UK's Prince Philip remains in hospital

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Prince Philip spent a third night in the hospital as he recovers after treatment for a blocked coronary artery.
The 90-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II is in good spirits and will remain under observation for "a short period," Buckingham Palace officials said Monday. There are no details of when he may be released.
The prince underwent a successful coronary stent procedure at Papworth, a specialist heart hospital in Cambridgeshire, where he was taken on Friday after complaining of chest pains.
It was the most serious health scare suffered by Philip, who is known to be active and robust. He has continued to appear at many engagements, most recently taking a 10-day tour of Australia with the queen.
He is likely to miss the Royal Family's traditional Boxing Day shooting party on Monday at the queen's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, an event he usually leads.
Six of Philip's grandchildren, including Princes William and Harry, visited him Sunday in the hospital.

Kim Jong Il's son strengthens power with new post

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea identified Kim Jong Il's son as head of a top ruling party body Monday, a post that gives him authority over political matters in addition to the military control attributed to him in recent days.
Kim Jong Un has rapidly gained prominence since the death of his father on Dec. 17, with the state media showering new titles on him almost daily.
On Saturday, state media referred to the younger Kim as "supreme leader" of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong armed forces and said the military's top leaders had pledged their loyalty to him. On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described him as head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party — a post that appears to make him the top official in the ruling party.
Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea for 17 years, wielded power as head of three main state organs: the Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army and the National Defense Commission. His father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung remains the nation's "eternal president" long after his 1994 death.
The Kim family has extended its control over the country of 24 million people to a third generation with Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was revealed last year as his father's choice among three sons for successor.
He was named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party, but was expected to ascend to new military and political posts while being groomed to become the next leader.
Monday's reference to his new title was in commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Workers' Party, urging soldiers to dedicate their lives "to protect the party's Central Committee headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un." Rodong Sinmun has also called on the people to become "eternal revolutionary comrades" with Kim Jong Un, "the sun of the 21st century."
The language echoed slogans used years ago to rally support for Kim Jong Il, and made clear the son is quickly moving toward leadership of the Workers' Party, one of the country's highest positions, in addition to the military.
North Korea refers to Kim Il Sung as the "sun" of the nation and his birthday is celebrated as the "Day of the Sun," and state media have sought to emphasize Kim Jong Un's role in carrying out the Kim family legacy throughout his succession movement.
His titles are slight variations of those held by his father, but appear to carry the same weight. It was unclear whether the nation's constitution had been changed to reflect the transfer of leadership as when Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death.
A day earlier, state TV showed footage of Kim Jong Un's uncle and key patron, Jang Song Thaek, in a military uniform with a general's insignia. It was the first time that Jang, who is a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, was shown on state TV in military garb.
Mourning continued, meanwhile, despite frigid winter weather, in the final days before Kim Jong Il's funeral is set to take place Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.
People continued lining up Monday in central Kim Il Sung Square, where a massive portrait that usually features Kim Il Sung has been replaced by one of Kim Jong Il, to bow before his smiling image and to lay funereal flowers. Heated buses stood by to give mourners a respite from the cold, and hot tea and water were distributed from beverage kiosks.
South Koreans were among the mourners in Pyongyang. The widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North, each led delegations that drove across the heavily fortified border to Pyongyang.
They were greeted by North Korean officials during a stop at a factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, according to footage from AP Television News in North Korea. North Korea sent delegations to Seoul when the women's husbands died.
Meanwhile, a South Korean activist was also in Pyongyang to pay respects to Kim Jong Il but without South Korean government permission, her colleagues said in a statement. For South Koreans, making unauthorized trips to North Korea is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean war ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty.
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Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim and Jiyoung Won in Seoul, South Korea, and AP Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee, contributed to this report. Follow AP's Korea coverage at twitter.com/newsjean and twitter.com/APKlug.

