Archive for November, 2008

Black box found in medditeranean coast

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Located the black box of the Airbus in the rugged French coast 

The three-black boxes of the Airbus A320 plane of Air New Zealand, damaged on Thursday in the French Mediterranean coast with seven crew on board when conducting a test flight, were located, reported today the Mayor of Perpignan (southwestern France) . 

The French Navy divers responsible for the work of today succeeded in conducting a search immersion, despite the adverse weather conditions, the sources said. 

“The priority is to recover the bodies, take DNA to identify victims and return them to their families,” said the deputy prosecutor of Perpignan, Dominique Alzeari. 

Two bodies were recovered yesterday, while another five are still missing. 

For reasons not yet determined, the plane fell to about eight kilometers in front of the coast of Saint-Cyprien, near Perpignan, in the midst of bad weather conditions, with heavy rain and winds. 

The French lost their radar signal at around 13.45 in Brasilia, and shortly afterwards the wreckage of the apparatus were sighted by a civilian ship, warned that the rescue services. 

The plane, a unit of twin engine with a capacity for 150 passengers, was delivered to New Zealand company in July 2005 and accumulated 7 thousand hours of flight, said Airbus, a subsidiary of European aerospace consortium EADS.

Indonesia suspends tsunami alert, after two tremors in the Sulawesi Islands

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

 Notice had been issued after tremors of 7.7 and 6 degrees in Sulawesi.
There are reports of buildings that have fallen on the island, but no news of casualties.

The meteorological agency of Indonesia suspended the warning of tsunami that was issued after an earthquake of 7.7 degrees on the Richter scale struck the coastal region north of Sulawesi Island in the Pacific Ocean.

The Center for Control of Tsunamis Pacific, the United States, also issued a tsunami alert systems to a regional area of square kilometers around the epicenter, with “destructive potential.” A tsunami is a series of giant waves that can be produced by an underwater volcanic eruption, by shaking of earth and also by the fall of meteorites.

According to the Geological Research Center of the U.S., the earthquake in Indonesia was magnitude 7.5 on the scale of the moment and there was 1:02 a.m. on Monday (local time).

 

The epicenter is located 136 km from the city of Gorontalo, on Sulawesi, and 1890 km from the capital, Jakarta.

A secondary tremor of 6 degrees Richter was felt around half an hour later in the same region, according to the Indonesian authorities. The U.S. Geological Center estimated the quake at 5.7 secondary.

 
Still no information on casualties, but Indonesian authorities said they were overturned buildings in the town of Tolitoli in Sulawesi. Witnesses said the tremor was felt with strength in Gorontalo.

Indonesia is an archipelago of 17 thousand islands and is located on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of great seismic and volcanic activity that is hit by about 7 thousand tremors a year, most of small magnitude.

Indonesia launched on Tuesday passed a new high-tech system to detect potential tsunamis and provide more rapid alerts to residents of the region. (Watch the video to firstly)

On December 26, 2004, an earthquake of 9 degrees and struck the Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 170 thousand people in Indonesia, most in Aceh.

Obama and McCain: Watch out for the weekend pre-election

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

It may already be too late to the much discussed “October surprise”, but the Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain need to be attentive to the fateful “last the weekend.”

The straight end of the last two presidential elections was unexpected events, which apparently influenced the outcome of disputes very tight.

Five days of the election of Nov. 4, the chance for a fact that could turn the game in favor of McCain seems increasingly remote, but continues to exist.

“The end of last week can be a very weird and strange period in a presidential campaign,” said Steven Schio, political analyst from Carleton College in Minnesota.

“It’s when the last voters who were not paying attention are linked, and decide if the last undecided. Strange things can happen.”

In 2004, Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda, made an announcement on Friday prior to the election, moving the discussion to the terrorist threat, possibly helping in the reelection of George W. Bush - like his opponent John Kerry concede later.

In 2000, the latest campaign controversy arose on Thursday prior to the election - Bush, then governor of Texas, had been arrested in 1976 for driving drunk, and never publicly revealed the fact.

Advisers said that the complaint claimed the slight edge to Bush that he was in the national polls to vote. The Democrat Al Gore won the national election but lost the dispute in the Electoral College, after the recount of votes in Florida.

Polls of mouth-to-urn indicated that the disclosure actually affected the vote to Bush in recent days.

Until now, this campaign has been free of such shocks, which already constitute a political tradition in the U.S. - the “October surprises”, which change elections a few days of the election (always at the beginning of November). It was thus in 1980, when Jimmy Carter, candidate for reelection, lost to Ronald Reagan after the failure of negotiations to free hostages in Irã.

The phenomenon had almost occurred in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson ordered to stop the bombing in North Viento, a week of the election - which did not prevent the Republican Richard Nixon beat the government candidate Hubert Humphrey.

But this year the October surprise came in September - the crisis on Wall Street and the financial package, which inclinaram the polls in favor of Obama, better assessed by voters on economic issues. Such global economic crisis in the midst of a campaign was something unheard

There are few surprises that McCain and Obama as to prepare for this final straight. Both now the last weekend in strategic states such as Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Colorado.

In national polls, Obama leads by a margin of 3-8 percentage points. In search of Fox News Thursday, the advantage of Democrats fell in a week from 9 to 3 points. In this research, there are still 6 percent undecided. In others, the quota is even greater.

“At this point, there are still many doubters who can decide. Suits at the end can really determine the outcome of tight races.”