Power Line has links (and commentary) on some efforts to pin the blame for the tsunami catastrophe. Shame on Rueters and Agence France-Presse for using this horrific human tragedy to promote a political agenda.
UPDATE: Sortapundit rebuts the inane AFP article.
UPDATE II: I have some more thoughts on this.
The Huygens probe was successfully launched from the Cassini spacecraft on Christmas Day.
Cassini used springs to gently push the 705-pound probe away late Friday at a rate of one foot per second, sending it on a three-week free-fall toward Titan. Cassini will make a course change next week to avoid following the probe into the moon’s atmosphere.
The probe’s successful launch from Cassini put smiles on the faces of scientists in the control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
“This was a big one partly because we had to do this right or no mission at all,” said David Southwood, the European Space Agency’s science program director.
A detailed analysis of the release was under way, but there were no indications of any problems, said Earl Maize, the Cassini deputy program manager at JPL. “We are quite confident we had a very clean release,” he said.
Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a significant atmosphere. Rich with nitrogen and containing about 6 percent methane, the atmosphere is 1 1/2 times thicker than Earth’s.
The Huygens probe will arrive at Titan on January 14, 2005, where it will begin a 2 1/2 hour descent through Titan’s murky atmosphere before landing on the surface of Saturn’s mysterious moon. I posted about the Cassini mission to Saturn earlier this month, including some amazing images captured by the spacecraft’s cameras. The following photo was taken on Christmas Day.
Cassini’s Holiday Greetings
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Here is an image of the Huygens probe (closeup view) that was taken about 12 hours after the launch. (From UnSpace)
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog has links to aid agencies and information on the recovery work occurring in the region.
The death toll has surged past 50,000 lives. The tragedy could grow worse as there is a lack of uncontaminated drinking water, and the risk of disease from so many decomposing bodies.
Many of the bodies were already decomposing in the heat, underlining the growing health risk.
“Rescuers are holding their breath and using their bare hands, axes, or shovels to dig through piles of wrecked buildings and debris at Khao Lak,” said a senior provincial official, Chailert Piyorattanachote.
“We don’t have enough coffins and those that we have are too small for the bloated bodies of foreigners.”
…
For the most immediate needs, hundreds of relief planes packed with emergency goods were due to arrive in the region from about two dozen countries within the next 48 hours.
But authorities waited in trepidation for the outbreak of diseases caused by polluted drinking water and the sheer scale of thousands of putrefying bodies, lying in mud or being washed onto beaches.
The U.N.’s Egeland said there could be epidemics of intestinal and lung infections unless health systems in the stricken countries got help.
A top World Health Organization expert, David Nabarro said there was “certainly a chance that we could have as many dying from communicable diseases as from the tsunami.”
In Aceh, Lieutenant-Colonel Budi Santoso said: “Many bodies are still lying on the streets. There just aren’t enough body bags.”
“I’ve never buried so many in a single day in my life,” said Shekhar, an Indian gravedigger.
Eleven Americans are listed among the dead with hundreds more listed as missing.
On a brighter note, a Swedish child was reunited with his uncle after the uncle saw a picture of the boy posted on a web site.
A blond two-year-old Swedish boy, Hannes Bergstroem, found sitting alone on a road in Thailand was reunited with his uncle, who saw the boy’s picture on a Web site.
“This is a miracle, the biggest thing that could happen,” said the uncle, who identified himself as Jim, after flying from his home country to Thailand to reach Hannes at the hospital were the boy was being treated. The boy’s mother and grandmother were missing, while his father and grandfather were reportedly at another hospital.
The power of the Internet at work!
UPDATE: From the SEA-EAT blog: satellite images are showing the changes the tsunami caused to the Indian coastline and outlying islands. More on the regional changes in geography and on tsumanis in general. (From The Moderate Voice)
UPDATE II: The New York Times has an article on the role blogs have had both in reporting about this catastrophe and in promoting disaster relief efforts. (From Instapundit)
UPDATE III: The death toll has climbed to over 59,000.
Al-Jazeera has broadcast a new audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden. On the tape the speaker called for Iraqis to boycott the election next month, and called the interim government an “apostate government.”
The speaker said al-Zarqawi and those with him are fighting “for God’s sake.”
“We have been pleased that they responded to God’s and his prophet’s order for unity, and we in al-Qaida welcome their unity with us,” the speaker said.
The speaker also said he was “pleased” with al-Zarqawi’s “gallant operations” against the Americans and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s “apostate government.”
Iraqis are scheduled to elect a 275-member National Assembly on Jan. 30, and those lawmakers will draft a new constitution. There have been calls to postpone the election because of the ongoing insurgency, but President Bush has insisted the vote be held as scheduled.
The speaker condemned those elections.
“In the balance of Islam, this constitution is infidel and therefore everyone who participates in this election will be considered infidels,” he said. “Beware of henchmen who speak in the name of Islamic parties and groups who urge people to participate in this blatant apostasy.”
He apparently was referring to Shiite clerics, particularly Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who have issued edicts saying participating in the election was a “religious duty.”
