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Among the training regimes that Russian cosmonauts pass before being admitted into orbit is the shooting range. The reason is that they must learn how to use a special three-barreled gun found on every Soyuz spacecraft.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0901/090114tampa.htm January 14, 2009 Colombian drug lord gets life in prison following joint law enforcement investigation TAMPA, Fla. - A high ranking member of a Colombian drug cartel was sentenced here to life in prison Monday following a multi-agency investigation comprised of several federal agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ivan Gonzalez-Bejarano, 48, linked to the Cali Cartel, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday to a term of life imprisonment for conspiracy to import and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. The joint federal investigation, that spanned...

It was an innocuous sounding comment in what appeared to be a routine television interview. But in the six days since Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, described his feelings about taking the oath of office in May, the corridors of power have been buzzing. “The final responsibility for what happens in the country and for the important decisions taken would rest on my shoulders alone and I would not be able to share this responsibility with anyone,” Mr Medvedev told an interviewer. For a normal president in a normal country, such a remark would have been a statement of the obvious....

There is an old Russian fable, with different versions in other countries, about two poor peasants, Ivan and Boris. The only difference between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn't. One day, Ivan came upon a strange-looking lamp and, when he rubbed it, a genie appeared. She told him that she could grant him just one wish, but it could be anything in the world. Ivan said, "I want Boris' goat to die." Variations on this story in other countries suggest that this tells us something about human beings, not just Russians. It may tell us something...

French police have opened an inquiry into allegations that a prominent Russian human rights lawyer may have been poisoned in Strasbourg on Monday. Karina Moskalenko, who represents some of the Kremlin's best known critics, fell ill after finding a substance similar to mercury inside her car. She and members of her family were later treated for nausea and headaches. Prosecutors said there had not been enough of the substance to endanger life, but that more tests were needed. Ms Moskalenko's clients include the jailed former Russian oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the family of the murdered journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. The...

Russian warships are sailing towards the Caribbean for the first time since the Cold War to take part in a joint naval exercise with Venezuela. In a display meant to show off Russia's military resurgence and to provoke the United States, four vessels from the Northern Fleet set sail on a mission replete with an atmosphere of Soviet-era bombast and brinksmanship. Symbolically at least, the manoeuvres represent the Kremlin's boldest challenge yet to US military hegemony. By sailing so close to the American coastline for a series of exercises with Washington's principal detractor in Latin America, Russia seems to be...

Gerry Adams famously said about the IRA that "they never went away, you know", and researching the current BBC World Service series, After the KGB, left me with a very similar impression. As the BBC's Moscow correspondent in the late 1980s and early to mid-90s, I witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the outpouring of popular hatred for the regime's notorious secret police. I was in Lubyanka Square in front of the KGB's headquarters on 22 August 1991, as demonstrators toppled the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the organisation's founder. When a hawser was tied round Dzerzhinsky's neck and...

Tu-95 Tupolev long-range bomber aircraft (file picture) Russia is currently rebuilding its armed forces Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said. Mr Putin said the move to resume the flights permanently after a 15-year suspension was in response to security threats posed by other military powers. He said 14 bombers had taken off from Russian airfields early on Friday. The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam. A few days ago Moscow said its strategic...

Russian bombers have flown to the US island of Guam in the Pacific as part of an exercise this week reminiscent of the Cold War. Two Tu-95 jets flew to Guam, which is home to a big US military base, Maj Gen Pavel Androsov said. They "exchanged smiles" with US pilots who scrambled to track them, he added. The sorties, believed to be the first since the Cold War ended, come as Russia stresses a more assertive foreign policy, observers say.

Russian bombers have flown to the US island of Guam in the Pacific in a surprise manoeuvre reminiscent of the Cold War era. Two Tu-95 turboprops flew this week to Guam, home to a big US military base, Russian Maj Gen Pavel Androsov said. They "exchanged smiles" with US pilots who scrambled to track them, he added. The sorties, believed to be the first since the Cold War ended, come as Russia stresses a more assertive foreign policy, correspondents say. The flight is part of a pattern of more expansive Russian military operations in recent weeks, says BBC diplomatic correspondent...

