Moscow wants explanations from USA.. [ 1309 ]

Russia awaits articulate explanations from U.S., Poland on missile deployment

MOSCOW, May 27 2010, 20:38 (Xinhua) -- Moscow wanted articulate explanations from the United States and Poland of the deployment of Patriot missiles near the Russian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Thursday press conference.


Bildunterschrift: Original US plans to base missiles in Poland caused tension with Russia
  "We oppose the new arms race about to start in Europe. Patriot systems are not an anti-missile measure of defense. They are designed for anti-aircraft defense. So we don't quite understand why one needs to ... create military infrastructure in the close vicinity of the Russian border," the minister said.
"We expect to hear some articulate explanations from the American and Polish sides. Still, so far we hear only the pleas not to worry, because these systems are not targeted against Russia. But we have already heard that and we hope our new relations with Washington and Warsaw would allow us to receive more detailed explanations," Lavrov said.
U.S. Patriot missiles arrived in Poland on Monday. On Wednesday, Polish Defense minister Bogdan Klich welcomed a 100-strong U.S. unit and high-ranked US military officials to the town of Morag, close to the Russian border, where six training-mode Patriot missiles had been deployed. After 2012, they will be supplemented with the standard SM-3 combat missiles.
The Polish minister said the arrival of the missiles had been "an important step to enhancing the security" of Poland, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Related:
Russia not to deploy missiles due to U.S. missiles deployed in Poland

MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia is not going to deploy Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad region as a response to the deployment of the U.S. Patriot missile along the border in Poland, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"Currently there are no intentions to deploy the Iskanders since the American Patriot missiles are the part of anti-aircraft defense, not anti-missile one," said the spokesman as quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency.  Full story

Deployment of Patriot missiles increase Poland's security: defense chief

WARSAW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Deployment of Patriot missiles in Poland increases Poland's security and boosts cooperation with the United States, Poland's Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said when greeting U.S. soldiers in Morag on Wednesday.

"We consider deployment of the Patriot system in Poland to be an important step in increasing our national security and boosting cooperation with the United States," Klich said, quoted by the PAP news agency.  Full story

U.S. deploys missiles in Poland, may dampen relations with Russia

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A battery of U.S. Patriot missiles and more than 100 soldiers have arrived in Morag, north-western Poland, prompting concern from Russia.

The move will have lasting impact on security in the region and may dampen the United States and Poland's relations with Russia, analysts say.  

Editor: Xiong Tong

NASA Image of the Day,May 27th,..[ 1308 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

ISS Transits the Sun

Thilo Kranz, a staff member at DLR, the German Space Agency, took this image of the transit of the International Space Station ISS with Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-132 mission. Kranz photographed "the ISS as it passed across the solar disk in just 0.51 seconds ... 

 

At this time, preparations for undocking of space shuttle Atlantis during its final mission, STS-132, were ongoing. 

 

You can see the still docked shuttle in the 11 o'clock position. Also, you may recognise the solar panels and the large radiators. In the full resolution version of this image, you can also see the Soyuz capsule. 

 

Close to the centre of the sun, a group of sunspots is visible." Visit the DLR News Blog for more information. 

 

Image Credit: Thilo Kranz/DLR

Πέμπτη, 27 Μάιος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

West Yorkshire : A suspected serial killer arrested[ 1307 ]

Suspect quizzed over six women as police probe CCTV of crossbow attack

Justin Davenport and Rashid Razaq
27.05.10

A suspected serial killer arrested for the murders of three prostitutes may be questioned about the deaths of up to six women, it was revealed today.

Mature student Stephen Griffiths, 40, was being quizzed as police confirmed the remains of a woman found in a river were those of Suzanne Blamires, 36.

The criminology student, who researched serial killers, is also being held on suspicion of murdering Shelley Armitage, 31, and Susan Rushworth, 43, who have disappeared.
All three sex workers had vanished from Bradford's red light district — a haunt of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women, mainly prostitutes, 30 years ago.
The Standard can reveal the suspect sent “unnerving messages” to a yoga teacher a year ago, according to a friend of the woman.

Detectives are also said to be studying CCTV footage found by a security guard at the weekend which shows a woman being chased, attacked and shot with a crossbow.
Griffiths was arrested at his one-bed flat in a converted mill in Bradford on Monday, the day before police found the human remains in the River Aire.
Now detectives are combing through the killings and disappearance of other women dating back 20 years. In particular, they are examining the unsolved murders of three other women from the Bradford area.
Ms Blamires, 36, went missing from her home in the red light area last Friday. Ms Armitage vanished on April 26 and Ms Rushworth, a grandmother and mother of three, vanished on June 22 last year.
West Yorkshire Police have confirmed they are treating the disappearance of al three as murder.
Detectives are also said to be examining the disappearance of Gemma Simpson, 23, from her home in Leeds in May 2000 and the murders of Bradford prostitute Yvonne Fitt, 33, in 1992 and Rebecca Hall, 19, whose naked body was found in a Bradford alley in 2001.
While police are looking at further cases, senior officers emphasised today they had not found any definite links so far. They have been granted extra time, until early this evening, to question Griffiths. Detectives are scouring a My Space internet site set up by Griffiths to research his background.

