Russia has claimed humanitarian motives in its use of the International Space Station (ISS) to collect overhead imagery of South Ossetia shortly after it invaded the breakaway Georgian province.
On Aug. 9 Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko used a digital camera equipped with an 800mm telephoto lens and a video camera to photograph "after-effects of border conflict operations in the Caucasus," according to the ISS status report for that day published by NASA on its website.
Use of the space station for military purposes would violate the Jan. 29, 1998, ISS cooperation agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency, which makes repeated references to the civil nature of the orbiting facility.
"The Space Station together with its additions of evolutionary capability will remain a civil station, and its operation and utilization will be for peaceful purposes, in accordance with international law," reads Article 14 of the agreement.
Apparently with that language in mind, Russia's space agency Roscosmos informed the U.S. space agency that Kononenko's actions two days after Russian forces moved into South Ossetia were not military in nature.
Read the entire story at avaiationow.com
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Deal: U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have reached agreement on a proposal calling for a complete U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq by 2012, the head Iraqi negotiator said Friday.
A U.S. soldier patrols a street this week on the outskirts of Baquba, Iraq.
The deal still must be approved by both sides, said Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, deputy foreign minister and head of the Iraqi negotiating team.
Hamoud said Thursday's meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was helpful in reaching the tentative agreement.
Hamoud said the proposal also says the last date for the presence of U.S. troops in cities and towns will be June 30, 2009.
There are clear caveats, however.
If the Iraqi government sees the necessity of keeping the American forces in cities and towns or in Iraq past December 31, 2011, it would ask that the Americans stay. A joint Iraqi-U.S. committee would help define the duration and number of forces that would be needed and regularly assess the security situation on the ground.
Read the full story at CNN.com
A U.S. soldier patrols a street this week on the outskirts of Baquba, Iraq.
The deal still must be approved by both sides, said Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, deputy foreign minister and head of the Iraqi negotiating team.
Hamoud said Thursday's meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was helpful in reaching the tentative agreement.
Hamoud said the proposal also says the last date for the presence of U.S. troops in cities and towns will be June 30, 2009.
There are clear caveats, however.
If the Iraqi government sees the necessity of keeping the American forces in cities and towns or in Iraq past December 31, 2011, it would ask that the Americans stay. A joint Iraqi-U.S. committee would help define the duration and number of forces that would be needed and regularly assess the security situation on the ground.
Read the full story at CNN.com
Thursday, August 21, 2008
LA TIMES: The Black Mailbox
TIKABOO VALLEY, NEV. -- The only landmark for about 40 miles on a barren stretch of highway is a mailbox battered by time and desert gusts. It's known as the Black Mailbox, though it's actually a faded white.
Over the years, hundreds of people have converged here in south-central Nevada to photograph the box -- the size of a small television, held up by a chipped metal pole. They camp next to it. They try to break into it. They debate its significance, or simply huddle by it for hours, staring into the night.
Read the entire story at: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-mailbox21-2008aug21,0,573879.story or by clicking on the link under "TOPICAL LINKS"
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
AF, Navy locate B-52 wreckage near Guam
Air Force Times Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Aug 20, 2008 16:21:21 EDT
Air Force investigators think they know where to find the wreckage of the B-52H Stratofortress that crashed July 21 about 30 miles off the western coast of Guam. All six crew members perished.
A spokesman for Air Combat Command, which is overseeing two crash investigations, said the Air Force is working with the Navy to bring the plane’s wreckage back to the surface. The first step will be to map out the debris field. Then officials will decide which parts can be brought back to the surface.
Even after crashes, large aircraft parts can reveal information about a plane’s flight, such as how well the engines were working and the positions of wing flaps.
The wreckage will not include a flight date recorder. The bomber, like other B-52Hs, was not equipped with a black box to record details of the flight.
The jet, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., went down while on a training mission that was to have included a flyover of a Liberation Day celebration on Guam.
Rescuers say 145 killed in Madrid plane crash
By Europe correspondent Rafael Epstein and wires
Emergency services say only 28 people survived after a plane crashed and burst into flames at Madrid airport. (Reuters: Juan Medina)
The Spanish Government says 145 people have died after a Spanish tourist jet carrying 173 people crashed on takeoff and burst into flames at Madrid airport.
The Spanair jet was lifting off to take 166 passengers and nine crew to the Canary Islands, but it barely made it off the ground before witnesses say an engine caught fire and the plane crashed in a field at the edge of the airport.
Dozens of ambulances and fire engines drove to the burning wreckage, which sparked a large grassfire that took more than an hour put out.
Plumes of smoke could be seen many kilometres away.
Around 25 passengers were treated for injuries, but it seems most of the passengers and crew were killed.
As large clouds of smoke billowed into the sky near the terminal at Madrid airport, there were reports that ambulance officers were pulling out burnt corpses and that the plane was completely destroyed.
Spanish newspapers say the plane, Spanair's Flight JK5022, an MD-82 jet, reported an engineering fault but was eventually allowed to take off.