Mayor Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco failed to develope better evacuation strategy for NO after Hurricane Ivan in exactly one year ago.Ivan exposes flaws in N.O.'s disaster plans 05:09 PM CDT on Sunday, September 19, 2004 By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press Those who had the money to flee Hurricane Ivan ran into hours-long traffic jams. Those too poor to leave the city had to find their own shelter - a policy that was eventually reversed, but only a few hours before the deadly storm struck land. New Orleans dodged the knockout punch many feared from the hurricane, but the storm...

LONDON: Indira Gandhi's India was awash with KGB spies, a Left-leaning bought-up media, wild, well paid-for rumours about CIA conspiracies to foment trouble in Assam and Punjab, millions of Soviet roubles pumped into the governing Congress party and remarkably successful Soviet plots to use honey traps and 'swallows' to seduce Indian diplomats, one of the world's leading Cold War historians has told TOI . The astonishing revelation, totally undreamt of in scale, ambition and detail, says India was the only country outside the Soviet bloc to be most successfully penetrated by the KGB, right up to the office of the...

Ivan exposes flaws in N.O.'s disaster plans 05:09 PM CDT on Sunday, September 19, 2004 By KEVIN McGILL Those who had the money to flee Hurricane Ivan ran into hours-long traffic jams. Those too poor to leave the city had to find their own shelter - a policy that was eventually reversed, but only a few hours before the deadly storm struck land. New Orleans dodged the knockout punch many feared from the hurricane, but the storm exposed what some say are significant flaws in the Big Easy's civil disaster plans. Much of New Orleans is below sea level, kept...

The dead and the desperate of New Orleans now join the farmers of Aceh and the fishermen of Trincomalee, villagers in Iran and the slum dwellers of Haiti in a world being dealt ever more punishing blows by natural disasters. It's a world where Americans can learn from even the poorest nations, experts say, and where they should learn not to build future settlements like the drowned old metropolis on the Mississippi. The levees in New Orleans inspired a false sense of security, says Dennis S. Miletti, a leading scholar on disaster prevention. "We rely on technology and we end...

Does anyone have links to stories criticizing Bush for going to Florida "too soon" after Hurricane Ivan? It was around the time of the Debates. It would make for solid evidence that the MSM, once again, is clothed in hypocrisy (like we needed more evidence). Please post links here if you can find them. I have Googled for hours and come up empty.

Huge ocean wave towered nearly 100 feet Study finds giant waves are more common than first thought The Associated Press Aug. 4, 2005 WASHINGTON - Last year's Hurricane Ivan generated an ocean wave that towered higher than 90 feet at one point, says a study that also suggests such giants may be more common than once thought. Research indicates these are not "rogue waves but actually fairly common during hurricanes," said David Wang of the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Miss. The giant wave was detected 75 miles south of Gulfport, Miss., by instruments on the ocean floor...

. . . and churn up big waves, too Sid Perkins From New Orleans, at the Joint Assembly of the American Geophysical Union As Hurricane Ivan approached the U.S. Gulf Coast last September, it passed right over an array of seafloor sensors. The network detected the largest wave ever measured by instruments—one that towered more than 27 meters from trough to crest. The 50-kilometer-wide group of 14 instruments was deployed in May 2004 to measure currents on the ocean floor, says William J. Teague, an oceanographer at the Naval Research Laboratory at Bay St. Louis, Miss. Late on the evening...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The highest-ranking U.S. soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, a U.S. Army reservist from Virginia, also was sentenced Thursday to a forfeiture of pay, a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.

Ivan's Massive Waves Caught Energy Industry Off Guard NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Waves and storm surges that were more massive than previously thought may explain why Hurricane Ivan did such severe damage to the platforms and pipelines in its path. Chris Oynes, regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, said preliminary data from the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show the central Gulf of Mexico was hit by mammoth waves - including perhaps the tallest ever recorded in the Gulf - that exceeded the design requirements of the area's infrastructure. "There were some extremely large waves," he said...

...But none of that impressed me the way Jeb Bush did. Not for standing tall and radiating calm in crisis - you expect a governor to do that - but for a gesture that most Floridians might gloss over or even resent. As he has done with this season's other hurricanes, whenever he had a press briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Bush explained himself not only in English but in Spanish. Then, according to his spokesman, Jacob DiPietre, Bush did something many of us never saw. He repeated his message in interviews with Spanish language TV...

