Author: Sunfire

RT

A mix of rotten eggs, alcohol and a horse stable, with a note of bitter almonds – that’s the smell of comet 67P, caught by sensor devices of the Rosetta spacecraft, which is orbiting it, European scientists say.

The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – or Chury for short – is traveling through space some 400 million km (about 250 million miles) from the sun, but this chunk of ice has already started releasing gas molecules. They were detected by the Rosetta orbiter sensor for ion and neutral analysis (ROSINA) – first in August – but this time an unexpectedly much richer picture was revealed.   Continue reading “‘Rotten eggs & horse pee’: Rosetta probe sniffs comet 67P…and it stinks!”

Mail.com

BNEI NETZARIM, Israel (AP) — Every seven years, according to the Bible, Israeli farmers must give their lands a rest for a year.

So how do modern-day growers reconcile the ancient spiritual practice with a need to feed the country’s 8 million mouths? Most market their produce thanks to a clever workaround: they temporarily sold their farms, valued together at $33 billion, to a 25-year-old non-Jewish telemarketer named George.    Continue reading “Israeli farmers observe sabbatical _ with a wink”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — Flowing lava from an erupting volcano could soon force dozens of residents of an area in Hawaii to flee their homes.

Authorities on Saturday told them to prepare for a possible evacuation in the next three to five days as the molten rock oozed across a country road and edged closer to homes. The flow was about 35 yards wide and moving northeast at about 10 yards per hour.   Continue reading “Hawaii volcano lava prompts evacuation concerns”

RT

A 19-year-old mortarman has become the first US soldier to die in the fight against ISIS in Iraq, albeit from a “non-combat injury,” the Pentagon acknowledged.

The death of Marine Lance Corporal Sean P. Neal of Riverside, California, which occurred on Thursday in Baghdad, is under investigation, according to the Pentagon. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and was one of 1,600 US troops serving in Iraq. Pentagon officials confirmed his death Friday night.   Continue reading “Pentagon confirms ‘1st US soldier’ dead in Iraq anti-ISIS campaign”

Mail.com

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The bomber best known for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan also flew countless other raids. Karnig Thomasian’s final mission on a B-29 Superfortress ended in flames when bombs collided and exploded in the air over Burma in 1945.

He parachuted out and spent six months in a Japanese prison camp. On Thursday, he was once again in a B-29, flying from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. He and other veterans will be on hand at the WWII AirPower Expo in New Orleans this weekend.   Continue reading “World War II airmen fly again in storied B-29”

Mail.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Officials say a second sheriff’s deputy has died after being shot by a suspect who has now been apprehended for four shootings.

Placer County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin says one of her department’s deputies was killed Friday after he was shot with an AR-15-type assault rifle. A second Placer County Sheriff’s deputy was shot in the arm and was expected to survive. A Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy died earlier in the day after he was shot in the head by the same suspect.   Continue reading “Suspect arrested in death of 2 California deputies”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market closed out its best week in nearly two years on a positive note Friday, helped by strong quarterly earnings from Microsoft and other big U.S. companies.

After weeks of speculation over the fate of Europe’s economy, Ebola fears and plunging oil prices, investors were able to get back to basics. Wall Street is in the midst of one of the busiest times of the year, when companies report their quarterly results. Ultimately what drives stock prices higher is the potential for a company to earn more, so higher profits generally mean higher stock prices.   Continue reading “US stock market has best week in nearly 2 years”

Mail.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Remains found nearly a week ago in a rural area of Virginia are those of a missing university student, authorities said Friday, as they turned their attention to filing possible additional charges against the suspect accused of abducting her.

University of Virginia sophomore Hannah Graham, 18, disappeared Sept. 13 after a night out with friends. The remains were found Oct. 18 about 12 miles from the Charlottesville campus, in a heavily wooded area of Albemarle County that is home to rolling hills and horse farms.   Continue reading “Remains belong to missing Virginia student”

RT

Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the United States for destabilizing the world order of checks and balances for its own gains. He also accused the West of inflaming the situation in Ukraine and said Russia was not interested in building an empire.

The Russian President delivered a fierce broadside aimed at the United States at a speech for the Valdai Club in Sochi, which is an informal group of scholars. He hit out at Washington for behaving without regard to the rest of the world’s interests.   Continue reading “Putin lashes out at US, West for destabilizing world”

RT

About 95 percent of Japan’s population is at risk of being devastated by a major volcanic eruption, which could happen “at any moment” within the next century, a study revealed. Volcanic activity has reportedly increased recently.

