World Event News

[WitchBoy]

This thread can be used for News around the world...big event type stuff..like the conflict between India and Pakistan....
so here's my first piece.

A minimum of three million people would be killed and 1.5 million seriously injured if even a "limited" nuclear war broke out between India and Pakistan.
The estimates are comprised of the immediate casualty list from blast, fire and radiation if only a tenth of both countries' nuclear weapons were exploded above 10 of their largest cities. It does not take account of the inevitable suffering that would result from the loss of homes, hospitals, water and energy supplies, or the cancers that could develop in future years.
Tension between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir has escalated, following an attack earlier in May on an Indian army camp that left 30 dead. Troops are reported to be moving into the area, with up to a million soldiers facing each other across the border. The dispute has seen two full-scale wars and numerous lesser conflicts over the last 55 years.
Fears have centred on a scenario in which an attempt for what India's Prime Minister has called a "decisive victory" could prompt Pakistan, which has far fewer conventional military forces, to launch a nuclear attack. Suggestions on Friday that India will allow Pakistan two months to stop cross border attacks by militants have also been interpreted as buying time for an Indian attack.
The US and Asian nuclear researchers investigated the impact of 10 explosions similar to that detonated by the US over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. They assume that five 15-kilotonne bombs explode 600 metres above Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and New Delhi in India, while another five explode above Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
They conclude that hundreds of thousands of people would be killed or badly injured in every city, amounting to 2.6 million in India and 1.8 million in Pakistan. The prospect is credible and devastating, warns M V Ramana one of the researchers from Princeton University, New Jersey and an expert on nuclear policy in India.
"It is imperative that the two countries not go to war - however limited in scale. Even the most local conflicts have the potential to escalate into a full-scale war, possibly nuclear,"
The Institute for Science and International Security in Washington DC suggests that India has about 65 warheads made from 310 kilograms of plutonium, while Pakistan has around 40 made from 690 kilograms of uranium.
Most of the weapons are likely to be around the 15-kilotonne range and some of them may not work, says the institute's David Albright. But it is possible to conceive of circumstances in which they could all be fired, particularly if decisions have to be left to individual commanders after a breakdown in communications.
If bombs explode on the ground instead of in the air, the resulting radioactive dust could kill people across hundreds of square kilometres, Albright points out. And because the prevailing winds are from the west, India is more likely to become the victim of its own fall-out than Pakistan.

 

[WitchBoy]

Ice reservoirs found on Mars[/u]

Water-ice has been found in vast quantities just below the surface across great swathes of the planet Mars.
The finding by the American space agency (Nasa) is undoubtedly one of the most important made about the Red Planet.
It solves one of its deepest mysteries, points the way for manned exploration and reignites the question of whether life may exist on the planet.
Insiders suggest that, partly as a result of this finding, Nasa may now commit itself to a manned landing within 20 years.
The US space agency will make the dramatic announcement about the water-ice next Thursday. And full disclosure of the findings will come in the journal Science later that day.
The discovery was made by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which has been gathering data since late last year.
Mars water facts  
Ice crystals less than one metre (three feet) below Mars surface
Located south of 60 degrees latitude
Melted, would create planet-wide ocean 500 metres deep
Nasa may commit to landing in less than 20 years  
It confirms early observations that also pointed to enormous reservoirs of ice just below the surface.
This finding will answer a question that has puzzled Mars researchers for decades: many lines of evidence suggest that the Red Planet was water-rich in the past, so where did all that water go?
The answer appears to be that it is in the regolith - the layer of loose rock and dust on the surface.
Mars Odyssey has been returning high-quality data about Mars' surface composition.
The spacecraft contains an instrument called a gamma-ray spectrometer that looks for gamma-rays (high-energy light) with a specific signature showing that they come from hydrogen less than one metre (three feet) beneath the Martian surface.
Astronomers believe that the hydrogen is locked up in crystals of ice.
Also on board Mars Odyssey is a neutron spectrometer that registers evidence for underground ice in the same regions of the planet.
Researchers were amazed at the strength of the signal of the ice. They had expected to take a year to gather enough evidence but managed to do so in just a few weeks.
They announced preliminary findings in March but now have good data confirming large amounts of the water-ice just beneath the surface south of 60 degrees latitude.
Researchers suspect the same to be true of the northern hemisphere, but cannot make the appropriate observations until later this year due to the Martian winter in the north.
Nasa scientists were scheduled to hold a major news conference on Thursday when they would say that their earlier findings had been confirmed and extended. But this may be brought forward after a British newspaper leaked the news.
The dramatic discovery may also guide the selection of future landing and exploration sites on Mars, and may suggest areas to look for evidence of past life.
The presence of such a vast amount of ice - if it were to melt it could cover the planet in an ocean at least 500 metres deep (1,640 feet) - will change profoundly the direction of future exploration.
The discovery may indicate areas on Mars where scientists can search for life forms
Although landing probes are planned - the European Beagle 2 and Nasa's twin Mars rovers next year - neither are targeted at the region where the ice may exist.
The Mars Polar Lander was to touch down in exactly the right spot in 1999 and would have undoubtedly detected the ice had it not malfunctioned on the way down.
Having water just below the surface will be an enormous boon to astronauts on Mars.
Water is essential for life, so the discovery enhances the belief that Mars could have had life in the past and perhaps in the present as well.
Because of this, bringing a sample of the ice and rock back to Earth by an unmanned sample return probe will become a top priority.
 