Decades later, a Cold War secret is revealed

ANBURY, Conn. (AP) — For more than a decade they toiled in the strange, boxy-looking building on the hill above the municipal airport, the building with no windows (except in the cafeteria), the building filled with secrets.
They wore protective white jumpsuits, and had to walk through air-shower chambers before entering the sanitized "cleanroom" where the equipment was stored.
They spoke in code.
Few knew the true identity of "the customer" they met in a smoke-filled, wood-paneled conference room where the phone lines were scrambled. When they traveled, they sometimes used false names.
At one point in the 1970s there were more than 1,000 people in the Danbury area working on The Secret. And though they worked long hours under intense deadlines, sometimes missing family holidays and anniversaries, they could tell no one — not even their wives and children — what they did.
They were engineers, scientists, draftsmen and inventors — "real cloak-and-dagger guys," says Fred Marra, 78, with a hearty laugh.
He is sitting in the food court at the Danbury Fair mall, where a group of retired co-workers from the former Perkin-Elmer Corp. gather for a weekly coffee. Gray-haired now and hard of hearing, they have been meeting here for 18 years. They while away a few hours nattering about golf and politics, ailments and grandchildren. But until recently, they were forbidden to speak about the greatest achievement of their professional lives.
"Ah, Hexagon," Ed Newton says, gleefully exhaling the word that stills feels almost treasonous to utter in public.
It was dubbed "Big Bird" and it was considered the most successful space spy satellite program of the Cold War era. From 1971 to 1986 a total of 20 satellites were launched, each containing 60 miles of film and sophisticated cameras that orbited the earth snapping vast, panoramic photographs of the Soviet Union, China and other potential foes. The film was shot back through the earth's atmosphere in buckets that parachuted over the Pacific Ocean, where C-130 Air Force planes snagged them with grappling hooks.
The scale, ambition and sheer ingenuity of Hexagon KH-9 was breathtaking. The fact that 19 out of 20 launches were successful (the final mission blew up because the booster rockets failed) is astonishing.
So too is the human tale of the 45-year-old secret that many took to their graves.
Hexagon was declassified in September. Finally Marra, Newton and others can tell the world what they worked on all those years at "the office."
"My name is Al Gayhart and I built spy satellites for a living," announced the 64-year-old retired engineer to the stunned bartender in his local tavern as soon as he learned of the declassification. He proudly repeats the line any chance he gets.
"It was intensely demanding, thrilling and the greatest experience of my life," says Gayhart, who was hired straight from college and was one of the youngest members of the Hexagon "brotherhood".
He describes the white-hot excitement as teams pored over hand-drawings and worked on endless technical problems, using "slide-rules and advanced degrees" (there were no computers), knowing they were part of such a complicated space project. The intensity would increase as launch deadlines loomed and on the days when "the customer" — the CIA and later the Air Force — came for briefings. On at least one occasion, former President George H.W. Bush, who was then CIA director, flew into Danbury for a tour of the plant.
Though other companies were part of the project — Eastman Kodak made the film and Lockheed Corp. built the satellite — the cameras and optics systems were all made at Perkin-Elmer, then the biggest employer in Danbury.
"There were many days we arrived in the dark and left in the dark," says retired engineer Paul Brickmeier, 70.
He recalls the very first briefing on Hexagon after Perkin-Elmer was awarded the top secret contract in 1966. Looking around the room at his 30 or so colleagues, Brickmeier thought, "How on Earth is this going to be possible?"
One thing that made it possible was a hiring frenzy that attracted the attention of top engineers from around the Northeast. Perkin-Elmer also commissioned a new 270,000-square-foot building for Hexagon — the boxy one on the hill.
Waiting for clearance was a surreal experience as family members, neighbors and former employers were grilled by the FBI, and potential hires were questioned about everything from their gambling habits to their sexuality.
"They wanted to make sure we couldn't be bribed," Marra says.
Clearance could take up to a year. During that time, employees worked on relatively minor tasks in a building dubbed "the mushroom tank" — so named because everyone was in the dark about what they had actually been hired for.
Joseph Prusak, 76, spent six months in the tank. When he was finally briefed on Hexagon, Prusak, who had worked as an engineer on earlier civil space projects, wondered if he had made the biggest mistake of his life.
"I thought they were crazy," he says. "They envisaged a satellite that was 60-foot long and 30,000 pounds and supplying film at speeds of 200 inches per second. The precision and complexity blew my mind."
Several years later, after numerous successful launches, he was shown what Hexagon was capable of — an image of his own house in suburban Fairfield.
