My World Earth News

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ballon Boy.What happen? Is this a hoax?

Falcon Heene, with his mother, Mayumi, on Thursday after the boy turned out not to have been on a runaway balloon. Speculation about a hoax increased after a comment by the boy.

If it weren't for the fact that it was mildly horrifying to watch on live TV, the story would have seemed straight out of a Roald Dahl novel. Hoax or no hoax, the Heene family had the country captivated for the better part of Thursday -- all because of an empty floating balloon. For his second act, the would-be balloon pilot, Falcon (at far right), charms the nation by barfing on the "Today" show. Other reality TV families should take note -- this is how good drama is done.

Ryo Heene peeks from the front door of his family's Fort Collins home Friday, facing a group of reporters and photographers. The 8-year-old told journalists his dad was sleeping.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said it "seemed inconceivable" that Falcon — who spent hours running around his neighborhood and climbing on the family cars after emerging from hiding Thursday afternoon — could have been coached to sit still in his hiding space for so long.

"It seems much more likely that the boy was in fact frightened," Alderden said. "That seems like a credible story."

But Internet and television pundit speculation about the story only grew stronger Friday, and Alderden said investigators planned to re-interview the family to answer lingering questions and contradictions in the case.

He said the results of the Sheriff Office's investigation would be handed over to Larimer County's child-protection workers for a possible investigation of their own.

The Heenes, meanwhile, adamantly denied perpetrating a hoax during a string of televised media interviews Friday morning — including two in which a weary-looking Falcon vomited.

"This is not some kind of hoax," Richard Heene said on NBC's "Today" show.

"I'm repetitively getting asked this," he said. "What do I have to gain out of this? I'm not selling anything. I'm not advertising anything."

After the morning blitz, the Heenes cut off the media for the day, posting a sign on their door that read: "Thank you for all of your support. We are not taking any interviews any more. We are tired."

During a moment outside, the Heenes' 8-year-old son, Ryo, told reporters his dad was sleeping.

"My dad said he is tired of the show," the boy said.

One minute, President Obama was on the television, speaking about the rebirth of New Orleans, the usual array of citizenry behind him. In the next, he had been shoved aside by a live, breaking Grimm's fairy tale. And like all children's fables, it was at once horrifying and enchanting.
This Story

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A Mystery Aloft, a Nation Riveted -- And One Grounded Balloon Boy
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Balloon Boy: 'I Thought I'd Get in Trouble'
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Balloon Lands With No Sign of Child

A rambunctious 6-year-old boy had climbed into a homemade helium balloon, the anchors announced gravely. Now he was floating so prettily 7,000 feet above Colorado, toward the heavens, at the mercy of the winds.

For three hours on a workaday Thursday, a mesmerized and helpless America watched this shiny silvery disc spin slowly against a brilliant blue sky with puffy white clouds. As it tipped this way and that, emergency vehicles trailed the balloon over two counties and 50 miles. The Air Force was alerted. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes. A Black Hawk chopper flew in close, blades slashing, to create a downwash to defeat a contraption that looked like a giant birthday party balloon.

There became one conversation, one America: What's the latest on the balloon boy? How are they going to get him down? Here came the parade of experts, in air balloon construction, mechanics and lore. How'd he get up there anyway?

At last, the jet stream set the shimmering orb gently down in the middle of a vast field.

Men in overalls ran to the balloon and stabbed it with shovels until it slowly crumpled.

A nation held its breath.

There was no boy.

Authorities scoured the ground for bits of broken plywood, a crumpled child.

And then, five hours after the horror began, someone interrupted the sheriff giving a breaking-news briefing: The boy had been found!

His name was Falcon, the perfect fairy-tale name. He had been hiding in a cardboard box in the rafters of the garage. "I played," the boy told reporters, "and then I went to sleep."

Falcon is the youngest of three boys who seem to have the kind of escapades few boys do these days. They live in Fort Collins, Colo., with their parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, who both have made appearances in a YouTube music video in which the boys starred. Mom rocked it out on guitar.

On the video, these are just the sort of boys who might hop a boxcar, who would figure out how to make the toilet explode. The Heene household was an adventureland, a place where Maurice Sendak met "Wife Swap." The family appeared earlier this year on the ABC reality show in which two mothers switch households and come away aghast at how other people live. On the Heenes' episode, a risk-taking, storm-chasing amateur scientist swapped his wife with a safety-obsessed family.

