Chile mine rescue nears after an engineering showcase - Christian Science Monitor

Calderon, Chile

Engineers and technicians emerged victorious from the San Jose mine today after finishing a 33-day project to drill a half-mile-deep rescue shaft for the Chilean miners who, all going well, will be brought to service for a joyful reunion with families tomorrow night.

Skip to next paragraph

As the engineers hugged family members and said goodbye to one another, several carried flags for Geotec Boyles Bros. SA, the company that operated the drill. Someone threw company baseball caps and T-shirts to the crowd.

Companies are aiming to capitalize on the global media coverage of the historic rescue effort. The miners have now survived longer below ground than the victims of any other known mine collapse. They will come up through the deepest rescue chute ever drilled. And more than 1,000 reporters, representing every continent, are on hand to document the event.

IN PICTURES: Chile mine collapse

UPS, the US shipping company, brought a 13-ton drilling tool from Pennsylvania in less than 48 hours. The company boasted of its achievement in a blog post on its Web site. Around the drills themselves, corporate banners join the ubiquitous Chilean flag. Lettering on a pickup truck from a local wiring company reads: "Communicating with the San Jose miners." Steel company Techint has had a camera crew on the scene all week to document the use of the company's tubes in the rescue shaft.

Excitement around the mine rescue has been growing as preparations speed to a close. Welders put a 24-inch steel pipe into the hole early
this morning. The main rescue capsule was then lowered almost to the bottom and raised back up.

"Not even dust fell off the walls" of the passage, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters. The capsule wasn't sent all the way down so no one would be tempted to jump in, Golborne said.

So far, the big publicity winners have been Geotec and its equipment manufacturers -- Center Rock Inc. made the drill bit and Schramm Inc. made the truck-mounted drill. The T-130, as the Schramm rig is known, has become a bit of a celebrity. Families chanted and cheered as it left the drilling site today.

"We have had no greater mission" than helping the miners, Schramm said on its Web site.

Precision Drilling Corp., the Canadian company whose rig continues to drill a backup rescue shaft, has been giving updates on its Web site. The company was little known in South America before Chilean authorities contacted it about drilling a large-diameter hole.

The corporate involvement reaches into every aspect of the rescue effort. With plenty of time to fill and, for months, very little to show, Chilean television carried live interviews with the maker of a portable oxygen tank.

Zephyr Technologies, the Annapolis, Maryland-based maker of the remote monitors of vital signs that miners will wear during their
ascent, has workers on the scene.

As a publicity opportunity, "it's certainly good to get it out there for similar situations or scenarios that are not so extreme," said Ben
Morris, who works at Zephyr.

One company keeping a lower profile is Compañia Minera San Esteban Primera, the owner of the San Jose mine, where the miners are trapped. The owners aren't taking calls.

IN PICTURES: Chile mine collapse

View the original article here

Judge orders military to stop enforcing 'don't ask, don't tell' - CNN

Judge: Stop enforcing 'don't ask'NEW: The Defense and Justice departments are studying the rulingA researcher says he expects the Obama administration to appeal the orderLog Cabin Republicans hail the federal judge's ruling but advise cautionThe judge had previously ruled that the policy violated service members' rights

(CNN) -- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the U.S. military to stop enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, effectively ending the ban on openly gay troops.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips' permanent worldwide injunction -- praised by gay rights organizations -- orders the military "immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced" under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The judge, a Clinton appointee based in the Central District of California, previously ruled that the policy regarding gays serving in the military violated service members' Fifth Amendment rights to due process and freedom of speech, but had delayed issuing the injunction.

The military was sued by Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler would say only that the department is "reviewing the ruling." The department has 60 days to appeal, but is not required to do so.

The Defense Department is reviewing the ruling to determine whether it has immediate impact and is consulting with the Justice Department, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.

Air Force lawyers in a recent case argued the military -- not the courts -- is in the best position to evaluate and enforce the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

President Barack Obama is pushing for a repeal of the controversial policy. A bill currently before Congress would overturn the measure after a Pentagon review is completed in December.

