A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Russian satellites crash into Pacific
MOSCOW – Three Russian satellites crashed into the Pacific Ocean yesterday after a failed launch, in a setback to a Kremlin project designed as a rival to the widely used US GPS navigation technology.
Russian news agencies said the satellites veered off course and crashed near Hawaii after blasting off from Russia’s Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
The Khrunichev Space Centre said the satellites had failed to enter the right orbit after the launch went wrong 10 minutes after take-off.
Russia has spent $2 billion (€1.49 billion) in the last 10 years on the project, which is being developed by oil-to-telecoms holding firm Sistema. – (Reuters)
Polish cold spell death toll at 52
WARSAW – Five Poles died from exposure to cold over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 52 since the start of the cold weather season last month, the Polish government said yesterday.
A spokesman said 37 people had died of exposure to cold so far in the first five days of December.
Fifteen died in November.
Most of the victims were homeless people seeking shelter in unheated abandoned buildings or garden sheds, and many were under the influence of alcohol.
The coldest weather so far this year was recorded in the Bialystok area, where air temperatures reached minus 27 degrees. – (Reuters)