US and Russia to sign nuclear arms treaty | |||
BBC, Thursday, 8 April 2010 08:27 UK US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev are due to sign a landmark nuclear weapons treaty in the Czech capital Prague. The treaty, agreed last month, commits the former Cold War foes to cut their stockpiles to 1,550 warheads each, about 30% less than currently allowed. It also limits the number of launchers each country has. The treaty replaces the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expired in December. The new limits must be implemented within seven years of the treaty coming into force. After it was agreed, President Obama hailed the deal as the most comprehensive weapons control agreement in nearly two decades. "With this agreement, the United States and Russia - the two largest nuclear powers in the world - also send a clear signal that we intend to lead," he said. Missile defence The US and Russian presidents will hold private talks at Prague Castle on Thursday morning before signing the treaty at a ceremony. Earlier this week, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the treaty marked a "new level of trust" between the two countries.
But he has also warned this week that Russia could opt out of the treaty if it felt threatened by US missile defence plans. It was Moscow's concerns over Washington's missile shield plans that delayed the current agreement. US President Barack Obama scrapped a previous plan for a missile shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic that had angered Russia. Mr Lavrov said Washington's current plans - which could include ground-based interceptor missiles in Romania - seemed acceptable to Moscow. Correspondents say the treaty marks the first step in President Obama's ambitious arms control agenda. It was in a keynote speech in Prague last April that he set out his vision of moving towards a world free of nuclear weapons. US nuclear proliferation analyst Joseph Cirincione said the treaty also signalled a major improvement in relations between the two superpowers. "This treaty is a major re-set of US-Russian relations which were at Cold War levels just 18 months ago after the Georgian war," he said. The White House has said it hopes and expects the US Senate to ratify the treaty this year. Russia's legislature must also do so. In a further development on Tuesday, President Obama unveiled the US Nuclear Posture Review, which narrows the circumstances in which the US would use nuclear arms. For the first time the US is ruling out a nuclear response to attacks involving biological, chemical or conventional weapons. However, countries will only be spared a US nuclear response if they comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - this does not include Iran and North Korea. US AND RUSSIA NUCLEAR WEAPONS | |||
Thursday, April 8, 2010
US and Russia nuclear arms treaty [ 852 ]
Kyrgyzstan in revolt...[ 851 ]
Kyrgyzstan government ousted in revolt
Police flee over a wall from a crowd of protesters in Bishkek / AP Source: AP
Protesters surge towards an upturned car during the protests in the capital Bishkek / AP Source: AP
OPPONENTS of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev took control overnight of Kyrgyzstan after a day of spectacular violence that ended with Mr Bakiyev fleeing the capital of the strategic Central Asian state.
Opposition protesters seized the presidential administration overnight and announced on state radio that they had formed a provisional government with former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva at its head.
A worker at Bishkek's international airport said that the 60-year-old Mr Bakiyev had fled the capital aboard a small plane as his opponents consolidated their grip on key national institutions.
Opposition leader Temir Sariyev said on Kyrgyz radio that Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov had signed a letter of resignation and Mr Otunbayeva vowed that the new leadership in the country would move quickly to normalise the situation.
"Power is now in the hands of the people's government," Mr Otunbayeva said in an address on state radio.
"Responsible people have been appointed and are already working to normalise the situation."
The fast-moving events in Kyrgyzstan capped a day of ferocious clashes in Bishkek and other cities that quickly turned into a nationwide revolt against Mr Bakiyev that was believed to have left scores dead.
As unrest swept the Central Asian republic, the opposition took control of the national television, the prosecutors' office was set alight and state media reported that a deputy prime minister was held hostage in the remote northwest.
The riots were the culmination of spiralling protests in the Central Asian nation with the opposition demanding Mr Bakiyev's resignation and accusing his government of rights violations, authoritarianism and economic mismanagement.
Despite briefly arresting three leading opposition figures and declaring a state of emergency, the authorities failed to prevent the rebels from rapidly taking control of some of the main levers of power.
A health ministry official said 47 people had died, many from gunshot wounds, and more than 400 were injured. Officials said that the toll could be expected to rise.
Opposition leader Omurbek Tekebayev said separately that more than 100 people had been killed in the violence.
The United States, which maintains an air base in Kyrgyzstan used in the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan, voiced "deep concern", while Russia also appealed for calm in the former Soviet republic.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Moscow had no involvement in unrest in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
"Neither Russia nor your humble servant (Putin) have any links" to the events in Kyrgyzstan, Mr Putin said during a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk in Smolensk, western Russia.
"At the same time, when (Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek) Bakiyev came to power a few years ago, he severely criticised (former president Askar) Akayev for nepotism, that only his family held power. I have the impression that Mr Bakiyev is now stepping on the same rake," Mr Putin said.
Prior to seizing the presidential offices, opposition protesters laid siege to both the national parliament and the offices of the government, demanding that Mr Bakiyev quit.
An AFP journalist meanwhile saw flames coming from the ground floor of the four-storey prosecutors' office.
Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades in repeated bids to disperse the demonstrators and Mr Usenov declared a state of emergency, but all to little effect.
A police source and a witness said Interior Minister Moldomus Kongantiyev had been killed in the northwest hub of Talas where the first protests erupted.
Mr Kongantiyev was attacked by protesters who had also taken deputy prime minister Akylbek Zhaparov captive, the Kabar Kyrgyz state news agency reported.
An interior ministry spokesman, Rakhmatullo Akhmedov, later said Mr Kongantiyev was alive but admitted the government had little information on the situation in Talas, saying it was "checking" reports the minister was taken hostage.
In Bishkek, explosions from stun grenades reverberated across the city and the crackle of automatic weapons fire filled the air as protesters in the main square gasped for breath in a fog of tear gas.