Richard Heene's MySpace page says he "flew into Hurricane Wilma to take magnetic field measurements" in 2005, and it was just an ordinary family vacation from the looks of it in a Denver television station report uploaded to YouTube. "This year I rode a motorcycle into a mesocyclone." He also said he'd like to meet "real aliens from outer space and conduct a full interview with them."

On Thursday, the trio of rascal brothers had been playing out back with the balloon their father built. Richard hollered at Falcon for climbing into a plywood box on the craft. When the balloon came untethered and floated away, Falcon was nowhere to be found.

Neighbor Bob Licko heard a commotion and saw two boys on the roof with a camera, he told the Associated Press. "One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air."

The mother was distraught, Licko said, and the father was running around the house.

Falcon slept through it all, sound in his cardboard box. When he emerged, he gave the explanation that naughty boys have used for centuries.

"He scared me because he yelled at me," Falcon said. "That's why I went in the attic."

His father said he was really sorry and hugged his balloon boy.

The Heene family had one more video to post on YouTube. And the nation had, if nothing else, a memorable Wild Rumpus.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Jaycee Dugard Tells the World She's Getting Her Life Back

Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and rape Jaycee Dugard , imprison her for 18years and father 2 child from Jaycee.

Jaycee Dugard as she appears in People magazine

Jaycee Dugard wants the world to know she's re-building her life after nearly two decades in captivity.

For the first time, we're seeing what the 29-year-old looks like now, and we're hearing how she's putting the pieces back together.

After 18 years in captivity, her smile and blue eyes still shine. People magazine had released the first photo of kidnap survivor Jaycee Dugard.

Erica Schulte, Dugard family spokesperson, said, "I was thrilled when i saw the photo because it is just the perfect representation of what she looks like."

Two months ago, Jaycee was freed from this backyard prison in northern California, along with two daughters fathered by her alleged kidnapper, Phillip Garrido. Garrido and his wife Nancy are charged with abducting Jaycee--when she was just 11--and rape.

Jaycee, now 29, has spent the last two months in seclusion with her family.

Peter Castro, People Magazine Deputy Managing Editor, said, "She missed 18 Christmases, 18 Thanksgivings, 18 birthdays with her family, and she is now back with her mother, with her daughters, and she just can't believe how happy she is right now."

The family is getting to know one another again, and Jaycee and her daughters are learning to build trust.

Dr. Jeff Gardere, Clinical Psychologist, said, "Even though she does have this incredible resilience, which is wonderful, and the happiness is authentic, she will have to work through those issues of being in captivity for 18 years."

Jaycee did not let the magazine photograph her daughters' faces, so why did she go public now?

Castro said, "There is sort of a contradiction if she is so private how can she be on the cover of People magazine. She wants to lift the veil on this situation. She wants to let the world know that she is doing okay, and that she is in a very good place right now."

Jaycee says she's appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from around the world.

“I’m so happy to be back with my family,” Ms Dugard, 29, told People magazine, which will publish several photographs of the kidnap victim — along with a brief interview — on Friday.

Ms Dugard, who was rescued when a parole officer discovered her real identity during an interview with her captor, is said to be living in seclusion with her mother, Terry Probyn, 50, and her two daughters, Angel, 15, and Starlit, 11.

Both girls were fathered by Ms Dugard’s captor, Phillip Garrido, who allegedly snatched her from a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe when she was 11 years old. Both Mr Garrido and his wife, Nancy, are now awaiting trial.

Mr Garrido, a heavy LSD user and religious zealot — who reportedly tried to gouge out his first wife’s eyeballs with a safety pin — had been sent to prison for 50 years in the 1970s for kidnapping and raping another woman. However, he was released after serving only 11 years.

A registered sex offender, he allegedly kept Ms Dugard in a squalid makeshift camp in his back yard — it is thought she gave birth to both their daughters there — without ever attracting the suspicion of the authorities, in spite of visits to his home by the police and complaints from neighbours about the sound of children coming from within his property.

According to People, Ms Dugard has already started the slow process of recovery. “She rides horses, cooks meals, and is thinking of collaborating on a book,” says the magazine.

