Russian meteor causes blast; hundreds injured

A meteor streaked through the skies above Russia's Urals region Friday morning, before exploding with a flash and boom that shattered glass in buildings and left hundreds of people hurt.

The number of injured continues to rise as new reports come in from across a wide area.

As of noon Moscow time, as many as 725 people had sought medical help, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Deputy Health Minister Igor Kagramanyan said 571 people had sought medical help, with 34 of them hospitalized, according to state-news agency Itar-Tass.The vast majority of injuries are not thought to be serious.

About 270 buildings have sustained damage -- mostly broken glass -- as a result of the shock waves caused by the blast, said Vladimir Stepanov, of the National Center for Emergency Situations at the Russian Interior Ministry.

Hospitals, kindergartens and schools are among those affected, he said.

About 20,000 emergency response workers have been mobilized, RIA Novosti reported.

Amateur video footage showed a bright white streak moving rapidly across the sky, before exploding with an even brighter flash and a deafening bang.

The explosion occurred about 9:20 a.m. local time, as many people were out and about.

The national space agency, Roscosmos, said scientists believed one meteoroid had entered the atmosphere, where it burned and disintegrated into fragments, according to RIA Novosti.

The resulting meteorites are believed to be scattered across three regions of Russia, one of them Chelyabinsk, as well as neighboring Kazakhstan, the news agency said.

One large chunk was discovered in a lake in the Chelyabinsk region, RIA Novosti cited the Chelyabinsk governor as saying.

A spokesman for the Emergency Ministry for the Chelyabinsk region told CNN that the latest information it had was that 524 people there were injured and 34 hospitalized.

NASA estimates 4,700 'potentially hazardous' asteroids

For sky watchers, the reports bring to mind the famous Tunguska event of 1908 in remote Siberia, in which an asteroid entered the atmosphere and exploded, leveling trees over an area of 820 square miles -- about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island.

About 80 million trees were felled, radiating out from the center of the blast, but no crater was left.Friday's Chelyabinsk meteor comes on the same day that a hefty asteroid is due to charge past Earth at a pretty close range, in space terms.

An asteroid is coming. Fear not, scientists say

Known as 2012 DA14, the asteroid is thought to be 45 meters long, about half the length of a football field.

But scientists say it will come no closer than 17,100 miles from our planet's surface.

Your photos: Orionid meteor shower

"No Earth impact is possible," according to Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Those in Eastern Europe, Asia or Australia will get the best telescope-aided view, scientists said. The asteroid won't be visible to the naked eye.

NASA spokesman Steve Cole told CNN that scientists had determined that the Russian meteor was on a very different trajectory from the asteroid.

"They are completely unrelated objects -- it's a strange coincidence they are happening at the same time," he said.

"This kind of object does fall fairly frequently, but when they fall into the ocean or desert, there is no impact on people -- so this one is unusual in the sense that it's come over a populated area."

Cole said he wasn't aware if scientists had foreseen the meteor's entry into the atmosphere.

Because meteoroids are smaller than asteroids or comets, they are hard to spot and there is often little warning that they are heading toward Earth, he said.

Colin Stuart, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in London, said the asteroid's flyby Friday was a chance for experts to get an unusually close-up look and learn more.

"Scientists are going to fire radar beams off of the asteroid, trying to get an idea what it's made of and the how it's moving, so that in the future, if there's something that's a bit more of a threat to us, we have the best knowledge of what we are dealing with," Stuart said.

The asteroid, which is not connected to the Russian meteor, is not expected to hit any of the communications satellites it will pass on its trajectory, he said.

US north-east battered by 'historic' snowstorm

Thick snow is blanketing the north-eastern US as a major storm cuts power to thousands of homes and plays havoc with transport schedules.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and Maine are all on an emergency footing, with millions of residents being warned to stay indoors.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has temporarily banned all non-essential traffic on the state's roads.

Meteorologists say the storm could be New England's worst for decades.

Airlines cancelled more than 4,300 flights - including all those to and from the three major airports in New York City - and the train operator Amtrak has suspended nearly all services north of the city.

People have been warned to stay off the roads, and stock up on food and other supplies as the storm affects 25 million people in the region.

More than 330,000 power cuts have been reported in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

A nuclear power station in Massachusetts also lost power and was forced to shut down. Back-up generators are operating equipment and there is no threat to the public, officials said.

Worse to come?