The research, conducted by Japanese scientists, was released on Kobe University’s website on Wednesday.   Continue reading “Enormous volcanic eruption could destroy Japan within 100yrs – study”

Mail.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An alarming lack of institutional oversight at the University of North Carolina allowed an academic fraud scandal to run unchecked for nearly two decades and has the school reeling from the scandal’s fallout.

The latest investigation found that university leaders, faculty members and staff missed or just ignored flags that could’ve stopped the problem years earlier. More than 3,100 students — about half of them athletes — benefited from sham classes and artificially high grades in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies department (AFAM) in Chapel Hill.   Continue reading “Failures in oversight worsened UNC academic fraud”

Mail.com

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A Silicon Valley startup has developed technology to let dispatchers know when a police officer’s weapon has been fired.

The latest product by Yardarm Technologies would notify dispatchers in real time when an officer’s gun is taken out of its holster and when it’s fired. It can also track where the gun is located and in what direction it was fired.   Continue reading “California startup unveils gun technology for cops”

RT

Not only is Syria’s future at stake as the civil war rages on, but now also its past. The black market flourishing in the conflict now sees relics – some as ancient as 1,200 years – traded by rebels for AK-47s.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) soldier Abu Mustafa, as he called himself, illegally crossed the Lebanese border with relics he looted on the outskirts of Damascus, following fighting there. The rebels usually come at night, when it’s harder to catch them. Trading is done quickly and quietly.    Continue reading “Relics for rifles: Syrian rebels trade antique treasures for weapons”

RT

A Guinean woman has been attacked in a bus in Rome by angry passengers who told her she was infected by Ebola and had to get off the bus, Italian media reports. She was taken to hospital suffering from multiple bruises.

Fataomata Sompare, 26, was about to get off the bus on Monday, said Il Messaggero, an Italian newspaper, as cited by the Local.   Continue reading “‘They said I have Ebola’: Angry bus passengers attack Guinean woman in Rome”

Mail.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A remote Alaska Native village where only half the homes have indoor plumbing is among rural communities nationwide that will receive upgrades to water and wastewater systems with $352 million in grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is scheduled to announce the funding Thursday at a convention of Alaska Natives in Anchorage. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Vilsack told The Associated Press that ultimately, the future goal is to bring the entire nation into the modern world.   Continue reading “Feds to bring indoor plumbing to Alaska village”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters may not know it, but the millions of dollars paying for ads on ballot measures they will consider next month come from large companies and national advocacy groups.

Many of the messages are tailored to defend or expand the business interests of companies such as Coca-Cola, Monsanto and ExxonMobil, yet few have their names in the ads. For example, $6.4 million in ads funded by Coloradans for Better Schools is backed by the Rhode Island-based Twin Rivers Casino in favor of a ballot initiative that would expand gambling to horse tracks. Opponents, calling themselves Don’t Turn Racetracks Into Casinos, are backed by a group of Colorado casinos and are helping fund $5.7 million in ads to defend their turf.   Continue reading “Corporate giants funding state ballot initiatives”

Mail.com

DENVER (AP) — The case of three teenage girls who possibly tried to join Islamic State militants poses vexing questions for U.S. officials about terror groups’ use of social media to recruit people inside the United States.

A Colorado school official said the Denver-area girls — two sisters ages 17 and 15, and a 16-year-old friend — were victims of an online predator who encouraged them to travel overseas and eventually to Syria.   Continue reading “Girls’ journey renews fears of terror recruiting”

RT

​If Republicans gain control of the US Senate following the November midterm elections, President Barack Obama should expect an old rival in a powerful position to push for US ground troops in Iraq and Syria.

Sen. John McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, is currently the most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. If his party wins a majority in the Senate, as it is expected to do, McCain would become chairman of the committee, which oversees defense policy and the military.   Continue reading “McCain insists on sending US ground troops to Syria, Iraq”

RT

Russia will have military control of the entirety of its 6,200 km Arctic coastal zone by the end of 2014, just a year after Moscow announced its ambitious plan to build military presence in the region, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has announced.

“We have set quite a pace in our foray into the Arctic,” Shoigu said during a military council meeting in Moscow. “By the end of the year we will already deploy most of our units in the region – from Murmansk to Chukotka.”   Continue reading “Russian bases to span entire Arctic border by end of 2014”