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From the International Lorraine Mondial Air Ballon Festival, to the Great Texas Balloon Race, to the QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, it's the season of hot air balloon races. Hot air balloons approach the target area for the "key grab" Saturday, July 30, 2011 in the Great Texas Balloon at the East Texas Regional Airport south of Longview, Texas. The pilots try to skim the ground and put a ring around the pole in the center of the target area. Hot air balloons prepare to take off in Chambley-Bussieres, eastern France, on Wednesday July 27, 2011 in an attempt to set a world record for collective taking-off during the International Lorraine Mondial Air Ballon Festival. Pilot Michael Blum, right, of Union City, N.J., crew chief John Fairty, second right, of Greenwhich, Conn., and Don Wicks, of Hicksville, N.Y., untangle lines before inflating the Beemster Gourmet Dutch Cheese hot air balloon Friday, July 29, 2011, at the QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in Readington, N.J. The hot air balloon festival runs through Sunday. |
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view Hot Air Balloon Festivals in France and U.S. as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday ordered a sweeping and transparent probe into the weekend collision between two bullet trains that killed at least 39 people and raised public anger about the government's handling of the accident. Facts must be uncovered, responsible parties held to account, and investigation results made public, Wen told a cabinet meeting, according to a news release posted to the government's official website. Six carriages derailed and four fell about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from a viaduct Saturday night after one train plowed into the back of a stalled train. More than 190 people were injured. The government on Tuesday ordered a two-month safety campaign for its railway system amid questions about how the crash occurred. Chinese rescuers work around the wreckage of train cars in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang province, Sunday, July 24, 2011. bullet train passes over the wrecked carriages involved in Saturday's crash. In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, relatives of the victims in Saturday's train crash cry after seeing the bodies of their loved ones in a funeral home in Wenzhou. |
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view China Premier Orders Probe Into Deadly Train Crash as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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Signs of normality began to return to Oslo on Monday after the peaceful, liberal country was stunned on Friday by the bombing in downtown Oslo and the shooting massacre at a youth camp outside the capital. Over the weekend, Oslo mourned the victims. Norway's King Harald V and his wife Queen Sonja and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg crowded into Oslo Cathedral on Sunday, where the pews were packed, and people spilled into the plaza outside the building. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit in the grand church huddled under umbrellas in a drizzle. Afterward, people sobbed and hugged one another in the streets, as many lingered over the memorial of flowers and candles. The royal couple and prime minister later visited the site of the bombing in Oslo. People light candles in memory of the victims of the attacks on Norway's government headquarters and an island youth retreat, as they pay their respects at Oslo Cathedral, Sunday, July 24, 2011. Relatives of a victim gather to observe a minute's silence on a campsite jetty on the Norwegian mainland, across the water from Utoya island, seen in the background on Monday, July 25, 2011. People have been placing floral tributes at this site in memory of those killed in the shooting massacre on the island on Friday. Women react at the end of a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral in the aftermath of the Friday attacks on Norway's government headquarters and a youth retreat. |
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view Stunned Norway Mourns Assault Victims as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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Midwest residents woke Tuesday to the whir of fans and air conditioners, the soundtrack to an unusually intense heat wave enveloping most of middle America and slowly spreading eastward. From Texas to the Dakotas, and east to Illinois and Indiana, temperatures and humidity levels soared on Monday and were expected to remain high through at least the end of the week, by which time forecasters say the East Coast will get to share the misery. Seventeen states issued heat watches, warnings or advisories on Monday, when the heat index easily surpassed 100 degrees in many places, including 126 in Newton, Iowa, and 119 in Madison, Minn. Rylea Williams, 15 months, plays with a garden hose Wednesday, July, 13, 2011, in Salina, Kan. Alan Perez, from Wilmington, N.C., seeks shelter from the sun under an umbrella while holding a stop sign to close a road for debris removal Tuesday, July 19, 2011 in Joplin, Mo. Despite a recent heat wave, crews continue to clean up nearly two months after an EF-5 tornado destroyed much of Joplin. Madison Lopes, 5, cools off under a fountain at Peabody Park in Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday, July 12, 2011. Temperatures in the area surpassed 100 degrees. |