Blizzard warnings are in effect for much of the coastal section of the north-eastern US, from Newark to southern Maine.

Forecasters said the storm could dump as much as three feet (90cm) of snow in some places as it hammered swathes of territory, with winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) expected to create deep drifts.

Police in New York say hundreds of cars are stuck on the Long Island Expressway, with officers trying to help the drivers to safety.

Parts of Massachusetts were already under a foot of snow by Friday night, with more expected over the weekend.

"This is a storm of major proportions," warned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. "Stay off the roads. Stay home."

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said: "People need to take this storm seriously. Please stay home once the weather gets bad except in the case of real emergency."In New York City, which is expecting a 12in dousing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said snow ploughs and 250,000 tonnes of salt were being put on standby.

The storm has also disrupted New York Fashion Week, which is held under a big tent. Organisers say they will bring in extra crews to help with snow removal and add an extra layer of tenting to the venue.

Some neighbourhoods in the city are still recovering from Sandy, an October storm that brought record flooding. Many of those areas face a renewed risk of storm surge and flooding from the winter storm.

Fuel shortages were being reported from Connecticut to New York City as motorists queued at petrol stations to fill up vehicles, generators and snow blowers.

Mayor Bloomberg urged residents not to panic-buy fuel.

The National Weather Service had earlier said the combination of two weather systems from the polar and sub-tropical jet streams would produce a "potentially historic" storm.

Snow was being blamed for a 19-car pileup in Maine on Friday morning.

Further north, meanwhile, Ontario has already seen 200 vehicle accidents, the CBC reported. At least three people have been killed.

Olivia Culpo is new to New York and looking for a date

Olivia Culpo - Miss Universe

Olivia Culpo was judged the most attractive woman in the universe — but it’s not her long dark hair, popping eyebrows or killer looks that draw you in. It’s that she’s real.

"I was at my parents house on my hands knees scrubbing the floor just two days ago," said the 20-year-old Rhode Islander on her first official day as reigning Miss Universe. "I was taught to value hard work. At the end of day, I'm just Olivia.

 Single Olivia, to be exact. Not that she’ll stay that way.

"I want a gentleman," she said, smiling. "Someone with manners. I may date this year. Maybe Prince Charming will come along. You boys better step it up."

So far, spies say crooner Joe Jonas and “Family Guy” creator and 2013 Oscar host Seth MacFarlane have come knocking. So has Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte — but Miss Universe pageant owner Donald Trump said the Olympian doesn’t stand a chance.

"That swimmer is all over her like a puppy dog," Trump said. "She's rebuffed all kinds of celebrities. Olivia is focused on being Miss Universe. She's a smart, good girl."

All the attention is a far cry from Culpo’s life last year, when she was at Boston University, where she studied acting and communications. She entered her first beauty pageant 15 months ago, winning Miss Rhode Island and then Miss USA. Now she's Miss Universe.

Her parents, classically trained musicians who met in a college orchestra pit, weren't exactly supportive.

"They hated the idea of me in a beauty pageant," said Culpo, the middle child in a family of five kids. "They thought it was narcissistic. They showed up to Miss Rhode Island in their sweatpants."

On her first day back in New York since the pageant, Culpo moved into the big bedroom in the free W. 57th St. apartment she shares with the new Miss USA. Then she was off to dinner with friends and a date with Hugh Jackman (alas, only on the screen in "Les Miserables").

Culpo first came to New York when she was in the second or third grade when she played Carnegie Hall with the Rhode Island Youth Philharmonic. In two weeks, she departs for Indonesia on her initial trip as Miss Universe. Her cause is HIV awareness.

Trump, who recently won a lawsuit against a former Miss USA contestant, thinks he got lucky with Culpo.

"You never know what you're going to get and sometimes it can hurt the brand," said Trump. "With Olivia, we have a major star. What's different about her is she's really nice. It's no act."

So she won’t be hanging out at nightclubs while she’s underage?

“Not unless I want to end up in the Daily News gossip pages,” laughed Culpo.

 Here’s all you need to know about Miss Universe Olivia Culpo:

-- She’s from Rhode Island

-- She wears size zero

-- She went to an all-girls high school

-- She sings and plays cello

-- She eats egg whites every morning

-- She’s a Taurus (but doesn’t believe in horoscopes)

-- She was the first Miss USA since 1997

-- She’s attractive, and nice.

article source: Daily News