Astronaut Neil Armstrong ...[ 2909 ]

Space Medal of Honor

 

Astronaut Neil Armstrong received the first Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter, assisted by Captain Robert Peterson. Armstrong, one of six astronauts to be presented the medal during ceremonies held in the Vehicle Assembly Building, was awarded for his performance during the Gemini 8 mission and the Apollo 11 mission when he became the first human to set foot upon the moon.

Armstrong died on Aug. 25, 2012, at the age of 82.

Image Credit: NASA

Merkel :‘Weigh Your Words’ on Greece...[ 2908 ]

Merkel Warns Government Allies to ‘Weigh Their Words’ on Greece

By Patrick Donahue - Aug 26, 2012 7:43 PM GMT+0300

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her coalition partners advocating a Greek exit from the euro to “weigh their words,” as she signaled a renewed determination to keep the single currency intact.

Asked about comments by a leader of her Bavarian Christian Social Union governing partner calling for Greece to depart, Merkel told ARD television that such remarks were damaging as crisis fighting has reached a “decisive phase.” Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU’s general secretary, told today’s Bild newspaper that Greece wouldn’t be part of the 17-nation euro area next year.

“Everybody should weigh their words very carefully,” Merkel told ARD today in Berlin. The Greek government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is undertaking “serious efforts” to reduce its debt, she said, and repeated that Germany will stand by the country where the crisis originated.

Merkel also called the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, “absolutely necessary” to overcome the crisis and signaled that she’s confident that the Federal Constitutional Court will approve the measure when it decides on the matter on Sept. 12.

“I think we’ve brought forward good arguments” for the ESM, Merkel said, alluding to the euro-area’s fiscal pact.

The German leader said the European Central Bank has a “very clear” mandate to ensure the single currency’s stability and that any plan decided under ECB President Mario Draghi will conform with that mandate.

Sovereign Purchases

Responding to criticism over sovereign debt purchases made by Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, Merkel said she welcomed input from Germany’s central bank.

“I think it’s a good thing that Jens Weidmann continues to make demands on policy makers,” Merkel told ARD.

Weidmann told today’s Der Spiegel magazine that a proposed new wave of sovereign bond purchases by the ECB may increase governments’ reliance on such funding and won’t help solve the euro-area debt crisis.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the danger that central bank financing can become addictive like a drug,” Weidmann said in an interview with Spiegel. “Such policy is too close to state financing via the money press for me.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

Syria: Massacre in Araya ...[ 2907 ]

Activists: Syrian Troops Kill Hundreds in Daraya

Civilians stand outside a building after it was hit by shelling from Syrian government forces in the northern city of Aleppo August 25, 2012.

VOA News /August 26, 2012 

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Activists say Syrian troops have massacred hundreds of people in a town close to the capital.

They say 200 were killed in Daraya, just southwest of Damascus.

The state-run SANA news agency says Daraya had been "purified of terrorist remnants."

The attack on Daraya was part of an army campaign to regain control of the outskirts of the capital.

Activists say Syrian forces with tanks and combat helicopters also launched fresh raids in other cities.

President Bashar al-Assad has blamed foreign-backed terrorists for much of the violence that has gripped his nation for nearly the past 18 months.

On Saturday, SANA said armed forces killed an unspecified number of "terrorists" in Aleppo and destroyed seven vehicles equipped with machine guns.

A VOA reporter who has been monitoring developments in Syria says the situation is becoming more brutal and gruesome. However, he says activists are having an increasingly difficult time getting video and information out of the country because Internet service is cut off in most regions, and little or no electricity is available to recharge electronic devices.

Western powers have urged Assad to resign, but the Syrian leader continues to get support from Iran. On Saturday, an Iranian delegation visiting Syrian lawmakers in Damascus reaffirmed Tehran's support.

The Associated Press quotes Iran's ambassador to Syria, Mohammad Rida Raouf Sheibani, as saying that calls for reforms in Syria have been "masked by plots carried out by enemies."

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Orion Spacecraft Testing...[ 2906 ]

Orion Spacecraft Water Impact Testing

Water impact test of an 18,000-pound (8,165 kilogram) test version of the Orion spacecraft at NASA's Langley Research Center on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012.

Swing drop testing began last summer at Langley's Hydro Impact Basin to certify the Orion spacecraft for water landings. In this series of tests, Orion is being dropped vertically into the pool for the first time, which will help fine-tune the way NASA predicts Orion's landing loads.

The Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s next crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket, will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.
Image Credit: NASA

Norway : Mass-killer Breivik..[ 2905 ]

Mass-killer Breivik sane and sentenced to prison

Updated 49m ago/US Today

OSLO, Norway (AP) – Anders Behring Breivik got what he wanted — a prison term instead of an insanity ruling — as he received his sentence Friday for bomb and gun attacks that killed 77 people last year.

Breivik,and his lawyer

By Frank Augstein, AP

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Breivik, a self-styled anti-Muslim militant, looked pleased as Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling, declaring him sane enough to be held criminally responsible for Norway's worst peacetime attacks.
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Going against the recommendation of prosecutors, who had asked for an insanity ruling, the five-judge panel in the Oslo district court convicted Breivik of terrorism and premeditated murder. They imposed a sentence of "preventive detention," a special prison term for criminals considered dangerous to society.-
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She set the minimum length of imprisonment to 10 years and the maximum at 21 years, the longest allowed under Norwegian law.

However, such sentences can be extended as long as an inmate is considered too dangerous to be released. Legal experts have said that in Breivik's case, that could mean he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Wearing a dark suit and sporting a thin beard, Breivik smirked as he walked in to the courtroom to hear his sentence and raised a clenched-fist salute.
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Breivik, 33, confessed to the attacks during the trial, describing in gruesome detail how he detonated a car bomb at the government headquarters in Oslo and then opened fire at the annual summer camp of the governing Labor Party's youth wing. Eight people were killed and more than 200 injured by the explosion. Sixty-nine people — mostly teenagers — were killed in the shooting massacre on Utoya island. The youngest victim was 14.

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.