Did U.S. commit atrocities in a key Afghan province?

A cold wind blew through the bomb-shattered windows of the provincial governor?s offices, wetting with snow the woolen shawls and eyelashes of the men packed into the meeting room. Around 200 elders from some of the most embattled districts of Afghanistan?s strategic Wardak Province had gathered there to show their support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai?s decree earlier this week that NATO Special Forces must halt operations in the province.

Tightly wedged into the snowy room, they shouted chants against the U.S. Special Forces. In the center of the villagers a young man carried pictures of a university student recently found dead under a bridge in the province and of nine men who had disappeared?and whom they believe were unjustly detained by the commandos. The anger and frustration was palpable?but less obvious were details on the implementation of Karzai?s order, and exactly which units were being accused of the abuses and what had specifically happened to the men in the pictures.

What is known, through all of the confusion, is that Kabul has put yet another NATO commanding general on his back foot, that the move?if implemented?could?jeopardize security in nearby Kabul, that Afghans are sharply divided on the value of the Special Forces, and that the decree brings into question America?s strategic plans for counterterrorism operations here after conventional troops leave by the end of 2014.

Although the recent death of the student and the disappearance of the nine men finally triggered the Karzai government to act, Afghans in the province have lodged numerous complaints in the past. ?We have received more than 500 complaints from people, by telephone and by people coming in to the provincial governor?s office,? Mohammed Rafiq Wardak, head of the Provincial Council, tells TIME.

(MORE: Afghanistan War)

In a statement from Karzai?s National Security Council, the government said that, ?It became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people. A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days laterunder a bridge. However, Americans reject having conducted any such operation and any involvement of their special force.?

The council stated that the Ministry of Defense would be responsible for ensuring that U.S. Special Forces are ?out of the province within two weeks,? that Afghan forces would be responsible for ?effectively stopping and bringing to justice any groups that enter peoples? homes in the name of Special Forces? and that NATO would have to stop all its Special Forces operations in Wardak immediately.

In a hurriedly convened press conference after the meeting, government spokesman Aimal Faizi clarified that it was not specifically US Special Forces, saying that, ?There are some individuals, some Afghans, who are working within these cells, within these [U.S.] Special Forces groups? in Wardak province. ?But they are part of U.S. special forces according to our sources and according to our local officials working in the province,? he said.

The U.S. and NATO have denied any wrongdoing. NATO officials on Monday said they had found ?no evidence connecting U.S. troops to allegations of abuse, torture, harassment and murder of innocent Afghans in the region,? while on Tuesday Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said that a joint commission made up of Afghan and NATO officials would be formed to review Kabul?s accusations.

(MORE:?Afghanistan: US Special Forces Must Leave Province)

?It is very difficult to get beyond the level of rumor on this stuff. There?s enough smoke so that it looks like there certainly must be some fire. But the U.S. government has been anything but forthcoming,? says Heather Barr, Afghanistan Researcher for Human Rights Watch. ?What the government seems to be alleging is that these are forces under U.S. government control. The Afghan government seems to think that they are under the Special Operations Command,? says Barr. ?So, it?s very difficult to untangle, but this is certainly not the first time that there?s been evidence that these kinds of forces are operating. Forces that are, in a sense, vigilante forces assembled by the U.S. And since there is so little transparency it is very difficult to know even which part of the U.S. government would be involved: whether these are a child of special operations forces, or whether potentially there is a situation where they are operating without the knowledge of the U.S. military and are supported by the CIA, for example.?

And the shadowy nature of the situation may only be a herald of more to come. ?It?s pretty much inevitable that, as we move towards the 2014 deadline and the drawdown of conventional forces, rather than actually seeing a disengagement from Afghanistan by the international military forces, by the U.S. military, what we are actually going to see is the conflict here sort of change from being a conventional conflict to being an unconventional conflict,? says Barr. ?Meaning that the U.S. will be replacing their soldiers with drones, CIA and contractors. What all of this adds up to, obviously, is a serious drop off in transparency and accountability. And this [incident] is kind of an example of that. Is this group really operating? Was it set up by the U.S. government? Was it funded by the U.S. government? If so, is it under military control? It?s very, very hard to imagine that were really going to get clear answers to those questions. And that may well be part of a situation of a total lack of transparency that seems likely to come up more and more in the years ahead.?

