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Hamas confirms Ahmed Jabari killed when a missile hit two cars near the Gaza port; Palestinians report another person was killed.

A British cargo vessel detained at Kotka harbour has been found to be carrying a shipment of American-made Patriot missiles. According to information received by YLE, the missile shipment originated in Germany and is destined for South Korea. Onboard the ship are 69 of the missiles with their explosive warheads and propelling charges. The National Bureau of Investigation confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the missiles are on-board the ship. Officials stopped the M/S Thor Liberty last week as its cargo of explosives had been stored incorrectly. The ship is carrying 160 tonnes of the explosive nitroguanidine. The material is in 25...

Current Update, last updated Nov 17, 2009 11:16 PST: Information Statement for the November 2-10, 2009, Lassen Peak swarm activity A series of small earthquake swarms beneath the southwest flank of Lassen Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park that began in the late evening on November 2 continued with sporadic activity diminishing through the 16th. The activity was most intense on the November 3rd with the largest earthquake in the sequence a magnitude M=2.5 event at 1:54 PM (PDT) on the 3rd. These earthquakes are centered some 3 km (2 miles)southwest of the summit of Lassen Peak between Eagle Peak...

An IAEA mission to get powerful radioactive sources out of Lebanon was completed 30 August 2009, after a plane carrying the high-activity cargo safely touched down in Russia, where the sources are now securely and safely stored. They comprised 36 Cobalt-60 sources, with a combined activity of 3.500 curies. A single source is powerful enough to kill a person within minutes, if directly exposed. Mr. Robin Heard, an IAEA radioactive source specialist, oversaw the mission. "Given the political situation in the Middle East and particularly in Lebanon we saw this source as vulnerable to malicious acts. If it was stolen...

If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat. Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.

Don't worry, it can't hurt you—yet. Scientists have identified Reston ebolavirus—a member of the deadly Ebola group of hemorrhagic viruses—in domestic swine from the Philippines. The virus, which looks like a piece of yarn with a slight bend, is the only Ebola pathogen not known to cause disease in humans. Even so, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta considers it a biosafety level 4 pathogen, reserved for the most dangerous and exotic diseases. Ebola and the closely related Marburg viruses are highly contagious, causing vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding with death rates as high as 90 percent....

Over the past 48 hours, seismic activity at Redoubt Volcano has increased markedly. This has taken the form of periodic tremor bursts that are most visible on the two seismic stations closest to the summit. Beginning at 00:58 AKT (9:58 UTC) this morning, tremor became sustained and its amplitude increased markedly. AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and the Alert Level to WATCH this morning at 2:09 AKT (11:09 UTC). This activity could be precursory to an eruption, perhaps within hours to days. A further increase in seismicity is expected to accompany an eruption. There is no indication...

Caterpillar Inc., one of the world's largest construction equipment makers, said Friday its fourth-quarter earnings rose 11 percent on strong international growth. The company earned $975 million, or $1.50 per share, compared with $882 million, or $1.32 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 10 percent to $12.14 billion from $11 billion in the prior-year period. Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.50 per share on revenue of $11.79 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial. The company said strong economic growth outside the United States, particularly in the mining, energy and infrastructure segments, offset weakness in the...

A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming. The team, led by James Morison of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, used data from an Earth-observing satellite and from deep-sea pressure gauges to monitor Arctic Ocean circulation from 2002 to 2006. They measured changes in the weight of columns of Arctic...

News agency Reuters used an image originating from the Hollywood blockbuster film Titanic as a photo of the Russian polar dive last week, Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported Thursday Hannu Vanhanen, a photograph specialist at the University of Tampere, was quoted as saying that there was no doubt the image sent to Reuters subscribers was from the film. Reuters says the image was captured from a Russian television broadcast. Russian polar explorers took Finnish-made Mir-1 and Mir-2 deep-sea submersibles to a depth of 4,261 below the North Pole Thursday last week. Mirs were actually used to shoot footage of the RMS...

Early Morning Earthquake Swarm Beneath Kilauea's Upper East Rift Zone About 70 shallow earthquakes in 2 hours occurred beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea early this morning. The swarm began at 2:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 17 and is ongoing. The earthquakes are centered 1 km (1 mile) southwest of Mauna Ulu and are concentrated between 1.5 and 3 kilometers (1-2 miles) deep. As of 4:30 a.m., ten of the quakes had magnitudes greater than 3 and were felt by nearby residents. All data so far is consistent with the event being a shallow intrusion of magma. The...

