Space Tourists

Space tourists, A New Race Is On

The week after Richard Laronde returned home from a 16-day trek to the South Pole in January, he bought a ticket to outer space. For Laronde, who had also journeyed to the North Pole in 2006, making the decision to splurge $200,000 on one of the world's first commercial spaceflights took about as long as it takes to do a Google search for "space tourism." "As soon as I got back from the South Pole, I got on the Internet," said Laronde, 56, who owns a prospering event-planning business in Boston. Within days he had wired a $20,000 deposit to an accredited space travel agent in New York."Astronauts were my heroes growing up," said Laronde, who came of age in the early years of the U.S. space program. "It's always been a childhood dream."

Syria And North Korea Sharing Nuclear Secrets

U.S. confirms Syria-N. Korea Nuke Link

The United States has determined that Syria has been seeking nuclear weapons from North Korea. "We do know that there are a

number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria," Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Semmel said. "We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen." One North Korean-flagged ship, Al Hamad, arrived in the Syrian port of Tartous on Sept. 3. Three days later, the Israel Air Force attacked an unspecified target in northeastern Syria along the Euphrates River near the border with Turkey.

Israelis Secret Syrian Nuclear Raid

Israelis ‘Blew Apart Syrian Nuclear Cache’
IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way. At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames. Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

In Iraq For Oil: Greenspan

Oil Behind Iraq Invasion
THE US went to war in Iraq motivated largely by oil, former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan says in a memoir to be released today. "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil," he writes.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Googles Moon Prize

Google Backs Private Moon Landing

Search giant Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a robot rover on the Moon. The competition to send a robot craft to the Moon is being run with the X-Prize Foundation. To claim the cash, any craft reaching the lunar surface must perform a series of tasks such as shoot video and roam for specific distances. Firms interested in trying for the prize have until the end of 2012 to mount their Moonshot.

Visa IPO In the Green

SEC Approves Visa's Restructuring Plan

Visa, the nation's largest credit card network, on Thursday got the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission to combine its global operations a move it must make before it can go public.

UN Inspector Scott Ritter: Bombing Iran

Worlds Tallest Building

Surpasses CN Tower In Height

The CN Tower has fallen in stature a little bit. It's no longer the world's tallest free-standing structure. The Burj Dubai, a US$4.1-billion hotel, business, and residential complex under construction in the United Arab Emirates has surpassed the Toronto landmark in height. On Wednesday, the Burj Dubai soared slightly above the CN Tower's 553 metres and it's expected to reach even higher heights as construction continues. When it's finally complete, the ritzy new building will be 800-metres tall.

Google Raise Privacy Concerns

Google's Detailed Streetscapes
Canada's Privacy Commissioner has raised concerns over a new Google program that lets users view and zoom in on street-level photographs that are so clear and precise, they can pinpoint an unknowing bystander and their exact location with the click of a mouse button.

Oil At Record High

Oil Trades Near $80

Crude oil traded near a record $80 a barrel in New York after U.S. stockpiles dropped more than forecast and on concern that storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic may disrupt output. U.S. oil inventories fell 7.01 million barrels last week, the Energy Department said yesterday, the biggest decline this year and more than twice the decline forecast in an analyst survey. Tropical Storm Humberto will strike the Texas coast later today, the National Hurricane Center said.