Lincoln Tribune

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• Bomb blast kills 3 NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan
• Queen’s husband Prince Philip released from hospital following surgery
• UPDATE 1 — Strong earthquake jolts Russia-Mongolia border region, no damage
• Coffee
• Push to Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving Builds

Bomb blast kills 3 NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:44 PM PST KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- Three coalition service members were killed on late Tuesday evening when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. The alliance said three of its service members were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in Afghanistan's east. But as usual, the multinational force gave no other details about the incident, including the exact location. The nationalities of the service members were also not immediately disclosed by ISAF. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," a brief statement said. Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 10,000 American troops this year, with another 23,000 U.S. troops to return home next year. So far this year, at least 561 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan, according to official figures. A majority of the fallen troops were American and were killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians. The deadliest incident during the 10-year-long war happened on August 6 when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in Wardak province, killing 30 U.S. troops, 7 Afghan troops and an Afghan interpreter. A report released by U.S. Central Command in mid-October showed the crash was caused by an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade which struck the CH-47's aft rotor-blade as the aircraft approached its landing zone. (Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)

Queen’s husband Prince Philip released from hospital following surgery Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:24 PM PST CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND (BNO NEWS) -- Britain's Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was released from a hospital in eastern England on Tuesday morning, the royal palace said, days after undergoing heart surgery. Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 90, had been discharged from Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire on Tuesday morning. "He is very much looking forward to rejoining his family and is returning to Sandringham by car," the palace said in a statement, referring to the family's country estate in Norfolk. Philip was taken to Papworth Hospital on Friday evening after experiencing chest pains, but few details have been released. Following tests, Philip was found to have a blocked coronary artery and underwent a 'minimally invasive' procedure of coronary stenting, according to royal officials. Queen Elizabeth II and three of her children, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Princess Anne, visited the hospital for about 45 minutes on late Saturday morning. "Prince Philip was in good spirits," the palace said at the time. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla later arrived by car at the hospital. Philip is known to be active and robust for his age, and the health scare was the most serious one yet for the Queen's husband. He recently accompanied the Queen on a 10-day tour of Australia. (Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)

UPDATE 1 — Strong earthquake jolts Russia-Mongolia border region, no damage Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:18 PM PST MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck southwestern Siberia near the border with Mongolia on late Tuesday evening, seismologists and officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The 6.6-magnitude earthquake at 10.21 p.m. local time (1521 GMT) was centered about 96 kilometers (59 miles) east of Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva Republic in Russia. It struck about 6.9 kilometers (4.3 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Residents near the epicenter in the mountainous region fled their homes in panic, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The USGS estimated that approximately 2,000 people may have felt strong shaking while 229,000 others may have felt light to moderate shaking. "Everything is all right. Our dispatchers work round the clock and they did not receive any calls on any destruction," a spokesman for the regional office of Russia's Emergencies Ministry told RIA Novosti. Officials however said phone services in the region were temporarily overwhelmed. (Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)

Coffee Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:00 PM PST Profile America — Wednesday, December 28th. Millions of bleary-eyed Americans who fumble around in the morning owe a lot to someone they never heard of — James H. Mason of Franklin, Massachusetts. This week in 1865, he received a patent for a coffee percolator. Now, not only does just about every home in the U.S. have a coffeemaker, but many also grind their own fresh from coffee beans. And the percolator has grown into big coffee machines, seen in most offices, and a seemingly ever-growing number of retail coffee shops. It’s clear that Americans love their coffee. We each consume more than 23 gallons of regular and decaf a year, as well as their more sophisticated variations, such as latte and espresso. Profile America is produced by the U.S. Census Bureau: Measuring America–People, Places, and Our Economy. Sources: 440 International Calendar of Events, Those Were the Days Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1240 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012edition.html

Push to Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving Builds Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:45 PM PST <!--AV--> In an unprecedented move, the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. is recommending that motorists turn off all cell phones while driving.  The board, charged with determining the cause of transportation accidents, asks every U.S. state to ban the use of personal electronic devices in cars except in emergencies. The ban would include hands-free phones; only technology that helps a driver, such as GPS systems, would be allowed.  The agency says the ban would make a difference in distracted driving accidents and fatalities. Elissa's Schee's daughter was barely a teenager when a truck driver, distracted by his cell phone, hit her school bus. "Margay was the only child left on the bus and she was dead," she said. There is no shortage of heart-wrenching tales of families who have lost loved ones in crashes caused by distracted drivers.  Jacy Good survived. Her parents did not. "Both my parents were killed instantly.  I wasn't breathing. No one expected I would live past the first 36 hours," she said. The NTSB's proposed ban on talking, texting, even using a hands-free phone device while driving, came shortly after this deadly road accident in Missouri.  The teenaged driver who caused it sent and received 11 text messages in the 11 minutes just before the crash which killed 2 and injured 38. "We know that accidents happen in the blink of an eye.  You have to be paying attention all the time.  You never know what call, what text or what post could be your last if you are doing it behind the wheel," said Deborah Hersman of the NTSB. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 90 percent of drivers support texting bans, and 60 percent favor cell phone bans.  The problem is 80 percent say they still do it. "Drivers recognize that this is a problem, but they still do it because they (think they) are above average.  They can handle it.  It's all the crazies out there who can't handle it and they should get a ticket.  We see that all the time in highway safety research," said Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He says its research shows that phone bans do not reduce accidents or insurance costs, perhaps because drivers are distracted by so many things. But Rader and other safety experts say crash prevention technology may make a difference. An insurance study found that this Volvo SUV, which brakes automatically if it senses a potential impact, is far less likely to be involved in low-speed crashes than other cars. When asked about taking the human element out of equation, Rader said "Well that appears to be part of the benefit because drivers don't always do the right thing in an emergency." But self-driving cars aren't here yet.  So the U.S. government says put down your phones and drive.

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