Cuts to the budget of the flagship HMS Ark Royal,. [1895 ]

Ark Royal in 'immediate' cuts axe

 

Prime Minister David Cameron on board HMS Ark Royal, which could be scrapped 'with immediate effect'

 Standard co. uk.,, 19-10-10

Deep cuts to the defence budget will see the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal, and its fleet of Harrier jets scrapped "with immediate effect", Government sources have said.

The move is among wide-ranging measures to be unveiled by Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday as part of the military's share of the Coalition's severe public spending squeeze.

He is also expected to confirm that the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) has concluded that the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent will be delayed.

The immediate axing of HMS Ark Royal will leave the UK without an aircraft carrier capable of flying jets for around a decade while two new vessels are built at a cost of £5.2 billion. That project was spared the axe after it was found abandoning the contract - with one of the two already under construction - would end up costing the taxpayer more.

Although the first is set to come into service in 2016, converting it to allow it to be used by jets from allied nations could take several years. Neither will be able to be used for British military jets until 2020 and one could yet be mothballed and possibly sold under future options still being looked at by the military.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox has insisted the long gap in Britain's aircraft carrier capability will not affect its defence abilities - despite warnings from former Navy chiefs.

But Mr Cameron was reported to have told the Cabinet it was one of the hardest decisions he had faced since becoming Prime Minister.

He earlier laid the ground for the reductions by signalling a shift in the UK's security priorities towards the threat of terrorism and cyber attacks.

Publishing a National Security Strategy Mr Cameron said the present defence and security structure was "woefully unsuitable for the world we live in today".

A large-scale conventional military attack was ranked only in the third tier of threats to the UK which Labour said was being used as "cover" for a "rushed" defence review.

Mega-Typhoon.." Megi. ".[ 1894 ]

Super Typhoon Megi

 

download Google Earth file  acquired October 18, 2010

 

On October 18, 2010, Typhoon Megi approached and made landfall in the northeastern Isabela Province of the Philippines. Spanning more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) across, Megi was the 15th tropical storm and 7th typhoon of the season in the western Pacific Ocean. It was the most intense tropical cyclone of the year to date.

This image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite at 10:35 a.m. Philippine Time (02:35 UTC) on October 18, 2010. Megi was bearing down on Palanan Bay as a “super typhoon” with category 5 strength on the Saffir Simpson scale. As of 8:00 a.m. local time, the storm had sustained winds of 268 kilometers (167 miles) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

The storm had grown to “super” typhoon status on October 16, and wind speeds peaked at an estimated 287 kilometers (178 miles) per hour while the storm was still over the Pacific Ocean on October 17. Megi began to downgrade as it moved onshore around 11:30 a.m. on October 18 and then crossed over the Sierra Madre mountain range (average elevation 1,800 meters, or 5,900 feet).

News reports indicated at least one death and an unknown number of injuries, as power and communications was cut off to more than 90 percent of Isabela and Cagayan provinces. In addition to the immediate damage, officials were concerned about the long-term damage to the rice crop, a staple of the national diet.

The official international name of the storm is Megi, which means “catfish” in Korean. But the storm is known locally as Juan, as the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has its own naming system.

Forecasters were predicting that the storm would continue moving west and north, entering the South China Sea and re-intensifying before a potential landfall in China or Vietnam later this week. China’s National Meteorological Centre urged local governments to make preparations for extreme weather.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.

Instrument: Terra - MODIS

NASA Image of the Day, Oct 18th..[ 1893 ]

   The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Where Stars Are Born

Found among the Small Magellanic Cloud's clusters and nebulae NGC 346 is a star-forming region about 200 light-years across, pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope. A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a wonder of the southern sky, a mere 210,000 light-years distant in the constellation of the Toucan. 

 

Exploring NGC 346, astronomers have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark, intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing within their natal clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by the intervening dust. 

A small, irregular galaxy, the SMC represents a type of galaxy more common in the early Universe. But these small galaxies are thought to be a building blocks for the larger galaxies present today. 

