Wednesday, trying to assemble a pontoon bridge across a toxic stream so residents could briefly return to their homes and rescue belongings.

Emergency workers wearing masks and chemical protection gear also rushed to pour 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing on to the Danube, 45 miles (72 kilometers) away.

Workers in full hazmat gear including respirators contrasted sharply with residents, who used snow shovels to clear the thick red mud and salvaged possessions with little more than rubber gloves as protection.

Named for its bright red color, the material is a waste product in aluminum production that contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested.

Erzsebet Veingartner was in her kitchen when the 12-foot (3.6-meter)-high wave of red slurry hit, sweeping away everything in its path.

"I looked outside and all I saw was the stream swelling like a huge wave," the 61-year-old widow said Tuesday as she surveyed her backyard, still under 6 feet (1.8 meters) of noxious muck.

"I lost all my chickens, my ducks, my Rottweiler, and my potato patch. My late husband's tools and machinery were in the shed and it's all gone," sobbed the woman, who gets by on a $350 monthly pension. "I have a winter's worth of firewood in the basement and it's all useless now."

Dozens of villagers were burned when the caustic material seeped through their clothing. Two women, a young man and a 3-year-old child were killed.

Officials were also quite concerned about the sludge contaminating the Danube, a 1,775-mile (2,850-kilometer)-long river that passes through some of the continent's most pristine vistas from its origin in Germany to its end point emptying into the Black Sea.

The river flows through four former communist nations — Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. One of the continent's greatest treasuries of wildlife, it has been the focus of a multibillion dollar post-communist cleanup.

Still, high-risk industries such as Hungary's Ajkai Timfoldgyar alumina plant are still producing waste near some of its tributaries, posing a threat to the waterway.

Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltan Illes called the spill an "ecological catastrophe," and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged that authorities were caught off guard by the disaster. Orban said the alumina plant and reservoir had been inspected only two weeks earlier and no irregularities had been found.

Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. It is common to store treated sludge in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil, industry representatives in the U.S. and London said.

They could not explain why the Hungarian victims were burned by the material, saying if it is properly treated it is not hazardous. But Hungarian environmentalist Gergely Simon said this sludge had been accumulating in the reservoir for decades and was extremely alkaline, with a pH value of about 13 — nearly equivalent to lye — which is what caused the burns.

MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company that owns the Ajkai plant, said that according to European Union standards, red sludge is not considered hazardous waste.

The company also denied that it should have taken more precautions to shore up the reservoir, a huge structure more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and 500 yards (450 meters) wide.

Clearly angered by the company's suggestions that the substance was not hazardous, Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, snapped: "They should take a swim in it and then they'll see."

Attack in Sanaa, Yemen ..[ 1839 ]

Attack near British Embassy in Yemen

By the CNN Wire Staff

October 6, 2010 -- Updated 1000 GMT (1800 HKT)

Concrete barriers sit in front of the main entrance of the British Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen.

(CNN) -- The British Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, said there was an attack Wednesday involving one of its vehicles, but there were no casualties among its staff.

Also Wednesday morning, a gunman opened fire at the Sanaa office of OMV, an Austrian oil and gas company, leaving two people wounded, the company said.

There were conflicting reports on the number of civilians wounded in the attack on the embassy vehicle. Eyewitnesses said a local woman and her child were wounded and taken away by ambulance. An embassy spokeswoman said there was "one minor casualty" and security forces said three people were wounded, but not seriously.

The incident is under investigation and security officials were at the scene, Gen. Yahya Saleh, director of Yemen's Counterterror Unit, told CNN.

The attack happened in the eastern part of the city, close to where the British ambassador's convoy was attacked earlier this year.

Security forces in the area told local journalists at the scene there were four staff members in the car and none of them was hurt.

The attack at OMV's office happened when a security guard opened fire, seriously wounding an employee of a contractor company and slightly wounding another, also a contractor employee, the company said.

Local security sources told CNN that one French national was hurt.

The gunman was apprehended and the injured were taken to hospitals, the company said. Police are investigating.

In April, the British ambassador to Yemen survived an apparent suicide bomb attack on his convoy in Sanaa. The British Foreign Office said there was a small explosion next to the ambassador's car but neither he nor other embassy staff were hurt.

The alleged suicide bomber was killed, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said at the time.

CNN's Eileen Hsieh, Mohammed Jamjoom, Mila Sanina and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.