UPDATE: Apparently, the voice on the tape does belong to bin Laden.
Yesterday, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck just off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra generating several tsunamis. So far the death toll is an estimated 23,700 lives and is expected to rise. Deaths have been reported in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Somalia.
This will probably prove to be the costliest natural disaster in history, both in the human toll and in monetary terms. However, much of the human tragedy might have been preventable.
More information on the earthquake which generated the tsunamis is available from the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS’s earthquake website provides information on earthquakes throughout the world.
UPDATE: The Command Post has a compilation of first person accounts of the tragedy, as well as updated death tolls by country. The Moderate Voice also has links to other first person accounts and a link to video of the tsunami washing ashore. (From Diggers Realm)
UPDATE II: Updates on the devastation from the earthquake and tsunami.
Yushchenko’s victory seems to be official.
Reformer Viktor Yushchenko, whose victory in Ukraine’s presidential election was all but assured Monday despite his opponent’s threat to appeal the outcome, is expected to move quickly to bolster ties with the West while trying to ease tensions with Russia.
However, his opponent, taking a page from the Democratic Party playbook, has refused to concede and has indicated that he will contest the result in court.
Yanukovych refused to concede defeat, telling reporters he would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the results once the election commission released its final tally.
Later, however, he said he had lost respect for the court over its ruling that annulled the results of the earlier election, which Yushchenko’s camp, international observers and even members of the Central Electoral Commission assailed as fraudulent.
“It breached the constitution and the law,” Yanukovych said of the court. “Today, I can’t have faith in such a chamber.”
Even if, as seems likely, the result withstands a court challenge, or Yanukovych comes to his senses and concedes, Yushchenko has a difficult road ahead to westernize his nation, while at the same time not alienating Russia. Also, troublesome will be uniting the Ukrainian and Russian speaking halves of Ukraine, in addition to dealing with the corruption which marked the outgoing government.
Foreign leaders have also been quick to congratulate Yushchenko.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine’s opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television.
Saakashvili, who attended law school in then-Soviet Ukraine, apparently was the first foreign leader to publicly recognize Yushchenko’s victory.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski congratulated Yushchenko on Monday, describing his victory as a “good and important choice” for Ukraine’s relations with Europe, Kwasniewski’s office said.
Poland’s former president, Lech Walesa, told the Polish news agency PAP that Yushchenko’s victory meant “Ukraine on its road to freedom and democracy made a small move toward Europe.”
Captain Ed also observes that this election, while the result is favorable to the West, may have other unpleasant consequences for the West. While the result may encourage other former Soviet Republics to break free of the Kremlin’s influence, it may also make Putin desperate to maintain that influence.
Viktor Yushchenko has claimed victory in Ukraine’s highly contested presidential election. The election seems to have been conducted with little of the rampant fraud and voter intimidation which marked the previous two elections.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory Monday in Ukraine’s fiercely contested presidential election, telling thousands of supporters they had taken their country to a new political era after a bitterly fought campaign that required an unprecedented three ballots and Supreme Court intervention against fraud.
“We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free,” Yushchenko told the festive crowd in Kiev’s central Independence Square, the center of weeks of protests after the fraudulent and now-annulled Nov. 21 ballot in which Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had been declared the winner.
“Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine.”
Yushchenko spoke after three exit polls and partial results projected him winning easily in Sunday’s Supreme Court-ordered rematch.
“Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you,” he said.
As Yushchenko declared victory, about 5,000 supporters gathered on the square applauded and set off fireworks. They waved flags of bright orange - his campaign’s emblematic color - clasped hands and danced.
More on the election from Rueters. And the insider’s view of the election and Ukraine is available from Le Sabot Post-Moderne.
Good news and bad news in the NFL today.
The good news (unless you are Dan Marino): Peyton Manning threw two touchdown passes in a come from behind overtime victory against San Diego, to break Dan Marino’s record of 48 touchdown passes in a single season.
Peyton Manning wanted the win more than the record. He got both. Manning rallied his Indianapolis Colts from a 15-point deficit in the final quarter, throwing his record-breaking 49th touchdown of the season to help tie the game in the last minute of regulation, and then led the winning drive in overtime as the Colts defeated San Diego 34-31 Sunday.
And the bad news: Reggie White, former University of Tennessee and NFL defensive lineman, died today at age 43.
A two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and ordained minister who was known as the “Minister of Defense,” White played a total of 15 years with Philadelphia, Green Bay and Carolina. He retired after the 2000 season as the NFL’s all-time leader in sacks with 198. The mark has since been passed by Bruce Smith.
“Reggie White was a gentle warrior who will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history,” NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. “Equally as impressive as his achievements on the field was the positive impact he made off the field and the way he served as a positive influence on so many young people.”
A member of the NFL’s 75th anniversary team, White was elected to the Pro Bowl a record 13 straight times from 1986-98. He was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1987 and 1998.
“A 43-year-old is not supposed to die in his sleep,” Johnson said. “It was not only unexpected, but it was also a complete surprise. Reggie wasn’t a sick man … he was vibrant. He had lots and lots of energy, lots of passion.”
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