[WitchBoy]

BRITISH TROOPS AT RISK IN EVENT OF INDIA-PAKISTAN NUCLEAR WAR

The Pentagon says British and American troops in Afghanistan could be at risk in the event of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Personnel aboard ships in the northern Arabian Sea will also be among those at risk from the radiation fallout. Up to 12 million people could be killed and five million injured in the first weeks of a nuclear war, the Pentagon believes. The figures do not include long-term deaths from radiation sickness, starvation, or fires that could rage long after the initial blasts. The US Defence Intelligence Agency estimate is based on a full-scale exchange in which both sides fire all their nuclear weapons and hit heavily populated areas. In this worst case scenario, it predicts between nine million and 12 million people would die. Another two million to five million would be hurt. Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems estimates Pakistan has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, while India probably has between 100 and 150 nuclear warheads. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is to visit the region next week as part of increasingly frantic international efforts to resolve the crisis over Kashmir. He is expected to spell out to India and Pakistan the terrible cost of any conflict for the two countries and the entire region. About 1,700 British troops are currently deployed at Bagram in Afghanistan.

[Freya]

This post is not meant to offend any resident in the United States...


Oh my god.. That is... unbelievable. And these are the ones that United-States go against and say that they do not want to have a war.. yet they create such a destruction that it would kill probably more than half of Afghanistan's population, so I believe, I could be wrong. Even though, that is quite a sum. Yet U-S supposedly have moral laws.. What moral do they have in killing millions of Innocent people? Is beyond me... Their president supposedly knew what he was doing, and maybe at one time, he did. But now, I think it has gone over what he's ever handled before and he can't get out of it.  So the only solution that they've come up with is to murder, yes murder, millions of civilians that had nothing to do with all of this. Think about it, children, orphans, people that are about to start their live will soon be ending it withouht know what happened or why it's happening.

This is insanity... no person in their right frame of mind would resolute to such incidents.

[WitchBoy]

Ancient Buddhist temple discovered in eastern India
Archaeologists in eastern India have discovered the remains of an ancient temple where the Buddha used to preach.
The discovery of the 2,000-year-old shrine at Shravasti, the capital of the ancient Koshal kingdom in what is now Uttar Pradesh state, was reported by a team from the state Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The find has shed light on life at the time of the Buddha two millennia ago, Birendra Nath, the superintending archaeologist of the ASI branch here, said today.
He said the Buddha stayed for four months at Shravasti and delivered most of his sermons there.
"The excavation sites have unveiled one of the most important cities of ancient India called Shravasti, which was the capital of the Koshal kingdom of King Premjit -- a contemporary of Lord Buddha," Nath said.
He said the Shravasti site was first identified by Sir Alexander Cunningham, a British archaeologist, in 1861.
A large number of terracotta earthenware, human figurines, beads, plaques, seals, copper and silver coins and objects of bone and ivory were discovered, Nath said.
The excavations also unearthed a large number of polished pottery and wares dating back to the sixth century BC.
The temple hints at the existence of a well-planned town with good drainage and brick-layered wells, Nath said.
The Buddha -- an Indian prince born as Gautama Siddharta -- is believed to have lived from about 563 BC to 483 BC.

[Freya]

Dun dun dun!!! heheheh! Interesting *says like an old explorer with that accent* heheh!! Cool!