Prospects for a space elevator rise
During a NASA competition, a group of researchers managed to create a robot, powered by a ground based laser, to climb a cable 1 kilometer high dangling from a helicopter.The contest winners will receive US$2 million for inventing a functioning robot which climbs to the set height in a reasonable amount of time.The competition...
Emergency declared in El Salvador after torrential rains
The president of El Salvador declared a national emergency in his country today, after torrential rains, flooding, and landslides inundated the area.Mauricio Funes said that the situation was "a tragedy", and that the amount of damage suffered by the country was "incalculable". "Today is a very sad day for the country and its...
Stimulus for Cotton Candy, Tango and a Fish Orchestra? Wacky, or Actually Worthy?
By Michael Grabell in ProPublicaBreakfast at Fuddruckers: $19.24. Snow cone and cotton candy machine: $146.89. Six extra preview performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical”: $50,000. Benefit to the economy? According to the recipients of this stimulus money: Priceless.For example, what does a $31 purchase at...
Italian judge convicts 23 in CIA kidnapping case
An Italian judge has convicted 23 people from the US of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Milan in 2003. The landmark case is the first involving the CIA's controversial "extraordinary rendition" program.The judge sentenced the CIA's Milan station chief at the time, Robert Seldon Lady, to eight years in prison on Wednesday,...
Equatorial Guinea coup plotters pardoned, released from jail
British mercenary Simon Mann was released from a jail in Equatorial Guinea after being pardoned for attempting to overthrow the government.Mann, along with several dozen other suspected plotters, was arrested five years ago on charges of trying to start a coup to overthrow president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Their plans...
Palestinian state set to be abandoned says Erekat
According to the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, Palestinians may need to abandon their goal of creating an independent state should Israel continue expanding Jewish settlements on contested land.Erekat stated it was time for Mahmoud Abbas to "tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement...
Automaker GM to cut 10,000 jobs at Opel
The US car manufacturer General Motors said that it would axe 10,000 jobs at its European division, Opel. According to the company's vice president John Smith, the firm wanted to reduce costs at Opel by 30%.Smith announced the company's move on Wednesday. He didn't say where the cuts were going to take place, but wanted to ...
At University of Phoenix, allegations of enrollment abuses persist
By Sharona Coutts in ProPublicaAfter federal regulators accused the University of Phoenix of systematic enrollment abuses in 2004, the school's parent company paid out nearly $10 million to resolve the allegations.Phoenix allegedly had broken the law by tying recruiters' pay to enrollment numbers, U.S. Department of Education...
Scientists: Snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro to melt in twenty years
Scientists at the Ohio State University predicted that the ice sheets of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain peak, will melt in the next twenty years due to global warming.The ice that was present in 1912 gradually decreased by 85 per cent by 2000, and by 2007 another 26 per cent of the amount in 2000. This was the...
U.N. can’t account for millions sent to Afghan election board
by T. Christian Miller and Dafna Linzer in ProPublicaThe United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential U.N. audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. (Read both audits.)As Afghanistan prepares for a second...
