Australia's new prime minister, Julia Gillard, said Thursday that she had respect for the leadership of her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, but moved to replace him because "I came to the view that the government was losing its way."
The 48-year-old lawyer made her remarks after the Labor Party caucus declared vacant the positions of leader and deputy leader and then chose Gillard to take the helm, ending Rudd's two and a half years as prime minister.
Let’s Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Let’s Move will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.
Join First Lady Michelle Obama, community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide campaign to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity. Learn more, read the action plan, and join us in solving the problem within a generation.
Portland police say they investigated allegations that former Vice President Al Gore had ''unwanted sexual contact'' with a massage therapist during an October 2006 visit, but they found insufficient evidence to support the woman's claims.
William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely self-inflicted, authorities said.
"He had been quite despondent about the oil crisis," said Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores.
Kruse, who lived with his family in nearby Foley, Ala., reported to work Wednesday morning as usual at the Gulf Shores Marina on Fort Morgan Road in Gulf Shores, Vinson said. He met up with his two deckhands at his boat, The Rookie. One of the deckhands later told Vinson that Kruse seemed his usual self, sending them to fetch ice while he pulled the boat around to the gas pumps.
As the deckhands walked off to get ice, they heard what sounded like a firecracker, Vinson said. They turned around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So they proceeded to gather the ice and wait for Kruse at the pumps. "He never showed," Vinson said.
After waiting a while, the deckhands returned to the boat, which was moored where they had left it, Vinson said. They went aboard and found Kruse at the captain's bridge above the wheelhouse, Vinson said. He had been shot in the head. A Glock handgun was later recovered from the scene, and investigators do not suspect foul play, Vinson said.
White House budget director Peter Orszag will resign his post next month, becoming the most senior official to leave the Obama administration so far, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday, citing two unidentified administration officials. The report said the president had asked Orszag for a decision before the autumn, when the administration must begin preparing the fiscal 2011 budget. Orszag plans to begin "restarting his life" as he marries ABC News business reporter Bianna Golodryga in September, the report said, citing a person close to the budget director.
The European Union has adopted a regulation that will ban the construction of ordinary family houses, starting from 2020. Only the so-called passive houses will be allowed:
For example, page 33/71 of the PDF document above says that all new buildings have to be “nearly zero-energy buildings” by the end of 2020. It has to be true by the end of 2018 for all new buildings occupied by public authorities.
The flight test was the first for the 576th Flight Test Squadron since its realignment under Air Force Global Strike Command. The missile's single re-entry test vehicle traveled approximately 4,190 miles before hitting its pre-determined target near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. "Team Vandenberg's coordination was phenomenal resulting in a seamless launch operation," said Col. Steven Winters, the 30th Space Wing vice commander and Launch Decision Authority.
This test marked the 131st, 132nd, 133rd and 134th consecutive successful test flights of the Trident II D5 missile since 1989 – continuing a more than 20-year record of reliability that is unmatched by any other large ballistic missile or space launch vehicle.
“We are proud to support the Navy in its crucial strategic deterrence mission,” said Melanie A. Sloane, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missile programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, the Navy’s Trident missile prime contractor. “These successful missile tests demonstrate the readiness and reliability of the entire Trident II D5 Strategic Weapon System and the unflagging commitment to excellence of the full Navy and industry team.”
The Navy launched the missiles as part of a Follow-on Commander’s Evaluation Test. The Navy conducts a continuing series of operational system evaluation tests to assure the safety, reliability, readiness and performance of the Trident II D5 Strategic Weapon System, as required by the Department of Defense’s National Command Authority. The Navy conducts the tests under the testing guidelines of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
What causes the bizarre "hole-punch" clouds like the ones seen above? The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has just published a scientific paper addressing this wonder of nature. During certain conditions, flying airplanes can sometimes "seed" clouds, resulting in brief and highly-localized snow or rain falls. According to the NCAR, air is rapidly cooled behind the propellers of prop planes or as the wings of jets cut through the clouds. Water droplets in the cloud freeze and then fall to Earth, leaving the telltale hole in the cloud.
Three hundred travelers started the summer with an airplane nightmare they will not soon forget. Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather diverted their flight from London in Connecticut and union regulations grounded it there. To make matters worse, passengers said, the plane's generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees. Some people on the inauspicious Virgin Atlantic flight fainted from the heat, said Andrew Porwancher, of Princeton, N.J. One passenger was taken to a hospital, but airline officials said there is no evidence to link this with the flight.
