A small asteroid exploded over Africa this week following what astronomers said was the first firm prediction of an incoming space rock. It did not strike Earth.
The asteroid was about the size of kitchen table, astronomers estimated, and they think the explosion (caused by the pressures of slamming into the atmosphere) left nothing but perhaps a few small bits to fall to the surface.
No photographs of the explosion have been reported, owing to the remote location of the object’s path over Sudan. But the explosion was recorded by an infrasound array in Kenya. Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario estimated, based on the infrasound data, that the asteroid exploded at 0243 UT with an energy of somewhere between 1.1 and 2.1 kilotons of TNT.
On Monday, NASA researchers and other scientists announced that the space rock, named 8TA9D69, would enter the air at 10:46 p.m. ET (0246 UT) on Oct. 7 over northern Sudan. Such events occur a few times every year, but never before had one been predicted. The object was expected to create a very bright fireball that, for anyone who might have seen it, would have been far more dramatic than the typical shooting star resulting when small debris streaks through Earth’s atmosphere.
“A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand,” Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Center explained just before the highly anticipated event. “This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!”
There has been one visual confirmation of the exploding fireball, according to Spaceweather.com. Jacob Kuiper, a general aviation meteorologist at the National Weather Service in The Netherlands, told pilots to keep an eye out.
“I have received confirmation that a KLM airliner, roughly 750 nautical miles southwest of the predicted atmospheric impact position, has observed a short flash just before the expected impact time 0246 UTC,” Kuiper said. “Because of the distance it was not a very large phenomenon, but still a confirmation that some bright meteor has been seen in the predicted direction.”
The rock was discovered by an ongoing survey at Mt. Lemmon run by the University of Arizona as part of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey for near-Earth objects.
Chief Ferman Richardson, Quincy Poice Department, said Wondwossen Gizaw, the manager of the Quincy BP gas station shot early this morning, is in stable condition.
Richardson said 45-year old Gizaw had surgery today at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital for his bullet wounds.
TMH has not given official word of Gizaw’s status.
Gizaw who was known by neighborhood residents as “Wandu” was shot three times while trying to close his gas station this morning.
Richardson said QPD has leads to the three suspects involved in this robbery.
… updated 10:27 a.m.
A gas-station manager in Quincy was shot several times during a robbery early this morning.
The man was shot in the arm, leg and chest, said Ferman Richardson, chief of the Quincy Police Department. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where he is stable.
It happened about 12:50 a.m. at the BP station, 502 W. Jefferson St. Three people wearing black clothes and red gloves came into the store. After the shooting, they left in a blue Cadillac.
Anyone with information is asked to call 627-7111.
… first update
The manager of a BP gas station in Quincy was shot several times this morning during a robbery, according to Quincy Police Department officials.
Three people came into the store wearing black clothes and red gloves. After the manager was shot, they left in a Cadillac.
A reporter is being sent to the scene. Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Joseph Shankut looked distraught as he walked into his BP gas station, 504 W. Jefferson St., Tuesday afternoon.
Shankut owned the gas station with his brother Wondwossen Gizaw, who was shot three times early Tuesday when three men robbed him as he was closing the Quincy store.
“It’s a shock,” Shankut said.
Shankut said the gas station has been burglarized a couple of times, but nothing like this has ever happened.
“I’m glad he’s OK,” Shankut said.
The incident happened about 12:50 a.m. Three people wearing black clothes and red gloves came into the store. After the shooting, they left in a blue Cadillac.
The Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office and the Quincy Police Department are investigating the robbery.
Quincy Police Chief Ferman Richardson, said the incident was a crime of opportunity.
He said officers responded to a robbery on Jefferson an hour before the gas station robbery was called in.
“The response time was only two minutes,” Richardson said.
Richardson said Gizaw was able to call police following the shooting and he gave a description of what the suspects were wearing and the vehicle before he was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.
Travis Barkley, who owns the car wash adjacent to the gas station, said Gizaw, known to neighbors as “Wandu,” was a good man.
“I don’t know who would have done that,” he said, “He’s a good dude.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers hot line at 574-TIPS or (888) 876-TIPS.
A French company named Vergnet, based in Orleans, won a contract to build a wind farm of 120 MW in the region of Mekele, capital of Tigray, a province in the north, on the Eritrean border. The wind farm will be the largest in Africa.
The contract, amounting to 220 million euros, will be signed on October 9, during a visit to Addis Ababa by Anne-Marie Idrac, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade of France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy had the opportunity to give a boost to Vergnet during a visit to the region of Orleans, focusing this time on the assistance that the State should provide SMEs seeking contracts abroad.