Witnesses said security forces had fired live bullets into the air as between 3000 and 5000 protesters overturned cars and set them on fire in Bishkek.
Protesters appeared to have seized several heavily armoured police vehicles and were standing on them waving red Kyrgyz flags and the blue flag of the opposition movement.
Looters also ransacked the home of Mr Bakiyev's family, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
The violence came a day after more than 1000 opposition protesters burst through police lines and took control of government offices in Talas.
And in the central city of Naryn, hundreds of opposition protesters overnight stormed the regional government headquarters after the local governor refused to negotiate.
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country perched at the strategic junction between China, Russia and southwest Asia, is among the poorest countries to have emerged from the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
It has been plagued by corruption and chronic instability and the troubles resemble widespread unrest that washed over the country in March 2005 and resulted in the ouster of president Askar Akayev.
Russian grounded submarine, sonar photo,,[ 850 ]
Grounded submarine photographed with sonar
Salvage and Marine Operations, Ministry of DefencePhoto: This article was taken from the May issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
This eerie wreck image is not computer generated. It's the sonar image of Russian nuclear submarine B-159 (called K-159 before decommissioning), which has been lying 248m down in the Barents Sea, between Norway and Russia, since 2003. The Russian Federation hired Adus, a Scottish company that specialises in high-resolution sonar surveying, to evaluate if it would be possible to recover the wreck.
"The operation was complicated as the submarine was very deep, so we had to use the sonar equipment mounted on a remotely operated vehicle, (below)" says Martin Dean, the managing director of Adus and a forensic-wreck archaeologist. "We also had a problem with the surveying due to the density of north Atlantic cod attracted to the sound of the sonar and the light of the cameras. So at the beginning we had to turn off the equipment for 40 minutes and wait for the fish to go."
B-159, a November-class sub launched in 1963, was being towed to a shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, 1,000km north of St Petersburg, for scrapping when bad weather caused it to sink, killing nine crew.
"According to the sonar evidence, we can say that it sank stern first, headed down vertically and stuck 12m into the seabed, like a dart," says Dean. "The hull then snapped at the aft end and crashed to the seabed, leaving about 8m of the outer casing, including the propellers, still buried vertically in the seabed. Surprisingly, the submarine is still in good condition for a salvage."
NASA, Image of the Day ,Apr. 8th..[ 849 ]
The International Space Station flew across the face of the moon over NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida approximately 15 minutes before the launch of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-131 mission.
Discovery successfully launched on April 5 and is now docked with the station. STS-131 will deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station's laboratories.
The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior.
Image Credit: Photo courtesy of Fernando Echeverria
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Virginia Coal mine disaster... { 848 ]
At least 25 dead in West Virginia mine disaster
Related Video
MONTCOAL, West Virginia (Reuters) - Twenty-five coal miners died and four were still missing deep underground on Tuesday after an explosion ripped through a West Virginia mine owned by Massey Energy in the deadliest coal mine disaster in decades.
The accident at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, about 30 miles south of the state capital of Charleston, is owned by Massey's Performance Coal subsidiary.
Mine officials said the death toll rose to 25 after rescuers discovered more bodies underground hours after the blast which occurred in the mid-afternoon on Monday.
Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration told reporters four men were still missing.
"This is still a rescue operation," Stricklin said. "We can't give up hope at all. All we have left is hope."
The mine has two emergency chambers stocked with food, water and enough air to survive for four days, and rescuers were still hoping the missing miners had made their way there.
But about 50 rescuers were forced to pull back from the search area because methane gas and smoke underground made it too hazardous to continue the search.
The high concentration of gases suggests there may have been a second explosion, Stricklin said.
Rescuers intended to drill a borehole from the surface above the mine to try to reach the missing men.
Some of the miners may have died from the force of the "toxic blast" while others could have been killed by inhaling the gases, Stricklin said.
The death toll of 25 makes it the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1984 when 27 miners died in a fire in Utah, according to the United States Mine Rescue Association.
Sheri McGraw of the American Red Cross said the gathering of families awaiting news of the miners was "The most horrifying thing I've ever seen."
The families were initially stoic but broke down when they were told the latest fatality figures from the mine, she said. The Red Cross will provide counseling for the families.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship said earlier the company was "taking every action possible to locate and rescue those still missing."
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin said on his website: "For those families who are still waiting for news on their missing loved ones, I want them to know that we are doing everything possible in cooperation with federal officials and the company to get our miners out as quickly and safely as possible."
SAFETY VIOLATIONS
Massey, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia with operations in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
Massey said on its website its accident rate fell to an all-time low for the company in 2009. It said its safety record last year was stronger than the industry average for the sixth consecutive year.
But, according to federal records, the Upper Big Branch Mine has had three fatalities since 1998 and has a worse than average injury rate over the last 10 years. Two of the miners died in roof collapses in 1998 and 2001, while a third was electrocuted in 2003 when repairing an underground car.
Ellen Smith, the editor of Mine Safety and Health News, said the Upper Big Branch mine had been repeatedly cited for safety violations going back years and continuing this year.
The mine, which employs just over 200 people, uses the "longwall mining" method in to tear coal from a lengthy face, leading the ground behind it to collapse. Critics say the method can cause surface subsidence and damage to buildings.
In the worst coal mine disaster in U.S. history, 362 miners died in an explosion in 1906 in West Virginia's Monongah mine.
In January 2006, 12 miners died after an explosion in the Sago Mine, run by International Mines Corp in Tallsmansville, West Virginia, according to the U.S. Mine Rescue Association.
(Additional reporting and writing by Jon Hurdle; editing by Chris Wilson)