NASA Image of the Day, Dec 30th..[ 1955 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Sparkle

This Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 1275 reveals the fine, thread-like filamentary structures in the gas surrounding the galaxy. The red filaments are composed of cool gas being suspended by a magnetic field, and are surrounded by the 100-million-degree Fahrenheit hot gas in the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. 

 

The filaments are dramatic markers of the feedback process through which energy is transferred from the central massive black hole to the surrounding gas. 

 

The filaments originate when cool gas is transported from the center of the galaxy by radio bubbles that rise in the hot interstellar gas. At a distance of 230 million light-years, NGC 1275 is one of the closest giant elliptical galaxies and lies at the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The galaxy was photographed in July and August 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: A. Fabian (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK)

Πέμπτη, 30 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Athens ,Greece: Stupid and dangerous anarchists..[ 1954 ]

Bomb explodes near Athens courthouse

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 30, 2010 -- Updated 1237 GMT (2037 HKT)

Explosion rocks heart of Athens

(CNN) -- A strong bomb blast shook one of the main courthouse buildings in central Athens on Thursday morning, Greek police said.

Also Thursday morning, a bomb exploded in front of the Greek Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is not known whether the blasts are linked.

The explosion in Athens occurred about 40 minutes after an unidentified person placed warning calls to a local TV station and newspaper, saying a bomb would explode outside the "administrative first instance courthouse." The advance notice gave police enough time to evacuate the building.

Police said the blast came from a motorbike rigged with explosives that was parked in the median across from the courthouse in the Ambelokipi district. The caller provided the plate number on the bike.

A cloud of smoke was visible in the area and there was some damage to the front of the building and nearby cars from the explosion.

In the Argentine capital, no one was injured in the blast at the Greek embassy, the state-run Telam news agency reported.

The explosion happened about 2 a.m. (midnight Wednesday ET), police said, according to Telam. The bomb was left at the entrance to the embassy. The blast broke some windows on the embassy building and other properties on the block, the news agency reported.

About the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad..[ 1953 ]

Denmark holds 'Muhammad cartoon plotters'

 

Police said they had been trailing the suspects for several months

 

( BBC )30 December 2010 Last updated at 01:06 GMT

Five suspected Islamist militants have been arrested for planning a gun attack at the Copenhagen offices of a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, police say.

The men intended to burst into the Jyllands-Posten office and kill as many people as possible, officials said.

Denmark's justice minister said the attack would have been "outrageous".

Police later evacuated a building where one of the men was held after finding what were thought to be explosives.

Four of the suspects were held in Denmark and the fifth was detained in Sweden.

Denmark's security agency Pet said the suspects included two Swedish residents with Tunisian backgrounds, one Lebanon-born Swede, and an Iraqi. The other was described only as Swedish.

Earlier this month, an Iraq-born Swedish Muslim blew himself up in Stockholm - apparently as he was preparing a suicide bombing.

Swedish police say the suspects held on Wednesday are not thought to be linked to the Stockholm bomber.

The publication of the cartoons in 2005, one of which depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, caused mass protests among Muslims across the world.

Muslims regard any visual representation of the Prophet as blasphemous.

Cartoons used 'efficiently'

The four held in Denmark were picked up in raids on flats in the Greve and Herlev suburbs of Copenhagen.

Police searches uncovered an automatic weapon, a silencer and live ammunition.

A property in Greve, where one of the suspects, an Iraqi asylum seeker, was arrested, was evacuated at about 2100 local time (2000 GMT) after police discovered a suspicious item they thought could be explosives.

• What the cartoons portray

One resident of the building told the Politken newspaper a police officer had ordered her to evacuate immediately.

"He also said we should bring plenty of warm clothes, because this was going to take a long time," she added.

The newspaper said the area had been sealed off up to 100m away and that a bomb-clearing robot had been sent in.

Jakob Scharf, head of Pet, said the men had been planning to enter the building housing the Jyllands-Posten and "kill as many of the people present as possible".

He said an "imminent terror attack" had been foiled, and that the suspects belonged to a "militant Islamist group and they have links to international terrorist networks".