The decree may shed light on the government?s stance toward future counterterrorism operations on its territory after 2014, but with so many uncertainties remaining, the order may prove to be an instance of Karzai forcing General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, into a weaker role, rather than any indication of a future path. ?The style in which Karzai has decided to deal with the issue, which has taken the form of a public shaming of NATO, fits in with the way that that relationship has been going in the last year or two. But I don?t think that that is necessarily a reason to discount the possibility that this violence really has happened,? says Barr.

Afghans, too, are worried about the situation ? though for different reasons, reasons that could have an impact on security in Kabul, come the summer fighting season. In an upstairs room of the provincial governor?s offices, elders had gathered from Chak, one of the embattled districts who had mobilized to support Karzai?s decree. Holding forth over the rest of the elders, Senator Samir Shirzada, had a warning for NATO. ?The Special Forces in Chak district are causing a lot of insecurity. They are causing problems for the people. In the winter there is no insurgency in our area. The insurgents go back to Pakistan or Iran or wherever they come from. But the Special Forces in the winter still arrest people,? says Shirzada. ?They cause problems for the families and so the young men go and join the insurgency. Because the Special Forces disturb the people, this causes the people to join the insurgency. They are killing people, they are arresting people, and so the family members get angry and they go and join the insurgents.?

(MORE: NATO Kills Insurgent Behind U.S. Soldier?s Death)

Yet some Afghans disagree with Karzai?s decree and with Senator Shirzada?s analysis. ?Most of the time when we work together with the Special Forces, we do not arrest anyone without evidence, without any reports,? says Lt. Mashouq of the Afghan National Army, who, like many Afghans goes by only one name. ?Most of the time, people make problems for themselves by keeping in touch with insurgents, and then, when we arrest them, they say they are innocent. I think the presence of Special Forces is very important for us in Wardak because the Afghan army and other Afghan security forces are not that well equipped. If the Special Forces leave the province tomorrow, Nerkh, where I am right now, will fall the next day to the Taliban. We need the support of the Special Forces in Wardak,? says Lt. Mashouq.

If Lt. Mashouq?s analysis proves correct, Kabul could be in trouble. ?First, Wardak is only 25 km from Kabul. If there is security in Wardak, then there will be security in Kabul. If Wardak is not secure, then Kabul will not be secure. Secondly, parts of Wardak province are very mountainous and there are many infiltration routes for insurgents to use and there are no Afghan army or police in these places. The Taliban are in power in many of these areas, so it would be easy for insurgents to attack Kabul.? With Afghan forces spread thin and special operations forces possibly on their way out, Kabul could be more threatened than it has been in more than a year.

In the end, regardless of who has been carrying out these attacks, the people of Wardak feel a lack of justice. In the jostling crowd one man reaches out to us and tells us that he too has lost family. In a quiet office upstairs with plastic sheets flapping in the place of windows, Sher Mohammed tells us that his 23-year-old son, Sayeed Mohammad, was riding his motorcycle home after visiting relatives in Nerkh, when he was taken from the road in broad daylight. He has been missing for three months.

?I have been to every prison, to every lockup, asking about him. No one has any information. No one can help me,? says Sher Mohammad. ?If he was guilty, he should be in prison ? I?m not trying to get him out if he is guilty. But just tell me where he is. If he is not guilty and he is missing, the security forces are responsible. They should give me his dead body or tell me where he is, if he is alive.? Before tears welled in his old man?s eyes and he choked up and could not speak any further, he adds, ?For three months I have been looking for my son. There is no justice.?

MORE: Light Footprint Becomes No Footprint

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/did-u-special-forces-commit-atrocities-key-afghan-104506820.html

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Analysis: Election result may condemn Italy to weak, short government

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's electoral earthquake seems to have condemned the country to the thing it needs least - a short-term government and new elections in as little as six months or a year.

A huge protest vote in the Feb 24-25 election produced the worst possible result for Italy's stagnant and recession-hit economy - a parliament in which no single group has a workable majority and populist leader Beppe Grillo has the whip hand.

Global markets plunged immediately after the election before calming on Wednesday. But there are deep concerns that sustained instability in the euro zone's third largest economy could reignite Europe's debt crisis.

Italy has a long history through decades of instability of finding a way out of apparently intractable political stalemate but there appear to be only two options this time and neither of them looks very easy.

The first is a government led by center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who has a majority in the lower house but not the Senate, and backed by Grillo's 5-Star Movement.

The second is an alliance between Bersani and those on the opposite side of the political spectrum, the center-right of Silvio Berlusconi, who staged an astonishing fight back to recover from scandal and humiliation and come within a whisker of beating the center-left in the election.