N.Korea's Kim & Son ..[ 1838 ]

Kim and Son Appear at N. Korean Military Exercise

By MARK McDONALD., The New York Times,mPublished: October 5, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, appeared at a live-fire military exercise with his youngest son and heir apparent in what appeared to be the first public sighting of Kim Jong-un since he was given the rank of four-star general at a landmark Workers’ Party conclave last week. 

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday that the two Kims were joined by other members of their family and senior officials in the newly reshuffled North Korean leadership. The location and date of the drill were not specified in the agency’s announcement.

But it was significant, according to analysts in Seoul, that the first public appearance of the younger Mr. Kim came at a military event, as the regime tries to create the image of him as a capable military man. The event also was likely to reinforce his father’s guiding philosophy of songun, or military first.

Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be 27 or 28, was joined at the drill by Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, the chief of the army general staff, K.C.N.A. said. Both men were appointed last week as deputy chairmen of the party’s military commission, and analysts expect Mr. Ri, 67, to tutor the inexperienced Mr. Kim on military and political matters as he prepares to eventually succeed his father.

The K.C.N.A. report said when the elder Mr. Kim signaled for the live-fire drill to begin, “various ground guns showed powerful fire while units moved in close harmony to annihilate enemies.”

Also watching the military exercise were two other members of Kim Jong-il’s ruling inner circle — his sister, Kim Kyong-hui, who also was made a four-star general last week, and her husband, Jang Song-taek, long rumored to be effectively in charge of the daily running of the government.

It was unclear if the military exercises were part of the preparations for a nationwide celebration of the 65th founding of the Workers’ Party. The anniversary on Oct. 10 is a major annual holiday in North Korea and usually features food giveaways by the government and a huge military parade in the capital, Pyongyang.

The South Korean Defense Ministry also said on Tuesday that the North seems to be preparing a large set of war games involving army, air force and naval units. Those exercises are expected to be held at sea, off North Korea’s eastern coast.

In a separate K.C.N.A. report, North Korea assailed the “ceaseless war exercises being staged by the U.S. imperialists” against the North “in league with the South Korean war hawks.” The United Sates and Seoul recently concluded five days of anti-submarine drills off the South Korean coast. Such moves, the statement said, would only heighten tensions between the two Koreas and that the United States was an “arch-criminal” that wanted to “spark off a war on the Korean Peninsula.”

Deadly scandal....[ 1837 ]

'Sexual element' in Saudi prince's servant killing

 

Bandar Abdulaziz was found beaten and strangled to death in the Landmark Hotel

BBC., 5 October 2010 Last updated at 12:26 GMT

A Saudi prince murdered his servant in an attack which had a "sexual element", the Old Bailey has heard.

Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, was found beaten and strangled to death in the Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, central London, on 15 February.

The court was told Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud had carried out several assaults on the victim before he died.

Mr al Saud, 34, admits the killing but denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

The jury has been asked to decide whether he is guilty of manslaughter or murder.

When the body was found the prince claimed his aide had been attacked and robbed three weeks before his death.

But the jury was told Mr al-Saud carried out the killing - and injuries including bite marks to Mr Abdulaziz's face showed the "ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected".

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said hotel CCTV from 22 January revealed the victim had previously been subjected to a "really nasty assault" by the prince.

'Friends and equals'

The court was told the servant was killed "in the privacy of the room he had shared with the defendant and when alone with him".

The prince has claimed he was "friends and equals" with his servant, and denied being gay.

But Mr Laidlaw said: "The evidence establishes quite conclusively that he is either gay or that he has homosexual tendencies.

 

The court has heard the prince admits killing his servant but denies murder

"It is clear that his abuse of Bandar was not confined simply to physical beatings.

"There is clear evidence, over and above the bite marks, that there was also a sexual element to his mistreatment of the victim.

"The defendant's concealing of the sexual aspect to his abuse of the victim was for altogether more sinister reasons and it tends to suggest that there was a sexual element to the circumstances of the killing."

The court heard that the prince and his aide had been staying together at the hotel since 20 January as part of an "extended holiday".

Mr Abdulaziz's body was found with blood on his pillow in room 312 and the defendant appeared "shocked and upset", the court heard.

Mr al Saud told police officers he had been drinking in the hotel bar until the early hours of the morning before returning to the room and that when he woke at about 1500 GMT he could not rouse the victim.

Bloodstains found in the room were "consistent with the victim having been the subject of a series of separate assaults before he was killed", the jury heard.

Mr al Saud had tried to clean up some of the blood and wash some of Mr Abdulaziz's bloodstained clothing, Mr Laidlaw said.

The case continues.