Terry Probyn’s stepmother, Joan Curry, added: “They live a surprisingly normal life, considering the circumstances.” Asked by a US television show whether People had paid for the photographs, the magazine’s managing editor, Larry Hackett, said, “We have bought photographs in the past. I don’t want to go into the details.”

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UK sent extra 500 troops to Afganisthan.New wave of attacks in Pakistan and Afganisthan.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal at a memorial service on Wednesday for Afghan security officers.

Britain currently has around 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown leaves his official residence, 10 Downing Street, for the new parliamentary year's first Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons in London, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009. Brown was expected to announce Wednesday that he's sending more British troops to Afghanistan amid rising dissent about the conflict.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged Wednesday to send more troops to Afghanistan but only if NATO and the Afghan government do more to help fight the Taliban.

Brown said his government would increase British troop levels to 9,500 — an increase of about 500 — on the condition that President Hamid Karzai reduce corruption and improve his government's performance. Brown also pledged to send troops only if he can provide them with the proper equipment, and if NATO allies increase their contributions to the war effort.

Military experts said Brown wants to show British support for the war as the U.S. debates an increase in its Afghan troop levels and he is unlikely to call off the deployment. Brown did not specify what contributions he is seeking from NATO nations, or exactly what the Afghans must do to get the extra forces, an indication that the conditions are largely designed to put political pressure on Karzai and NATO, they said.

In Washington, the White House expressed appreciation for the British decision but denied that Mr. Obama had made his decision. The president met for three hours with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan, his fifth such meeting in recent weeks as he reviews strategy and his commander’s request for more troops.

Mr. Obama and his advisers focused much of their discussion on Wednesday on concerns with the Afghan government, the need to accelerate training of Afghan security forces and the challenges in deploying more civilian assistance, White House officials said. Mr. Obama plans another such meeting next week and does not appear close to a decision, prompting renewed criticism from Republicans that he is dithering at a critical moment.

The increase in British troops is small and may be of mostly symbolic importance, but it will likely be welcomed by President Barack Obama as his administration ponders difficult options in Afghanistan. These include a possible increase in U.S. forces, which now number about 67,000. Britain is the second-largest force in the 42-nation NATO coalition in Afghanistan.

Retired Col. Christopher Langton, a senior fellow at The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said it is extremely unlikely that Brown will ultimately decide to cancel the deployment even if the conditions he demanded are not met, in part because Brown has said he is responding to requests from senior military advisers.

Langton said, however, that Brown will have to make sure the troops are properly equipped and trained, as promised, or face tremendous public anger at home. The government has already been criticized for not providing enough body armor and heavy vehicles.

Brown appeared to dismiss an argument put forward by some in the U.S. administration that Western forces should avoid raising troops levels and limit their goals to eliminating al-Qaida through precise strikes by aerial drones and special forces.

"Our objective is clear and focused: to prevent al-Qaida launching attacks on our streets and threatening legitimate government in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said. "But if we limit ourselves simply to targeting al-Qaida, without building the capacity of Afghanistan and Pakistan to deal with terrorism and violent extremism, the security gains will not endure."

Brown also said he will demand a better performance from Karzai's government.

It is not clear that the proposed extra deployment is large enough to have an impact on the battlefield, where Taliban loyalists have been able to plant roadside bombs with devastating impact on British troops.

Steven Bowns, a specialist at the Chatham House think tank in London, said troops will remain vulnerable on the ground until more helicopters are procured.

"They are indeed needed but it seems like a political gesture rather than a serious deployment," he said.

Brown's recently retired army chief accused him of turning down the military's request for an extra 2,000 troops, an allegation the prime minister's office denied.

Brown's supporters have questioned retired Gen. Richard Dannatt's motives, noting that he has since been picked to become a senior adviser to the opposition Conservative Party.

Meanwhile , Pakistan erupted in a wave of insurgent violence Thursday morning when gunmen attacked three security agency buildings in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least seven and taking hostages, and a suicide bomber killed at least six at a police station in the country's northwest, according to officials.

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In Lahore, at least three people were killed when about half a dozen gunmen attacked a building occupied by the Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan's equivalent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is involved in counter-terrorism investigations. Two of the dead were FIA officials.

At least five FIA officials are being held hostage. Pervez Rathore, the city's police chief said the attackers are wearing suicide-bomb vests. The FIA was targeted last year, too, when militants blew up a nine-story building where militants were being detained.

