smalltownfame.com

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Five civilian contractors have been injured after an explosion and fire onboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf at 9:25 a.m. today.

A large explosion erupted from the ship’s berthing area where welding work was being conducted during a stop in Norfolk, Virginia. A fire broke out two decks below main deck, but was quickly extinguished. The injured were taken to Norfolk General Hospital for treatment to injuries not believed to be life-threatening, according to John Kowalczyk, a spokesman for BAE Systems Ship Repair, who were conducting the work.

He added that the fire appeared to be an isolated incident. The ship has been laid up for repairs and modernizing since May.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will accept a nomination for Prime Minister of Russia, as Dmitry Medvedev has suggested he will do, if he wins the presidential election.

Meanwhile, the United Russia ruling party, which is backed by Putin, officially nominated Medvedev for presidency today. The intention was declared on December 10, being the long-awaited answer to the question on “Putin’s successor”. The next day Medvedev, who is the current deputy prime minister of the Russian government and the chairman in the board of directors of Gazprom gas giant, offered Putin the Prime Minister position in case of winning the election, which is forecasted to happen.

Today, United Russia, which has a majority in the country’s lower parliament, has held its VII convention where the nomination and Putin’s declared consent took place. 478 voting members backed Medvedev while one opposed. Medvedev is also backed by three other parties — A Just Russia, Agrarian Party of Russia and Civilian Power.

Recently there were speculations about Putin’s intention to become a head of Russia and Belarus alliance, which were speedily rejected by Putin’s representatives.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

A suicide bomber attacked an American base in the Khowst region on the Pakistani border of Afghanistan, leaving seven American CIA officers dead and six injured. No American or NATO military personnel were killed or injured in the attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman.

It appears that the suicide bomber, reportedly wearing an Afghan National Army uniform, blew himself up in either the gym or the dining facility of Base Chapman.

In a statement on the Voice of Jihad web page, the Taliban claimed responsiblity for the attack, alleging 20 “CIA employees” were killed in the incident.

The Chapman Base is a converted military base which is now being used for civilian reconstruction operations, although military personnel are still located on the base. Camp Salerno, the main base in the Khowst province, has been the target of many attacks in recent weeks.

Recent attacks have been focused on foreign civilians, such as an incident in October in which 7 foreign and 3 Afghan civilians were killed in an attack at a UN guest house. The CIA has not lost this many operatives in nearly 25 years and the last time CIA agents were killed was in 2003.

Monday, November 28, 2011

The death toll from the weekend suspension bridge collapse on the Indonesian island of Borneo has risen from four to eleven. Search and rescue teams continue to look for bodies in the Mahakam River.

The number of wounded is currently 39 injured; reports from locals suggest 33 people remain missing at the scene in East Kalimantan’s Kutai Kartanegara district, where “Kalimantan’s Golden Gate Bridge” linked the towns of Tenggarong and the regional capital, Samarinda. A six-month-old baby is among the dead.

Cars, motorbikes, and buses all fell into the Mahakam River when the bridge came down during repairs. Another car was left overturned and balanced upon wreckage over the water. State-owned builders PT Hutama Karya completed the bridge about a decade ago in the image of California’s Golden Gate Bridge. A cable on the 720-metre structure is thought to have failed as workers dealt with it; six of the repair crew were reported missing yesterday. It had been the longest suspension bridge in Borneo.

Eyewitnesses described heavy traffic at the time of the collapse, and one survivor said he left his truck to investigate a traffic jam. Some people were left trapped by debris as the bridge came down. “It happened so fast, only about 30 seconds,” according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Nugoroho.

National search and rescue head Daryatmo said yesterday cranes will attempt to move debris today, with new reports saying echo-sounding equipment will be used to check it is safe to begin lifting. It is believed the bodies of more victims will be found trapped in vehicles beneath the water, which is 35-40 metres deep. Visibility is poor, and one official explained authorities are still unsure how many vehicles are on the riverbed.

“The above-water search is continuing, but underwater operations have not been carried out because we’re worried that the bridge’s pylons are unstable and could collapse any time,” said Nugoroho today. He explained that bodies had washed onto the riverbanks overnight and were recovered today.

The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has sent three ministers to the site to investigate the accident, while Bambang Widaryatmo, head of East Kalimantan’s police, promised “parties found to be negligent will be prosecuted”. The government has promised a replacement ferry service. The river is closed to boats as rescue operations continue, and a 22-strong team has been dispatched from the national police, comprising six forensics experts, five disaster victim identification specialists, and eleven investigators. They are there to augment the East Kalimantan Police. Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih yesterday visited survivors in Parikesit Hospital and promised them medical treatment at government expense.