However, Grillo has dismissed the first option and there is great opposition among the center-left rank and file to any alliance with Berlusconi, who often dismisses Bersani's supporters as communists.

Berlusconi, a 76-year-old billionaire media magnate, has been uncharacteristically quiet since the election, but appears to favor a pact with Bersani to stay in the game. Bersani's leftist ally, Nichi Vendola, has brusquely ruled such a "grand coalition" out of court.

"Over both scenarios hangs a shadow of inescapable uncertainty," said respected commentator Massimo Franco.

Grillo said on Wednesday he would not support a vote of confidence in any government.

He appears to want the right and left to discredit themselves further in an ineffective and fractious joint government - their only option without his support - before a new election in which he will score an even bigger victory. He expects it to take no more than a year for such a government to fall.

To make things worse there will be a constitutional vacuum until after March 15, which is the earliest date that President Giorgio Napolitano, the head of state, can start consultations with the politicians aimed at finding a government.

Napolitano himself leaves office in mid-May, adding to the uncertainty that has seen Italians faced by political deadlock and the shock resignation of Pope Benedict all at the same time.

With a sophisticated campaign on the Internet and in a tour of Italy in which he shouted himself hoarse insulting the politicians, Grillo scored one of the biggest ever victories for a populist party anywhere, taking 25 percent of the vote.

GRILLO TACTICS

Grillo's tactics may be astute.

Maurizio Pessato, vice-president of the SWG polling firm, told Reuters that as many people agreed with Grillo's denunciations of a tired political class but did not vote for him as those that did in this week's election.

That gives him a potential voting poll of 50 percent of the electorate, according to Pessato.

"We could say half the country agrees with him," he said.

Before the vote, many analysts had warned Italy's politicians that rage with their waste and corruption threatened a political revolution, but few took much notice.

Now they are fighting for survival with both center-left and center-right facing internal splits that could blow them apart.

"They really must change their leadership or offer answers or they will be swept away," Pessato said.

There are, however, a few glimmers of hope for at least a temporary solution to the crisis, not least that early declarations by politicians may be negotiating ploys.

Grillo's stream of insults against Bersani's cautious overtures towards the 5-Star Movement did not go down well with many of the group's supporters, who often seem more moderate than their outspoken leader.

An online petition supporting a vote of confidence in a center-left government committed to changing Italy has collected more than 100,000 signatures in the last 24 hours - apparently with support from many of those who supported Grillo's campaign.

Bersani has proposed a list of reforms as the program for a new government, many of which coincide with the 5-Star Movement's aims.

They include repealing the hated electoral law which has been a major contributor to the crisis, a sharp reduction in the number of parliamentarians and their extravagant privileges, and a powerful new law against corruption.

Another possible source of hope is the fact that Grillo has praised the system in Sicily, where a center-left government is successfully supported by the 5-Star Movement. However, in the island's regional administration there is no need for the vote of confidence that is essential for a national government.

END OF AN ERA

Senior center-left official and former premier Massimo D'Alema said on Thursday the election, "marked the end of an era". "But," he added, "The country must be governed."

In an interview with the Corriere della Sera daily, D'Alema said: "Nobody has an interest in precipitating the country towards new elections that would be a dramatic shock, not even the 5-Star Movement, which ...I reasonably believe wants to show its ability to bring positive changes for Italy."

Establishment politicians may believe that once Grillo's 162 representatives enter the Senate and lower house these new politicians will break the iron grip of their "spokesman", who will himself not enter parliament, and will be more susceptible to various forms of persuasion by veteran parliamentarians.

Populist movements have a tendency to rapid expansion and contraction, analysts say, and other fresh faces have in the past been absorbed into a more cynical politics.

Berlusconi himself, now seen as symbol of the discredited old political order, first stormed into politics in 1994 as a new face, billing himself as an anti-politics candidate after the massive Tangentopoli, or Bribesville, graft scandal.

His allies in the federalist Northern League, who originally campaigned in the prosperous, industrial north as a force that would sweep away the privileges of "Robber Rome", were almost destroyed by a giant corruption scandal of their own last year.

But sitting tight and hoping the angry mood of the country will abate may be a fatal mistake for the traditional parties.

SWG's Pessato warned the old-hand politicians against miscalculating the extent of the political revolution.

"It depends on their intelligence," he said. "Whether they understand that they must give signals of change or think that somehow Grillo will conveniently be deflated.