The EthiopianWoyanne [the ruling party in Ethiopia] authorities could not but be sensitive to this presidential indirect support when they chose Vergnet in competition with a Chinese company which provided the funding.
Vergnet appropriations will be guaranteed by Coface. The French Agency for Development (AFD) will provide a loan to the Ethiopian Woyanne authorities. Much of the energy supplied by the wind park will be exported to neighboring countries, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti.
French companies are also in line for other contracts, including the sale of six ATR aircraft, sub-power stations (Areva), radars for civil aviation … Lafarge will also invest 300 million euros in building a cement plant south of Addis Ababa.
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La France vend des éoliennes à l’Éthiopie
Pays de hauts plateaux balayés par les vents, l’Éthiopie parie sur l’énergie propre et sur le développement durable. C’est une entreprise française installée à Orléans, l’entreprise Vergnet, qui a remporté le contrat de construction d’une ferme éolienne de 120 MW dans la région de Mekele, capitale du Tigray, une province du nord du pays, en bordure de la frontière érythréenne. Ce parc d’éoliennes doit être le plus important d’Afrique.
Le contrat, d’un montant de 220 millions d’euros, va être signé, le 9 octobre, lors de la visite à Addis-Abeba d’Anne-Marie Idrac, secrétaire d’État chargée du Commerce extérieur. Nicolas Sarkozy avait eu l’occasion de donner un coup de pouce à l’entreprise Vergnet lors d’un passage dans la région d’Orléans, en insistant à cette occasion sur l’aide que l’État devait apporter aux PME qui cherchent des contrats à l’étranger. Les autorités éthiopiennes n’ont pu qu’être sensibles à ce soutien présidentiel indirect lorsqu’elles ont choisi Vergnet en concurrence avec une entreprise chinoise qui apportait le financement. Les crédits de Vergnet seront garantis par la Coface. L’Agence française pour le développement (AFD) fournira un prêt aux autorités éthiopiennes. Une grande partie de l’énergie fournie par le parc d’éoliennes sera exportée vers les pays voisins, Soudan, Érythrée, Djibouti.
Des entreprises françaises sont aussi sur les rangs pour d’autres contrats, dont la vente de six avions ATR, des sous-stations électriques (Areva), des radars pour l’aéronautique civile… Lafarge va, par ailleurs, investir 300 millions d’euros dans la construction d’une cimenterie au sud d’Addis Abeba.
The Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) has launched a new campaign to rally Ethiopians around the world to support its struggle against the vampire regime of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne).
EPPF’s campaign was launched at the public meeting that was held last week in Frankfurt, Germany, where it sent exiled members of parliament Ato Leul Keskis and Ato Assefa Hailu as high level delegates.
At the Frankfurt meeting with Ethiopians in Europe, the EPPF delegates announced that the organization is in the process of creating its International Council. The Council will be formally announced shortly, according to the delegates.
Following the public meeting in Frankfurt, Ato Leul and Ato Assefa gave an interview to the Voice of America, which is heard by over 20 million Ethiopians on a daily basis.
Listen the two-part VOA interview below:
VOA Interview with Kinijit’s exiled member of parliament – Part I
[podcast]http://www.zikkir.com/audiofiles/songs/09292008amha1800aMON.mp3[/podcast]
VOA Interview with Kinijit’s exiled member of parliament – Part II
[podcast]http://www.zikkir.com/audiofiles/songs/09302008amha1800aTUE.mp3[/podcast]
According to EPPF sources, delegations from Europe and the U.S. will soon travel to the field to meet with fighters and leaders of the resistance group.
One of the main tasks of EPPF’s International Council will be to establish contacts with governments of Europe, U.S. and other countries in an effort to explain the objectives of the organization and try to reach mutual understandings.
The EPPF will also continue to work hard to solidify the increasingly improved relations between Eritrean government and the people of Ethiopia through public dialogues, cultural exchanges and other activities.
More than 35 young women wearing tight trousers were arrested in South Sudan for disturbing the peace, senior police officials said on Tuesday.
[Idiots! Don’t the police have some thing better to do, such as wash their own filthy uniform?!]
The arrests in Juba, the capital of semiautonomous South Sudan, were part of a campaign against youth gangs, the authorities said.
The women were arrested on Sunday night but were released without charge on Monday. Many Juba residents reacted angrily to the arrests. “We saw about 30 girls in two trucks piled up like animals,” said Nok Duany, a civil servant.
The asteroid was about the size of kitchen table, astronomers estimated, and they think the explosion (caused by the pressures of slamming into the atmosphere) left nothing but perhaps a few small bits to fall to the surface.