In a separate incident Thursday, gunmen fired at an elite police force training centre on Bedian Road in Lahore. And there was a third attack on another police training centre in the Manawa district outside Lahore.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of Lahore attacks, according to a private TV news channel, GEO News. Rana Sana Ullah, the law minister of the Punjab provincial government, said the Manawa police accademy was cleared of the militants. He said some five gunmen had stormed the accademy. The attackers have escaped.

In the suicide car bombing, police say the attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Kohat district in northwest Pakistan, killing six people. Some 20 people were wounded, according to the Associated Press.

Rehman Malik, the Federal interior minister, said Thursday's events represented a concerted attack by the militants. "They are targeting the security forces," he told reporters. He said the FIA building has now been cleared; the fate of the hostages wasn't immediately clear. Police said two militants had been killed.

Thursday's violence, severe and coordinated even by the deadly standards of recent insurgent attacks in Pakistan, comes as the military is preparing a ground offensive in South Waziristan, a tribal area believed by U.S. and Pakistani officials to be the stronghold of Pakistan's Taliban and al Qaeda. The Taliban has vowed to step up attacks in Pakistan unless the offensive is called off.

The attacks come just days after an audacious attack on the Pakistani military's headquarters in Rawalpindi outside Islamabad that left 20 people dead after a prolonged standoff between the militants and commandos.

More than 120 people have died in attacks in the past week in Pakistan. On Monday, a suicide car bombing aimed at Pakistani soldiers in the country's northwest killed at least 41 people, officials said, even as the country was still reeling from the Rawalpindi attack and attacks on a U.N. office in Islamabad, a crowded urban market and most recently a rural military patrol. The strikes follow a relatively quiet summer and underscore the threat still posed by Islamist militants, despite military efforts against them.

Lahore has become a popular target for Pakistan's insurgents as militant groups from the northwestern tribal regions increasingly coordinate attacks with groups based in Punjab province, which includes Lahore. In March, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team during its visit to Lahore, killing six police officers. That attack, officials say, was masterminded by Mohammed Aqeel, also known as Dr. Usman, a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Punjabi militant outfit with strong links to the main Pakistan Taliban's faction and al Qaeda. Mr. Aqeel also led the attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, officials say, and was captured in the attack.

Also in March, gunmen armed with assault rifles and hand grenades stormed the same police academy in Lahore, sparking a daylong battle with security forces that left at least 11 people dead before the assailants were overwhelmed by paramilitary troopers and police.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

Report: Health bills show some price gaps

Older Americans who buy health insurance on their own could pay nearly 50% more in premiums under the Senate Finance Committee bill compared with other versions pending in Congress, an independent study says.

Americans between 55 and 64 could be charged an average of $8,650 a year for insurance under the Finance Committee bill compared with $5,930 under a separate bill approved in July by the Senate health committee, according to a report by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The discrepancy would not affect people who get insurance from Medicare or through work. It would apply to older Americans who buy coverage in the individual market or who are currently uninsured — about 6 million people between 55 and 64, Kaiser Family Foundation data show.

The Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on its bill, which would cost $829 billion over 10 years and would cover 29 million uninsured Americans. The bill would require nearly everyone to buy a health insurance policy.

Determining how much insurance companies can consider age when setting premium prices could become a sticking point if the committee passes the bill. Democratic leaders will then have to merge the finance version with the health committee's bill, which is more generous to older people.

David Sloane, AARP's chief lobbyist asks, "Why is it more acceptable to discriminate against older people?" AARP was formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.

Families with two people ages 45 to 64 could be charged an average of $11,939 under the finance bill compared with $9,662 under other versions of the bill, according to the report.

Younger Americans, on the other hand, could pay less. The report found that single adults between 18 and 24 would pay $2,163 a year on average under the finance bill compared with $2,965 under legislation approved in July by the Senate health committee and bills pending in the House.

"This intergenerational issue is where the tension comes in," said Linda Blumberg, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and lead author of the study.

In a July letter, the industry trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans, asked Congress to allow them to charge older Americans five times more than younger ones — which the Urban Institute study says is close to the current industry practice. The finance bill would let insurers charge older adults four times more while the health committee and House versions of the bill set a 2-1 ratio, which is favored by AARP.

