TURKS & CAICOS SUN
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JANUARY 26TH - FEBRUARY 2ND, 2013
WORLDNEWS NEWS LOCAL
US regulators say Boeing 787 probe far from complete
U.S. safety regulators are nowhere near finishing an investigation into a battery fire on the Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner, a top official said, raising the prospect of a prolonged grounding for the plane. Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights in the eight days since the plane was grounded, and Boeing has stopped deliveries of newly built jets. The full financial impact on the planemaker is still not clear. Still, Boeing shares are actually up 1.3 percent since regulators said the plane - full of high-tech innovations that are supposed to be a model for future aviation - could not fly. Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made clear that investigators have found a series of "symptoms" in the battery damaged in a January 7 fire in Boston, but not the underlying cause of the problem. "We are early in our investigation, we have a lot of activities to undertake," Hersman told a news conference. "This is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned. We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft. This is a very serious air safety concern." She rebuffed multiple questions on how long the investigation would take, making clear it could be weeks or more. She also would not say when the 787 would fly again, which is in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration. Former NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said the briefing made it clear that the investigators had come up short in their hunt for the cause of the battery fire. "It's going to take them longer," he said in an interview. "Weeks, not days." Boeing and its regulators have said they do not know when the 787 will fly again. It has been grounded worldwide since a plane by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing in Japan on
January 16 after a battery incident, which Hersman said may or may not have been a fire. That emergency landing came after a fire occurred on a Japan Airlines Co Ltd 787 on the tarmac in Boston. Boeing was not immediately available to comment on the latest NTSB statement. France's Thales, which makes the 787 battery system, declined to comment. Other new planes had problems when they were introduced, but not fires, which makes this situation stand out, Rosenker said. "Fire is something you don't fool with," he said. "You've got to understand that, particularly given the short period of time the aircraft has been flying." The NTSB and its Japanese equivalent are working together on their probes, though Hersman again insisted the work was still in the early stages. "It is really very hard to tell at this point how long this investigation will take. We have all hands on deck," she said. "We're working as hard as we can to identify what the failure mode is here and what corrective actions need to be taken." The 787 program was already years behind schedule before last week's grounding, which means Boeing cannot deliver newly manufactured planes to customers. That means customers like United Continental Holdings Inc may have to wait even longer for planes on order. The company's United Airlines already flies six Dreamliners. "History teaches us that all new aircraft types have issues and the 787 is no different," United Continental Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Smisek said during the carrier's earnings
North Korea issues blunt new threat to United States
WASHINGTON — A blunt and explicit threat from North Korea on Thursday that its missile and nuclear programs would “target” the United States poses a stark challenge to the Obama administration even as it hoped it could focus its major diplomatic effort on restraining Iran’s less-advanced nuclear program. The statement from the North Korean National Defense Commission, the country’s highest military body, was considerably more specific than past warnings from the country, and explicitly ruled out any talks over “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, which has been the objective of on-again, off-again talks with Pyongyang for two decades. “We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level,” the statement said, “will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.” As in the past, the statement also suggested North Korea viewed its weapons programs as a “deterrence” against attack. It may prove that the statement was another outburst by an insecure, starving country; North Korea has often threatened to strike the “heart” of the United States, and a popular propaganda poster there shows a missile hitting what looks like Capitol Hill. But the difference now is that the country has just completed a successful long-range rocket test that showed for the first time that its goal of designing a weapon that could hit the United States could be within reach in the next several years.
conference call. "We continue to have confidence in the aircraft and in Boeing's ability to fix the issues, just as they have done on every other new aircraft model they've produced." Smisek said Thursday the carrier still expects to take delivery of two more 787s in the second half of the year. Boeing has already delivered 50 of the 787s. Around half have been in operation in Japan, but airlines in India, South America, Poland, Qatar and Ethiopia are also flying the planes, as is U.S. carrier United. The grounding of the Dreamliner, an advanced carbon-composite plane with a list price of $207 million, has already forced hundreds of flight cancellations worldwide. The head of Boeing's European rival Airbus said it would study the 787 Dreamliner design review and make any changes to its future A350 jetliner that may be needed as a result of the U.S. findings. Billed as Europe's response to the Dreamliner, the A350 is due to enter service next year using lithium-ion batteries but without the same reliance on electrical systems as the 787, something Airbus says will put less burden on the batteries. However, Airbus has so far declined to comment on how it would tackle a battery fire if one did break out on board. One industry veteran said airline customers need absolute certainty that Boeing and regulators have solved the problem. "You don't need details here to understand why people are terrified about the possibility of these batteries catching fire," Virginia-based consultant Loren Thompson said.
Las Vegas woman sues Match.com after scorned date tries to kill her
A Las Vegas woman is suing online and remove part of her skull to replace it dating service Match.com after a with a "synthetic component," according scorned date brutally attacked her, CBS to Courthouse News Service. Las Vegas reports. Ridley was arrested in February Mary Kay Beckman is seeking $10 2011 for attempted murder as well as million from the company for failing to killing another woman in Phoenix, Ariz. disclose dangers of online dating. He committed suicide in prison last year. She says Match.com paired her Beckman's lawyer, Marc Saggese, with Wade Mitchell Ridley, who she told KLAS-TV that Match.com is dumped eight days after meeting in "absolutely not safe" and lulls "women September 2010. Four months later he and men into a false sense of security." hid her in a garage and stabbed her ten Match.com said in a statement that times. Beckman's experience was horrible, but "There were 10 stab wounds, eight the basis for the lawsuit was "absurd" on my physical body, two on my head, and the Ridley had no known criminal and when the knife broke, there was record. stomping on my head," Beckman told This isn't the first time the online CBS affiliate KLAS-TV. "I shouldn't dating site has been sued for acts of even be here today." violence. Carole Markin, a Hollywood Woman sexually assaulted by producer, says she was raped by a man man she met on eHarmony, Say Cops she met on Match.com and is demanding Beckman has undergone surgeries to a sexual predator screening system be repair her jaw, preserve her eyesight installed in the site.