Weakening system is downgraded, but threat of heavy rain remains for area Storm watching gave way to waiting Thursday night as Ivan's remnants trudged ashore in far southwest Louisiana and began what was expected to be a slow weekend traipse across Southeast Texas. By 10 p.m., the National Weather Service had downgraded Ivan to a tropical depression and canceled all warnings. Nonetheless, the weakening system, which is expected to begin drifting into the Houston area today, still could drop five- to 10 inches of rain across the region.

Call it what you will...heavy rain threatens Gulf Coast 8:10 P.M. ET 9/22/2004 Buzz Bernard & Anthony Diaz, Meteorologists, The Weather Channel National Forecast Video South Resurrected Tropical Storm Ivan bears watching in the Gulf of Mexico as it churns toward the upper Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast bearing squally bands of rain. Tides may come up a bit, too, and a coastal flood watches and warnings have been issued for parts of the northwestern Gulf Coast. Showers from Ivan may punch inland Thursday over far eastern Texas, Louisiana and northward up the lower Mississippi Valley.

Remnants of Ivan Swing Back Into Gulf Sep 22, 3:06 PM (ET) (AP) McKinleyville, W.Va. resident Bob Ohler walks through the debris left behind in Buffalo Creek,... Full Image Google sponsored links Hurricane Ivan Updates - Get The Lastest On Hurricane Ivan & Real-Time Weather On Your PC. www.WeatherBug.com Hurricane Ivan T-shirts - "I Survived Hurricane Ivan" shirts at eBay! Register free (aff) www.ebay.com NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The remnants of Hurricane Ivan swung back into the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to develop into a tropical storm on a path westward toward southwest Louisiana and Texas. A hurricane hunter...

4:30PM EDT; Monday Sept. 20: The Weather Channel made a point to show via radar that ex-Hurricane Ivan is back in Florida. They said in a 4:30 PM broadcast, that the storm still has visible counter clockwise circulation and stratles the southern most part of Florida entering from the southern east coast with rain.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams were ready and waiting as Hurricane Ivan devastated entire sections of the US Gulf Coast early September 16. Packing 115 MPH winds as it made landfall, Ivan zeroed in on the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, but because of its huge girth, the storm wrought widespread death and destruction in the Florida Panhandle and also affected Mississippi. Below-sea-level New Orleans was spared major flooding, however. Alabama Section Emergency Coordinator Jay Isbell, KA4KUN, said ham radio has been helping relief agencies, especially in the hard-hit southernmost counties. "Right now the adrenaline's still up," he said...

Uh, I don't want to be an alarmist, but based on the 5PM discussion on the 'remnants' of Hurricane Ivan, the position and forecast of TS Jeanne and the cold front that swept down from the north recently, I am a little concerned.

I don't normally "do" vanities. Heck, I rarely post articles. But I absolutely have to get some attention to what Hurricane Ivane did to Pensacola and some of the nearby communities. The landscape has changed. Tens of thousands are now without homes or businesses. Roads needed for resupply are out. Power is out and food supplies for many miles are threatened. Grocery stores don't have power. Power may take weeks to restore, water 6 weeks or more.

Warnings for the next hurricane to hit the United States have already been issued -- for Washington, D.C. Taxpayers should keep an eye on the aftermath. After most disasters, Congress acts like a whirlwind to rush to the aid of victims, as lawmakers should. A few members of Congress are also quick to take advantage of the situation to tack money for their pet projects onto such bills. "Congress simply has no shame," warned Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "Knowing that this is most likely the last opportunity to bring home the bacon before the election, members...

RESTORING ELECTRICITY NB Power crews will help after Ivan hits southeast U.S. NBers currently assisting in Florida BY PHIL ANDREWS Telegraph-Journal A contingent of NB Power workers currently helping Florida hydro crews deal with the ravages of hurricane Frances will also likely be part of the cleanup sure to follow from hurricane Ivan's wake in the southeastern United States. Dave Agnew, NB Power's director of operations services, said the utility has consented to requests by a power utility that serves Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana to help out with repairs in those areas, if, as expected, hurricane Ivan causes widespread...