"This was light years before Google Earth," Prusak said. "And we could clearly see the pool in my backyard."
There had been earlier space spy satellites — Corona and Gambit. But neither had the resolution or sophistication of Hexagon, which took close-range pictures of Soviet missiles, submarine pens and air bases, even entire battalions on war exercises.
According to the National Reconnaissance Office, a single Hexagon frame covered a ground distance of 370 nautical miles, about the distance from Washington to Cincinnati. Early Hexagons averaged 124 days in space, but as the satellites became more sophisticated, later missions lasted twice as long.
"At the height of the Cold War, our ability to receive this kind of technical intelligence was incredible," says space historian Dwayne Day. "We needed to know what they were doing and where they were doing it, and in particular if they were preparing to invade Western Europe. Hexagon created a tremendous amount of stability because it meant American decision makers were not operating in the dark."
Among other successes, Hexagon is credited with providing crucial information for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
From the outset, secrecy was a huge concern, especially in Danbury, where the intense activity of a relatively small company that had just been awarded a massive contract (the amount was not declassified) made it obvious that something big was going on. Inside the plant, it was impossible to disguise the gigantic vacuum thermal chamber where cameras were tested in extreme conditions that simulated space. There was also a "shake, rattle and roll room" to simulate conditions during launch.
"The question became, how do you hide an elephant?" a National Reconnaissance Office report stated at the time. It decided on a simple response: "What elephant?" Employees were told to ignore any questions from the media, and never confirm the slightest detail about what they worked on.
But it was impossible to conceal the launches at Vandenberg Air Force base in California, and aviation magazines made several references to "Big Bird." In 1975, a "60 Minutes" television piece on space reconnaissance described an "Alice in Wonderland" world, where American and Soviet intelligence officials knew of each other's "eyes in the sky" — and other nations did, too — but no one confirmed the programs or spoke about them publicly.
For employees at Perkin-Elmer, the vow of secrecy was considered a mark of honor.
"We were like the guys who worked on the first atom bomb," said Oscar Berendsohn, 87, who helped design the optics system. "It was more than a sworn oath. We had been entrusted with the security of the country. What greater trust is there?"
Even wives — who couldn't contact their husbands or know of their whereabouts when they were traveling — for the most part accepted the secrecy. They knew the jobs were highly classified. They knew not to ask questions.
"We were born into the World War II generation," says Linda Bronico, whose husband, Al, told her only that he was building test consoles and cables. "We all knew the slogan 'loose lips sink ships.'"
And Perkin-Elmer was considered a prized place to work, with good salaries and benefits, golf and softball leagues, lavish summer picnics (the company would hire an entire amusement park for employees and their families) and dazzling children's Christmas parties.
"We loved it," Marra says. "It was our life."
For Marra and his former co-workers, sharing that life and their long-held secret has unleashed a jumble of emotions, from pride to nostalgia to relief — and in some cases, grief.
The city's mayor, Mark Boughton, only discovered that his father had worked on Hexagon when he was invited to speak at an October reunion ceremony on the grounds of the former plant. His father, Donald Boughton, also a former mayor, was too ill to attend and died a few days later.
Boughton said for years he and his siblings would pester his father — a draftsman — about what he did. Eventually they realized that the topic was off limits.
"Learning about Hexagon makes me view him completely differently," Boughton says. "He was more than just my Dad with the hair-trigger temper and passionate opinions about everything. He was a Cold War warrior doing something incredibly important for our nation."
For Betty Osterweis the ceremony was bittersweet, too. Not only did she learn about the mystery of her late husband's professional life. She also learned about his final moments.
"All these years," she said, "I had wondered what exactly had happened" on that terrible day in 1987 when she received a phone call saying her 53-year-old husband, Henry Osterweis, a contract negotiator, had suffered a heart attack on the job. At the reunion she met former co-workers who could offer some comfort that the end had been quick.
Standing in the grounds of her late husband's workplace, listening to the tributes, her son and daughter and grandchildren by her side, Osterweis was overwhelmed by the enormity of it all — the sacrifice, the secrecy, the pride.
"To know that this was more than just a company selling widgets ... that he was negotiating contracts for our country's freedom and security," she said.
"What a secret. And what a legacy."
___
Helen O'Neill is a New York-based national writer for The Associated Press. She can be reached at features(at)ap.org.

