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Tuesday, April 25, 2006File:Tu 16019.jpg

A senior Russian air force commander has claimed that new, upgraded Tu-160 bomber aircraft were unchallenged by US air defense systems when they penetrated a radar zone near the Canadian coast in US territory during an April training exercise, reports the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Commander of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov said that the bombers successfully carried out four mock Tu-95MS cruise missile launches, 200 mock bombings, and 53 mock sorties during the exercise. The RIA Novosti reported that the United States Air Force is currently investigating how the Tu-160’s escaped detection.

Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov said, “They were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually.”

Khvorov denies any link of the tests to the current US-Iranian tension, saying, “Of course, our exercises did not have anything to do with the situation in Iran, but their organization indirectly echoed in that region.”

The Tupolev Tu-160 is a strategic bomber introduced in 1987. It resembles the North American B-1B Lancer, but is larger and faster, being powered by four NK-32 afterburning turbofans, the largest in any combat aircraft. It is not considered to be a stealth aircraft due to its exposed engine inlets and broad wing gloves.

According to Khvorov over the course of this year, two additional Tu-160s will be commissioned for the long-range strategic bomber fleet with the numerous upgrades, including the ability to launch cruise missiles, aviation bombs, and satellite communication.

Monday, March 21, 2005A piece of driftwood in the shape of a crucifix is listed for sale on eBay with a starting bid price of $25,000. The seller, known as “Marzipanda,” from Scottsdale, Arizona lists its description as a “Natural Found Wood Jesus Christ Crucifix Cross Easter.”

Maripanda describes the discovery of the piece as, “My very dear friend found this amazing natural driftwood while hiking a few years ago. So striking because it clearly resembles the Lord and all the details.”

Expensive found art Christiana made international headlines in November 2004 when a Florida woman named Diana Duyser sold a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich on eBay for $28,000 to Canadian online gambling website, GoldenPalace.com, after claiming she saw the likeness of the Virgin Mary burned onto the toast.

But not all high-priced Christian fare on eBay is of dubious value. A perusal of Christian-themed items as of March 20, showed 13,944 for sale on eBay. They ranged from other found art to some very expensive and authenticated rare art.

One such item has an eBay seller from Tel-Aviv, Israel listing a 19th century iron wall plaque with a starting bid of $30,000 and a shipping cost of $2,000, making it the most-expensive Christian religious item listed for sale on the auction web site.

Under the “Christian Icons” section of the site, the 14 cast iron plaques are advertised to have been made in 1855 and portrays “Jesus in Jerusalem” with the 14 stations of Christ.

Another high-priced Christian-themed item is a set of chalices and paten in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for $3,550. The gold-plated silver is thought to have been made in the 1870s.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Yesterday, oil facilities belonging to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saudi Aramco were hit by multiple drone strikes in a pre-dawn raid. The attacks triggered major fires at a processing plant and an oil field, which state media said were under control. The Yemen-based Houthi movement claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, the attacks occurred at 4:00 A.M. local time (0100 UTC) and struck the largest processing plant at Abqaiq and the Khurais oil field. The oil field is about 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, Riyadh. The agency did not mention if there were casualties, but said exports were continuing.

Reuters, citing anonymous sources, reported both production and export of oil had been disrupted. Saudi officials subsequently said 5.7 million barrels of per-day production had been disrupted. This would be nearly half of Saudi Arabia’s entire production and around five percent on a global basis.

Speaking on al-Masirah TV in Yemen, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said it had carried out the attack using ten drones. According to him, it was among the largest Houthi operations inside of Saudi Arabia and was accomplished with the help of “honourable people inside the kingdom”.

“These attacks are our right, and we warn the Saudis that our targets will keep expanding”, Saree said. “We have the right to strike back in retaliation to the air strikes and the targeting of our civilians for the last five years.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted a message on Twitter blaming Iran for the attacks, saying there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.” BBC’s Jonathan Marcus said questions remain how much direct Iranian assistance is received by the Houthis who are ideologically aligned with Iran.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia started supporting the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi against the Houthi rebellion, providing airstrikes with the Royal Saudi Air Force. The United Nations called the resulting humanitarian crisis the worst in the world.