Secret National Reconnaissance Office dual satellite ocean surveillance mission to track potential terrorist movements at sea and Chinese and Iranian ship tactics is being readied for liftoff June 14 here on an Atlas V, say intelligence sources. The National Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) flight is designated NRO L-30. "We're on track for a mid-June launch of the Atlas V," says Lt. Col. Kent Nickle, director of operations for the 5th Space Launch Sqdn. of the 45th Space Wing here. He did not address the secret ocean surveillance payloads, however. The importance of NRO's space ocean surveillance role in connection with...

2006-09-24 12:31:11 - Status Report Level of Concern Color Code: YELLOW On Saturday, September 23, AVO flew an observation flight over Fourpeaked volcano. Relatively good weather permitted the first look at the volcano's summit since the event of September 17. Observers saw a linear series of vents running north from the summit for about 1 km. Most of these vents were vigorously emitting steam and other volcanic gasses. In the immediate vicinity of the vents, the glacier had been disrupted. Gas measurements indicated abundant quantities of sulfur dioxide, hydrogren sulfide, and carbon dioxide. The sulfur species could be smelled easily...

Jakarta, Detikcom - On Wednesday, Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla asked people living in area near of mount of Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa) and Tangkuban Perahu to prepare from being evacuated. The VP announcement released as the danger level has been raised to level III on both volcanoes. ''We asked them to get ready, to be aware, but please don't be panic,'' said Kalla in his office in Jakarta. He added that the government would ask or order them to evacuate when the situation has reached level IV (four). ''They have to be evacuated when the level has reach...

It's an exciting time for budding journalists in Afghanistan, but you probably haven't heard much about this in mainstream media. The election in Afghanistan was seen by CNN's Peter Bergen as a revolutionary development that he says was underplayed in the press. Similarly, the emergence of new and vibrant and free media in the country has been underplayed but deserves widespread coverage. As a nation, thanks to our troops, Afghanistan is free today, and free and independent media are emerging. The same thing can happen in Iraq. And that's what scares Osama bin Laden.

One of the largest and most active volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula near the settlements of Perryville and Chignik has grown increasingly restless since the turning of the new year, sending up small ash plumes and experiencing increased seismic tremors. The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Tuesday upgraded Mount Veniaminof Volcano’s level of concern to yellow for activity considered higher than the normal background. The level of concern is up from green, indicating normal activity, but isn’t yet to the orange level when an eruption is expected to occur or is occurring. Veniaminof is about 300 miles southwest of the Kodiak...

Submitted at 6:00 pm PDT, September 23, 2004-- Volcanoes in the Cascade Range are all at normal levels of background seismicity. Other volcanoes include,Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens in Washington State; Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Three Sisters, Newberry, and Crater Lake, in Oregon; and Medicine Lake, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Peak in northern California. USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory, the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network at the University of Washington, and the USGS Northern California Seismic Network and Volcano Hazards Team in Menlo Park, California, monitor the major volcanoes in the Cascade Range of northern...

Hurricane Frances has battered the Kennedy Space Center's 525-ft high Vehicle Assembly Building ripping off over 1000 panels from its exterior, Center Director Jim Kennedy told reporters a short while ago. With another Hurricane possibly on course to hit Florida this weekend, the space agency is worried. "The VAB is something of concern," Kennedy said."Not only because of the initial damage but because of the potential that Ivan brings to us. Our weather people tell us that Ivan could be at the backdoor of KSC as early as Saturday." Ivan is a powerful hurricane packing winds of 115 miles per...

In the coming days our nation will pause to mourn the loss and honor the tremendous legacy of our 40th President, Ronald Wilson Reagan. President Reagan's boundless optimism about America manifested itself in many ways. Among them was his energetic and unbridled support for NASA's space exploration program. Less than three months after he took the oath of office, on April 12, 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched on its first mission, and after a six-year hiatus, Americans were back in space to stay. A year later, in one of our country's most memorable Fourth of July celebrations, President Reagan...