Lightning delays NASA space shuttle launch

Sunday, July 12, 2009, CAPE CANAVERAL: A dramatic lightning storm forced NASA to delay the space shuttle Endeavour's launch on Saturday, pushing takeoff to late Sunday, in the latest blow to the seven-astronaut mission.

With just nine hours to go before liftoff, NASA said the launch would be scrapped, citing 11 lightning strikes near the Cape Canaveral launch site during a powerful electrical storm late Friday.

"We decided we are going to take 24 more hours to continue to review our data," said Mike Moses, the head of the mission.

Moses later announced that the launch was rescheduled for 7:13 pm (2313 GMT) Sunday, and said the weather forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions for takeoff.

After the lightning storm overnight, NASA technical teams were dispatched to examine the shuttle for damage.

Spokesman George Diller said there was "no damage found on the shuttle or on the pad systems," but that engineers needed to examine whether the lightning could have caused other problems.

NASA said the lightning strikes were within 0.3 nautical miles (0.6 kilometers) of the pad, with several of them striking the wiring system designed to protect the shuttle from taking direct lightning hits.

Moses said NASA would examine the space shuttle orbiter and the solid rocket boosters further to "be 100 percent confident that we have a good system across the board."

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Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

New arts space on the block

Updated at: 1821 PST, Saturday, September 19, 2009 NEW YORK: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) has officially opened LentSpace, a half-acre public park in lower Manhattan that it plans to use as a temporary gathering space, contemporary-art venue, and performing arts site. The block, which is bounded by Grand, Varick, and Canal streets and Sixth Avenue, is owned by the Trinity Real Estate Corp., which manages Trinity Church's real estate holdings. Unable to arrange a sufficiently lucrative arrangement for the property, church officials decided to allow the LMCC program to go there until economic conditions improve.

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