The 15-year-old plane, carrying 166 passengers and nine crew, shot off the runway at 2:45 pm (local time), according to Spanair and witnesses described a huge explosion.
"Only the tail was recognisable, there was wreckage scattered all over the place and dead bodies across a wide area. A lot of them were children," Herbigio Corral, who headed the rescue effort, told reporters.
As well as helicopters dumping water on the fire, around 50 ambulances and more than 10 fire engines are reported to have arrived at the burning wreckage.
Less than a third of the passengers were treated at the crash site, while some were taken to the city's six hospitals.
Of the survivors, eight are in critical condition, an emergency services spokesman told national radio.
Spain's Prime Minister and Madrid's mayor went to the scene to talk to the families of those who had died.
Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the cause of the accident seemed to be "an error in takeoff".
But Spanish media quoted sources as saying the plane's left engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, had caught fire.
The flight was a code-sharing operation with Lufthansa serving the Canary Islands, a popular holiday destination for tourists from throughout Europe.
Lufthansa says seven passengers with Lufthansa tickets, four of them from Germany, had checked in for the flight, and a Canary Islands official says passengers included Swedes and Dutch.
'Huge explosion'
Thick columns of smoke rose into the air and police blocked off both ends of the Terminal Four runway, where more than 20 ambulances and many fire engines were stationed.
"I saw how the plane broke in two and a huge explosion," Manuel Muela said , who was driving past the airport when the crash occurred, according to newspaper El Mundo.
Police escorted tearful relatives of passengers past reporters and dozens of workers identified as psychologists and social workers arrived at the terminal.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holidays and the Spanish Olympic Committee says the Spanish flag will fly at half mast in the Olympic village in Beijing.
Spain's national soccer team has worn black armbands at a friendly match with Denmark.
The MD-82 is a medium-range single-aisle plane, popular with regional airlines. It is a member of the MD-80 family of planes made by United States manufacturer Boeing Co.
- ABC/Reuters
Emergency services say only 28 people survived after a plane crashed and burst into flames at Madrid airport. (Reuters: Juan Medina)
The Spanish Government says 145 people have died after a Spanish tourist jet carrying 173 people crashed on takeoff and burst into flames at Madrid airport.
The Spanair jet was lifting off to take 166 passengers and nine crew to the Canary Islands, but it barely made it off the ground before witnesses say an engine caught fire and the plane crashed in a field at the edge of the airport.
Dozens of ambulances and fire engines drove to the burning wreckage, which sparked a large grassfire that took more than an hour put out.
Plumes of smoke could be seen many kilometres away.
Around 25 passengers were treated for injuries, but it seems most of the passengers and crew were killed.
As large clouds of smoke billowed into the sky near the terminal at Madrid airport, there were reports that ambulance officers were pulling out burnt corpses and that the plane was completely destroyed.
Spanish newspapers say the plane, Spanair's Flight JK5022, an MD-82 jet, reported an engineering fault but was eventually allowed to take off.
The 15-year-old plane, carrying 166 passengers and nine crew, shot off the runway at 2:45 pm (local time), according to Spanair and witnesses described a huge explosion.
"Only the tail was recognisable, there was wreckage scattered all over the place and dead bodies across a wide area. A lot of them were children," Herbigio Corral, who headed the rescue effort, told reporters.
As well as helicopters dumping water on the fire, around 50 ambulances and more than 10 fire engines are reported to have arrived at the burning wreckage.
Less than a third of the passengers were treated at the crash site, while some were taken to the city's six hospitals.
Of the survivors, eight are in critical condition, an emergency services spokesman told national radio.
Spain's Prime Minister and Madrid's mayor went to the scene to talk to the families of those who had died.
Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the cause of the accident seemed to be "an error in takeoff".
But Spanish media quoted sources as saying the plane's left engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, had caught fire.
The flight was a code-sharing operation with Lufthansa serving the Canary Islands, a popular holiday destination for tourists from throughout Europe.
Lufthansa says seven passengers with Lufthansa tickets, four of them from Germany, had checked in for the flight, and a Canary Islands official says passengers included Swedes and Dutch.
'Huge explosion'
Thick columns of smoke rose into the air and police blocked off both ends of the Terminal Four runway, where more than 20 ambulances and many fire engines were stationed.
"I saw how the plane broke in two and a huge explosion," Manuel Muela said , who was driving past the airport when the crash occurred, according to newspaper El Mundo.
Police escorted tearful relatives of passengers past reporters and dozens of workers identified as psychologists and social workers arrived at the terminal.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holidays and the Spanish Olympic Committee says the Spanish flag will fly at half mast in the Olympic village in Beijing.
Spain's national soccer team has worn black armbands at a friendly match with Denmark.
The MD-82 is a medium-range single-aisle plane, popular with regional airlines. It is a member of the MD-80 family of planes made by United States manufacturer Boeing Co.
- ABC/Reuters
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
