MEXICO CITY: Tropical storm Vance in the Pacific became a category 1 hurricane yesterday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, adding that although it was not currently headed for Mexico’s southwest coast, it was forecast to change course.
Yesterday morning, Vance was about 861km south-southwest of the port of Manzanillo, blowing maximum sustained winds of 130 kmh and heading northwest at 24 kmh.
“A turn toward the north with some decrease in forward speed is forecast over the next 48 hours,” the NHC said. It also said Vance should strengthen over the next day before weakening by today. The NHC said Vance was not yet threatening Mexico’s coastal areas. Mexico’s Baja California suffered its worst storm damage on record when Hurricane Odile descended on the peninsula in September, stranding thousands of tourists, battering hotels and sparking power cuts and widespread looting.
Virgin ignored space safety warnings: Expert
LOS ANGELES: A rocket science safety expert yesterday said Virgin Galactic “ignored” safety warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, as investigators hunted for clues to accident’s cause.
Carolynne Campbell, a rocket propulsion expert with the Netherlands-based International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, said she could not speculate on the cause of Friday’s crash without “all the data.”
However, she said multiple warnings had been issued to Virgin since 2007, when three engineers died testing a rocket on the ground.
“Based on the work we’ve done, including me writing a paper on the handling of nitrous oxide, we were concerned about what was going on at Virgin Galactic,” she said. “I sent copies of the paper to various people at Virgin Galactic in 2009, and they were ignored,” she said. Campbell said she outlined concerns to Virgin Galactic in a subsequent telephone conversation, but her warning again went unheeded.
Ukraine president blasts rebel vote
KIEV: Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko yesterday dismissed a leadership vote being held by rebels in the war-torn east as a sham and called on Moscow not to recognise the outcome.
“The farce that is being conducted under the threat of tanks and guns by the two terrorist organisations in parts of Donbass is a terrible event that has nothing to do with the real will,” Poroshenko said in a statement.
Agencies
