Private aircraft crashes into a residential area in Farnborough, south-east of London, setting homes on fire

UK police have confirmed to CNN that a private aircraft has crashed into a residential area in the town of Farnborough in Kent, south-east of London.

The crash happened at 1437 local time (0937ET), police told CNN. Emergency services are said to be on the scene at Broadwater Gardens, the UK's Press Association has reported.

Pictures from local media show large plumes of smoke billowing from homes in the area, with houses extensively damaged.

Television pictures show that the scene of the crash is close to woods and open land.

There are no reports yet of casualties on the aircraft or on the ground. The nearby Princess Royal Hospital has been put on major incident standby.

London Fire Brigade has told CNN that at the moment it has six fire engines and an urban search and rescue team at the scene.

It has no word on casualties.

Witnesses, speaking to local media, have spoken of a very loud engine sound and then an explosion just before the crash.

Resident John Crane, one of those on the scene, told Sky News: "When I got there there was just as massive red fireball and two or three explosions."

"It was so fierce you couldn't get near it."

His wife Jackie told the station that she saw the plane coming in erratically over the area, with its tail lower than its nose.

Sky News also reported that a man known only as John, who was flying at the same time, said he heard a distress call from a Cessna to the control tower at nearby Biggin Hill airfield that indicated the pilot was having "severe engine vibrations.

Fishing vessel Alaska Ranger sinking near Dutch Harbor

The Coast Guard just told AlaskaReport that the Cutter with the rescued crewman will be arriving shortly in Dutch Harbor.

The AP reports that four crewmembers are dead.

The Coast Guard has told AlaskaReport that 43 of 47 crewmembers have been rescued as of 12:58 pm.

When a mayday was first reported, the 180-foot ship was in 6-to-8 foot seas with about 25 knot winds.

From a Coast Guard press release: The Coast Guard is responding to a sinking vessel with 47 people onboard 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor.

The fishing vessel Alaska Ranger, based out of Seattle, began sinking at approximately 2:50 a.m. this morning when it notified the Coast Guard that it had lost control of its rudder and was taking on water.

A Coast Guard rescue helicopter from St. Paul, a Coast Guard C-130 from Kodiak and the Coast Guard Cutter Munro are all en route to recover the crew members of the Alaska Ranger.

All 47 crew members have abandoned ship and are currently in life rafts.

The Coast Guard said that two helicopters, a C-130 transport aircraft, the cutter Munro based out of Kodiak and the Alaska Ranger's sister ship, the Alaska Warrior, are taking part in the rescue operation.

US warships position for satellite shoot down

he U.S. Navy likely will make its first attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Wednesday night.

A Delta II rocket lifts off in December, carrying a reconnaissance satellite that failed hours later.

The U.S. government issued a formal notice warning ships and planes to stay clear of a large area of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii.

The notice says the two- and-a-half hour window begins 2:30 a.m. Thursday Greenwich Mean Time, which is 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast, and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hawaii.

The timing is also after the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to be safely on the ground.

Pentagon officials caution that the notice reflects the first opportunity to take a shot at the satellite, but it's possible the attempt could be delayed until later. Watch Pentagon spokesman Jeff Morrell describe the launch window

"We have to make the notification, but it's possible the conditions won't be ideal, or that everything won't be ready," said a Pentagon official who asked not to be identified.

Pentagon officials says if the first attempt to hit the satellite fails, there may be time for a second attempt, but that would only come after an assessment that would be hours or even days after the first attempt.

Because the 5,000-pound satellite malfunctioned immediately after launch in December 2006, it has a full tank of fuel. It would likely survive re-entry and disperse potentially deadly fumes over an area the size of two football fields, officials have said.

The Navy plans to fire at the satellite as it enters Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 150 miles.

Officials want the missile to hit the edge of the atmosphere to ensure debris re-enters and burns up quickly.

Shooting down spy satellite to cost up to $60 million. Shooting down satellite doesn't worry space crew The Missile Defense Agency estimated the cost of a sea-based attempted intercept at $40 million to $60 million.

Without any intervention, Pentagon officials have said they believe the satellite would come down on its own in early March.

The option of striking the satellite with a missile launched from an Aegis cruiser was decided upon by President Bush after consultation with several government and military officials and aerospace experts, said Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey."If we miss, nothing changes," said NASA administrator Michael Griffin. "If we shoot and barely touch it, the satellite is just barely in orbit" and would still burn up somewhat in the atmosphere, he said.

"If we shoot and get a direct hit, that's a clean kill and we're in good shape," he added

Fidel Castro resigns as President

Over the past two months, RCC has seen the resignation of President Daniel Castro, the hiring and the transition of an acting president for an interim president and progress on the search for a replacement for Chancellor Salvatore Rotella.

The controversy began Dec. 8 when Tish Chavez, Castro's assistant, sent a mass e-mail to all faculty, staff and administration at RCC.

The e-mail was sent on the behalf of Castro and announced his resignation as president as of Dec. 11.

"I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best administrators, faculty, staff and students," Castro's e-mail read. "(I) know that I leave RCC in good hands."

Technically, Castro would remain president until the end of the year. Chancellor Rotella, however, chose Linda Lacy, then the vice chancellor of Student Services, to serve as acting president in Castro's absence.

No rationale for the sudden departure was given at the time, nor has one been confirmed as of now, but the lack of evidence did not stop the events to follow.

Accusations from faculty members on all sides of the issue began to surface, all of which remained consistent with the individual views of Castro's performance as president.