Kwaheri 2011

Habari za masiku wajameni? Nilikuwa nimebanwa sana na kupiga kitabu muda wa kupost huku ukawa haupatikani. Nasikitika ya kwamba kwa kipindi chote nilichokuwa kimya kuna mambo mengi yaliyokuwa yanatokea ulimwenguni lakini sikupata nafasi ya kujadiliana na watu wangu. Sasa mwaka unakaribia kukatika na ni muda wa kuanza kutafakari yale yote yaliyotokea mwaka huu na kuweka maazimio ya mwaka mpya.

Mwaka wa 2011 ulikuwa ni mwaka wa faraja sana kwangu, pamoja na kubanwa sana na masomo baraka za mwnyezi Mungu nimeziona. Tukiachana na mambo binafsi, naamini mwaka huu pia ulikuwa na mafanikio sana kwa Dunia hususani ulimwengu wa waarabu wa Afrika. Najua wengi wa marafiki zangu walinipinga sana kwa sababu za kutompenda Ghadafi lakini nadhani ni kutokana na uelewa wao mdogo kuhusu yule shatani pamoja na propaganda za Tanzania za kuamini kukataa uongozi mbaya ni kukataa Uafrika. Wakati tunaelekea mwisho wa mwaka na mimi kuanzia kesho nitaweka topten ya matukio yaliyokaa nami zaidi mwaka huu .

Kasheba

Kila wakati nasema nitajitahidi kuwa hewani zaidi lakini lazima nikubali kwamba ratiba yangu ya shule na kazi ni nzito na ndio maana inashindikana. Usiku huu nikiwa kwenye blog ya michuzi nikaona post moja juu ya Ndala Kasheba ikanikumbusha mbali sana na nikaona ni heri kutafuta muda wa kutoa comment.
Nakumbukua siku moja maeneo ya Kawe Club kulikuwa na na bendi ya muziki ikifanya mazoezi. Kwa mapenzi yangu makubwa ya muziki nikaanza kuuliza ilikuwa bandi gani? nikaambiwa ilikuwa ni mchanganyiko wa mastaa wa muziki wa bendi Tanzania. Namkumbuka mwanamziki mmoja aliyeyenivutia sana wakati ule, alikuwa akipiga gitaa kwa umahiri mkubwa na kuimba na siku moja nikamfuata na kumsalimia ijapokuwa kwa hali ya woga na kumwambia kwa jinsi gani ninavyopendelea muziki wake. Alikuwa amevaa shati la kitenge na kofia ya mkeka akaniambia jina lake ni Ndala Kasheba. Nilikiuwa nimemsikia mara nyingi kwenye redio na nafasi ya kuongea nae ilikuwa kama ni ndoto, sijawahi kusahau hata siku moja makutano yangu ya mara ya kwanza nae kwani tulionana mara nyingi baada ya hapo kila jumapili aliyokuja pale Kawe Club.Na nakumbuka kwa huzuzni kubwa siku niliposikia kwamba amefariki dunia. Nilikuwa katika mikakati ya kutaka kumuona akija kwenye ziara ya New York lakini haikutokea. Leo natoa heshima kwa mmoja wa wanamuziki mahiri kabisa duniani Fred Ndala Kasheba. Utabakia kuwa mmoja wa wawakilishi bora zaidi kwenye fani ya muziki wa Kiafrika.