Representatives for the AARP and the insurance industry said they would be closely watching the merging process.

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans said that individuals under 35 who are less likely to use insurance could wind up subsidizing coverage for everyone else if lawmakers favor older people.

Blumberg said because younger Americans earn less on average they would receive larger federal subsidies to offset the premiums. Individuals earning between $32,490 and $43,320, for instance, would get subsidies to cover premiums that exceed 12% of their income.

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Scenes of carnage in Peshawar bazaar Pakistan

A vehicle laden with explosives was detonated near the bazaar

Umair survived the blast which hit the bus he was travelling in

Pakistani security officials inspect the wreckage of the vehicle used in the Peshawar bombing.

It was the sixth attack in Peshawar in the past four months

The blast left charred corpses all over the street

The bomber apparently rammed an explosives-packed car into a city bus

More than 2,100 people have been killed in a wave of bombings over the last two years

A bus was destroyed in the blast as well as several cars and motorbikes

A suicide car bomb attack tore through a bustling market in the northwest city of Peshawar today, killing 49 people in a blast that demonstrated militants' ability to strike virtually at will in the country's major cities.

The explosion occurred at the Khyber Bazaar in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's violence-wracked Northwest Frontier Province. Authorities said more than 100 people were wounded, at least 15 of them critically.

The market was jammed with people at the time of the explosion. The assailant was driving his car through the bazaar when the blast occurred, said Shafqat Malik, a police bomb squad specialist. About 110 pounds of explosives was used in the attack, Malik said.

The explosion ripped through market stalls and nearby buildings, and overturned a minibus filled with passengers. Pools of blood and shards from destroyed vehicles were scattered throughout the area.

Taliban militants have vowed to step up a barrage of suicide attacks to retaliate against the Pakistani government's preparations for an all-out offensive in South Waziristan, a primary base of operations for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The attack comes two weeks after a suicide car bomb attack near state-owned bank in Peshawar killing 12 people and wounded 91 more. That same day, a suicide attacker in a pickup truck rammed a barricade outside a police station in the town of Bannu, about 125 miles south of Peshawar. The explosion killed 15 people and injured 60 others.

Speaking in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the blast in Peshawar Friday "gives us a reminder that the Taliban need to be dealt with severely.

"All roads lead to Waziristan," Malik continued. "Any operation in Waziristan shouldn't be delayed anymore. We think we should launch a full-fledged offensive very soon."

The Khyber bazaar in Peshawar is one of the busiest and most densely-populated places in the city.

Militants behind the attack will have targeted the market for precisely this reason.

The power of the blast was immediately obvious. Everything within a 400 yard (365m) radius was severely damaged.

Cars, motorcycles and bicycles were completely destroyed.

From their position, it was clear that some of the vehicles had been moving when the blast took place.

A bus had been completely demolished - it was just a charred skeleton lying on its side.

Police and relief workers were collecting body parts from the remains of the bus and other vehicles when I arrived.

It was a site of sheer carnage - and there were more heart-rending scenes at the nearby Lady Reading Hospital.

A line of bodies lay on the morgue floor - all shrouded in white sheets.

Most were so badly disfigured that it was not possible to recognise them. Most were missing limbs.

The emergency ward upstairs was so crowded that it was hard to find space for those needing treatment.

A look at some recent major attacks in Pakistan or blamed on Pakistan-based militants:

_ Oct. 9, 2009: A suicide car bomb in the northwestern city of Peshawar kills 49 people.

_ Oct. 5, 2009: A bomber dressed as a security official kills five staffers at the U.N. food agency's headquarters in the capital, Islamabad.

_ Sept. 18, 2009: A suicide car bomb destroys a two-story hotel near the northwestern town of Kohat, killing 30 people in what might have been a sectarian attack by Sunni militants against Shiite Muslims.

_ May 27, 2009: A suicide car bomber targets buildings housing police and intelligence offices in the eastern city of Lahore, killing about 30 and wounding at least 250.

_ March 27, 2009: A suicide bomber demolishes a packed mosque near the northwestern town of Jamrud, killing about 50 people and injuring scores more.

_ March 3, 2009: Gunmen attack the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore, wounding several players and killing six policemen and a driver.