The first of these comments came Dec. 12 when Political Science instructors Dariush Haghighat and Ward Schinke sent their views via e-mail to the RCC administration, attacking Castro's previous record at other schools and his demeanor as president of RCC.

One of the major points the instructors made was the lack of information that the hiring committee gathered. "One of us served on Castro's hiring committee and what bothered this member... was the fact that nobody from this college was provided an opportunity to do any field research," the letter stated.

Another large problem that the e-mail addressed was the changing of class schedules; Haghighat and Schinke declared that the altered schedule could be linked to the drop in enrollment at RCC.

But it was not just the alleged administrative errors that Haghighat and Schinke dealt with, but what they claimed was Castro's "lack of vision... and his absolute contempt for the principle of shared governance."

Juicy Campus - more updates

The Web site reads like the writing on the wall in a campus bathroom. Its motto is “Always Anonymous … Always Juicy.” And many students around the country are urging its leaders to take down the comments that have been scrawled there for all the world to see.

The site is called JuicyCampus, and it opened this summer. Some of the most viewed topics today are “Who is the sluttiest girl????,” “Hottest Cornell Sophomores,” and “Biggest Cornell Cokeheads?” Anonymous users of the site have posted their picks in each category and in many other, similar topics, and many of the students who are named on the site are not amused.

Pepperdine University’s student government passed a resolution calling on campus administrators to block the site from its campus network.

“We hoped to make a symbolic, public statement that Pepperdine does not support this sort of harmful, libelous gossip,” said Austin Maness, a student at Pepperdine and an officer in the student government, in an e-mail interview. “Furthermore, we had reason to be concerned for the immediate emotional health of a number of our fellow students.”

Critics of the site from Loyola Marymount University started a Facebook group called “BAN JuicyCampus!!!” which has attracted 854 members. An article this week in the Yale Daily News describes reaction to the site on that campus.

Officials from JuicyCampus did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment. But the company posted a reply on its blog to what it described as the many requests it had received from people asking that their names be removed from the site:

“Two of the biggest problems we face when considering this issue are how strict to be and how exactly to implement some sort of restriction,” said the post on the blog. “But what if we decided to eliminate all posts with names? How would we implement it? Could we create a filter? But then people will just start writing Jo-h-nn_y instead of Johnny. Could we manually screen all posts? No, unfortunately not. … So, for now, we leave it to our users to decide how they want to use the site, and what they think is appropriate (subject to our Terms and Conditions).”

The site has set up specific channels for more than 50 college campuses, and apparently it plans to add more soon.

Should colleges block the site? Is this any different than the many sites that have popped up that let students rate their professors?

Juicy Campus creates controversy

JuicyCampus.com asks users to post gossip and promises users total anonymity.

NBC 10's Dawn Timmeney reported that, when you visit the Web site, you find a lot of mean, disturbing and downright nasty gossip. Anyone can write anything about others, and who knows whether it's true or not?

Victims said anonymous posters are ruining their reputations.

The Web site targets students at 50 colleges nationwide. In our area, there are gossip connections for the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Penn State.

There's a lot of raunchy rumors about campus hookups, who's overweight and who's gay. There are religious slurs and some really hurtful comments, Timmeney reported.

Here are some examples:

One post lists a student's name with this comment, "He's abusive, se* hungry, manipulative ... Stay away at all costs!"

Another rates sorority girls with mean-spirited comments like these: rich Jews; sporty, fratty girls; ugly and easy; or piggy piggy girls.

You have no way of knowing who's making those comments, or why.

There has been some backlash, with students at some colleges voting to ban JuicyCampus, but the Web site's founder said it's a place for entertainment and free expression.

Trasylol Killed 22,000 People and the FDA could have Prevented It

In January 2006, private researcher Dr. Dennis Mangano came forward and published a study saying Bayer AG’s drug Trasylol had dangerous side effects.

The FDA advisory panel looked into Dr. Mangano’s claims in September 2006. Bayer had researched this claim but did not disclose their findings to the FDA panel at the meeting. The findings confirmed Dr. Mangano’s research, which would have lost Bayer money.

FDA advisory panel chairman Dr. William Hiatt told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he would have voted to remove the drug from the market had Bayer disclosed its findings.

It is figured that approximately 22,000 lives could have been saved had the drug been removed from the market. The drug was finally taken off the market in November of 2007. The drug, which is used to decrease bleeding during open heart surgery but caused kidney failure which lead to the need for dialysis and an increased change of death for the patients.

This brings up several serious issues that both the FDA and more importantly American citizens should be worrying about.

Bayer is, of course, a business and therefore is concerned about profit. But as a drug company, shouldn’t they also have a responsibility to protect their customers? The drugs that they create are to help, not hurt people. Yet their drug killed over 22,000 people.

It is one thing if a company does not realize what the side effects are, but they HAD the research and refused to disclose it. This shows an intentional disregard for its customers or how many lives they kill to make their profits.

Another thing that should be a concern is the FDA’s method of handling this. Yes, they did eventually recall the drug. But at the same time when this information first came out and they checked it out, they didn’t have someone else do the research or confirm that Bayer did not check this information.

Normally I do NOT agree with law suits, but in this case I do feel that the families are justified in suing Bayer. Bayer knowingly withheld information that led to the death of thousands of people. Those people’s blood is on Bayer’s hands.

Overall I question how safe many of the drugs on the market really are and if the FDA is an effective way to prove these drugs are safe. The fact that this information was known and what should have been a life saving procedure killed these people because the medicine doctors used was deemed safe by the FDA should make everyone question the drug companies motives for making medicine—profit or the well being of their customers.