More than 12,500 people have been booted from the military since "don't ask, don't tell" went into effect. Along with barring known gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving, the policy prevents the military from asking them about it.

Log Cabin Republicans praised the ruling but urged "caution by servicemembers considering coming out at this time, as the Obama administration still has the option to appeal."

The group said the ruling is a victory for strong national defense.

"No longer will our military be compelled to discharge servicemembers with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination," it said in a statement following the ruling.

Servicemembers United, which describes itself as the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, also hailed the judge's ruling but urged gays who serve to be careful about coming out now.

"This order from Judge Phillips is another historic and courageous step in the right direction, a step that Congress has been noticeably slow in taking," said executive director Alexander Nicholson.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a research institute of the University of California-Santa Barbara, said he expects the Obama adminsitration to appeal Tuesday's order.

"The case could be done next week if the administration decides not to appeal, or it could take five years if there is an appeal, or Congress could move faster than the Justice Department, which would render this case moot," said Belkin, whose institute researches sexual minorities in the military and advocates an end to the ban.

CNN's Carol Cratty and Jennifer Rizzo contributed to this report.

View the original article here

How the official story of Linda Norgrove's death unravelled - Independent

Kim Sengupta on the footage that gave the lie to initial accounts of how the activist died

EPA

Nato soldiers and Afghan forces conduct a search operation in Kunar province in an attempt to rescue Linda Norgrove, who was abducted in the region and later killed

The kidnapping of Linda Norgrove was seen as yet another deeply worrying example of the unravelling security in many parts of Afghanistan and the rising vulnerability faced by foreigners travelling in the country.

It was not the first such abduction, and there seemed to be nothing to suggest that the 36-year-old aid worker's life was in imminent danger. She had been seized in a particularly lawless region but other abductions there had been resolved following negotiations, sometimes with the payment of ransoms. And there was little publicity about the case – details were not made public while attempts were being made to free her.

International aid workers in Afghanistan had been increasingly concerned about their safety and the murders of a group of doctors in the north of the country, including the British doctor Karen Woo two months ago, have added to the sense of foreboding. However, the fact that Ms Norgrove had not been immediately executed was seen as a source of hope that she would, at some stage, be freed. Well versed in Afghan culture, and a fluent speaker of Dari who was also learning Pashto, she was regarded by colleagues as more capable of surviving than most.

That is how matters remained until the news, at the weekend, that Ms Norgrove was killed during an attempt to rescue her by American special forces, supposedly blown up by one of her captors wearing a suicide vest.

US and British authorities stated that they had no choice but to mount the military operation as the hostage was about to be taken across the border to be delivered to al-Qa'ida in Pakistan. But that account disintegrated yesterday with David Cameron having to announce that Ms Norgrove may have been killed by US troops throwing a grenade.Ms Norgrove, who worked for an American development agency, was travelling with Afghan companions in Kunar to visit an irrigation project on 26 September when they were stopped by armed men in the uniform of the Afghan army and taken away. Her bodyguards chased after the men and there was a brief fire fight, but they failed to secure her release.

US forces in Kunar carried out a series of operations to find her and to block off possible escape routes for the kidnap gang. There were leaflet drops from the air and offers of rewards to villagers in return for information about her whereabouts.

There are directly contradictory accounts of what, in the meantime, was going on behind the scenes. The Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday that "from the start" the British government was gravely concerned that Ms Norgrove had been taken by a vicious Salafist group who would pass her on up the terrorist chain of command. But Afghan officials claimed that they were in the process of obtaining her release through a group of local elders when the raid took place. Others maintained that the abductors were not hardcore Taliban but a criminal gang which was seeking a substantial ransom and had let this be known to British diplomats.