_ Nov. 26-28, 2008: Ten attackers, allegedly from Pakistan, kill 166 people in a three-day assault on luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites in Mumbai, India.

_ Sept. 20, 2008: A suicide truck bomb kills at least 54 and wounds more than 250 as it devastates the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

_ Aug. 21, 2008: Suicide bombers blow themselves up at two gates of a weapons factory in the town of Wah, killing at least 67 people and wounding at least 100.

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Praise and skepticism greet Obama Nobel award

The chairman of the Republican Party is contending that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize as result of his "star power" rather than meaningful
A surprised world greeted the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama with a mixture of praise and skepticism on Friday.

In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made clear the award carried big expectations, saying: "This is a surprising, an exciting prize. It remains to be seen if he will succeed with reconciliation, peace and nuclear disarmament."

Accomplishments?.

Michael Steele issued a statement Friday saying, "The real question Americans are asking is, What has President Obama actually accomplished?"

Steele, who took over the reigns of the party earlier this year, said he thought it was "unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights." He said he doesn't think Obama will be "receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action."

In one fell swoop, the Nobel Prize jury just made a mockery of the world's most revered honor and handed Barack Obama's opponents a great talking point. They wounded two doves with one stone.

Afghanistan's Taliban mocked the choice, saying it was absurd to give it to Obama when he had ordered 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan this year.

"The Nobel prize for peace? Obama should have won the 'Nobel Prize for escalating violence and killing civilians'," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Japanese President Yukio Hatoyama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both said the prize should encourage everyone to help Obama rid the world of nuclear weapons.

"I think the peace prize was given with such a hope," Hatoyama told reporters on a visit to Beijing.

Merkel said Obama had shifted the tone toward dialogue in a very short time. "There is still much left to do, but a window of possibility has been opened," she said in Leipzig.

In the Middle East, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said the award could be a good omen for the region.

"We hope that he will be able to achieve peace in the Middle East and achieve Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and establish an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital," he told Reuters.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told army radio the prize should enhance Obama's ability "to contribute to establishing regional peace in the Middle East and a settlement between us and the Palestinians that will bring security, prosperity and growth to all the peoples of the region."

The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and opposes a peace treaty with Israel, was more skeptical.

"Unless real and deep-rooted change is made in American policy toward recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people I would think such a prize would be useless," Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, told reporters after Friday prayers.

Agree

Saleh al-Mutlaq, a senior Iraqi Sunni Muslim lawmaker, told Reuters: "I think he deserves this prize. Obama succeeded in making a real change in the policy of the United States -- a change from a policy that was exporting evil to the world to a policy exporting peace and stability to the world."

In Indonesia, Masdar Mas'udi, deputy head of the largest Muslim organization Nahdatul Ulama, said: "I think it's appropriate because he is the only American president who has reached out to us in peace. On the issues of race, religion, skin color, he has an open attitude."

In Pakistan, Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party, said: "It's a joke. How embarrassing for those who awarded it to him because he's done nothing for peace. What change has he brought in Iraq, the Middle East or Afghanistan?"

In Lebanon, Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah said he had seen no signs of peace from Obama yet. "We were waiting for deeds, not words that soon vanish," he said.

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International said the award raised expectations of Obama.

"We look to him for decisive action to pursue peace with justice in the Middle East, end the rollback on human rights in the name of counter terrorism and reinforce the fight against poverty at a time of economic crisis," she said. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the award a bold sign of support for Obama. "It shows the hope his administration represents not only to our nation but to people around the world," Carter, who won the prize in 2002, said in a statement.

Poland's Lech Walesa, former leader of the pro-democracy Solidarity trade union that toppled communism, said it was too early. "So soon? This is too soon. He has not yet made a real input. He is proposing, he is starting, but he still has to do it all," Walesa, who won the prize in 1983, told reporters.

South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, awarded the prize in 1984, said the latest choice was "a magnificent endorsement for the first African American president in history."

From Obama's ancestral village of Kogelo in western Kenya his uncle Said Obama told Reuters: "It is humbling for us as a family and we share in Barack's honor. We congratulate him."

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai, who had been among the favorites to win this year, said Obama was an extraordinary example.

"I wish to congratulate President Obama. I think he is a deserving candidate," he told Reuters during a visit to Spain.