HAVANA — Fidel Castro was a constant presence during Hurricane Ivan's approach to the island nation this week, appearing for hours on state television to assuage Cubans' fears, underscoring his larger-than-life role in this socialist society. "Ivan couldn't go up against Fidel," read a headline in the Communist Party youth paper Juventud Rebelde (search) on Wednesday. A poem read over state radio Tuesday night said Castro's "thumb" pushed Ivan away from the island and into the Gulf of Mexico. On Monday, hours before Ivan struck, Castro traveled to the western province of Pinar del Rio (search) to discuss disaster preparations...

Heinz Kerry Visits Hurricane Aid Center By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK - Teresa Heinz Kerry, encouraging volunteers as they busily packed supplies Wednesday for hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean, said she was concerned the effort was too focused on sending clothes instead of essentials like water and electric generators. "Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids," said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites). "Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes." Heinz Kerry stopped by a...

Media bias and the state of Kerry's campaign... all in one picture... http://home.earthlink.net/~jkwong1/compare.html

Thu Sep 16,11:42 AM ET A bridge over Escambia Bay north of Pensacola, Florida is cut in two by Hurricane Ivan with a tractor-trailer rig swallowed by the gap, September 16, 2004. Hurricane Ivan slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast early Thursday with devastating winds and pounding waves that ripped homes apart, flooded deep inland and spawned tornadoes that killed at least eight people. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Thu Sep 16,12:14 PM ET The bridge carrying Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay is wiped out on both ends as what is left of a truck remains on a section, after Hurricane Ivan...

Hurricane Ivan Advisory Number 55 Statement as of 10:00 PM CDT on September 15, 2004 ...Extremely dangerous Hurricane Ivan coming closer to the northern Gulf Coast...strong winds already moving onshore... A Hurricane Warning is in effect from Grand Isle Louisiana to Apalachicola Florida...including the greater New Orleans area and Lake Pontchartrain. A Hurricane Warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area...generally within the next 24 hours. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion throughout the entire warning area. A Hurricane Watch remains in effect from Morgan City Louisiana to west of Grand...

First death and numerous injuries reported in panhandle from tornado touchdown. Ivan has fairly rapidly intensified this afternoon, pressure down to 933mb. Winds 135mph. Landfall in 8 hours. Possible severe consequences if eastern eyewall moves up Mobile Bay.

National Data Buoy Center, NWS link       Station 42040 - MOBILE SOUTH 64 nm South of Dauphin Island, AL     50.5   Wind speed    62.2  Peak gust   42.0  Wave height   You can watch the weather in the 10 nearest buoys to Ivan:   http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/radial_search.php?lat1=27.3N&lon1=88.0W&dist=350&time=3      

Hurricane Ivan Advisory Number 51a Statement as of 1:00 AM CDT on September 15, 2004 ...Large and extremely dangerous Hurricane Ivan continues toward the northern Gulf Coast... a Hurricane Warning is in effect from Grand Isle Louisiana to Apalachicola Florida...including the greater New Orleans area and Lake Pontchartrain. A Hurricane Warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area...generally within the next 24 hours. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion throughout the entire warning area. A Hurricane Watch remains in effect from Morgan City Louisiana to west of Grand Isle. A Tropical...

Residents fleeing deluge that could sink low-lying cityNEW ORLEANS - More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge the below-sea-level city during what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told...

New Orleans Hurricane Impact Study Area home View the entire New Orleans Hurricane Impact Study Area with detailed road map overlay The New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in its entirey is a densely-populated area comprised of eight parishes with over 1.3 million residents (US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2000). As a consequence of Hurricane Betsy in 1965 (the last major hurricane to strike close to New Orleans) and subsequent flooding in later years, the levees encircling the city and other parish areas have been raised to heights ranging between 14 to 23 feet.  While the...

Would New Orleans Really Flood in a Hurricane? How is that possible? home   It's hard to imagine as one strolls through the beautiful and historic areas of New Orleans, such as the French Quarter, St. Charles Street, and City Park just to name a few, that there exists the danger of New Orleans ever flooding from a major hurricane. Hurricane Lili as a Category Four Hurricane. View more images of Hurricane Lili from space (NASA) As seen from the image above, hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere.  Wind speeds are highest towards the center of the hurricane,...