"They may think they can absorb him, but if they do not understand the signals from the electorate, there are some parties that will disappear."

(Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-election-result-may-condemn-italy-weak-short-180856897.html

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Tips For a Successful Pet Bird Shop?Your Employee Tool Box ...

By Wyld?s Wingdom

As a pet shop owner, giving your pet bird department staff the best tools for dealing with a wide range of customers and situations is an effective way to keep customers coming back and reduce staff turnover. Confident, well-trained employees will appreciate their work environment and pass on their positive feelings to customers.

It?s a good idea to develop an employee handbook that outlines policies and procedures. An employee handbook can address rules, expectations, and the ways in which employees should represent your business and brand. This is the first step in developing effective retail associates who are reliable and responsible.

Developing an employee training program can save time down the road when bringing new staff on board. Take the time to create your training protocol once, and each new employee will receive the same consistent information on store basics such as opening and closing procedures, cleaning and pet bird care, handling sales and returns, stocking and inventory, and the customer interaction techniques outlined in the previous sections. The manual can cover greetings, collecting information, assisting customers through conversation, etc.

Product knowledge and general pet bird care knowledge are other areas that will require training for your bird department associates. If you have birds in your store or department, your employees should be trained on the basic information about the species you carry. Customers will look to sales associates as the ?experts?, so they should be able to answer questions and provide information about various bird species.

Encourage employees to familiarize themselves with inventory, and make educational resources on bird species and care available. Holding regular meetings or training sessions before or after hours will give you an opportunity to go over popular products and how they can be introduced and explained to customers. Role playing is another effective way to work through product knowledge and how staff can effectively listen to customers and direct them to the products they need. Regular meetings will also keep everyone up-to-date on new products, new displays and promotions, and industry news.

Consistent mentoring and training of employees can often give staff a sense of ownership and accountability, which ultimately adds to your pet store?s success.

Source: http://www.wingdom.com/2013/tips-for-a-successful-pet-bird-shop%E2%80%A6your-employee-tool-box/

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internet marketing buffalo | SEO raleigh | web marketing tips |

The internet has become a?key force in direct marketing over the past few years. This explains why search engine optimization is vital in order for a business to thrive both today and in the future.? For the most part, a business is found by typing keywords into search engines such as Goggle, BING, and facebook. ?With much experience, TexTivia works to gain clients top search engine rankings using key words that will ensure your business is findable.

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What is SEO?

Search engine optimization means that your website will rank high in search engines organically.? Full search engine optimization is not something that just happens; there is a specific process in coding your website that creates top search engine rankings.

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How do you achieve SEO?

The goal is to rank high in search engines organically, meaning that you are one of the top search results after the paid ads.? In order to have a website that ranks organically high, the website must be coded with keywords that relate to your business.? Keywords are what users type in the search bar, so it is important to create keywords that will connect users to your website.? TexTivia works with you to create keywords for your website that will rank organically high in search engines, putting you above your competition.

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Numbers don?t lie, here are some stats that prove the importance of SEO:

-????????? 70% of the links search users click on are organic

-????????? 75% of users?never scroll past the first page?of search results.

-????????? A study by Outbrain shows that search is the #1 driver of traffic to websites

-????????? 93%?of online experiences begin with a search engine.

-????????? 80% of Internet users use a search engine every day.

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TexTivia creates websites that rank organically high from the start, contact TexTivia today for a consultation.

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Written by: Tiffany Vermeire | Feb 28, 2013 |

Source: http://textivia.com/search-engine-optimization-seo/

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Asia stocks rise on growth hopes, BOJ pick

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Asian stock markets rose Thursday as positive economic indicators and the nomination of a pro-stimulus Bank of Japan chief bolstered hopes for faster growth.

Tokyo's benchmark led gains in regional stocks after the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated Haruhiko Kuroda, currently president of the Asian Development Bank, to head Japan's central bank. The Nikkei 225 stock average was up 1.9 percent to 11,462.63 as the yen weakened.

Kuroda is seen as a supporter of Abe's efforts to overcome Japan's 20 years of economic stagnation with bolder monetary easing, a weaker yen and bigger government spending.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi was up 0.9 percent at 2,021.73 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.2 percent to 22,848.18. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8 percent to 5,077.70. Stocks in mainland China, Singapore and Thailand also rose.

Investors also welcomed a string of improved economic figures from Asia, Europe and the United States.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said industrial production rose 1 percent from the month before in January, the second straight monthly increase. The ministry suggested a slump in output had bottomed.

