Watches this Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits

Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits


Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- There may be light at the end of a nearly completed tunnel for the 33 men trapped since August 5 almost half a mile below ground, with rescuers expected to reach them within a day, Chile's mining minister said Friday afternoon.
"Hopefully before that," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters about the time when a rescue drill is expected to pierce the roof of the mine. As of Friday afternoon, it was 40 meters (about 130 feet) away. "Maybe tomorrow morning, early Saturday. We have to wait and see."
Once the mine has been reached, the rescue process could begin within three to four days, Golborne told reporters. But mine engineers must decide first whether they need to encase the shaft with steel tubing to prevent rockfalls and further collapses during the extraction process. "If we do a full casing of the hole, those three to four days could go to eight to 10 days," Golborne told reporters.
One of the rescue coordinators, Rene Aguilar, an engineer for state copper company Codelco, said this week they may encase just the first 100 meters (328 feet) of the shaft, a process that could take just 10 hours.
Before anyone can be rescued, the hole must be widened so that the rescue capsule -- dubbed the Phoenix -- can land cleanly inside the tunnel without getting hung up on obstructions, Golborne said. To accomplish that, explosives will be lowered to the miners for use in widening the shaft, said Golborne, who expressed little concern that the subterranean pyrotechnics would pose any danger to the men.
"We have to take into consideration that we are talking here about miners that have experience, many of them are licensed to use explosives, they know how to manipulate them, they have already made the holes that they need to set the right quantities of explosives. ... So it will be a very controlled explosion that will be made after we break into the tunnel."
Then, authorities will lower a doctor and a rescuer into the chamber, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. Medical and rescue personnel will be in place to start extracting and treating the miners Monday night, he said.
Once the miners have been extracted, they will undergo about two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine.
Barring complications, it will take about 24 to 36 hours to remove all the miners through the 2,300-foot hole, Manalich said. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.
coppied by http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/08/chile.trapped.miners/index.html?hpt=T1

The peak of the new Skyscraper near Empire State Building wins backing

Skyscraper near Empire State Building wins backing

The peak of the new building (centre) will fall just short of the top of the Empire State Building's broadcast tower
A new 67-storey skyscraper has won the approval of the New York authorities despite efforts to stop the construction by the owner of the Empire State Building.

The full city council backed the 15 Penn Plaza by a 47-1 vote.

The office building will stand nearly as tall as the 102-storey Empire State Building (ESB), two blocks away.

ESB owner Anthony Malkin had argued the new building would ruin the "uniqueness" of the city's skyline.

But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Manhattan should embrace new investments, adding: "Anybody that builds a building in New York City changes its skyline.

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

This is not about banning tall buildings, but about preserving the very uniqueness of the New York City skyline”

Anthony Malkin, Owner
Empire State Building
"We don't have to run around to every other owner and apologize," Mr Bloomberg told a news conference.

"One guy owns a building, and he'd like to have it be the only tall building. I'm sorry that's not the real world," he added.

A spokesman for the building's developer said the building would be an "an outstanding addition to New York's skyline".

In a statement, Mr Malkin said: "This is not about banning tall buildings, but about preserving the very uniqueness of the New York City skyline."

The Empire State Building, which stands 1,250ft (381m), was the tallest building in New York City until the construction of the World Trade Center in Manhattan's Financial District in 1970.

The building, built in 1931, once again held the title following the 9/11 attacks.

The new skyscraper will stand 1,190ft-tall (363m). Its development is still in the planning stages.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11091931

now we watch this Plane Crashes Near Everest; 4 Americans Among Dead

Plane Crashes Near Everest; 4 Americans Among Dead

KATMANDU, Nepal — Fourteen people, including four Americans, died Tuesday in Nepal when their plane crashed in inclement weather, after a failed attempt to reach a popular destination for touring hikers near Mount Everest, according to Nepali officials.

The three-member flight crew also died in the crash, as did five Nepali passengers, a British passenger and a passenger from Japan.

The Agni Air flight crashed about 50 miles south of the capital, Katmandu, said Laxman Bhattarai, a spokesman for Nepal’s Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism. The plane, a German-made Dornier turboprop, was returning to Katmandu after bad weather had prevented it from reaching the Lukla airport in the Everest region.

On Tuesday afternoon, Nepal’s government announced an investigation into the cause of the crash. One witness told a Nepalese television station that there appeared to be an explosion in midair before the aircraft went down.

The flight manifest suggested the passengers were traveling with a tour group.

Terry White, a spokesman at the United States Embassy in Nepal, said the families of the four Americans had been notified. Nepalese aviation officials identified them as Irina Shekhets, whose 30th birthday was Tuesday; Leuzi Cardoso, 49; Heather Finch, 40; and Kendra Dominique Fallon, 18.

Ms. Cardoso and Ms. Finch, who worked together at a law firm in Provo, Utah, had been traveling with a tour group to Lukla, their jumping-off point for a trek to the Everest base camp, said John Valentine, managing partner at the firm.

“It had been a lifelong dream,” Mr. Valentine said. “They had been training for it and training for it. They’d gone to our highest peaks in Utah to get acclimatized to the elevation.”

Weather has often been blamed for plane crashes in the same region. On Tuesday, visibility at the crash site was minimal.
coppied by http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/asia/25nepal.html