Ms Norgrove was being moved about, with the US forces attempting to keep track of her through electronic surveillance as well as material they were receiving from the Afghan intelligence service. General David Petraeus, the American commander of Nato forces, advised the British government that an operation needed to be launched to free the hostage. Cobra, the Cabinet's crisis management committee, gave the go-ahead. Within hours of the failed mission, officials were saying that Ms Norgrove had died in a suicide blast. But then the commander of the Special Operations troop who had carried out the raid saw something in the video footage taken by helmet cameras of soldiers which made him immediately alert Gen Petraeus.

Captain Gary Kirchner, at Nato headquarters, said: "He discovered what looked to him like someone throwing a hand grenade into the area where Ms Norgrove was being held. The bottom line is that when the commander saw that he knew that there were some discrepancies and immediately wanted to make sure that we did the right thing."

Currently the plan is for the US military's Central Command in Tampa, Florida, to hold the investigation.

Ms Norgrove's family want a full explanation of what went wrong and may well want an independent element to the investigation. David Cameron too, publicly placed in a highly embarrassing position through false information, will want to be reassured that the next version he is given is an accurate one.

The other rescues that went wrong

* A dawn raid by British special forces to rescue The New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, 46, and his Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi, 34, ended with the death of Mr Munadi and Cpl John Harrison, 29. Mr Farrell and Mr Munadi were kidnapped by the Taliban in September last year after travelling to Kunduz to investigate the site of an air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers.

* A chaotic police rescue, which ended in the deaths of eight people taken hostage on a bus in the Philippines, was watched live by millions on television in August. Seven more people were injured. The former police inspector Rolando Mendoza, 55, who was dismissed on robbery and extortion charges, had seized the bus in Manila.

* Florent Lemacon was killed in a shoot-out between French special forces and Somali pirates in April last year after a controversial attempt to recover his hijacked yacht in the Indian Ocean.

* A Russian operation to rescue 800 people taken hostage in a Moscow theatre by Chechen rebels in October 2002 led to the death of 117 as well as around 50 rebels. Most of those killed were said to have been poisoned by gas pumped into the building by Russian troops.

* Attempts by UK and US special forces to rescue IT consultant Peter Moore and his four security guards failed to reach them in time. The five men were kidnapped in Baghdad in May 2007. Mr Moore, 36, was eventually released but three of the guards – Jason Swindlehurst, 38, Jason Creswell, 39, and Alec MacLachlan, 30 – were shot dead. It is believed the fourth, Alan McMenemy, 34, met the same fate.

Timeline of events

Linda Norgrove abducted after an ambush in Kunar province two weeks ago.

She is taken towards the Pakistani border, her movement and those of her abductors tracked electronically.

Cobra, the government's crisis management committee, meets in London. From Kabul, General David Petraeus, the US commander of Nato forces, advises that a rescue attempt must be carried out because of the danger of Ms Norgrove being spirited across the border into Pakistan.

A team of US special forces, on foot and helicopters, storm a compound surrounded by high walls, 7,000 feet up a hillside in the village of Dineshgal in Kunar. There is a prolonged firefight during which grenades are thrown by US forces. Seven insurgents are killed, Ms Norgrove is injured. She is given emergency medical treatment and evacuated by a helicopter, but dies from her injuries.

View the original article here

NEW: Obama calls for a $50 billion plan to start upgrading infrastructure - CNN

President Obama pushes roads planNEW: Obama calls for a $50 billion plan to start upgrading infrastructureNEW: Transportation secretary calls claims that stimulus bill failed "nonsense"Some Republicans attend a meeting with the president on the matter The $50 billion could be paid for by closing tax code loopholes, some officials say

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama called Monday for Congress to approve a $50 billion plan to begin upgrading the nation's crumbling infrastructure, saying such an investment is vital to creating much-needed construction jobs and keeping the nation competitive in the global economy.

In a Rose Garden statement at the White House, Obama called for bipartisan support when Congress returns after the November 2 mid-term elections so that the first phase of a proposed six-year infrastructure development plan can begin.

"We've always had the best infrastructure," Obama said, noting that one in five construction workers are unemployed right now. "This is work that needs to be done. There are workers ready to do it. All we need is political will."

The president first announced the plan on Labor Day, and present and former Cabinet members as well as some governors and mayors around the nation joined him to support the initiative.