On Wednesday, new figures from the U.S. National Association of Realtors showed pending sales rose 4.5 percent in January, the biggest increase since April 2010.

And in Europe, a survey showed economic sentiment in the 17 euro countries rising by more than anticipated in February.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 175.24 points, or 1.2 percent, to 14,075.37. The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 19.05 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,515.99. The Nasdaq composite rose 32.61 points, or 1.3 percent, to 3,162.26.

In currency markets, the euro was almost flat at $1.3145. The dollar rose 0.1 percent to 92.35 yen.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 37 cents to $93.12 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-rise-growth-hopes-boj-pick-040009884--finance.html

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Van Cliburn, pianist and Cold War hero, dies at 78

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) ? For a time in Cold War America, Van Cliburn had all the trappings of a rock star: sold-out concerts, adoring, out-of-control fans and a name recognized worldwide. He even got a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

And he did it all with only a piano and some Tchaikovsky concertos.

The celebrated pianist played for every American president since Harry Truman, plus royalty and heads of state around the world. But he is best remembered for winning a 1958 piano competition in Moscow that helped thaw the icy rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Cliburn, who died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer, was "a great humanitarian and a brilliant musician whose light will continue to shine through his extraordinary legacy," said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone. "He will be missed by all who knew and admired him, and by countless people he never met."

The young man from the small east Texas town of Kilgore was a baby-faced 23-year-old when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow just six months after the Soviets' launch of Sputnik embarrassed the U.S. and inaugurated the space race.

Cliburn returned to a hero's welcome and the ticker-tape parade ? the first ever for a classical musician. A Time magazine cover proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia."

But the win also showed the power of the arts, creating unity despite the tension between the superpowers. Music-loving Soviets clamored to see him perform. Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly gave the go-ahead for the judges to honor a foreigner: "Is Cliburn the best? Then give him first prize."

In the years that followed, Cliburn's popularity soared. He sold out concerts and caused riots when he was spotted in public. His fame even prompted an Elvis Presley fan club to change its name to his. His recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin became the first classical album to reach platinum status.

Time magazine's 1958 cover story quoted a friend as saying Cliburn could become "the first man in history to be a Horowitz, Liberace and Presley all rolled into one."

Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, who won the Tchaikovsky competition in 1998 at an age of 23, the same age as Cliburn, said Cliburn's "romantic style captured the hearts of Soviet audience."

"Everyone was in love with him," Matsuev said. "And he loved the Soviet Union, Russia and the Russian public."

Matsuev, who knew Cliburn personally, described him as an "incredibly delicate, kind and gentle man who dedicated his entire life to art."

He also used his skill and fame to help other young musicians through the Van Cliburn International Music Competition, held every four years. Created in 1962 by a group of Fort Worth teachers and citizens, it remains among the top showcases for the world's best pianists.

"Since we know that classical music is timeless and everlasting, it is precisely the eternal verities inherent in classical music that remain a spiritual beacon for people all over the world," Cliburn once said.

President George W. Bush presented Cliburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom ? the nation's highest civilian honor ? in 2003. The following year, he received the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I still have lots of friends in Russia," Cliburn said at the time. "It's always a great pleasure to talk to older people in Russia, to hear their anecdotes."

After the death of his father in 1974, Cliburn announced he would soon retire to spend more time with his ailing mother. He stopped touring in 1978.

Among other things, touring robbed him of the chance to enjoy opera and other musical performances.

"I said to myself, 'Life is too short.' I was missing so much," he told The New York Times in 2008. After winning the competition, "it was thrilling to be wanted. But it was pressure, too."

Cliburn emerged from his sabbatical in 1987, when he played at a state dinner at the White House during the historic visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev leapt from his seat to give the pianist a bear-hug and kisses on the cheeks.

Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, La., the son of oilman Harvey Cliburn Sr. and Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn. At age 3, he began studying piano with his mother, herself an accomplished pianist who had studied with a pupil of the great 19th century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt.

The family moved back to Kilgore within a few years of his birth.

Cliburn won his first Texas competition when he was 12, and two years later he played in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the National Music Festival Award.

At 17, Cliburn attended the Juilliard School in New York, where fellow students marveled at his marathon practice sessions that stretched until 3 a.m. He studied under the famed Russian-born pianist Rosina Lhevinne.

Between 1952 and 1958, he won all but one competition he entered, including the G.B. Dealey Award from the Dallas Symphony, the Kosciusko Foundation Chopin Scholarship and the prestigious Leventritt. By age 20, he had played with the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of most major cities.