"Obviously the cartoons have been used very efficiently by militant Islamist groups worldwide in targeting Denmark specifically and trying explain why the violent extremism is necessary," he said.

Sweden's security chief Anders Danielsson said they had known for months that the group was planning an attack, but the authorities had to wait until they had enough evidence for a prosecution.

Justice Minister Lars Barfoed said the "outrageous" plot was "the most serious attempt at terror so far in Denmark".

Cartoonist under guard

As a result of the row over the cartoons, Saudi Arabia recalled its Copenhagen ambassador, Danish firms were forced to scale back operations in some parts of the world, and gunmen raided an EU office in Gaza to demand an apology.

But many in the West have defended the media's right to publish the caricatures, and several European newspapers have republished some of the drawings.

Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the image of the turban bomb, has been honoured with awards by free-speech groups, but he now lives under police guard amid death threats from radical groups.

He was the subject of an attempted attack in January when a Somali man got into his home armed with a knife and an axe.

And police across Scandinavia have arrested several groups of people in raids linked to the cartoons.

Three men detained in Norway in July were suspected of planning attacks to avenge the cartoons.

In September, a Chechnya-born Belgian was arrested after a small explosion in Copenhagen, which police linked to the cartoons.

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 29th..[ 1952 ]

           The  NASA   image  of   the  Day                

City Lights Redux

A southerly looking night view of the upper two-thirds of the Florida peninsula was recorded by the Expedition 26 crew aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 28, 2010. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are very well lighted on the Atlantic Ocean side of the peninsula to the left in this image. 

 

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is seen on the Gulf of Mexico or right side of the frame. At bottom or in the north areas of the picture are portions of the state’s panhandle as well as cities and communities in southern Georgia. 

 

Image Credit: NASA

Τετάρτη, 29 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

China : Rare earths export...[ 1951 ]

China's rare earths export cut raises trade concerns

A worker drives a skip loader while working at the site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province in this October 31, 2010 file photo. China's Commerce Ministry said on December 29, 2010 it would not issue more export quotas for foreign companies as it did last year and the first set of volume totalling 14,446 included those for foreign firms.

Credit: Reuters/Stringer/Files

By James Regan

SYDNEY | Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:57am EST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - China has raised fresh international trade concerns after slashing export quotas on rare earths minerals, risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization.

China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals, cut its export quotas by 35 percent for the first half of 2011 versus a year ago, saying it wanted to preserve ample reserves, but warned against basing its total 2011 export quota on the first half figures.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office was "very concerned" about China's export restraints on rare earths and had raised its concerns with China, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

A European Commission spokesman said the European Union "notes the latest quota figures and expects China to respect its recent assurance of a guarantee of rare earth supplies to Europe."

U.S. makers of high-tech products such as Apple Inc's iPads, along with Japanese companies have been scrambling to secure reliable supplies of the minerals outside of China as Beijing steadily reduces export allocations.

Japan's Sony Corp said China's move to cut export quotas was a hindrance to free trade and that it would work to reduce its reliance on Chinese supplies.

"At this point in time there is no direct impact on our company. But further restrictions could lead to a shortage of supply or rise in costs for related parts and materials," Sony said in an email statement in response to questions from Reuters. "We will watch the situation carefully."

Sony, maker of Bravia brand flat TVs, Vaio PCs and the PlayStation 3 videogame console, will look for ways to cut its use of rare earths, including developing alternative materials, Sony spokeswoman Ayano Iguchi said.

A BOON TO SOME

China's move, however, came as a shot in the arm for some companies.

Lynas Corp, which owns the world's richest known non-Chinese deposit of rare earths, jumped over 10 percent even though it will be at least a year before it is capable of mining any material from a new lode in Australia.

Other rare earths companies, including China Rare Earth Holding Ltd, Arafura Resources, Alkane Resources and Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd also gained between 8 percent 10 percent.

"Export quotas continue to be a tool for the Chinese government to limit the export of China's strategic resource,"

Lynas Executive Chairman Nick Curtis said in a statement.

"The growth in the Chinese domestic market coupled with a decrease in production of rare earths in China is a likely cause for the tightening of export regulations," said Curtis, whose company is aiming to start production in about a year and has already forged supply contracts with Japanese traders.