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view Midwest Heat Wave Expected To Persist This Week as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the International Space Station in triumph Thursday, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last, rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears. Thousands gathered near the landing strip and packed Kennedy Space Center, and countless others watched from afar, as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close. With the space shuttles retiring to museums, it will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, as private companies gear up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA. This image provided by NASA shows the space shuttle Atlantis photographed from the International Space Station as the orbiting complex and the shuttle performed final separation of a space shuttle in the early hours of Tuesday July 19, 2011. Space shuttle Atlantis is towed to the Orbitor Processing facility for decommissioning at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, July 21, 2011. The landing of Atlantis marks the end of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program. Commander Chris Ferguson walks under space shuttle Atlantis after landing at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Thursday, July 21, 2011. |
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view Space Shuttle Comes to Final Stop After 30 Years as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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With his self-confidence at a high and luck finally on his side, Australia's Cadel Evans could achieve something special this year in the Tour de France. The two-time runner-up was third in the overall standings enterng the 10th stage Tuesday, the best placing among the favorites, after surviving a crash-marred week that saw several contenders bow out. The BMC team leader finished behind Alberto Contador in 2007 and Carlos Sastre in 2008. Last year, Evans wore the yellow jersey but broke his left elbow and settled for a 26th-place finish on the Champs Elysees. Regarded as an underachiever until he become world champion in 2009, Evans is stronger this year. A helicopter of the French TV hovers over the pack with Thor Hushovd of Norway, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, center, during the fourth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 172.5 kilometers (107.2 miles) starting in Lorient and finishing in Mur de Bretagne, Brittany, western France, Tuesday July 5, 2011. Frederik Willems of Belgium, left, and David Zabriskie of the US, right, are being treated by Tour de France doctors after crashing during the 9th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 208 kilometers (129 miles) starting in Issoire and finishing in Saint Flour, central France, Sunday July 10, 2011. The peloton is reflected in Allagnon river near the village of Lempdes sur Allagnon as they ride during the 9th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 208 kilometers (129 miles) starting in Issoire and finishing in Saint Flour, central France, Sunday July 10, 2011. |
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view Evans Looking Good at Tour de Carnage as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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The first troops to leave Afghanistan as part of the U.S. drawdown handed over their slice of battlefield Wednesday to a unit less than half their size and started packing for home. When the 650 members of the Iowa National Guard's 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment arrived in Afghanistan in November 2010, bases didn't have enough housing, translators were in short supply and chow halls were packed. Commanders were using a buildup of 33,000 extra troops for a major push that they said would turn the tide of the war against the Taliban insurgency. Nine months later, it's still unclear if that push has succeeded, but the pullback has begun. Although major combat units are not expected to start leaving until late fall, two National Guard regiments comprising about 1,000 soldiers in all are withdrawing this month -- the Iowa soldiers from Parwan province in eastern Afghanistan, and the other group from the capital, Kabul. U.S. soldiers walk into a U.S. military plane, as they leave Afghanistan, at the U.S. base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, July 14, 2011. U.S. soldiers with Task Force Red Horse wait in a bus to be transported for the airport section to leave Afghanistan, at the U.S. base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. soldiers roll up the U.S. flag after a transfer of authority ceremony from Task Force Red Horse to Task Force Maverick at the U.S. base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, July 13, 2011. |
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view US Begins Drawdown of Troops from Afghanistan as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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Thousands of thrill-seekers dashed ahead of six fighting bulls in the streets of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona on Thursday in a fast first running of the bulls in this year's San Fermin festival. No one was gored, but four people were taken to Navarre Hospital with injuries -- one with fractured ribs -- sustained during a sprint where the six guiding steers stole the show from the charging bulls from the Torrestrella ranch, which is famed for producing dangerous bulls. Revelers take part in the "Chupinazo," the official opening of the 2011 San Fermin festival, Wednesday, July 6, 2011 in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers hold up traditional red neckties as tens of thousands of people pack Pamplona's main square in Pamplona, Spain, Wednesday July 6, 2011 to celebrate the start of Spain's most famous bull-running festival with the annual launch of the "Chupinazo" rocket. Revelers are surprised by an angry leading ox, used to drive the fighting bulls during the running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival on Thursday, July 7, 2011. |
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view Clean Start to Pamplona's Running of the Bulls as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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