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NASA probes give moon a double smack

This image provided by NASA shows an image taken shortly after the Centaur rocket impacted the moon taken from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite Friday morning Oct. 9, 2009.

This still image from the 1902 silent film "Le Voyage Dans La Lune", written and directed by Georges Méliès, shows "the man in the moon" with a bullet-shaped space capsule lodged in his eye. For as long as man has looked up, the moon has inspired romance, poetry and songs. Man also likes blowing things up. Now we get to do both

NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole Friday morning in a search for hidden ice. Instruments confirm that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.

But the big live public splash people anticipated didn't quite happen. Screens got fuzz and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was all about. The public, which followed the crashes on the Internet and at observatories, seemed puzzled.

NASA officials said their instruments were working, but live photos of the actual crash were missing. Some select photos should be ready by a 10 a.m. press conference, they said.

But so far all NASA had was "images on the way in," said NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma.

Expectations by the public for live plume video were probably too high and based on pre-crash animations, some of which were not by NASA, project manager Dan Andrews told The Associated Press Friday morning 80 minutes after impact.

The first and much bigger crash was supposed to hit with the force of 1.5 tons of TNT into crater Cabeus and create a mini-crater about half the size of an Olympic pool. The second crash was to be about one-third as strong.

The idea is to confirm the theory that water — a key resource if people are going to go back to the moon — is hidden below the barren moonscape.

The images were to come from the probe itself. The probe is LCROSS, short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross. It had five cameras and four other pieces of equipment to look for ice or any form of water as it dove through the dust storm created by the empty hull.

Minutes before the first crash, NASA was riding high, reporting no trouble at the Ames Research Center in California, where the mission was being controlled.

"Everything is working so very well," NASA's Victoria Friedensen, a manager in NASA's exploration office, said minutes before the one-two smack.

"What matters for us is: What is the nature of the stuff that was kicked up going in?" Andrews said. "All nine instruments were working fine and we received good data."

Andrews said the science team is pouring through the information — including what are supposed to be good images from ground-based telescopes on Earth — to answer the big question: Is there some form of water under the moon's surface that was dislodged? It will probably be two weeks before scientists will be certain about the answer, he said.

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

US condemns bombing outside Indian embassy in Kabul

Afghan investigators inspect the site of a suicide car bomb near the Indian Embassy in Kabul

The United States condemned Thursday a massive suicide car bombing outside the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul by Taliban militants.

The fifth bold attack on Kabul in two months comes as President Barack Obama's administration reviews strategy for Afghanistan amid calls for more US troops and warnings that the Taliban insurgency is gaining momentum.

"The United States condemns the bombing today near the Indian embassy and Ministry of Interior in Kabul that has killed several people and wounded many more," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"There's no justification for this kind of senseless violence. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of those who lost their lives in the attack," he added.

The US embassy in Kabul issued an identical statement condemning the attacks.

It was the fifth audacious assault on the Afghan capital in two months, as the Taliban brings its intensifying anti-government insurgency to the most heavily fortified part of the country.

The car bomb struck outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and injuring 63 more, most of them civilians, in an attack claimed by Taliban militants.

In a statement on their website, the Islamist insurgent group said that one of their "martyrs" had carried out the attack in a heavily fortified diplomatic area, and said the Indian embassy "was the main target".

India is Pakistan’s archrival, and militant groups once nurtured by Pakistan’s intelligence service have struck at Indian targets, most recently last year in Mumbai.

But it was too early to tell who was behind Thursday’s bombing, which served as a reminder of the reach of Afghanistan’s insurgency. The heavily guarded area was reopened to traffic only recently, having being closed for months after the previous bombing, which killed 54.

Indian authorities said no embassy staff members were hurt, but three guards outside had been wounded.

Thursday’s bombing occurred around 8:30 a.m., when a man driving a sport utility vehicle slowed down near a side wall of the embassy, said Sayed Abdul Ghafar, a senior police official in Kabul. Soon after, the driver detonated his explosives, partly destroying a guard tower and an outer protective wall.

The American Embassy condemned the attack. “There is no justification for this kind of senseless violence,” it said in a statement.

In a grimly familiar pattern, most of the dead were ordinary Afghans, many of them merchants at a market that had been refurbished in recent months. Shop owners swept broken glass and crushed geraniums into small piles on the sidewalk.

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