Hurricane Bill, after causing flooding and power cuts on Bermuda, has prompted tropical storm warnings for coastal Massachusetts as it moved on a path off the US East Coast.
In Bermuda, a 20 square mile (53 sq km) island British territory and a center for the global insurance industry, the storm mostly spared the pink-sand shores.
Residents of Bermuda on Saturday mostly stayed off the streets overnight as the Category 2 hurricane charged by more than 200 miles (320 km) to the west, Reuters reported.
No casualties were immediately reported and damage appeared to have been minimal. The island's airport was due to reopen later on Saturday.
The hurricane was forecast to pass offshore of the coast of New England in the US late on Saturday and approach Nova Scotia in Canada on Sunday.
A warning was issued on Saturday for parts of the Massachusetts coast, including the island of Martha's Vineyard, where President Barack Obama and his family were due to start a weeklong summer vacation on Sunday.
Bill was the first Atlantic hurricane this year after a quiet start to the season that runs from June through November.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Hope this hurricane bill is not another one of those thousand page monsters!
Thousands of Venezuelans joined rival marches in Caracas on Saturday over a controversial education law that critics say strengthens President Hugo Chavez's grip over schools and universities.
Police fired tear gas when government opponents knocked over a fence marking the end of the authorized route.
A few thousand, many dressed in white, streamed down one of Caracas's main avenues to protest the law while red-clad government supporters danced to salsa music in the city center in support of a law they say will boost access to schooling.
A previous attempt to overhaul education was one of the factors that provoked giant protests in 2002, eventually culminating in a failed coup attempt against Chavez.
"We have to fight for this country and for our children," said one middle-aged woman shrouded in tear gas at the protest who was interviewed on the Globovision television station.
The new law, passed last week, allows community councils that are often pro-government a larger role in the operations of schools and universities. It also calls for the education system to be guided by the "Bolivarian doctrine."
Simon Bolivar freed several countries from the Spanish empire in the early 19th century. Socialist Chavez describes his own government as a "Bolivarian revolution" and critics say the law will lead to ideological education inspired by communist Cuba.
The government says the law will ensure fairer access to education in the OPEC nation and guarantee free thinking.
Some opposition marchers carried placards that read: "I can't stand your Cuban law."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an/Agencies - Israeli found a 15-year-old boy from the Galilee village of Tamra they said was suspected of stabbing his father to death. Medics said the boy's 57-year-old father was stabbed once in the chest and pronounced dead at an Israeli hospital. Police said the youth fled following an argument between the two on Saturday morning.
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08/23/2009 00:00 ||
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Russia's Kronshtadt defense company has developed a new- generation heavy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for military purposes, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
"The Kronshtadt engineers have developed a heavy Dozor-3 UAV with a lift-off weight of 600 kg and a payload of 100 kg, which could be used as a strike aircraft," said Viktor Godunov, member of the company's board of directors.
"It can carry various types of reconnaissance equipment and weaponry," he added.
The Russian military stressed the need to provide its Armed Forces with advanced means of battlefield reconnaissance in the wake of a brief military conflict with Georgia last August, when the effectiveness of Russian military operations was severely hampered by the lack of reliable intelligence.
According to various estimates, the Russian military needs up to 100 UAVs and at least 10 guidance systems to ensure effective battlefield reconnaissance.
At present, Russia's Vega Radio Engineering Corp. is the only domestic company which manufactures UAVs for the Russian Armed Forces.
The company's new-generation Tipchak mobile aerial system has been designed for reconnaissance and target designation purposes on the battlefield in any weather conditions. The first Tipchak system was put in service at the end of 2008.
Tipchak operates up to six UAVs launched from a pneumatic catapult. Each UAV has a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and a 3-hour endurance. It can provide targeting for artillery and theater-based ballistic missiles at distances up to 350 km (about 220 miles).
The new Dozor-3 UAV takes off and lands as a regular aircraft, and has a 6-hour endurance.
Russia Russia has also bought 12 unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel in a recent deal worth $53 million.
#1
Ah, the propensity to want the biggest / heaviest of everything. I'd call it Soviet thinking, were it not that it goes back at least as far as Peter the Great.
#2
I believe our 747's are capable of taking off and landing on autopilot (not that one would want to do it) - wouldn't take much to make them into really big UAVs.
#10
WAFF > SAKHALIN RESIDENTS BEGIN PETITION TO JOIN JAPAN.
As seen from high in the sky, or on a map, SAKHALIN ISLAND closely resembles a "FLYING FISH"-SHAPED ISLAND being chased/pusued by [long-tailed]"DRAGON/FLYING DRAGON" JAPAN.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Hurricane Bill, after causing flooding and power cuts on Bermuda, has prompted tropical storm warnings for coastal Massachusetts as it moved on a path off the US East Coast. 