Nipe jibu?

Hivi kunawechezaji wangapi wa mpira wa miguu wakitanzania wanaocheza sika la kulipwa Ulaya? Nazungumzia wachezaji wenye passport za kibongo.

Tanzania inajifunza nini kutoka nchi za kiarabu?

Nimekaa kimya mda mrefu kwa ajili ya kubanwa na shughuli zangu binafsi lakini si kwamba nilikuwa sioni kinachoendelea kwenye nchi za Afrika Kaskazini. Tumeona mapinduzi kwenye za Tunisia na Misri. Machafuko yanayoendelea leo kule Libya. Na swali linalonijia kichwani je tunajifunza nini? Serikali ya CCM inajiandaa vipi kulinda madaraka yake?
Tumeona CHADEMA wakiandamana kila leo na serikali ikijaribu kwa kila njia kupigana nao je ndio kusema ukiona mwenzako ananyolewa basi na wewe tia maji ? Tunasikia watu kama wakina Sophia Simba wakisema eti ni mataifa ya nje yanayowashawishi CHADEMA kuandamana kwa faida ya nchi gani? naweza nikaandika haya maswali mpaka kesho wakati ukeli ni kwamba nahitaji majibu.

libya

As the reports of blood shed continues from libya, my thoughts and prayers goes to the victims and their family. Ghadafi is a moron, i can't believe this was a man campaigning for the united states of Africa. He should be made to pay for all the lives he has destroyed.

Poor Liverpool.

Once again it was pain full to watch a liverpool game today. They played well in the first half but some poor decision making so only one ball hitting the net. It is okay trying to score but what do you do when your team mate is in a much better position? .....Pass the damn ball.
The second half saw defenders starting in a sleeping mode. They didn't challenge for the ball and let the Toffees dictate the game. Referee once again fell a little short. He gave a corner that resulted to an equalizer while the ball came off the Everton player. The build up for the second Everton goal was pretty messy and dangerous the game should have been stopped. On the other hand its the first point for King Kenny I hope he will be taking three points from now on.

New year

I 'm kinda on the late side to start wishing people happy new year but that is due to being so busy on the start of 2011. This year has already promised to be very event full. New year started with black beards falling of the sky, Fish dying in the rivers. Floods that caused a lot of chaos in three different continents. Australian's state of Queensland so the worse floods in decades but thank God the number of lives lost is a fraction compared to the number of lives lost in Brazil's Rio or that of Sri Lanka. The Ivory coast crisis still has no end in site and like most people I'm loosing interest. Arizona shooting of the law maker that left six people dead including a nine years old rocked America.It's a reminder once again of responsible politics, Politicians have to understand they have followers and some of them will do anything you say that is why we have wars all over the world so use your position carefully.{this goes to Sarah Palin}.
But it's not all bad in the beginning of this year. In Tunisia people took it to the street to end 23 years of oppression, They paid a price for it but hopefully the rewards will greater. In Tanzania the opposition party tried to do the same thing but after a few people got killed by the police they gave up.{those cowards}. EU signed a new gas deal to try to get over there dependence on Russia for the energy or simply speaking they don't wanna freeze there ass again when Russia turn off there pipe lines.
Now to my favorite subject, liverpool. In hope of reviving the team season LFC part ways with Roy Hodgson and in its place came one of the legends of the club Kenny Daglish and so far he has lost all his games. If there is a message from this well you know it, the damn players needs to start playing.

A win is win Liverpool

Game is over Liverpool secured a win though not very convincing but three points are three points. It's a not such a bad start of the year after all.

Liverpool

I can't believe how painful it has been to watch this team play.Everything needs to change to be able to challenge again