The worst-case scenario for New Orleans - a direct strike by a full-strength Hurricane Ivan - could submerge much of this historic city treetop-deep in a stew of sewage, industrial chemicals and fire ants, and the inundation could last for weeks, experts say. If the storm were strong enough, Ivan could drive water over the tops of the levees that protect the city from the Mississippi River and vast Lake Pontchartrain. And with the city sitting in a saucer-shaped depression that dips as much as 9 feet below sea level, there would be nowhere for all that water to drain.

The evacuation of New Orleans has begun. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Tuesday, September 14, 2004I-10 westbound in all lanes at 2 p.m. Westbound traffic in Interstate 10 backed up throughout east Jefferson Parish and into Orleans Parish at midday Tuesday as area residents fled from the threat of Hurricane Ivan. State Police are preparing to open up a “contraflow” stretch on I-10 between Kenner and Laplace by about 2 p.m., allowing many vehicles to travel west on both sides of the interstate, but the plan comes with a catch: Once traveling west on eastbound lanes, motorist can't make a change until...

 14 sep 2004 - St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, LouisianaThe following is an example of possible water heights for a slow moving category 4 hurricane. This image is an approximation of how high the water could rise. - Simulations courtesy of Mark Sudduth.St. Louis Cathedral Quicktime movie of simulated water rise during a slow moving Category 4 Hurricane (1.7 mb)If you need Quicktime you can download it here. (ABOVE SIMULATION IS OF A SLOW MOVING CAT 4 HURRICANE) NO Storm SurgeNew Orleans, Louisiana Category 4 Hurricane Storm Surge SimulationNew Orleans, Louisiana

Note that the GFDL model and GFS model are the most recently updated and show the eye of Ivan hitting Mississippi and close enought to New Oleans to cause major damage. These are the Red and light green lines. Computer Model Hurricane ForecastsHurricane Ivan : Tracking Map | 5 Day Forecast Map | Historical Map | Public Advisory | Marine Advisory | Discussion | Satellite Map | Strike Probability | Strike Probability Map | Wind Map | Coordinates | Computer Models Information about the models can be found here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutmodels.shtml

14.09.20041.00pm - By ANDREW GRICE Tony Blair will today urge the United States to commit itself to a tougher action to combat global warming and promise that a list of green policies will be included in Labour's general election manifesto. The Prime Minister is to raise the profile of green issues as part of a drive to woo back people disaffected by the Iraq war. Labour's private polling shows that "progressive voters", many of whom were alienated by Mr Blair's stance on Iraq, regard the environment as a top priority. Speaking to a conference staged by the Prince of Wales's...

Hurricane Ivan Advisory Number 47a Statement as of 02:00 AM EDT on September 14, 2004 ...Core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Ivan moving slowly away from the western tip of Cuba... a Hurricane Warning remains in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio...Havana...City of Havana...and the Isle of Youth. A Hurricane Warning remains in effect for the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to progreso. A tropical storm watch remains in effect for the Florida Keys from the Seven Mile Bridge westward...including the Dry Tortugas. A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the northern Gulf of Mexico coast from east...

Ivan strikes Cuba directly The Ivan cyclone finally directly struck Cuba while passing the peninsula of Guanahacabibes, in the extreme west of the island, announced Monday evening the cuban weather services. "the face of the eye of Ivan touched ground in Cuba with the course of San Antonio", in the peninsula of Guanahacabibes, with 18H45 local (22H45 GMT), announced with television the head of the forecasts of the cuban Institute of meteorology, José Rubiera.

Check out the following link. Click on the box where Ivan is headed and you can click on some of the buoys. One of them closer to Ivan has apparently "failed". I wonder why... Click here for National Data Buoy Center.

If enough water from Lake Pontchartrain topped the levee system along its south shore, the result would be apocalyptic. Vast areas would be submerged for days or weeks until engineers dynamited the levees to let the water escape. Some places on the east bank of Orleans and Jefferson parishes are as low as 10 feet below sea level. Adding a 20-foot storm surge from a Category 4 or 5 storm would mean 30 feet of standing water. Whoever remained in the city would be at grave risk. According to the American Red Cross, a likely death toll would be between...