In 2006, Abqaiq was the target of an Al-Qaeda suicide attack.

Friday, September 9, 2022

On Tuesday, September 6, Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, United States announced that Top Thrill Dragster, the second tallest-roller coaster in the world, has permanently closed. The ride was the first full-circuit strata coaster, a roller coaster exceeding a 400 feet (122 m) height limit, in the world.

Director of communications at Cedar Point, Tony Clark, released a statement that “after 19 seasons in operation … the world’s first strata coaster, Top Thrill Dragster … is being retired.”

The news comes after an accident on August 15, 2021, when an L-shaped bracket fell on the head of a guest in the queue line, causing a serious brain injury and leading to the closure of the attraction for the rest of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The bracket was later identified as a sensor used to detect where the cars were on the track.

The park was cleared by Ohio officials in February 2022 of any wrong-doing or of having reason to believe that the ride was unsafe before operation. Prior to the August 2021 accident, two guest-related accidents occurred on the attraction.

Although the ride has been retired in its current form, park officials have stated that they are working on “creating a new and reimagined ride experience.” It was not confirmed if it was the accident that led to the permanent closure of the attraction.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The European Union has emerged from its worst recession since World War II, with the announcement on Friday that the region posted a modest growth in the third quarter. Despite the news, some EU economies including Spain and the United Kingdom are still struggling.

Both the European Union as a whole and the sixteen EU countries sharing the euro currency (the “eurozone”) posted positive growth, at 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. This follows five consecutive quarters of negative growth. The data was published by the European statistical agency Eurostat and announced by the European Commission in Brussels.

Two of Europe’s biggest economies, France and Germany, helped drive the overall growth. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced the French economy had grown 0.3 percent in the third quarter, and predicted it would enter 2010 with its old momentum.

In an interview on French radio, Lagarde said the fact the French economy had posted two successive quarters of positive growth showed it was turning around. She also noted that the labour market had only shed 5,000 jobs in the last quarter, far fewer than at the beginning of the year. Speaking from Singapore, Lagarde predicted Asia would drive the world economic recovery — but she also said it was important to continue government economic stimulus measures through 2010.

Germany’s economy grew 0.7 percent in the third quarter and Italy and the Netherlands also posted an upturn. Lithuania recorded the biggest growth — up 6 percent in the third quarter.

However the economies of both Spain and the United Kingdom shrunk in the same quarter. The UK’s Office for National Statistics initially estimated a fall of 0.4 percent in British output, though this could be revised. Britain had widely been expected to show growth in the third quarter. Eurostat figures also showed that unemployment in Europe overall rose to 9.7 percent in September — the highest in 20 years.

Some economists believe that growth in Europe and the United States may slow or even reverse in 2010, in a so called “double-dip”. Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight warned that the end of some government stimulus such as car scrappage schemes could cause a “loss of momentum”. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, disagreed, predicting in a statement from Singapore that 2010 would be a global “year of recovery”.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Great Britain has paid off the last of the loans it received to rebuild the country after World War II, sixty years ago. The last payment of US$83.25 million was transferred electronically to the United States on the last business day of 2006, along with an additional US$22.7 million to clear a similar debt owed to Canada.

The original loan of US$4.34 billion, equivalent to about $27 billion in today’s dollars, was negotiated in 1945 by John Maynard Keynes to protect the country from bankruptcy. Canada contributed US$1.2 billion, or an equivalent of about $7.5 billion today.

The loan was required after the U.S. terminated grants in aid to Britain under the Lend Lease Act, signed by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. On 2nd September 1945, with the decision to terminate aid, some of the goods were still in transit and it was necessary for Britain to arrange new loans to finance reconstruction.

The loan was negotiated at a 2% interest rate, payable over 50 years starting in 1950. The final payment was actually six years late, the British Government having suspended payments due in the years 1956, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1976 because of financial difficulties at those times.