FYI: U2 tour, N. Korea ship, Sanford affair, Honduras coup, Madoff, Iraq bomb, Farrah RIP

The oval-shaped stadium in Camp Nou, Barcelona, where U2 will kick of it's tour is known as "the Claw" because of the gigantic structure over the stage.



• Irish rock group U2 kicks off their first tour--"U2 360"--in three years on Tuesday, playing to fans in Barcelona on one of the biggest concert stages ever built--97,500 capacity. Over the next four months U2 will perform to an estimated three million fans in 31 cities across Europe and North America.
• U.S. defense official told AP that the North Korean ship under watch has reversed its course. The U.S. said Tuesday if imposed financial sanctions on an Iran-based company allegedly serves as a cover for N. Korea’s missile proliferation network.
• South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford "is admitting more encounters with his Argentine mistress than he previously has disclosed."
• Several presidents including the OAS head to accompany ousted Honduras President Zelaya back to - Honduras, according to Argentinian source. Robert Micheletti, a congressman of Zelaya's party sworn-in as president after the coup, says Zelaya will be arrested if he comes back to Tegucigalpa.
• Iraqi police and hospital officials say death toll from Kirkuk car bomb today rises to at least 24.
• 10 or more people associated with multibillion dollar swindler Bernard Madoff could face criminal charges in investigations.
• After two straight gains, U.S. consumer confidence declined slipped to 49.3 from 54.8 in May, private research group Conference Board said Tuesday.
• Actress Farrah Fawcett, who died of cancer last week, will be laid to rest this afternoon.

Sources: Reuters, AP, CNN

Brazil releases photos from Air France crash

Seventeen bodies and debris from the wreckage have been found 600 miles off the northeastern coast of Brazil, roughly 45 miles from the last known contact of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic on May 31 four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

As to the cause of the crash, after much speculation about how an electrical storm could have affected the aircraft, authorities are now focusing on inconsistent airspeed readings sent by the plane in its final minutes of flight.

Investigators were reviewing the actions of a Pitot tube, which supplies information about ambient air pressure, aiding the measurement of air speed, according to numerous news reports.

“There have been situations on Airbus planes, and perhaps on others, where these tubes no longer indicated the airspeed because it entered a humid area, a low-pressure area, an area of turbulence," said Dominique Bussereau, the French secretary of state for transportation.

This means that if the Flight 447 pilots could not read the measurement correctly, the plane could have been flying too slowly or flying too fast, with deadly results. French investigators announced Saturday that the plane had been scheduled to have its Pitot tube replaced, The New York Times reported.

A U.S. Navy team is flying to Brazil today with high-tech underwater listening devices to help the search for the black boxes, which contain the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. These probably have reached the bottom of the ocean, which in that area consists of rocky terrain reaching depths of anywhere between 3,000 to 13,000 feet. The boxes emit signals from a “pinger,” but it will start to fade after 30 days, NYTs reported. The French Navy is sending a nuclear-powered submarine to the area in an effort to detect the signals.

The search operation involves five Brazilian ships, a French frigate, 12 Brazilian and two French planes.

I must admit that I'm impressed with this search operation and what it has accomplished so far given the immense size of the search area, small size of the debris left behind by the plane, and difficulty in identifying objects in water. Technology and determination.

Sources: BNO News, ABC News, The Washington Post, New York Times
Copyright © 2009

Man guilty of failing to fake his death

Photos of Marcus Schrenker, compiled by TheWeeklyVice.com

A money manager pleaded guilty on Friday to federal charges stemming from a plot to fake his own death in a small plane crash in Florida in an attempt to avoid financial fraud charges in Indiana, Reuters reported Friday.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, parachuted out of his plane over Alabama in January and let it continue to fly on autopilot before it eventually crashed in Florida. He was arrested a day later at a Florida campsite and taken to a hospital with wounds to his wrists that apparently resulted from a suicide attempt.

OK, can someone please explain to me how a money manager--whom one would expect to be of above average intelligence given the demands of his job--thought he could fake his own death in a plane crash without a body? Poor planning, my friend. But, then again, he got caught with his pants down and charged with financial fraud, so maybe he wasn't smart enough to be a money manager to begin with. If indeed he had tried to kill himself prior to the hoax, could that have been his first attempt at faking his death?

Schrenker was wanted in Indiana on fraud charges alleging that he misled people who invested money with his financial management companies and that he misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars, Reuters reported.

In U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, Schrenker pleaded guilty to two charges, deliberately crashing a plane and placing false distress calls. His trial had been scheduled to start on Monday. His sentencing was set for Aug 19, according to the report.

Authorities say Schrenker radioed a distress call from his single-engine Piper aircraft, reporting that the plane's cracked windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding.

So he has a flair for drama.

Two rescue helicopters and two military F-15 fighter jets were dispatched. When the jets caught up with the plane as it continued to fly with no one aboard, the windshield was intact, the door was open and there was no sign of the pilot, investigators said.

One has to laugh. The last this dude expected was the windshield to not crack after the plane fell from the sky. He also forgot to close the door behind me. Bad manners, if you ask me.

The Piper crashed in a swampy, wooded area north of Milton, Florida.

He's lucky his pilot-less plane did not crash in a highly populated area; otherwise, he would be facing manslaughter charges. *sigh* What a dunce.

When rescuers reached the scene, they found evidence including a book of campsites in America missing its pages on Alabama and Florida, and a list scribbled on the back of a book stating, "cracked windshield, window imploded, bleeding profusely," a court affidavit said.

OMFG, this just keeps getting better and better! Turns out he truly was--is--a dunce! He actually needed to write down the three--count them, three--things he would say when radioing for help. Are you kidding me?

Schrenker parachuted safely to the ground near the Alabama city of Harpersville, convinced a police officer to give him a ride to a hotel and then fled, police said. He previously had stashed a motorcycle near the hotel and got away before local police learned of the plane crash.

Is this for real? So, he lands and takes a ride from--of all people--a cop? Jeez!

He still faces the financial fraud charges in Indiana, Reuters reported.

He should be charged with reckless stupidity, if you ask me.

Sources: Reuters
Copyright © 2009