CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA called off Thursday’s launch of space shuttle Atlantis after a pair of fuel gauges in its big external tank failed to work properly, a recurring problem ever since the Columbia disaster. Shuttle managers said the next launch attempt would be no earlier than Saturday. Atlantis is loaded with a European space station lab, Columbus, that has been waiting for years to fly to the international space station. After meeting well into the evening, shuttle managers decided to forgo a launch attempt today to give engineers more time to figure out what was wrong and, quite possibly, work around the problem.
D.C.: Army to boost supply force
The Army will establish a top-level command and hire 1,400 new acquisition personnel to improve its contracting operations, senior service officials said Wednesday, a move that follows heavy criticism over the way supplies and equipment were purchased for combat forces. At a congressional hearing, the Army’s top acquisition executive, said the command would be headed by a two-star general who would have two one-star deputies. It’s expected to take two years to hire the additional 1,400 personnel.
@3. Headline Briefs 14 no:EPA to resume Navajo testing
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to resume long-stalled testing for dangerous toxics on the Navajo reservation unleashed by abandoned Cold War uranium mines, but EPA and four other federal agencies have yet to come up with overall cleanup and health plans, their representatives said this week. Most of the 1,000 mine entrances at 520 sites have been sealed, but groundwater is contaminated, waste piles still cascade down hillsides and erosion of dirt cover allows radiation to resurface. EPA has concluded that some of the exposures on the reservation can lead to lung, bone, liver and breast cancer.
N. Carolina: Inmates walk away
Two inmates escaped when they walked away from their prison work crew near Tillery and later may have robbed two hunters of their guns, authorities said Thursday. Cloman Smith and Jesse McCrobie escaped from a work crew at a poultry house Wednesday afternoon, a state Department of Correction spokesman said. Authorities said they believe Smith and McCrobie then robbed two hunters in Northampton County late that night. They took two rifles, a handgun, cash and a 2005 Ford F-150 pickup truck, officials said.
Puerto Rico: Pepper spray probe
A security guard who was “playing around” backstage may have contaminated Miss Puerto Rico Universe’s clothes and makeup brush with pepper spray, setting off allegations of sabotage, the island’s police chief said Thursday. Police are also reviewing a video showing the guard kissing a rival contestant, according to the chief, who said it is part of investigation into whether the discharge of pepper spray was an accident. Last month contest winner, Ingrid Marie Rivera, said something caused her face to swell and break out in hives between her appearances on stage.
China: Gas blast kills miners
A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China early Thursday, killing as many as 96 miners, the official New China News Agency reported. The blast occurred about midnight at a mine in Linfen city in Shanxi province. By Thursday evening, rescue workers had recovered 70 bodies, but 26 people were missing and feared dead. Mining claims about 5,000 lives each year in China.
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Big theft
Four men wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed Sarajevo international airport’s cargo zone and stole $1.9 million, officials said Thursday. A police officer guarding the four bags of money before they were to be transferred to a bank was held at gunpoint while the thieves loaded the cash into a car and drove away on Wednesday afternoon, local media reported. The money belonged to ABS Bank, a member of the Austrian Erste Bank Group.
Martinique: Missionaries rescued
American and British missionaries who got lost during a hike were found, hungry but unharmed, on the slopes of a volcanic peak on Thursday, authorities said. Tyson Gray, 19, of Taylorsville, Utah, and Thomas Swain, 21, a British citizen from New Zealand, were weak from lack of food but otherwise healthy and were not sent to a hospital, police said. The two men, who set out to hike Mount Pelee on Monday, told police they had heard helicopters overhead but could not find a clearing to signal to them, he said.
Venezuela: Ex-wife weighs in
Hugo Chavez’s ex-wife said Thursday she is proposing a constitutional amendment to shorten presidential terms, saying the president has been in office long enough. Marisabel Rodriguez said she believes terms should be reduced from six to four years, and allow presidents only one opportunity for re-election. “Four years and re-election … it gives you enough time,” said Rodriguez. “This can be done through an amendment.” Chavez and Rodriguez divorced in 2004 and have one daughter.
From Herald news services
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