Some people swam ashore after falling, with the aftermath filled with screams. Survivor Syakrani, 24, yesterday asserted “The authorities should have closed the bridge if it was under repair.” His words were followed by a Jakarta Globe editorial declaring the accident “unacceptable”.

The Globe went on to comment upon suggestions corruption may have played a role; “It is too early to point fingers and look to place blame, but if shoddy materials were used in the building of the bridge, those responsible must answer to the public.” Another suggestion is coal barges striking the bridge may have weakened it. Local coal company Harum Energy lost five percent of its share value today amid fears the river blockage will hamper their ability to ship coal.

Samarinda’s seen a population and construction boom lately. A few years have seen the population triple and the construction of a large mosque, and a sports stadium; an airport and port are set to follow. However, the Corruption Eradication Commission warns 70% of the corruption it investigates concerns government contracts and up to 40% of money earmarked for infrastructure ends up stolen.

Friday, April 21, 2006

At least 45,000 employees of the BEST, Mumbai‘s public transport provider, are going on strike indefinitely. Workers are unhappy with changes made to wages and are concerned about their working conditions. Union leaders say the strike will end when the company rethinks its decision.

Nearly 3,300 buses will be taken off the road since talks with union leaders have drawn an inconclusive response; at least 450,000 commuters are expected to be affected by the strike. Another round of talks is expected to take place later today. An Industrial Court has termed the strike call illegal. BEST has warned employees participating in the strike that they would be faced with disciplinary action.

Sharad Rao, General Secretary of BEST’s workers union, said that “the management took this decision arbitrarily without even coming to the negotiating table. They moved to the committee to change the wages and other conditions on their own, and that is absolutely illegal. Three days ago, they have again moved to the BHT committee asking them to freeze the dearness allowance which no worker is going to tolerate”. Dearness Allowance is an inflation-linked component of wages.

“I have been on the road for the last one hour. Normally I would have just hopped on to a bus,” said commuter Mukul Chandan. Commuter Janki Patel reported, “I travel by bus everyday, but today because of the strike I have had to take an auto and its going to cost me Rs 200 just one way.”

Saturday, April 22, 2006

This week, the Public Broadcasting Service aired a NOVA program titled “Dimming the Earth”, which presented research by leading scientists on the complex systems of our global climate and human activity’s effect on it. One of the largest interactions (or “inputs”) humans have with the atmosphere is the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels. Consumption has risen 2% per year for this decade.

Fossil fuels burnt in factories and automobiles send their waste into our atmosphere in two forms. The first is CO₂ and other greenhouse gases, which have received substantial attention in the last few years because of the way they trap heat in the atmosphere. The second is the tiny particles of sulfur dioxide, soot and ash, which scientists call aerosols (basically smog). Research into understanding the negative health effects of air pollution has resulted in the development of catalytic converters for cars as well as devices to remove particulate solids from industrial waste before it reaches the air.

More recently, atmospheric scientists have come upon the phenomenon of the reduction of direct sunlight reaching Earth’s surface— observing a nearly a 5% decline between 1960 and 1990, with evidence of a recovery since then. This has been dubbed the “global dimming” effect, and is probably due to the way these aerosols act upon clouds. It is important to realise that this does not represent a net loss of this much sunshine to the climate system – if so, large temperature declines would have been observed. Instead, the sunshine is absorbed elsewhere in the system, with a much smaller net loss.

Clouds form when moisture gathers around airborne particles, such as pollen or dust. Clouds formed by the aerosol particles emitted by fossil fuel consumption are made of many more tiny droplets than “natural” clouds. These smog-created clouds have two notable effects: they shield sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface and, due to water’s reflective nature, the millions of tiny droplets suspended in them reflect light back into space, allowing even less light to reach Earth.

Many scientists now believe that global dimming caused by these pollutants has mitigated the temperature rises brought about by global warming. Over the last thirty years, Earth’s temperature has increased by about 0.5 oC.

In the absence of global dimming, however, the Earth might be 0.3 oC warmer than it currently is, suggesting that a “tug-of-war” exists between greenhouse gases and particulates released by burning fossil fuels. Efforts to mitigate the human health dangers of smog have allowed more heat into our atmosphere and brought about a sharper increase in global warming.

Dr. James E. Hansen, professor at Columbia University and the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies [1], believes that if we continue on our current pattern, this warming could be as much as five degrees in the next thirty years and ten to fourteen degrees over the course of the century. Such a temperature rise would devastate life on Earth, likely bringing on a cascade of self-reinforcing warming effects. Earth’s forests drying and burning, a steady thawing of the Greenland and arctic ice sheets, and, most dangerous of all, a release of the methane hydrates that are now frozen at the bottom of the oceans, could remake the planet into something inhospitable to human life. Dr. Hansen warns that, according to his research, man has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming and other responses to human activity by Earth’s climate reach a “tipping point”, becoming unstoppable.