The site, now removed, was created under the pseudonym Ven Pariah and he styled himself “the misanthrope who brought hate into heaven”. He is believed to have written about notorious serial killers and claimed he was doing a “PhD in murder”.
He used two main images of himself, gave himself the age of 99, listed his location as Bradford and last accessed his pages on April 23.
Listing his mood as “evil”, he quotes the book of Ezekiel: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides.” The quote was made famous after being used in an execution scene in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.
One black and white shot on the website shows Griffiths with his hair slicked back and was taken a number of years ago. A second is a topless self-portrait taken in a mirror.
Born in Dewsbury, he was said to be doing a criminal justice course specialising in homicide at the University of Bradford. He is also said to have a psychology degree. The university today refused to comment.
Neighbours at the block of flats in the converted property known as Soho Mills described him as “weird” and a “a bit of a Goth”.
West Yorkshire Police said today: “Inquiries are ongoing and a man of 40 remains under arrest in custody.”

Assistance requested from left-wing activists in the Gaza Strip ..[ 1306 ]

             Gaza flotilla refuses to help Schalit           

By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF

27/5/2010 14:02

Activists refuse quid pro quo: Visits to soldier for docking rights.

 

The Schalit family on Thursday asked for assistance from international left-wing activists due to arrive in the Gaza Strip later in the day.

If the left-wing activists pressure Hamas to allow international organizations to bring letters and food packages to Gilad Schalit, the kidnapped soldier's family has agreed to support the international expedition's attempt to dock, Army Radio reported Thursday.

Lawyer Nick Kaufman presented the offer to the organization "Free Gaza," one of the organizers of the flotilla headed for Gaza, which promptly refused the offer.

"We are disappointed that the organizers of the flotilla have refused to also provide basic humanitarian assistance to our son, who has been held in Gaza four years in contradiction of international law," said the Schalit family.

The IDF announced Wednesday evening that it was planning to stop the international convoy of nine ships currently on its way to Gaza carrying hundreds of activists and thousands of tons of supplies.

“If they decide to continue sailing and do not listen to the instructions, then they will be stopped, brought to Israel and dealt with by the Interior Ministry, which will return them to the countries they came from,” an IDF statement said.

According to the statement, the IDF will unload the supplies and transfer the shipment to the Gaza Strip, after inspecting it for weaponry.

The Navy has held a number of drills in recent weeks to prepare for the arrival of the small fleet, which is expected to try breaking the Israel-imposed sea blockade on Gaza and dock at its newly expanded port.

The scenarios drilled included the commandeering of the ships, which could, military sources said Wednesday, include violent clashes – depending on the response by the passengers on the vessels.

“We will do everything to ensure that the operation runs smoothly, but are prepared for every possible scenario,” one defense official explained.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the IDF continued its media blitz against the flotilla and released data showing that all of the supplies the ships are carrying were already being transferred by Israel to Gaza via land crossings on a regular basis.

“This flotilla is a provocation that is not needed considering the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is stable and good,” said Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the IDF’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration. Levi said that 100 trucks, loaded with supplies, enter Gaza on a daily basis, and that in the past two months over 1,200 tons of medical supplies were transferred to the Strip.

 

"X-51A Waverider", Hypersonic Aircraft cruiser.. [ 1305 ]

Aircraft sets hypersonic record at six times the speed of sound

An aircraft has set a record for hypersonic flight by flying more than three minutes at Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound.

 

Published: 12:30PM BST 27 May 2010

The X-51A Waverider

The X-51A Waverider was released from under the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress Photo: US Air Force

The X-51A Waverider was released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern California coast and its scramjet engine accelerated the aircraft to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated.

The Air Force said the previous record for a hypersonic flight was 12 seconds.

 

"We are ecstatic to have accomplished many of the X-51A test points during its first hypersonic mission," said Charlie Brink, an X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
"We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War II jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines," he said.

The Waverider was built for the Air Force by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing Co.
Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, "This is a new world record and sets the foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space, reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial transportation."

Four X-51A cruisers have been built for the Air Force, and the remaining three will be tested this autumn.
"No test is perfect," Mr Brink said, "and I'm sure we will find anomalies that we will need to address before the next flight."