Despite their call, it remains uncertain if the issue can overcome the deep partisan divide in Congress, especially after an election expected to erode Democratic majorities in both chambers or even return Republicans to control.

The main Republican campaign theme for the upcoming election has been excessive government spending under Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress that has failed to lower the unemployment rate below 9 percent. In particular, Republicans say the $787 billion economic stimulus bill passed last year has failed to bring promised jobs and other economic benefits.

Obama and Democrats say the stimulus bill prevented the recession that began in the previous administration from worsening into a full economic depression.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded sharply on that topic when questioned by reporters Monday about whether new infrastructure spending would provide better results than the stimulus bill.

Noting that the $48 billion in stimulus money for the transportation sector funded 14,000 projects that employed thousands of people, LaHood said that Americans know the bill worked "because they see their friends and neighbors working on roads and bridges and transit systems."

"The idea that our stimulus didn't work is nonsense," he said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat and strong Obama supporter, called stimulus spending on infrastructure "the single best job creator we can do in this country."

"It created well-paying jobs that can't be outsourced," Rendell said. "It's just what the economy needs."

A study by the Department of Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisers shows a majority of infrastructure-related jobs would come in the construction field, followed by manufacturing and retail.

LaHood added that Congress has traditionally passed transportation bills containing infrastructure investment with strong bipartisan support.

"There are no Democratic or Republicans bridges or roads," he said, adding that Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told him there is Republican support for new infrastructure investment.

Obama and LaHood said the cost of new investment would be paid for, rather than adding to the debt. However, LaHood stopped short of offering specific ways to do so, saying only that a number of options were being considered.

Senior administration officials say private funds also would be used for the infrastructure overhaul. They suggested the $50 billion from Congress could be paid for by closing loopholes in the tax code related to oil and gas production or through other cost-cutting measures.

CNN's Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this story.

View the original article here

By the Numbers: Google’s Offshore Wind Investment - Reuters

By Katie Fehrenbacher at Earth2Tech

Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:36pm EDT

Google and investors Good Energies and Marubeni are trying to kick-start a ground-breaking project to build a 350-mile cable on the east coast to power offshore wind farms. When built, it will be one of the largest projects of its kind in the U.S., and is an example of how a few pioneer investors can seed a market. But how do the gigawatts, dollars, and price points break down? Here’s Google’s offshore wind investment by the numbers:

6 GW (or 6,000 MW): The amount of clean power capacity that could be generated by the offshore wind farms that would be built next to the wind power transmission backbone.

$5 billion: The estimated cost of the entire transmission line.

$1.8 billion: The estimated cost of the first 150-mile portion.

60,000 MW: The potential offshore wind capacity of the entire Mid-Atlantic region.

54 GW: The potential offshore wind capacity of the entire U.S. coasts according to DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab.

1.9 million: The number of homes that could be powered by offshore wind farms that would be built next to the transmission line backed by Google.

Tens of millions: The amount of the initial investment from Google, Good Energies, and Marubeni.

350 miles: The length of the cable that will extend offshore from New Jersey to Virginia.

10-15 miles: The planned placement of the wind turbines offshore that will connect to the Google-backed transmission line. Supposedly, the placement of the backbone will enable the wind turbines to be built farther offshore than other installations, meaning there is less chance for complaints from residents with ocean views.

$2,500 per kilowatt to $5,800 per kilowatt: The high capital costs of offshore wind power from 2007 through 2009, according to the DOE.

9 cents to 25 cents per kilowatt hour: The average price of offshore wind farm power.

5 cents to 8 cents per kilowatt hour: The average price of onshore wind power.

Under 5 cents per kilowatt hour: The average price of coal power (without factoring in the price of carbon and other environment costs).

5 to 10 to 20 years: The amount of time it can take for a transmission project to get financed, approved, and built, depending on size and region.

20 percent: The percentage of electricity that the DOE wants to come from wind power in the U.S. by 2030.

*We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam and review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.

View the original article here