Rocket Project Starting

A Russian Soyuz rocket with three astronauts — two Russians and one American — is set to lift off from Kazakhstan on Monday morning, ferrying the men to the International Space Station.

After a month on the station the astronauts will return to earth. The rocket had several flaws and a damaged cargo hold postponing the take of. To find out more about this article click here.

Russian Military Ship in SF Bay

The city is hosting a Russian warship until Friday. According to SFGate.com, this is the first Russian surface warship to visit San Francisco in 147 years.

People can tour the Varyag, docked along the Embarcadero, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday. The ship sails back to Russia on Friday.

The ship visit is tied to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to San Francisco and Silicon Valley businesses this week.

You can read about the ship's history — in both wartime and peacetime — on SFGate.

Australia Allows Exports of Uranium to Russia

Australia is the world's third largest uranium producer. Not a long time ago, Australia allowed uranium to be exported to Russia. The problem is that it was only Russia. Australia has refused to sell uranium to India. Australia refused to sell it to India for energy use because the South Asian country has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Russia is lucky to be the country that Australia sells Uranium to. Russia hopes that "agreements on the peaceful use of nuclear energy" will be complete. Also, Australia and Russia both signed up to President Barack Obama's plan to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years outlined at two-day summit in Washington earlier this month. This had to involve forty-seven countries.

History of Berlin Wall

After World War II's end in Europe (1945), Germany was divided into four sectors, each one controlled by one of the Allied Powers, which included the Americans, French, British, and the Soviet Union. Conflict between the Soviets and the other powers split Germany in half, the East and the West, even splitting the country's capital, Berlin into East and West Berlin.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who occupied the eastern side of Germany, prevented foreign help from other nations to fly into West Germany with supplies, the Berlin Blockade. Other nations wanted to help, so the Berlin Airlift was devised.

In the 1950s, West Germany benefited from economic success, so East Germans were looking to live in West Germany.

Construction of the 87 mile long Berlin Wall started in 1961, funded by the GDR and closing crossing points. Many Berliners were cut off from jobs. Money changed, the economies changed, and ideas changed between the two sides. The rift between East and West Germany remained, that rift separating families. Several died trying to cross the wall.

President Kennedy and President Reagan pleaded with the GDR to take down the wall.

Under international pressure, the GDR allowed travel between the two sides in 1989. In 1990, the Wall of Berlin fell.

Sources: Wikipedia, Cold War Flies, New York Times, German Missions in the United States

by Brigette W.

A Visual Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

On November 9, 2009, was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall was knocked down at the end of the cold war. The wall was about 100 miles long, and about 136 people died trying to cross it.

I got these photos from The New York Times and Google images.

The New York Times ran a special interactive package in which people could submit their own photos from the fall of the wall.

Read Brigette's story about the history of the wall.

The Making of the Berlin Wall

Construction of the Berlin Wall started on August 13, 1961, which fell twenty years ago and was anywhere from 20 to 100 feet some places.

The wall had a lot of security. It had a watchtower, and everything from spike mats and vehicle ditches to, to tank traps.

This graphic from The New York Times show that the Berlin Wall was no regular wall.

Below are some close-ups that I found interesting.