Cliburn's career seemed ready to take off until his name came up for the draft. He had to cancel all shows but was eventually excused from duty due to chronic nosebleeds.

Over the next few years, Cliburn's international popularity continued as he recorded pieces ranging from Mozart to a concerto by American Edward McDowell. Still, having been trained by some of the best Russian teachers in the world, Cliburn's heart was Russian, with the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos.

After 1990, Cliburn toured Japan numerous times and performed throughout the United States. He was in the midst of a 16-city U.S. tour in 1994 when his mother died at age 97.

Cliburn, who made his home in Fort Worth, endowed scholarships at many schools, including Juilliard, which gave him an honorary doctorate, and the Moscow and Leningrad conservatories. In December 2001, he was presented with the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Medallion at the televised tribute held in Washington.

He practiced daily and performed limited engagements until only recently. His last public appearance came in September at the 50th anniversary of the prestigious piano competition bearing his name.

Speaking to the audience in Fort Worth, he saluted the many past contestants, the orchestra and the city: "Never forget: I love you all from the bottom of my heart, forever." The audience responded with a roaring standing ovation.

___

Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Van Cliburn Foundation: http://www.cliburn.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/van-cliburn-pianist-cold-war-hero-dies-78-210055108.html

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NASA Discovers New Radiation Belt Around Earth

A ring of radiation previously unknown to science fleetingly surrounded Earth last year before being virtually annihilated by a powerful interplanetary shock wave, scientists say.

NASA's twin Van Allen space probes, which are studying the Earth's radiation belts, made the cosmic find. The surprising discovery ? a new, albeit temporary, radiation belt around Earth ? reveals how much remains unknown about outer space, even those regions closest to the planet, researchers added.

After humanity began exploring space, the first major find made there were the Van Allen radiation belts, zones of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles first discovered in 1958.

"They were something we thought we mostly understood by now, the first discovery of the Space Age," said lead study author Daniel Baker, a space scientist at the University of Colorado.

These belts were believed to consist of two rings: an inner zone made up of both high-energy electrons and very energetic positive ions that remains stable in intensity over the course of years to decades; and an outer zone comprised mostly of high-energy electrons whose intensity swings over the course of hours to days depending primarily on the influence from the solar wind, the flood of radiation streaming from the sun. [How NASA's Twin Radiation Probes Work (Infographic)]

The discovery of a temporary new radiation belt now has scientists reviewing the Van Allen radiation belt models to understand how it occurred.

Radiation rings around Earth

The giant amounts of radiation the Van Allen belts generate can pose serious risks for satellites. To learn more about them, NASA launched twin spacecraft, the Van Allen probes, in the summer of 2012.

The satellites were armed with a host of sensors to thoroughly analyze the plasma, energetic particles, magnetic fields and plasma waves in these belts with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution.

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Unexpectedly, the probes revealed a new radiation belt surrounding Earth, a third one made of super-high-energy electrons embedded in the outer Van Allen belt about 11,900 to 13,900 miles (19,100 to 22,300 kilometers) above the planet's surface. This stable ring of space radiation apparently formed on Sept. 2? and lasted for more than four weeks.

"The feature was so surprising, I initially foolishly thought the instruments on the probes weren't working properly, but I soon realized the lab had built such wonderful instruments that there wasn't anything wrong with them, so what we saw must be true," Baker said.

This newfound radiation belt then abruptly and almost completely disappeared on Oct. 1. It was apparently disrupted by an interplanetary shock wave caused by a spike in solar wind speeds.

"More than five decades after the original discovery of these radiation belts, you can still find new unexpected things there," Baker said. "It's a delight to be able to find new things in an old domain. We now need to re-evaluate them thoroughly both theoretically and observationally."

A radiation mystery

It remains uncertain how this temporary radiation belt arose. Van Allen mission scientists suspect it was likely created by the solar wind tearing away the outer Van Allen belt.

"It looks like its existence may have been bookended by solar disturbances," Baker said.

Future study of the Van Allen belts can reveal if such temporary rings of radiation are common or rare.

"Do these occur frequently, or did we get lucky and see a very rare circumstance that happens only once in a while?" Baker said. "And what other unusual revelations might come now that we are really looking at these radiation belts with new, modern tools?"

The scientists detailed their findings online Feb. 28 in the journal Science.

Follow SPACE.com?on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-discovers-radiation-belt-around-earth-191845301.html

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