 

Within the SMC, stellar nurseries like NGC 346 also are thought to be similar to those found in the early universe. This image, like many Hubble images, has a curious stair-step shape. 

These images come from a scientific instrument called the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC2 -- which was removed from the telescope in mid-2009. It is WFPC2’s unique design that underlies the oddly-shaped images in Hubble’s portfolio. For more information on how the WFPC2 constructed images, visit the Hubble site. 

 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Nota (ESA/STScI) et al.

Δευτέρα, 18 Οκτώβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

New Europe Terror Threat..[ 1892 ]

Saudi Intel Warns of New Europe Terror Threat

Published October 18, 2010

| Associated Press

AP

Sept. 14: Police officers stand in front of Paris' Eiffel Tower after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat.

PARIS -- Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from Al Qaeda against Europe, particularly in France, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday.

He said the warning of a potential attack by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was received "in the last few hours, few days."

European officials were informed that "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France," Hortefeux said during a joint TV and radio interview.

"The threat is real," he said on RTL-LCI-Le Figaro's weekly talk show.

The warning from Saudi Arabia is the latest in a series of alerts that have put French security forces and others in high-vigilance mode.

_____

Ahmed al-Haj in San'a, Yemen contributed to this story

Click for the full story

• Saudis Warn of New European Terror Threat

Mega-Typhoon .." Megi "..[ 1891 ]

Super-Typhoon Megi heads for northern Philippines

BBC., 18 October 2010 Last updated at 02:59 GMT
 

 

Alex Deakin with details of the forecast track of Typhoon Megi.

Thousands of people in the Philippines have fled their homes as Super-Typhoon Megi has begun to lash the north with heavy rains and strong winds.

Emergency services are on high alert and schools have been closed in many areas as Megi bring winds of up to more than 280km/h (175mph).

It is the strongest storm the Philippines has faced in four years.

In 2006, a storm with winds of 155km/h triggered mudslides, burying villages and killing about 1,000 people.

'Zero casualties'

The northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela are on the highest storm alert.

Officials have warned that the heavy rain and high winds could damage buildings, power supplies and agriculture.

Emergency services have been stocking up on food and medicines, says the BBC's Kate McGeown in the capital, Manila.

Government forecasters say waves off the east coast could be greater than 14m (46ft).

Analysis

Kate McGeown BBC News, Manila

---

Disaster management teams are on high alert - stockpiling food and medicines, and preparing boats and helicopters to rescue affected by the typhoon.

The authorities are under huge pressure to get their rescue effort right this time.

There was a lot of criticism over their handling of Typhoon Ketsana last year.

Many people who were trapped in the floodwaters said they were completely reliant on aid agencies or church organisations rather than the government.

There was further embarrassment in July this year when the weather bureau forecast that a typhoon would miss Manila.

It struck the capital, killing about 100 people. The head of the state weather bureau was sacked as a result.

Sea travel has been banned. The coast guard has been instructed to forbid all fishing vessels from setting out to sea in the north, says the AFP news agency.

Thousands of soldiers and officers are on standby to deliver aid and rescue people stranded by the floods.

Trucks, rescue boats and food packs have been pre-positioned near vulnerable areas, said Benito Ramos, a senior disaster-response official.

"This is like preparing for war," he told the Associated Press. "We know the past lessons and we're aiming for zero casualties."

Schools in the north will be closed on Monday.

Farmers were being urged to harvest as many of their crops as possible before the typhoon hit, our correspondent says.

The area in the storm's path is one of the country's main rice-growing regions.

In July, President Benigno Aquino sacked the head of the weather bureau after he failed to predict a typhoon which unexpectedly changed course and hit Manila, killing more than 100 people.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Navy says Megi is expected to weaken to typhoon intensity as it crosses the Cordillera mountain range.

However, it will then re-emerge into the South China Sea and re-intensify as it heads for southern China.